Abusing Draught of the Craftsman to Level a Heroic Char's Tradeskills

All right so too much cool stuff is locked behind tradeskills and I want to level my new heroic shadowknight's tradeskills up. Leveling up tradeskills isn't too hard or expensive but I've always wondered whether using a Draught of the Craftsman to fail my way to 300 is worth it?? Right now I'm thinking a rough strat of:

1. Get all the tradeskill trophy quests! (Might be worth doing this on a fresh char before making them heroic, to get the Beginner quests instead of Freshman, but I never did this!)
2. Get a bunch of tradeskill items ready to go that are: A: high trivial level, B: stackable results, C: valuable on the random successful combines I'll get.
3. Pop the draught and smash as many items together as I can before the timer runs out.

I've got a ton of NoS items and I put together a list of items that fit that criteria as much as I could muster. I figure most of these are worth more on successful combines, so I'd actually be making money doing this!!

• Jewelcrafting: Round Cut Spiritual Luclinite Topaz https://www.eqtraders.com/items/show_item.php?item=70355&menustr=010000000000
• Tailoring: Spiritual Luclinite Heavy Fabrichttps://www.eqtraders.com/items/show_item.php?item=70419&menustr=010000000000
• Fletching: Spiritual Luclinite Boardhttps://www.eqtraders.com/items/show_item.php?item=70406&menustr=010000000000
• Pottery: Unfired Spiritually Faded Charm of Securityhttps://www.eqtraders.com/recipes/pottery_recipe_page.php?article=1489&rsa=Pottery&sb=item&sub=NoS
• Research: Spiritually Faded Luclinite Gem of Securityhttps://www.eqtraders.com/items/show_item.php?item=70881&menustr=010000000000
• Brewing: Luclin Pitaya Fruit Juicehttps://www.eqtraders.com/items/show_item.php?item=70671
• Smithing: Spiritual Luclinite Sheethttps://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=144061
• Baking: Seared Luclin Flank Steakhttps://www.eqtraders.com/items/show_item.php?item=71134

Questions:

1. Maybe I really want the combines to succeed and should use my trophy and get the AAs that help combine rate before I do this??
2. Is there anything better I can choose for Pottery?
3. Does the zone you're in change crafting speed, such that maybe it'd be better to do it in PGH, some old world zone or anywhere but laggy PoK?
4. Is there any way to stop or reduce the speed Draught of the Craftsman ticks down?
5. Are there better recipes I should try? Especially Pottery!!
6. Presuming I can't get all the tradeskills up to 300 with a single draught, what order should I do them? It's been so long since I leveled TS I don't even know which ones are harder or more expensive than others.
7. Does it make sense to level from 150 (base level for level 100 heroic) to ~250ish (where it usually gets hard) before popping craftsman??
8. Is this all a dumb idea because of information I don't have or because of how many combines it takes to skillup on failure and I should just do things the *right* way instead of trying to game the system???

There's a lot to say ...

... but the most important thing is:

The potion lasts for 2 hours of logged in time (aka always counts down). You can do the math about how many combines you can actually get in 2 hours assuming no down time. I think you will find that number is lower than you thought it would be. (2 hours / 3 second per combine = 2400 combines best case)

250 to 300 in each tradeskill is brutal for the number of combines needed. I've had 250-300 runs that have taken over 2400 combines just in one tradeskill.

Your trophy wont evolve with triv > 100 of your skill, until you get to 250 skill because anything > 350 triv counts as 350. It will catch up fast, but you'll most likely be burning more > 300 triv recipes to max your trophy at the end than if you did it "normal" because youll have a level or 2 to catch up on once you hit 300.
https://everquest.fanra.info/wiki/Tradeskills#Tradeskill_trophies

1. I believe maybe a success has a higher chance to skill than a failure? So successes would be preferable.
3. Server resonse can be a factor for how fast the auto combine can run.
4. No, its going to tick down in any zone.
5. The stuff with gems are going to be expensive on the cleaning solution. And you could end up making 1000s of successful combines to max out in the end, not likely to recoup your money with a flooded market. Also keep in mind high triv recipes wont be in the UI until you can successfully make one, so you will have to keep filling the experiment window until you do.
8. People have done it this way, dunno how many TS they can get through in 2 hours.

Last updated guide from 2012:
https://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq/fo...i-mods/36211-the-ultimate-eq-tradeskill-guide

Unsure if useful, kinda just quickly scanned it:
https://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq/fo...ring-smithing-with-a-draught-of-the-craftsman

You will likely have to go through at least 2 potions to get all your tradeskills to 300. I did it this way years ago and it worked out ok, but in hindsight I probably would have just done the normal way up to around 150 in everything before using the draught.

Also, be sure the high level combine you are doing to skill up doesn't require a minimum skill to even attempt. If they do, your potion is going to waste off while you find another recipe to use.

Finally, keep in mind that this is great to get to 300, but if you are using the same combine over and over, getting 301+ is really going to be annoying down the road when you need more variety of combines to skill up instead of just raw clicks.

I just leveled 2 chars up in TS starting this summer, having done all but Fletching and Research the old fashioned way. Frankly, I don't think a DotC is need for all the other trades. There are enough recipes out there, and with good use of Overseer for some of the key mats, that should be good enough. Won't comment on the recipes you listed, they don't sound familiar to me, and aren't the ones I used, but you've done your research, if they sound good to you, go for it.

Having said that, I have a plan to (just haven't gotten to it yet) use a DotC on each char to finish fletching and get as far as I can in Research. Just haven't found the recipes to make it acceptable without pulling out what little hair I have left. My main (the only other char I have leveled TS on) is Tunare deity, so I was able to cheese it with the blessed arrow recipe (another also available for Karana), and for Research, did use a DotC. Notably, research is the only trophy on that char which is not maxxed at 15%.

For your other questions, I've only ever used DotC in PoK, and had no issues. But I'm on Tunare, so that's not the busiest server. I'd get skills to at least 225-250 before using the DotC if you can, you don't want to waste the pot on skills which aren't that hard to get to. And no, you won't max all on a single pot, which is why I'd try to max the ones you can without it. As I said, I got all but fletching and research the old fashioned way in the last few months. If you want to get under the hood and get some credible numbers, use EQTraders advanced calculator, and get the estimated number of combines to get from wherever you start up to 300, and then add those up across all skills you plan to use the DotC. Then, realize the max combines you can get from a DotC is 120x20 = 2400. Now, you won't get that many, because there is the occasional lag which makes you miss a couple ticks, and then you have to switch recipes occasionally, and then of course, the need to experiment and "learn" the recipe before you can have it auto-combine.

One final word: Look at why you want the TS skills raised. If it's primarily for AP, you only need 250 in each trade to get the AP. True, you won't be able to max it, but 40% of AP is still the best aug in the game. And, of course, you can slowly raise the skills as you gather mats, and eventually get to 300. But if AP is the main rush, then 250 is all you need for now. And if you're slowly going from 250 to 300 over time, then you don't have to worry about DotCs

For low levels or folks with bad gear. Any higher level char with fairly level-appropriate gear won't have to worry about it. The cut-off is INT/WIS (or whatever the main stat used) over 420, which isn't hard to hit at all. At that point, success or fail, it's the same chance for a skill-up.

Just noticed this bit. Don't worry about it. The level of trophy quest is ONLY tied to the TS skill level, not the char level. My two chars (mentioned above) did all trophies at level 120, and they were the lowest level quests offered. The key is that the skill level in that tradeskill must be between 50 and 99. Lower than 50, you can't get the quest, higher than 99, you get a higher level trophy quest.

Thanks! The level 100 heroic has 150 in all tradeskills, so I'll be getting all the level 150 trophy quests.

I don't even know if I need the trophy, I literally just want the skills to unlock quests and no trade combines like NoS type 18/19 augs

18/19 are 450 triv, you want the trophy, and the GM tasks are really difficult to source ingredients, even if you dont end up "using" the trophies. If you got all the trophy tasks now at 150 skill, it doesnt matter if you get to 300 first you can still complete it later for whatever level trophy the 150 gets you, but you'll be stuck leveling up the trophy if you chose later.

For the Artisan aug if you need that too, you have to have at least 1 GM trophy to start the task.

DOH! Didn't know the level 100 Heroics got TS skills. As Soul said, you'll want the trophies. Get the quests and do them. Just remember to not equip them when using a DotC. Or, getting your TS mastery AAs before doing the DotC (though, if the trivial is high enough, you can still have the mastery AAs and be OK. The key is keeping the success rate to 5%. Use EQTraders adv. calc. to figure everything out)

If at all possible do not do it in pok. The lag will cost you time off your potion.

Didn't know that. I just spent time looking at the other pre-reqs (Cabbage stuff, no requirements, Eron's 250 in each skill, Aid Grimel, PoP progression and 225 in each skill, etc), and didn't realize there was an overall need for 1 GM trophy. I know you need the GM trophy in whatever skills you want to make the seals for. Without that, you have to buy the seals from someone else.

However, I did just look up the ZAM page for the AP quest, and saw this useful comment and reply (https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=8120#m147104104018892279). According to that and the comment, you don't need one maxed trophy to get the AP, just have equipped something which raised at least one tradeskill (lots of those items in the game, including unmaxed trophies).
(Just noticed when I clicked the link, it doesn't bring up the comment, but just the AP page. The comment is from Chanteren, and is from August 12, 2016)

If you do decide to max a trophy before completing AP, do brewing or baking. Those take the fewest combines to max, and have the most store-bought mats for high level combines.

Or its more like this is the trophy requirement:
https://forums.daybreakgames.com/eq/index.php?threads/artisans-wares-bug.287646/#post-4185414

To complete the quest, you must have a maxed trophy equipped to make the final combine (no specific skill, but that means 300 in one skill with a trophy)

Is your quest to smash to 300 regardless of the mats used, or minimize the number of mats used?

If you are trying to minimize number of mats used then you do want to cripple your success chances like Tatanaka outlined. No trophy, no mods, no AAs until you get 300.

If you goal is just to have 1 recipe to smash to 300 sucess or failure regardless of the number of mats used, and use the draught to score back all the mats on failures, then you would at least want trophy equipped to get it some early exp to save on needing mats for the entire evolution later (which reqires successes, draught would only return back any failures to try again to succeed).

That is to make the seals, not the final AP combine. If you're just buying all the seals, then you don't need a maxed trophy.

EQTC - Item: Unfired Spherical Bottle (eqtraders.com)

I personally would take the time and do the Crescent Reach Freebies and get the trophy quests while your skill is at 54. Let them go ahead and evolve when you aren't burning the potion.

I would also recommend using some other recipes to get you from 54 to as close to 200 as you can before you burn a DotC. These will go quickly anyway and give you a few minutes back to fight through the skill up drought you're sure to encounter after 275.

Just pick a recipe where it's still all vendor ingredients and push them forward:

Baking: Patty Melt to 191
Brewing: Minotaur Hero's Brew to 248
Fishing: Prepared Fish (Fresh Fish) to 171
Fletching: Class 6 Wood Point Arrow to 202 or Rough Shadewood Compound Bow to 282
Jewelcraft: Square Cut Ruby to 200 or velium practice veil to 224
Pottery: Unfired Casserole Dish to 199 (or go straight to Unfired spherical bottle and skip potion)
Smithing: Sewing Kit for your race to 162
Research: Runic Parchment Solution to 243
Tailoring: blech - if you can't get ahold of silks/pelts - just have at it.

Agree, I also would do the free tradeskill beginner quests to 51 but would do the ones in AB Sea so you can get the extra GOD refine combine and after that you can go get and do the beginners trophy before you go Heroic. Since your Heroic will bump you all the way to having to do the higher tradeskill trophy which is harder to find the mats, not a harder combine.

And that is good advice to do normal lower level combines and save the Drought for higher combines. I use a slightly different list but that is up to you. IE: Hickory Handled Shears + Animal pelts is one I prefer

You will need your tradeskill AA mastery to get any higher. Buy the Salvage AAs, do not get the TS Mastery AAs till after you skill up to. 300. Have the appropriate stat maxed out depending on the TS for the most skill ups.

I would not buy the drought as it seems its a waste of money and you do just as much work anyway. It was great when it first came out before auto combine

The skill up mechanic in Abysmal Sea is poor. You have to do a lot more combines on trivial recipes in order for them to bump you up to the next level recipe. In this day and age, you don't likely need to be able to refine GoD materials yourself - if you have a need for a refined item, you can pop over to AS and just have the NPCs do it for you. I also think that in order to "learn" how to refine the ingredients yourself, you have to do the collect version of those tasks, not the freebie version - but it's been a long time since I've done them, maybe they were changed.

I think they may have upgraded the AB Sea version as it goes much faster on my new characters than it used to. But, its a choice.