how do you do experimentation succesfully?

Hi Oradim. I use a technique which is different from Wurm's, but I've never lost a piece to experimentation yet (and it doesn't require you to maximise your experimentation skills with bonuses and stuff, either). And it uses the default icon layout, so your muscle memory won't be tested!

Check out this thread, which should explain my technique, I hope: Demonstrating Experimentation.

The wiki has a good article on Experimentation, and it has pictures.

Sorry, (noob alert!) - I failed to mention that I've read the wiki which is where I got the pointer to this and Seefar's threads.

I've done all five rounds on 12 of my 21 pieces so far with no losses - well, other than my sanity I mean. I'm basically taking a "slow and steady wins the race" approach and generally only adding one extra (possibly two) clicks for each round. Depending on circumstances. Sometimes none. Basically what Lenolian described earlier in this thread.

At least for me, like others have said, the key is not losing focus. I'm taking regular breaks and will likely go nail hunting in Guk as well for a change of pace.

Sounds like you're doing it right. The only thing I would add is to suggest DarqUI, which has a great crafting window. It shows you the timing of each round of possible detriment.

Ah, cool, thanks. It's not as bad as I thought it was going to be before I got started. I keep saying I will check out DarqUI but never have gotten around to it and just stuck with plain vanilla UI. Maybe this will give me enough motivation.

I've never used DarqUI. But the game itself has audio cues that clue you in to when the crafting round ends -- assuming that you're not watching the idiot box, or listening to music -- so I just rely on that.

I suppose it's a bit of "gee whiz, what am I supposed to do with that information?" but I finished all my experimentation successfully. I forgot my secondary is the Eye of the Vegerog so I couldn't experiment on that which means 20 pieces instead of 21. Was it worth it? I don't know. I'm a little confused by the lower potency on the Academic's gear vs. the higher resolve vs. mob drops. Here are the results on the Academic's gear:

Post-Experimenting Potency: 43649.4%
Pre-Experimenting Potency: 40774.1%
Difference: 2875.3%

I'm going to look at the potency on the pieces I picked up from the signature line and dailies for fun later on.

Cheers,
Oradim

Hiya Seefar, cheers for the link. I did watch the video but I must admit it was after I completed the experimenting on the character of concern. I'm not sure how eager I am to start experimenting on another character just yet, but I definitely have options now.

Cheers,
Oradim

Other important steps.
Make sure pets are fed so they don't jump on you.
Kids are sleeping.
The neighbors are being quiet.
You are sober.