My Journey to GM Weapon Enchanting (feedback)

Everyone who is simply grinding out GM just to achieve the "best" of something, as quickly as you possibly can, are making that choice. What I mean to say is, that it is designed for someone of casual play style to take months and months to become grandmaster at something. SO, that is working as intended, IMHO. But everyone has a point, doing the actual smelting, is pretty boring, regardless of how often you do it

 

I am GM enchanting, GM Smith and at 91 on GM Masterworking for Blacksmithing... I know how long the grind is and it takes a HUGE amount of resources and time to get there...

 

At Level 32 the max's are 26.4 and 5.3 and at GM are 31.2 and 6.2 so about 17-18% better... not much.

 

Definitely agree that the difference between 32 and GM needs to be higher. Same with the "bonus" for the 1st-2nd-3rd-4th-5th enchant/masterwork, really insignificant right now compared to the risk. But hey, R38 was definitely a step in the right direction at least!

 

Where are you finding these drop?

 

They drop on high level mobs... they just have a special appearance and name. I filled up a chest with them from killing the lich a few releases back but other mid-bosses and bosses drop them sometimes too.

 

I GMed this also in order to improve my jewelry vendors, and I feel the same way about the durability bonus. The way it is now, it's much better to be level 97 than to be level 100, and if I could choose to never roll durability I would. I think it should either be removed, greatly improved, not count as an enchantment, or come with a 4th option. As of now, it's a big downgrade to unlock that bonus.

Also, why is durability bonus halved for jewelry compared to weapons? That's makes sense for stats and hit points, but it doesn't make sense for an item specific % durability bonus. I wouldn't ever choose it either way, but there's no reason to scale that one down if it's going to be there.

Does anyone know if there are any adjustments to enchanting coming in R39?

 

Just a quick question on the above: what do you mean by "Because the ones that have 40+ max durability that you'll never use a COTO on to repair make for perfect weapons to triple enchant " what do you mean by never using a COTO on to repair? Doesn't durability drop even for enchanted gear with max durability during normal usage?

 

I had a lot of weapons that have a max durability of 100 but were down to 40ish or 60ish so in order to get them back to 100 I would have had to use a COTO.

Conversely, if I enchant a crappy (read normal elf-dropped longsword, koncerz, or something like a vile mace) weapon that is at 63/100 max durability with a max enchant twice, it becomes a nice, sparking new 60/60 weapon.

 

As Yodacraft has always said: "Crafting requires the DEEPEST commitment."

now as for gold enchant. the specials are 4 TIMES as hard as the silver masterwork specials. not sure why, but it is what it is.
i got 370 silver ingots to 50 masterwork specials a few weeks ago and 430 silver ingots a week ago to 50. (there are 9 of them and i finished the last 3 a week ago)
took me 1000 gold ingots to get each gold enchant special to 42.
that was using a 4mil xp pool too.
i will get to 6mil minimum before i go forward.
now as to the grind:
talk radio and mildly interesting tv in the background works for me. this is the third time that i have reached 4mil crafting xp and i will just keep going.
i dont mind the grind. i do mind the exhorbitant amount of gold ingots needed for enchanting. why is it so much harder than silver masterwork specials?

also on item types, one handed is half of two handed, rings and necklaces are like one handed, or even less. that 17% higher at gm must have been comparing a 1 handed to a 2 handed, because at 42, i am getting HALF of what sara is getting.

 

How do you go about your grinding? I'll spend an hour harvesting silver at the bottom of elysium mines and be lucky to come up with 25K producer xp. Constantly fighting off elementals slows things a bit, and going with friends means they want to harvest as well. That's about 240 hours if going from 0 to 6 mill. That's 120 days @ 2 hours a day.

I guess once you are up there, maintaining it isn't so bad due to replenishing what you are using. But that is a lot of MINING in order to be a TAILOR.

 

I used to use the T5 mining exclusively in former times. Nowadays I mix it with harvesting/skinning. Elder wolves give you adventurer XP and with skinning 500 producer XP as well. T5 cotton bushes also give 500 (whereas garlic or nightshade only give 50). When I only have 1-2 hrs I usually make a round in Twins Foothills and then got the the 1st level only to mine gold. The kobolds also have some loot. I only go the bottom when I have more than 2 hrs (currently I need more gold than silver)

 

its not a maintained pool. it was drained both times earlier.
elysium gold room gives you 50k to 60k crafting xp per hour with ALL MINING SKILLS orange locked. thats 500 xp per node. it did take me 8 hours to smelt out 14500 ore last nite.
movies are best for that.
its a dedication. i want to gm the enchant specials and elsyium will die on march 30 when they unclone it. this is what i want and i am willing to spend 8 to 10 hours a day for 6 weeks to get it done.

 

I get the 500 xp per node with all skills locked. I was considering the wolves for a scenery change, but until I get a good backstock of silver, it makes sense to keep mining. I guess my problem is in needing silver and silver being relatively exclusive to the deeper reaches for most areas. And in turn, earth elementals taking me a lot longer to take down than the top level kobolds.

I tend to be fine with the smelting times. Just wish they'd provide more than 20 craft xp per smelt!

 

verdantis bottom room is better for silver. it respawns more quickly. AND, its not gonna get nerfed on march 30

 

I was planning to shift over that way post unclone. After checking out the new elysium, of course. I'm very rarely at a lack for ore to mine even in elysium at present. If I grab crystals too, then I am never out of mining material in the bottom room. If the elementals respawn faster too, verdantis might be slower for me unless I shift my build into more of an anti-earth one.

 

I usually sit down in the bottom of elysium as well (as I want the onyx there as well as silver). But, are those earth elementals part of the new loot tables? I get nothing but gold. Was hoping to see an artifact or ANYTHING else.

 

ahah after about 500 kobolds in the upper room, i got a regular health potion and a tool repair kit......whoopee.
i stopped looting the gold and corpse wax a few days later. i do check the skels for bones, tho.
btw, they respawn twice as fast if you loot them. goes for the earth ele's too

 

Well, I'm using my ore so don't have much choice but to loot in order to keep lot taxes paid. Have there been recent hard metrics on looting affecting spawn time? Could have sworn that seemed to stop mattering a couple releases back.

 

Mobs definitely spawn faster if you fully loot bodies (so they disappear). I'd say it's like 3 to 4 times faster.