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Zenarus

Blacksmithing, suggestions and "strategy" please

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So since the servers are down and I am guessing a lot of people hang out on the forums, I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to pick your brains (not a Zombie btw).


 


So I started playing a few weeks ago and blacksmithing seemed like a profession I'd enjoy. So I read up on wurmpedia and followed the guides. I grinded up my mining to 50+ on stone and have just started working on the actual blacksmithing by making useful tools (small anvils and hammers), rather than make needles (since acupunctur isn't a profession I don't see the need for all the needles even if it saves some materials). I made about 25 small anvils and 25 hammers, and I am saving all my SB for it and basically just keep imping them as much as possible. I want to be a  weaponsmith (half of you reading probably cringe at the horror of this statement, since weaponsmithing seems to be a pain to skill even by wurm standards).


 


My "plan" is to keep making and imping regular blacksmithing stuff to hit 50 in blacksmithing, and then start to make hmm let's say 25 butchering knives and 25 carving knives and grind those by imping. I am a noob, but I have picked the brains of the veterans of the village I live in and I have read on wurmpedia and such to plan ahead.


 


My mining is around 52-53 now so obviously I work with ironveins that are capped below my skill so I don't wast the veins. 


 


My current goal in wurm is to be able to afford a deed of my own (if I decide to leave that is, enjoy the company of the village) and also be to sustain my ingame expenses such as deed costs and trades with other players through my blacksmithing profession (I know it is not possible at my current skill level, hence the term "goal"). I'll keep paying with real cash for the premium time to support the developers, but I'd rather not have to pay for ingame currency since that kind of feels like "pay to win" even if there isn't really a victor or loser in game (at least not if you are like me and just do the "peaceful" stuff).


 


With all this in mind, anyone got any tips or suggestions on what I should be doing? Also would it be overkill to "dabble" both in armorsmithing and weaponsmithing? Or would my time be better spent on focusing on weaponsmithing and perhaps make steel weapons?


 


Kind Regards


 


Berinon


 


 


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Don't bother with steel weapons, they don't do any bonus damage, you want to save all your steel for plate sets, imo. For blacksmithing, making horseshoes is an excellent way to level it. That's how I get mine up. For weaponsmithing, do weapons, if you have lots of iron available, only bother with knives if you're short on iron. As for armorsmithing, chain is a lot easier and faster armorsmithing to level, but plate is more useful. Though, I play on epic, dunno if plate gets used on freedom.

Blacksmithing; Make nails, ribbons, and tools. LOTS of nails. LOTS. You'll use them. Imp your tools up whenever you need them, otherwise, work on horseshoe sets. Horseshoes are slow to imp up, but will keep giving you good skillgains all the way into the 90s.

Edited by Arronicus
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I've taken two accounts to 70+ weaponsmithing on Epic so far. Once from scratch, another from the 60 skill area.


 


Obviously it's a pain to start out, so making a few weapons to imp is going to be time consuming. I'd start with getting the first 3 or 4 weapons made and then imping those until you get some skill under your toolbelt. If you are on Epic, this will seem like a breeze compared to the other server cluster. You could also start off with making a few small axe heads and imping those. That way you'll get weaponheads smithing skill along with weaponsmithing skill. You'll want that weaponheads smithing skill later on.


 


After you can improve your weapons to about the 40ql range, you'll want to make about 50 or so weapons. It doesn't matter what weapons, unless iron consumption is a concern. Just make them all, and then without SB on, imp them until you get the QL near your current skill level. This is where you'll get those precious body stats. Acquire a nice set of smithing tools, ~30ql with high CoC enchants, and then start improving that pile of weapons in batches of 3-4 depending on your mind logic action stacking ability with sleep bonus turned on.


 


You'll want to return back to get some skill in just weaponheads smithing. Because no weaponsmith is worth having unless you can pump out tons of decent QL arrow heads. And with 50 skill in weaponheads smithing, and a high WoA/high QL small anvil, you can produce lots of those in short order. Then it'll be all about imping other people's weapons for the skill, and making tons of weapons with your signature for the body stats.


 


Just a weaponsmith's 2 cents.


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Nice tips James.


 


As others have said, some general advice:


Remember to always log off in a bed to build up that sleep bonus


Make sure to keep your nutrition up (I believe this offers slight bonuses to skillgain)


Keep everything handy when using SB so as not to waste it (Food/water and all necessary items ready to go before turning it on)


As high CoC tools as you can afford


 


Lastly, don't grind it too hard...it's still a game that's supposed to be fun, not a job :)


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Thanks for all the feedback.


 


Aye I know it is a game and I am enjoying it a lot. I have a very helpful village that let me join them and allowed me to build my own home and so forth. I have made several bsbs with QL of x0 (0-10, 10-20, etc.) so I keep everything separated and don't ruin the ql of resources.


 


I only have a coc pickaxe atm, but I got the silver to invest in tools, but should I get all the blacksmithing tools with coc? (pelt, hammer, small-, large anvil, iron lump, whetstone and water?) Can you even get i.e. coc water?


 


Regarding the arrowheads, since I am on Exodus, is that relevant to me or are arrows mainly used for PVP? My initial thought was to grind longswords, but I guess I wouldn't be much of a weaponsmith if I can't make make different weapons =)


 


I do some farming and such on the side for my own use (got to be prepared and selfsustaining if I ever do go on my own). So I am not bored at all, and when I get fed up working on my blacksmithing I go down the mine and work on my mining and so forth. Love the casual feel of the game, no "endgame" to rush to.


 


Regarding the subskills of weaponsmithing, some say I don't really need em others say it is good to get them to 20 at least, so should I imp the blades and axeheads etc. before I turn them into actual weapons that I imp?


 


Sorry for all the questions =)


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One more thing I forgot to ask, is it ok to post in the trade part of Exodus and offer to i.e. make bulk orders of nails and such or is that considered rude? Don't really know about the unofficial trade agreements =)


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Usually anything regarding sales and buying is kept out of the Exodus section. That section is saved for server related things such as recruitment, the map, and anything pertaining exclusivally to just the server. If you have a selling thread, then I would direct you to either here: http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/forum/62-want-to-sell/


Or here: http://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/forum/64-merchant-ads/

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With sleep bonus, and coc tools with 60-80 power, I made 10 lanterns an dumped with sleep bonus on the whole time. 1-50 skill got all the lanterns to about 50-55ql. You don't really need to spam tons of items. If you aren't using coc tools / sleep bonus you will need a few more though.

As for WS. I made about 70 butchering knives, and at 28 skill they are all about 28-30ql.

I imp them until I start getting too many failures. Then I make some more and start again.

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If you are just giving away the nails then posting in the exodus thread would be fine.   


 


As for myself, I prefer supplying villages rather than just focusing on grinding out skill.   Being part of a village you can produce products that others can actually use.   If you were on indi, I would point you to rosedragon and have you go make stuff for her newbie deed.  Not sure if there is a newbie deed on exo.   


 


Also, raising mining and attempting to do all the smithing as well is a lot of work.  I prefer being in a village where others mine for me so that I can concentrate on the smithing itself.   True it limits me to a degree, but you will skill faster with one person concentrating on mining and yourself concentrating on smithing.    


 


If you aren't tied to freedom, there are several places on epic that could use you and chaos as well.


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I already live in Vicus Arboria.


 


And I do help the village, i.e. when I gather iron ore I give a third of the lumps to the village storage, when I gathered rocks and made bricks I gave the village half of it. Also when they simply need help with whatever I can help with I do that. So not being greedy here, but I do need to make a "living" to pay for items such as coc tools. 


 


Thanks for sharing your knowledge, really grateful. 

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I wasn't sure what cluster you were on before, when I posted. Seeing as how you aren't on the PvP cluster, the subskills aren't that important. Actually, they aren't that important on the PvP servers either, but it sure does help to have 50 heads smithing for when you do sit down to marathon a few thousand war arrow heads. But that's just me. Anything worth doing is worth over-doing.


 


You'll find after a while that you'll have a set of a few weapons that you use just for grinding the skill itself. I like using butchering knives for that, because they use relatively small amounts of lump to imp, and if they go rare, it's a plus.


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Ok thank you. I think I got a better grasp of blacksmithing and weaponsmithing now, thank you everyone for sharing your knowledge. Spent half the SB yesterday and went from 10 BS to 40 very fast. Really need to get my hand on coc tools though!


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One word, needles, as they take very little to no iron to craft or improve. Needles have taken me a good 30 skill points, from 15 (when I realized it) to 45 (Where i'm at now) and will still continue with those. Imping them that is. Obviously this tactic works with any other improvable tool / weapon.
My approach is simple, yet efficient. 

Place all the necessary tools on the tools belt, for water you wanna have small barrel filled and then that water from inside dragged to the tool belt.
Make somewhere around 20-50 needles, what ever suits you best. 

Choose a tool, and imp all the needles that require that at once, then move on to the next tool (which I usually pick from what ever the last needle needs to improve, for fun  :P )

Rinse and repeat. 

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In terms of coc tools, you should get coc on your hammer, whetstone, pelt and a lump. Coc on water does not work for blacksmithing. For some reason, when you use water to imp a smithing item, it uses the enchants on that item...so if you are imping a pickaxe that has coc on it using water to temper, then you will get the bonus from the coc that is on the pickaxe (wogic...). Since I have my own vyn priest, i will sometimes put coc on 10 or so items to get that extra bonus when tempering.


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