or, I Like to Waste Platinum
(Version 3)
By: Sinuuyanea Nocturne, Quellious

Ah, smithing. The forging of weapons and armor to protect one's body, or to fatten one’s bank account. A trade that many a warrior, cleric, or paladin undertakes. One that takes strength and stamina. So, what chance does a Dark Elven Necromancer, like me, have to succeed in smithing?

Logic aside, I’ve found smithing to be a rewarding trade by far, and wish to share my knowledge with the rest of Norrath, and guide others onto the path of smithing mastery.

Warning:
This guide is based on information gathered from EQ Trader’s Corner: it is not the skill progression I used to reach my current skill level (248), as I had reached 242 skill several months beforehand. The path contained within will show you the fewest logical steps needed for steady smithing progression.

• Adamantite –Also known as Teir’Dal Cultural. Comes in Plate and Chain, wearable by Half and Dark Elves, smithable only by Dark Elves. Can be imbued with Innoruuk’s power only. Regent and Sovereign are the infused versions of this armor.
• Brellium –also known as Dwarven Cultural. Comes in Plate and Chain, Plate is wearable by Dwarves, Gnomes, and Halflings, chain is wearable by Humans, any Elf, Dwarves, Halflings, and Gnomes, smithable only by Dwarves. Can be imbued with either Bristlebane’s or Brell Sellris’ power. Underfoot is the infused version of this armor.
• Clockwork—also known as Gnomish Cultural, isn’t smithed for the most part, except for the Fine Plate portion.
• Cultural Armor/Smithing –smithing that is limited by a character’s race. For example, only Dark Elves may smith Teir’Dal Adamantite, even though Half Elves can wear it. Illusions will not fool the forge.
• Enchanted –cultural armor made from metal that was enchanted. Most cultural armor has an enchanted version. Enchanted armor gives stats that vary between quest armor level and planar level. The ore must be enchanted before the metal is smithed.
• Enchanted Imbued—the former pinnacle of power and difficulty for cultural armor. See the Enchanted and Imbued terms for the details.
• Fizzle—when you fail on a trivial item. Regardless of skill, there is always a 5% fizzle rate on any smithed item
• Heraldic—The infused version of Human Cultural Armor, made in Qeynos. Can be worn by various races, and imbued with nearly any deity’s power.
• Imbued –to be augmented with a deity’s power. For the most part, only cultural armors may be imbued, and even then, some cultural armors wont take most imbues. When an imbued piece of armor is attempted, the imbued gem is placed in the forge with the rest of the raw materials before the combine. If a piece of armor is imbued, only a worshipper of that deity can wear it, in addition to the other restrictions. The smithy does not have to worship the deity to make an imbued piece of armor.
• Infused-The new pinnacle of power in regards to armors. Infused cultural armor is truly higher end gear, and almost always has a level restriction.
• Mithril—also known as Koada’Dal Cultural. Comes in Plate and Chain, wearable by Half, Wood, and High Elves, smithable only by High Elves. Can be imbued with Tunare’s power only. Full Mithril and Artkeeper’s are the infused versions of these armors.
• Mundane –cultural armor that is neither enchanted nor imbued. Most smithies won’t make this, as they feel it’s a waste of materials. A few mundane cultural armors, however, give stat modifiers.
• Northman—also known as Barbarian Cultural. Chain only. Smithable only by barbarians, and wearable by any race that’s not small or large. Can be imbued with the power of the Tribunal only.
• Random Number Generator (RNG) –the bane of all tradeskillers, it decides ultimately whether or not you succeed or fail in making an item, and whether or not you raise your skill. NOTE: Regardless of stats or current skill, you will always have a 5% chance of failing any given item.
• Shadowscream—slightly better than banded, made using items acquired in a Shar Val quest.
• Skyiron—also called Cabilis Scale Mail. Chain only, by Iksar, for Iksar. Can be imbued with Cazic-Thule’s power only.
• Splintmail—one of two Ogre cultural armors. Chain type, smithable only by Ogres. Can be worn by Ogres, Trolls, Barbarians, Iksar, Humans, and Erudites. Can be imbued with the power of Cazic-Thule or Rallos Zek.
• Temper –the ingredient used to cool your smithed creations. Examples include water, coldain velium temper, neriak nectar, moonlight temper. (Temper recipes can be found here)
• Trivial—the point at which you are no longer able to increase your skill on an item.
• War Plate—one of two Ogre cultural armors. Plate type, smithable only by Ogres. Can be worn by Ogres and Trolls, and can be imbued with the power of Cazic-Thule or Rallos Zek.
  

Before you start
Before you start something that will probably cost you a couple of mice and a healthy wrist, you will need to prepare yourself and your character for the rigors ahead.

The Right Stuff
Your gear and your stats will play a large role in the success or failure of your smithing career. Before you start, it is recommended that you wear items that will increase your primary smithing stat (intelligence, strength, or wisdom). As with anything, the higher the better, but its been commonly debated on that strength must be greater than or equal to 165 to have any noticeable effect on skillups. Also, of equal importance, is a set of charisma gear, to assist in buying and selling materials with NPCs. You should also decide on if you want to grandmaster smithing, or simply master it for a different task (i.e., smithing tailored components or for quests). Set a monetary base aside to fund your smithing, as well as a time to perform this, especially if you are in a guild or are a member of a popular, critical class. A skinning knife will also be a necessary tool for your success: smith one (dagger blade mold, hilt mold, large brick of ore, flask of water) early in your smithing career, and don’t destroy it like I tend to do…

Location, Location, Location
Where you smith is critically important as well: it will directly affect your costs, what you can and cannot skill up with, and your options to resale your wares (either to a PC or a merchant). If you are truly taking smithing as your grandmastery, take the time and effort to build faction in a city where materials are readily available and where traffic is frequent, such as Freeport or Shar Val.

0-26 …why does the forge have a coin slot?
So, you want to smith, do ya? Well, before you can make that full suit of enchanted imbued cultural armor, you’ve got to do the grunt work first, young apprentice. There are three viable paths in approaching the first few points in smithing. The least expensive is to sharpen weapons. This takes 1 sharpening stone and a rusty weapon; both placed inside of the forge. Click the ‘combine’ button: on a success, you lose the sharpening stone, and get a tarnished weapon in return, which has a delay that’s 2 less than it’s original (faster); a failure costs you the sharpening stone and returns the rusty weapon. It’s best to sharpen two-handed weapons (scythes especially). The drawbacks to this method are that it’s time consuming, especially if you need to zone multiple times to get the stones, and rusty weapons are heavy: however, this will take you to around 26 skill before going trivial. The second way is to convert weapons back into ore. This is accomplished by placing a rusty or fine steel weapon and a flask of water into the forge. On a success, the weapon will be reduced into either ore (for rusty weapons) or high quality ore (for fine steel weapons) in varying quantities. The other way is to dump points into smithing until it won’t let you anymore…crude and more expensive than the previous methods, but effective nonetheless.

27-74 SPOON!
Now begins the hand cramping stages, as you need to start making metal bits. To make a metal bit, put 2 small pieces of ore, not stacked, into the forge along with one flask of water. Click ‘combine’. On a failure, the gods of fate laugh at you, on a success you get a metal bit. Better make room in your schedule, as for my guide you’ll need at least a 10-slot backpack full of metal bits. After you’ve made these (trivial at 18), you will make Dairy Spoons. Dairy Spoons, used in various baking recipes, are made by combining a scaler mold, two metal bits, and a water flask. It becomes trivial at 74 skill. At this point, you will no longer need metal bits, so donate them to a fellow up-and-coming smithy…

75-115 Banded…now you are doomed to die…what do you do when you’re banded…
Ahem. Big jump, isn’t it? For this leg of your journey, you will be making banded armor. Before you start this, however, you will want to decide if you want to make your own metal sheets (two small bricks of ore, water flask), or purchase them from various cities (Freeport, Qeynos Hills, et al). Whichever you choose, you will need quite a few of them. Banded armor is made by combining 1-3 metal sheets, water flask, and the appropriate mold. Banded molds typically have the word sectional in them, not to be confused with fine plate or field plate molds. The optimal progression steps are bracers (1 sheet) to 95, helms (2 sheets) to 106, and mail (3 sheets) to 115.

116-162 (Ornate) Chained to the forge…
These are the money-eating steps, as there is no other reasonable way to make it beyond 115. For this step, you will need to make the various types of ornate chainmail. Ornate chain uses mainly merchant-sold components that are in limited quantities; these can be replenished, however, by handing bricks of unrefined ore (drops in RunnyEye, Solusek’s Eye, and Permafrost Keep, from goblins) to the merchants that sell it. You will need to make high-quality rings, created by combining a file (metal bit, water flask, and file mold), a water flask, and a large brick of high quality ore. Much like metal bits, you will need a great deal of these for this particular step. Ornate Chainmail is made by combining 1-3 high quality rings, a bar of unenchanted metal (silver, electrum, gold, or platinum), a smithy hammer, water flask, and a chainmail pattern. The most productive way to progress in skill is to start with standard ornate bracers (silver, 1 high quality ring), standard ornate coif (silver, 2 high quality rings), standard ornate mail (silver, 3 rings), then each variation on the mail (electrum, gold, then platinum) until each trivialize.

168-188 …you mean this isn’t the top of the mountain anymore?
Get a fairly large monetary base before attempting this. First, smith a skinning knife (large brick of ore, flask of water, dagger blade mold, and hilt mold), then make your way to Everfrost with a sewing kit of any size. You will need to make leather padding first, as Fine Plate and some cultural armors require them. Leather padding take a silk thread (2 spiderling silks in a sewing kit, trivial at Tailoring (15), never fails) and a low-quality wolf/bear/cat pelt. Everfrost has both spiderlings and wolves/bears, just wandering around saying ‘skin me!’, so oblige! Stonebrunt Mountains and the Jaggedpine Forest are also great sources for pelts. The Skinning Knife is used to lower the quality of a pelt. Put a Skinning Knife and a pelt of any quality other than ruined into the kit and click ‘combine’: to my knowledge, this never fails. You can easily get 4 or 5 stacks of leather padding (trivial in the 30’s, but lots of failures until the 50s in Tailoring) killing these yourself, or buying them from newbies. Fine Steel plate takes medium-quality ore. Smelt the ore into folded medium-quality sheet metal by combining in a forge a block (20pp) of MQ ore, smithy hammer, and a flask of water. For each piece of fine steel plate, you need a plate mold (sold in every city save Cabilis and Surefall), leather padding, smithy hammer (which is always returned), flask of water, and MQ Folded metal sheets (1 for bracers and gorgets, 3 for breastplates, greaves, and cloaks, and 2 for everything else). When smithing this armor for skill, your best bet is to smith in this order: (Bracers, Helms, and Breastplates). Lighter than bronze and similar to the class specific quest armors as far as AC is concerned, FS plate is a good alternative to those that can’t afford the various Crafted or Lambent or what have you. In addition, it can be dyed in various colors. To dye the armor, you must combine in a forge the undyed armor, a jar of acid, a jar of lacquer, and the appropriate dye.

189-250 To da moon, Soandso!
At this time, the only way to progress beyond 189 skill reasonably requires components from the moon. Acrylia Ore, dropped on Luclin, a Combine Smithy Hammer (sold only in Katta Castellium and Sanctus Seru) and Combine Acrylia Temper (brewed). Begin by smithing the acrylia into rings (large brick of acrylia, file, water flask, yields 2), and stockpile them, as you will need a LOT. Once the rings and tempers are prepared, begin by smithing Acrylia Chain armors. Combine in a forge the combine smithy hammer, the combine acrylia temper, the appropriate chainmail pattern, and the appropriate number of acrylia rings. 1 ring is used for gorgets, bracers, and veils, 3 for tunics, leggings, and cloaks, and 2 for everything else. The best way to progress for skill would be to do bracelets (1 ring), sleeves (2 rings), and finally tunics (3 rings), until 215 skill. Don’t toss those rings just yet, however: you’ll need them for the next step, Acrylia Plate armors. Acrylia Plate armor follows the same model as Fine Plate armor does, except substitute medium quality ore with acrylia ore. The basic recipe is the combine smithy hammer, an acrylia chain jointing (acrylia ring, water flask, and file), a leather padding, the combine acrylia temper, and an appropriate number of folded sheets of acrylia (block of acrylia, water flask, and regular smithy hammer). Use the same progression you used for Fine Plate, bracers (1 sheet), helms (2 sheets), and breastplates (3 sheets). Acrylia Plate trivials at 242.

As an alternative or supplement to Acrylia smithed armors, you can do shadowscream. Shadowscream armor harbors much less expense, however you will have to camp nearly every single component, some of them no rent, for it in mass quantities, and will need to perform a quest in Shar Val to receive the Humming Luclinite Mallet and the Vah Shir Anvil. For each piece of this armor, you will need your humming luclinite mallet (quested), vah shir anvil (quested), the appropriate number of swirling shadows (dropped in Shadeweaver’s Thicket, among other places, no rent), and the appropriate number of humming orbs (combine a metal ring, your mallet and anvil, a wailing substance (owlbears), and a shrieking substance (sonic wolves) in a forge, 186 trivial), and the appropriate banded mold. As of yet, the trivial on some shadowscream pieces have not been discovered, though it is believed that gauntlets (1 orb, 2 swirling shadows) trivial at or beyond 250.

Specialty Items
Below is a guide for specialty smithed items used in other tradeskills. They require materials from all over Norrath as well as Luclin in some cases, and at times, may be sought after by members of those tradeskill circles at a decent profit…

Bonings
The typical recipe for bonings is:

• File
• Small brick of the appropriate ore
• Appropriate temper
  

The variations on these are:

• Steel Bonings: Used by tailors crafting reinforced armor. Ore is the regular ore sold in most cities. Temper is a flask of water
  
• Velium Bonings: Used by tailors crafting Black Pantherskin, Haze Pantherskin, and Cobalt Drake Hide armors. Ore is a Small Brick of Velium (dropped by orcs in Crystal Caves, Crystal Golems in Skyshrine, Tower of Frozen Shadows, and Velktor’s Labyrinth). The temper used is the Coldain Velium Temper, sold in Thurgadin for 26pp each (!).
  
• Acrylia Bonings: Used by tailors for crafting Acrylia Reinforced Armor. Ore is Small Brick of Acrylia, dropped in Tenberous off of Grimlings, and the Deepshade from Underbulks. Drop rate in the Deepshade is MUCH better than Tenberous. The temper is a flask of water.
  

Studs
The typical recipe for studs is:

• * File
  
• * 3 bits of the appropriate ore (each bit is made from 2 small pieces of the appropriate ore and the temper combined in the forge)
  
• * Appropriate temper
  

The variations on these are:

• Studs: Used by tailors for crafting studded armor. Ore is made from the regular ore sold in most cities. Temper is a flask of water
  
• Velium Studs: Used by tailors for crafting Tigeraptor and Arctic Wyvern armors. By far, the most expensive studs to smith, the ore is Small Pieces of Velium (smithed into bits), and the temper is the Coldain Velium Temper (see above for drop locations).
  
• Acrylia Studs: Used by tailors for crafting Acrylia Studded armors. The ore is Small Piece of Acrylia (see above for drop locations). The temper is a flask of water

Rings
The typical recipe for (smithed) rings is:

• File
• Large Brick of the appropriate ore
• Appropriate temper
  

The main variations on rings are

• Velium Rings: Used in the 8th shawl quest, as well as Engraved Royal Velium armor. The temper is the Coldain Velium Temper
  
• Acrylia Rings: Used in Acrylia Chain armor. The temper is a flask of water
  
• Cultural Rings: Used in the various cultural armors. Temper and ore vary by culture, see EQ Traders for details
  Conclusion

As I gather info on smithing, I’ll post my findings on EQ Traders Corner. If you have any questions, contact me in-game via the serverwide.eqtraders channel.

Happy smithing!