Craftsmanship.

Spent today synthing, skilling up Woodworking and Bonecraft, and surprisingly enough, Goldsmithing. I had originaly planned to skill up Goldsmithing off grown Platinum Nuggets, but I was just feeling rather impatient, and also had seven pieces of Ram Leather stuck in my Storage taking up space, so I decided to bite the bullet and synth up Mythril Cuisses. Besides, I could afford to take the financial hit, since the past KS30 runs I've been organising have been a great help (possibly too great, but that's something for another day), and I can desynth Mythril Earrings for profit, at least most of the time.

Mythril Earrings are actually very frustrating, or at least, they have been today. The results vary so widely, I've gotten everything from -20k loss in an hour of desynthing, to 180k profit in one hour. Most of the time, I can average out something around 80-100k/hr profit, I think, although I've recently shifted focus to trying to find optimal time conditions for long-term desynthing, so it's been a slow process of data collection. On the bright side, I think I must be one of Scamplix's favourite customers by now...

Anyway, so I decided to take a stack of Mythril off the Auction House, and set about converting it into Mythril Sheets for use. Just to reiterate, the recipe for a pair of Mythril Cuisses is a square of Ram Leather, and two Mythril Sheets. Total material costs are around 21k per synth, and they sell for...3k to an NPC? I much prefer desynthing them for a shot at another synthesis. >_< Last time I tried these, I was very disappointed though. I make about six of them for a piddly +0.1, if memory serves me correctly, so suffice to say, I was less than enthusiastic about that happening again.

Fortunately, such fears were unfounded. In six synths, I managed to get a whopping +0.5 skillups, thanks to a +0.2 and +0.1 in the initial run, then I desynthed the Cuisses for some materials to go again, which gave me the last +0.5. That got me fired up. I then went back to the Auction House, and took another stack of Mythril Ingots down, and started synthing that up into Mythril Sheets. ^^ Unfortunately, I discovered at the last minute that I didn't have enough Ram Leathers on me to continue, and the Jeuno AH had none in stock! >_< Fortunately, Opticon is a Leathercrater, and he just so happened to have six pieces of Ram Leather on him, which I bought off him, Altana bless his soul. ^^ And so, the synthing went on. It's already rather nervewrecking throwing away 18k a synth when you probably won't even get a skillup, but I guess if I am really to fulfill my goal of the big one-hundred, I'd better get used to it. >_<

First skillup I got off the second batch, was a +0.2. ^^

Then nothing.

And nothing again.

Then +0.1!

Then nothing.

Nothing again.

Last two sheets. Realising I could be left feeling very annoyed at a 57.8, I crossed my fingers and started to heat up some Mythril one last time...



+1.0 in materials meant for twelve synths? Heck, I'd take that anyday! ^^

With me now at Goldsmithing 58, I was now able to take the test to become a Craftsman. This was a first for me as, while I have two other crafts at 60 (Alchemy and Smithing), I kept both of them in Journeyman status so that I wouldnt accidentally skillup past 60. This is because the way the crafting system works, one can get all the crafts to 60, but then only has an extra 40 points to distribute between all the crafts (Fishing does not count). So, if I were to hit Goldsmithing 100, and accidentally skillup Smithing to 60.1, Goldsmithing would then fall to 99.9, and I wouldn't want that! >_<

And so, I headed over to Reinberta of the Goldsmithing Guild to see what item I had to make to get my Craftsman status. Given that this is the crossing the threshold into the advanced stages, Reinberta had something different to say to me:

Reinberta: I see you have matured into a fine goldsmith. Perhaps it is time you entered the leagues of the greats. Try your hand at a mythril gorget.

Reinberta: If you are able to complete this task, you will be worthy of the title of craftsman. However, you must realize that with the title of craftsman comes certain responsibilities. More will be asked of you. I do not mind you becoming a craftsman of another guild, but remember that your status among other goldsmiths may fall...

Normally, I would buy my rank-up item off the Auction House, but there were none in stock! >_< Looking at the Jeuno's price history, Mythril Gorgets were a very rare thing that only came up once a month, or so, and the Bastok AH doesn't even have any transacted history of a Mythril Gorget! >_<

Which means...I had to make it. ; ;

Looking it up, the ingredients did not make me a happy taru:

1x Gold Ingot
1x Jadeite
1x Mercury
1x Mythril Chain
1x Mythril Sheet

Okay, I admit, I was impatient. I spent a lot more on this than I should have. For one, I thought Jadeites was the NQ result of carving a green rock (that's what you get for not carving rocks). So, when I saw no Jadeites on the Bastok AH, nor Green Rocks, I went over to Teerth of the Goldsmith's Guild and bought a Green Rock for a little over 2.5k. I carved it, and got...a tourmaline. >_< Also, the issue of a Mythril Chain. The Bastok AH didn't have any in stock, and I certainly wasn't going to make one, since they take two Mythril Ingots to make. With that, I turned back to Teerth, who was willing to sell me a Mythril Chain for the low, low price of about 15k.

This is all fine and well, until one realises that I should've just asked an LS-mate to check the Jeuno AH for both ingredients. I actually ended up asking if the Jeuno AH had Jadeites in stock, which they did for 4k each, and when I Warped back later, I found that the Jeuno AH also had Mythril Chains in stock- for 4k each, as well. >_< I ended up buying a Mythril Sheet off the AH instead of making it myself, and the Mercury as well, because I didn't want to go all the way to Bibiki Bay to get some Cobalt Jellyfish. The Gold Ingot, I already had on me, for some odd reason. In total, the materials set me back some 80k. >_<

Given all this trouble, this was not something I wanted to fail, and so, taking whatever precautions I had (very little), I got ready to make me a Mythril Gorget:



Fortunately, I didn't fail the synth, otherwise, I would've been a very-wery angry taru! >_<

Getting back up, I immediately turned back to Reinberta, and handed over my accomplishment to her for evaluation...

Reinberta: I must commend you on your exquisite work and hereby grant you the title of craftsman. Feel free to become a craftsman of another guild, but do not forget that it may be difficult to maintain your level of goldsmith skills.

You are now recognized as a craftsman of the Goldsmiths’ Guild.

YAY!

Only two levels separate my Goldsmithing from the big sixty. Once there, I think I will dedicate myself to another project, another journaru of sorts, fully dedicated to my Goldsmithing experience. Part of this is because unlike the other guilds, there is so little information out there on high level Goldsmithing, that I feel some data needs to go in. Furthermore, there is a lot of disagreement as to what to do, and so, someone over on the Allakhazam forums suggested that it might be interesting to see a Goldsmither's diary as they skillup past 60 "and lose their sanity". Oh well...hopefully my goldsmithing website will be an interesting read, although first, there's Level 60 to get. ^^