Scholar 10 to Sage 20: A GuideFollow

Forward: Really, this guide is not just for going Sage. It can be used for Jeweler or Alchemist too. I just became a Sage, thus the title.

Hello! This is my first attempt at writing a guide for Allakhazamites, so I hope you like it, and I hope it can be of some use. I went from a level 10 Scholar to a level 22 Sage very quickly, if I may say so myself. It can be a very easy crafting class to get leveled, and make some coin in /grin. Notes: I have leveled my Sage in Freeport, but the guide will work mostly for both areas, as crafting is the same. The only main difference is in the section that talks about collecting resources. I am going to be refering to the Commonlands, since that is the tier II area for Freeport.

Definitions:

First of all, lets clarify a few things. A skill is any scroll, essence, or rune. Also, I have a lot of people ask me what a tier is. A tier just refers to what level an item, skill, or area is. Tier I is the begining. When you are an artisan, you can only use tier I resources, such as tin, roots, elm, etc. You find these in tier I areas, such as the Ruins and the Sunken City. You can also only make tier I skills, such as Smite, Taunt, Minor Healing, Sneak etc. A tier I skill is a skill you get from level 1 to 9. At level 10, you have become your specialized class, and all the skills you get from level 10 to 19 will be tier II skills. And then, tier III at level 20. The tier II area to harvest tier II resources to make tier II skills is the Commonlands for Freeport. You see what I'm getting at?

Tradeskills:

Also, you need to understand tradeskills. Now this can be trickly, because there are actually two different things we refer to as tradeskills. The first are your skills used to harvest resources, such as gathering, trapping, mining, foresting, and fishing. The second are the skills you use to correct mistakes to your recipes. If you are not familiar with these, push the "K" button on your keyboard. It brings up the Knowledge Book. Push the "Tradeskill" buttong at the top, and it lists all of your tradeskills. When you are making an item, you will sometimes see one of these icons flash at the bottom of your progress bar. If you hit the corresponding tradeskill icon while it is showing on your progress bar, it will correct the mistake that you had.

You should first read the explainations to these skills. Each one will use a certain amount of power, and will either increase your progress or your durability. Your durability are the bars that are on top, and begin full when you start a recipe. The second bar on the bottom is the progress bar. When the progress bar is full, you have completed the recipe. If you can complete the recipe with all the durability bars full, you will get a pristine item (pristine quality has not been added to skills yet, but is going to be). As you lose each bar in durability, you will lose a grade of quality.

To combat the loss of durability (loss of quality), I suggest putting your tradeskill icons on your hotkeys. Make a seperate row of them for each craft you will be using (chemistry, runecraft, and scribing). You will have two different icons with the same picture on them for these three crafts, making you have 6 icons for each (6 for chemistry, 6 for runecraft etc). The weaker icons (you can examine the icons, and they con, just like monsters) will add to your progress, while the stronger ones will usually add to your durability. You can use these at any time, not just when you need to correct a mistake. I suggest using a combination of progress and durability, until you start lacking in one. If you are about to lose a level of quality, start using your durability tradeskills. If you have near full durability, but progress is slow, start using progress tradeskills. Be wary of which ones us how much power though, as some use much more than others. I suggest drinking some kind of drink (not summoned) like coffee when crafting. This will keep you from having an issues with running out of power.



Turning Scholar

Once you have reached artisan level 9, you will not advance when you get over 100% xp. You will have to go to the Scribe in West Freeport and declair to Alethea Augustine that you are going to be a scholar. After this, you will need to go back to your workshop, and craft anything that will give you xp. Ta-da! You are now a scholar!

After turning Scholar...

*Once you hit level 10, you will need to go to an advanced workshop to get your next book. Usually, there is a workshop to join on the same map as your artisan workshop. You will need to speak to an NPC out front before you can join. Once inside, the merchant NPC will have your books. You may have to scroll down near the bottom to find the Scholar books, but they are there.

*At Scholar level 10, I dont believe you are going to get any tier II skill recipes. Rather, you are going to get all the nessacary recipes to make your precursors (anything you use to make something else) for tier II skills.

*All of these new recipes you just got are going to require tier II resources. You will need to make sure that you have your gathering, foresting, and mining over level 20 (it was changed, used to be 40) so you can harvest in the Commonlands. Trapping is an option, since really, there is nothing that a scholar does that uses pelts, although you can make a little extra coin off a stack of them. A good place near Freeport to level your harvesting tradeskills is the Sunken City. There are no dangerous mobs for low levels, like the Graveyard. There are three connected rooms that are dry, and you can move from room to room easily, and keep collecting and leveling those skills.

Remember: You gain more xp from crafting a new recipe, one that you have never done before. You get another bonus if the first time you make something, it is pristine, or has all the durability bars if there is no pristine status.



Level 10:

At level 10, you will get an assortment of recipes. Mostly precursors for other recipes. This is a pretty fast level, as you will be making the umulsions, mixtures, solvents etc for these resources. Most of the resources for these are obtained from the Oasis Fungi resources, and at level 10, almost anything you get from those are gold.

So, start by making any emulsions, solvents etc from any resources you have. You are not totally without coin this level though! Many of these solvents etc can be sold to the merchant in the workshop for 50cp! Not a lot of money until you reralize you are going to be making LOTS of these. If you make any Stroma Washes, Resins, Oils, or Eolith Tempers, save them, as they are one of the building blocks for all your recipes, and they dont fetch a very good price at the NPC merchant anyway. If you make any of the other Stromas, such as emulsion, mixture etc, save them for some potion recipes you will get next level.

You have gotten some recipes that are invalueble to Outfitters. You can now make iron struts, studs, chains, pummels, and buckles. Charge a fair price, and they will help you out, too.

Also of note, is that you get the scroll Blaze, which is ever popular. You could go to the CLs with about 5 of them, and sell them like crazy!



Level 11:

OK, now you are starting to get some skill recipes! Make trinoid reagent and save all of the loam it makes, as these are used in making the glass bottles for potions. The potions require a larent solution, which is a little costly for now (1sp44cp), but if you can swing it, then make them, and always go for pristine. They make lovely carry alongs for battle, and you can sell some of them on your merchant board. This brings me to another thing. Get a merchant board for your inn room! When you are not playing, put your skills that you have made for leveling up for sale. Tier II skills go for around 9sp-20sp, depending on your server. You could sell them higher, as I have seen people doing, but really, you are only hurting yourself, since you will be making less skills, thus leveling slower, making the same amount of coin.

Note: You are going to need crafter to make your quills and paper for you, as well as the iron spikes to make Scout Rune Skills. I suggest getting into a guild to help with this. Guildies are the best bet, as strangers will most likely hit you on the price, but that shouldnt stop you from trying.



Level 12:

You get another gob of potions and skills at 12! If you are having problems finding someone to make paper, quills, and iron spikes for you, then focus on making fighter essences. You dont need any other crafters help to make these. Also, I hope you have been saving all that trinoid loam from making your trinoid reagent! It is used to make the glass for the potions. The potions for this level use Sycamore products, so collect as much as you can.

This level is passed quietly making potions and skills. Put up any thing that you dont need on your merchant board. Don't be greedy, and give fair prices, and it will sell^^



Level 13:

You get a great gob of potions and essences this time. These will be the real meat of this level. Of course, make the scrolls too.

A great thing about this level is the electrum jewelry you can now make! Jewelry is great for casters, and maybe something to look into once your level 19.

The sheer amount of recipes given make this another quick level, and some of the jewelry you can make can make some descent coin, too. Just check what it goes for on your servers brokers.



Level 14:

More of everything except jewelry. You have not gotten some pretty popular spells, such as Symbol of Transal, Ward of Spirits, and Soothe Servant. I get orders for those all the time ^^

You dont really get as many recipes on this level as some others, but you get some good stuff.



Level 15:

You've now gotten Cerebral Spasm, and Essence Shift, two popular scrolls. Also, you have gotten a good amount of essences and runes. There is not an overly large quanity of Runes on the market (at least on my server), so if you can get the iron spikes to make the tier II runes, go for it, as there is money to be made.

You have also gotten the recipes to two very ice pieces of jewelry: Turquoise Earing and Bracelet.



Level 16:

More spells and such. But, of great concern is the Turquoise Ring and Necklace. This rounds out a very good set for casters, and you should consider putting some up for sale! Seism, Redoubt, and Overwhelming Silence are good scrolls to sell. Quite popular ^^

Note: You are now getting close to being able to take orders. You may even be able to, if you let the people know that you can only service up to level 16. Orders are going to make you more money than pre-made scrolls and skill, as it is a toss-up if anyone needs them. But, if you charge a good price, then you will get orders, and that is the real money^^



Level 17:

Not many recipes added at this level, so it may take a bit longer than some of the others. But, Arch Healing, Taunting Slap, and particularly Mind Jolt are fairly popular.

Note: At this level, you are going to actually start to see a shift in where your xp comes from. Before, from 10 to 16, it was mostly what you were making that you just received recipes for. But now, as you have become more useful to all the adventurers of the world, you are going to start making a fair amount of your xp to the next level off of orders for lower skills. It may not come in as big of chunks, but its all payed for. No more trying to sell your creations from the board. You will be hard at work on an order, then just look up, and be near the next level. Its great having your attention somewhere besides your xp bar!



Level 18:

Almost there! Binding Light, Healing Ritual, and Staggering Stance make up some of the good ones here. Much more than last level, so really no need to be in a crunch. But, as I stated above, you xp is going to be coming largely from orders for other things, although at this level and beyond, there are fewer and fewer scholars to compete with, so you will be getting quite a few orders for higher level spells. Just be sure to get a new recipe pristine for the xp bonus!



Level 19:

This is it! You are at the top of tier II, and can now take orders for all of tier II! I suggest mixing up a large amount of inks, and have the paper, quills, and iron spiked ready to go. That way, when an order comes in, you are ready to make it. Some kind soals may even give a bit more for the prompt service.



Notes about orders: While a lot of this may seem like common sense, if you keep these things in mind, your customers will be very happy.

1. Write down everyones name who makes an order, along with exactly what they want. I cannot stress this enough. It will be scrolled off your chat bar before you know it.

2. Use the chat filters to filter out other people's spells when in the workshop. It makes communicating a mess, and you can miss some important things from your customers, such as cancelations :P

3. Keep good communication. Are you going to be an extra few minutes? Tell them!. Need to make another stop before delivery? Tell them!. They would rather hear news of the delays than nothing at all.

4. Don't be greedy. If someone wants to buy a few scrolls, and they are short on the last one, give it to them! They wont soon forget it! I've had people I gave a free skill to come back to me with a rare for next to nothing for hooking them up.

5. Be patient! They are giving you money! Now this doesnt mean wait all day when someone said 5 minutes, but dont sweat the details. This is how you make your virtual living.

6. Don't be picky! 100cp is 1sp. 100sp is 1gp. Your just going to make people mad by not accepting what they have, as this gives off a vibe that you are better than them, which is a big no-no in business.

7. Carry change! Always carry no less than 100sp if you have it. If you need to break change real quick, dump all but gold pieces in the bank, then buy something for less than 1sp from the nearest NPC merchant.



Turning Sage:

This is just like turning Scholar. You go to the same place, but you speak to Matthias Zoe at the scribe. And then, same as before, you just go back, and make a recipe that will give some xp (not a grey), and presto..you're a Sage!




A few notes on advanced recipes and rares:

Yes, thats right, rares do exist, as much as it seems like they dont! You just cannot go out with the intention of finding one, as they are very, very rare. Particularly the ones that are pure gold for a Scholar: Rough Coral or Silver Clusters.

Just remember, you will get one at some point. Maybe through harvesting, maybe through a deal. But don't stress over it. I wuold not even really suggest buying any advanced scholar books until you get the rare to make them. Scribe any you get while partying, but I would not go out of my way to buy one, when I have no idea when I will get the rare to make it.

Now maybe this is just me, but when I get a rare, I will not make the adept III, potion, jewelry, etc until I get an order for it. You may be sitting on an item for a long time before someone can buy it. Doesn't it sound a lot better to be able to make any adept III, rather than just having one already made? Also, if you just want quick coin off of the rare, then you can just work it down into suzuri ink, and put that up for sale. These can go for a bit more coin, but not as much as a pre-made scroll, since the creation of the ink requires a book that the other Scholar may not have.




Well, that is most of the wisdom I have to give. I hope this has helped some folks with their EQ2 career choice. Let me know what you think about it, if there were any mistakes etc. Enjoy, and I will see you at the workshop!



Edited, Mon Dec 20 02:18:18 2004 by dacypher

Edited, Mon Dec 20 02:19:11 2004 by dacypher

Edited, Mon Dec 20 02:52:01 2004 by dacypher

very well written...rate up!

Nicely done, thank you for the time you spent.

Very nice Dacypher. Very well written and extra good on the details.

A+ for you =)

Added as a guide to our guide page.

Edit: cause I am a dork.....

Edited, Fri Dec 24 10:46:08 2004 by Darkflame