Finally reached 120 on my imbuer! This was definitely the most expensive trade skill I have ever attempted.
50-61ish: I played around with the dagger/dispel route until I saw the cap on unraveling was coming out.
61ish - 86.6: I farmed Swoop & Miasma.
86.6 - 120: I got anxious and wanted to knock it out, so I started hardcore training at the soulforge.
I went straight for the sammy plate method. I used Petra's method as a general guide but changed it around a bit. I used a skill tutor statue to keep me in the optimal range. I tried to keep my success rate 53-56% as it seemed to work the best for me. When I saw my gem usage was getting too high, I added another property often way before it was recomended. I believe it saved a ton of gems. I started the two property around 105 for example. Since I had a huge stockpile of residue, I imbued each piece 20 times. Basically, If I could keep the 20x imbue using only 1 gem, I could maximize gains and keep my costs down. In the final 118ish - 120, I was doing (1x) 13% RFD, (1x) 13% LRC, (1x) 30%ish Luck, (20x) 1% Resist Fire. 118-120 seemed impossibly slow gains. I could run through several hundred gems for a single gain. In the later stages 115 - 120, I found a soulforge in a public house instead of the public one in Ter Mur. By dropping my success rate a few percent, I could keep in the optimal range longer before having to switch to more gems or adding another property.
If I were a masochist and wanted to do it again I would definitely:
Try to make it to 90 from unraveling Swoop and Miasma loot before starting hardcore training.
Buy gems at the gypsy camps in Ilsh. I bought almost all of my citrines and amber at 50-53 gp each.
I think the guides are very good maps. But I would suggest to not be afraid and come up with a deviation that works best for you. Sorry, I don't keep hard track of how much of each resource I use when crafting. But I tend to focus on the method and how much benefit I feel I am getting as my stockpiles go down. I hope this helps.
50-61ish: I played around with the dagger/dispel route until I saw the cap on unraveling was coming out.
61ish - 86.6: I farmed Swoop & Miasma.
86.6 - 120: I got anxious and wanted to knock it out, so I started hardcore training at the soulforge.
I went straight for the sammy plate method. I used Petra's method as a general guide but changed it around a bit. I used a skill tutor statue to keep me in the optimal range. I tried to keep my success rate 53-56% as it seemed to work the best for me. When I saw my gem usage was getting too high, I added another property often way before it was recomended. I believe it saved a ton of gems. I started the two property around 105 for example. Since I had a huge stockpile of residue, I imbued each piece 20 times. Basically, If I could keep the 20x imbue using only 1 gem, I could maximize gains and keep my costs down. In the final 118ish - 120, I was doing (1x) 13% RFD, (1x) 13% LRC, (1x) 30%ish Luck, (20x) 1% Resist Fire. 118-120 seemed impossibly slow gains. I could run through several hundred gems for a single gain. In the later stages 115 - 120, I found a soulforge in a public house instead of the public one in Ter Mur. By dropping my success rate a few percent, I could keep in the optimal range longer before having to switch to more gems or adding another property.
If I were a masochist and wanted to do it again I would definitely:
Try to make it to 90 from unraveling Swoop and Miasma loot before starting hardcore training.
Buy gems at the gypsy camps in Ilsh. I bought almost all of my citrines and amber at 50-53 gp each.
I think the guides are very good maps. But I would suggest to not be afraid and come up with a deviation that works best for you. Sorry, I don't keep hard track of how much of each resource I use when crafting. But I tend to focus on the method and how much benefit I feel I am getting as my stockpiles go down. I hope this helps.