Comin Back, a Few Questions

[HeavyMetal]

Howdy,

Just reactivated, been doing some mining. I'd like to work on my miner a bit and get him going as a warrior to have some fun that way as well and see more of the game. I've tried reading some of the stickies etc but had some random questions to that end:

1) So I see you can mine up gems now in addition to those big ML gems. But you have to choose gems or stone. What do you guys mine? What is more valuable (obviously this will depend on your server, im on Pacific). Right now im just stockpiling since I dont have an outlet to get rid of stuff, but would be nice to be stockpiling the right materials.

2) So ore spots are random now. Thats cool. Do you guys just go to a mine and strip it or do you still stick to the same spots? Ive been back a couple days mining and have already had a few spots change up on me so I wonder if I should just strip my entire area every day, since who knows if what was iron yesterday could be valorite tomorrow. Is that what you do?

3) What kind of prices are ingots going for these days? Is mining even still a viable money maker? Ill mine either way, Ive always just enjoyed the gathering / hoarding aspect of it for some reason, but would be nice to make some money to fund other stuff =)

4) Template wise, any advice? My main goals are a) to make a resilient dude since i mine in felucca, id like to have more than 1 second to react if somebody is on me. b) be able to do some pvm stuff for fun without dying instantly. Not a huge fan of magery related stuff. Was thinking mining, swords, tactics, anatomy, resist magic but not sure where to go after that (maybe chivalry for the recall and heals?).

Thanks for any thoughts you care to share.

 

[Silverbird]

1) I usually mine ore only. Imbuing uses lots of gems but if you try to mine for them, you will mine really long. Stones are used for nice home decorations but the demand is really low and you hardly get back the values of the lost ores on stones. Compared to the time you played before,s tones now do stack, so storage shouldnt be such a problem.

2) I strip mine the same area over and over. Means I put 2 sturdy mining tools (150-200) charges in my bag. When those are used up i get two new ones and start again at the beginning or take a break.

3) Mining is still a money maker but it also depends on how active ppl on your shard script-mine unattended. Only advice is dont sell in too low numbers and while the higher ores are more expensive and more rare than the lowers, the demand for the lower ones is way higher. (The bod systems needs lots of dull and shadow ingots. On Europa the prices for shadow already have exceeded those for coper, bronze and gold.) Dont oversee the rare gems that you are mining up. Some of them are in really high demend but dont sell in numbers lower than 10. You usuallay need 10 for some specific ml recipes.

4) I go with something like 110 swords, 100 tact, 90 ana + heal, 100 mining + lumber, 70 chiv and rest into focus. (I use cheap suits and therefore need some regeneration.) I like the idea of having one char for resource gathering and with mining and lumberjacking swords (for axe fighting) seems to be a normal choice to me. That character has not much defensive skills but I am able to hunt ore elementals with gargoyle pickaxes. (But I have to do seom hit-and-run on valorite elementals thought i probably could stand toe-to-toe with them, if i would equipp my miner slightly better.)

 

[Basara]

Also, get someone to get you a Fire Beetle (a Samurai Empire creature that is in effect, a ridable forge). This will allow you to convert ore to ingots in the field (less chance of getting caught overweight if one of the rare miner-killers shows up).

Remember to bond the pet (feed it, stable it for 7-8 days, then feed it again), as bonded pets can be rezzed by tamers with the Vet skill at 80, and the new Vet NPCs.

Check the guides in the "Data Chest" subforum, if you are unfamiliar how tools such as the prospector's tool and Gargoyle's Pickaxe work. If you're going to be a character capable of some melee fighting, getting ore elementals is a great sideline for extra ore (and the large gems now drop on them). Player alchemists can make invisiblity potions, so even if you aren't a mage or stealther, you have some ways of hiding (consider the average PK, that doesn't know the abilities of a Valorite ele, trying to fight one you left behind when you hid).

 

[Riply]

I would also suggest that your wear ring +5 to mining gloves for smelting the ore. Also I would get some rune books and label them dull copper, shadow , copper etc on each book and mark runes for those spots and drop them into the rune book as marked. locations will become changed as far as the ore that is produced after a period of time. So just remove that rune when it becomes no long valid and reuse again. I find it hand to have the rune book books fully charged to cut down on regs or recall scrolls. Also bod books for storing your bods are very handy and take up less storage in your house when you get to smithing possible.