The thread there has gone a little long with comments, so consolidating things here a bit.
Original test Used a gargoyle character with a crafted soulforge.
Modifications were more often than not done in Ter Mur, with different kinds of characters (not just gargoyles).
1. If a new character, set imbuing to 50 at creation, especially on SP/Mugen (but you will immediately start with a lack of components - easy enough to get to 40 on all other shards, so I suggest going the second route)
2. Otherwise purchase from an NPC artificer (40%) after training up to 25 skill (Unless on Siege/Mugen, where you have to work the entire way up from 0)
No gains off fails - only off successes. Gains under 25 can be from unraveling, and work like cooking gains (1 gain check per item, if using the bag, so you can get multiple multi-point gains from one bag of items).
0 - 25 Skill: unravel items (you'll need the residue you get from this, anyway).
Note: Residue returned will vary, and one can unravel items made of special material (so making junk with normal tools, with oak wood, and perhaps other crafter's stuff - experiment and find out!), are a good source; alternatively, make items with normal material using low-end runics, but some of the items will end up not unravelable until 50.1 skill, and then for Enchanted Essence). When Petra did this initial test during Beta, she got less than 500 Residue. When Basara did the same after the official release, using the Ter Mur public soulforge with a human, he got over 800 Residue, long before reaching 20 skill.
25 - 50 Skill: Imbue exceptional leather caps with reflect physical damage (preferably, make items with GM Arms Lore character, to increase difficulty). Suggest buying up to 40 skill from 25 at this point, if allowed on your shard.
Note: Recommendation is to unravel items after 1 success on each, to get residue back (will keep you training longer, if you have someone to supply you with the items to imbue). Alternative is to re-imbue each item the full 10 times, which will consume much more residue, but require less items to work with.
25-27 Skill: Imbue to 4%. cost 1 residue, 2 citrine.
27-30 Skill: Imbue to 5% rpd; citrine cost goes up from 2 to 3.
30-33 Skill: Imbue to 6% rpd; cost now 2 residue, 4 citrine.
33-37 Skill: Imbue to 7% rpd; cost remains 2 + 4.
37-40 Skill: Imbue to 8% rpd; cost now 2 + 5
Start point for skill bought up to 40.
40-43 Skill: Imbue to 9% rpd; cost 3 + 6
44-46 Skill: Imbue to 10% rpd; cost 3 + 6
46-49 Skill: Imbue to 11% rpd; cost 3 + 7
49-50 Skill: Imbue to 12% or 13% rpd; both cost 4 + 8
Starting at 50, Imbue hit dispel on Exceptional daggers; consider skipping one step (example: doing the 54-58 rank at 50-54), if using the Ter Mur forge, for better gains.
50-54 Skill: Imbue 2% Hit Dispel (base amount); cost is 1 residue & 1 amber.
54-58 Skill: Imbue 4%; same cost.
58-60 Skill: Imbue 6%; same cost.
60-62 Skill: Imbue 8%; same cost.
62-64 Skill: Imbue 10%; cost is 1 residue, 2 amber
64-66 Skill: Imbue 12%; cost 1 + 2
66-68 Skill: Imbue 14%; cost 1 + 2
68-70 Skill: Imbue 16%; Cost 1 + 3
At 70 Skill, one has two choices. Keep progessing on the daggers (one can get to 44% Hit Dispel using only residue & amber, and is at 4 residue, 8 amber at that point), or change to something that has Mage Armor as an automatic property (exceptional Plate Hiro Sode) and go back to adding Reflect Physical. The latter uses more ingots, but less resources, while also requiring a good talisman and (preferably) an Acient Smithy Hammer to make as exceptional reliably. It is left up to the person Training to make the call as to the desired route.
Dagger w/dispel route:
70-72 Skill: Imbue 18%; cost is 1 residue + 3 amber
72-74 Skill: Imbue 20%; cost 2 + 4
74-76 Skill: Imbue 22%; cost 2 + 4
76-77 Skill: Imbue 24%; Cost 2 + 4
77-78 Skill: Imbue 26%; Cost 2 + 5
78-79 Skill: Imbue 28%; cost 2 + 5
79-80 Skill: Imbue 30%; cost 3 + 6
80-81 Skill: Imbue 32%; cost 3 + 6
81-82 Skill: Imbue 34%; Cost 3 + 6
82-83 Skill: Imbue 36%; cost 3 + 7
83-84 Skill: Imbue 38%; cost 3 + 7
84-85 Skill: Imbue 40%; Cost 4 + 8 (anytime in the 84-87 range is a good time to switch to the Samurai plate method)
85-86 Skill: Imbue 42%; Cost 4 + 8
86-87 Skill: Imbue 44%; Cost 4 + 8
Starting at 87 add 2nd property (to daggers with 40%+ hit dispel & 36-40% DI); save the daggers for additional imbuing.
The property can be any of the Hit Area, but Hit Energy is the cheapest (gem cost)
87-89 Skill: 2% hit (energy) area;
89-90 Skill: 4%
90-108 Skill (increment one step each time a new xx.0 skill reached)
Start at 108 add 3rd property (to daggers with the hit dispel, hit area effect & DI on them)
108-109: Resist (any) 1%
109-120: Increment Resist amount added 1 step every xxx.0 skill, up to 12% at 119-120.
Resources used (without quantities) Magic residue, enchanted essence, citrine, amber, amethyst (this could have been any of the other gems relating to area effect or resist)
No mining gems, no lumber resources, no relic fragments.
Samurai Plate Route for 70-120 (From R Traveler and suggested modifications by others). Note: R Traveler has left gaps in his posts (and is currently at 109 of their own training, apparently), so I'm making best guesses to fill them, based on the obvious patterns.
Items: Exceptional Plate Jingasa (found in Helmets menu) recommended, but any of the SE Plate items will work.
These start out as Mage armor, so automatically are treated as 140% weighted property. Ingredient costs will be as for the leather caps done to the same amount of RPD. Note: due to the difficulty and cost of making these items TO imbue, one should imbue them all out to 10 times, before unraveling, and take the loss on the lost residue (the daggers are so cheap, it's best to imbue the one time, then unravel, until you get to the point of adding two properties).
70-72 Skill: Imbue 1% rpd (10 times)
72-74 Skill: Imbue 2% rpd (10 times)
74-76 Skill: Imbue 3% rpd (10 times)
76-78 Skill: Imbue 4% rpd (10 times)
78-80 Skill: Imbue 5% rpd (10 times)
80-82 Skill: Imbue 6% rpd (10 times)
82-84 Skill: Imbue 7% rpd (10 times)
84-86 Skill: Imbue 8% rpd (10 times) * (Suggested point for the people using Dagger method to switch to this one)
86-88 Skill: Imbue 9% rpd (10 times)
88-90 Skill: Imbue 10% rpd (10 times, or save for 90+)
90 Skill - two skill Imbues begin:
90-92 1st mod 10rpd (once), 2nd mod 1 lrc (9 times)
93-94 1st mod 11rpd (once), 2nd mod 1 lrc (9 times)
94-95 1st mod 12rpd (once), 2nd mod 1 lrc (9 times)
95-98 1st mod 13rpd (once), 2nd mod 1 lrc (9 times)
98-100 1st mod 13rpd (once), 2nd mod 2 lrc (9 times)
100-102 1st mod 13rpd (once), 2nd mod 3 lrc (9 times)
102-104 1st mod 13rpd (once), 2nd mod 5 lrc (9 times)
104-105 1st mod 13rpd (once), 2nd mod 7 lrc (9 times)
105-109 1st mod 13rpd (once), 2nd mod 8 lrc (9 times)
106-107 1st mod 13rpd (once), 2nd mod 9 lrc (9 times)
107-108 1st mod 13rpd (once), 2nd mod 10 lrc (9 times)
108-109 1st mod 13rpd (once), 2nd mod 11 lrc (9 times)
109: 3 mod imbuing begins
109-112 1st mod 13 rpd (once), 2nd mod 11 lrc (once), 3rd mod 1 luck (8 times)
112-113.5 1st mod 13 rpd (once), 2nd mod 11 lrc (once), 3rd mod 10 luck (8 times)
113.5-115 1st mod 13 rpd (once), 2nd mod 11 lrc (once), 3rd mod 19 luck (8 times)
115-118 1st mod 13 rpd (once), 2nd mod 18 lrc (once), 3rd mod 1 luck (8 times)
118-120 1st mod 13 rpd (once), 2nd mod 18 lrc (once), 3rd mod 10 luck (8 times)
