Blacksmith Guide

[morgan1109]

Now that my account is 30 days old and fairly well established, I decided I could afford to work on a crafter. I went to start my blacksmith, and had a lot of problems getting him going based on guide information. There was a lot of inaccurate information. When I reached 65 most guides say to do katana, even though you can’t make them until 68. At 68 the failure rate is insane. I tried again at 70 with the same poor results on Katana. So I set about righting the ship by getting hard data and laying a path myself.

Below is a chart that has every item and the posted skill levels to make it so any smith can plan his own chart. I also set a minimum level to “try” to make something as 10 points above minimum skill, and a max value as 25 points above skill level. I based it on skill gains using Cutlass from 50-65 since nearly all guides had that in common. That is basically what I have determined is the sweet spot through leveling to 70, heh heh. The top point of 25 is more dubious, but I’m pretty confident the minimum is pretty solid as I had good gains out of the gate with cutlass at 50.

So Keep in mind this is informational and not a strict guide. I’m providing the information so others can plan their path. I’m no GM so don’t take this verbatim. Below I will give you my chosen path that is very “loose” as I can clearly decide through experience (which brought about the information gathering and this guide) that it isn’t working. I’m smelting so the goal is to get skill gains for lowest ingot count, so there is a heavy reliance on 6 and 8 ingot items. I actually delay making spears a bit in my plan because shorts spears (6 ingots) are half the cost of the next item on my list (spears) so I go well into the minimum for spears. Normally I start making the next item up at minimum skill +10 (short spear being the exception) due to the low ingot cost.

Here’s the chart that hopefully saves you some wasted ingots:

Item ingots skill Min Max
Kite (Wooden) 8 0 10 25
Metal Shield 14 0 10 25
Bronze Shield 12 1 11 26
Buckler 10 1 11 26
Dagger 3 7.7 17.7 32.7
Kite (Metal) 16 14.3 24.3 39.3
Gloves 10 17.6 27.6 42.6
Bascinet 15 19.2 29.2 44.2
Sleeves 14 24.3 34.3 49.3
Coif 10 27.5 37.5 52.5
Mace 6 27.5 37.5 52.5
Leggings 16 27.5 37.5 52.5
Tunic 18 30.7 40.7 55.7
Maul 10 33.9 43.9 58.9
Leggings 18 40.5 50.5 65.5
Heater 18 40.5 50.5 65.5
Cutlass 8 40.5 50.5 65.5
Viking Sword 14 40.5 50.5 65.5
Hammer Pick 18 42.2 52.2 67.2
Tunic 20 43.8 53.8 68.8
Armor (Female) 20 43.8 53.8 68.8
Large Battle Axe 14 45.4 55.4 70.4
War Mace 14 45.4 55.4 70.4
Long Sword 12 45.4 55.4 70.4
Double Axe 12 47.1 57.1 72.1
Battle Axe 14 48.7 58.7 73.7
Gorget 10 50.4 60.4 75.4
Bardiche 18 50.4 60.4 75.4
Scimitar 10 50.4 60.4 75.4
Two-handed Axe 16 52 62 77
Gloves 12 53.7 63.7 78.7
Axe 14 53.8 63.8 78.8
Executioner's Axe 16 53.8 63.8 78.8
War Hammer 16 53.8 63.8 78.8
Broad Sword 10 55.5 65.5 80.5
Kryss 8 56.8 66.8 81.8
Close Helm 15 58.6 68.6 83.6
Helmet 15 58.6 68.6 83.6
Plate Helm 15 58.6 68.6 83.6
War Fork 12 58.6 68.6 83.6
Nose Helm 15 59.3 69.3 84.3
War Axe 16 60.2 70.2 85.2
Halberd 20 60.2 70.2 85.2
Arms 18 63.5 73.5 88.5
Leggings 20 66.8 76.8 91.8
Katana 8 66.8 76.8 91.8
Short Spear 6 68.4 78.4 93.4
Spear 12 73.2 83.2 98.2
Breastpiece 25 75 85 100



Here is my chosen path (based purely on numbers not experience):
Item ingots skill Min Max
Cutlass 8 40.5 50.5 65
Kryss 8 56.8 65 75
Katana 8 66.8 75 78
Short Spear 6 68.4 78 88
Spear 12 73.2 88 99
Breastpiece 25 75 99 100

I changed the min’s and max’s from actuals (above) to planned change overs.

Hopefully the chart and my wasted ingots will help another new smith from making the same mistakes I did. If you start with lower than 50 skill, it looks like daggers (3 ingots) until 35ish and maces (6 ingots) until 50ish might be your best bet. Good luck and Happy Smithing!

P.S. sorry I can't figure out how to get the board to format the tables. I'm attaching the excel spreadsheet as well.

Thanks,

Eomin

[morgan1109]

Just an FYI, I built my spreadsheet out a little more. I added success rates and exceptional rates. Since I can’t attach excel spreadsheets, and had to do a PDF so you could see it. Just send me a PM with your e-mail and I can mail it to anyone who needs/wants it. You can plug in any blacksmith rate and see and make good decisions. It’s accurate up to 95 smithing which is where UO Stratics says the exceptional chance rates change (for the better).

Since doing this I changed up my plan a bit. I’ll probably do kryss’s until 77. That’s the point Katana’s actually hit a 20% success rate (kryss’s are 40% at 77). Since short spears are a 17% success rate at 77, you can probably go straight to short spear at that point, although I still plan to do katana’s from 77-78. That window between 76-78 seems to be the trickiest to figure out without real world experience so do what you think is best when you get there. The kryss, katana, and short spear are all good options at that point. The other tricky point is knowing when to move from short spear to spears. You could certainly justify taking short spears into the 90’s since the ingot cost is half of a regular spear. I’ll watch my gains around 88 and maybe try a few rounds of regular spears here and there to find the right cut off point for me. The other possible change is you should be able to make spears straight through to 100 and save the extreme ingot costs of breast plates. I’ll wait to hit 99 and see what my gains are on spears to decide if it’s worth making the change.

The point of adding exceptional chance is really two fold. You can make a stack of exceptional items you actually plan to use. At 79 skill I actually have a 10% chance to make exceptional chain tunics, so somewhere around there I might loop in a 100 tunics, so I have around 10 exceptional ones lying around for my dexxer. The second reason is it informed me that I can slow down around 94. At that point I can make exceptional helms and exceptional war forks at an 11% success rate taking care of all of my dexxers needs. Taking it beyond 94 would simply be to reduce ingot loss (more exceptionals) and my name on the equipment. Taking it beyond 94 is beneficial no doubt, but I’ll have enough success making the stuff I need. I don’t need to go crazy trying to grind it out the last 6 points right away.

Thanks,

Eomin

[morgan1109]

A couple of quick updates:

1. I started making Katanta's at 76.2. Kryss gains slowed down quite a bit by then.
2. The exceptional chance formula on stratics is wrong. I am making quite a few exceptional short spears at 86.5 and according to stratics I shouldn't be able to make them until 98.5, so don't rely on the exceptional chance numbers I posted.
3. does anyone know the correct formula for exceptional chance?

[morgan1109]

short spears really slowed down once I hit 88. Switched over to regular spear and I am getting better gains.

[Used Kotex]

viewtopic.php?f=9&t=4730&p=186900#p186900

SighelmofWyrmgard did this guide 4+ years ago. I believe the info to still be accurate.

skillgain > ingot cost

50-55: Maul (Cutlass will destroy thousands of ingots);
Cutlass skill-gains 62-65 will be quite slow, but with a good number of successes;
65-70: Scimitar (Kryss will destroy thousands of ingots);
70-72: Broadsword (Kryss will still destroy hundreds of ingots);
72-81: Kryss (this is where my UOSA smith is at, at the date of this posting, but I anticipate ...)

81-83: Katana;
83-93: Short Spear;
93-98: Spear;
98-GM: Plate Gloves;

[morgan1109]

I realized I hadn't updated this in a while. I ended up using spears to 99, primarily because the ingot return and therefore ingot cost was much better on the spear than the various plate recommendations made around the forums. At 99 I alternated plate gloves and plate gorget for very little gain. I ended up doing breastplates from 99.2 on and am very glad I did. I was getting a 30% better return on ingots destroyed versus skill gain when compared to plate gorgets and gloves as others suggested.