Harvesting has come gained new popularity with the Signature quest A Gathering Obession which starts in the Village of Shin.

You need a minimum tradeskill or adventure level of 70 to receive this quest which means that your level cap is high enough to harvest in all the zones required. Note that you will receive the quests whether or not you have the individual skills required to harvest the nodes.

Qho Augren, swimming in a pond at -27,10,-108 wants you to collect harvested materials for him to inspect - but not just any harvested item will do. You need to have very specific items from the right tier and in some instances from a specific zone which you must harvest yourself, in the order that he wants them, for a total of eight harvesting runs.

Luckily, I’ve already collected a number of resources on MMORPG-Info to make this a bit less painful.

First: make sure that you are using the best tools to speed up your harvesting ability by looking at our Harvesting Tools Reference. As level 70 is required by the quest, you should be at least have Sandalwood Tools made by woodworkers (reduces harvest time by 2.0 seconds). If your artisan level is 66 or above, you should be using Overclocked Tools made by Tinkers (reduces harvest time by 2.5 seconds and a bonus to skills). [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

(Everything you wanted to know about Far Seas tradeskill missions but were afraid to ask)

First you must have completed the Ship Out quest line in the Moors of Ykesha. This serves as an introduction to the Far Seas representatives in Mara (and also means you can not take part in the tradeskill missions unless you own The Shadow Odyssey expansion). See our Mission Quick Start Guide for details on this quest and quick links to quest spoilers.

Once you have completed the quest line, you will find that the representatives of the Far Seas Trading Company Supply Division in the Village of Shin (near the docks) have quests for you.

Madria Varas at -85,2,104 offers daily tradeskill missions aimed at a group. There are three missions in three separate locations: Firemyst Gully, the Clockwork Workshop and the Shipyard Cove. You do not need to bring ingredients nor fuel: everything is provided in the instance. [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

The Far Seas Trading Company base in the Village of Shin has a whole set of rewards which you can purchase using tokens and gold once you have enough faction.

The rewards are sold by Koros Splinterlimb, the Far Seas Company Supply Division Merchant. He’s standing at the bar at -92,-2,103 near the Mara docks.

His items, with the exception of the stones, all require a minimum level of faction to purchase. The purchase price consists of Far Seas Trading Company Tokens (rewarded through missions) and gold. Many items also have a minimum tradeskill level to equip or use.

Mounts

Jewelry Sets

Each tradeskill class has a jewelry set which can be purchased from the faction merchant.

The sets consist of a Bangle, Signet Ring and Torque. You require 20,000 faction to purchase the jewelry.

Purchase price (per piece):
5 tokens, 2g07s36c

Stats:
+6 STR +1 STA +1 AGI +1 WIS +1 INT
+175 vs heat
+5 to named tradeskill

Thus the Artificer’s Bangle gives +5 to Artificing, the Fletcher’s Bangle gives +5 to Fletching, etc.

If you equip all three pieces of the set, you receive a set bonus of insight for your class, which increases your tradeskill XP gain by 3%

These are different from the dropped jewelry in the mission instances in two respects. The dropped items of jewelry have 200 heat resist as opposed to 175 and the set of three items offers an inspiration bonus which increases to your critical success chance by 5%.

Toolbelts

There are three toolbelts for sale.

Each of these toolbelts has a matching dropped earring with which to make a set. The bonus for wearing both pieces of the set is the same on all three: Tools of the Trade, offering a 5% increase in durability.

As the toolbelts are the same except for level and price, I presume the reason to upgrade will be based on the earrings.

[More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

Tradeskill missions! What a great concept, group up with your friends and craft together towards a common goal. There are combines required from all the different tradeskill classes, which means that although you don’t need every type of crafter with you, it will go a lot faster if you do. A full group with a mixture of crafting classes can get through the mission in under an hour, whereas attempts to solo it with a single tradeskill class reportedly takes about 4 hours.

Getting a group of crafters together isn’t quite as hard as people once thought, as the tradeskill epic showed us, but before you can go on a mission, you have to have introduced yourself to the the Far Seas Traders via a series of quests on the Moors of Ykesha.

To that end, here is a quick and simple step-by-step guide to getting faction fast in order to take part in the missions. If you are looking for more detailed information, I can recommend Denmother’s reference over at EQ2 Traders Corner for a thorough look at the expansion and changes. Meanwhile, here’s the quick version for those of you who just want to get going.

Travel to the Moors of Ykesha

You’ll need to take a carpet to Sinking Sands and travel to the D.I.R.T.Y. Excavation Site. To get to the landing point, you can climb the wall at -1389,-227,-665 or take the elevator at -1420,-228,-770.

Wait for the Skystrider airship which will take you to the overland zone Moors of Ykesha. There is also a spire, so if you know a friendly sorceror, you can skip the airship and go directly to the zone, although it seems a shame to miss the view.

Once you’ve arrived there, pop by the druid ring at 1760,450,980 and harvest the bush so that you can take advantage of druid portals in the future.

A Cannon to Sail By

Now you should ensure that you can travel back and forth between the Dropship Landing Zone and the rest of the Moors by gaining cannon access. You will need either adventure level 72 or tradeskill level 50 in order to do this quest. [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

Get the most out of harvesting by equipping yourself with the proper tools. You do not have to wield the tools to get the benefit. You do have to buff yourself up with the tool by right-clicking on it in your inventory. As the buff lasts for 10 days, this is only an intermittent issue. If you are not canceling the buffs, simply remember to click on the items each weekend to ensure that you constantly have the benefits of your tools in effect.

Harvesting tools can be made by woodworkers and tinkers.

Tools made by woodworkers require a minimum level to use but this can be either adventure or artisan level. There are separate tools for each harvesting skill:

• Pick: Mining
• Shovel: Gathering
• Saw: Foresting
• Fishing Pole: Fishing
• Trap: Trapping

Tinkered tools require a minimum artisan level to use. They have combined skills and thus there are only three different tools:

• Pickaxe: Mining
• Shears: Gathering and Foresting
• Watersafe Net: Fishing and Trapping

The following is a table of all of the tool types with the requirements and benefits of each: [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

In addition to writs, each tradeskill faction has a set of quests given by the local grandmaster, which will reward you in faction, tradeskill experience, advanced recipe books and in some instances, additional fluff items such as clothing or furniture.

There are grandmasters in all the major tradeskill faction areas:

Name: Grandmaster Kawayzer
Residence: West Freeport
Location: 25,-12,8

Name: Grandmaster Jayak Lat’wasr
Residence: Gorowyn
Location: 2777,123,1183

Name: Grandmaster Feldmanus
Residence: Kelethin
Location: 462,91,363

Name: Grandmaster Zyrythius
Residence: Neriak
Location: -199,-4,246

Name: Grandmaster Kimbialis
Residence: North Qeynos
Location: 335,-20,-101

If you have the appropriate tradeskill level and speak to your local Grandmaster, he will press you to enter into his service and help out. Rewards vary by quest but in every case you will get the choice of a single advanced recipe book for your tradeskill in the appropriate tier. Provisioners, who do not have advanced recipe books, are given special recipe books for the initial quests but not for Senior Crafter Service (see details below).

[More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

Tradeskillers used to be known for their pasty white skin and obsessive discussions about reactives and balance. Domino’s arrival on the scene as the new “tradeskill Dev” changed all that with new quest lines and tradeskill epics tempting the tradeskillers out into the open air and … well, not quite adventuring, perhaps, but not far off!

One of the latest additions has been red shinies: collections that are only visible to Master tradeskillers wearing the Earring of the Solstice, part of the tradeskill epic reward. There are eight collections, all of which are accessible at low adventure level, although collecting the items is much much easier if you don’t have to dodge the mobs. Each collection rewards a one-of-a-kind furniture item.

The red shinies are simply ?’s to be gathered, like the standard collections seen in adventure zones, except you must be wearing your Earring of the Solstice in order to see them and the shiny / glowy color around them is red.

Before you start, make sure that your Particle Level of Detail is set to max (Particle Effects can be found under Options → Display) so that you can see the ?’s from as far away as possible.

The collection pieces are lore so you can’t stock up on them. However, you don’t have to take collection items you don’t need - if you choose not to loot the item, the ? will fade in two minutes and a new one will appear in a separate location. However, if you are actively hunting for shinies it is faster to clear them.

You can use Gnomish Divining Rods (made by tinkers) to lead you to the location of a shiny near you although you can’t tell if the node is a standard one or a red tradeskill shiny; the tracking display simply shows a ?. However, as you need to have your Earring of the Solstice equipped for the red shinies to show up on the tracking window, you can check the ?’s that show up by unequipping the earring and seeing which ?’s disappear.

You will find these collections in your journal alphabetically under “Tradeskill:”, below the various Tome collections.

Locations

There is one collection per zone, in the following zones: Down Below and Thieves Way, Enchanted Lands, Barren Sky, Fens of Nathsar, Loping Plains, and Steamfont.

There are two collections in Greater Faydark, one in the nursery area and the other in Tunare’s Glade. [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.