Myrron's Beginner's Guide to Tailoring

Tailoring is perhaps one of the toughest trades to grandmaster, easily taking months (if not years) of constant farming for supplies and little resale value of any item until the higher-end. Since October 16, 2002, the skill-up rate for tailoring was increased slightly, now making it somewhat easier to raise your skill. This guide suggests steps to a tailoring skill of 188, and provides several ideas to go to 250. It is assumed that you will likely farm most of the materials needed, so the total cost is relatively low.

First things first: increase your stats! If you are a caster, raise your intelligence/wisdom (whichever is your primary stat) as high as you can before attempting to tailor. If you are a melee, pick whichever of the two stats is easier for you to raise and get it as high as you can. There was once a rumor that dexterity played a role in gaining tailoring skill-ups, but as far as we know to this date, the only stat that directly matters is the higher of the wisdom/intelligence statistic. Recall that spells may also alter stats, not just armor and weapons, so getting a few mind buffs will certainly not hurt!

Why do you want to increase your stats? As your stat increases, so does your chance of getting a skill-up in tailoring. This is not to be confused with the actual creation of a new item. Whether or not you succeed when trying to create a new item depends on your tailoring skill level. If your tailoring skill is 25, you have the exact same chance of creating a patchwork tunic whether your intelligence is 120 or 180. However, with a 180 intelligence, you will be more likely to improve your tailoring skill to 26.

Tailoring will also require you to become a blacksmith and a brewer, unless you have a good friend who is willing to handle those areas for you. Use the guides and message boards at www.eqtraders.com in order to learn the best paths for getting these skills up. I recommend mastering both; aim for a minimum skill of 120 in each. The higher you are above the listed trivial, the more often you will succeed. Pottery is another trade that may help you later when you need poison vials, but poison vials can also be bought. If you want, however, get your pottery skill to around 150 for a good success rate on poison vials.

(Begin Steps in Guide)

1. Create silk swatches (2 unstacked spider silks) and/or silk threads (2 unstacked spiderling silks) until 15. Save these swatches and threads, you will need them later.

2. Create patchwork armor (1 ruined wolf/cat/bear pelt + pattern) until 26. Pick a cheap pattern to work with, most cost mere silver. All pieces trivial at the exact same time, so you may get to 26 with any pattern.

2b. I want to insert an alternate path here. If you make Greyhopper armor, an easy combine (1 greyhopper hide, 1 mask pattern), you can go all the way to a skill of 95 on this and skip steps 3-7. If you are not high-level enough to fight greyhoppers (found in Marus Seru on Luclin), go ahead and look into the next few steps, especially step 5 if you have some money to spend.

3. Create raw silk armor (1 silk swatch + pattern) until 36. Do not choose to skill up on the tunic or the pants patterns; they require 2 swatches. All other pieces require 1 swatch, and since they all trivial at 36, why waste swatches?

You now have a choice: Create studded leather armor, cured silk armor, or woven mandrake. One route requires a decent smithing skill (recommended 50+) while the other route requires a decent brewing skill (recommended 70+). Both are discussed below. The third, the woven mandrake, requires you to buy supplies from an alchemy store but otherwise only costs money.

4. Many people choose to make studded leather armor next. Studded leather armor requires a medium quality wolf/cat/bear/rockhopper pelt, a pattern and varying amounts of metal studs (3 metal bits, file, flask of water, smithing trivial of 35). If you pick this route, make the studded leather mask until 56, as it is the only piece that requires 1 metal stud. After 56, move on to cured silk armor.

5. Create woven mandrake (2 unstacked mandrake roots) until 66. Mandrake roots can be bought at various alchemists, including Shadow Haven and the Plane of Knowledge.

6. Other people move from raw silk armor directly into cured silk armor. Cured silk masks, which is the piece you want to make since it requires the least supplies, requires 1 silk swatch, 1 mask pattern, and 1 heady kiola (2 kiola saps, 1 bottle, 1 flask of water, brewing trivial 46). All cured silk armor pieces trivial at 82, so you can just make masks until then.

Myrron's Note: I chose to move from raw silk straight into cured silk, and I am quite happy I did. Silks are fairly easy to come by, whereas you need to fight animals a lot longer to find a decent amount of medium quality or high quality pelts (which can be skinned down to medium quality). Plus, I skinned down all medium quality pelts I found into low quality to make leather padding (1 low quality wolf/cat/bear/rockhopper pelt, 1 silk thread). Leather padding sells for a very nice amount, as it is used for higher-end smithing. Leather padding trivials at 31, but you get a much better success rate once you are in the 50's. You can make a lot of money from leather padding, so why waste the pelts when you can skill up on cured silk armor? That was my rationale. I was not aware of the woven mandrake option or the greyhopper hide option until my tailoring was above 66.

7. Create handmade backpacks (1 high quality bear or rockhopper pelt, 1 backpack pattern) until 88. Handmade backpacks traditionally sell pretty well on most servers, so here you can make a tremendous profit. While the price varies from server to server, buying HQ bear or HQ rockhopper pelts and then selling the finished backpack often yields you a very nice profit. Of course, you profit even more if you farm the pelts yourself. Between leather padding and backpacks, you can make a pretty decent living as a young tailor.

8. Create tailored quivers (1 high quality cat pelt, 1 quiver pattern) until 115. The best source I have found for high quality cat pelts is East Karana, where all the lions and lionesses seem to drop them somewhat often. While you are there, smack some crag spiders for their silk; you'll need it later.

You now have another choice: crystalline silk armor or Wu's armor. Crystalline silk armor requires lots of crystalline silks, which drop off of fairly high-level spiders in the Crystal Caverns. Wu's just requires our old friend, spider silk. For lower-level players, I recommend moving right into Wu's, but for those of you who can handle Crystal Caverns easily, I wanted to make you aware of your options. I will move on to discuss Wu's armor as the next step in the guide. If you want to do crystalline silk before Wu's, the recipe to use is a silver thread (bought), a pattern, and 1-3 crystalline silk swatches depending on the item. The tunic trivials at 131 (3 swatches).

9. Create Wu's mantles (1 silk swatch, 1 shoulder pad pattern, 1 vial of viscous mana, 4 unstacked heady kiolas) until 144. A vial of viscous mana requires a poison vial, one pearl, and a level 12+ enchanter. If you are not an enchanter, you may need to find one who can help you; the poison vial and pearl can be bought. (The poison vial can also be made reliably with a pottery skill around 150+ if you are so inclined.) Wu's armor requires a lot of spider silk and a lot of heady kiolas, so be prepared. Spider silk is best found in East Karana since crag spiders have been known to drop as many as eight silks at once. Because of this, East Karana is also often crowded with several people all hunting crag spiders. If you have track or a friend who can track, it would be in your best interests to make use of this ability, and know the rules about kill stealing.

10. Create Wu's sleeves (2 unstacked swatches, 1 sleeve pattern, 1 vial of viscous mana, 4 unstacked heady kiolas) until 151. Create Wu's tunics (3 unstacked swatches instead of 2) to 158. When you get to the tunics, you will need to use a loom in a city, as the recipe calls for 9 items and your large sewing kit has only 8 slots.

Congratulations! You've finished Wu's armor and no more kiolas! Many people don't go onward too much farther from this point, as supplies (if you choose to buy them) now get real expensive. However, the upside to this is that many pieces you can make now sell for a lot, so if you farm your supplies, you stand to make a nice profit. First, take a break and build up your smithing and brewing skills now; get each above 140 for the tailoring to come.

11. After 158, you have three viable options available. Most people in their desperation to combine anything for a skillup tend to do a mix of all three.

11a. Create studded acrylia masks (superb rockhopper hide, paeala bark tannin, mask pattern, 1 acrylia stud) until 188. Paeala bark tannin is made by combining paeala bark (vendor sold) and water in a brew barrel, trivial at 102. An acrylia stud is made in a forge when you combine 3 acrylia bits (2 acrylia pieces and water = 1 acrylia bits), one flask of water, and a file, trivial at 45. Masks (on my server, anyway) do not sell for much, but if you are so inclined to, other armor like the acrylia studded cloak, sleeves, and tunic sell fairly well. The latter require more studs however, so it can be more work to skill up on those. Masks are the only item that requires one stud, thus making it the easiest item to make if skilling up is your primary objective. All pieces of armor trivial at 188.

11b. After 158, I found the solstice robes to be a nice alternate route to grand mastery. The Ceremonial Solstice Robe requires a gem studded chain, 3 sacred Tunare silks, tunic pattern, and an embroidery needle. This one is expensive to make, particularly the gem studded chain. The sub-combines require a jewelcraft skill of 250, smithing skill of 122, a pottery skill of 103, and a tailoring skill of 135 (which you have covered). The robe sold well for a long time, but I'm sure the price currently varies from server to server. Check EQTraders for all of the combines and items required per robe. The main reason to try this now is because on a failure, the most expensive piece (the gem studded chain) is returned to you. Thus, until you succeed, this costs mainly silk and emeralds, among other minor components. The robe can take you to 250, though most people abandon it as a skillup route once they begin getting too many successes (around skill 200+).

11c. Legend of Ykesha recipes. With the latest expansion, we have recipes that can provide a new method for skilling up. Any tailor, regardless of race, can make a part of the new cultural robes. Combine a ribbon (bought, range from silver to platinum ribbons), a pair of shears (hickory then elm), and the appropriate dye. Check the LoY recipes to know which dye, ribbon, and shears to use. Hickory handled shears are smithed from a hickory bow staff, shears mold, flask of water, and 1 metal bit (trivial 136). The elm handled shears are a elm bow staff, shears mold, flask of water, and 1 metal bit (trivial 142). The mold for both is bought in the Gunthak lighthouse. The gold ribbon items trivial at 162 and 167, and the platinum ribbon items trivial at 182 and 187.

(End Steps in Guide)

Good job! You've hit tailoring (188), a skill level that not many people ever reach. But you want to go further? You have some choices to make! From here, you have multiple routes in which to pursue to 250. All are time consuming if you farm, and some finished products sell better than others. In short, here are some tried methods:

Method 1: Acrylia reinforced armor. This requires a flawless rockhopper hide, paeala bark tannin, a pattern, and acrylia boning in varying amounts. Again, the mask requires only one boning. Acrylia boning takes a small brick of acrylia, a flask of water, and a file in the forge, trivial at around 40. Acrylia reinforced armor can raise your skill to 242.

Method 2: Studded arctic wyvern hide armor. Requires an arctic wyvern hide, cod oil, pattern, and varying amounts of velium studs. Velium studs are made by combining 3 velium bits, a file, and a coldain velium temper. Cod oil is made from combining a cobalt cod (fished from Cobalt Scar) and a flask of water in a brew barrel. You must combine these in a Coldain Tanner's Kit and not a regular sewing kit. Trivials above 250.

Method 3: Othmir fur caps. Requires 2 othmir furs, a silver thread, cap pattern, and a vial of clear mana. The silver thread is sold in Thurgadin. The vial of clear mana requires an emerald, a poison vial, and a level 29+ enchanter. You must combine these in a Coldain Tanner's Kit and not a regular sewing kit. Trivials above 250.

Method 4: Check your cultural options. Some cultures have alternative routes to high tailoring skills. Wood elves, for example, have mithril leathers that can take you to 228 if you don't mind foraging a lot of oak bark. Half-elves do not have this option for skilling up.

Method 5: Keep an eye out on EQTraders for new recipes and for other tailoring options. Most people tend to do one of the above methods, but you never know when a new quest will come along and much profit can be made on a new tailored item. The Planes of Power expansion may also contain new tailoring methods to 250, so keep an eye out there as well.

Method 6: Continue with Solstice Robes (mentioned in step 11b). As mentioned, many stop making them once they begin succeeding too often, but some others take the robes all the way to 250.

Tip: It has been hinted at that your chance for a skill-up is slightly better when you succeed making an item versus when you fail an item. Whether this is true or not is in debate, but if you want to increase your chance of simply being successful making an item, you may wish to invest in a geerlock which adds to your tailoring skill success rate. If nothing else, the additional successes you have can be sold back to recover more money spent.

I have found that handmade backpacks and leather padding are still great moneymakers if you are purely interested in profit. The backpack market alone has been the sole funding for the mastery of 5 of my trades, including the expensive blacksmithing trade. I do not often see any market for other below-158 items except the occasional monk wanting to buy some Wu's armor. However, of all the trades, tailoring is one of the most difficult (arguably the most difficult, even after the October 2002 patch), and it is no small accomplishment to get to 250. I wish you the best of luck!

--Myrron
Wood-Elf Druid on Vazaelle

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