| Dr, thanks so much for the post. I've got somewhat of a gameplay-oriented question for you.
I find myself often scrounging for cash. I'm sure it's something almost everyone else in the game has problems with, and whenever I ask: "How can I make more money?" people respond with: "Crafting." Now, I've got no problems getting on as my 30WAR/15THF and smacking around some low-level gobs for easy gil, and using that formula, I can probably pull in ~8k an hour. Unfortunately, it's time-consuming and ultimately boring as hell. So I thought, why not try smithing? But I'm running into non-stop problems, and it's not really a factor of having trouble raising the skill. (Thanks in part to your guide.) I'm asking myself why I'm even bothering.
Looking at many of the smithing recipes, I don't see big-ticket items. Is it possible to make profit--I mean, REAL profit--from this craft? Your guide is littered with phrases decrying how much money you dumped into the skill--but for what? When I browse over the leathercrafting guide, I see that as soon as level 16 you can start pumping out lizard gear, which sells like wildfire and, judging by the ingredients, won't cost an arm and a leg. So I'm asking someone with experience in this craft: is it worth it? If I level my Smithing to 50, will I see a reward of any type? Is it a money-making craft, or should I take up fishing like everyone keeps telling me?
Secondly, are you only leveling smithing, or have you had to raise other skills simultaneously? Looking over recipe lists, almost 3/4 of the recipes require Woodworking or Leathercraft, and Bonecrafting to a lesser extent?
I don't want to come off as excessively negative, but I just spent an hour mulling over the recipe lists for Smithing, and your post, and I just don't know if this is the right road to go down, if all I want is to make some cash so I can afford halfway decent equipment. Any input would be greatly appreciated.  --Spec |