| Re: smithing san d' oria vs. bastok You don't kill things for ores if you can afford picks. It's much more efficient to mine--the "drop" rate is better. WRT smithing at low-level for proit, you're better off mining at least a portion of your materials to offset the costs if the sale looks lossy. For instance, on a 25% loss sale (provided one material e.g. an ore) you'll want at least 25% of the ores to come from mining. Basically, make up for any losses you expect by padding your inventory with farmed/mined ingredients.
First and foremost, however, look for goods which are selling at a price that's good for you (e.g. selling 10% or better above NQ production) and make those. If you must make durables rather than consumables (ammunition, materials, etc.) try to make a variety instead of concentrating on a single product. Sell as high as possible and then when you've made your money back, dump the remainder to the guild merchant/standard merchant or desynthesize the items back into their constituents. |