steven on August 4th, 2007
One effective way to really pile up some serious wealth, and build your ISK account, is to find, keep, and exploit profitable trade routes. Nearly everyone interested in making quick honest money in Eve is familiar with the subject of Trade routes, but specific details about good routes are hard to come by. Traders are not an overly chatty bunch when it comes to divulging their secrets, but with a little persistence, luck, and effort, an enterprising trader can discover their own routes to profit from.
What is a Trade Route?
A trade route is not a physical thing; it is more a relationship between two points. In the free market of EVE, the only law that governs the market is that of supply and demand. When choosing a destination for your cargo, make sure you take a look at the current going rates in different areas. It is highly likely that a supply of low grade electronic parts will fetch a really high price in an area suffering from a shortage of electronic parts.
Finding a Trade Route
There are a couple of ways you can find good trade routes. The easiest, and yet time consuming, way is to do a thorough market research whenever you are docked at a station. Monitor the prices being offered for goods in different areas. Quite simply, buy at low rates and sell on high demand.
Your ship plays a major role in the success of running good trade routes. If it is large enough, you can make a good deal of money on even a modest margin through utilizing your time better. But with small cargo holds the best option would be to make your trips worthwhile.
Importantly, trade routes should be planned well. For instance, it is highly profitable to make the trade runs with a full cargo hold going both ways. Which means that not only should you learn what the other station needs, you should be aware of what the local demand market as well.
Eve Contacts- The Ladder to Success
You may be able to buy and sell without being too chatty, but those who want to spread their wings and really be ’somebody’ never underestimate the value of good contacts.
The NPC stations will always have their needs and wants, but a far more lucrative market can sometimes be found catering to the needs and wants of specific corporations. Make acquaintances with as many people as you can, and try to along on good terms. Being reasonably tactful and diplomatic when required are skills not everyone can boast of. But those who can build a list of contacts, and a network of associates, will ensure a continuous and respectable profit.
Keeping Your Mouth Shut
The most important lesson a trader learns is discretion. In the EVE universe, trade routes are not just idle things to brag about with friends and whoever else is within hearing range. Large scale wars are fought by corporations over the control of profitable routes. There are times when even tight lipped and secretive traders get themselves in a fix when new competitors learn about your territory.
Eyes Wide Open
It is always important to know the level of risk you can take on a particular commodity. If you are earning low profits in a low security area, you’d be wiser to consider another profession than trading. A trader has to be smart and calculating, if you can’t match your results with the risks you take then there is no hope of your getting ahead in Eve.
It is a purely logical fact that the low security areas have a high demand, high priced market. So if you are game enough, and your ship is worthy of chancing the route, then low security areas will earn better profits than any other part of Eve. However, if you try this, it would be well advised to pay close attention to your ship’s insurance policy and your own clone. In case you do bump into a pirate, there should be some backup to keep you going without losing skills and your ship. Plus, to avoid being podded, keep a close eye on your scanner and always give yourself at least 30 km to make a safe escape from the prowling pirates.
Be Swift, Be Efficient
When choosing a trade route, try to make sure that your destinations are within a reasonable distance each other. The longer you take moving between points, the slower your capital will grow.
Once you are well enough established, with a safe cushion of money in the bank, you can always try putting in automated ‘buy orders’ at NPC stations where you can get a good price. This will give you time to concentrate some other interesting aspects of Eve.
The Right Skills
Successful traders are charmers by birth, but you can work on your skills to gain the two most significant characteristics of a thriving trader, willpower and charisma. Make sure you set these attributes high.
For the not-so-scrupulous people, the shortcut to some big ISK deals lies on the darker side of the law. Get a good grip over Underhanded Trading Practices as a skill from the very beginning and cash in later when you have made yourself worthy of being an underworld operative. Underhanded Trading Practices will, of course, allow you to move into the black market, which is arguably the most lucrative business around!
steven on August 3rd, 2007
Don’t let the pretty exterior that Guild Wars presents fool you - it’s a rough world out there, and the vast majority of things you’ll encounter out there would like nothing better than to plant you face first in the dirt. With so much negativity around, what’s a prospective adventurer to do? Unfortunately for pacifists or those choosing to take the intellectual high road, you can’t talk or reason an enemy out of a fight. So we’re going to need weapons. Big weapons.
?????????? It’s a fairly common question among those are new to Guild Wars - “How do I get new weapons?” While there are some instances where you’ll be able to get them from NPC merchants, the easiest way to get better armaments is by defeating monsters. When creating a new character from level 1, you will acquire your first weapon as a necessity of completing the tutorial. Granted, it won’t be +500 of Everything Slaying, and it may not even be the base type of weapon you want - but for now, it’s enough to get the job done until we get something better. As you progress through the style=”FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-SIZE: 100%; PADDING-BOTTOM: 1px; COLOR: black; BORDER-BOTTOM: black 0.07em solid; BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent; TEXT-DECORATION: underline”
href=”#” mce_href=”#” target=_blank itxtdid=”4142577″>game, more powerfull weapons will become available as drops, and it’s important to note that an item’s base type (for example, a ’short sword’) has little to no bearing on that weapon’s damage potential. For example, you could find a 2-4 short sword, or a 20-24 one. Because of this, if you find a weapon type that you like the appearance of, you need not fret when it becomes obsolete - chances are you can find a new one to replace it. Now that we know about getting items, what should we be looking for?
?????????? For starters, let’s take a look at the three main types of close range melee weapons: Axes, Hammers, and Swords. The choice between these three is likely most prominent for prospective Warriors, so in addition to being aware of what skills a Warrior can use with them, it’s important to be familiar with how they handle.
?? Axes:
?? Axes are interesting, if at times unpredictable, weapons due to the spread in their base damage range. While an axe is capable of having a higher base damage than a sword, you’ll also be dealing less damage at times due to the large gap between the minimum and maximum values. Axes have decent attack speed, and a skill set comparable to swords - the choice between the two really comes down to choosing to do consistent damage, or chancing at big damage.
Hammers:
?? The heavy hitter of the melee weaponry, hammers are all about big damage strikes. Hammers have the highest maximum damage output, but are also the slowest of the three weapon types, to a very noticeable degree. Since hammers are two handed weapons, characters wielding one will not be able to use a shield or focus items in conjunction with them - this makes hammers an undesirable main weapon choice if you’re planning to spec points into the Tactics line. However, the skills line tied in to hammers can be useful, a many of the attacks focus on knockdowns and weakening your foes.
?? Swords:
?? The classic standard of weaponry in fantasy settings (spears would have been more prominent in real life) swords are a good choice for new Warriors. Out of the three weapon types, swords have the most ‘average’ damage, due to the close ranges that will appear on their minimum-maximum damage. However, to counter this, swords also have the lowest output in terms of the maximum base damage of the weapon. Swords are also possessed of a fast base attack speed - this is a desirable quality for even non-Warrior professions, for example, a Mesmer using Illusionary Weaponry would want a weapon that attacks quickly.
?????????? Now that we’ve got a weapon decided on, if it’s an axe, sword, or wand (which we’ll get to shortly) we can take another item with us in the offhand, either a shield, or a focus. Which of them is more useful depends on the way you choose to play your character, so here are some details on both that should help you decide:
Focus Items:
?? When held in the offhand, Focus items can add to your maximum amount of available mana. Some will have no requirements attached to using them, but will usually only yield a few extra (3, as an example.) More powerful versions will have a requirement, for example, +10 Energy, Fire
Magic 7+; in this case you’d need to have your Fire Magic attribute at level 7 or greater to gain the full benefit of the focus. As you can imagine this is only beneficial if you have a focus that applies to a magic line that your character uses. One is available for each casting-related attribute, as such, it is very common to see mage type characters weilding these. However, melee types that use high energy attacks can be seen making use of them as well, for example, Warrior/Elementalists. However, a focus adds no innate defense bonus (though defense bonus modifiers can spawn on them.)
?? Shields:
?? Shields help increase your character’s ability to defend themselves, and come in one of two basic varities: Strength shields, and Tactics shields. Between the two, Tactics based shields are much more common. Like focus items, shields will often come with a requirement that must be met in order for your character to receive the full benefit of using the item. As an example, Tactics 9+. Because of this, Strength shields are only useful to a primary Warrior (as no other characters have access to the Strength attribute) and shields in general only useful to Warrior primary or secondaries that plan in speccing points into the Tactics line.??
?????????? So that’s all fine and well for the close range stuff, but what if you want to use bows, you say? Well, we can cover that, too. Bows are two handed weapons, so you won’t be able to equip anything in the offhand. Bows also have a varity of different ranges - some are long range, but slow attacking (Longbow, Flatbow, etc.) while others have a short range, but a faster attack speed (Shortbow, Hornbow, etc.) It’s usually a good idea to bring one for each base type (long or short range) if you must choose between them, then let’s take a closer look:
?? Long Range:
?? A good choice for the Ranger that is looking to deal damage without putting themselves so much into harm’s way. Using a long range bow typically relegates the Ranger into a ’support’ position - as the slow?? rate of fire makes it hard to take down an enemy single handedly - especially if the opposing side has efficient Monks. However, long range attacks make an excellent lead off to a fight - if an enemy decides to charge your group, you can make sure they’re going to pay the price for doing so.
Short Range:
?? Typically the point of being a Ranger is to be able to attack from a distance - so why would you want to short change that, you might ask? The reason is that the range of your weapons not only affects your rate of fire, it affects how long it takes for an arrow to hit its target. This becomes especially important to a Ranger playing the ‘interrupt game’ - that is, using skills that interrupt an enemy’s actions. Examples of this would be skills like Concussion Shot, or Savage Shot. Since it takes less time, you have a greater chance of timing it correctly - however, you are also closer in the fray as a trade off.
????
?????????? Lastly comes the caster’s weapons, Wands, and Staves. As of the time of this writing, there is no reason to consider using staves over wands. They offer no additional damage, and are two handed, thus preventing you from using a second item such as a focus. Unlike swords and other weapons, wands and staves are not tied to a specific attribute line to deal their damage. Instead, they are linked to the magic Attribute line that corresponds with their damage type. For example, a Fire Wand would be tied to the Elementalist’s Fire Magic line. Because of this, wands are a good choice for the traditional caster to take along - it’s a little extra ranged damage between casting your spells.??
?????????? And there you have it - hopefully this was useful to you, as you embark on the most noble of quests - stabbing, smashing, shooting, and nuking anything disagreeable that stands in your path. As always, there’s no substitute for experience - try out the various weapon types and see which suits your playing style best. The most effective weapon is always the one that feels most comfortable in your hands!
steven on August 3rd, 2007
AL 15 (casters)/25 (ranger/assassin)/35 (warrior) set (Kinya Province):
Mask little bit north from Chen/Keiko, from Mi Fa. 3 Forgotten Trinket Boxes.
Chest from Guardsman Keiko in Kinya Province, the village south from Gardens. 3 Crimson Skull Copper Coins.
Gloves from Craw Razorbreak in middle of the Kinya coast, Tengu town of Aerie. 3 Naga Hides. Not available during Panaku’s Assassin quest
Leggings from Shenzun in southern Kinya Province. 3 Augmented Flesh.
Shoes from Chen Po Chin, who is close to Guardsman Keiko. 3 Mantrid Pincers.
Mask of the AL15-35 isn’t obviously worth the bother, as it has harder to get items (that drop in the first mission) than the AL35-55 mission which needs just the easy to get Copper Coins.
AL 35/45/55 set (Panjiang Peninsula/Jaya Bluffs):
Mask from just south from Tsumei Village in Paijang Peninsula, for 3 Crimson Skull Copper Coins. Might not be available during some quests in Panjiang
Chest from pretty much straight north from Seitung Harbor, near the coast, Morokam. 3 Stolen Supplies.
Gloves from Gruut Snowfoot east from Leggings collector. 3 Feathered Crests.
Leggings just bit north from Seitung Harbor, Rei Ming. 3 Crimson Skull Silver Coins.
Shoes from Seitung Harbor. Attendant Chien, 1 Oni Claw.
Mask is the only part that is available of AL35-55 set until you can access Seitung Harbor, where rest of this armor set is available at Jaya Bluffs. The best starter isle collector’s armor is at Haiju Lagoon.
AL 45/55/65 set (Haiju Lagoon) (Thanks to Sofonisba for tipping the locations for Haiju collectors):
Head from Miriko SE from Linkei Township (near the merchants). 3 Enchanted Vines.
Chest from Guardsman Kikuchiyo, bit south from Miriko (hat collector). 2 Gold Crimson Skull Coins.
Gloves are little south from the Crimson Skull camp, east from Linkei. 3 Naga Pelts.
Leggings close by the entrance to Haiju from Jaya. 3 Elder Kappa Shells. Flaw in the map atm, will be fixed.
Shoes at west coast of the lagoon. 2 Bonesnap Shells
Max AL collectors at the city:
Headpiece from Kyuzo, whom resides at the ‘town square’ SE from Kaineng Center. 5 Venerable Mantis Pincers.
Chest from Magistrate Wakai, just outside Marketplace. 5 Jade Bracelets.
Hands from Lintao in Bazaar, bit NW from Undercity entrance. 5 Putrid Cysts. 5 Plague Idols.
Leggings from Magistrate Raisung, west from Marketplace in Bukdek Byway, close to Skyway entrance.
Feet from Jingpao in Bazaar, upper part, close to Skyway entrance. 5 Venerable Mantis Pincers. (Yes, again.)
