All these little technical questions that info sites manage to leave out are driving me insane, and as much as I hate to have to ask here or somewhere else, I've got another one

Anyways, I was wondering if you use a talisman with a crafting bonus on it (exceptional and/or normal), does it slow down skill gain while crafting item x with the talisman versus without it? At first I thought no since the bonus doesn't actually raise your skill, but now I just have no idea and really need to know. Thank you.

depends, on your skill level. I have hear it argued both ways.

what skill are you trying to raise? Have you eaten a powerscroll (if one is available)?

my people here can help with skill gains we just need to know which one.

why do you hate to ask here? this is what this type of forum is for.

Any of them really, I made a crafter character and I'm just working up the different skills as I can. I was going to buy talismans for him to help him gain skill, but then I started to wonder if it would actually slow it down. For example: at 50 blacksmith skill one has a 51% chance to craft a viking sword, and a 71% chance at 60 skill. So lets say I'm at 50 blacksmith skill and start grinding viking swords with a 20% bonus talisman on, will I be getting gains as normal, or slower as if I were at 60 skill since my modified chance at crafting them would be 71%?

Sorry didn't mean anything by the "hate to ask questions here", was just commenting on how the info sites tend to leave one little detail out which forces you to still ask someone something about it

Basically for any crafting skill if you have a 50/50 chance to make is the best way to train.

Using the talisman will just cut down on the number of ingots you lose when you fail also I think you should have mining on any bloacksmith so you can resmelt item you make and get some ingots back.

Let me try to find my list of what to make and when as far as blacksmithing, and you need to eat as high of a blacksmithing powerscroll you can get, cause this will give you a larger pool for gains 0-100(normal) 0-120 if you can find it ( gives more space to work gains)


Skill Level What to craft Ingots used
Up to 35 Buy from an NPC Smith Costs about 500 gp
35 - 43 Cutlass 8 ingots
Alternate 35 - 50 Bascinet 15 ingots
43 - 47 Scimitar 10 ingots
47 - 52 Kryss 8 ingots
52 - 55 Longsword 12 ingots
Alternate 52 - 57 War Axe 16 ingots
55 - 60 Broadsword 10 ingots
Alternate 57 - 59 Katana 8 ingots
60 - 68 Short Spear 6 ingots
68 - 100 Plate Gorget 10 ingots
Alternate 80 - 89 Plate Gloves 12 ingots
Alternate 89 - 94 Plate Arms 18 ingots
Alternate 94 - 100 Plate Legs 20 ingots
Alternate 97 - 100 Plate Tunic 25 ingots

Thats an old list, you could try here for a more updated list:

http://uo.stratics.com look for the smith forum and any other skills.

here you go

Thank you for the info.

Cueadan,
Here are some links here on the forum that you might find useful.
I am moving this post to the crafter forum, with a redirect. If you explore that forum, you will find many answers to even your unasked questions.

When I first came back in February, I noticed the same thing with the info sites. Since then, we have added more up to date content to UO FOrums than any other active fan site.

1) The first link on the left in my signature will take you to our commonly asked FAQ. This explains many of the features (all updated for Pub 46 and the last FoF).

2) Our smithy guide for UO:ML is easily the most up to date on the web. Stratics makes you dig alot because the mods dont collate posts. Try this link

3) talismans. Urgh. A sore Point for me. I have asked via FoF, and barely got an answer (there is a link to the FoF answer in the talisman post). I have asked for talismans to be added to test center for testing, with no response. But I have collated all the info I can dig up on them in the common Item FAQ here

4) In the crafter forum, you will find quite a few posts on templates for crafters.

5) We have guides for tailoring, tinkering, carpentry, fletching, etc, all updated for the newest expansion.

Let us know if there are any other areas that need clarification!

The chance of skill gain is not changed even if the success chance is revamped with Talisman bonus.

(1) Definition - Focus and Difficulty
We need to define two terms at first - Focus of a skill and the difficulty of items.

- The Focus of a skill: This is not my definition. This is already defined by Wilki, in FoF of February 16, 2007.

"Most spells and abilities in UO have a "focus" of 50 skill. That means that the window between 0 and 100% chance to succeed is 50 skill points wide. (Some skills use the value of 40.)"

In fact, this is applied not only to spells or abilities, but also to all the skills in UO. Focus of Blacksmithing and most crafting skills is 50. The Focus by crafting skills means the range from the value where the chance of making an item is 0% to the value where the chance of making it is 100%. You have 0% success chance of making a Mace at 14.5 Blacksmithing skill, and 100% success chance of making it at 64.5 Blacksmithing skill, so the Focus range of Blacksmithing skill is 50.

- The difficulty of an item: each item has its own difficulty. The difficulty of an item is defined as the value of a skill where the chance of making the item is 50%. For example, the difficulty of Mace is 39.5. It is located on the center of the focus range. The minimum necessary skill value of making mace is 14.5 and the value of the skill where you can have 100% success chance of making mace is 64.5, and the difficutly of mace is located on the center of these two values.

(2) Three elements that determine the chance of skill gain
You have the best chance of skill gain, when you make an item, the success chance of making which is 50%, at an skill value. For example, say that you have 39.5 Blacksmithing skill. You have the best chance of skill gain, when you make Mace, because the success chance of making Mace is 50% at 39.5 skill value.

I define this value as the basic chance of skill gain. The basic chance of skill gain at an skill value seems to be common to all the crafting skills, Blacksmithing, Tinkering, etc...

You can state this in other words: You can have the best chance of skill gain, when the difficulty of an item that you make is equal to your current skill.

And you lose the chance of skill gain, as the distance of the difficulty of the item that you make from your current skill grows large. If the difficulty of the item goes out of the range of Focus, your chance of skill gain is 0. If the difficulty is out of the upper range, you cannot make the item at all. If the difficulty is out of the lower range, your success chance of making the item is 100%, so you don't have the chance of skill gain.

So the chance of skill gain is determined by three elements: your current skill value, the difficulty of the item that you make and the Focus range of the skill.

(3) The Talisman bonus and the chance of skill gain
The success chance of making an item is determined as follows:
[( the character's current skill - difficulty of the item +Focus/2 )x100/Focus + Talisman bonus](%)

The Talisman bonus raiseｓ only the success chance of making items by its value. It affects none of three elements themselves that determine the chance of skill gain. So, it doesn't affect the chance of skill gain.