Hello Folks,

Being a bit burnt out on EQ, and being a bit depressed that the fishing pole recipe is still not known after spending over 600 plat of my own cash on combinations (not to mention seeing the frustration expressed on this board), I have not spent much time tinkering. But I have had a bit of success with gaining skill, and I thought other folks might like to know how it went with me. My skill is at 75 presently.

My first recommendation is find you an enchanter and buy you a couple of bracers and a necklass that raises charisma (not that expensive for a 20th level). Also see if you can get one of the +15 charisma 'crude steins' from the bouncer in feerot. Having a charisma of 86 instead of 60 makes a ton of difference cash wise while you are doing all this tinkering.

Also realize that you can NOT gain more than 1 point in tinkering until you get to *21*. You are stuck at 51 until then and I forget what your max is per level.

Note, your milage may vary, but the first thing one should try to tinker to gain skill is the flameless lanterns. I would usually do about 20 at a time and it would cost somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 to 30 plat to do (after selling the lanterns back) depending on your success rate and charisma. Sometimes I would gain nothing, sometimes 4 or 5 points, its very random. On average I would say I gained about a point per 20 lanterns which means I approximately spent about 20 to 30 plat per point up to 68 where lanterns get trivial.

YES, you CAN make some cash selling the cams to bowers. While nothing to write home about you can make some fairly decent pocket change. I started making cams at 68 (when lanterns became trivial) and my success rate was not too bad. I could sell the cams for 25 plat to bowers, where they would usually spend about 40 plat. They are usually VERY happy to find a tinker that can make cams...

Gaining skill gets a bit more expensive here since each attempt cost maybe 12 to 15 plat. But as with the lanterns I figure I would gain about a point every 20 cams or so, which means you really need to find a place to sell your cams to support your tinkering habit. I was able to get my skill up to 75 making cams.

And thats where my story ends, without the fishing pole/telescope to practice on tinkering has no future for me short of making a bit of pocket change on cams. Damn those verant bastards, I still get an unexeptable rate of failure on cams even though they are trivial. =|

Hope this helps, if there does exist a kind soul willing to share the fishing pole recipe I would be eternally grateful.

Cheers,

FizzWizz of Tunare
35 Wizard