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I have seen it all, tried it all, done it
all, but in the end I have found the most rewarding profession to be mining.
No matter how many people may argue in the favor of others (I have found
some extremely aggressive advocates of tailoring), I believe mining to
be the best. The purpose of this essay is to help you develop a character
out of mining..
I will divide this essay into two sections: the "textbook" stuff, and
the "tricks of the trade." The textbook stuff is stuff anyone can tell
you, but the tricks are things you only learn from experience. I would
suggest reading the whole essay though.
The Textbook Stuff
Character Creation
Start with 60 strength, 10 dexterity and 10 intelligence. This
is very important because, as a beginning miner, the thing that
will hold you back the most is your carrying capacity. Start
strength as high as possible.
In terms of skills, always start 50 mining. Even though mining
at low levels raises rather quickly, it is a rather frustrating
profession to raise, not primarily because of the amount of
ore you can mine, but because of smelting failures. Now your
second skill should be 49 of whatever you want. Decide what
you want to be. The most common is starting with Blacksmithing
or Magery. I would personally suggest starting with a skill
that is hard to raise later. I started 50 mining / 49 resisting
spells / 1 tinkering. The 1 tinkering becomes very important
because you are going to want to make your own shovels. You
will start with unstealable tinker tools this way.
Okay, you have your character but where do you start? There is some ugly
rumour going around that you should start in Minoc. Minoc
is not only not a good place to start, but a BAD place to
start. If you are going to be a pure miner (and not a smith),
Minoc is not a good choice. The mine is small, does not spawn
fast enough, and there are too many people competing for the
ore. My personal opinion is to start in Britain. Start in
Britain at the Cat's Lair Tavern.
Starting Tips
After you are in the game, first dump the candle, book and
dagger. Then go and buy some food from the tavern with your
first money. Now, proceed west along the major roads to the
mountains. This area is great because there is plenty of room
to mine and if you are in felucca the area is IN the guard
zone so you don't need to worry about getting attacked or
robbed as often. Now start mining. With 60 str, you can carry
240 stones. Do not become overweight even though you may get
more ore. You will be slowed down in the long run. Now go
to the forge and separate all the ore into small piles (that
is one big pile, 2 medium piles, or 4 small piles) and smelt.
You will fail sometimes, but you will be generally successful.
Try to stay well-fed and keep mining. When your shovel breaks,
tinker a new one from your ingots (a shovel requires four
ingots). Whether you are a neophyte or grandmaster miner,
shovels last for exactly 51 successful collections of ore.
Please note that upon failure you will lose some ingots, so
make a shovel when you have plenty of ingots.
Making Money
Sell your ingots at 5 gp to the player smiths at the hammer
and anvil. I am warning you now and take this warning with
a grain of salt: always, always, always charge 5 gp! Don't
ever lower your price to try to beat out another miner. If
no one is buying at the moment, do not get discouraged. There
are plenty of buyers, so do not lower your price. Impatient
miners often end up dead miners. Also, smiths will generally
not pay more than 5 gp. Ingot pricing is pretty much set in
stone at 5gp. That is something you just have to accept. Also
do not go to the smith with 35 ingots and expect to make a
sale. Player smiths like bulk when they buy. Try to get at
least 1000 ingots, but if that is not possible, or you need
the money, never have less than 200 or you are just wasting
your time. If some guy (like me) is there selling ingots by
the thousands, no smith is going to buy your 23 ingots. Also
try to stick to even numbers. Mine that extra ingot to have
200 ingots instead of 199. Don't annoy your buyer!
Moving to the Next Level
As you mine, you will be gradually gain strength, dexterity
and intelligence, if you’ve allowed those stats to rise
of course. Since Age of Shadows you can gain 1 stat point
per 15 minutes, and have max 10 gains per day. You have a
chance to gain a stat with any successful skill check.
When you get around 60 strength (assuming you started at
45), this is the time you should most likely buy a pack horse.
This will let you carry much more ore than you were able to
before. Start smelting ore in piles of 5 at a time. When you
hit 70 strength, you have graduated from the west mountains.
It is time to move on to bigger and better things: The North
Mine. The North Mine in Felucca is a much different scenario than the west
mountain because you need to begin thinking of PK's and other
nasty things. The next section of this essay will help you
become something other than the average miner. It is at this
point that you become known as an ingot supplier.
Tricks of the Trade
Effective Mining
Despite popular belief, Last Object is not the best method
for mining. The best way is to mine two shovels at a time.
Double click one, click the ground, and then immediately double
click the other and then the ground and cycle that way. It
may be a lot of clicking, but you will mine twice as fast.
In addition, make a macro for hiding, spirit speak, tracking,
or whatever you choose, and use it every now and then to raise
that skill.
When you want to mine for colored ore, make sure to use runebooks
that hold runes to the veins you are looking for. Runebooks
with good ore locations can often be bought from player vendors
or simply by asking around at a high-traffic bank such as
the west Britain bank in Trammel.
The Four Types of Mining
There are three types of mining, all of which have their good and bad
points...
- 1. Strip Mining (also known as mass mining and hoarding):
Strip mining is when you walk into a mine with 5+ shovels
in your pack and mine 250 ore and leapfrog (you cannot walk
that grossly overweight). Leapfrogging is walking in front
of the ore so that it is behind you, lifting it up, and
dropping it in front of you. Repeat (slowly at first) and,
with practice, you can walk almost normal speed while dragging
3000 stones of ore. Leapfrog it to the forge and smelt.
Good Points: this method is really the only viable option
if there are no open forges close to your mine because
it only involves one trip. In minimal lag situations,
this is the fastest way to mine. You take away incentive
for pks to kill you while you are mining. Many pks realize
who the strip miners are and realize that they never have
ingots while mining. Sometimes you will be left alone.
Bad Points: If you are encountered by a pk when leapfrogging,
you have to leave your ore, losing all of your work. There
are people known as ore thieves who will take your ore
by hiding by the forge and smelting it when you drag it
near (the ingots will appear in their pack and you will
lose your ore and ingots). If you lose your connection,
lag out, or fall victim to a client crash, another miner
could become very happy when you do nothing to stop them
from taking your hundreds of ore. In lag, leapfrogging
is nearly impossible. The mother of all reasons not to
strip mine is that you cannot leapfrog over server boundaries.
If there is a sever boundary between your mine and your
destination, you have to carry the ore over the boundary.
This can get very time consuming.
My Notes: This is the best method of mining for advanced
miners, and is the one that I use because it allows for
the best time vs. number of ingot ratios. This also allows
your character to not have to worry about carrying capacity
and weight. Thus, I can wear full plate armor when mining,
and pack a punch to the pks that attack me or other miners.
At Grandmaster level, I can smelt 50 ore at a time. I
could smelt more, but my character is usually starving
so I don't risk it. There is nothing more frustrating
then mining 400 ore and losing half of it to a bad smelt.
- Horsing: Horsing is the method of mining in which you
let a pack horse do the carrying for you. This allows you
to more than double your carrying capacity, but has some
major drawbacks.
Good Points: This method can increase your mining speed
(in fact it is the fastest) and is a good method if the
forge is only a short hike away from the mine. It does
not face the server boundary problem that strip mining
does.
Bad Points: If your pet is not bonded, it eliminates
your ability to recall. You must walk back to town. Horse
miners are normally targets of pks because they are easy
to find and they will often have large amounts of ingots
on there person because they do not make many trips to
town. Also pks for tend to kill pack horses after they
kill the owner. Every time you get PKed using this method,
there is 800 gold out the window for the horse along with
however many ingots you lost.
My Notes: Pack horses are good when you are mining in
a guard zone, or when they are bonded to you and will
recall with you. Otherwise they are not good in high risk
areas. Without bonding, the benefits are not worth the
possible side effects. Try to avoid this method and do
not let your pack horse carry your ingots.
- Track Star Method: Using this method, you mine to the
brink of being overloaded and then sprint to the nearest
forge and smelt your ore. This method has the fewest drawbacks
and is recommended by me personally to everyone until they
are confident enough in their abilities in pvp combat to
begin strip mining.
Good Points: You are never overweight, so running/recalling
away from nasty situations is always possible. Your ore
is never in danger of being stolen if you disconnect,
or have a client crash. In high lag situations, this is
the ONLY method that should be used.
Bad Points: Since carrying capacity is so important and
every stone counts, defending yourself becomes rather
complicated and difficult as armor and weapons weigh too
much to carry. Also, this method is not quite as fast
as strip mining.
My Notes: Basically I would suggest this method to most
people, as it is the safest. Once you know how to fight
and are confident in your skills, then I would switch
to strip mining.
- Beetle Mining
This is the absolutely best, especially when mining for
coloured ore. Go to Britain, Trammel, and head for the
west bank. There it's always crowded and lots of people
are trying to sell their stuff. Go stand at a corner and
yell "Buying Beetle" until someone offers you
one for sale. They usually go for around 5000 gold. Once
you have a beetle you can mount it and either run or recall
to your mining spot. Get off the Beetle and mine your
ore. The Beetle can hold 132 ore in it's pack. Once your
Beetle is full you mount it again and either run or recall
to the nearest forge and melt. For succesful recalling
I suggest you have about 60 magery skill.
The 6 Commandments of Mining
- Thou shalt not covet thy neighbors ore: If you walk into a mine and
there is some guy lagged out in front of the forge with a pile of 200
ore next to him that you know you could smelt and never be caught you
should not do it. Never take another miner's ore. It is the most frustrating
thing that can happen to a miner and it may happen to you. Have some
courtesy. I sometimes even go over and hide and pick up the ore so that
no other greedy miner will take it. Never steal from a fellow miner.
- Thou shalt stick to thine own territory: Don't mine in the same place
where someone else is mining. It is annoying and, currently, there are
approximately 16 ore in every mining zone. It becomes annoying to miners
when another miner starts hogging his ore.
- Thou shalt kill all ore thieves: Ore thieves are the bane of miners.
Since most ore thieves are blue, I normally summon a creature (fifth
level magic) and have it guard my ore and follow me. If someone touches
the ore, they will be flagged criminal. I will then find them and flip
3-4 greater explosion potions in their direction. If they come out of
hiding, be ready with an energy bolt scroll. An alternative method of
doing this is to just blade spirit the ore thief. In this instance,
the ore thief will be an innocent and you will lose fame and karma.
- Thou shalt not deny a fellow miner shovels: If a miner is pressed
for shovels and you have extra tools with you, be a nice guy and tinker
him a few. Someday you may be the one pressed for shovels. I do draw
the line when a miner wants my tools. Offer him shovels, but do not
give away your tools.
- Thou shalt not give reason to be killed: I normally mine in full plate,
but I am also a Grandmaster warrior who can cast fifth and sixth circle
levels. I also have tons of pvp experience. Until you reach the level
where you are confident you can either take down, or at least scare
away any pk, I would not recommend wearing anything that would attract
attention to you. I would recommend a robe and, possibly, a sword in
case an orc or something spawns in the mine (this happens every so often).
- Thou shalt not tolerate macro miners: People who macro in public caves
to gain strength or to horde ore are not very respected among the general
miner/smith community. I have found that macro miners are normally very
inconsiderate, will eat away at 4 or 5 mining zones, and will often
even destroy precious ore because it will not fit in there backpack.
A single macro miner in a cave can tap the cave for every miner that
wants to use it. My personal stance with dealing with a macro miner
is "no holds barred." I leave it in your discretion, I do not think
that the above commandments apply for these people. They simply are
lazy and the true miners suffer from their laziness. They are at your
mercy.
Trammel or Felucca?
Compared to Trammel, Felucca gives you double the amount of
ore when you mine. Where a Trammel vein would yield 16 ore,
the same location on Felucca will yield 32 ore! This makes
Felucca a very tempting place to mine, or so it seems...
Trammel
Good: Other players cannot harm you or steal from
you.
Bad: You mine half the ore that you would in Felucca.
Trammel is very crowded, and sometimes you have to compete
for a spot to mine
Felucca
Good: Double the amount of ore! Large areas are near
deserted, and you can mine for hours without seeing anyone.
Bad: When you *do* see someone, chances are high
that they will attack you and/or steal from you if you are
not in a guard zone. It's risk versus reward. Do you want
to accept the challenge ?
Dealing with PKs
Preparation
Sooner or later, you are going to get PKed mining, but there
are steps that can be taken to help avoid this. First, get
magery training from the mage guildmaster. This should get
you to around 30~35 magery. Next, by a bunch of recall scrolls
and a few magic reflect scrolls, 2 mark scrolls, and 1-2 energy
bolt scrolls. Buy two blank recall runes and mark a rune to
an area near the bank, but far enough away so that people
will not be standing in the spot you want to recall to (for
instance, in Britain, the bottom floor of the artists guild
is an excellent location). Now, you should have at least 60
in swords, mace, or fencing. Buy the fastest weapon for your
respective class: mace, katana, or kryss. Run up to the mine
to the north, mark a rune, and go back to town. Find someone
selling potions and buy 3-4 greater heals and 2-3 greater
explosions. I also suggest that you train in hiding if you
are not already. With this package, you either kill or avoid
every pk you encounter.
Precaution
If you take precautions, you will be much safer mining. The
first thing you should do is set up your pack so that you
have a pk survival kit in a bag ready for easy access. Also
make sure that you weigh the bag down with enough stuff so
that it is over 10 stones (this prevents it from be stolen).
Every time you get 200 ingots, recall back to the bank, drop
the ingots, and tinker some new shovels.
The Encounter
Your greatest benefit as a miner is that pks never expect
you to fight back. This element of surprise can work extremely
well in your favor. When you are encountered, the first thing
that you must do is inspect the pk. Immediately hide and open
the pks paper doll. What is the pks title? If you are dealing
with a Grandmaster Mage, don't hang around. Determine the
type of pk you are dealing with. There are four general types:
the magess, the archers, the halberdiers, and the groupies.
mages:
If the person is a mage, come out of hiding and let him
hit you with a spell. Now immediately throw a purple potion
or two followed by your e-bolt scroll. Depending on the damage
done by the purple potions, the pk might stop to heal or start
running. Blast him with an e-bolt again. If it fails, immediately
recall to safety. If it works, the pk will either be dead
or a few quick shots from a fast blade will finish him off.
Throughout the whole ordeal, watch your mana level. Never
let it fall below 11 because, if the pk has a trick up his
sleeve, you better be able to recall.
Archers:
Since archers generally rely on healing potions and not on healing
spells. These are the pks I would suggest not fighting at
all except under one condition: if you hide and the pk puts
his bow down to cast firewall (to get you out of hiding),
immediately unload your whole bag of purple potions on him.
If he is fumbling around with his paper doll to remove his
bow and cast spells, he may not even notice the purple potions
until it is too late. If you connect, the pk is probably dead.
If he's not dead, he's probably wounded enough that a few
quick katana shots will get him scared enough to make him
run away.
Halberdiers:
I have discovered one thing about these guys over the months of my playing:
they tend to get very cocky. They seem to think that, because they are
wearing full bone/plate and carrying a big axe, they are invincible. Well,
its your job to show the pk that he's not. The first thing you should
do is show him you mean business. Put a little distance between him and
you and flip a purple potion in his direction. That should get his attention.
Now switch to katana and go head to head. Your fast swing time will cause
him to barely be able to get any hits in. If he connects, watch your hit
points. If they get low, drink a heal potion. Never let your hit points
fall to the point that one more hit will kill you. Sooner or later, you
are going to wear him down. When he puts down his halberd to heal, drop
your katana and throw an e-bolt at him. If you have enough mana, throw
another. If he tries to e-bolt you, let him and throw a few purple potions
to block off his retreat. Now go after him with the katana again. Trap
him between you and your potions with little hp. If he tries to recall,
use the fast blows of your katana to keep his concentration interrupted
and collect your generously offered plate/bone when he falls. That is
one pk who will think twice about dropping a miner again!
Groupies:
More than one pk after you. Kal Ort Por. It's as simple as that.
Notes:
If you score a kill on a pk, congrats, but I would suggest gathering his
stuff and doing something else for the night because you can guarantee
he will RRR (Res, Re-Equip, Revenge) and he won't be alone. Better to
not be a target. Always keep your pk survival kit fully stocked. The one
time you forget it, you will need it. Finally, don't be too brave. If
you have 600 ingots in your pack, there is no shame in hiding. 3000 gold
is tough to lose because of a mistake in battle.
Conclusion
I hope that this essay helps miners (and aspiring miners) in their quest
for the sacred ore. I would like to extend my welcome to all miners to ask
questions if they have them (However, I will not answer the question "Where
are the best mines?" go forth and explore Britannia).
- Higlac Jorison, Grandmaster
Miner
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