Skinning -> Tanning (--VS--) Skinning -> Tanning -> Leatherworking

[Lifewarden]

Heya! As a noob I'm facing a dilemma right now: can either do
Skinning -> Tanning = get tonns of cash by vendoring tanning products, but have nothing to spend it on since there is no skill-optimized lvl 20-30-40 gear for sell anywhere. So basically I'll be a rich hobo in randomly colored rags running with a weird nerf-stick XD Questionable fun, that.
or
Skinning -> Tanning -> Leatherworking = after days upon days of scrapping any money available from few vendors in locs where fauna doesn't kill me outright (after spending cash on recipes and stuff and having little to no vendors to sell resulting crap to) I'll finally get some sub-par gear up to my skill lvl, but I'll be broke as a church mouse unable to afford basic stuff like consumables and such...

Soooooo how to do it right in the beginning?

[Reikiko]

Option 3: Skinning -> Tanning -> "Hey, will someone make armor for me if I provide materials?" -> Sell the excess.
Lots of people will do it for the skill xp (I certainly would), and it means you don't have to burn through materials (and money for recipes!) to level up crafting early on unless you really want to. XD

Option 4: Skinning -> Tanning -> Sell -> Commission a set of armor, the reason there's none for sale is because crafters can't predict your skill setup.

Option 5: NPC Barters for armor.

[Jamess]

You could always sell at the beginning. Definitely do skinny>Tanning>Sell. After you get to combat skills around 60+ you'll start picking up pretty expensive loot and money will be less of a problem.

If you're able to match leather working to your current combat level then go for (that would be pretty hard to do unless you don't mind grinding skins and gems).

I'd recommend a slow and steady approach. One of the best ways to make money is through industry but you'll need a decent industry level around 30 just to sell even 'decent' grade leather items. There's really no point to grinding leather working up really high as a new player. Try for a 50/50 sell/craft approach. After a while only sell skins if you really need the money. Once you get you industry up you can start making easy money while slowly upgrading your leather working, while at the same time you conserve the vendor cash of the leather specialists.

[Lifewarden]

Thanks for the answers! It's all more clear now, I see now that it's worth it to just sell excess processed leather after I deplete money on armor vendors, and bartering really seems interesting though I found that just grinding dungeons is also quite effective for low lvl. Was also looking into industry but haven't found any LW comissions yet (ppl in Help channel said I'll find em when I get to Illmari desert but that's still far away)

(that would be pretty hard to do unless you don't mind grinding skins and gems).

oh I don't mind grinding leather since it's a good way to get some combat XP too, but grinding gems is another matter and effective grinding will require druid speed buffs aaaand that's not anytime soon

[cr00cy]

oh I don't mind grinding leather since it's a good way to get some combat XP too, but grinding gems is another matter and effective grinding will require druid speed buffs aaaand that's not anytime soon

You don't need druid for grinding gems. Its only really helpfull in Kur, and not for speed bonus but for flying form (druid give slike2 or 3 mov speed, which is not much). Shield have build-in sprint boost that is much betetr than what Druid can offer, and it can be made even better with mods. Psychology adn Fire magic both have skills that can be modded for sprint speed. And then there is alchemy.

Sellign just skins is more cash-efficent(no added cost of tannign powder), while selling rolls is more time-efficent. If you ahve time, you should definitly aim to sell just regular skins. If you have patience for that, try to empty money pool of every vendor that buys skins for good price. I don't know what lv you are, but there is one in Eltibule (60k cash pool at max favor lv), Rahu (60k too, you cna get there through Casino), and Kur (in the north, near Orc camp, she has 85k iirc). Filia (fairly near Serbule keep), wile not technically skin vendor, will buy almost anything for around 50 councils - that mean you can sell her skins upt to Nice for full price, and she has a lot of cash (over 100k)

[Lifewarden]

oh great tip! I had to think about the fact that while tanning may produce more expensive mats for sell I still have to spend cash on buying tannins and that effectively depletes my limited cash reserve even if I make money faster, hah. So, basically, skinning itself is effectively just another skill that produces stuff that a group of vendors can buy... But then the benefit of having BIS crafted gear must be awesome, only that it's worthwhile to spend insane amounts of time and resources on crafting skills much later in the game right? Guess I'll just have to level skinning/tanning/survey and get mats for established crafters as Reikiko proposed

[AgentBbrian]

I donot like the gem farming mechanics so far, motherloads.. etc..
I hear people talking about wasting their life as they do anything smithing or mining.
Needs some fun added to it, a bit of TLC.

Money early on is great, you feel rich until you get skills that need to be upgraded past 60, then you realize how not rich you are.

And figure out you need to get 5 skills to 25 to participate in the augmenting/transmuting part of the end game of gear, or blow yer cash on the resources for those on player vendors.

Plenty of things to hobo around doing as you start to unravel this current games development stage of mechanics