Fletching

My druid just trivialed on the cheapest arrows at a skill of 16. Technically she could stop here and just make cheap arrows for tanks, but getting the skill higher will drop the failure rates which can't be a bad thing. Getting to the next trivial level means making harder arrows which luckily only seems to involve changing 1 of the 4 components, so she'll be heading back to the vendor to pick up the next price range of nocks. Once that trivials it'll be back to the cheap nocks and the next set of shafts in the range until she's trivial on all combinations.

So, the druid is now at 145 skill and I have a nice list of the order in which to use components. The trick is that at each skill level you use the cheapest component that will further increase your skill, along with 3 of the 6c components, thus taking the cheapest option to trivial at each level. If you're a melee type that is actually using the arrows, please note that this will not give you the best type of arrow at each stage, only the cheapest. If you're more interested in having arrows with greater range or damage potential then check one of the detailed fletching sites around for the recipes for the arrows you need. I never attemped to make bows at any point in getting to the 145 skill level. Bows can be made much earlier than this and will give skill increases, but tend to be much more expensive to make than the arrows that will take you to the same trivial point. The general recommendation is to make bows when you actually need a bow, but make arrows when merely practising the skill.

This is a table of the cheapest components to use in order to raise skill. Alongside the listed component always buy the 3 6c pieces required to make up the arrow. Also, not that 'vanes' replace the 'fletch' in a recipe and not the 'shaft' as the icons would indicate!

You might notice that at the bottom end of the table the components start to get a bit expensive, so make sure you take plenty of pp with you to the fletcher! It also seems to be easier to make up the arrows at the fletcher's so that you can sell your arrows straight back in order to recoup some money to buy the next set of pieces. You will not make any money selling back to the vendor until you reach the final Type 11 arrow, but you can recoup a fair amount of your outlay. People who have done the maths say that the type 11 arrow does actually make you a small profit when you can make them fairly reliably and no-one yet seems to have ascertained when these arrows go trivial above the 200 skill point.

One final note: at skill level 145 I finally decided to have a go at the Trueshot longbow quest as making these bows is never trivial. I had 2 attempts and failed twice, so be warned! I intend to raise my skill to at least the 162 trivial level that my current set of bits goes to before having any more tries at the quest!