Is smelting for scrolls worth it?

  • I'd hate to be that guy asking a question every other day, but seeing as how these forums are relatively active, I thought I'd try and get an answer from experienced people on most of the questions that have been bugging me whenever I'd play this game.


    So, what I want to ask today is, how likely is one to get a scroll during the smelting process, and how worth is it sinking money into it? On the fansite website, I've read it's roughly 5%, which seems like a good estimate; but assuming you smelt items with both a prefix and a suffix, that effectively makes it 2.5% if you only need either of the two; which is fairly low... leads to the question if it's worth it.


    Now, for a bit more context, so far I've either been really unlucky with scrolls or it's simply how the game's supposed to be, but out of the -not many- that I've gotten, most were garbage which I couldn't make use of. It hasn't really bothered me until now, when I'm going through a moderate gear overhaul. I've slowly been getting the items I need from the AH or as mob drops, and after I make them Purple, I'm going to be more-less done.. except for a good sword.


    Orange drops are an extreme rarity it seems, I'm near lv95 with only 22 total orange drops; none of which were worth keeping. This plus the lack of good scrolls means I'm still on a Purple sword and I can't really seem to move on from it... to make matters worse, the server I'm playing on is about as dead as it gets, so there's no other players around who might have the scrolls that I need.


    So I decided to give smelting a try. I've been smelting items (first the suffix ones) religiously for awhile, and have smelt well over a dozen without a scroll in sight. It's not that big of a cash drain, though it's still a cost which could be better spent elsewhere. This made me wonder, is smelting generally worth it; if done for scrolls? Or is the drop rate too miserable that I have better odds of using the gold for other things while waiting for a miraculous good drop?

  • I will answer you in a quick manner. Yes it is worth it but not religiously. Have in mind that it is ~5% chance to drop a scroll from smelting. And it can be the prefix OR the suffix so half the percentage there too. A lot of experienced players are smelting on Microevents that say "+% to drop scrolls" which apparently counts for smelting too. My advice is to smelt by priority.


    Top priority: Smelt to repair gear

    2nd Priority: Smelt anything orange/red you get in the meantime

    3rd priority: Smelt for scrolls


    Extras: Avoid smelting amulets on higher levels. Jewelry (Amulets & Rings) smelt for the longest BUT they also smelt in larger quantities. For example, smelting gloves is quicker but also rewards LESS quantity (number) of materials. Still i always prefer to smelt gloves/boots/helms.

  • Thanks Skars, always glad to learn something new and I'll definitely look back to this reply every now and then when the time is right.


    However, maybe I should've been more precise, and mention that I'm asking for my "specific" case, more than on a general level.


    I feel like it changes things, because based on your list;


    1) Smelting to repair gear- I don't really need to repair any gear, if anything, I might need to repair my jewelry once I fully swap it with Lucius


    2) Smelting anything orange/red - Orange drops are such a rarity. I'm close to lv95 and I've barely dropped 20-ish orange items (meanwhile I see people lv92 in my guild who've dropped 30+ and people lv96 who've dropped 80+...), so I have a looot of room to smelt other stuff. These items are basically non-existent for me.


    3) Smelting for scrolls - seems to be the only option. Especially since I'm lacking scrolls to make a good sword which is basically the only thing I need right now to round my gear out (after I upgrade some other stuff to purple as I mentioned).


    Now, what I meant was, is it worth it smelting "religiously" in THAT specific case? In which I can't really smelt for any other purpose and need a scroll. (note, I'm a casual player so I guess I can more-less smelt 6-8 items per day, which is what I refer to as religiously)...

  • Have in mind that it is ~5% chance to drop a scroll from smelting.

    I don't think this is true, it's less than that..

    Vicegerent have in mind, that those 5% are only the personal opinion of Skarsburning.

    One more factor to this question/mini discussion of mine..


    Even so, when it's that low, it's still going to take a considerate number of tries until something finally pops out. I use <=10% chances as a rule of thumb as to when the general (100/chance) tries "rule" becomes less and less reliable, further applicable if it's <=5% or <=1% and so on...


    Point is, when it's that low, I feel like it's just a matter of luck when it's going to pop out, not a matter of 'time' or 'tries'... so wrong or not, at least it's a number to take into consideration and literally the only estimate I've seen on any gladiatus resource regarding this matter.

  • The best thing you can do is to have some patience and collect items with the prefix/suffix you want to obtain and wait for a microevent with the bonus, if you want a high level scroll it's better to collect just those with only the suffix/prefix, that's what I did and luckily I got what I want (antonius scroll), that said, there was only one in my server and the one who owned it wanted to sell it for 9 millions :cursing:, when I got the scroll from the smelter I showed the picture to him and only God knows how I felt at that time.


    So basically, if you don't have a need for smelting to repair it's the best time for you to smelt hoping for a scroll, because at a time you won't have a choice but to repair your items especially the weapon, and the smelting will took longer and longer.

  • So i don't know from where you calculated the 5% Skarsburning...but i can tell you one thing, i'm melting items, since 2016, non stop 6 at a time,i can count in 1 hand,how many scrolls i got from melting....not even 5, very sad that in this game where you invest time, gold and rubies the biggest factor is luck!!! it is very disapointing, and i'm not saying that those who melt items with rubies should have more chance for a scroll,but come on, gameforge don't even have a formula to tell us what are the chances from melting....and the arena/circus formulas are broken aswell,so yea, keep up the good work Gameforge, you are doing well.

  • i can count in 1 hand,how many scrolls

    I can not believe that. I have found way too many scrolls in a year for it to be so rare.

    It is uncommon, but not that rare. Sometimes one specific scroll will be super long to find. I've been running after Gaius and Vergilius, smelting dozens of them before getting it. But eventually, you find them.



    Also, here is a tip for low level suffixes : you can have a low level account (15-25ish) thats buys Delicacy, assassinate, etc items in the auction house, then smelts them.

    It takes a short time because they're super low level items, so you can smelt a lot of them. Then, you can give the scrolls or the items to all your guild.


    If you do this on a day with % drop on scrolls, you'll find a ton of them (tested and approved).


    One guy doing this can help all the other guild members; though it works only with low level scrolls.



    Other than that, spam your expeditions like crazy whenever there is an event on scroll drop. That's another way you'll find a lot of them.


    Finally... Just be patient and smelt at least for the most important scrolls you're looking for (Gaius, Antonius, Vergilius, etc). As previously said, doing it during a micro event with scroll drops is very helpful :)

    "I have a vision. A vision of everyone having cheese. Olroy cheese. Together we can put an end to the rule of Jyggalag, the Prince of Biscuits... Or was it order?"

    Edited once, last by Sheogorath ().

  • Believe it or not I don’t have any reason to lie, I’m lvl 150 player with no usable scroll from the underworld ,yet im farming it,staying 2 days inside,melting everything what i need,but nothing...and I’m nr1 on the high score 7 days from 2016 with around 800k-1.400k honor a weak (talking from a x1 server) and also a small factor: i used tones of rubies for melting and farming the uw for nothing...thx for the tips but trust me,a tried everything!



    And this topic is about smelting item for scroll,so why you talk about hitting the expedition to get a scroll....?im also sure that you are playing on a speed server,thats why you are talking so easy about this topic....

  • The best thing you can do is to have some patience and collect items with the prefix/suffix you want to obtain and wait for a microevent with the bonus, if you want a high level scroll it's better to collect just those with only the suffix/prefix, that's what I did and luckily I got what I want (antonius scroll), that said, there was only one in my server and the one who owned it wanted to sell it for 9 millions :cursing:, when I got the scroll from the smelter I showed the picture to him and only God knows how I felt at that time.


    So basically, if you don't have a need for smelting to repair it's the best time for you to smelt hoping for a scroll, because at a time you won't have a choice but to repair your items especially the weapon, and the smelting will took longer and longer.

    I guess it's what I'll keep doing, though I'll mostly try to smelt blue+ items like those, since I feel like the green ones are not that worth it.


    Also, here is a tip for low level suffixes : you can have a low level account (15-25ish) thats buys Delicacy, assassinate, etc items in the auction house, then smelts them.

    Will definitely have to give that one a try. Currently hunting for Assassination, so it sounds like a good idea. Though too bad it has to boil down to "cheesing" the system...

  • Will definitely have to give that one a try.

    Be careful though, you cannot give stuff from one of your accounts to another. So essentially someone has to do it for his bros ^^



    I’m lvl 150 player with no usable scroll from the underworld

    I understand then ! From your original post I thought you were speaking about standard scrolls. UW scrolls are sure hard to find, everybody agrees on that one :)


    Beside, for those who were already high level when forging and smelting started, its obviously more difficult to find all of them since you must smelt high lvl gear...

    "I have a vision. A vision of everyone having cheese. Olroy cheese. Together we can put an end to the rule of Jyggalag, the Prince of Biscuits... Or was it order?"

  • And how does that work if the server I'm playing on is a wasteland?

    Welcome to the club, my friend.


    You do need at least one bro ^^ Its gonna be hard for a lot of reasons otherwise.

    On my server, my guild recruited most of the players that were left; if you can find those who are still motivated to play on the server and help each other out, it would be easier.


    But yeah, dead servers are... dead servers :3

    "I have a vision. A vision of everyone having cheese. Olroy cheese. Together we can put an end to the rule of Jyggalag, the Prince of Biscuits... Or was it order?"

  • for me , when my server was new and the scrolls were rare , i used the smelting strategie to obtain my first Lucius scroll ( it was crucial to have , without it you can't dream of challenging other players) , but god it took me 20 days of smelting non stop, -_- ( even in a x5 speed server ! )
    after that i stoped doing this and i even bought the antonius scroll for 8 millions that time ( a fortune in that level ) but it was really worth it i had the top of the circus just a week after that :)


    for my opinion, its not worth it outside the scrolls evernt

    but you know , when an event says the scroll drop chance is 10% , its not just from expeditions , i means also smelting , a 10% chance from smelting

    so maybe you should be patient and wait for it :D

  • Imo, underworld scrolls aren't so rare. From smelting is the same chance to get one like a lucius or antonius or other random scroll. A best way to get scrolls from underground is to spam questing with missions pact and dragon armor, search rewards with desired prefixes / suffixes and collect them untill a scroll event comes.


    You can farm from beggining for the quests in which you need to defeat all opponents in one particular area, or you can beat all except Dis Pater and wait for last minutes to get the costume. Keep in mind that you might not win from first attack, so save time for 3 or 4 attacks for your safety. =O


    For those who rubies aren't such a big of a deal can do underworld quests, but those who keep a track on every ruby, you can make arena quests. X/


    P.S: A guild mate already collected 2 wings items, 2 darkness and a Sebastianus within one run. Now he's waiting for another event of forge helper drop chance. (x4 speed) :whistling:


    P.P.S: If you drop red items that gives good materials, keep them for same event, you get more resources than outside of event. (unless you drop 2-3 red items per day) :D

  • Thread closed due inactivity. Feel free to poke me if you want to add something else to the topic.


    Best wishes.

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