Re: A Comprehensive Guide to Skills and Skill Gain
Blacksmith, tailor, carpentry, and tinkering are horribly wrong unless you're brand new and don't have any alts capable of gathering or buying items for you.
Pretty much, do any item that is just above your skill and around 50%+ probability. Blacksmithy is an exception, where you need to be trying items in the 33%+ area, and you get decent gains.
If you're macroing, watch to see if you stop gaining. Check the gump and see if there is a lower probability item that consumes around the same amount of materials; start using that.
I really screwed up recently with my carpenter and didn't pick up tailoring. He was 7x so I had to drop a skill and macro the shit out of it. Switching between cloth items and leather high boots I got it 40ish, then went to cloaks till 50 and then female items until 54ish. Then just macro'd the shit out of leather items unitl GM, switching between which items had the lowest probability. Took a couple hours, but nothing near what it'd take with this guide.
Also, I'd like to say that I'm not knocking this guide. I remember using it when I first started, but I'm just saying that there are easier ways for a lot of this if you're decently set up.