Among other things Raw Nihilite can be cut into augs using Jewel Craft but you must refine it first.
Which brings to mind an important point when doing a baz search for this item. There are two forms that both can ultimately be used in the same combines, so if you only do a search for ‘raw’ you might miss it if some traders are selling refined nihilite at a better price. If you do a search for just ‘shimmering nihilite,’ you will see both raw and refined and can then pick the cheapest alternative.
There are three ways to refine nihilite. If you give one to Glirina Morningbloom on the boat in the Abysmal Sea she will give you two refined nihilite.
Or, you can do either the freebie or collect quest, otherwise known as the ‘refine raw GoD materials quest’ for JC. The freebie quest involves approximately 400 combines before the NPC will teach you how to refine nihilites. The collect quest only involves 140 combines but you must give Rilwind Sitnai about 16 refined Crimson Nihilites total. You give him a crimson nihilite and he gives you stacks of stuff to combine. You combine the stuff and give back the finished product and then hand over another nihilite continuing until he won’t give you more. Then he’ll tell you to go to one of the other npcs standing near him and she will teach you how to refine the gems. The down side either way is that you won’t be very skilled at refining nihilite and at first you won’t get more than one or two for each raw. However, if you burn through a few stacks of raw nihilite, my recollection is between 2-3 stacks (two to three hundred raw gems) you will from then on ALWAYS receive 3 refined nihilite for each single raw. Right now crimson nihilite is so cheap and common in the bazaar I’d highly recommend the collect quest over the ‘freebie’ one, which is so much more of a mind-numbing timesink.
Oh, and don’t be thrown when the quest npcs start babbling about Pale Nihilite. Crimson Nihilite replaces Pale Nihilite for the quest. Why the discrepancy, I don’t know… but I do know first hand that Crimson Nihilite works.
The final way to refine Nihilite is to get another player to refine them for you.
Once you got your refined Nihilite you can cut them into augs. Shimmering makes Trilion Cut Shimmering Nihilite.
Trilion Cut Shimmering Nihilite:
This slot 11 augmentation grants the wearer Armor Class, Hit Points, Mana, and Endurance.
Here’s what you get:
Silver: AC +1 – HP +30 – Mana +30 – End +30 @ No lvl Rec Electrum: AC +2 – HP +50 – Mana +50 – End +50 No lvl Rec Gold: AC +3 – HP +75 – Mana +75 – End +75 @ Rec lvl 20 Platinum: AC +4 – HP +100 – Mana +100 End +100 @ Rec lvl 35 Velium: AC +6 – HP +150 – Mana +150 – End +150 @ Rec lvl 50 Palladium: AC +8 – HP +200 – Mana +200 – End +200 @ Rec lvl 60 Dwerium: AC +10 – HP +250 – Mana +250 – End +250 @ Rec lvl 70
Attuneable means you won’t be able to trade the aug once you put it in the item. You can however remove and reuse it when you up-grade to a higher lvl setting for it. The old setting will revert back to tradable form so you can sell or trade that when you’re done using it, but not the aug itself.
To get the full benefit of most augs you must wear the appropriate solo/duo/trio item for your lvl. I’m told that you get the next lvl bonus if you are really close to the rec but I can’t confirm this.
There is a wonderful tool out there for playing with all the different setting and aug combinations. I’d like to give credit to the creator of the “Gnomish Jewelcrafting Gizmonotron†for the basic information on stats here. To it’s creator, my thanks and appreciation. Google the quoted name for the tool and you should get the link. So far in my experience, and the experience of others, the tool has been accurate.
Nihilites can not be bought from npcs or sold to them in any form. NPCs will buy some cut gems when they wouldn’t normally buy the uncut forms, but NOT in this case.
Warning on Silver:
In my opinion there is no use at all for silver because Electrum has no lvl rec and gives the higher stats even to lvl 1. Unless this changes, Electrum is the twink jewelry.
Now Bazaar Info:
Extended Warning on Silver: The only exception to using these augs in Silver is if you can make it yourself and can’t make or afford something better. If you’re buying a set, keep in mind you pay for the setting and the aug/s that go in it. In most situations there will be better options for low lvl players than silver and usually at a much lower price. Never pay much more than 20plat for silver jewelry, if that. Silver only costs 10 plat and can be enchanted by low lvl players. The stats are better in Electrum even for a lvl 1 player so the value for Silver pieces just isn’t there. There’s no call to charge newbies or anyone else the 1k+ prices for the silver trio that I’ve seen up on Bristlebane.
Value: The baz value of any nihilite is not in the end product, the aug it creates, but rather in the augs trivial. Augs only sell, at best, 1-8 at a time. This is a good aug but the supply has completely overwhelmed the demand on my server and I often see hundreds of these augs at 1p each. (for some reason traders manage to keep the price for the other nihilite augs higher, sometimes in the 400p range, why these in particular are so consistently below 10p I really don’t understand) So anyway… Raw Shimmering Nihilites are still such valuable baz commodities because they are such easy, and usually competitively priced, alternatives for JC skill-up.
To cut them, all you need is an npc bought cut tool and your no-trade jewelers glass, which you can make in Abysmal (see mini guide below).
With a trivial of 310 Shimmering Nihilite is highly desirable because not only will it top you off at a skill of 300, but it will also continue to max your Jewelers Trophy. (see mini guide below)
These have moved the best of any of the nihilites for me and at the best price. (ofc if your buying them to resell you’re cost is probably higher too) I believe the prices is remaining so stable on my server, and so much higher than the other nihilites, because it’s both less common and much more in demand. However, because so many players are still working from out dated trade-skill guides they don’t realize such a simple alternative exists until it’s too late. In general I have finally started selling nihilites in full stacks to players, from crimson to shimmering, but it’s taken a lot of advertising to get the word out. And until all those guides out there are updated I’m afraid that getting the word out will continue to be the keys to keeping these moving in trade. Shimmering nihilite moves best when it’s competitively priced against other alternative skill-up options like Uncut Rubelite or Blue Diamonds. I strongly suggest you don’t let the refined price exceed the baz price for Blue Diamonds, which sadly is still a very common skill-up path, even though you must obtain the vellum on top of the cost of the diamond for each combine.
That is the other tricky thing about selling nihilite. The price for refined should probably be one-third the price for raw. However if you’re selling raw you have to consider that far fewer people will be able to use it. The market for all the different forms of nihilite are both intertwined and changeable so you have to watch all the angles carefuly and make adjustments when things change.
As with most trade-skill combinables if you want to sell these fast you got to sell them at what amounts to wholesale prices so resellers (and bargan hunters) will snatch them up quick. The resellers will probably be your best customers if you have any on your server. If you don’t mind holding on to them in order to sell at the best prices however, the more you have the better, because it’s the trade-skillers who will most likely come looking for them and they will probably want them by the hundreds in the refined form.
Early on in my experience the prices were higher but sales much more infrequent, but I’ve managed to get my cost down and get my price down which, along with the advertising, seems to have helped. Now I’m selling in the range between 300 and 400. I’m still working to see if I can bring down the price further but it’s beginning to look like 350 is where it wants to balance out. It’s harder to keep it in stock at that price. This is the only nihilite I’ve ever run out of.
Even accounting for how few people know about how useful nihilites are for JC skill-up, they don’t move consistently. I’m afraid, as with all combinable there are huge swings in the demand. And Jewel Craft seems to be one of the lesser priority skills. So even with constant advertising this may never be a fast or consistent mover. Also, it competes with another really good alternative for JC skill up, which is the Uncut line of gems. Uncut gems have the same lack of notoriety as nihilites, but they are also cheap, easy to use, and plentiful. A fact which may also impact how fast, or not, nihilites will move in trade.
* Mini JC Guide: Do the tutorial and get your Kobold Charm. **Lvl to 15. Go to your hometown and follow the instructions of the whispering voice to get your Adventurer’s Stone and augment it to your Kobold Charm. (lvl/stone no longer needed see note below) Go to the guildhall Magus and transport to Nedria’s Landing and from there to the Abysmal Sea. Do either the freebie or collect quest there. You’re jewel craft skill lvl is now high enough to make your Jeweler’s Glass with the least trouble, so make it before you leave Abysmal. Now go to Freeport and start the testing to get your JC Trophy. It is easiest to get at low lvls and will evolve as you skill-up naturally. You won’t be allowed to start testing if you don’t have enough skill though so doing it after you do the abysmal quest is the perfect time. Once you’ve got your trophy start cutting augs, with vender gems at first, then move to baz bought gems when it becomes cost effective. Most Uncuts and Nihilite have been pretty cheap and can get you to 300 fast and easy, though not always cheap. Shimmering Nihilite, and Uncut Rubellite can even max out your Trophy but they are usually more expensive than those that trivial under 300. You may need to learn how to earn money in the baz from time to time as you progress. If you want to farm your way to JC mastery though, good luck, because I can’t help you there. Enjoy! ;)
**Mini Guide Update: (2/29/08)
You no longer need the stone before you can get transported to Abysmal by the Brotherhood Majus. The requirement has been dropped recently and the Majus will now transport anyone to Nedaria’s Landing and then from there on to the Abysmal Sea. So now there’s no need to wait to reach the best freebie trade-skill quests in the game and it’s a wonderful advantage if you want to make your own equipment and provisions as you go. Going for a swim from the floating platform is fine but just make sure you don’t fall/jump off the boat. Instant Death! In this case… Lev is good. Sow is bad.
Right now I am seeing these going for 3k on Ayonae Ro in Bazaar, but I am not sure if it is because they are rare or just that high because they are a new item that makes some kick *** weps: