"Authority without wisdom is like a heavy axe without an edge:
fitter to bruise than polish. "
– Anne Bradstreet
Lumberjacking is mainly used to gather logs and other wood-based resources from trees, to be used by crafters such as carpenters for furniture, bowcrafters for arrows or bows. It is also very useful to the swordsmen who wish to become axers, as it increases the damage inflicted to their opponents.
There are two ways to raise this skill: hacking away at trees or through combat.
Lumberjacking
Everytime your axe hits a tree, you stand a chance of gaining. At lower levels, you will gain steadily up to the mid 80s. After that, it will be extremely slow. The advantage of that method, is that it can be quite lucrative reselling the boards you're acquiring or you can save them to train your carpenter later on or to make arrows for your archer. The downside though is that boards and logs are extremely heavy. You therefore have to go unload on a regular basis, even with a packhorse. When successful, you will get 10 logs when you hit a tree. Logs weigh 2 stones each, so you want to transform them into boards (using a saw or any other carpentry tool) which weigh 1 stone each. A packhorse can carry 1600 boards. There is also a 5 second delay between each hit. If you try hitting the tree again immediately, your char will make the movement but as the previous one wasn't completed, you will never gain nor see any logs piling up in your bag, so be patient. Wait for the message confirming you've completed the action. When successfull, it will say "You have placed some logs in your backpack" if not, you will get a message to that effect. If you become overloaded, unlike with mining where the ore is lost if you have no room left in your bag, the extra logs will fall to the ground at your feet. But like mining, you cannot stand at the same spot for hours. Trees will run out of wood, just like ore veins run out of metal. You will therefore have to move from tree to tree.
Combat
When fighting with any axe, you stand a chance of gaining lumberjacking every time you successfully hit your target. Since you will not gain from failure, look for something easy to hit. Sparring with a guildmember with no wrestling or parry is a good way to do so. Your target doesn't run away, and you get to work other skills such as anatomy, Tactics and healing all at once. If you're not in a guild, the NPC fighters at the Jhelom pits and the Paladins in Delucia are a very good alternative. Hire one without weapon (or they will hurt you pretty bad). If you can't find any without weapon, disarm them with a thief or with the special moves. Make sure to keep them healed so they don't die while you're training on them. Don't forget to heal yourself as well.
Once you hit 70, get yourself a golem and use a 100% poison damage axe. You will get fast gains and the 100% poison weapon will prevent you from damaging your golem.
Lumberjacking is a fairly slow skill to raise. So you just keep hacking away until you reach your goal.
Tips:
Since you gain from successful hits, you want to increase your speed as much as possible to hit more often:
- The hatchet is the fastest axe available. As it also does the least amount of damage, you might want to use it against your opponent to limit your chances of killing him. The butcher knife is another good alternative.
- The higher your dexterity, the faster you hit, GM greater agility potions will do wonders for you. Getting the highest dex possible while training is a good idea
- Your swordsmanship skill determine your chances of successfully hitting a non-tree target with an axe. It is therefore recommended that you get your swords as high as possible before you begin training lumberjacking.
