Do you still make use of Poetics tomes?

[Driskus]

If I don't need them for gear, all of mine go towards Grade 3 Shroud Soil, which in the end becomes loads of shards & Demimateria when all is said and done.

[Paladinleeds]

If I don't need them for gear, all of mine go towards Grade 3 Shroud Soil, which in the end becomes loads of shards & Demimateria when all is said and done.

May I ask, how does grade 3 shroud soil become demimateria? Just what are you doing for them to become demimateria? And what sort of demimateria (and if they're different levels, for example fieldcraft demimateria 1-3, what levels)? This could be a godsend for me, but I'm truly lost on how you do this.

[Driskus]

May I ask, how does grade 3 shroud soil become demimateria? Just what are you doing for them to become demimateria? And what sort of demimateria (and if they're different levels, for example fieldcraft demimateria 1-3, what levels)? This could be a godsend for me, but I'm truly lost on how you do this.

The way I do it personally involves mostly using the shroud soil to grow a combo of voidrake & water/lightning shards. Mostly grow the shards with the grade 3, use grade 2 if you have it available for the voidrake, otherwise 3 works the same as 2 for it. I then turn in the voidrake for lots of volcanic rock salt, then buy half that amount in vitriol from the kobold vendor. Synth all that into HQ spirits of salt (rotation is superfast & easy with ala mhigan gear). Every 5 of those gets me an Artisan's Alembic (from Talan in Mor Dhona), which desynths into darksteel, fieldcraft III demimateria, or mastercraft demimateria. Whatever you can get the resources for from growing things is what you turn into desynths. This can work for most of the artisan tools.

CRP: not going to work this way since it needs spruce plywood.
BSM/ARM: get darksteel ore instead, make the needed products.
GSM: get gold ore, make rose gold cogs.
LTW: not gonna work. needs hippogryph leather.
WVR: get silver ore, make ingots, combine with silk thread to make brocade.
ALC: volcanic rock salt, get vitriol from kobold vendor.
CUL: need dzemael tomatoes. probably not the best way since it needs multiple other ingredients to make the final product.

I typically do it in batches of 1000 volcanic salt/500 vitriol. usually takes me a couple days of crafting to get it done since i just make them whenever i'm waiting on queues and stuff. I used to think demimateria hell was real, but now, its not so bad after all. (aethersand still sucks though)