Board Thread:Bug Reports/@comment-176.37.178.103-20170730144408/@comment-33763020-20180120170444

I'm drifting a bit from the original topic, but since it's forging-economics related and when to use the Oddment Collector vs when not, allow me to make another point. :)

Utumno resource need depends much on how you play it: I can imagine that since (unlike me) most play in multi-player and do not do Utumno alone, armour damage can be significantly less, in which case you may not need that much material for reforging (though if you're with a group and do need to reforge, you have to split ingot proceeds, which makes it challenging as well). Bringing troops also helps, though the first time I ran out of troops pretty quickly and they hinder me from hitting enemies with my Blessed weapon, reducing loot this way, so I'm not fond of troops down there.

I saw a video of MindofMike with 3 other guys raiding Utumno and by not using smart walling techniques they were dying all the time, even in a group, so it seems to me that armour gets worn down pretty much by everyone if you don't play it smart. Playing smart takes a long time however and uses much Dwarven Tonic, so you need to find a balance in making the visit worthwhile but not spending too much time. Of course the safest and cheapest option is going down in Peaceful setting, but what's the challenge in that? (I know, I tried once) In Mike's case I sometimes even had the feeling that his setting is on "Easy" as he gets far less damage from knocks than I get on "Normal" setting with better armour, but that might just be my perception and I have no idea whether a general difficulty setting applies to multiplayer servers.

All in all, to get back to Oddment Collectors, their mending cost and how that applies to choice of armour/weapons when preparing for Utumno, I would simply buy up a lot of armour of your alignment  and unsmelt it in advance, bring heavy ingot resources to the Pits and mend everything inside, unless you make a quick run with already a Pickaxe of the Underworld available to go lower and get yourself that juicy whip or Flames of Udun. :)