Lumberjack/Guides

There are two main strategies for cutting lumber, and the one you choose depends on whether you want to level as rapidly as possible or are willing to sacrifice some of that for the benefits of either some kamas or levelling professions that depend on wood.

Cut and Burn
With this strategy, you will cut wood and destroy it (or drop it) whenever you fill your carrying capacity. You will want to optimise based on two factors, cut-time and XP. The most efficient woods to cut in this case are Ash, Chestnut, and Oak, as they all share the same cutting time - for Ash, running a loop starting at the The Milicluster, running left, and then down one square and right again is optimal. Chestnut and oak lack routes that are quite that efficient - a larger Eltneg Wood loop is possible, as is the southern coast of the Scaraleaf Plain moving into the The Jelly Peninsula. As always, finding a route that is not presently being heavily used is ideal for most effective leveling. At higher levels, occasional runs to cut Oliviolet and Bombu also provide good experience.

Cut and Save
With this strategy, you will cut wood and make trips to sell or save it whenever you finish a loop and are near your carrying capacity. Important for doing this efficiently is increasing carrying capacity. A Bworky is very commonly used, as are backpacks and strength gear. Leveling lumberjack and other professions continually improves capacity as well. Saving wood can mean one of two things - selling it or storing it for later use. For those that choose to store it, it makes sense either to own a house or to arrange for bank fees to be very low - as large numbers of trips will be made to store the desired woods, any significant access fees add up quickly. Selling of wood avoids some of that although sale fees can also add up. At low levels, The Milicluster is again very useful (and if you need Ash Planks for any reason, the workshop there can craft Ash wood into planks, which weigh less than the wood required to craft them). At higher levels, Eltneg Wood provides a wide variety of woods - memorising a route for a loop to most efficiently gather the specific woods harvestable (and desirable) is useful. As an added bonus, those gathering wood in Eltneg are near Bonta and can easily access the sellroom to sell their woods if desired. Cutting in Eltneg is risky because of Trools - every so often even the most experienced woodcutters slip up and are aggroed by them - those who cannot defeat them are advised to remove their Bworky (if applicable) before going ready for combat. Cutting in areas distant from a bank usually should be done with recall potions (or Brakmar/Bonta potions) so as to reduce the time spent on travel.

Gear

 * Pumpkwins and other reduction gear can help low level characters avoid damage when fighting Tree Protectors - given that this will usually happen several times per run, this saves on bread.
 * Lumberjack-capable axes- there are many options beyond the basic lumberjack axe, some of which can either double as a primary weapon or are more convenient than switching weapons at the start of every protector combat. A good one is the Oak Killer, which gives Strength.
 * Bworkys are very handy to increase carrying capacity. Alternatively, Dragoturkeys allow lumberjacks to more quickly move around, making their collection runs faster. Dragonturkeys have inventory too, so you can store some wood in it (you can use the bworky to get pods and the dragonturkeys' inventory combined).
 * Strength or +pods gear can also be helpful, particularly backpacks. As one levels LJ (or other gathering professions), higher level harvesting backpacks become usable.
 * High level characters should carry gear in which to fight Trools if they plan on visiting Eltneg.

Planning a route
Effective cutting involves planning one or more routes for the woods one plans to collect. The most effective routes tend to be loops that don't intersect themselves, so that when one returns to the beginning, ideally the trees there will have regrown for more cutting. Depending on one's needs, one might change one's route whenever new woods become cuttable (as one levels lumberjack), and one might choose to switch to another route if one's preferred one already has too many lumberjacks actively harvesting it. Being online at the right time of day can help considerably.

Crafting
As an alternative to both saving/selling and destroying/dropping wood, those cutting near a lumberjack workshop may have the option of making shavings potions with their wood for extra experience. In some circumstances this can be used to level your profession faster.

You can also open a secondary craft that uses the wood that you end up saving and some items are worth the time, in addition, you get to level 2 professions at the same time with less effort.

If you're no higher than character level 15 and profession level 5, you can repeat the quest Manufacture for Poss'Ybel Nhin in the side room of the Incarnam Inn (3, 3). Each time, give her an Ash Plank, whether you sawed it personally or not, to receive 75 job experience. 11 repetitions of the quest, thus 11 Ash Planks, are sufficient to get you from profession level 1 to 6.