chicken and egg: training up imbuing

I started a new Gargoyle craftsman.  Since I knew neither Imbuing nor Tailoring had accelerated gain to 50, I started him with 45 of each.  The UOGuide Imbuing page, apparently incorrectly, states the Unraveling skill requirements are:

0: Magical Residue
45: Enchanted Essence
90.1: Relic Fragment

However, while doing newbie quests in New Haven, he received 5 "Lesser Magic Items" as monster drops, yet was unable to unravel any of them.  (Yes, he tried in Ter Mur by the Soul Forge.) I conclude that either this info is out of date, incorrect or missing important data, or all 5 items want to unravel into Relic Fragments.

UOGuide also say to train from 40 to 50 skill, add Reflect Physical Damage to leather caps. But there is a chicken and egg situation.  I need magical residue to add that property, and I cannot get magical residue without being able to unravel.  I was hoping the jeweler by the Soul Forge might sell it, but unfortunately not.

It then occurred to me that maybe I could use vendor search to find some jewelry to give him some extra Imbuing skill.  Neither Imbuing nor any of the crafting-related skills can be searched for in the Skills list.  Finally I searched for Magical Residue, and I see one player selling 100 units for 20,000 GP.

That might be my only way forward. If so, there is a bad design here.  Should one not be able to perform low and middle level crafting skill on their own, without needing to buy stuff from another player?  I know Bowyers and Carpenters can buy bulk boards, Blacksmiths can buy bulk ingots, etc., but they don't have to.  They can chop trees or mine and get the commodities they need. Similarly, a young Imbuer should be able to acquire on his own base items like Magical Residue or Enchanted Essence.

What am I missing?

Hey @Rock

So, I just logged in a character with 0 imbuing.

As a human and at the soul forge in my house, he could not unravel a "Lesser Magic Item".

However, he can unravel a "Minor Magic Item". 0 skill = 4 Magical Residue.

So it looks like the 0 skill requirement for Magical Residue is accurate, but it has to be a Minor Magic Item.

No idea at what skill level you can start unraveling Lesser Magic Items.

Hmm, unraveling may be related to the total intensity of the properties of the item, rather than a direct Minor/Lesser threshold.

Also, 100 MR for 20k gold is insane. That's probably why it is still on the vendor. Ask in Gen Chat, someone will probably just give you 100 MR.

Thank you for the research and info, @Arroth_Thaiel. My guy is past the hump now.  Skill level necessary?  45.1 !!  I guess that is like when a mage book tells you that 38 magery is minimum level to cast Incognito.  Not quite; at 38.0 you still have 0 chance, but at 38.1 it is possible, but not likely that it will work (probably 0.2% chance).  Although in this case, 45.1 has let me unravel every Lesser Magical Item.  He did acquire a couple Minor Magical Items, and that got him started.

Your speculation is correct about total intensity being the determinant. In that first batch of five, there were 2 Minor Magical items, but he was not able to unravel them.  Fortunately he was able to unravel a couple in the second batch, which got him above 45.0.  He could then unravel the whole set from the two batches, except for one Greater Magical Item.  The Lessers seemed to all give Magical Residue, while the Minors gave Enchanted Essences.  I suspect the Greaters will give Relic Fragments.

My other characters on Origin already had started saving their magical drops, so my new imbuer will be off to a good start. From his own drops so far, he has 14 MRs and 28 EEs. With 45.7 Imbuing skill now, he should be able to get to 50 relatively quickly, a lot of it coming from actual imbuing instead of unraveling.