SOE: Ebon Cluster..increase the drop rate... PLEASE!!

[Cozumel]

For the love of the game, PLEASE increase the rate inwhich Ebon clusters drop!!! <div></div>

[Galeo1]

<DIV>Don't do it.  Leave something in this game rare and hard to achieve.</DIV>

[Culann Heartsto]

<P>I side with the OP.</P> <P>Finding a Ebon Cluster is incredibly difficult...drop rate COULD be improved to something beyond winning the lottery in a huge state.</P> <P> </P>

[Hiredg0]

The drop rate definately needs to be increased. Ebon is used to make armor for both chain and plate wearers, along with every metallic weapon available, used in the EBBC heritage quest, and the occasional home decoration. None of the other rare harvests boast this much versatility and demand, please help! <div></div>

[Handleba]

I have found 6 in the past two weeks with a total of about 5 hours of harvesting.  The rate doesn't need to be increased. <div></div>

[jedijas]

<span><blockquote><hr>Handlebars wrote:I have found 6 in the past two weeks with a total of about 5 hours of harvesting.  The rate doesn't need to be increased. <div></div><hr></blockquote> I call BS on this.</span><div></div>

[Culann Heartsto]

<DIV>I have to say..I've harvested for close to 7-8 in the last week and found none...so by the same train of thought...the droprate DOES need to be increased...seriously increased.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[Ma]

Total BS :smileyvery-happy: <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>to the 6 harvests in 2 weeks, I strongly agree with the OP</DIV><p>Message Edited by Makx on <span class=date_text>05-05-2005</span> <span class=time_text>10:52 PM</span>

[Aegori]

<P>If i were SOE, i would be much more inclined to honor requests that have a valid reason... not "I cant find ebon". Two sources... harvesting and T5 named mobs. I've gotten 2 in the past 3 days via the latter source. There's plenty to go around.</P> <P>-Aeg</P>

[Mat]

Not also Ebon clusters but the <STRONG>uncommon </STRONG>(luminous) stuffs seem never show up on me. :p

[Gladesto]

<DIV>Agree with this post...Players who want it to stay...Only want to make a quick 2 plat...</DIV>

[A]

I think the mined clusters do need to be increased for the casual player to get some of this gear.  I think it is disproportionant to have so many ebon disks/coins etc drop from named yet the mined clusters are unbelievably rare.  And I know there are alot of the ones from named mobs around since every higher end guild I see has every member in full ebon armor/weapons.

[Huskyla]

<P>I think the drop rate is just fine.  I've harvested a few ebon's, and yea, it's hard to get them harvesting.  I don't want to keep them hard to get to jack up the price, I use the ones I am fortunate enough to get.  </P> <P>Ebon's drop from T5 nameds pretty frequently also ..  what's the problem here?</P> <P>Everyone in favor of increasing the drop rate seems to want to make it better for the casual player.  Ok, that's fine, I understand you want more rewards.  But explain to me, what's the incentive for the hardcore player?  Where do you drop the line?   Will fabelled items be next to drop from small wooden chests?</P> <P>The drop rate is just fine IMO.</P>

[Culann Heartsto]

<DIV>No..it's not really fine..if it were, you wouldn't have the majority of people in this thread asking for a increase, neither would you have the OP making the thread.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>People can go for crazy lengths of time hunting without finding one..while others can find them in relatively short time, which is simply the vast randomness of success in this situation.  This is not acceptable.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Next..Husky..EQ2 is not meant to be a game built for the hardcore..it's just not..I read a post elsewhere where 7 people killed Vox the other day...and people are doing multiple raids on different zones per night.  This is not hardcore as EQ1 was.  When you come to that realization, it will make a lot more sense that you're in a casual friendly MMO and item rates for things like ebon clusters DO need to have the drop rate raised to fall in line with the other perspectives SOE apparently has regarding this game.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Any way you look at it, SOE's already indicated by deed and word the game is meant for the casual types, and casual people should have just as much right to the clusters and the like as anyone else.</DIV>

[Handleba]

Call BS all you want, I just broke onto the top 100 wealthiest from selling them on Befallen.  Send a cross-tell to any of my guildies inThe Rallosian Guard and ask.  I have theories on why I find them, just not going to share with people who call me a liar. <div></div>

[Aegori]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Culann Heartstone wrote:<BR> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>People can go for crazy lengths of time hunting without finding one..while others can find them in relatively short time, which is simply the vast randomness of success in this situation.  This is not acceptable.  </DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Why is this unacceptable? You still have the same chance as everyone else to find these items. The fact i found 2 in 3 days was pure and simple luck. I had two good rolls and won. Except for those, i'm lucky if i can find 1 every 3-4 weeks. You know why this is acceptable... because you only need 6 of them. Their rarity is one of the elements of achievement within the game. Flood the market with these and you're simply watering down the market for a staple end game armor. Where is the fun in that? If SOE had made EP molds tradeable when PoP released, what the heck fun would that have been? There's no sense of achievement in buying everything from a watered down market. I appreciate the causal gamer argument, but like i said above, they have the same chances as everyone else to get these items. Since you all are of the level where ebon matters, i'll give everyone a tip:</P> <P>Get access to Miragul's Menagerie and Icespire Summit and farm them daily. Each instance takes little time to do and can yield T5 drops (tho it's not a guarantee). Also, the dynamic mob camps and named in Feerrott all have a chance to drop T5 rares from them as well. Ebon, Superb Pelts, Cedar, etc. are not for the "uber"... they are for those that put forth the effort to obtain them. I know i have, and i would feel wholly cheapened if they made the task easier for everyone else.</P> <P>-Aeg</P>

[Mad_Hatt0r]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Handlebars wrote:<BR>Call BS all you want, I just broke onto the top 100 wealthiest from selling them on Befallen.  Send a cross-tell to any of my guildies inThe Rallosian Guard and ask.  I have theories on why I find them, just not going to share with people who call me a liar.<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>i dont think you are a liar...can you tell me :smileywink:</P> <P>gnomes are sexy..</P>

[Eadric]

<EM><FONT color=#ccffff>The desire for ebon is huge...too huge really. SOE could afford to increase the spawn rate on the clusters and it would be fine. BTW, I'm a warlock and have absolutely no use or need for ebon stuff, but I see my friends and they spend hours on end banging rocks praying to get one for their upgrades. I'd rather see them enjoying the game and adventuring. But I guess I'm odd like that.</FONT></EM>

[Stabz]

<DIV>Quit whining, they're down to 2 plat on blackburrow just buy them if you're too lazy to harvest.</DIV>

[Eneg]

In the words of Bruce Springsteen: "You cant always get what you want". <div></div>

[WAPCE]

<blockquote><hr>Culann Heartstone wrote:<DIV>No..it's not really fine..if it were, you wouldn't have the majority of people in this thread asking for a increase, neither would you have the OP making the thread.</DIV><hr></blockquote>If people weren't asking for an increase, it wouldn't be a rare, which would negate the entire purpose of having rare harvests/crafted items. I'm sorry, but not everyone can have 7 pieces of crafted ebon armor and the Robe of the Invoker. That's just how rare items work.

[Huskyla]

<P>Yes Culann, IMO its fine.  The majority (and its not a very strong majority) want the drops increased because they are the have-nots, and want a bit easier.  I understand that position, I just disagree.  </P> <P>Random is completely acceptable to me.  Otherwise everyone ends up with the same armor, the same weapons, ultimately the same everything.</P> <P>As for your postion that this game is not made for the hard-core, well I never said it was ONLY meant for them.  Clearly the game appeals to both casual and hardcore, and I'd bet my bottom dollar SOE wants both customers.  Heck, I'd be willing the wager with a little use of the search engine you can even find quotes from Sony confirming this.   </P> <P>The drop rate is just fine.  Go out group up and kill a few nameds in lava and you'll get ebon drops also.</P> <P>However, that said, I will say that I think the EBBC quest should use a luminious stone not an ebon cluster. </P> <P>Don't make blanket statements that the game is for casual players only.  That's just silly.</P>

[Bleusong]

also needed for heritage quests right?..ebon rarity is bit ridiculous..any other servers where it goes for 5plat a pop? <div></div>

[Naughtesn]

<DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Enegar wrote:<BR>In the words of Bruce Springsteen: "You cant always get what you want".<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Wasn't that Mick Jagger? first, anyway...</DIV>

[espmrred]

<DIV>I don't know if the drop needs to be increased... or if SOE should take a look at a few other changes I think doing at least 1 of the following ideas would dramaticlly improve the situation.</DIV> <DIV>1) Change the item needed in BBC from an Ebon Cluster, to a Luminous Stone (They did it for every other heritage quest, but BBC and GBS and it cut down a demand for HQ Pelts, Opal and Fir)</DIV> <DIV>2) Increase the ore nodes themselves, don't tweak the drop rate of ebon, just increase the chances of seeing Ore nodes.</DIV> <DIV>3) Remove the [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] botters! </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I'm sorry but with the botters on the faydark server harvesting 24/7 in Feerrott and Rivervale I rarely run into an ore. I can run into any other T5 node just fine, but not ore. Yet I constantly get tells for botters offering to sell me an ebon cluster for 2p</DIV>

[Kizee]

<DIV>You don't see any ore because people will stop and harvest it as soon as they see it because of how much ebon clusters sell for. All the other rares don't sell for as much so people will run by them normally.</DIV>

[Roger1111]

<P>It isn't that the rate for harvesting ebon clusters needs to be increased.  The problem is that there is a problem of supply and demand for them relative to the other T5 rare harvested items.</P> <P>There are currently 14 subclasses who require ebon clusters for crafted upgrades to their T5 armor.  This compares to 4 subclasses who require pelts for light armor upgrades, and 6 subclasses who require roots for very light armor upgrades.</P> <P>Then, you must add to the equation the ebon component for the Bone Bladed Claymore heritage quest, and the fact that many of the same subclasses who require ebon clusters for their armor upgrades also require ebon for their weapon upgrades.</P> <P>Here are some suggestions that could be employed to make ebon upgrades lower in price on the market, without increasing the harvest rate of ebon clusters:</P> <P>1)  Remove ebon cluster from a quest step from the Bone Bladed Claymore,</P> <P>2)  Split up the heavy and medium armor wearers, have one of the groups need a different harvested rare item with which they upgrade their armor,</P> <P>3)  Make ore nodes much like stone nodes, which yield the chance of harvesting two separate rare items that can both be used to upgrade spells, instead the ore would yield two different rare items that can be used to upgrade armor, weapons, etc.</P> <P>The basic problem is that light or very light armor wearers, while having the same chance to obtain a harvest for the rare they need as do medium and heavy armor wearers, are able to obtain their rare items off the broker for much cheaper than medium and heavy armor wearers are able to.  Instead of increasing supply, the devs need to effect changes in the demand side of the equation to bring medium and heavy armor wearers more in line with their light and very light armor wearing counterparts.</P> <P>Faelar-45 inquisitor of Retribution</P> <P>Oasis server</P> <DIV>And yes, I realize that strange black ore also is returned from harvesting ore nodes, but at this point, there are so few level 30 guilds on any server, not to mention the difficulty in forging the items from it, that strange black ore is practically a non-entity in the equation.</DIV><p>Message Edited by Roger1111 on <span class=date_text>05-07-2005</span> <span class=time_text>01:38 PM</span>

[Efour EQ2]

<DIV>why not just add a /ebon command when u ding 50 u get 9 clusters in your bag.  </DIV> <DIV>Dont make this game easier than it is already.</DIV>

[strath]

Depends on whoyou are, a guy in my guild has found more ebon than i have T5 rares...my time harvesting,k 2 months, his time harvesting...2 weeks..go figure, theres no way in hell that its that random.

[Dazzler_Twodir]

<P>I've spent 2 months just looking in all the T5 zones for one frigging ebon for the BBC heritage.</P> <P>At least let the stupid coin and disc be used for it or the black ore or the lumi stone.</P> <P>Or FIX the stupid rocks always bugged in the trees.</P> <P>Ypu can run around Feerrott at any time 6 to 10 rocks will be unreachable.</P>

[Roger1111]

<DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Efour EQ2 wrote:<BR> <DIV>why not just add a /ebon command when u ding 50 u get 9 clusters in your bag.  </DIV> <DIV>Dont make this game easier than it is already.</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>I'm certainly not asking for this.  All I would like to see is the availability of ebon armor for heavy and medium armor wearers become more in line with our LA and VLA wearing brethren.  And to that point, I listed a few ways to affect the demand for ebon without affecting the supply.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Faelar-45 inquisitor of Retribution</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Oasis server</DIV>

[mistress_darknes]

<P>I agree it needs to be easier.  im maxed on my harvesting  for my level and have never found one.</P> <P>and 3 to 5 plat per is out of reach for many that need  the armor upgrades.</P> <P>s</P>

[Zemeckis]

How bout SOE just give everyone a full set of ebon armor and some imbued ebon weapons along witha couple more clusters to sell for plat just for fun.  SOE has done enough for  harvesting...already increasing ebons drop rate and now fails on harvesting dont effect the node.  So stop being lazy and get out there and harvest if u want it so bad. 

[Roger1111]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Zemeckis85 wrote:<BR>How bout SOE just give everyone a full set of ebon armor and some imbued ebon weapons along witha couple more clusters to sell for plat just for fun.  SOE has done enough for  harvesting...already increasing ebons drop rate and now fails on harvesting dont effect the node.  So stop being lazy and get out there and harvest if u want it so bad.  <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>I'm sorry, but I have yet to see anyone reply to my assertion that the demand for ebon clusters merely needs to be brought in line with the demand for other T5 rare harvested items.  That's it.  I'm not asking for God mode, or automatic l337 gear.  The only thing I want is balance between the subclasses, balance that affects demand, not supply.</P> <P>And why must everyone assume that a desire for balance=laziness?  I assure you, I have spent countless hours harvesting, with all harvesting skills (except fishing) maxed for my level.  These were all maxed for my level BEFORE the harvesting changes went in.</P> <P>Oh, and btw, they never increased the rare harvest rate of ore nodes.  They did, however, increase the rare harvest rate of stone nodes.</P> <P>Faelar-45 inquisitor of Retribution</P> <P>Oasis server</P>

[WolfSha]

<P>Sorry, have to add my "don't agree" with the OP</P> <P>It's not like you <EM>need</EM> ebon armour unless you're a guard and you tank raids every day....  the only reason we all want it so that we can pose in our super rare armour and go "look at me, i got this great rare stuff".  <STRONG>You're asking SoE to remove the reason why you want it in the first place if you think about it!!!</STRONG> </P> <P>Sorry, but ebon isn't a necessity, it's a luxury, you can tank raids in funginate.</P> <P>And personally I'm looking forward to getting it and having something else that not <EM>that </EM>many people have.</P> <P>The only time anyone has ever said "nice armour" to me in my fulginate was a lvl 19 warrior, and i don't want ebon to be the same!</P> <P>I went out looking for 10 hours straigt yesterday and found 1 (and 11 stacks of fulginate, lol).  Yes it was dull, yes it was annoying, but when i get the other 6 (that one was for the ebbc),  I want to be able to be proud of my hard earned armour <EM>because</EM> it was so hard to get, not just have good armour that was easy to get and every player over lvl 40 has....</P> <P>I understand casual players being a little frustrated, but if you're a casual player, why do you need, or expect to get the best gear? what's left for the more dedicated?  If the rares were aimed at the casual players then the people who can/want to spend more time playing will run out of things to do and get bored very quickly.</P> <P>I have a 9-6 job and it'll take me weeks and weeks to get my ebon.... but thats why i want it!!!!!  If you don't want to put in the time and get back the resulting sense of acheivement for it then the exchange servers will be open soon...</P> <P><SPAN class=time_text></SPAN> </P><p>Message Edited by WolfShark on <span class=date_text>05-08-2005</span> <span class=time_text>04:56 AM</span>

[Kyriel]

<DIV>i disagree and its [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] to want to make a RARE item more common. </DIV>

[Chukkl]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Efour EQ2 wrote:<BR> <DIV>why not just add a /ebon command when u ding 50 u get 9 clusters in your bag.  </DIV> <DIV>Dont make this game easier than it is already.</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>This is an inane, pointless, and unhelpful comment. I don't agree that ebon clusters should be more common, but I do think that suggestions should be helpful rather than obnoxious.</P> <P>I figure I'll be starred down as well, but I won't 1-star somebody without an explanation.</P>

[Roger1111]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Zemfira wrote:<BR> <DIV>i disagree and its [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] to want to make a RARE item more common. </DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>For me, this has never been about making rare items more common.  All I'm asking is that ebon gear be more or less just as common as RARE light armor and very light armor.  This is a matter of fairness for me, not about making the game easier.</P> <P>And can someone tell me what is with all of the obtuse posts seemingly attempting to obfuscate the matter by accusing those people arguing that ebon has too much demand of "wanting to make the game too easy"?  Again, it isn't about making it easy; it's about making it FAIR.</P> <P>Faelar-45 inquisitor of Retribution</P> <P>Oasis server</P>

[frawdd]

<P>Have to totally agree witht he OP and the previous post has again re-stated the point. This is not about making the game easier, its about balance.  On my server and from what I can gather in previous posts, most other servers, Ebon is at least 4 times the price of any other T5 rare. </P> <P>I have been harvesting for the last few weeks and have yet to find an Ebon cluster. I have come across a total of 9 rares, 4 stange ore and a single luminious. I am probably unlucky, I can live with that but what I don't like, is the fact that i need to compete with 13 other classes to purchase Ebon on the broker.</P> <P> A month back, when I came across my first couple of Rhodium, my first thought was to sell and buy ebon. Ebon = 4pp, Rhodium = 3pp. They sat on the broker for weeks, lowering the price daily till the price was 80g. By this time, there were 2 pages or rhodium and over 1 page of rubies, the lowest selling for 60g.</P> <P>Sony has already attempted to balance all other rares, so why leave Ebon the way it is.</P> <P> I think this plea has a lot to do with end game content. I purchased/quested for all my current gear in my early 40s. Now for the last 5 levels, i have not upgraded any equipment. I have turned off XP for the last 2 weeks, to concentrate on harvesting in the hope that I can upgrade. I have been spending more time playing alts recently and noticed that one of the main things that I loved about this game, was the ability to continually quest for items that were upgrades.</P> <P>I bought a full set of fulginate at 40 and do date have only changed the boots. Jewlery wise, I have purchased a glowing shard bracelet to go along with my quested item and am about to finish my FBSS heritage. Sony has to give us plate wearers some love. Please look at the drop rate or usage of Ebon. And some decent quested armour, post lvl40 would be nice.</P>

[WolfSha]

<P>I can't tell you your wrong.. because your not, lol.... but....</P> <P>Your arguments are kinda why i want it to stay the way it is though - it's partly why we want it... yes it is better... but it's not like it's 100x better than fulginate!</P> <P>Come on... please shout me down all the people who <STRONG><EM>honestly, </EM>regularly </STRONG>find themselves saying "[expletive ninja'd by Faarbot], i could have suvived that in ebon, this fulginate is really gimping my char"... </P> <P>We want it sooo much <EM>because</EM> it's so mega rare and annoying to get...</P> <P>My g/f just got the rare T5 light armour for her fury.. you know what she said "hmm... looks nicer, bit more +wiz i suppose".</P> <P>Oh my god!!!!  When i get a full set of ebon i'll be bouncing around the room!!! - and that's the point....</P> <P>I'd rather have it rarer, even if it's unblanced and get to feel super smug and happy when eventually do get it rather than have it next week and go "hmm... looks nicer, bit more mitigation i suppose".</P> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Btw, decent quested armour after 40... couldn't agree with you more!! What's with that? there are lots of options in your 30's, after 40 your only choice is fultinate till you get to 45 then rubicite.... very dull and annoying.  Come on SoE get a grip... getting bored seeing myself in a mirror every time i run past a 40+ tank or cleric....</DIV><p>Message Edited by WolfShark on <span class=date_text>05-09-2005</span> <span class=time_text>05:31 AM</span>

[Mol]

<P>How about all the people wanting ebon drop rates to stay the same go and look at the prices of the light/very light tier 5 equivelant armour, i think you'll find on most servers it sells for 50-70gold where as our armour sells for 3-4pp a pop, how is that fare?.</P> <P>Sure if they want to keep the drop rate the same maybe they should remove it from Soooo many [Removed for Content] recipes, even light armour wearers need it for their weapons.</P> <P>So its simple, either reduce the "Need" for it or increases its "Supply Rate". </P> <P> </P> <P>PS. Yes ive spent at least 10 levels farming for the stuff and only ever got 2 luminous stones (Yippee!!).</P> <p>Message Edited by Molak on <span class=date_text>05-09-2005</span> <span class=time_text>06:18 AM</span>

[Cozumel]

Well.. I spent Friday, Saturday, and Sunday ALL FREAKING DAY mining T5 zones (RV, EF, FEERROTT, and LS)... I not only never got an Ebon anything, I never got any rare what-so-ever.  Bad Luck? Perhaps.. Does it make me any real coin? Nope. Was it fun? Certainly not. Boring? ABSOLUTELY! <div></div>

[Kyriel]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Roger1111 wrote:<BR><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE>Again, it isn't about making it easy; it's about making it FAIR.</BLOCKQUOTE> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>Lifes not fair. So eq2 isnt Real-Life , but its non the less a sort of life and guess what, its not fair. hi im a beserker and i cant go invis! omg its not fair! [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] I can't evac, omg thats not fair! OMG i dont get a HORSE As a FLUFF SPELL OMG OMG ITS NOT FAIR. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Hi devs, please give beserkers:</DIV> <DIV>1)Invis</DIV> <DIV>2) Evac</DIV> <DIV>3) Horse</DIV> <DIV>kthanks</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>your light armor has stats, my heavy armor has stats. they are different, so what. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>we are different classes who have <FONT color=#ffff00>Different capabilities</FONT>, sorry you can not handle the ebon!</DIV> <DIV>It all just comes down to, I am much stronger then you! </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Tho it would be nice to make ebon robes! Chip the ebon into sparkling little diaomond type jewels, carefully stitched all across the robe giving it an everlasting shimmer!~</DIV>

[Dart]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Roger1111 wrote:<BR> <P>It isn't that the rate for harvesting ebon clusters needs to be increased.  The problem is that there is a problem of supply and demand for them relative to the other T5 rare harvested items.</P> <P>There are currently 14 subclasses who require ebon clusters for crafted upgrades to their T5 armor.  This compares to 4 subclasses who require pelts for light armor upgrades, and 6 subclasses who require roots for very light armor upgrades.</P> <P>Then, you must add to the equation the ebon component for the Bone Bladed Claymore heritage quest, and the fact that many of the same subclasses who require ebon clusters for their armor upgrades also require ebon for their weapon upgrades.</P> <P>Here are some suggestions that could be employed to make ebon upgrades lower in price on the market, without increasing the harvest rate of ebon clusters:</P> <P>1)  Remove ebon cluster from a quest step from the Bone Bladed Claymore,</P> <P>2)  Split up the heavy and medium armor wearers, have one of the groups need a different harvested rare item with which they upgrade their armor,</P> <P>3)  Make ore nodes much like stone nodes, which yield the chance of harvesting two separate rare items that can both be used to upgrade spells, instead the ore would yield two different rare items that can be used to upgrade armor, weapons, etc.</P> <P>The basic problem is that light or very light armor wearers, while having the same chance to obtain a harvest for the rare they need as do medium and heavy armor wearers, are able to obtain their rare items off the broker for much cheaper than medium and heavy armor wearers are able to.  Instead of increasing supply, the devs need to effect changes in the demand side of the equation to bring medium and heavy armor wearers more in line with their light and very light armor wearing counterparts.</P> <P>Faelar-45 inquisitor of Retribution</P> <P>Oasis server</P> <DIV>And yes, I realize that strange black ore also is returned from harvesting ore nodes, but at this point, there are so few level 30 guilds on any server, not to mention the difficulty in forging the items from it, that strange black ore is practically a non-entity in the equation.</DIV> <P>Message Edited by Roger1111 on <SPAN class=date_text>05-07-2005</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>01:38 PM</SPAN><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>Agree, its sad I have to save up for 4 levels to buy one freakin cluster. All Harvesting skills maxed (minus trapping, 198ish). So many classes use these for tier 5 armor, its insane how rare these for for the demmand. Add in the bots that farm this crap and your paying 2 plus plat for a cluster so you can get someone to MAKE a armor piece. Then add in the factor the heritage for EBCC Requires one, sheesh. Ya  Im a little furstrated with it. BTT I get a full suite of ebon and an EBCC I will be level 60 sigh.</P> <P>Oh btw I spend 2 hours a day (durring week) harvesting, 6 to hours each weekend day harvesting, I have yet to harvest ONE ebon cluster, sold Many piles of Fulg/Rough x stones bloodstones ect.. SO the effort is there but the reard is no where near there.</P>

[Cecil_Stri]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Gladestone wrote:<BR> <DIV>Agree with this post...Players who want it to stay...Only want to make a quick 2 plat...</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>anyidea how dumb this sounds. so is it a way to get a quick 2 plat or are they hard to get... the statement contradicts itself

[Roger1111]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Zemfira wrote:<BR><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Roger1111 wrote:<BR><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE>Again, it isn't about making it easy; it's about making it FAIR.</BLOCKQUOTE> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>Lifes not fair. So eq2 isnt Real-Life , but its non the less a sort of life and guess what, its not fair. hi im a beserker and i cant go invis! omg its not fair! [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] I can't evac, omg thats not fair! OMG i dont get a HORSE As a FLUFF SPELL OMG OMG ITS NOT FAIR. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Hi devs, please give beserkers:</DIV> <DIV>1)Invis</DIV> <DIV>2) Evac</DIV> <DIV>3) Horse</DIV> <DIV>kthanks</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>your light armor has stats, my heavy armor has stats. they are different, so what. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>we are different classes who have <FONT color=#ffff00>Different capabilities</FONT>, sorry you can not handle the ebon!</DIV> <DIV>It all just comes down to, I am much stronger then you! </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Tho it would be nice to make ebon robes! Chip the ebon into sparkling little diaomond type jewels, carefully stitched all across the robe giving it an everlasting shimmer!~</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>/boggle</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Reading this post makes me wish they still taught formal logic in high schools.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Zemfira:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The entire reason that a zerker can't cast invis or evac is BECAUSE it is fair for them to not have those abilities.  Just as it is fair that a guardian can't cast a 3k Nil Distortion or heal himself for 1000 hit points.  It is called class balance.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>And, the rest of your post makes so little sense as to be unintelligible.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Ebon robes?</DIV> <DIV>Inquisitors wearing light armor?</DIV> <DIV>Can't handle the ebon?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Huh?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Please limit your post as to why reducing the demand for ebon clusters would be beneficial to the game, or as to why it would be detrimental to the game.  kkthanx</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Faelar-45 inquisitor of Retribution</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Oasis server</DIV>

[Blackdog183]

<P>I agree with the OP.</P> <P>I mine anywhere form 3-4 hours a day(as im a t5 alchey and burn thru these materials very fast), and have yet to harvest ONE SINGLE EBON.  Come to think of it, ive never even harvested a SINGLE t5 rare.  In over a solid month of harvesting Ive gotten 2 luminous, thats it.  I have my log from my parser going back to at least january, and it shows exactly what ive harvested, no rares.  On the other hand, my brother has harvested 3 FRIGGEN EBONS!!!!   How could anyone say this is even remotly fair, or balanced, being that he harvested 1/10th as much as I do.  Now Frizznick said back when they added in the TS buffs/etc that you would never get a rare from these before you get a rare harvesting.  Guess what, i proved that little theory wrong, the only t5 rare i have EVER gotten came from alchemy, go figure.</P> <P>Anyone saying these dont need to be increased is worried about losing their *quick plat*.</P> <P>Also if you claim to have harvested that many ebons in 2 weeks, SoE needs to look at ur [Removed for Content]....its called Xunleashed.</P>

[Kyriel]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Roger1111 wrote:<BR><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE>  It is called class balance.</BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV> </DIV> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>exactly meh fren.</DIV>

[WolfSha]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Blackdog183 wrote:<BR> <P>I agree with the OP.</P> <P>I mine anywhere form 3-4 hours a day(as im a t5 alchey and burn thru these materials very fast), and have yet to harvest ONE SINGLE EBON.  Come to think of it, ive never even harvested a SINGLE t5 rare.  In over a solid month of harvesting Ive gotten 2 luminous, thats it.  I have my log from my parser going back to at least january, and it shows exactly what ive harvested, no rares.  On the other hand, my brother has harvested 3 FRIGGEN EBONS!!!!   How could anyone say this is even remotly fair, or balanced, being that he harvested 1/10th as much as I do.  Now Frizznick said back when they added in the TS buffs/etc that you would never get a rare from these before you get a rare harvesting.  Guess what, i proved that little theory wrong, the only t5 rare i have EVER gotten came from alchemy, go figure.</P> <P>Anyone saying these dont need to be increased is worried about losing their *quick plat*.</P> <P>Also if you claim to have harvested that many ebons in 2 weeks, SoE needs to look at ur [Removed for Content]....its called Xunleashed.</P><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>oh dear.. you seem to have bad luck <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>It wasn't just me that found rares on that 10 hour trip to feerot at the weekend to look for ebon for the BBC quest... there were 3 of us there for 10 hours. between us we found 2 ebons, 1 ruby, 1 cedar, 1 pelt, 2 strange back ores and 10-15 lumious drops.... so for us the ebon was rare, but not exactly fabled that day... if what you say is true either you're VERY unlucky or I'm thinking we should all have bought lottery tickets that day..   </P> <P>Cry B/S if you want, tbh i don't care, we all have our claymore's now - somone was nice enough to swap a cluster for a ebon coin that the guy who didn't find a cluster had found a couple of weeks before...  </P> <P>I'm temped to cry B/S to your claim of 3-4 hours a day and no ebon ever, but if it is true then telling you that you're full of [expletive ninja'd before faarbot could get there - i'm faster!] wouldn't be very nice... :smileytongue:</P> <P>But things like "<FONT color=#3399cc>On the other hand, my brother has harvested 3 FRIGGEN EBONS!!!! How could anyone say this is even remotly fair, or balanced,</FONT>".... umm... maybe you don't get how this works blackdog.. it's <EM><STRONG>random -</STRONG></EM> fairness doesn't come into it... there isn't some bored gm allocating ebon finds to people.... it's is possible (but highly unlikely) that you could go out and find an ebon every hour. it is also possbile (and probably more likely :smileytongue:&nbsp<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> that you could havest 20 hours a day for 10 years and never find a rare of any kind.. saying "my brother has found more than me, it's not fair" isn't helping your argument very much... it only proves that luck comes into it a lot and ebons aren't that rare if you don't have your bad luck....</P><p>Message Edited by WolfShark on <span class=date_text>05-09-2005</span> <span class=time_text>02:48 PM</span>

[Omegafoxx]

<P>I persoanlly dont care what they do with ebon, i just want them to make my bone blade claymore heritage quest accecept ebon coins or disks instead of just the cluster itself. No you dont need a full set of ebon to tank, but if your a person who likes to do heritage quests, spending 2months harvesting rocks and you dont craft isnt fun, it isnt hard, and its just frustrating over anything else, dont know why sony changes every quest to accept alternate stones except bone blade claymore. </P> <P>I have money, ive earned my coin, and i still refuse to pay 2-4p for ebon, especially since ebon wont be the best armor for too much longer, seeing how level caps are raising, so will the armor teirs, i spend all my money on levle 40 gear, ill be stuck for level 50.</P> <P>Don't know why these posts always have one person saying why not just hand them this and that when they reach a certain point cause they want it a little bit easier, if you go check broker, you'll see every t5 rare is 80g and less, except ebon which is 2p and raising. Changing bone blade claymore to accept an alternate  stone will help lower the cost and demand.</P>

[TopHatJon]

<DIV>If enough people can afford full sets of *RARE* armor that those who don't feel left behind (which means it has become the standard), then I say it is too common.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>However, I do agree that the ALL heritage items should accept the droped forms of rare components though.</DIV>

[Silvo]

Since I started keeping track. 26 stacks of fulganite. No ebon. I only need it for armor and a weapon at this pace I should complete a set of armor in about 2010.

[WolfSha]

<P>Yeah, i obsolutely agree with you Tophat, it's bloody stupid, but if you do a "/tellchannel qeynos_crafting anyone mind swapping an ebon coin for a cluster" you'll get it swapped with no trouble. </P> <P>That's what we did for the one peson in our group who hadn't found a cluster and we got a yes in about 2 seconds so it's not like you're stuck mining if you only got a dropped ebon- the crafters will swap it if they're planning to use their ebon clusters for crafting as it makes no difference to them</P> <P>I agree it's stupid, but i don't see it as a major problem.</P><p>Message Edited by WolfShark on <span class=date_text>05-10-2005</span> <span class=time_text>01:30 AM</span>

[Squallaby]

I wouldn't worry to much about it.. wait till the expansion comes out in Sep, there will be new armors and gear that destroy ebon, and then everyone will have to gear up again <img src="/smilies/b2eb59423fbf5fa39342041237025880.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Nature of the beast! <div></div>

[Guard_Ra]

<P>I don't know if increasing it is the answer or not but it seems to me, that there are plenty of people getting them and then there others that are getting slim to none. Both people put in alot of hours harvesting but to me it almost seems like there is another factor at work here. No not some devious plan by SOE but more like an unknown bug that increases the probability of a drop, for example some wierd str and Int combo. Now this could be by complete chance, but it also seems to me that the lucky ones continue to stay lucky and well the rest of us are just SOL.</P> <P>my 2cp's</P> <P> </P> <P> </P> <P> </P>

[Guard_Ra]

<P><EM>removed double post.</EM></P> <P> </P> <P> </P> <p>Message Edited by Guard_Rail on <span class=date_text>05-10-2005</span> <span class=time_text>09:02 AM</span>

[jwdanie]

<P>I think that the real problem isn't that it is needed for the armor it is that it is needed for the Bone Bladed Claymore heritage.  Every rare/uncommon item used for a heritage sells for much higher than the other rare/uncommon items in that same tier.  I honestly can say that I don't know anyone that wants an ebon cluster for armor or weapons, but several people in my guild have spent 2-3 weeks and then 2-3 plat to finish the heritage.  If you look at all the rares in every tier, none of the prices for the armor/weapon rares are out of line, but the prices for the ones needed for heritage quests always are.  If you need further proof, look at the palladium torque.  It drops in Stormhold/Edgewater Drains and is a piece of jewelry that isn't even all that imprssive for the level range it is intended for (upper 20's) but it still sells for 2 plat because you need it for a heritage quest.</P> <P>A simple fix to this problem would be to remove the rare harvest/drop requirements for heritages and replace them with something else.  The Polished Granite Tomahawk heritage, for example, requires 10 'bits of granite' that must be harvested from windswept stones.  It is a quest update type thing that updates sometimes when you harvest, it acts as a harvest/time sink for people who are working the heritage, but it doesn't artificially inflate demand (and therefore price) for any particular rare.  The Dwarven Workboots heritage also uses a similar model (harvest 100 iron and 100 maple) and I honestly don't see why every heritage quest can't employ this harvesting model to find the 'rare harvestable' item for the quest.  It would ease the price pressure on ebon clusters, lower the price, reduce botting, and make the game more enjoyable all around for people trying to complete heritages and/or "end game" armor and weapons.</P>

[Handleba]

That's funny, everyone in my guild usually uses their ebons for armor and weapon upgrades and I would venture a lot more people use it for armor and weapons then the BBC because its one ebon per person for the BBC but abour 6-9 pieces to get full gear and a couple of nice weapons.

[WolfSha]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> jwdaniels wrote:<BR> <P>I think that the real problem isn't that it is needed for the armor it is that it is needed for the Bone Bladed Claymore heritage.  Every rare/uncommon item used for a heritage sells for much higher than the other rare/uncommon items in that same tier.  I honestly can say that I don't know anyone that wants an ebon cluster for armor or weapons, but several people in my guild have spent 2-3 weeks and then 2-3 plat to finish the heritage.  If you look at all the rares in every tier, none of the prices for the armor/weapon rares are out of line, but the prices for the ones needed for heritage quests always are.  If you need further proof, look at the palladium torque.  It drops in Stormhold/Edgewater Drains and is a piece of jewelry that isn't even all that imprssive for the level range it is intended for (upper 20's) but it still sells for 2 plat because you need it for a heritage quest.</P> <P>A simple fix to this problem would be to remove the rare harvest/drop requirements for heritages and replace them with something else.  The Polished Granite Tomahawk heritage, for example, requires 10 'bits of granite' that must be harvested from windswept stones.  It is a quest update type thing that updates sometimes when you harvest, it acts as a harvest/time sink for people who are working the heritage, but it doesn't artificially inflate demand (and therefore price) for any particular rare.  The Dwarven Workboots heritage also uses a similar model (harvest 100 iron and 100 maple) and I honestly don't see why every heritage quest can't employ this harvesting model to find the 'rare harvestable' item for the quest.  It would ease the price pressure on ebon clusters, lower the price, reduce botting, and make the game more enjoyable all around for people trying to complete heritages and/or "end game" armor and weapons.</P><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>Yeah, i agree with you - it's stupid, especally for everyone that isn't a warrior or a crusader and is only doing it for the good of their guild - it has much too higher price.  For me it was worth it for the sword, but for everyone else it's unfair.</P> <P> </P> <P>One think tho - can we wait a month before we change it so that the ebon i spent half of last weekend mining for and could have used for my first bit of ebon armour wasn't wasted! :smileyvery-happy:</P>

[CasombraHellstalk]

Ok I have spent 3 weeks harvesting for an ebon to do the heritage quest and all I have gotten in that entire time is severed cedar (Yippee), superb quality manticore pelt (another yippee), 20 luminous flowers, 10 luminous stones, 3 strange black ores and 30 stacks of fulginate. NO EBON. NO RUTHINUM, NO RUBY, NO ROOT. Now this is really beyond ridiculous. To want to finish a heritage quest it shouldn't be the harvestable item you need to be the challenge... it should be the end mob that should be the challenge. Last I remember this is EverQUEST not EverHARVEST. They need to either change the harvest rate for Pallidium and Ebon or change it to the T3 and T4 uncommon rare like they did with the other heritage quests.

[otlg]

<DIV>Well I feel for you, but my counter point is last night I pulled 1 in an hour, and 5 rares (wood(oak)x2, feysteelx2 and a tooth) in a T4 zone in about 3 hours.  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>It's just random.. just like some people occasionally have won back to back lotterys....</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Osiri</DIV>

[Cozumel]

What do random T4 rares have to do with mining EBON?? Its EBON thats not appearing!! <div></div>

[Cozumel]

Infact, it would be AWESOME to have "Luck" (ie...chance to get rares) go up like Vitality does over time...  -- Coz <div></div>

[Pheeb]

<div></div><div></div>I just CANNOT believe that SOE doubled the chance of finding a rare rock from ore (as per some previous LU changes) - I've max'ed ALL of my harvesting skills to the max you can get in T5 - I have harvested thousands of ore and other rocks in T5, never got an ebon, I don't have 4plat to buy one - anyhow, rare is rare, but rare rare is different - it is ULTRA rare - how come I can get many flowers (which sell for 85s now) a day amongs other harvesting rares, but NO ebon? As a TANK, I need the ebon (or maybe not after all) and I have decided to stop harvesting cos I spent countless days/hours trying to get an ebon...no more harvesting - it is absolutey NOT fun at the end... If I had not tried, I could understand and just [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] but I have tried - I know many will come and say, you suck as I got 2 in 15mns or better yet I have no problem finding Ebon...good for you... I think harvesting ebon is worse than it was before when SOE said they found a bug where rares from ore had 50% chance less of being harvested... But if that's really the way it was intended (ultra-rare) then I will just [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> <div></div><p>oh and what I did for ebon, I also did it for the glimmering tooth which I never harvested one, roots, etc - none of them and again all my skills are maxed including fishing from which I got a rare scale <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><span class="time_text"></span></p><p>Message Edited by Pheebau on <span class=date_text>05-11-2005</span> <span class=time_text>02:43 PM</span>

[Handleba]

I don't believe maxed skills has anything to do with it.  Now that they have made it so you can always get 3 harvests from one node, skill only makes it so you can harvest that next level.  I would like to see an increase in your chances the higher your skill, or even the ability to use player-made rare tools to increase chances, but I don't believe either of those are in game.

[otlg]

<DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Cozumel wrote:<BR>What do random T4 rares have to do with mining EBON??<BR><BR>Its EBON thats not appearing!!<BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Read my post again.  I pulled an Ebon in 1 hour.  1 hour.. *and then* rares from a T4 zone.  Sorry if that wasn't clear in the post.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Osiri</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>PS:  Not saying I don't feel your pain, just saying there are out there...</DIV>

[BloodSmo]

<DIV>no reason why Ebon should be 2.5 times the price of other tier 5 rares......increase the drop rate please...as an armorer this is the only rare i can use in my combines, its not fair that other classes rares only cost 1pp while ebon costs 2.5 - 4 pp.(on Crush atleast)</DIV>

[Cozumel]

Ebon clusters are >4< pp on Oasis!! <div></div>

[Dart]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> BloodSmoke wrote:<BR> <DIV>no reason why Ebon should be 2.5 times the price of other tier 5 rares......increase the drop rate please...as an armorer this is the only rare i can use in my combines, its not fair that other classes rares only cost 1pp while ebon costs 2.5 - 4 pp.(on Crush atleast)</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Could agree with you more. This is so re tar ded... I cant belive SOE hasnt addressed this issue.. wait yes I can /sigh

[DaenaeRavenso]

<P>I'm level 50 and spend a HUGE amount of my game time harvesting Feerrott or Everfrost and Lava looking for ebon, amongst other things like food stuff and cedar.  I have gotten 1, yes 1!!! In all the time I've harvested.  I would love to have a full suit of ebon chainmail but it's hardly in the cards for me at this rate.  As for the "dropped" ones, I have seen 3 in all the mobs our groups have killed.  Is it possible that the drop rates are different on each server?  I don't know but I do know that on Kith, our guild just isn't seeing the ebon flow like others are.</P> <P> </P> <P>Dae</P>

[Dazzler-]

<DIV>Guess im in the minority then, I have been really lucky apparently in getting Ebon...over the past 1.5 weeks I have accumulated 7 of them. 2 of those in a one hour span. But before I started this streak I hadnt harvested a rare...ever. Its certainly streaky as hell. I also took notice of something....while getting a rare, its always come on the 2nd "harvest" meaning I start my harvest on a rock, get the my first piece of fulginate cluster and my second harvest on the rock would yeild a rare, be it Ebon, Rhodium, Cedar or any of the luminous stuff that clogs my bank. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Just thankful I could sell a couple Ebon to buy a SoT, cuz my luck sucked in SH so much so I went through 4 alts trying to get one. </DIV>

[TerrorRising]

<P>Don't increase the drop rate. Even if you aren't an adventurer able to get T5 resources from mob kills, tradeskillers can harvest T4 and then trade or sell to buy ebon clusters. With the increased harvest rates of some tiers. I harvested 20 rares in 2 days when I was in EL looking for glimmering teeth (before I realized they only dropped from dens).  With the cash I got from selling those rares, I could afford an ebon. </P> <P>Just because there are more people who are higher level right now is not a good justification to increase the drop rate. As more adventurers win ebon from monster kills, the prices will go down, and before you know it, they will become as saturated and as low priced as feysteel became. </P> <P>Definitely don't change the drop rate if there is even a 1% chance per harvest of gaining one. </P>

[CasombraHellstalk]

No they really need to change something for those of us wanting to do the quest for EBBC.... change it to a luminous stone or increase the rate of being able to harvest it.

[TunaBoo]

My guild raids every night. We get a good 4 or 5 ebons per night average. We have everyone in full ebon or better armor and weapons, and usually have a few spare ebons no one needs. Ebon is not hard to get by any stretch of the imagination if you are even a semi serious raider.. casual people can get them too, just takes a few horus of harvesting. If anything ebon is TOO easy to get. <div></div>

[Blackdog183]

<DIV>Im not one to call anyone a liar(even though I think you folks claiming 20 rares etc. are flat @$$ lying and wont admit it), but it would *seem* that the problem might not rest with the drop rates of the rares at all, it may simply rest with the way rares are distributed.  Follow me for a second here.  If rares are added to the world randomly in a node, per zone etc, then the chances of actually getting a rare are based soley on luck(IE being in the right place at the right time) this opens up huge holes for exploiters to use radar hacks to mass harvest a zone(see the website for Xunleashed if you dont wanna beileive me).  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>My suggestion is this, they change the way rares are obtained to make it FAIR to everyone involved, similar to the way it is for crafter rare events.  They grant a small(almost minute) chance to get a rare crafting event every craft.  For example, just to make it easy, your chances of a rare crafting event are say 1 in a thousand, then if myself and Joe the crafter sit side by side and craft 1k items, we should both get 1 rare(if countered right).  This is fair to everyone, no luck involved, no right place at the right time, just simple math and equal oppurtunity for all.  This would do a couple things A. would eliminate alot of the hacks being used to obtain rares, B. End the HUGE disparity between people obtaining large numbers of rares, and those that cant get one to save their friggen life.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Now many of you that are going to scream [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] and argue that rares are too easy to get already are the ones that are ACTUALLY getting them, am I right?  No one that is NOT getting them(like myself for example) even after months of harvesting is going to say some silly [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] like that.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>So for you folks that *claim* to have gotten 10+ rares in whatever amount of time, let me pose you a question.  Do you think its fair, or right that youve gotten this many, whilst people(like myself) that spend 3-7 hours PER DAY for well over a month harvesting got zilch, thats right, nada zero!  </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Simple end to my little /rant, SoE needs to adress this issue, and FIX IT.  BTW yes I agree ebon is used for way too many friggen things, it drives the price thru the roof.</DIV>

[OperationsX]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Dazzler_Twodirks wrote:<BR> <P>I've spent 2 months just looking in all the T5 zones for one frigging ebon for the BBC heritage.</P> <P>At least let the stupid coin and disc be used for it or the black ore or the lumi stone.</P> <P>Or FIX the stupid rocks always bugged in the trees.</P> <P>Ypu can run around Feerrott at any time 6 to 10 rocks will be unreachable.</P> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV>A solution would also be just make whatever heritage quest it requires to luminous something like they did with manastone, stein and other heritage quest. However just because the mighty Dazzler posted I'm sure something will be addressed with this issue soon....probably the feerrot unreachable nodes.</DIV><p>Message Edited by OperationsX on <span class=date_text>05-14-2005</span> <span class=time_text>11:01 AM</span>

[Roger1111]

<P>Ugh.  I'd like to note for the record that finals week sucks.  On the upside, I graduate in a week.  It's good to be back.  :smileyhappy:</P> <P><BR> </P> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Zemfira wrote:<BR><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Roger1111 wrote:<BR><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE>  It is called class balance.</BLOCKQUOTE> <DIV> </DIV> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR> <DIV>exactly meh fren.</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>lol.  I 5 starred you for that one. :smileyvery-happy:</P> <P>Alright, I'll admit it.  You got me on that one.  I have no response for it lol.</P> <P>But, the question I pose to you is:  if we (collectively) view class balance as a more or less good thing, then why would we not feel the same way about class armor balance?  That's really what I'm arguing for.  I would just like the same chance as mages or druids/brawlers to obtain my T5 rare crafted armor.  There are already two ways that I am equal to them in this:  harvesting and raiding (although the raiding part could be disputed, since statistically, at least, more medium and heavy armor wearers will be present on a raid than light or very light armor wearers).  The one place where medium and heavy armor wearers lag behind the others in obtaining T5 crafted rare armor is in the ability to purchase it off the broker, since it is consistently 3x-4x more expensive than the others.</P> <P>Faelar-45 inquisitor of Retribution</P> <P>Oasis server</P>

[Aienaa]

<DIV> <HR> </DIV> <DIV><FONT color=#33ccff>My guild raids every night. We get a good 4 or 5 ebons per night average. We have everyone in full ebon or better armor and weapons, and usually have a few spare ebons no one needs. Ebon is not hard to get by any stretch of the imagination if you are even a semi serious raider.. <BR><BR>casual people can get them too, just takes a few horus of harvesting. If anything ebon is TOO easy to get.<BR></FONT> <HR> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>My guild raids every night also (3-4 raids per night), and on average we get 1 ebon about every 2-3 days, but we also get like 2-4 linen and pelts per night and maybe 1-2 rubies a night...  I'm our guild banker and we have so many dropped linen and pelts in the bank that I can't sell them fast enough...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Aside from raiding, I have put in tons of time harvesting...  I have been level 50 for months (Level 50 on 02-15-05) now and there isn't much to do besides raiding and harvesting...  On weekends I'll sometimes harvest as much as 10 hours a day, and usually between 2-5 hours on weekdays....  In the past 2 months, having put in over a hundred hours of harvesting, I have gotten.....</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>14 Strange Black Ore</DIV> <DIV>2 Rubies</DIV> <DIV>2 Ebon</DIV> <DIV>1 Cedar</DIV> <DIV>1 Pelt</DIV> <DIV>1 Rhodium</DIV> <DIV>0 Roots </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I also think they need to do something about rare drops rates, but I am not going to say just flat out increase it...  I think they really need to look into how the drops are done...  I know several people that have gotten 10 times more rares than I have in less amount of time, and that is where the problem lies...  The fact that it is not equal across the board, which it should be...</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Gwern - 50 Assassin - Kithicor</DIV> <DIV> </DIV>

[quetzaqotl]

<DIV> <DIV>15 Strange Black Ore</DIV> <DIV>6 Rubies</DIV> <DIV>5 Ebon</DIV> <DIV>2 Cedar</DIV> <DIV>4 Pelt</DIV> <DIV>6 Rhodium</DIV> <DIV>2 Roots </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>in 1 month here so you gotta be lucky i guess</DIV></DIV><p>Message Edited by quetzaqotl on <span class=date_text>05-16-2005</span> <span class=time_text>05:42 AM</span>

[FrankMullen]

<P>Seems to me ebon clusters are bugged.... or I'm just unlucky when it come to finding them</P> <P>I've found the following (and I harvest a  lot)</P> <P>6 strange black ore (I know not considered rare any longer)</P> <P>17 figwarts</P> <P>9 cedar</P> <P>5 superb pelts</P> <P>5 rubies</P> <P>1 rhodium</P> <P>0 ebons</P> <P> </P> <P><FONT size=3></FONT> </P> <P><FONT size=4></FONT> </P>

[Yennik]

<DIV>Change the item needed in BBC to something else other than ebon!!  please!!  this is the root of all this....</DIV>

[Ethelwo]

This whole thing is about SOE's inability to make a casual friendly game. No matter what they say they always stack the deck in favor of the hard core players and high end guilds, while the average joe who pays the same money every month will be denied half the games content and a leveled chance at rare harvest items. The reason ebon is so [Removed for Content] hard to find harvesting is because it drops so much off ubber mobs in access only zones. Their little ebon counter is telling them that x amount of ebon is entering the game at any given time. What it doesn't tell them is that this flow is only to a small group of players. They can't get combat right what makes you think they can got rares right. hell They can't even do spells and skills right. What you have to ask yourself is this: Is SOE the game creaters they crack themselves up to be, or are they just  full of scat. I've been leaning to the later for some time. I'll give them to the end of summer to wake the [Removed for Content] up, after that it's another game for me. I will not buy their expansion until they show me they can make a game thats fair to everyone who pays to play.

[Napolle]

<div></div>/violin [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] get over it- everyone wants the items to be handed to them.. let the ONE item that is rare harvested stay rare so its worth something...nothing else is worse  any money anymore <div></div><p>Message Edited by Napolleon on <span class=date_text>05-16-2005</span> <span class=time_text>04:33 PM</span>

[quetzaqotl]

<P>Jesus Christ man the list i posted of rares are all HARVESTED rares man spend an afternoon harvesting in feerrott and youll get rares man dont act all stupid that they have a counter which says so many ebons are in game etc thats idiotic.</P> <P>As a matter of fact ebons are more rare than ruby;s/linen etc falling of mobs, so i guess figwarts/rubies must be sooo hard to harvest nowadays eh???</P> <P>Ebons are quite rare i agree but if you harvest a bit over a couple of days youll find one and if not tough luck.</P>

[Kizee]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Ethelwolf wrote:<BR>This whole thing is about SOE's inability to make a casual friendly game. No matter what they say they always stack the deck in favor of the hard core players and high end guilds, while the average joe who pays the same money every month will be denied half the games content and a leveled chance at rare harvest items. The reason ebon is so [Removed for Content] hard to find harvesting is because it drops so much off ubber mobs in access only zones. Their little ebon counter is telling them that x amount of ebon is entering the game at any given time. What it doesn't tell them is that this flow is only to a small group of players. They can't get combat right what makes you think they can got rares right. hell They can't even do spells and skills right. What you have to ask yourself is this: Is SOE the game creaters they crack themselves up to be, or are they just  full of scat. I've been leaning to the later for some time. I'll give them to the end of summer to wake the [Removed for Content] up, after that it's another game for me. I will not buy their expansion until they show me they can make a game thats fair to everyone who pays to play. <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>:smileyvery-happy:</P> <P>You have to be kidding. The have swung the game so far into the casual player market it's become too easy as it is. How much easier do you wan't it?</P> <P>You do NOT need ebon... its rare so deal with it. Either put your time in to harvest it or stick it out with fulg armor.</P> <P>I knew that I wouldn't get 9 pieces of ebon any time soon so I made up some rare leather armor for my assassin (which looks 100% better than ebon chain) and just reciently found 3 ebon that I had made into weapons.</P> <P>Kids now adays want everything handed to them... :smileyindifferent:<BR></P>

[Sinnester]

<P> </P> <P>Quote:</P> <P> also think they need to do something about rare drops rates, but I am not going to say just flat out increase it...  I think they really need to look into how the drops are done...  I know several people that have gotten 10 times more rares than I have in less amount of time, and that is where the problem lies...  The fact that it is not equal across the board, which it should be...</P> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Gwern - 50 Assassin - Kithicor</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>I have to agree with Gwern.  Being lvl 50 since Feb, I harvest an average of 15 hours per week (I raid alot).  Since Feb, I have harvested 2 rares...which were 2 ebons.  In fact, those are the only 2 rares I have harvested worth anything in my entire EQ2 life.  Yes, I get luminious and black ore.  Now, harvesting over 210 hours for 2 rares just doesn't cut it.  I know people that go out and get 2-3 rares in a 3 hour span and I know a few other people that are like me, nothing.  Don't give me the old bad luck story.  I want to be on the same "rare drop table" that everyone is on it.</DIV>

[CasombraHellstalk]

<DIV>Sure I would love to have ebon armor and hope to someday but that is not the problem with me. The problem is needing an ebon to finish a heritage quest. It should not be this difficult to finish a quest and needing that stupid ebon cluster is what it holding me back from completing that and getting it out of my journal. That is why the suggestion of exchanging the ebon to a luminous stone so there can be more ebon free for crafting. The ebon loot drops don't work for this quest.... only a ebon cluster.</DIV>

[Kizee]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> CasombraHellstalker wrote:<BR> <DIV>Sure I would love to have ebon armor and hope to someday but that is not the problem with me. The problem is needing an ebon to finish a heritage quest. It should not be this difficult to finish a quest and needing that stupid ebon cluster is what it holding me back from completing that and getting it out of my journal. That is why the suggestion of exchanging the ebon to a luminous stone so there can be more ebon free for crafting. The ebon loot drops don't work for this quest.... only a ebon cluster.</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>I agree that they need to change the component from an ebon to a luminous stone or something. It was always a dumb idea to have very rare components used for herritage quests.</P> <P>I will not use an ebon for that quest because they are worth more to me to make something that I can use rather than complete that quest.</P>

[Wanderingso]

<div></div>A drop rate increase would be nice for sure. As for Feerrott, why would SOE let bugged unreachable nodes go unfixed for so long? This only keeps areas from being completely cleared of nodes, which makes it even harder to get the nodes you actually <i>need</i> to pop.  I am totally, completely, and quite absolutely against the adding of new content when there are so many things that need fixing and fine tuning... free up some of the developemental resources for things like this!! There's an old saying that goes... "If it's broke, FIX it!!! lol <div></div><p>Message Edited by Wanderingsoul on <span class=date_text>05-18-2005</span> <span class=time_text>03:21 AM</span>

[Aislia]

<DIV>Granted this game is based on fantasy but the reality of it is .. mining an ebon cluster and any other rare ... is exactly like life.  It takes hard work, long hours, determination, effort, and diligence to obtain.   Nothing in life is an entitlement, why should this be any different?</DIV><p>Message Edited by Aislia on <span class=date_text>05-18-2005</span> <span class=time_text>06:02 AM</span>

[Zholain]

<font size="2">/agree However, if 2 people put equal work and equal time into harvesting, and the results are as skewed as they appear to be....that would seem to indicate a problem or deficiency somewhere.... Just a distant observation. </font><div></div>

[CasombraHellstalk]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Zholain wrote:<BR><FONT size=2>/agree<BR><BR>However, if 2 people put equal work and equal time into harvesting, and the results are as skewed as they appear to be....that would seem to indicate a problem or deficiency somewhere....<BR><BR>Just a distant observation.<BR></FONT> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>Agreed... now going on 5 weeks of harvesting to get an ebon to finish a quest. You would think that fighting the end mob would be the challenge....<BR> <p>Message Edited by CasombraHellstalker on <span class=date_text>05-18-2005</span> <span class=time_text>06:18 PM</span>

[Handleba]

10 SBO 1 Rhodium 0 Pelts 0 Figwarts 0 Rubies 0 Cedar 6 Ebon (all in two weeks, and I'm a mage, so can't use them) I only harvest about 0-30 minutes a day max, and maybe an hour at most on a strange night.  <div></div>

[Goodwill]

DONT increase the drop rate. Please let just 1 thing in the game, not being easy. I have played since the game came out and I have found 1 Ebon. That Ok with me, and I do harvest hours everyday at lavafrost and ferrot. I think that T5 rares drop ok as they drop now, so please dont increase them. <div></div>

[Platfing]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Handlebars wrote:<BR>10 SBO<BR>1 Rhodium<BR>0 Pelts<BR>0 Figwarts<BR>0 Rubies<BR>0 Cedar<BR>6 Ebon (all in two weeks, and I'm a mage, so can't use them)<BR><BR>I only harvest about 0-30 minutes a day max, and maybe an hour at most on a strange night.  <BR><BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>How is the above even possible?  If the numbers above don't prove there is some kind of game mechanics problem, well nothing will.<BR>

[quetzaqotl]

hmm maybe hes been mining ores mostly?

[Q'Tar]

<P>I will probably be flamed for this but so be it. I have only been playing for 5 months now and in all this time I harvest A LOT ( average 10 - 15 hours a week not including weekends) from T1 - T3 and in all this time I have only harvested:</P> <P>Bronze cluster 1</P> <P>Yarrow 1</P> <P>Severed Alder 0</P> <P>Lapis 0</P> <P>Copper 0</P> <P>Blackened Iron 0</P> <P>Coral 1</P> <P>Severed Bone 0</P> <P>Sisal root 1</P> <P>Silver 0</P> <P>Dandelion Root 1</P> <DIV>Jasper 0</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Now I know there are other T3 rares I can't remember what they are but I haven't found any of them either. My point is either I am the most unlucky ahrvester there is or yes...there IS something wrong with the drop system. NO I am not saying I weant hundreds of rare drops but at this rate I better NOT take that heritage quest requiring the Ebon cluster because I probably will never find one. I read earlier that we cry babies should just suck it up and work harder. If that is the case how much harder should I be working? Also I read that T5 is the ONLY hard to get rares, I don't see that since I can't find any of those "easy" drops that are T1 - T4.</DIV>

[Cozumel]

This is my >5th< week harvesting. I'm 252 in ALL harvesting skills. I've gotten EXACTLY >ZERO< ebon clusters in that time. I harvest EVERYTHING I see (to make rocks spawn). Zones:  RV, Feerrott, Lava Storm, and Evertfrost. I have gotten Luminous Stones, 1 fig of somekind, and some random Xxxx Flowers. As far as EBON goes... NOTHING.  Infact, prices on Oasis have escilated to > 5pp for an ebon cluster. I CANNNNNNOOOOOTTT afford 5+pp for 1 ebon cluster. I've never HAD more than 2pp.  My ALL TIME coin gain is 2.5pp from selling.  I'm level >50< and have been for sometime, and I CANNOT make enough cash to afford a horse, flying carpet, etc... LET ALONE a stupid Ebon cluster for armor and BBC. Its simply LAME for me to spend WEEKS to complete the BBC quest (let alone try to get some decent armor). I am NOT having fun harvesting for HOURS, and YES..I do mean HOURS...hell DAYS. I harvest for ~5 hrs/night Mon-Thurs (Fri-Sun I spend time with my family/GF). 5hrs * 4 days.. 20 hrs/week... 5 weeks... >100< hours of harvesting, and NOT ONE EBON. Thats NOT RARE.  Thats STUPID.  I'm sorry, but this SIMPLY isn't fun. I could find Oil in the ground and become a millionare before I'de find a stupid EBON! I honestly believe Ebon spawns ARE BROKEN on Oasis (and probably other servers).  -- Coz <div></div>

[CasombraHellstalk]

<DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Cozumel wrote:<BR>This is my >5th< week harvesting. I'm 252 in ALL harvesting skills.<BR><BR>I've gotten EXACTLY >ZERO< ebon clusters in that time.<BR><BR>I harvest EVERYTHING I see (to make rocks spawn).<BR><BR>Zones:  RV, Feerrott, Lava Storm, and Evertfrost.<BR><BR>I have gotten Luminous Stones, 1 fig of somekind, and some random Xxxx Flowers.<BR><BR>As far as EBON goes... NOTHING.  Infact, prices on Oasis have escilated to > 5pp for an ebon cluster.<BR><BR>I CANNNNNNOOOOOTTT afford 5+pp for 1 ebon cluster.<BR><BR>I've never HAD more than 2pp.  My ALL TIME coin gain is 2.5pp from selling.  I'm level >50< and have been for sometime, and I CANNOT make enough cash to afford a horse, flying carpet, etc... LET ALONE a stupid Ebon cluster for armor and BBC.<BR><BR>Its simply LAME for me to spend WEEKS to complete the BBC quest (let alone try to get some decent armor).<BR><BR>I am NOT having fun harvesting for HOURS, and YES..I do mean HOURS...hell DAYS.<BR><BR>I harvest for ~5 hrs/night Mon-Thurs (Fri-Sun I spend time with my family/GF).<BR><BR>5hrs * 4 days.. 20 hrs/week... 5 weeks... >100< hours of harvesting, and NOT ONE EBON.<BR><BR>Thats NOT RARE.  Thats STUPID.  I'm sorry, but this SIMPLY isn't fun.<BR><BR>I could find Oil in the ground and become a millionare before I'de find a stupid EBON!<BR><BR>I honestly believe Ebon spawns ARE BROKEN on Oasis (and probably other servers).<BR><BR> -- Coz<BR><BR> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>That sounds like me almost exactly except being lvl 50</DIV>

[Traz]

<DIV>The only thing I see that is skewed is the drop rate of pelts and linen in raids. Almost every chest we get from a raid contains a gashed augmented belt, or frayed linen afghan or both. We hardly ever see ebon discs drop anymore and we try to hit as many epic encounters as we can each night. I would love to see some more ebon discs drop as well as a couple more rubies as it seems the pelts and linens have replaced both to a large degree in raid mob loots.</DIV>

[Ashtu]

I can't wait to see the look on your faces when better s*** than ebon is dropping off trash mobs in desert of flames... hahahaha!

[Kizee]

<DIV><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Ashtura wrote:<BR>I can't wait to see the look on your faces when better s*** than ebon is dropping off trash mobs in desert of flames... hahahaha! <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Aye, this issue will be moot in a few months with T6 zones open up and trash drops will be better than ebon.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>The prices of ebon will drop to almost nothing like all the other rares have.</DIV>

[NerdsRo]

<P>A lot of you are seriously blowing things out of proportion.  I'm a casual gamer, and I have a level 43 guard on the Blackburrow server.  I spend about a couple hours a day harvesting.  My main goal from this harvesting is to get ebons for armor/bbc, 1 cedar for a shield, and rubies/rhodiums for adept 3s.  I haven't been at it for very long, and I've harvested: 3 ebons, 2 rubies, 2 rhodiums, 3 Superb Pelts, and a truckload of luminous.  All of this in about 4 weeks of harvesting (maybe only 3).  </P> <P>I believe I saw a post where someone said they harvested T5 for 5 hours a day, and have never gotten a rare and probably only 1 or 2 luminous.  You sir/madame, are full of it.  In the few hours I harvest a day, I get no less then 3 luminous (flowers, teeth, stones) and a rare every other dayish.  If you're not getting at least 1 luminous per couple hours of harvesting, then you're doing something seriously wrong.</P> <P>When I harvest, I do so in the Feerrott.  I start at the area just south of the Quest Lizardman (Zozor or something like that) and harvest a swath all along the southern edge of the zone until I get to the entrance to the Gultch of Thule.  I harvest: trees, dens, hermetics, alluviums, and roots.  I know, I know...I should do the bushes and shrooms too, everyone should.  The reason I don't do them, is I feel the other people who only mine ore would be reaping my benefit while im toiling away at them.</P>

[FamilyManFir]

<blockquote><hr>NerdsRope wrote:<P>... I know, I know...I should do the bushes and shrooms too, everyone should. The reason I don't do them, is I feel the other people who only mine ore would be reaping my benefit while im toiling away at them.</P> <hr></blockquote>So harvest a swath of what you want, then turn around and "clean up" the stuff you didn't want in that swath. You'll get that many more rares and uncommons, and the harvests from the bushes, at the least, are quite sellable, even if for far less than the rares or uncommons.

[Q'Tar]

Personally I don't like being called a liar by someone who has not watched me harvest. I'm glad that you have one of the "lucky" accounts but as has been stated by more than ONE post it's not a singular problem. I have 6 accounts, one for each member of my family and out of those 6 accounts 1 seems to be lucky with harvesting so just because you are lucky with your harvests does not give you the right to call others liars!

[NerdsRo]

<P>Liar or not, I have a very hard time believing that you havent seent at least one rare yet if you are putting forth the same amount of effort that I have (perhaps even more) .  Lest we not forget, these items are <STRONG><EM>Legendary, </EM></STRONG>and only through a legendary amount of effort should you obtain them.  I work hard for what I have, and on the nights when I go home empty handed, it just makes me want to try harder the next day.  </P> <P>Id rather spend my time and slowly get better, all the while learning, then stay as dumb as I am now and have everything get easier.</P>

[Q'Tar]

Obviously you have not read the previous postings regarding this. As I stated in an earlier post I have found SOME rare drops but no more than 1 of each type I have found with the exception of glowing, sparkling, luminous etc. As I also stated earlier I am not asking for them to make it easier for me to get the drops all I am asking and others are asking is to take a look at how the drops are determined and find out why YOU get so many drops from harvesting only 2 hours a days and I get next to none from harvesting 4 hours a day. I have been doing this for more than 4 months now and if you want I can repost how many and of what type I found harvesting. If your going to disagree with someone based on one comment and making it a blanket statement to everyone who has posted at least have the decency to read ALL the postings. Then you would see it's not just a couple people.

[vessa]

its cinderella that sings that , cant always get what u want

[Ashlian]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> NerdsRope wrote:<BR> <P>Liar or not, I have a very hard time believing that you havent seent at least one rare yet if you are putting forth the same amount of effort that I have (perhaps even more) .  Lest we not forget, these items are <STRONG><EM>Legendary, </EM></STRONG>and only through a legendary amount of effort should you obtain them.  I work hard for what I have, and on the nights when I go home empty handed, it just makes me want to try harder the next day.  </P> <P>Id rather spend my time and slowly get better, all the while learning, then stay as dumb as I am now and have everything get easier.</P><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>I've received rares, but I would expect, IF I spend a commensurate amount of effort harvesting as someone else, I would get something close to the same NUMBER of rares. You're making a blanket statement, and I suggest you go take a look at some of the posts about the pseudo random number generating algorithms that are used to determine things like lotto reward and whether or not you're going to get a rare or a chest. They quietly fixed a bug in /random in February after numerous complaints and enough parsed logs to choke a herd of elephants, without ever admitting anything had been wrong to begin with. The fact that I can harvest for six hours and get one rare and my brother can harvest for six hours and get four rares, not once, but with continuing reliability to the point where it's a standing joke in my guild, tells me that something might be a little off in that algorithm. No one has informed us of how these are written, and random number generation is a staggering problem. If the seed algorithm uses any kind of database info taken from your character file, then it's quite possible to see one "lucky" character on an account and five or six "unlucky" ones. </P> <P>I'm not going to debate the math behind this, as I'm truly not qualified, but enough people who are qualified have raised questions for me to wonder why I don't get the same results for the same effort as someone like you. Those of use who don't get many rares after backbreaking hours spent harvesting aren't always lying. I HAVE put in the effort, and it's very frustrating to get so much less reward than my "lucky" brother.</P> <P>Ashlian Liadan, 32 Fury, 32 Tailor of Mistmoore<BR></P>

[Kizee]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> NerdsRope wrote:<BR> <P>I believe I saw a post where someone said they harvested T5 for 5 hours a day, and have never gotten a rare and probably only 1 or 2 luminous.  You sir/madame, are full of it.  In the few hours I harvest a day, I get no less then 3 luminous (flowers, teeth, stones) and a rare every other dayish.  If you're not getting at least 1 luminous per couple hours of harvesting, then you're doing something seriously wrong.</P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Nah.. it's very streaky.</P> <P>It took me 42 levels of harvesting to get my first rare but have been getting them alot more offen now it seems. </P> <P> </P> <P>I thought I was bugged also but didn't end up to be the case... just very bad luck.<BR></P>

[Ashlian]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Kizee wrote:<BR><BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> NerdsRope wrote:<BR> <P>I believe I saw a post where someone said they harvested T5 for 5 hours a day, and have never gotten a rare and probably only 1 or 2 luminous.  You sir/madame, are full of it.  In the few hours I harvest a day, I get no less then 3 luminous (flowers, teeth, stones) and a rare every other dayish.  If you're not getting at least 1 luminous per couple hours of harvesting, then you're doing something seriously wrong.</P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Nah.. it's very streaky.</P> <P>It took me 42 levels of harvesting to get my first rare but have been getting them alot more offen now it seems. </P> <P> </P> <P>I thought I was bugged also but didn't end up to be the case... just very bad luck.<BR></P> <BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>With a better written algorithm, I don't think it would have to be so streaky. Using the fixed random number generator /random provides reliable results when compared to a group using the lotto system, and I tend to think they're using the lotto generator for harvesting. I'm not saying if someone gets a rare in 10 minutes, I should be guaranteed one in that time too....but if they spend 6 hours and get four and I spend 6 hours and get 1 or none, that's a little too streaky not to be very, very frustrating. Everyone exploring this issue is looking at averages, and people's averages are spread way out on the bell curve. Statistically speaking, that's unlikely unless something is coming into play in the random number generator that we aren't aware of.</P> <P>Ashlian Liadan, 32 Fury, 32 Tailor of Mistmoore</P>

[Cozumel]

I call BS on finding 3 ebons... They sell for 5plat on Oasis... and there are VERY few (1-2) for sale at any given time. IF you have harvested 3 ebons in a few weeks...you're either cheating, or your server is borked up.  I dunno whats going on, or where you're harvesting, but on oasis.. FORGET IT. I've harvested rares..just NOT EBONS in 5.5 weeks now... with 3-4hours of harvesting each day.  Dont believe me? Goto the stupid market and look for crap for sale by me.. I have like 24 items (when I'm not logged in) in my vault I sell non-stop..why?? Cuz its all the crap I harvest while trying to make rocks spawn to find ebon. Perhaps its some kind of server bug or per/server issue.. I don't know.  But I do know on Oasis, ebon simply isn't spawning.  -- Coz <div></div>

[FamilyManFir]

Folks, I hate to tell you this, but I doubt that the devs are going to take any individual's experience into consideration if/when they review the spawn rate of ebon (or any other rare, for that matter).If I were a dev I'd look at the server logs and pay attention to the total rate that ebon/other rares were entering the game. That would include all harvests and all raid rewards. If ebon is coming into the game at a rate they consider appropriate they'll do nothing. They <i>might</i> look at the algorithm for determining rare harvest results, to make sure that it truly is being random, but that's about the most you can expect.It's awfully hard for an individual to judge how much ebon is coming into the game. Even the market is not a good index because most harvesters lucky enough to get an ebon don't put it up for sale, they use it for themselves or trade it/give it to a friend or guildie.My only advice: keep harvesting and raiding or live without ebon. For those few things that you simply <i>must</i> have an ebon for (I plan, for example, to do the BBC quest once I get into my mid-40s), harvest, kill and quest until you have the plat to buy one. It took me 2-3 weeks but I was able to raise 2.08pp in Tier 4 for my horse, surely you can raise 5-6 plat in the same time frame in Tier 5 for an ebon if you want to. And who knows - while you're harvesting lightning may strike and you'll pull an ebon or two.

[NerdsRo]

<P>Wouldn't even know how to go about cheating, nor do I have the inclination.  2 of the ebons I harvested of the 3 were within 5 min of each other.  There were 3 alluviums up in a row, I got one on the first one, just fulginates on the second, killed a group of lizards, got another ebon on the third stone.  The third ebon was about a week later.  Had 2 of them made into bp and greaves, holding the other for ebbc.  I realize how phenomenally lucky I've been on the ebons.  But having received at least one of all the other rares (cept cedar) in under 4 weeks, I just can't accept all these accounts of zero rares in months.  I seriously doubt there's anything "different" about this character concerning the possiblity of rare harvests.  Regardless of my opinion/knowledge, I'm quite sure most of you will continue to believe that the programmers are out to get you.  So have at it, and I'll leave you to it.</P> <P> </P>

[Ashlian]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> NerdsRope wrote:<BR> <P>Wouldn't even know how to go about cheating, nor do I have the inclination.  2 of the ebons I harvested of the 3 were within 5 min of each other.  There were 3 alluviums up in a row, I got one on the first one, just fulginates on the second, killed a group of lizards, got another ebon on the third stone.  The third ebon was about a week later.  Had 2 of them made into bp and greaves, holding the other for ebbc.  I realize how phenomenally lucky I've been on the ebons.  But having received at least one of all the other rares (cept cedar) in under 4 weeks, I just can't accept all these accounts of zero rares in months.  I seriously doubt there's anything "different" about this character concerning the possiblity of rare harvests.  Regardless of my opinion/knowledge, I'm quite sure most of you will continue to believe that the programmers are out to get you.  So have at it, and I'll leave you to it.</P> <P></P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Most of us aren't claiming to get no rares in months. We're claiming to get very few compared to people who have spent comparable times harvesting. Do I think the algorithm is working well if you get 2 ebons in five minutes? No.....I'm sorry, but you shouldn't get two in five minutes and someone else get none in five months. It's easily possible to get several of one rare and none of the one you need at the moment. It did take me about four months of harvesting in tier 3 before I ever got a dandelion for instance. In that time, I'd harvested perhaps six or seven other rares. That's still quite a bit lower than people in my guild who've spent the same amount of time or less. As I said, it's a standing guild joke. I don't think the devs are "out to get me," as I said, pseudo random number generators are not simple pieces of programming. The fact that they DID have to fix the /random generator should tell you that they don't have a perfect record on this score.</P> <P>Ashlian Liadan, 32 Fury, 32 Tailor of Mistmoore<BR></P>

[Kalendin]

<DIV>I have too say ebon is the rarest..but i got lucky and got 4 ebons past 5 days..so they are out there..i get 1-3 rares a day in a 8 hr harvest session..sometimes i get squat /shrug its luck</DIV>

[Ethelwo]

<P>I have a L48 Berserker and have been harvesting on average about 3 hours a day since L44. in these last 4 levels I have harvested around 30 hours maybe more. My count in that time is this:</P> <P>Ebon cluster 1. Got this first day and never seen another, Guild calls me the fulginate man</P> <P>Strange Black ore 6.</P> <P>Luminous stuff 25 to 30.</P> <P>Ruby 2.</P> <P>Cedar 5.</P> <P>10, 0000+ animal dens and not one superb pelt.</P> <P>Rhodium 0.</P> <P>Figwart root 0.</P> <P>Many in my guild harvest for ebon as well and to date other then the one I found and 1 a guildy found the rest have drawn blanks. We have at least 15 tier 5 harvesters looking for ebon and over the past month just 2 ebon amongst 15 people.</P> <P>one guildy did land a superb pelt and another a figwart, but other then that just the normal stuff and luminous.</P> <P>My buddy a L50 Berserker in a high level (24 members or more at L50) guild is dressed out in ebon or fabled. It's all dropping off epic mobs. It was reduced on the harvest table in order to give better loot to epic mobs to shut up the complainers. </P> <P>SOE controls the rate all items enter the world. The more ebon drops off epics the less it can be found harvesting. Those are the facts. You want a fair chance at an ebon cluster, not unless you can pull 24 L50 players togather to nail some epics. Those folks who harvest more of it don't have bot groups and high level guilds pillaging the epics every day, so they find more ebon in harvest. On Oasis server, either raid epics or spend your game play time harvesting without any real hope. </P> <P>Your server dynamics control where the ebon drops. Those who harvest for it every day and never find it can bet they have either bot groups or high level guilds raiding epics every day.</P> <P>Only so many ebons can enter the world over a given time period. If its dropping off epics it wont be found in harvests.</P>

[tyrinon]

<DIV>18 days for 1 is a bit [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot], and thats harvesting for 4 plus hours each time.  Well over 20k fulginate mined, now i only need 7 more cluster.  A slight increase in drop rates is probably warranted, also change the Ebbc to the rare luminous for christ sake, 18 days for cluster and what another 18 for the sword of thunder for a sub par crappy sword that you can outdamage for 60 gold-1pp for a player made one.</DIV>

[Silvo]

<DIV>I'm up to 28 stacks of fulginate since I harvested my last one. That's 560 harvests.  Going to see if I can manage to store it all till I get my next one.</DIV>

[Joug]

<P> </P> <P>I have found 4 ebon clusters in 2 months. 2 in one day 2 times both within 30 minutes of each other hmmm</P>

[Ashlian]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Ethelwolf wrote:<BR> <P>I have a L48 Berserker and have been harvesting on average about 3 hours a day since L44. in these last 4 levels I have harvested around 30 hours maybe more. My count in that time is this:</P> <P>Ebon cluster 1. Got this first day and never seen another, Guild calls me the fulginate man</P> <P>Strange Black ore 6.</P> <P>Luminous stuff 25 to 30.</P> <P>Ruby 2.</P> <P>Cedar 5.</P> <P>10, 0000+ animal dens and not one superb pelt.</P> <P>Rhodium 0.</P> <P>Figwart root 0.</P> <P>Many in my guild harvest for ebon as well and to date other then the one I found and 1 a guildy found the rest have drawn blanks. We have at least 15 tier 5 harvesters looking for ebon and over the past month just 2 ebon amongst 15 people.</P> <P>one guildy did land a superb pelt and another a figwart, but other then that just the normal stuff and luminous.</P> <P>My buddy a L50 Berserker in a high level (24 members or more at L50) guild is dressed out in ebon or fabled. It's all dropping off epic mobs. It was reduced on the harvest table in order to give better loot to epic mobs to shut up the complainers. </P> <P>SOE controls the rate all items enter the world. The more ebon drops off epics the less it can be found harvesting. Those are the facts. You want a fair chance at an ebon cluster, not unless you can pull 24 L50 players togather to nail some epics. Those folks who harvest more of it don't have bot groups and high level guilds pillaging the epics every day, so they find more ebon in harvest. On Oasis server, either raid epics or spend your game play time harvesting without any real hope. </P> <P>Your server dynamics control where the ebon drops. Those who harvest for it every day and never find it can bet they have either bot groups or high level guilds raiding epics every day.</P> <P>Only so many ebons can enter the world over a given time period. If its dropping off epics it wont be found in harvests.</P> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Then there needs to be an adjustment made to the algorithm that controls what drops where, or better yet, they need to take a look at how they're using ebon. I have no argument whatsoever with raiders being rewarded with great gear. But create a better set of crafted armor for them at that level than the "guild" armor that uses the strange black ore. There shouldn't be such a disparity between ability to get tier five rare light and very light armor, and tier five rare plate or chain. I don't know anyone who says, we're raiding to get lots of superb pelt drops. If that much ebon is coming into the game from raiding, then why isn't there a scarcity of other tier five rares? They drop off the same raid mobs, too. The problem is that the demand for ebon is totally out of whack with the demand for other rares. No other rare is required for so many disparate uses. </P> <P>And honestly, if they want furniture and housing to be a viable market at all, they should be taking a look what the competition for rares does to carpenters. I know very, very few people who will take a rare and use it for furniture past tier 2. Carpenters are consistently priced out of the market on many rare items. For something that has nothing but fun, "fluff" factor to it, the use of rares in furniture is one of the things really killing that market. Make rare furniture items require an extract of that level for each subcombine, or something of that sort, but take furniture out of direct competition with armor and weapons. </P> <P>I still maintain that "luck" should remain consistent with established statistical rules when harvesting. However they tweak it, spending enough time on something should net you the same reward as someone who has spent an equal amount of time on it. </P> <P>Ashlian Liadan, 32 Fury, 32 Tailor of Mistmoore<BR></P>

[Blackdog183]

Glad to see SoE adressing this issue...er wait.  Just yet another prime example of the Devs just plain out ignoring the problems.  Dont you just love their "customer service"

[wr4ithd0]

<P>During the week I harvest for about 6 hours a day, everyday.  During the weekends I'd say my harvest time drops to about 4 hours a day.</P> <P>My average is 1 ebon every 3 weeks of harvesting, or every 114 hours of raw harvesting.</P> <P>Gotten plenty of rubies/ rhodium, Enough at least to have 10 Ad3s going on.  Gotten a few figworts and pelts, but i generally dont touch the roots or traps, so either i just got really lucky on those nodes, or they are more frequent.</P> <P>Not even going to include Luminous or strange black ore.</P>

[EvilIguana9]

OK, there are a lot of people here who are missing the point.   It is NOT an issue of how rare rare harvests and theire dropped equivalents are. It IS an issue of how much more expensive one single type of rare is compared to the others given the etremely high demand for that particular rare.  Ebon sells for 4-5 pp, other t5 rares for under 1 pp.  That tells us that there is a problem.  This is an issue of relative value.  There are several factors contributing to the extremely high demand for ebon. -Ebon is needed for metal weapons, and 2 types of armor as well as for heritage quests.  No other rare has this many uses -Medium and heavy armor wearers have a greater need for rare armor than do light/very light armor classes.  We can plan to get hit a lot more and the mitigation increase from rare armor is quite significant.  -Melee classes have a greater need for rare weapons than casters do. This says to me that in all fairness ebon oughta be more common than the other rares or some steps should be taken to curb demand.  It isn't fair for people who use metal to pay 5 times as much for an upgrade as people who use cloth or wood do.  <div></div>

[Cozumel]

There HAS to be something wrong.. on ALL of Oasis, there is EXACTLY >1< Ebon cluster for sale.  Its ~4pp. Thats BOTH qeynos and freeport...ONE cluster for sale?  SURE, maybe, just MAYBE people are keeping them to make stuff with... but when I can buy dozens of every other kind of rare, and only 1 ebon is on the market..something isn't right. They aren't SPAWNING anymore! <div></div>

[Voryn]

I have been very lucky in my harvesting, around 20 rares and I'm only level 42.  I got my ebon on my 10th harvest,  4th node.  I got the same break with palladium, and even had to mine my BF his palladium. My biggest problem with these is that there's no easy way to harvest t5 nodes,  every other tier has mini harvest zones but not t5s, this makes it a bigger pain than it already is. Or maybe everything else was too easy? No, I refuse to accept that! I'm also curious if anyone else has a problem actually SEEING the ore,  I can't see it unless I'm right up on it, but can see other nodes from really far away. <div></div>

[Carrion]

whine whine whine..all you people do is whine..if u want a n ebon get off your [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot] and get one...nothing is free...accept the fact that some things are tougher then others to get.its what they call "challenge"...if you want a game where everything is just handed out to you.then go grab a ps2 and a gameshark so u can have all the pointless.no challenge fun desired

[Lumen]

<P>Ok there are WAAAY too many posts to read through right now. But I did read someone call it "staple end game armor" and this is why the rarity of the Ebon was ok. Well Ebon is not game end staple armor. There is one better and it is not only a rare drop off a raid mob but it is also hard to make. Rubicite armor is your game end armor. And yes I do feel that rares are a little too rare from harvesting. Yes many people can go out, find a group and kill names for rares. But for the solo player or casual player that does not want, or have time to find a group long enough it is more appropriate to harvest. Im level 45 Warden and unlike most Palies, I cannot solo names, even green ones. </P> <P>I also feel that high end raid mobs should drop masters more often. There are so many classes and spells/skills that even if they raided every night they would not flood the market with masters. I'm 45 and do not own a single master. I have a few adept 3's from named hunting with my Paly friend. Which I want to say again, does not need me to even kill a named. There are a few he does need me, but most he does not. </P> <P>And there are very few things that drop off the raid mobs. So 24 people get to roll (which is pretty screwy anyway) on 3-4 items. Wow I wish I could spend 4 hrs dying and repairing armor for a chance at an adept mediocre loot drop. Names drop more rares then harvests. Thats all us casual players are saying. </P>

[eyes007]

<P>My thought on this is that there is one main reason why people want ebon....for the best crafted armor in the game with imbue. The secondary reason is that it makes a pretty good weapon whether its crafted or for bbc.</P> <P>What people are not realising is that maybe Sony is skimping on the variety of armor. There is the odd Breastplate drop that has 100ac better than Ebon or a few that have the same, but to have to farm 5 hours a day for ebon, just to get the best suit of armour (which is a must for tanks in raids) is wrong...totally wrong. Somehow though increasing the drop rate just will not fix this, because while I have nothing against the casual gamer, the point someone made is very clear...where is the incentive to be the best for the hardcore gamer?</P> <P>There are really only two choices (possibly 4 if there is a full suit of Orc Marauder and Rubicite armor out there - but thats a drop) for armor at lvl 40+ (I won't incude feysteel because even though you can wear it to 44-45, you would not be the best mitigated tank, and would be falling behind a still increasing fulginate tank) and those choices are Fulginate and Ebon. An ugly black armour, or a nice bluey black armour. Where is the wisdom specific armour for Paladins, high intel armour for Shadowknights, the high AC armour for the Guardians, the high agility armour for Zerkers. If tanks are all meant to do the same job with varying levels of effect, how justifiable is giving one choice for all 4 plate classes?</P> <P>I say don't increase ebon drops, bring in more armour, more variety, more colours even (to make tanks more unique while not compromising their jobs) and create some choice for groups when choosing tanks. Now in saying that, there should be an increase in rares, but with different types, ebon for some (remains the same). luminous rare (like the status armour but with stats), t5 Gold ore (for Gold plated armour - a suggestion not an actual rare) ETC.</P> <P>My 2 cents...</P>

[Wanderingso]

Ok, here's a creepy thought... Who's to say that this decrease in the drop rate of ebon isn't being done to test how well it sells on the broker?... To see how much people will be willing to pay for it... Exchange is coming, and SOE will be involved... Who's to say they won't be hrrmm, "manufacturing" it for their own monetary gain? Just a thought, I'm sure they wouldn't do that to us. <div></div>

[Fleaba]

<P>I noted in the earlier stages of this thread that someone said that T5 named mobs drop ebon regularly. Well if that is true, it don't really matter. Since with /petition /petition..../petition and /report.../report /reprt....and /printscreen over and over.....the latest batch of Farmers on Innothule are here to stay it seems. We are lucky to have a named mob in a zone for more then 5 minutes before the farmer bots come and mow it down. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>A few of the merchant pack mules for the farmers have stacks of cedar railing, gashed augmented this....bent ebon disks...etc. I mean stacks of 20 even of some of them. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> The farmers tend to set the prices on rares on our server because nobody else has a chance at getting them. </P> <P>The rares that drop off raid mobs stay in the guild they are looted by. Join a good guild you say.....well with my time schedule, all of the raid guilds tend to be raiding when I'm sleeping. "grave yard shift" </P> <P>Before ya increase the spawn rate of rares...maybe SOE should hire a few more bot stompers before the players start griefing them more then they are. </P>

[Tarmagin]

<P>I have been harvesting in Tier 5 for 3 months.  Never less than 15 hours per week, usually much more.  </P> <P>Over 14,200 fulginate harvested, 6 luminous stones, 8 strange black ore,<FONT size=5>  0 Ebon Clusters!</FONT></P> <DIV><FONT size=3>Enough said.</FONT></DIV>

[FamilyManFir]

I have to admit, it would be nice if the devs could code a change such that, the more harvests you made, the (very gradually) higher chances you'd get each time to get a rare, any rare. Once you got a rare your chances would go back to the low, initial odds.Of course, that would probably mean that they'd have to lower the initial odds from what they are now, so fewer people would get a rare (ebon or otherwise) without putting some work into it. Othewise the ebon inflow would go up too high.

[Wanderingso]

<span><blockquote><hr>FamilyManFirst wrote:I have to admit, it would be nice if the devs could code a change such that, the more harvests you made, the (very gradually) higher chances you'd get each time to get a rare, any rare. Once you got a rare your chances would go back to the low, initial odds.Of course, that would probably mean that they'd have to lower the initial odds from what they are now, so fewer people would get a rare (ebon or otherwise) without putting some work into it. Othewise the ebon inflow would go up too high.<hr></blockquote>/Agree That certainly sounds more fair than the way it's working currently.</span><div></div>

[FamilyManFir]

<blockquote><hr>FamilyManFirst wrote:I have to admit, it would be nice if the devs could code a change such that, the more harvests you made, the (very gradually) higher chances you'd get each time to get a rare, any rare. Once you got a rare your chances would go back to the low, initial odds.Of course, that would probably mean that they'd have to lower the initial odds from what they are now, so fewer people would get a rare (ebon or otherwise) without putting some work into it. Othewise the ebon inflow would go up too high.<hr></blockquote>Of course, that's making the assumption that rare/uncommon/common harvest determination is done at the time of harvest. If the server determines what a node "contains" when it spawns the node then this idea won't be implementable.I rather think that this is the case, actually. At launch there was a time when nodes with bone in them spawned as little bone piles. They corrected that (and you now get bone out of Windfallen Trees, hehe!) but that strongly implies that the "contents" of a node are determined at spawn time.

[Taksor]

I've done my fair share of harvesting and despite how many rocks i harvest, I can't get an ebon cluster.  However; i realize that my luck just sucks [expletive ninja'd by Faarbot], bend over and buy one for 2 and a half plat.  You know how easy it is to get regular rares and sell them, then buy one?  support the miners they put alot of hours into it ,  f-UC,K you lazy people.

[ginfress]

<DIV>f-UC,K you lazy people</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Must have been difficult to find out how to fool the current language system. You always this smart or was this your dailly need of attention?</DIV>

[stank]

<DIV>Was harvesting for weeks and no Ebon for me, UNTIL....Yes, I mined an Ebon last Saturday night in The Feerrott while just logging on to check a quest mob. Not only did I get the Ebon but I got 2 Rhodiums in the next 30 minutes after that. Good night for this guy!!! So, keep at it, it will eventually pop on the screen for you and when it does it is a great feeling, </DIV>

[Ashlian]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> stank33 wrote:<BR> <DIV>Was harvesting for weeks and no Ebon for me, UNTIL....Yes, I mined an Ebon last Saturday night in The Feerrott while just logging on to check a quest mob. Not only did I get the Ebon but I got 2 Rhodiums in the next 30 minutes after that. Good night for this guy!!! So, keep at it, it will eventually pop on the screen for you and when it does it is a great feeling, </DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>It would be a better feeling for me if I knew that I would have some clear result for a certain number of hours rather than nothing for weeks and then a great streak. And that says nothing of the people who need six ebon.....how many months would it take them to achieve that result on average? I don't play the lottery in real life because I hate the concept of winning big very very rarely. It isn't worth my money. In EQ, I don't find it worth my effort for such rare reward. Pavlov didn't ring a bell constantly for weeks without feeding the dog a treat. I bet that would have resulted in the dog.....ignoring the bell.</P> <P>Ashlian Liadan, 37 Fury, 32 Tailor of Mistmoore<BR></P>

[Nobol]

<blockquote><hr>vcjester wrote:<P>I noted in the earlier stages of this thread that someone said that T5 named mobs drop ebon regularly. Well if that is true, it don't really matter. Since with /petition /petition..../petition and /report.../report /reprt....and /printscreen over and over.....the latest batch of Farmers on Innothule are here to stay it seems. We are lucky to have a named mob in a zone for more then 5 minutes before the farmer bots come and mow it down. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>A few of the merchant pack mules for the farmers have stacks of cedar railing, gashed augmented this....bent ebon disks...etc. I mean stacks of 20 even of some of them. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> The farmers tend to set the prices on rares on our server because nobody else has a chance at getting them. </P> <P>The rares that drop off raid mobs stay in the guild they are looted by. Join a good guild you say.....well with my time schedule, all of the raid guilds tend to be raiding when I'm sleeping. "grave yard shift" </P> <P>Before ya increase the spawn rate of rares...maybe SOE should hire a few more bot stompers before the players start griefing them more then they are. </P> <hr></blockquote>Casual gamer, we raid 24/7 <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Synd]

I also mined my own ebon cluster....it took me three months, but I eventually got it in Feerrott.

[Fleaba]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Nobolis wrote:<BR><BR><BR>Casual gamer, we raid 24/7 <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P>Well I wouldn't call myself casual, after all I've gone thru 243 lvls of adventurer and crafter since launch. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>Hundreds of stacks of raws harvested to date in order to supply my crafting. 1 superb quality pelt, 1 medium quality pelt, 2 palladiums, 1 fir, 3 coral, and 2 silver, along with dozens of luminous thru glowy things. I have found a named though that the farmers don't bother with.....kill it daily with my bud and duel boxed warden. Looted one Ruby so far. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /><BR></P>

[CasombraHellstalk]

<DIV>8 weeks and counting, harvesting 12+ hours a day:</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>2 figwarts</DIV> <DIV>1 ruby</DIV> <DIV>2 Superb Pelt</DIV> <DIV>20 Luminous</DIV> <DIV>1 cedar</DIV> <DIV>0 EBON</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Now tell me if this shouldn't be fixed?</DIV>

[Lig]

<P>To the guy that said he harvested 6 in a few nights:</P> <P> </P> <P>Simply put I call bull. I don;t believe you for a second. I've harvested for well over 200 hours and found every other rare you can name but no Ebon. so Bull.</P><p>Message Edited by Ligur1 on <span class=date_text>06-06-2005</span> <span class=time_text>02:27 PM</span>

[Wanderingso]

<div></div><span><blockquote><hr>CasombraHellstalker wrote:<div></div> <div>8 weeks and counting, harvesting 12+ hours a day:</div> <div> </div> <div>2 figwarts</div> <div>1 ruby</div> <div>2 Superb Pelt</div> <div>20 Luminous</div> <div>1 cedar</div> <div>0 EBON</div> <div> </div> <div>Now tell me if this shouldn't be fixed?</div><hr></blockquote>I saw that someone 1-starred this post, but I 5-starred it. The list looks accurate to me, and kind of lamely absent of ebon. =(</span><div></div><p>Message Edited by Wanderingsoul on <span class=date_text>06-07-2005</span> <span class=time_text>04:35 AM</span>

[WolfSha]

<P>I wonder how representive this thread is...?</P> <P>There can't be many more than 100 people on this thread saying they can't find one no matter how many fulginate they mine.  I wonder if you're just the 'unlucky 100' and perhaps most people don't have this problem...    And i wonder how many people who have said they can't find one have actually got one <EM>since</EM> posting and never bothered to come back and say "woo, i found one, don't give up".</P> <P>Personally i've found ebon at (what i considder to be) a reasonable rate.  Many many hours of mining put in, but nothing like the amout of time Casombra has - not even close, but i'm getting results... It's not fun, but at least i don't feel like i'm getting no-where.  </P> <P>Oddly enough, ebon is showing up for me more than any other rares - 1 cedar, 1 ruby, 3 ebons harvested (plus about 8 SBO's and 10 lumious), and i've been harvesting all the nodes about the same amount to clear them out to try to spawn more ore (usually doing laps of feerrot, only to get back to the start to find somone mining my newly spawned ore! :smileysurprised: ).   </P> <P>One of my friends (says he) found a ruby a day for several days in a row...  It does seem to vary a lot.  I found one ebon after about 10 hours soid harvesting on my first ever serious harvesting trip to feerrot for the bbc quest, then another a couple of weeks later, and was thinking "wow, this is easy", then nothing for over a month until this weekend, when i found another. </P> <P>I'm not saying my experience is any more representitve of the "normal" sitation than the guy who says he's harvested over 14,000 fulginate with no ebons found, I'm sue it's not and that i'm one of the lucky few, I'm saying that it's just the luck of the draw i, but i know that isn't going to make anyone that can't find it feel any better.</P> <P>Ebon is not impossible to find, but it is rare enough to mean that a number of people are gonna harvest for a VERY long time before finding one, and some people could (technically) never ever find one.</P> <P> </P> <P>Perhaps a "rare finding vitality" (true rares - no-one cares about luminous etc) is the only fair way, so the chances of mining more than say 1000 or 2000 fulginate before finding an ebon are basically 0.  Whatever the pure chances of finding an ebon are x4 pehaps, so you should have to harvest more than 4 times more than the average to get one.  </P> <P>A straight drop rate increase would result in the lucky people finding lots of ebon, and the very very unlucky still finding none.  I suspect what we want is to up the lower end, not the whole scale...</P> <P>Be very intesting if moorguard or someone could post here and let us know what the actual probability of an ebon harvest is.</P> <P><SPAN class=time_text></SPAN> </P><p>Message Edited by WolfShark on <span class=date_text>06-07-2005</span> <span class=time_text>08:36 AM</span>

[Ashlian]

<DIV> <P>Wolfshark said:</P> <P>Perhaps a "rare finding vitality" (true rares - no-one cares about luminous etc) is the only fair way, so the chances of mining more than say 1000 or 2000 fulginate before finding an ebon are basically 0.  Whatever the pure chances of finding an ebon are x4 pehaps, so you should have to harvest more than 4 times more than the average to get one. </P> <P>A straight drop rate increase would result in the lucky people finding lots of ebon, and the very very unlucky still finding none.  I suspect what we want is to up the lower end, not the whole scale...</P> <P></P> <HR> </DIV> <P>That's exactly the kind of thing I'd like to see implemented. I have no problem with effort equalling reward, but lots and lots of effort for little reward really is like my job in RL......YUCK!</P> <P>Ashlian Liadan, 37 Fury, 32 Tailor of Mistmoore</P>

[WolfSha]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Ashlian wrote:<BR> <DIV> <P>Wolfshark said:</P> <P>Perhaps a "rare finding vitality" (true rares - no-one cares about luminous etc) is the only fair way, so the chances of mining more than say 1000 or 2000 fulginate before finding an ebon are basically 0.  Whatever the pure chances of finding an ebon are x4 pehaps, so you should have to harvest more than 4 times more than the average to get one. </P> <P>A straight drop rate increase would result in the lucky people finding lots of ebon, and the very very unlucky still finding none.  I suspect what we want is to up the lower end, not the whole scale...</P> <P></P> <HR> </DIV> <P>That's exactly the kind of thing I'd like to see implemented. I have no problem with effort equalling reward, but lots and lots of effort for little reward really is like my job in RL......YUCK!</P> <P>Ashlian Liadan, 37 Fury, 32 Tailor of Mistmoore</P><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><BR>Yeah, same here... one difference tho - we gtt paid for our RL jobs.. you don't pay to "enjoy" it.... you can't tell someone "bad luck you loose" in a computer game.  That's what RL is for!!  We play these games for fun and for escape.  A "rare vitaility" system means everyone can win, and that's what we all want.... that's what we all pay for...

[CasombraHellstalk]

<P>Again another long day of harvest.... harvested 10 hours yesterday and got a cedar and 4 luminous... now this is week 8 of harvesting so this is my update:</P> <P> </P> <DIV> <DIV>2 figwarts</DIV> <DIV>1 ruby</DIV> <DIV>2 Superb Pelt</DIV> <DIV>24 Luminous</DIV> <DIV>2 cedar</DIV> <DIV>0 EBON</DIV></DIV><p>Message Edited by CasombraHellstalker on <span class=date_text>06-07-2005</span> <span class=time_text>06:12 PM</span>

[Verdyn]

<div></div>My experience with Ebon is similar to many others but I'd like to post it anyway.  I am not a hardcore player nor a casual player, I lie somewhere in the middle.  Because of that, I only play for a few hours each day that I can.  The most fun content in the game for me thus far has been the Heritage quests, but the EBBC is frustrating me to no end thanks to the Ebon.  Although I'm only level 42, with guild help I got the first two steps done in 30 mins.  I've been working on the Ebon for weeks now with no luck. I can't harvest all the time but I harvest 2-3 hours each day and I clear everything other than shrubs to pop ore.  The drop rate (given that I'm doing it for a heritage quest) is ridiculous.  It's clear that there are disproportionate amounts of Ebon given to people, and maybe that needs to be looked into.  However, I don't really feel the drop rate is an issue.  If I want a full suit of Ebon (which I won't be going after once I get the cluster I need), I don't see a problem with it being difficult to get. My problem comes from the fact that this Heritage quest, which should be fun and challenging, has instead become painful and all about luck.  The devs absolutely need to fix the EBBC quest to make it take a lesser node.  That is one of the big reasons that Ebon is so highly priced.  I can't shell out 3-4 plat for Ebon to complete my quest because I'm not rich.  I understand that being a mid-dedicated player who isn't loaded means I can't necessarily have the best gear around.  I can accept that.   I'll be just fine with my Fulginate.  Please though, at least make Heritages reasonable.  The quests and stories behind them are fun, but burning days hoping to get lucky doesn't challenge, it just frustrates. How sad is it that I would be grateful to endure the 100 ore/100 wood for the DWB again (harvested the old way, without 3 guaranteed nodes) as a substitute? <div></div><p>Message Edited by Verdyn on <span class=date_text>06-08-2005</span> <span class=time_text>04:23 AM</span>

[Q'Tar]

HEY :smileyvery-happy: I got my first rare in 2 months, A steel cluster. Now I gotta figure out what I'm going to do with it LOL

[eyes007]

Actually I like the way they did the opal for the Stein Heritage, you didn't have to find one, it dropped from Bartender Clerg. All the rares from heritage quests should be a drop from a mob, with the same difficulty as Bartender Clerg, using a full group to get it. Ebon for BBC shouldn't prevent a heritage from moving on, I would kill Nagafen's ghost if it gave me an ebon because at least you have a better chance to get one, but again, it should be a drop so that everyone didn't fight over it.

[Lydiae]

<DIV>You know, when the expansion comes out, and the level cap is increased to 60, there will be a whole new tier of harvests and tradeskill goods.  Ebon will be yesterday's news, and everyone will want whatever the new T6 item is.  And so on with every level cap increase, which I've heard will max out somewhere between 100 and 200.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Why isn't anyone crying about hard work or paying through the nose for steel at level 20?  Feysteel at 30?  Do you NEED it?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>No need to raise the drop rate.</DIV>

[FamilyManFir]

<blockquote><hr>Lydiaele wrote:<DIV>You know, when the expansion comes out, and the level cap is increased to 60, there will be a whole new tier of harvests and tradeskill goods. Ebon will be yesterday's news, and everyone will want whatever the new T6 item is. And so on with every level cap increase, which I've heard will max out somewhere between 100 and 200.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>Why isn't anyone crying about hard work or paying through the nose for steel at level 20? Feysteel at 30? Do you NEED it?</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>No need to raise the drop rate.</DIV><hr></blockquote>1) You have a point, although I would point out that there were many complaints about the need for rares to complete Heritage quests (like the BBC) at all levels; that's why many of them were changed to the Uncommons instead. OTOH, once the expansion comes out the pressure on Ebon may diminish to the point where it's not so hard to find or buy an Ebon for the BBC.2) "... and everyone will want whatever the new T6 item is." They'll be complaining about the harvest rate about that tier too, I'll bet. If it's really broken (or could really use an improvement, like a gradually increasing chance of getting a rare that some [including myself] have suggested) the expansion won't fix the problem, it'll just push it up to the next cap. If there really is an issue (of which I'm not yet convinced, but I'm listening) it should be fixed, not put off.

[FamilyManFir]

Here's an interesting thought:I've always favored the idea that rares are determined at the time the node spawns, not the time you harvest them. I feel that there's marginal evidence to support this theory, given the way that Bone used to spawn as little bone piles in Antonica and the Commonlands (now you get Bone from Winfallen Trees :O).I read somewhere (although I couldn't say if it was a dev or not) that nodes eventually despawn, too, although the despawn rate must be pretty slow compared to adventurers' typical harvest rates.Perhaps part of what's happening with rares is that they're eventually congregating in areas that are seldom harvested; places that are inconvenient, out of the way, or mob-infested. If so, the later after server reboot you harvested the less likely you'd be to find a rare in the regularly-harvested areas. This would be especially true of T5 rares as some locations adventurers would never gray out the mobs due to the level cap.Perhaps you could better your odds of harvesting rares later in the day by forming groups to Hunt'N'Harvest in spots where mobs are not grayed out.Just an idea.

[CasombraHellstalk]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Verdyn wrote:<BR> My experience with Ebon is similar to many others but I'd like to post it anyway.  I am not a hardcore player nor a casual player, I lie somewhere in the middle.  Because of that, I only play for a few hours each day that I can.  The most fun content in the game for me thus far has been the Heritage quests, but the EBBC is frustrating me to no end thanks to the Ebon.  Although I'm only level 42, with guild help I got the first two steps done in 30 mins.  I've been working on the Ebon for weeks now with no luck.<BR><BR>I can't harvest all the time but I harvest 2-3 hours each day and I clear everything other than shrubs to pop ore.  The drop rate (given that I'm doing it for a heritage quest) is ridiculous.  It's clear that there are disproportionate amounts of Ebon given to people, and maybe that needs to be looked into.  However, I don't really feel the drop rate is an issue.  If I want a full suit of Ebon (which I won't be going after once I get the cluster I need), I don't see a problem with it being difficult to get.<BR><BR>My problem comes from the fact that this Heritage quest, which should be fun and challenging, has instead become painful and all about luck.  The devs absolutely need to fix the EBBC quest to make it take a lesser node.  That is one of the big reasons that Ebon is so highly priced.  I can't shell out 3-4 plat for Ebon to complete my quest because I'm not rich.  I understand that being a mid-dedicated player who isn't loaded means I can't necessarily have the best gear around.  I can accept that.   I'll be just fine with my Fulginate.  Please though, at least make Heritages reasonable.  The quests and stories behind them are fun, but burning days hoping to get lucky doesn't challenge, it just frustrates.<BR><BR>How sad is it that I would be grateful to endure the 100 ore/100 wood for the DWB again (harvested the old way, without 3 guaranteed nodes) as a substitute?<BR> <P>Message Edited by Verdyn on <SPAN class=date_text>06-08-2005</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>04:23 AM</SPAN><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE><cheers> you said it better than I could.... I would LOVE to get this quest done.... I am lvl 50 for godssake and just want it done and over with... Ebon armor? Bah.... if it comes it comes, not really worried about that.... it is the heritage I want to finish.<BR>

[WolfSha]

<P>I agree.. for someone that is not gonna use the sword, it's a HUGE price to pay just to complete a quest.</P> <P>However, using a luminous might too a easy way to get such a good sword if you're are gonna use it, especally if you're getting the EBBC version.</P> <P>I didn't mind having to find an ebon to get my EBBC as i've been wanting that sword since before i even made my zerker as it's an awesome sword, and one that i'll be using for a long time to come.. But if you're just doing it for the heritage quest then it's way out of line compared with all the other heritage quests... There's a big imbalance there.</P> <P> </P> <P>So what about this:</P> <P>You should perhaps have the choice of using either a luminous OR an ebon to remake the sword, and only one that has been remade with an ebon can be weilded in combat as it's been remade <EM>properly</EM>.  (obviously this would have to be made clear at the time of fixing the sword).</P> <DIV>This would mean that you have the choice of:</DIV> <DIV>1) using a lumious to "fix up" the sword and just get the quest done and and hang the thing on your wall, or</DIV> <DIV>2) using an ebon and <EM>reforge </EM>the sword properly so that it can actually be used again.</DIV>

[CasombraHellstalk]

Agree Emunclaw.... I am not going to ever use the sword but sure would like to complete the heritage. I like your idea!

[Av]

<font color="#9933cc"><font size="4"><font size="3">I have to say that harvesting for an ebon sucks.  I have harvested for over 48 hours since Friday evening and have yet to find a single "rare."  This is ridiculous to expect people to harvest this much for one item.  It is mind numbingly boring and a waste of time.  There should be an alternative for those who want the piece just to finish the HQ.  I collect HQ items and have not sold a single reward from an HQ.  Having to harvest like this takes the fun out of the game, which is the premise of the game - fun, entertainment.  I propose a solution for those of us who wish to finish the HQ, move on in the game, and not disrupt the ebon trade. My idea would be for those on this particular stage of the BBC HQ to be able to do a turn in.  For instance, I have spent numerous RL hours harvesting, trying to harvest my ebon needed.  I do not use a bot or try to cheat in anyway.  That takes the fun out of the game for me.  But, something needs to be done.  Quite possibly, offer the option of after you have harvested alluvium, sedimentary, etc nodes for hours and have collected hundreds of fulginates, you should be able to do a turn in.  Each fulginate can be done as a quest update, that way one must actually harvest the fulginate in order for the quest to update.  Say you need 400 fulginate, you can turn that into an NPC for a no drop, no trade, no value, no anything ebon cluster that can be used to finish the HQ only.  This does not take the place of needing ebon for armor or weapons, but allows those of us who wish to enjoy the game and play - not be mindless robots in search of nodes - to move on.  You will have to put the time in to get your hundreds of fulginates, bloodstones, or whatever, in order to finish the quest if you do not happen to harvest the oh so rare ebon cluster.  Require another type of newer rare to go with the turn in if you feel the need to keep some form of rarity to the quest.  Though, leave the option of if you do happen to harvest an ebon, you're done.  If you want to still buy the ebon, that will work too. Just make it so that those who are intent on finishing the quest can do so, reasonably - knowing that eventaully there will be some finality to the quest in the near future. ~Avis 45 High Elf Templar 26 Carpenter Najena Server</font> </font></font><div></div>

[BlaseBlase]

<P>I do have to agree that harvested rares are a bit on the extremely rare side.  And it does seem that the rare ores are the rarest of them all.</P> <P>Personally, I have never harvested a rare ore in ANY tier.  The rare ores I have acquired have all been mob drops.  As far as the other rares are concerned however, I think I have harvested at least one of each type of rare in every tier except t1 and t5 (which I'm just getting to).  If the ores were just as rare as the others, you'd think I would have harvested at least one of them by now, but that isn't the case.  </P> <P>I don't think they should really be bumped up to the point that they are "easy" to get, but making ores some of the rarest to harvest does seem odd considering how many different things they can be used for.  And from what I've seen, bumping up the rate of rare harvests slightly wouldn't have much of an effect on ores, since most of that comes from mob drops anyways.</P>

[Evo Shand]

<DIV>I vote for more nodes, not increased rare drops</DIV>

[Fleaba]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> Evo Shandor wrote:<BR> <DIV>I vote for more nodes, not increased rare drops</DIV><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE> <P><BR>I vote for harvesters to stop and harvest the fungi, critter dens, wood piles etc. I've only ran across maybe a dozen harvesters in all my times out harvesting that actually harvest everything in the area. If you want Ore nodes to spawn.....leaving all those fungi nodes sitting there sure don't help matters. If you can't forest or trap.....get yur butt back to antonica and work your skills up. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> </P> <P>Nothing more annoying then someone who can only mine and gather harvesting in the same area as me.  Especially when they pass up everything but the two versions of rock and let me clear out the place holders. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <p>Message Edited by vcjester on <span class=date_text>06-13-2005</span> <span class=time_text>10:32 AM</span>

[Andig]

<DIV>"I vote for harvesters to stop and harvest the fungi, critter dens, wood piles etc. I've only ran across maybe a dozen harvesters in all my times out harvesting that actually harvest everything in the area. If you want Ore nodes ..."</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>They call those Unattended Macro's... they exist.</DIV>

[FamilyManFir]

<blockquote><hr>vcjester wrote:I vote for harvesters to stop and harvest the fungi, critter dens, wood piles etc. I've only ran across maybe a dozen harvesters in all my times out harvesting that actually harvest everything in the area.<p>Message Edited by vcjester on <span class=date_text>06-13-2005</span> <span class=time_text>10:32 AM</span><hr></blockquote>I agree, that would be nice ... but I don't have a real problem with the bypassers. They'll get frustrated and I'll get the rares and semi-rares from those avoided nodes, which I can then sell for decent coin ... and work my way up to enough plat to buy what I want, assuming I don't find it as I harvest.

[jshari]

Im so scared to post here.... my 2c on it is if they raise the rate the price will drop alot, not only will there be a higher chance ( and who knows SOE might put it freakeshly high and mess everthing up) but people with a new insperation would go out and harvest more. I being poor and having no time for harvesting say: Put it to 100% baby! drop those prices, drop it like  its hot!!! /duck (quack) <div></div>

[CasombraHellstalk]

<BR> <BLOCKQUOTE> <HR> vcjester wrote: <P><BR>I vote for harvesters to stop and harvest the fungi, critter dens, wood piles etc. I've only ran across maybe a dozen harvesters in all my times out harvesting that actually harvest everything in the area. If you want Ore nodes to spawn.....leaving all those fungi nodes sitting there sure don't help matters. If you can't forest or trap.....get yur butt back to antonica and work your skills up. <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> </P> <P>Nothing more annoying then someone who can only mine and gather harvesting in the same area as me.  Especially when they pass up everything but the two versions of rock and let me clear out the place holders. <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></P> <P>Message Edited by vcjester on <SPAN class=date_text>06-13-2005</SPAN> <SPAN class=time_text>10:32 AM</SPAN><BR> <HR> </BLOCKQUOTE>I do that.... makes no difference on way or the other. Yes the stones spawn but no rares to this date. I don't mean the mob dropped version.... I have rotten dice anyway..... cause you can only use the harested one for the BBC. I do have the cash to buy one from a player but no way will I pay that outragous price to finish a heritage.<BR>

[Tarmagin]

<P>I should go over 20,000 fulginate harvests without an ebon sometime tommorrow.  Sitting at 19,636 right now.  I am beyond frustrated with this but I will make it through, just hope I don't see 30,000.</P> <P>I try to harvest everything as I go by but I am starting to get very annoyed at what seems to be an increase in the rate of the "Nothing Found" unsuccessful haravest messages received.  Now that you are guaranteed three successful harvests per node what is the point of the nill harvests now?  Why not just eliminate them all together.  I had one Hermetic Stone harvest today that resulted in 17 Nothing Founds before I got 3 items.  All my harvesting skills are at max and I am still seeing about 25% to 30% unsuccessful harvests on average.</P>

[Aldelbert]

Here's a little story I thought I'd share as to why some people have so many rares compared to others.... I've noticed for a while that it seems that the "botters" on my server always have new rares and stuff every time I check the broker.  Sure you could say they harvest a lot or whatever but I've known peeps that aren't botters that have probably harvested as much as them over a few days with no results yet they manage to always get a few rares daily.  I logged in early in the morning after a server restart at 5pm in Feerrott to see 4 groups of botters at work in the zone.  I followed one of them around and started cutting them off and mining their nodes before them and low and behold, I managed to get a HQ pelt and 2 Ebon..... I should of known.  It's a pattern and it's not truely random.  Much like how EQ's "raid" spawns used to be in EQ1 where the server would go down and the dragons/gods would spawn upon server uppage, ready to drop their loot.  Now the botters get up bright and early, ready to harvest out the rares before anyone else can.  <div></div>

[CyJ]

<P>Please dont play on test server if you are a noob.</P> <P>Try a more populated server and you will see the difference.</P> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>From what I see. Harvesting rare rates are fine atm.</DIV> <DIV>However, raiding instance dropping rare everytime, is making servers with raid guilds having a market flooded with ebon and ruby at low prices.</DIV><p>Message Edited by CyJun on <span class=date_text>06-14-2005</span> <span class=time_text>12:05 AM</span>

[BrainMu]

<P>Harvesting</P> <P>- 1 Ebon, 2 Rhodium, 1 Figwart</P> <P>Killing random names</P> <P>- 4 Pelts, 3 Cedar, 2 linen, 2 Rubies, 2 Ebon</P> <P>I have harvested maybe 150 X the number of names i have killed, so if you want rares i recommend killing named mobs, can't kill em solo?  make a friend who can't solo em either .. problem solved.</P>

[Kizee]

<DIV>I think the drop rate is fine... harvested for 2 hours last night... (2) ebon, (1) figwart, & (1) HQ pelt..... I should play the lottery. <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></DIV>