Harvesting... epic... pfft

[markdevox]

<p>Having to harvest rares as part of a quest is soul destroying.</p><p>On with the fury epic (this isn't a whine about the fury epic quest mind you, I'm sure other folks have similar harvesty bits in theirs)... Spent 4 hours harvesting in RoK tonight, got 1 mantrap root (need 4) and 3 smoldering materials (need 5)</p><p>If I stay that lucky on the mantraps it's gonna be around 16 hours spent doing this unavoidable, depressing quest stage which not only is unsociable and definitely not a multiplayer aspect, it's also simply not much fun.  I appreciate an epic quest should be long and arduous but it should be in a way that fits the lore of the story.  I don't remember the bit in Lord of the Rings f'rinstance where Frodo has to spend 4 days picking flowers before he gets to go to Mordor. <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/385970365b8ed7503b4294502a458efa.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p><p>Perhaps folks might read this and think "quit whining" or others might consider harvesting one of the most thrilling bits of the game or something.  Don't get me wrong I don't mind the odd bit but 16 hours of it?  It's just a blatant timesink that doesn't add anything to the game.  I'm sure there's going to be one unlucky guy out there who thinks "16 hours?? It took me 16 weeks just to get my first update..!  and we used to live in a cardboard box on the motorway" etc...</p><p>Anyway it's purely one opinion I know, but imo harvesting anything more than a few nodes of anything doesn't have any real place in any high end quest, unless there is a sense of achievement in it and it fits the story logically i.e. the nodes take you on a natural path through a difficult zone that you otherwise might not have seen/taken a path through.  Picking up some diamonds from a crevasse with Nasty McMob and cronies at the bottom or whatever would make sense as a harvesty bit and would be good fun, requiring a group and a bit of skill.  Doing nothing but for harvesting amongst grey stuff for 3 or 4 nights of play doesn't really add much to the overall game thrill and any muppet can do it so it isn't reflective of what an epic quest should be.  imo.</p>

[shadowscale]

i would rather harvest then wipe repeatably trying to get down to kotiz in seb. but then agen i might change my mind if i was the one harvesting.

[Ssyzr]

<p>I don't remember the bit in Lord of the Rings f'rinstance where Frodo has to spend 4 days picking flowers before he gets to go to Mordor.</p><p> You must have missed it. </p><p>Early in the film he had his friends foraging vegetables, the red con farmer pathed nearby so they had to zone. Not long afterwards they did find a nice patch of rare mushrooms but could not forage all the nodes as some heroic ringwraiths spawned at the /loc. Near the end of the first film Frodo wanders from the group seeing a few redwood nodes, Boromir becomes upset at Frodo for his disrespect and demands the collectable "one ring to rule them all" as compensation.</p><p> Aragorn was particularily adept at collecting shinies in the second film. Once while chasing the Uruk-hai  he lucked upon a rare broach belonging to Pippin and later near the edge of the woods he also found the belt of Pippin; this was an important moment in the film as Aragorn was half done the collection without having to use the broker!</p><p> Saruman was also a noteable figure in that he organzied an entire raid party to cherry pick all the severed ash nodes. Presumably for the purpose of making a bunch of Eccentric Fir Stools out of all the severed fir he claimed. Rumur has it that he was trying to create some sort of bizarre fireplace or bar in his 5 room Freeport house. Treebeard and his guild became upset however and raided Sarumans trade instance, stole all the tradeskill supplies and robbed Sarumans carpenter alt of his woodworking tables thus preventing Saruman from completing his interior decorating plans.</p><p> As you can plainly see, the Lord of the Rings most certainly does have many examples of foraging. There are many other examples (Sam collecting crackers, Pippin and Merry finding the last of the fireworks collection and turning it in, Sméagol finding the rarest of the blue shinies, Sméagol harvesting fish nodes) the list goes on and on! </p><p>imo harvesting anything more than a few nodes of anything doesn't have any real place in any high end quest, unless there is a sense of achievement in it and it fits the story logically </p><p> If it works for Tolkien it should work for Sony. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY<img src=" width="15" height="15" /></p><p>Add By Edit: Take note also that Sarumans guild was new at the start of the films. How much foraging would have been required for all of those armourers, weaponsmiths, and carpenters to do a CRAZY amount of writs? They went from a new guild up to level 65 in a short period of time - this is quite apparent given that the first raids had no wargs but later in the film the wargs made their first appearance. It may have been off camera but those Uruk-hai  must have been harvesting like mad orcs.</p>

[markdevox]

<p><cite><a href="mailto:Ssyzr@Oasis" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ssyzr@Oasis</a> wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p> Saruman was also a noteable figure in that he organzied an entire raid party to cherry pick all the severed ash nodes. </p></blockquote><p>LOL <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p><p>Awesome reply!</p>

[Aurumn]

Ssyzr,You, sir, win the thread. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/97ada74b88049a6d50a6ed40898a03d7.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />

[Dirty Jack Rackham]

<p>**Standing ovation @ Ssyzr**  <img src="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/images/smilies/e8a506dc4ad763aca51bec4ca7dc8560.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" /></p>

[Lilj]

*Joins in on the standing Ovation*