Far Seas Trading books and group instances

[OrcSlayer96]

<p>I recently reset my crafter from Sage to Alchemist, and when i hit level 50, i decided to go into the group tradeskill zones to pickup unique AA and tradeskill exp from the recipes you recieve in the 4 instances.  In addition to the tokens and rares that can be picked up from a successful counter of a far seas innovation, i was hoping to see a far seas recipe book from quest completion.  Currently i have the ones when i was on the Sage to make the tier 2 armor and the tier 1 jewelry i believe, but i am shooting for the infused jewelry and misc books too.  After being in the group zones around 8 times or so i have not seen a book drop yet(plenty of the crafter jewelry tho even tho no chemist one or tradesman).  I heard a rumor you had to be higher crafter level to have a chance of a book to drop.  Some were telling me level 70 or higher while others said level 80, currently i hit level 71 alchemist the other night and was wondering if there was a level requirement or i am just that unlucky to see a book drop...<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Deson]

Books really should just be purchasable from the vendor. The random chance can stay but considering the service nature of tradeskills, the RNG should not be the sole determinant for recipe acquisition.

[Cele]

<p>I think the RNG is messing with you.  I am 99.99% sure my alchy got one or two of her books while in the low 50's</p>

[Barx]

<p>I cannot say that I've heard that you need to be high level to get the books to drop. You need to be to scribe them as I recall, but that was all to my knowledge.</p><p>They can be rather rare. But given the relative lack of rewards that you can buy with tokens, I think them and the spoon/rolling pin are the good reasons to keep doing those instances. It would be nice if you could trade the books in for their counterpart (ie III <-> IV for advanced jewelry/armor and I<->II for basic jewelry/armor), perhaps just to lessen the RNG a bit. But overall I think it was very well implemented.</p>

[OrcSlayer96]

<p>Oh, i don't mind doing the group instances X amount of times, i did it the 1st 4 times solo to take advantage of the recipes and see what dropped, then 4 more times to see if a book dropped.  I just didnt want to waste leveling time if you had to be level 80 crafter for the books to drop..<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>I am at the point right now where i have picked up all the unique recipes in the 4 zones so i will go back to grouping with friends and knocking out the zone daily if i can, hoping for the books, uniqure rare crafting items and the odd pieces of jewelry to drop that will complete a durability and tradeskill xp bonuses.</p><p>BTW, if i have a few crafting items that boost success rate, do they stack or does only the highest one count?  For example the Isle of Mara Charm item that gives ~ 1.1% success and the tinkered charm item that boosts success by 3%.  If not i will shelve the Isle of Mara 1.1% one and keep the crafted one.</p>

[Barx]

<p><cite>OrcSlayer96 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Oh, i don't mind doing the group instances X amount of times, i did it the 1st 4 times solo to take advantage of the recipes and see what dropped, then 4 more times to see if a book dropped.  I just didnt want to waste leveling time if you had to be level 80 crafter for the books to drop..<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></p><p>I am at the point right now where i have picked up all the unique recipes in the 4 zones so i will go back to grouping with friends and knocking out the zone daily if i can, hoping for the books, uniqure rare crafting items and the odd pieces of jewelry to drop that will complete a durability and tradeskill xp bonuses.</p><p>BTW, if i have a few crafting items that boost success rate, do they stack or does only the highest one count?  For example the Isle of Mara Charm item that gives ~ 1.1% success and the tinkered charm item that boosts success by 3%.  If not i will shelve the Isle of Mara 1.1% one and keep the crafted one.</p></blockquote><p>They should all stack. And a word of caution -- last time I checked, the set bonus that gives a boost to durability ends up being detrimental rather than helpful. If you boost your durability by 10%, it doesn't just add... it multiplies the base pulse. Meaning a standard -10, +50 would become -11, +50 (since its adding on (-10)*(0.1), if it were 10%). I need to double check and make sure that's still the way they are behaving, I threw my set that did that in the bank for a long time now because of that fact. (Not fun having a -50 fail tick become a -54 fail tick becuase of the set).</p>

[OrcSlayer96]

<p>Another question then, if i have started a group mission solo, and x amount time later a friend logs in and wants to joing me, can i invite them into my zone even if i have progressed some on the stages?  For example i am on Stage 2 and it is the same day of the mission being available, or do i need to zone out and ainvite the people then zone in?</p>

[Whilhelmina]

Yes, you can. You can even invite him while on the last combo of the last stage and he'll get the quest ding even without crafting a single item. Well, I did it once with my lazy hubby <img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />

[Wikfizb]

<p>This last weekened I did a group tradeskill mission as my Warden who was 52 warden 58 tailor at the start of the mission and because I could grind exp on no-harvesting recipies in there (very nice since T7+ harvestign is still quite dangerous for me), I stayed in the mission til I was 63 tailor and completed it as that.  I got a book, a jewelry component and a rare pelt (T8 I think) as my chest reward.  It sounds like I got lucky, but since the book I got had a hihg 70s requirement to scribe it, it is not of immediate value to me.</p>

[feldon30]

I still don't understand folks who beat their head against a wall for 3 hours every day for weeks to try to get the 4 books. Yes, it will take a little longer as a group to get the books, but then it's 45 minutes a day and you can spend the rest of your day doing something else.

[Mikkahl]

<p><cite>OrcSlayer96 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>. . . I just didnt want to waste leveling time if you had to be level 80 crafter for the books to drop..<img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" /></p><p>. . . .</p></blockquote><p>IMO, if you're not yet 80, the main reason to do the group instances solo is that it's the cheapest way to level! You get can get 2 or more levels in 3 hours, and all the materials and fuel are free! You can't say that about writs, where you have to buy fuel and use up your (or your guild's) harvested materials. Getting first time pristine on every possible recipe is the most important reason to solo, but it sounds like you've done that already. I've done it about 10 times, and I've only gotten book IV (3 times).  But I got my provie from 72 to 80 easily! <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[feldon30]

The problem with leveling to 80 as a tradeskiller outside of Bathezid's Watch, is you will then have to grind faction with them to get your TS epic. I level 72-80 in BW.

[Niltsiar]

<p><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>I still don't understand folks who beat their head against a wall for 3 hours every day for weeks to try to get the 4 books. Yes, it will take a little longer as a group to get the books, but then it's 45 minutes a day and you can spend the rest of your day doing something else.</blockquote><p>Solo - 3 hours = chance to get 1 book</p><p>Group - 45 minutes = chance to get 1 book. But there are 6  chars, so you need 6*45 minutes (that is 4.5 hours) for the chance to get 1 book for every char.</p>

[Mikkahl]

<p><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote>The problem with leveling to 80 as a tradeskiller outside of Bathezid's Watch, is you will then have to grind faction with them to get your TS epic. I level 72-80 in BW.</blockquote><p>Wow, I didn't think you could get more than 2-3 levels doing the BW crafting faction writs.  I goofed it on my jeweler (level 12 adventurer) and got her to 80 before I even started the faction writs! <img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  But still I would do 50-75 or so in the "free" crafting instances.</p><p>Or get your adventurer side to 80 first doing the Fens and JW quest lines.  Then you will have enough faction with all the Kunark folks to buy all the faction recipes (although getting past +25k on BW requires repeating the stupid watcher quest too many times).</p>

[OrcSlayer96]

<p>Hmmm, i never really thought about grinding levels in teh group instances, i used them for the pristine exp credit on the recipes and my factions are okay based on the fact i am one of those weird people that have reset their crafter numerous times.  Went from Armorer to Carpenter to Sage and i am thinking of staying on Alchemist, it fits my paladin too well with the adept 3, potions i use a ton of and helping my scout friends with posions and such.  At this point in the class at level 75 i have already done the level 74 writs and i could take advantage of the "free fuel/ materials in the group zones".  Will try that the next time raid time doesnt interfere, was glad the artisan earring dropped last night as the 7% durabilty bonus sped things up for me on crafting.  It sure beats mass potion crafting to level past the 12-16 recipes per level with no vitality or spamming writs all the time.  Still hoping to see book 1 and 3 drop from the group zones...<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[OrcSlayer96]

<p>Well the RNG gods liked me last night in the Clockwork Rescue zone, Book 1 dropped so now i am only hunting Book 3 and the veritable army of crafted jewelry items from teh zone and the 2 rare fabled items.  A friend of mine clued me in on a couple nice techniques while crafting in the group zones and i knocked my crafting time down from 2.5 hours to roughly 1.5 hours.  Once i hit 80 and can wear the solstice earring again i should be able to improve that also...<img src="/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />  Anybody have the reflective shards drop lately in the successful counter of innovation event?  Has been for me usually the chromatic essense or the rare, or once i had a token, but havent seen the shard in ages..<img src="/smilies/9d71f0541cff0a302a0309c5079e8dee.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>