Rare and just ridiculous

[Gerras]

<p>Ok, So I have harvested for over 26 hours for rares as my dirge that was mastered out needs new AD3's (lets face it only the high end raiders can afford the masters right now).</p><p>After 26+ hours I have received:</p><p>Ethereal Material - God knows how many, so lets call them a common drop</p><p>Ulteran Diamond - 10, yup that would be pretty darn rare, I would like to see a little more than that once in a while</p><p>Kaborit Cluster - 1, Ok you guys have got to be kidding, my Alt is a pretty mastered out Wizzy I am beginning to level up and just how are we supposed to get the spells with 1 Kaborite Cluster every 26+ hours of harvesting.  I just don't have the 18P to go buy them.  So lets label them Super rare to ridiculous.</p><p>SOE, you guys need to make an alteration here.  At a minimum, make the drops equal and/or move the Kaborite to the Titanium Ore so everyone isn't trying to get the same Ores for their AD3's.</p><p>I really don't know what kind of cool aide you guys were drinking when you made this expansion, but between no resists on the solo gear and the super rares it's no wonder you are losing people to other games.  Oh and by the way, the standard feelings with most people I talk to is that the new instances are worst then the old TSO instances.  We have basically gone back to them out of boredom and started 3 and 4 manning the old raid zones just for fun.</p><p>Really go back and do something here before you have to start combining servers like in the original EQ.  You guys honestly can't figure out why you are losing players can you?</p>

[Morgane]

<p>The anger is strong in this one, it is.</p><p><img src="http://www.guidedbyyoda.com/images/yoda_in_swamp.jpg" width="546" height="691" /></p>

[Jesdyr]

<p>Umm .. yah .. 26hrs does not mean much .. that could be 1 node an hour for all we know. Now if you had total number of harvests vs rares then that data is much better. Either way that doesnt really matter. Harvesting is and always has been a game of luck. You were unlucky. Other people have seen much different results than you have.</p>

[Inire]

<p>Spec your TSO for double harvests and retest with more consistant numbers.</p><p>At Cap for Harvest?</p><p>Using Harvest tools?</p>

[Frenzywolf]

<p><cite>Gerras@Mistmoore wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Ok, So I have harvested for over 26 hours for rares as my dirge that was mastered out needs new AD3's (lets face it only the high end raiders can afford the masters right now).</p><p>After 26+ hours I have received:</p><p>Ethereal Material - God knows how many, so lets call them a common drop</p><p>Ulteran Diamond - 10, yup that would be pretty darn rare, I would like to see a little more than that once in a while</p><p>Kaborit Cluster - 1, Ok you guys have got to be kidding, my Alt is a pretty mastered out Wizzy I am beginning to level up and just how are we supposed to get the spells with 1 Kaborite Cluster every 26+ hours of harvesting.  I just don't have the 18P to go buy them.  So lets label them Super rare to ridiculous.</p><p>SOE, you guys need to make an alteration here.  At a minimum, make the drops equal and/or move the Kaborite to the Titanium Ore so everyone isn't trying to get the same Ores for their AD3's.</p><p>I really don't know what kind of cool aide you guys were drinking when you made this expansion, but between no resists on the solo gear and the super rares it's no wonder you are losing people to other games.  Oh and by the way, the standard feelings with most people I talk to is that the new instances are worst then the old TSO instances.  We have basically gone back to them out of boredom and started 3 and 4 manning the old raid zones just for fun.</p><p>Really go back and do something here before you have to start combining servers like in the original EQ.  You guys honestly can't figure out why you are losing players can you?</p></blockquote><p>Well rare is.... well rare. I suppose that is why they are called a rare! Also it is a RANDOM chance that you will get one. You know like playing the lottery! Some days you win and some days you lose. That is why it is RANDOM! Now if SoE set the chance of getting a rare higher, and more rares appear on the market, the value of those rares will drop and then the items will not be concidered all that rare huh?</p><p>I love it the way it is. I like when I get one being WOOO HOOOOO! Please SoE do not cave on this one!</p>

[Eveningsong]

<p>I heard the exact same thing from a friend the other night, only he was bemoaning every kaborite cluster he harvested rather than ulteran diamond... </p>

[CorpseGoddess]

<p>Tin foil hats time GO!</p><p>I never harvest the silicate loams in T8, compared to many of the other rares.  Maybe the RNG KNOWS what class I am and which rares I need and adjusts accordingly!</p><p>AAAAAAAAAAH!</p><p>/tin foil hats</p>

[Thantoes]

<p>why don't you "fanboiz" allow somone to vent.. It is like this every expansion I have had in EQ2. Rares seem to be VERY Rare. Could be a mixture of harvest skill/ Range but then again it could be SoE twinking the numbers to keep the AD3/ Jeweley/Mastercraft et el down the first few Months.. </p><p>Heck, these people that raced to the Cap are going to be moaning there is nothing to do within 4 months or so.</p><p>I feel for the OP. Rares in ToS are still hard to come by for me and I have max skills using Tinkered harvesting tools and The Cape from the Mara harvesting quest (puts me about 435 skill) and that is true on all 7 lvl 80 crafters (I don't have SF - not sure I will either)</p>

[Yimway]

<p>Honestly, the difference between T8 Master, T9 Expert, and T9 Master...  I've not bothered with harvesting much, or even remotely concerning myself with rares.</p><p>The price/effort is laughable for bridge abilities that aren't tangible upgrades.</p><p>The only reason I've harvested at all, was to get a single rare for /easymode, er I mean the RA.</p>

[Shareana]

<p>Many people on my server trade them 1 for 1....  1 Kaborite for 1 Diamond.  Perhaps you can try that one out?</p>

[Tyrus Dracofire]

<p>just bring back loam, or even better, revive and to retool "Class Quest" to earn spell upgrades.</p><p>we need another way besides fighting over rares and avoiding "overpriced" gorgings.</p><p>spell research is kinda way too slow.</p>

[feldon30]

<p><cite>Raisn@Nektulos wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>why don't you "fanboiz" allow somone to vent..</p></blockquote><p>Because there are Hardcore Harvesters here (more hardcore and rude than the rudest Hardcore Raider) who need to defend their bottom line.</p><p>You want to know how to incense these folks? Increase the rare drop rate 1%.</p><p>They will post threads about how it's perfectly normal to harvest for 3 hours and not get a gem or stone rare, how it's perfectly normal for it to take 2-3 minutes of running around to find each node, how it's supposed to be difficult. They will tell you that Sinking Sands is a great place to harvest and that Enchanted Lands is way too easy. These are folks who defended 6 plat Silicate Loams and threatened to cancel their accounts over Harvest NPCs.</p>

[Calthine]

<p>Ages ago I was talking to Silverfrost (who's moved on to other things) about harvesting and harvesting nodes.  One thing he said was (and I'm paraphrasing), "The thing about resources and nodes is they are a constantly renewing resource."</p><p>All it costs you is time.</p><p>Every time the level cap is raised everyone complains about the rare rate.  Eventually people level up and the market settles out and it's not so bad.  Until the next level cap raise.  It hasn't even been a month yet <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" /></p><p>If anything, harvesting in Sentiel's Fate is <em>remarkably easy</em> compared to the rough time we haad when DoF, KoS, RoK, and TSO launched. </p>

[feldon30]

Actually, I like how all the nodes in KoS especially Tenebrous Tangle are island-specific <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Probably wasn't a lot of fun harvesting there with agro mobs though.

[Iskandar]

<p>The random number generator isn't always kind <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/c30b4198e0907b23b8246bdd52aa1c3c.gif" border="0" />  One night, I spent one hour after raids harvesting and went to bed with 2 kaborite, 4 diamonds, and 1 brellium... the next night, in the same spot, I got 1 diamond after 90 minutes. Don't let it get ya down tho... it's called a rare for a reason, after all! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/ed515dbff23a0ee3241dcc0a601c9ed6.gif" border="0" /></p><p>If you're not a tradeskiller, your best bet is to just harvest nodes as you notice them while questing or adventuring. I'd say about half of my rares came from this method, and none of my adventuring toons are tradeskillers.</p><p>If you're a tradeskiller, get a set of the Mara gear, the harvester's cloak, the tradeskill earring, the pack horse unicorn, and any other +skill items. When he's geared out for harvesting, Isk has a mining of... 568? or something silly high like that. The further above the cap you are, the better your chances <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" />  Then just find an area with a lot of nodes and go to town! <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/e8a506dc4ad763aca51bec4ca7dc8560.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Eugam]

<p><cite>Shareana wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Many people on my server trade them 1 for 1....  1 Kaborite for 1 Diamond.  Perhaps you can try that one out?</p></blockquote><p>Listen to the Volunteer. He haz the knowledge <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>BTW. when your Wiz is fully mastered then you probably have to many rares already <img src="/smilies/283a16da79f3aa23fe1025c96295f04f.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p>However, do not harvest for 26 hours straight. It makes you grumpy <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Morgane]

<p>It's easy to succumb to conspiracy theories about the RNG. I myself have had very little luck harvesting in the new zones while some of my guildies have done pretty well. It sucks when you harvest for hours and come up with few rares to show for it. I went for DAYS in the new zones before I harvested a rare. Then one day I harvested like three in a row. It's like the Vegas slot machines and all the theories about the "lucky" machines. <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/97ada74b88049a6d50a6ed40898a03d7.gif" border="0" /></p>

[Dareena]

<p>My own SF harvesting experiences have been very streaky.  In the first couple of days, I managed to gain a Diamond of my 1st T9 mining attempt ever.  Yay!  But then the only rares that I could pulls were the x5 Roots for my crafting resupplying.  Fast forward a week and I start to really rack in the mining rares on my scout.  But of course, they're all Clusters (which are useless to my scout and priest T9 characters).  I swear, I pulled about x6 Clusters before I even got a Diamond.  But then I started trading caster rares with other players in level chat.  Finally I'm now on a streak where I'm pulling nothing but Diamonds for my mining rares.</p><p>What the moral?  Even with lots of +Harvesting gear on, the RNG is sure streaky.  But then again, I've always found that kind of normal for me.  Just keep harvesting away and it'll eventually start to balance out.  Also if you want to increase your mining rare chances, just figure out where there are large concentrations of mining nodes.  If you can even manage to find a batch that's off the beaten travel path, then you can farm those areas all of the time.  Given enough nodes, you're going to pull a rare.  So why not weight the dice in your favor?</p>

[Ranger13]

<p>I spend, on average, two hours a day harvesting.  Some days I'll come away with one rare compared to one day last week where I got eleven.</p><p>/shrug</p><p>It's definately random, but I think the rare harvest rate is fine as is.</p>

[Thicket Tundrabog]

<p>I do a couple of hours harvesting a day in the non-aggro Rift area (except for aggro treants). Sometimes I have a hot streak, sometimes it's very cold. On average I get a rare about every 25 minutes. I have the harvesting cloak, several other harvest stat improvement items and the double harvest AA. I need diamonds but have harvested twice as many kaborite. Go figure.</p><p>Yesterday I went 1.5 hours without a single rare, and then got two kaborite from the same node. *shrug*</p>

[Aszuth]

<p>Heh, I remember the original launch days - now that was when rares were rare - 10+ hours for a single rare.... if you did TSing during that timeframe its near impossible to see people complaining about todays rates as anything serious.</p>

[Jesdyr]

<p><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>Raisn@Nektulos wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>why don't you "fanboiz" allow somone to vent..</p></blockquote><p>Because there are Hardcore Harvesters here (more hardcore and rude than the rudest Hardcore Raider) who need to defend their bottom line.</p><p>You want to know how to incense these folks? Increase the rare drop rate 1%.</p><p>They will post threads about how it's perfectly normal to harvest for 3 hours and not get a gem or stone rare, how it's perfectly normal for it to take 2-3 minutes of running around to find each node, how it's supposed to be difficult. They will tell you that Sinking Sands is a great place to harvest and that Enchanted Lands is way too easy. These are folks who defended 6 plat Silicate Loams and threatened to cancel their accounts over Harvest NPCs.</p></blockquote><p>No .. some people just dont think the game should be made easier because someone is complaining about the amount of time it takes to find rares while ignoring the fact that they have just been unlucky. How many people spent 30-40 hrs of game time attempting to get Najena's ring in HT ? Does this mean that SOE should have increased the drop rate of that item? If you are not willing to deal with being unlucky then you should not be playing MMOs.</p><p>How much Plat could you make in 26hrs of game time? I know if I was focused on making plat I could make more than I would need to buy up any rares i needed.</p>

[Jhanos]

<p>As was said previously, people notice it most when a new level cap is fresh on their minds, then it settles down.  And because its RNG based, it can be streaky.  You might hit 0 or 1 rare in a long time, your friend might get a dozen.  People want their toys right away and don't like obstacles to that so we see this each time the cap shifts until people have had time to hit cap, max their spells and gear and again become happy and content.</p>

[Kendricke]

<p><cite>Raisn@Nektulos wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>why don't you "fanboiz" allow somone to vent.. It is like this every expansion I have had in EQ2. Rares seem to be VERY Rare.</p></blockquote><p><em>"Seem to be..."</em> </p><p>Give me facts.  As others have said, we don't have enough data to make any kind of determination one way or the other.  Saying, "I harvested for 26 hours" doesn't mean much.  Was that 26 incredibly focused hours of intense harvesting with maxed out harvesting abilities, AA, and items?  ...or was that 26 hours of on-and-off, spent some time harvesting while also hanging out in guildchat and oh yeah I was in the wrong build for a lot of that time.</p><p>There's a big difference between data backed hypothesis and lucky socks theorizing.  What these "fanboiz" are asking for are more facts before conclusions are automatically jumped to. </p><p>Maybe there is a problem.  Having facts sure would help to answer that. </p>

[Jesdyr]

<p><cite>Kendricke wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Maybe there is a problem.  Having facts sure would help to answer that. </p></blockquote><p>There is even an ACT plugin that can give you exact data <img src="/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[juggalo0385]

<p>its because you are a froglok thats why you dont get rares</p>

[Morgane]

<p><cite>Jesdyr@Unrest wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>There is even an ACT plugin that can give you exact data <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/69934afc394145350659cd7add244ca9.gif" border="0" /></p></blockquote><p>Really? Me want.</p>

[Artalis the Elder]

AA Spec Bountiful Harvest Cloak of the Harvester Overclocked Harvesting Tools (tradeskiller 65+ IIRC) Far Seas Packhorse (10 Far Seas Tokens IIRC) Boots from Unrest Belt from Moors (Brokenskull somethingorother?) Earring of the Solstice (Tradeskill Mastery Quest) All of these items will help bend the drop rates in your favor a LITTLE. Some folks have all of these items and still have bad nights. I had only the Cloak of the Harvester and the AA spec spent 4 hours of focused harvesting resulting in 10 rares. 5 Kaborite 5 Diamonds Sold them both overnight for 200p and bought a master <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Meanwhile a friend of mine was harvesting in another instance almost as long and had all the goodies listed above and got about 2 rares. It's RANDOM sometimes you get the goods, sometimes you dont. Thems the breaks.

[feldon30]

<p><cite>Jesdyr@Unrest wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>These are folks who defended 6 plat Silicate Loams and threatened to cancel their accounts over Harvest NPCs.</p></blockquote><p>No .. some people just dont think the game should be made easier because someone is complaining about the amount of time it takes to find rares while ignoring the fact that they have just been unlucky. How many people spent 30-40 hrs of game time attempting to get Najena's ring in HT?</p></blockquote><p>Najena's Ring was overpowered, and you only "needed" one.</p><p>Most classes have <strong>25-30 </strong>Expert (Adept 3) spells.</p><p>Certain Harvesters who are the most hostile towards other players are the same folks who will cry to Domino to move agro mobs further and further away from harvesting pathways until it's "easier". Just saying...</p>

[Neskonlith]

<p><cite>Streppoch@Guk wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Tin foil hats time GO!</p></blockquote><p><span style="color: #ff0000;">Hey, tinfoil has many hair and scalp benefits!  </span></p><p><span style="color: #ff0000;">If you wanna talk conspiracy, you gotta listen to Lucan's broadcasts on the clockwork radio one of these days...</span></p><p><img src="http://i207.photobucket.com/albums/bb310/Bitter_Coffee/screenies/itsaneq2conspiracy.jpg" /></p><p><em><span style="color: #ff0000;">*"...'Norrathian Mysteries with Lucan' will return right after this song by David Allen Gnome; covered by Trolly Paycheck:"</span></em></p><p><em>"Take this node and shove ItI ain't mining here no moreThat harvest-bot done left and farmed all the clusters I was looking forYou better not try to stand inmy way as I'm walking out, rares-poorTake this node and shove itI ain't mining here no more..."</em></p><p><img src="/eq2/images/smilies/385970365b8ed7503b4294502a458efa.gif" border="0" /></p>

[PlaneCrazy]

<p><cite>Shareana wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Many people on my server trade them 1 for 1....  1 Kaborite for 1 Diamond.  Perhaps you can try that one out?</p></blockquote><p>That's how I got most of mine.  I just traded 5 for 5 two days ago.  And then I got a nice harvest streak .. 4 Kaborites in about 4 hours of harvesting over a day of quest running around.  And I bought several since it's easy to keep the plat up in SF while you are working quests.  I do easily 4 or 5 plat a day just from quests and 10 or so plat a day selling stuff on the broker and that's not even counting 30-40 treasured items that I 'mute for my own personal stock rather then sell.</p>

[Yimway]

<p>Is the anti-harvest bot coding still in?</p><p>I assume thats really what the rage is comming from. Exploiters used to being able to auto-harvest for 20+ hours straight and rake in rares are now seeing greatly deminished returns.</p><p>Players I talk to casually harvesting are seeing no difference in drop rates compaired to previous tiers.  Exploiters I talk to are furious.</p><p>Maybe thats just my jaded/skewed vantage point, but I don't percieve a problem here.</p>

[Jesdyr]

<p><cite>feldon30 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Najena's Ring was overpowered, and you only "needed" one.</p><p>Most classes have <strong>25-30 </strong>Expert (Adept 3) spells.</p><p>Certain Harvesters who are the most hostile towards other players are the same folks who will cry to Domino to move agro mobs further and further away from harvesting pathways until it's "easier". Just saying...</p></blockquote><p>The real problem is the bots and hacks. Both of which don't care about such things.</p><p>The specifics don't matter. It was the fact that both are based on how lucky you are with the RNG being the most significant affect on how long it takes to achieve your goal.</p>

[JoarAddam]

<p>if you're mastered out already the only thing rares are good for is a jumping off point for the research assistant, so you really only need a rare once every 28 days or so</p>

[MadHatter1]

<p>In my experience, harvesting for rares is a crap-shoot.  Some night I might harvest for 3-4 hous and get 6-8 rares (diamonds and kabs).  Other nights I might harvest for 10 hours and consider myself lucky if i pull 3 rares.  It can be frustrating, but that's just the way it goes.</p>

[Lord Hackenslash]

<p>Sounds like you had a good run just didn't get the type of rare you wanted. Try trading them for the one you want or selling the ones you got and then buy what you need.</p><p>The expansion is still new enough that they are usually trading 1 for 1.</p>

[mafoe]

<p>How about using that time to earn plat, and then just buy the rares?</p><p>Or is that too obvious?</p>