correction to a High Level Layers Guide to Smithing

[Tounge151]

In Guide to Smithing for High Level Characters

by Richard Lawson (aka Monual Lifegiver on Drinal)

He stated that the war between the Grimlings, owlbears, and sonic wolves, was bugged and if one group took over all the camps you would have to wait till the server reset in order to start farming the other mobs again. This is not so. When one of the groups takes over all the camps, a named mob of their race will pop in the Human/Vahshir Camp near Shar Vahl. Killing the named mob will reset the war. Secondly, the only are you have to kill the named mob to manage the farming of hollowshade is the chief hut next to the islands. Kill the chief first, and either the owlbears or the or sonic wolves will attack. Once they take over that camp, the grimlings are out of the war. After that, just kill the named wolf/owlbear that spawns in the chiefs hut to get the other race to attack and take over the islands.

I hope this simplifies things for all you farmers out there

[Obina]

Correct. But you do need to help the first side conquer the southern camp by killing the 5 static Grimling defenders. If the defenders pop, and you dont kill them, they will win.

Also once the war has started and the Grimlings are gone, you can just wait, and the southern camp will be taken over every so often by the other races. (As the guide says, if a race has 2 they lose when attacking, when they have 1 they win when attacking)

If you are WAY over supplied on one type, you can either kill the attackers who come to take over the camp (the defenders only need help if they already have 2 camps) or help the choosen race conquer all 3 camps, thus ending the war till it is reset.

[Verdandi]

Can anyone who is more familiar with this event tell me what exactly should be updated on our site as a result of the info in these two posts?

[Roanne]

Can anyone who is more familiar with this event tell me what exactly should be updated on our site as a result of the info in these two posts?

Something along the line of, "UPDATE: The event is no longer bugged. If one faction controls all the camps in the zone, the event can be reset by killing the controlling race's "boss" (Prince Garzemort (grimling), Gnarlik (sonicwolf), or Skriat' Chakku (owlbear)) who spawns in the northwest camp by Shar Vahl."

To farm the Wailing Substance and Shrieking Substance needed to make Humming Orbs for shadowscream armor, farmers must kill owlbears (for Shrieking Substance) or sonicwolves (for Wailing Substance) in the southern island camp of Hollowshade Moore. At the time the author did the write-up for high end smithing, the script was frequently buggy and boss mobs would often not spawn when one faction controlled all the camps which would cause the zone to be stuck that way until it was reset.

The script was fixed long ago, however, so the information that you must wait for a zone reset by server reset or zone crash is now inaccurate. Players can trigger the script reset themselves by killing the boss of the race that wins the war who spawns in the northwest camp close the Shar Vahl.

It may also be necessary to assist a race to win the war if either the owlbears or sonicwolves are eliminated early instead of grimlings so the eliminated race can again be farmed.

My long experience farming this zone has been that killing the Grimling Chieftain as soon as the script is reset *always* causes the owlbears to attack the grimlings. I have never seen the sonicwolves attack the grimlings first nor the grimlings attack one of the other factions doing this, and I have done it a lot. This only applies, of course, if the script hasnt already triggered one of the factions to attack another randomly on its own or other players in the zone havent triggered the script by killing one of the trigger NPCs in another camp first. In that case, killing the Grimling Chieftain usually causes the grimling camp to be attacked but sometimes can cause the grimling to attack one of the other factions as well (which you obviously dont want if your goal is to farm smithing skill-up drops).

It is a good idea to trigger the elimination of the grimlings as soon as the script is reset if you have a chance. Once done, as long as no other players assist one of the factions to defeat another, you can farm smithing skill-up drops forever. The faction controlling the island will change from time to time but no race can win the war forcing you to reset the script again without player intervention.

Beyond that, I contest the statement above that killing either the Owlbear Screechmaw or the named sonic wolf who appears in the chieftans place when the fcation changes (the wolf's name escapes me at the moment) causes the southern island to be attacked by the other faction. Killing this trigger PH sometimes causes the island faction to attack instead of being attacked. It all depends on the faction layout of the rest of the zone and possibly a random event as well. In the many hours Ive spent farming this area, I tried to monitor and record which factions attacked who else based on which camps where occupied by who else and which trigger PH was killed, but there seems to be a random element to it as well (or perhaps it just has to be tracked over a longer period than I farmed it at a time). The only prediction that never failed for me was as I stated first; killing the Grimling Chieftain as soon as the script resets causes the owlbears to attack the grimlings.

Hope this is helpful to someone.

[Obina]

I agree 100% with Roannes words. Including the last paragraph.

Not sure if it is easy to understand for the new farmer or not, but I suggest you just cut and paste all but the last paragraph (which is not needed in the guide) into the farming section of the guide and call it done.

Only thing I struggle with is the words "script reset". Very computer ease for a simple farmer like me. I would call it zone reset.

[JMorgana]

Only problem with "zone reset" is it implies the whole zone was taken down, not just the script controlling the war. I'm not nuts about the term "script reset" myself, but I can't think of anything else that some of us not-so-computer-savvy people will understand.

[Akishka]

Not computer savvy at all but maybe something along the lines of the "the computer (program?) controlling the war is reset" ?

[Roanne]

I didnt intend that the whole explanation be inserted in the guide. Only the part about the killing the boss to reset the war that was quoted in the first paragraph since thats the part that was poointed out in error.

The rest was for the embelishment of the readers here. :P

I wouldnt worry so much about the symantics of the "script reset" v. "zone reset," etc. It will quickly be obvious to anyone in the zone who looks around a bit what is going on and what is meant.

[Caprich]

War Reset

The first poster was probably referring to the fact that on a couple servers the Named mob to reset the war doesn't always spawn... If he doesnt spawn, you cant kill him, and thus have to wait for a server reset.

On 7th hammer, I could never get the named mob to spawn... So we had to wait for a server reset for the three types of mobs to be available again... hence why I gave up on Shadowscream ages ago

[Roanne]

The first poster was probably referring to the fact that on a couple servers the Named mob to reset the war doesn't always spawn... If he doesnt spawn, you cant kill him, and thus have to wait for a server reset.

On 7th hammer, I could never get the named mob to spawn... So we had to wait for a server reset for the three types of mobs to be available again... hence why I gave up on Shadowscream ages ago

Yeah, I pointed this out in my explanation, but the issue with the boss not spawning at the right time is no longer an issue (and hasnt been for a long time). This is what the whole point of the correction was regarding.

Ive farmed Hollowshade Moore ad nausium for shadowscream armor combine pieces and I havent seen the script bug in over a year since they corrected it. I also play on The Seventh Hammer.

[Verdandi]

Okay, updated this. I removed just one reference to the war being bugged and added the update in what appeared to be a good place. Would one of you who knows this well be willing to give it a peek and make sure everything still makes sense?

[Ti Giel]

After having triggered this war in HSM dozens of times for my Vah Shir's Sonic Wolf Bane Weapons quest, I can say the original write-up from Monual is buggy, from before the time the scripts for the war were fixed.

That being said, the part where you, Verdandi, updated the quest is correct, but for clarity, I might suggest placing it five paragraphs lower. Right below the paragraph:

If, when you kill a owlbear named, you see a message that the owlbears are killing the sonic wolves to the east (even though the sonic wolves are really more north than east, the zonewide message talks about their camp being in the east), I'd recommend going to the sonic wolf cave and helping the defenders defeat the owlbears. You don't want the owlbears and sonic wolves to kill each other in the north and east camps, and if one race is completely defeated, you won't see it again until the zone is reset. There's supposed to be a way for you to get the war to reset on your own, but it is hopelessly bugged. So it's up to you to micro-manage the war and make sure the owlbears and sonic wolves defend their own realms successfully.

I would also add a line stating "Since the event has been fixed, the war does not respond exactly as stated in this guide, but is close enough. Direct observation would be a quicker teacher then rewriting a whole guide."

[Verdandi]

Crikey I completely forgot that this was almost done and not waiting on some lengthy writing yet. Updated it now. Better late than never, right?