Ninja Nerf

[Cloud]

Seems the drop rate on shissar scales in ssra has been nerfed without notice /sigh. I cleared all the patrols on the first floor 3x and only got 5 scales which should have been around 20+ at least.

[tnexus]

I had a few runs like that back when I was pharming them. Coulda just been bad luck. If it's not, well then I hate to say it, but in comparison with the other classes it's now on par raritywise. While I used this method myself, I do think it was a bit unfair for some classes to need shissar scales while others needed a lot more rare drops.

[Cloud]

yea after a few hours i 99pct sure they have nerfed it and i am sure its because other don tailoring stuff is rare but... why make it harder on those who at least had a skill path rather then remove everyone's path to get to 300.

[Redi]

hah, I was just looking at this as a possible skill path, too.

It's possible it was ninja-changed, though it may be too early to say it's not just bad luck.

[-Nadanog-]

Well people were complaining how unbalanced the drops were vs other culturals, guess they "tuned" it...

[UruzMagnuson]

why make it harder on those who at least had a skill path rather then remove everyone's path to get to 300.

because unfortunately, sony has a history of bringing the top down instead of the buttom up as far as adjustments are concerned. hopefully they also made a small upward adjustment to the rare components, but i wouldn't hold my breathe if i were you.

[Wyvernwill]

Actually, even before this patch, the drop rate could be slow off and on for me. There are times I get two from four straight snakes, and a few times I have killed 20+ mobs and have got 0 scales.

[Ngreth Thergn]

We have not gotten to this yet.

It was bad luck.

[Twistagain]

We have not gotten to this yet.

It was bad luck.

Emphasis mine.

[Maevenniia]

ARGH.

*hands out Tinfoils Hats to all the Consiracy thorists*

No, they did not "Ninja Nerf" the drop rate of Shissar scales. You had some bad luck, that's all.

As to Ngreth's comment, I'm sure he was not implying that SOE was going to nerf any drop rates, but rather meant that they had not gotten to reviewing the comparative drop rates of Cultural components yet, to evaluate the differences...between say the usually abundant Shissar Scales and Storm Volaas Hair (just as one example.)

[Phantron]

The drop rate on shissar scale has always been highly variable. Also it is possible someone pickpocketed the first set of spawns since the scales are not magic, so I never even think about probabilities until I've seen everything respawned once.

Shissar scale is way too common compared to the other stuff. It's even more common than whatever you had to farm to get to 250 back when 250 was the max (I'm sure if you actually have to farm the stuff for Solstice Robe then it'd take longer, not even counting the combine time and cost). I mean I use Shissar Scales so I'm not complaining they're common but anyone can tell their drop rate is too high. Take human master tailor which could use Storm Volasses Hair. I don't think I can get more of those compare to Shissar Scale even if every wind giant drops 1 per kill (which they obviously do not).

[Cloud]

pretty sure after 5 hours there and only gotten about 20 of them that would confirm that it is nerfed. U can call it bad luck but when i am ae 4+ mobs per pull for 5 hours straight and get a stack of them something is wrong from when i used to get on avg 2-3 per 4 mobs. just incase ur wondering i only pull the dropers of them i know only drop from guards, elite guards, portals, and few others. So it isn't the problem of pulling the wrong kind.

[Fesser]

Perhaps, but when a dev says something...

Speaking of that, I REALLY appreciate Devs reading this and taking our feedback. Still much to learn about the new pottery charms but thanks for making the game fun to play. /cheer

[Delores Mulva]

I can't post on the EQLive forums, but I wanted to respond to something Ngreth said there. Ngreth, there has been a fairly large reduction in gem drop rate in Sebilis. It's not recent, though - it goes back a ways. Look back to when people were complaining about two-character automated bot teams farming the Nec-Guard (Necrosis Scarab and Sebilite Guardian) camp for cash to E-Bay. At that point in time, the gem drops in that camp were nerfed (in part by making the three scarabs in the camp not always drop a gem, as they did previously). A short time later, Sebilis as a whole was nerfed as the farmers had simply moved over to the Nec Jail camp (the area towards Chef with the four Iksar spawns and the Gangrenous, the Iksar used to always drop gems as well). Crystallized Sulfur is on at least one of the gem tables (I forget if it's the Planar Gems table or the same gem table as Seafuries), so any reduction in overall gem drop rates would hit the Crystallized Sulfur drop rate. If it helps narrow it down, the scarabs in Nec Guard were on the Planar table (ruby, black sapphire, jacinth, diamond, blue diamond, and the really expensive non-gem items like Sapphire Necklace and Ruby Crown), and the Iksar were on the Seafury table (fire opal, fire emerald, sapphire, star ruby, and the cheaper non-gem items).

Oh, and another thing. I noticed in one of your posts that you mentioned it was difficult to change drop rates because it could have an effect on cash flow into the economy. That can be handled rather simply: if new_drop_rate = old_drop_rate x Q, then new_item_price = old_item_price / Q. Lower the base vendor sale price of the item in inverse proportion to the raise in drop rate, and new_cash_flow =< old_cash_flow. The "less than" is in case the item in question drops from a source whose drop rate is not adjusted by your change (same drop rate, but stuff is now cheaper). Unless people have been hoarding the item in question for sale to a vendor (and why would they if it has greater value when sold to players), nobody's going to complain when drop rates are increased. When drop rates are decreased, though, you need to check how many are already out there before using the same method or you'll create a pile of wealth in the world - the "pie tin" effect (if you can remember that far back in EQ history). You'd also need to check to ensure you've decreased the drop rates on all sources.

[Cloud]

I know what dev says however that doesn't change the fact that i am getting huge drop in rate of the scales and have been in there so many hours hard to say its just bad luck. Also notice a reduced rate in some of the other trash loot in the zone /shrug