PoR Branches

[Twistagain]

I see the DB has some of the branches dropping from the Treants in Ruins of Takish-Hiz.

Are they very common? How difficult are these guys (I noticed they are dark blue at 70)? Are there any faction hits?

Likewise, I assume they drop from Treants in Elddar Forest. I attempted one solo (6k unbuffed BST), and it didn't go well...maybe duo with a healer, definitely groupable. Anyway, anyone know if there's a faction hit on them?

Also, I didn't find any branches as ground spawns after about an hour and a half of running around looking for anything on the ground. Got several stacks of Pomegranates and a couple of stacks of apples, though. They that rare? Or just hand-picked?

[Gorse]

I see the DB has some of the branches dropping from the Treants in Ruins of Takish-Hiz.

Are they very common? How difficult are these guys (I noticed they are dark blue at 70)? Are there any faction hits?

There are two types of treants in Ruins of Takish-Hiz:

Type 1 I'll call good treants, indifferent when considered that stand in a circle around a named one (Greyleaf or something). I have not killed them, maybe someone else can add data.

Type 2 I'll call evil. Evil treants roam that same area (total of 4 per cycle), the are social, but fairly low agro radius.

I can just solo them as a 9K+HP self buffed ranger using Heal over Time potions. They have a 600 damage AE snare proc / spell (I recall "bark" in the title). Since proc based it can be random, but a string puts some fast damage especially if you try more than one. With a Beast slow (vice relying on proc slow) itmight be easier. They also hit for up to 400.

I have done two back to back, with only one HOT potion for each mob, but I was tapped out of mana from heals and Hail of Arrows. I can only guess on HPs, nothing outrageous, probably around 25-30K.

They can drop 0 - 2 branches, a majority of branches are Dry Treant Branch, but I have seen on Straight Treant (and a fellow ranger has told me has gotten all three kinds to drop from them).

Likewise, I assume they drop from Treants in Elddar Forest. I attempted one solo (6k unbuffed BST), and it didn't go well...maybe duo with a healer, definitely groupable. Anyway, anyone know if there's a faction hit on them?

Since I am indifferent to all the plants and animals in the zone, I am treating it like my Tunare faction, something I will never test withthe ranger. Maybe after I get my other account POR enabled I will bring cleric and Mage down and see what we can do.

For now I have been just picking up ground spawns.

Also, I didn't find any branches as ground spawns after about an hour and a half of running around looking for anything on the ground. Got several stacks of Pomegranates and a couple of stacks of apples, though. They that rare? Or just hand-picked?

There are other posts about the branches in Elddar, try this one:

http://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq/showthread.php?t=25409

In general the branches are rare spawns. The only place I have found where they always spawn is inside the log. On the ground they look like a dropped cracked staff or fine steel staff.




Gorse

[Twistagain]

Thanks for the info...sounds promising.

As for the Elddar groundspawns, I watched the hollow log for around 30 minutes or so and never saw one (had already seen that post, so gave it a shot). I guess the respawn rate is just longer.

[filobeto]

As a druid, I can tank solo them with Heal pots and the occasional need for direct heal. 5dots + DS is pretty powerful for them, but don't take them lightly, they still hit fairly hard and summon. That 600dd/snare/dot makes it much more difficult.

0-2 is correct, with the Dry Treant being limited to one "evil" mob type. I have seen Straights drop from another type, but never from the mob that drops the Dry Treant. The "evil" mobs will be different types (names) of mobs, easier to understand when you are there...

I have gotten 2 Dry branches as ground spawn from the camp of the 4 trees. There are other spawns there, little mushroom things, but the Branch was the exact same spot both times.

Not too bad, few hours netted me 19 total branches.

[Twistagain]

Well...an update. Last night, I tried one of the "evil" trees in Ruins. As soon as I cast slow, he warped to me from near max range. It didn't go well at all, even with potion. I did manage to get Origin off, though (didn't really wanna train the entrance, seeing as how it's fairly crowded with people doing the guardian quest.) I'll head back there when my fiance is home...I'm sure it's doable with her cleric.

After that, I went back to Elddar Forest to check the hollow log. Found 4 (2 each of the non-dry) branches inside. I then wandered around for around an hour and a half or so...found 5 more on the ground elsewhere, but the 4 inside the log didn't respawn.

[Gorse]

I have gotten 2 Dry branches as ground spawn from the camp of the 4 trees. There are other spawns there, little mushroom things, but the Branch was the exact same spot both times.

Not too bad, few hours netted me 19 total branches.

The ground spawns are not always the same spot, and the branch seems to be less common than the mushroom looking items (Psilocybe), I have found at least 8 different spawns spots in th treant area, I have only found 4 dry treant branches never in the same location while I have found at least five Psilocybe in each spot.

As for warping mobs, any time you are standing on a strong slope, the mobs will harp to you. I have noticed this happening (again) since OOW was released (this is an old problem that was fixed at one time). This can be a useful pulling tool though, because warping does not cause pathing agro which can be really convenient if you are trying to single pull something out of a tight spot.


The Elddar ground spawns inside the log are a very long repop. Five more off the ground is great, my best is only 3 off the ground and of course the log was already empty. So many people know about them now on Tunare that you have to know the cycle (anyone know the repop timer and care to share it?) or just get lucky.



Gorse

[Ngreth Thergn]

The ground spawns are ONLY a bonus way of getting them, and not intended as the only way.

Primary is intended to be "hunting"

Secondary is Forage (this will be fixed on the next full patch, scheduled for3/14 ... they got pulled last minute because of a money exploit we wanted to avoid) and only in two zones.

and Finally, Tertiary is the ground spawn. These are on SLOW timers... 6+ hour re-spawns with a random randomization of respawn time. (yes I meant that double random there...) They also all spawn on a "path" they could spawn anywhere on that path. There just happens to be two "confined" paths that are inside that tree trunk, which gives a small area... but those are about 12hour re-spawns.

So after the next full patch you can forage for them. They *are* rare forages, but nonetheless... if you want a "non-combat" way to get them, there it is.

[Twistagain]

The ground spawns are ONLY a bonus way of getting them, and not intended as the only way.

Primary is intended to be "hunting"

Secondary is Forage (this will be fixed on the next full patch, scheduled for3/14 ... they got pulled last minute because of a money exploit we wanted to avoid) and only in two zones.

and Finally, Tertiary is the ground spawn. These are on SLOW timers... 6+ hour re-spawns with a random randomization of respawn time. (yes I meant that double random there...) They also all spawn on a "path" they could spawn anywhere on that path. There just happens to be two "confined" paths that are inside that tree trunk, which gives a small area... but those are about 12hour re-spawns.

So after the next full patch you can forage for them. They *are* rare forages, but nonetheless... if you want a "non-combat" way to get them, there it is.

The only problem I have with the combat method is that they are kinda difficult mobs (talking Elddar Forest, here) and, since there is little-to-no data about faction hits on the web, people don't want to risk their indifferent faction to test it out. Anyone, anywhere have confirmation on whether these treants have a faction hit, and whether the faction is important?

[tawnos]

[Sun Mar 05 23:54:02 2006] You slash an oaken treant for 287 points of damage.
[Sun Mar 05 23:54:02 2006] You have slain an oaken treant!
[Sun Mar 05 23:54:06 2006] --You have looted a Straight Treant Branch.--

No faction hits that i saw for killing any treants in elddar. They are somewhat difficult. Maxhit was only 1000 and minhit only 183 (at 35% shielding) but they parsed to do a bit more damage than rss mobs in addition to their annoying root they chain which even with 600 all resists i couldn't consistently resist. The ones i checked looked to have around 60k hps. The branches seem to be an infrequent but not necessarily rare drop.

So far por bows don't look to be anywhere close to a viable skillup path and i'm back to hording trophy-making gems again. Maybe adding them onto the foraging table will allow me to buy the enormous quanitities i need from the macroquest foraging bots in the bazaar at exorbitant prices that are still lower than that of artisan seals.

[Xodar]

The treants in Tak proc bark mulch. I don't have much trouble soloing them at ~11k/2k but use a potion if slow takes a while to proc.

The 4 ancient treants of the grove next to Greyleaf the fallen are part of a task you can get from Greyleaf in Eldarr. The 4 ancients are agro linked to greyleaf but not vice versa, and their repop appears to be much longer then the rest of the zone (I was killing the moaning spirit treants and picked off 2 ancients between spawns and never saw them repop). Ancients are meaner then the other treants in Tak but still soloable, hit a little harder but seem to have similar hp. I cleared the 4 and pulled greyleaf but he's unslowable and ramps (I was alone but saw the spam) so I ended up gating. I found branches from the ancients along with the quest drops.

I have gotten all 3 flavors of branches off Tak treants, but dry is by far the most common. Have not killed any treants in Eldarr yet for the same reasons as the above poster, but if there are no faction hits I might. The giants are rough solos so I assume the treants to be similar in difficulty.

[Luvimt]

and Finally, Tertiary is the ground spawn. These are on SLOW timers... 6+ hour re-spawns with a random randomization of respawn time. (yes I meant that double random there...)

This doesn't seem to be the case in ruins of takish hiz, the only place I have seen a branch groundspawn is near the weed mob by the treants. I have picked up tons of psiloscybe trying to get them to spawn elsewhere to no avail. Maybe I have just been unlucky but I don't think thats the case here.

I'm really looking forward to being able to forage these. After heavy farming and vendor mining, the 44 branches I collected only gave me 2 skill-ups and as the branches are selling for 4k on AB, I had decided that fletching would go the same way as tailoring and never be maxed. Now I have 1 skill I can look forward to raising again.

[Melenden]

I can also confirm that there are no faction hits for killing the treants, *however*...

The treants are a little tougher than MPG mobs but a little weaker than Riftseekers mobs... appears 1200-1300 max hit with an average to low attack rating (average hit on me as a cleric was around 700-800). They have an AE root/dot and any animal in the zone will assist the treants if pulled near. I haven't yet found a good, safe spot to pull to.

The only problem I see with having straight and straight oak branches drop primarily from these mobs is that there is really no reason to kill them *besides* farming fletching components. In my experience, very few groups just sit in a zone grinding xp these days unless there is a secondary reward (loot, runes for example). If I were to suggest this to my guildies most would rather go do a DoD mission or the Nest, so they could get crystals/faction too. There is also a lot of *fear* of negative faction hits, even though those hits don't exist.

Contrast these with the treants in Takish Hiz: they hit for 300-350ish max, proc a less evil snare/DoT, and there is only one mob in the area (a green-to-70 vine thingie) that will assist. This I think is much more reasonable for a mob primarily killed for tradeskill drops. It's soloable for most classes (with decent gear) and certainly duoable for almost anyone. As a cleric I can solo them but it's a pain, so I box a warrior friend to tank for me and it's much more manageable. Given the drop rate and the time it takes to kill them I think they're balanced very well.

With time you'll likely find that the Elddar Forest treants will be extremely underutilized and that the players will forage as their primary means of obtaining the branches, secondarily by ground spawns, and killing treants only as a last option.

[tawnos]

Well the drop rate is horribly slow in tak because the number of mobs is so limited. There are quite a few more treants in elddar but they seem to only drop the straight oak and straight branches, with none of the dry branches. Are there "skillup recipes" not yet in the database using these branches similar to the Dessicated Treant Recurve Bow which uses 1 dry treant branch and nothing else very difficult? The composite treant laminated compound bows are nice and all, but the rarity of the horse hooves and skins and the number of staves required to make them really don't make them a viable skillup route.

[Twistagain]

You can make the laminate staffs, using the regular adhesive (wait until after the 3/14 patch so that it makes 10 instead of 1). Hooves aren't so bad when they make 10 glues...and no skins required for the regular glue.

[tawnos]

Are the laminate branches used for anything else that might yield a skillup? Or does it end up being 1.5 branches and 0.1 horse hooves per skillup chance with this and then just vendor the result?