Velium Drop Nerf

[Benthair Dunthat]

I have been 3 botting in Velk's the last few weeks attempting to level up my halfling cleric (Ding 52 last nite btw). Anice bonus to the xp on the spiders there has been the velium ore drops (pieces, bricks, blocks, etc.) - earning my usually about 1500pp for 3-4 hours of play time. However, I went there last nite and in 3 hours got not one velium ore drop. Zero, ziltch, nada! This was very, very unusual and I am wondering if the tradeskill items "adjustments" made in yesterday's patch might have in some way nerfed the drop rate. Any ideas?

[vovinit]

Have you tried crystal caverns? The ore is much easier to farm there the miners are only in the low 30's in level.

[Cragzop]

I really hope you had horrible luck. At 50pp per velium piece, it's already expensive enough as is.

[Sanna]

/disagree. SL xp's in Velks (when we can kick the neuts out) and there is a fairly decent velium drop rate. Not sure what to tell you. Bad rng? /comfort.

-- Sanna

[Dunthor Warsmith]

Heh, someone else with my Velks luck!

[Cherryflavour]

Welcome To RNG's Terf

Nah I dont' thikn anything In regards to drops was cahnged with this patch. its' normal to have a bad day/evening/hour. I've killed shadowed men camps, clearing them and having no essence of shadow drop in multiple clearings, like 10 clearings, this morning, in about 1 hours I've gotten nearly 10 so far

[Brodybeard]

Originally posted by Dunthor Warsmith
Heh, someone else with my Velks luck!

Well... sort of.

Two nights ago my druid and her friend were hunting there for crystalline silk threads. We were taking turns looting and nearly every mob my druid tried to loot had nothing on them while her friend was looting something every time. Fortunately, they were sharing the loot, but it was really weird trying to loot all those empty corpses. The velium seemed to be dropping fairly often (for my friend).

[Benthair Dunthat]

Velium Drop Nerf

Thanks all, you were right. Went back tonite and picked up quite a bit of velium ore. Must have been just "one of those nites" yesterday.

[myrdale]

The best place to farm velium by far is crystal caverns. Here is my personal method.

1) First get SoE, VERY important. Also if you can invis helps avoiding the guards.

2) Next works best with full spawn up (aka no one else is hunting orcs).

3) Kill the miner at the entrance, invis, run past guards, kill 2 in room off to the left, make way back down tunnel to right, there are maybe 5 spawns in it including one in the small room too the side.

4) When you reach the well, invis and drop straight down (with levi). Clear the bottom of the well. There are 5 or 6 spawns here. Then clear the dwarf tunnel. Run back too the pit and go through the other tunnel there, couple of spawns here and it will bring you back out at the pit to tunnel that goes to the dwarf town.

5) Now make your way up killing all the miners you come across all the way too the top. Just takes practice to learn the tunnels well.

6) There are two side tunnels off of the well that contain miners aswell, clearn them.

7) Kk, with practice and a little skill and luck, all of 11 min have past and you have killed every miner spawn in the tunnels top too bottom. Make your way back up too the top and sit down and wait for entrance spawn to pop again. All orcs are on about 16 min spawn cycle. Always try to give them an extra 20sec or so before you kill the first one. This way the next spawn will not pop till you are at it and if it does it will not be up very long so others will not get it.

Clearing the tunnels in this manner is VERY effective. The only real problem is that if someone else shows up looking to farm also, they will get annoyed that you are controlling the entire spawn cycle of the cave. So then you either have to share or claim the camp for yourself.

Track helps BIG TIME so you know what is up. Also avoid looting trash items, gold rings, runes, only exception would be pearls, they seem to be the only major cash gem worth the space in my inventory.

Keep a watch around also. That way you will know how long you have before the spawns restart.

Do your selling/conversion fast to save room in inventory if needed.

Also i did not mention this above but kill ALL oracles you see. They are PH for miners.

Also do not neglect the names if they pop, some of their swords go for 30pp or so to vendors.

If i remember right i was getting around 120-160 small pieces of velium after conversions in about 2hr doing this method. Dont hold me to that quote though alot of it is luck and the RNG.

[brett_sc]

I easily average 4-5 stacks/hour farming SS for velium, and no running up and down stupid winding ramps! And theres almost never anyone else there, unlike CC which gets crowded fast.

[Nolrog]

Something wacky is happening with velium on Drinal these days. It used to be that they sold for around 50pp each. However, lately, the price has shot all the way up to 200-250pp each. If I needed 10 of them, I'd consider paying 50pp, but never 200 (plus, I need more like 1600, so buying them is not an option. Hello CC.) It's just totally insane.

[bana-zir]

3 hours is WAY too short of a time to claim a nerf.
If you spent 12 hours a day for one week, and compared that
to the time in every previous week, you MAY be able to claim nerf. Otherwise, it will be the RNG. Yes, I have spent 12 hours in SolRo with no ornate drops (zero) killing 40 to 48 mobs an hour in 1 group. Returning the next day to 10 ornate drops in the first 30 minutes. It all averages out in the end.