Top 10 Update on April 1st

[Nolrog]

Well, a month has flown by already. We've gotten some interesting information about the tradeskills, and still not a lot of clarification on some things.

Next Friday is update day for the top 10 list. Do we want to change anything?

Here's a link to the current list (PLEASE NOTE: be sure to scroll down to the last post in this thread, which is the current version of the list.)

Now, number 10 in that list deals with the skill up paths to 300. The list came out after the tailoring trivials changed, so that is already on the list.

[KyrosKrane]

I think we may as well remove the PoP drop rate question. DoN armors heralded the death knell for PoP armors; they're better, cheaper, and easier to make. It would take a huge, huge increase in drop rate to revive the market, to the point where every other kill drops a component. I don't think that's feasible, particularly since so few people go into elementals any more (only Earth and Fire for exp groups).

In its place, I would suggest either reviving the request for the tradeskill super-trophy or adding a request for information on the new tradeskill forumlae. I posted this over at the Caster's Realm thread for questions to be asked of the devs. If it's not answered there, this may make for a good addition.

1) Absor mentioned that tradeskills will be adjusted to use a new skillup formula. What is that new formula?

2) Will these changes impact the success/fail forumla? If so, what is the new success/fail forumla? If not, if the success/fail forumla posted at EQTraders accurate?

3) At what stage of the success/fail formula are geerloks (and other skill-raising items) applied? In other words, does the forumla use the skill as modified by a geerlok to compute success rates, or is the geerlok's effect applied elsewhere?

4) Historically, developers have stated that the absolute highest chance to succeed was 95%. This was later changed when a no-fail check was introduced for deeply-trivial combines.

a) Is this still correct?

b) How does this interact with crafting masteries? (Is the maximum success rate raised to 97.5% with the appropriate mastery at level 3?) In other words, how do the crafting masteries impact the success/fail forumla?

c) If my raw skill is exactly 250 and I do not equip a geerlok, what is my chance to fail on a combine with each of the following trivials? 49, 50, 51, 99, 100, 101, 149, 150, 151, 199, 200, 201.

d) If I equip a geerlok or similar device, does this no-fail check look at the raw skill or modified skill?

5) Historically, developers have stated that the absolute minimum chance to succeed on any combine, regardless of your skill and the combine trivial, is 5%. Is this still correct? If my raw skill is zero and I attempt a combine with trivial 335, will I have a 5% chance to succeed the combine?

[Telorea]

Tradeskill Wish List Update

What would be really great and give a big boost to tradeskillers wares is if it would be possible to make Clicky-Effect Type-12 Augments.

I have understood the argument for SOE previously that allowing augs to add clicky effects could cause problems if it was possible to add a 2nd clicky effect to an item that already naturally had one. However the new type-12 aug slots only appear on the new crafted armours and so it can be guaranteed to not already have a clicky effect.

Clicky effects have always been extremely popular with all sorts of players, even ones with low-level effects and some of them are amazingly useful. I myself always carry a number of clicky items arround that I use regularly but don't wear any more - and in some situations still wear some rather outdated pieces of armour purely because I want to keep the clicky effect (like the clicky-root on my ornate legs).

In order to keep some balance, some of the clicky effect augs could be class limited, but some of the clicky effects I would love to see are:

Greater Immobilise
SoW
Invis
...and I am sure people can think of many others.

[tnexus]

I'd like to see perhaps an update to the whole tradeskill trophy idea, but had a few new options in place of it. One, I would love to see perhaps a charm that gained in power the more tradeskills you master. Perhaps have three forms of it that would not be able to be crafted until you reached a certain level. Say the first level you could only craft at 200, the second level you'd have to combine it with the first level, and that'd be only at 250 raw skill for all skills, and the third would be at 300 raw skill for all skills. You'd have to do a combine in each tradeskill, then the final combine would be the actual reward. Another option besides a charm would be just a really cool, maybe statless item that would be visible to onlookers. Perhaps also an Augment of some sorts. Another option to solve the mod problem might be that on the first level it'd be a 3% tradeskill mod, the second level might be a 5%, and the final would be 7%. While it would not be as good as items such as Shei Shears, it'd make people want it as a new trophy thus solving that problem. Just my two cents!

Tnexus

[Tanliel]

Personally, I belive that a change in the use of Racnar Hides and Basilisk Tooth for the new DoN armor recipes (Half Elf, Halfling, Iksar / Half Elf, Troll, Froglok, Iksar) would be generally beneficial.

It may be helpful to simply poll across all servers for Master level armor from any of those races. My personal belief is that you will find exactly zero pieces. I know that there is no Half Elf Master level Plate on Veeshan, as I've been the only one to even make Expert level Half Elven plate.

We have zero evidence of Racnar hides dropping even in the places they are supposed to be (ToV or VP,) not to mention the requirements (ala raid) to actually get into those locations for farming them. The acquisition of these hides is perverse in it's implementation compared with Shissar scales or even Midnight Stones.

I'm guessing that Basilisk Tooth is in the same boat. I've not seen any other required drops from DoN zones for Master level armors.

[Erikanudan]

As I posted in response to this thread by Absor ...

http://eqforums.station.sony.com/eq/....id=5430#M5430

Nightmare Arachnid Silk
Required for several races to tailor Master silk armor and Master tailored symbol augments.
Required for PoP tailored Nightmare silk armor (and since lowering of Ceremonial Solstice Robe recipes, has increased in demand as a skillup route).
Required for Nightmare Compound Bow (one of the very few possible skillup combines for post-284 fletching available to non-Karana worshipers and non-wood elves).

Problem: Accessibility and Demand. Only available on a handful of summoning caliber mobs in Plane of Nightmare.

Suggested Solution: Add them to the drop tables of the lower level spiders in the zone. Even if they uncommonly dropped one silk, it would help alleviate some of the frustration of tailors/fletchers.


Terrorantula Silk
Required for Erudite Expert silk armor and Erudite "celestial temper" silk and plate armor.

Problem: The ridiculous placeholders and spawn tables in Southern Desert of Ro severly hinder obtaining Terrorantula Silks, since they can only drop from 5 mobs (4 terrorantulings and Terrorantula (have not seen it recently, so do not know if it is currently spawning as Fabled or not)).

Suggested Solution: Adjust the spawn tables so the terrorantulings can spawn more often with lowered numbers of silk drops. (Currently dropping 1-8 silks per kill, but an increased frequency of spawns dropping 1-4 silks would offset the disappointment of clearing South Ro for hours to obtain a few swatches worth of silk.)


Pile of Gravel
Required for several races Master plate/chain armors.

Problem: Very rare drop from golems in Ruined City of Dranik only.

Suggested Solution: Add them to drop tables of golems in other Omens of War zones, such as Bloodfields.

Crushed Diamond Dust
Required for Master cultural augment symbols.

Problem: Very rare random drop throughout several Velious zones.

Suggested Solution: Add a simple recipe to create Crushed Diamond Dust by combining 2 Diamonds in a Marble Mortar and Pestle or Reinforced Jewelry Kit (since only a diamond can grind down another diamond, and those 2 containers would be appropriate for the task).


Jade Shard
Required for Journeyman cultural augment symbols.

Problem: Very rare random research drop from low-mid level mobs throughout Norrath.

Suggested Solution: Add a simple recipe to create Jade Shard by combining a Jade and a Smithy Hammer in a forge. vendor prices for Jade are higher than Jade Shard, so no potential for profit farming NPCs.


Basilisk Tooth
Required for several races Master level plate/chain armors.

Problem: Where do they drop? If they drop in the revamped, rekeyed Veeshan's Peak then their availability is too restrictive to be a viable material for tradeskillers. If they drop in DoN zones (such as Tirranun's Delve) then they are the only Journeyman through Master level cultural armor *requiring* DoN to obtain, outside of the Bazaar.

Suggested Solution: Add them to the loot tables of the basilisks in Plane of Earth.

edit: Even though single group VF are available to hunt in Plane of Earth now, the basilisks may still be out of reach for most tradeskillers. Other suggestions would be adding an appropriate level basilisk mob in another non-DoN zone (Skyfire maybe?) or changing the material to something else.

Racnar Hide
Required for several races Master level tailored leather armors.

Problem: Racnars can only be found in Veeshan's Peak, Skyshrine, and Temple of Veeshan. Racnar's in Skyshrine are dropping wyvern hides and lower faction to kill. See Basilisk Tooth above for problems with Veeshan's Peak. Requires a mini-raid or high caliber group to kill in Temple of Veeshan.

Suggested Solution: The wyverns in Skyfire Mountains sure do look like racnars to me ... and with at least one race (gnome) having their task for Master's Symbol book requiring killing mobs in Skyfire, it would be an appropriate level zone for racnar hides to drop as well. So, I suggest updating the drop tables of the Racnars in Skyshrine to drop racnar hides instead of wyvern hides, and adding appropriately rare racnar hides to the drop tables of the wyverns in Skyfire Mountains.

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Other Tradeskill Suggestions

Girplan Feathers - Increase the drop rates on girplans throughout Omens of War to match drop rates of arrow components in Dragons of Norrath.

Bazu Bone - For such big, boney mobs, their bones sure are difficult to find. Please adjust drop rates so Bazu bows can be produced in at least the quantity that Planes of Power elemental bows are (especially considering they are vastly inferior bows).

Kirin Horn - Suggest seriously evaluating which kirins can drop this, and how often. It is not only used for brewing, but also required for hand-formed spherical bottles ... and as long as they are as rare as they currently are, the poor alchemists will never see any bottles made to put their new potions into.

Erikanudan
Ayonae Ro

[Elyssanda]

Karana's Heartfruit Salad
Can anyone verify that the missing ingredients are INGAME now?
Speckled Pine Fruit (MIA)
Palm Leaf (MIA)
Jeez this has gone on to long now.. couple years??
This had better be one DARN good salad to have been messed up this long!

[Brodybeard]

Darn, when I saw the thread title, I was hoping someone had come up with an amusing list of April Fool's update requests, like #1: SOE should send a new mouse to everyone who reaches 2,100 in tradeskills.

On a serious note, I think returning tailoring trivials to their old levels until after the hinted tradeskill skill revisions are finished should be a Top 10 item.

[Rissenn]

Pile of Gravel
Required for several races Master plate/chain armors.

Problem: Very rare drop from golems in Ruined City of Dranik only.

Not that uncommon drop from Instanced zones of RCOD. Think we got like half a stack in two hours as random drop off mobs while killing and waiting for Signet named..

[ChaseFV]

Just a small, and probably insignificant request: Can one of the fletching vendors in Shar Vahl start stocking arrow molds? Or better still, one of the smithing vendors. You'd think with them being so close to all known sources of acrylia that they would have figured out they need molds to make arrow shafts out of the stuff...

[Nolrog]

On a serious note, I think returning tailoring trivials to their old levels until after the hinted tradeskill skill revisions are finished should be a Top 10 item.

This is already there.

[Bolas]

Problem: Some race's tradeskill quests require them to trash factions that people worked hard to get and need to keep high.

Example: Ogre master cultural quest requires the killing of Di'Zok Sarnak. I'm max ally sarnak from the Spirit Wracked Cords quest. I'm even "warmly" to sarnak outside of Chardok due to the sheer number of Mt. Death Mineral Salts & Green Goblin Skins. I'm max ally to sarnak and need to stay max ally so that I can recharge my damage shield ring. But this means I can never do master smith armor for ogres? That's not right.

-Bolas

[Lathaïn Sarathaï]

"Nightmare Arachnid Silk" should be as easy to get than "Shissar Scale".

I got 6 stack of "Shissar Scale" in few hour of play from mob who hit for low 200. That is just fine for master armor and 300 skill up path.

Why tailoring should be infinite more easy to leather class than silk ???

[JMorgana]

How about adding research recipes over the current max (thinking 227, but not sure here)? We're understanding that research has been increased to a 250 soft cap, but it's not real useful when the highest we can get it is 227 due to lack of recipes with a higher trivial. OR, maybe extend the practice research series (not sure if anyone even does this anymore) with a new set at or near 250 trivial.

[Maevenniia]

Review of Pop tradeskill drops....rather than removing it, perhaps modify it to say something like:

The drop rate of all rare tradeskill components needs to be evaluated in light of the recently announced upcoming changes to tradeskilling. If rare components are to offer any viable means of skilling up, they need to drop more frequently, or from more than one or two limited spawns.

some examples:

Nightmare Arachnid silks (as per Erik's post) are currently only available on a handful of summoning caliber mobs in Plane of Nightmare. They are now required for many Cultural Tailoring recipes, in addition to their previous uses (PoP silk tailored items & Nightmare Bow)

Suggested Solution: Add them to the drop tables of the lower level spiders in the zone. Even if they uncommonly dropped one silk, it would help alleviate some of the frustration of tailors/fletchers.

Severed Feran Tentacles are currently only dropping off of ONE named mob "a Stalking Feran" in Nobles' Causeway. They are needed in large quantities (several needed per item) to make Ice Cream Churns, Collapsible Distillerys and Throwing-Knife Stampers.

Suggested Solution: Add them to the drop tables of other ferans, such as those in Wall of Slaughter


etc