The SOF Tradeskill Quest!

[Ngreth Thergn]

So you're supposed to clear the entire room to be able to do the combine? I've tried a couple times now and the best I can do is have 8 mobs up before repop. I can't see a group of 6 doing this. I'm going to have to make a raid for this

Somewhere in here is a response to that I think where I said it was just a "sub" room. just the area around any one of the generators.

[Ngreth Thergn]

I finished mine yesterday, but have a question.

The walk-through says to uncover box 1 and 3 at midnight and noon respectively, but in the Shadow-Counting book doesn't actually say this is requried - the indication from the book is that for box 1 the stars must be out (i.e. it is night-time, not nessasarily midnight) and for box 3 the sun must be shining (i.e. it is day-time, not nessasarily noon).

Now I didn't want to risk death and my boxes, although I was really twitching to try with the brownie box (since it only takes 5 minutes flat to get another one) - but is this whole midnight/noon timing thing just a tool to ensure it is night/day when people do the combines - or has it been confirmed that it must be midnight/noon exactly?

I will confirm it just must be day / Night. Just be sure you KNOW it is day or night because I do not plan on saying what particular time it changes from day to night. The walk-through (not made by me! ) is just a guaranteed day/night thing.

[Ngreth Thergn]

Ngreth has already said (I think) that instances will not count or maybe someone else in this thread posted that they don't count.

EDIT: Tank287 said: Had a spider drop the bit for the brewing task in one of the 12 man raids done in BMK but guildie said did not get a task update for it. So regular zone only, no instance spider drops work?

It comes from having to define one ZONE for the drops... and well the raids are a different zone as far as the task system is concerned.

[Ngreth Thergn]

What worked for me (/poke ngreth since it's not a raid item that can in cases require a raid ) was to pull the casters first then clear near side. That should leave back half of room and melee mobs only. Invis group, park yourself far side of reactor. DI the puller or whatnot, had bard DB, then train them buggers down the hall there. You got a good bit of distance so take em as far as puller can. Just start clickin combine soon as they aggro and start running after the puller.

Everything (with casters deaded) should take off pretty much asap after puller. Works like a champ, they just have to put on their nikes and run them FAR away. Down the hall a bit don't work they really got to suck it up and go the distance.

I am confident in players.

I expect a group who has gotten T2 gear (Tradeskill or drops) can do this. The reason people are bringing raids (really not raids, just more than one group) is because they are not yet "properly geared"

Additionally I believe in this patch on wednesday, the repop will be slowing down in the zone as a whole, making this even easier (it is an unrelated change that will happen to benefit this task)

I do not consider this step needing a raid. I consider this task "difficult" and in need of gearing up before completing it. And that I am definitely fine with since the gear necessary can be both trade-skilled and gotten via drops in this expansion.

[tank287]

I am confident in players.

I expect a group who has gotten T3 gear (Tradeskill or drops) can do this. The reason people are bringing raids (really not raids, just more than one group) is because they are not yet "properly geared"

Additionally I believe in this patch on wednesday, the repop will be slowing down in the zone as a whole, making this even easier (it is an unrelated change that will happen to benefit this task)

I do not consider this step needing a raid. I consider this task "difficult" and in need of gearing up before completing it. And that I am definitely fine with since the gear necessary can be both trade-skilled and gotten via drops in this expansion.

That is a slap in the face LOL. To get the Tier 3 group visible you need the steamcore drop from here anyways and a single group tier 2 geared group will not be able to kill the named that are dropping them ffs. Maybe pre-nerf cultural but not in tier 2 gear. Really the zone needs tuning and there is a thread on it but till its tuned I'd hold off on saying people need to be geared to not raid the zone. GAH don't talk to me anymore

[Ngreth Thergn]

That is a slap in the face LOL. To get the Tier 3 group visible you need the steamcore drop from here anyways and a single group tier 2 geared group will not be able to kill the named that are dropping them ffs. Maybe pre-nerf cultural but not in tier 2 gear. Really the zone needs tuning and there is a thread on it but till its tuned I'd hold off on saying people need to be geared to not raid the zone. GAH don't talk to me anymore

Sorry I made a big mistatment there.

You should have to have the T2 Group gear in order to do this. Not gear from Previous expansions, but gear from this one. Sorry. Big mis-statement. I am correcting my post above, but leaving your statement there anyway.

[thestormes]

Slight detour but I've found the Tier 2 (assuming that's the Warped Steel) for tanks to be lacking. Maybe if you can get all pieces first, but the bp was a let down over Katta and is sitting in the bank. And to get a steam core, I don't see that happening for some time so I'm tanking this stuff in Katta gear. My hp bounce a lot on some mobs (group gear AC ftl) but I'm not dying.

Regarding this sub room, I had thought you meant a whole room (or whole area surrounding a spinny thing). I've cleared a good portion of the far NE generator room and tried to do the combine and it wouldn't let me. Tonight, I'll be more diligent to clear an arc around one of the control panels and see what happens or maybe I'll try the train the mobs out method.

If I don't have to clear 21 mobs in what, 15 mins?, then no I don't need a raid (was being slightly facetious there) as I can clear about 13 of them at the moment which is pretty respectable imho.

[Archus]

Sorry I made a big mistatment there.

You should have to have the T2 Group gear in order to do this. Not gear from Previous expansions, but gear from this one. Sorry. Big mis-statement. I am correcting my post above, but leaving your statement there anyway.

This may or may not be overtuned then, Ngreth. I'll give you feedback based on my experience and let you judge for yourself. The group I did this with was Demi-Plane geared, including the best dps weapons for melee available to that point of progression (2.5's etc), with our tank probably around 4k AC and 24k hps buffed, and all toons with at least 1k AA, most with 2500+ and all level 80 except the cleric who was 78. Group composition was Monk, Ranger, Mage, Mage, Cleric, Warrior. We also had Wizard (80), Cleric (80), and Shaman (78) bots outside of group. We choose the Southeast room of the "central" cluster of 4 generators (although according to another post on this thread it sounds like any of the generator rooms - including the ones at the corners of the zones - will work). This room is the only one of the 4 central rooms that has an entrance from the rest of the zone. The other 3 rooms cannot be entered without passing through this one, so although they have fewer mobs to clear, I'm not sure how you could break them without some top notch CC. Anyways, this SE room has 17 static mobs and 1 roamer - 18 mobs that require clearing. The respawn seemed to be about 20 minutes. We camped in the corner of the east hallway. With all that dps and healing, we were 'just' able to clear the mobs out on the second repop (beginning of the third clearing) so that we had about 50 seconds for the mage and I to do our combines.

Now granted, the longer zone respawn time will definitely help, as will the ability to kill half the mobs and train the rest away so that the combine can be done, but if the intent was to clear by killing, it may be slightly too difficult for a single group geared as you intended. I would guess that my group was armored and AA'd as intended for the task or probably even a bit better than intended. We probably also had better melee dps than intended due to our raid weapons. Even though T2 SoF group weapons are quite a nice bump for non-raiders, they still are a far cry from what a demi-geared toon can get. The caster dps was likely the same since the spells are the same. Now don't get me wrong. This was incredibly fun and challenging and definitely gave a sense of accomplishment when we did the combines, which should be the case when doing the last leg of this long quest. However, we achieved this with 1.5 groups in gear that I believe is at or above the level you intended to complete the task (at least in terms of melee dps). Again, survival wasn't an issue so we could have done this with slightly inferior armor, but dps was just enough, and we have weapons better than groupers can currently hope for. The increase in respawn time should indirectly help with this issue, but I thought you should hear a 'real world' experience with this task.

Finally, despite my complaining about the AC, I enjoyed this task immensely and had a great time getting it done with friends. Even if the reward is not quite as good as I had hoped, the 'journey' was well worth it and I will still use the item for a little while at least.

[Ngreth Thergn]

Slight detour but I've found the Tier 2 (assuming that's the Warped Steel) for tanks to be lacking. Maybe if you can get all pieces first, but the bp was a let down over Katta and is sitting in the bank. And to get a steam core, I don't see that happening for some time so I'm tanking this stuff in Katta gear. My hp bounce a lot on some mobs (group gear AC ftl) but I'm not dying.

Regarding this sub room, I had thought you meant a whole room (or whole area surrounding a spinny thing). I've cleared a good portion of the far NE generator room and tried to do the combine and it wouldn't let me. Tonight, I'll be more diligent to clear an arc around one of the control panels and see what happens or maybe I'll try the train the mobs out method.

If I don't have to clear 21 mobs in what, 15 mins?, then no I don't need a raid (was being slightly facetious there) as I can clear about 13 of them at the moment which is pretty respectable imho.

I define the sub room by the "doorways" (sure some of the doorways are hug... but they separate the areas.) Take the whole complex of 4 generators. Put a cross centered in the middle. This will go through some of the "doorways" that is how the rooms are separated into their "sub rooms" you must clear a whole sub room, and then when done, not have any NPC within 50 or 60 units to you, and then be really close to the "harmful" (but harmless because the owner of the zone whose board name I know but am spacing on... did not get the aura's fully in) generators. One can easily achieve this just be going to the other side of the generator.

Also. There is not an equal amount of NPC's around the generators. I will not be spoiling it, but one or more of them will have the least NPC's and thus be the easiest.

[Ngreth Thergn]

This may or may not be overtuned then, Ngreth. I'll give you feedback based on my experience and let you judge for yourself. The group I did this with was Demi-Plane geared, including the best dps weapons for melee available to that point of progression (2.5's etc), with our tank probably around 4k AC and 24k hps buffed, and all toons with at least 1k AA, most with 2500+ and all level 80 except the cleric who was 78. Group composition was Monk, Ranger, Mage, Mage, Cleric, Warrior. We also had Wizard (80), Cleric (80), and Shaman (78) bots outside of group. We choose the Southeast room of the "central" cluster of 4 generators (although according to another post on this thread it sounds like any of the generator rooms - including the ones at the corners of the zones - will work). This room is the only one of the 4 central rooms that has an entrance from the rest of the zone. The other 3 rooms cannot be entered without passing through this one, so although they have fewer mobs to clear, I'm not sure how you could break them without some top notch CC. Anyways, this SE room has 17 static mobs and 1 roamer - 18 mobs that require clearing. The respawn seemed to be about 20 minutes. We camped in the corner of the east hallway. With all that dps and healing, we were 'just' able to clear the mobs out on the second repop (beginning of the third clearing) so that we had about 50 seconds for the mage and I to do our combines.

Now granted, the longer zone respawn time will definitely help, as will the ability to kill half the mobs and train the rest away so that the combine can be done, but if the intent was to clear by killing, it may be slightly too difficult for a single group geared as you intended. I would guess that my group was armored and AA'd as intended for the task or probably even a bit better than intended. We probably also had better melee dps than intended due to our raid weapons. Even though T2 SoF group weapons are quite a nice bump for non-raiders, they still are a far cry from what a demi-geared toon can get. The caster dps was likely the same since the spells are the same. Now don't get me wrong. This was incredibly fun and challenging and definitely gave a sense of accomplishment when we did the combines, which should be the case when doing the last leg of this long quest. However, we achieved this with 1.5 groups in gear that I believe is at or above the level you intended to complete the task (at least in terms of melee dps). Again, survival wasn't an issue so we could have done this with slightly inferior armor, but dps was just enough, and we have weapons better than groupers can currently hope for. The increase in respawn time should indirectly help with this issue, but I thought you should hear a 'real world' experience with this task.

Finally, despite my complaining about the AC, I enjoyed this task immensely and had a great time getting it done with friends. Even if the reward is not quite as good as I had hoped, the 'journey' was well worth it and I will still use the item for a little while at least.

Nodyin is looking at the overall tune of the T3 zones in general. That will probably continue to make this easier.

I absolutely planned this to need a full group though.

[Sklak]

I finished mine yesterday, but have a question.

The walk-through says to uncover box 1 and 3 at midnight and noon respectively, but in the Shadow-Counting book doesn't actually say this is requried - the indication from the book is that for box 1 the stars must be out (i.e. it is night-time, not nessasarily midnight) and for box 3 the sun must be shining (i.e. it is day-time, not nessasarily noon).

Now I didn't want to risk death and my boxes, although I was really twitching to try with the brownie box (since it only takes 5 minutes flat to get another one) - but is this whole midnight/noon timing thing just a tool to ensure it is night/day when people do the combines - or has it been confirmed that it must be midnight/noon exactly?

In this case, the directions in the book are correct as written, having opened the night box at 3 different times at night (10 pm, midnite, 2 am), and day box at least at 5 am, 6 am, and 11 am.

Do be sure to completely stand on the appropriate side of altar when placing -- just slightly stepping to side or turning to face appropriate area rather than moving completely to side = 400k Death touch...

[Caladel]

Is there a reason all the steps on these tasks are "loot credit" instead of "collect credit"? Was this by intent or just be random choosing of "loot".

One thing that has always bugged me to no end is progressive tasks/mission arcs where you loot tons of the stuff you need before you get the task that needs it and it does not count for the task because it has a "loot" step.

For instance ive had all the npc drops for this entire quest drop 20+ times over and let it all rot because it doesnt count when your on the earlier steps. Other quests have taken precedence for me and ts one has been back burner.

Just annoying having to redo stuff i could/should already have done!

Getting all the tasks at the beginning wasn't an option because of the 18 task limit which has been a huge annoyance this expansion.

[Ngreth Thergn]

Is there a reason all the steps on these tasks are "loot credit" instead of "collect credit"? Was this by intent or just be random choosing of "loot".

One thing that has always bugged me to no end is progressive tasks/mission arcs where you loot tons of the stuff you need before you get the task that needs it and it does not count for the task because it has a "loot" step.

For instance ive had all the npc drops for this entire quest drop 20+ times over and let it all rot because it doesnt count when your on the earlier steps. Other quests have taken precedence for me and ts one has been back burner.

Just annoying having to redo stuff i could/should already have done!

Getting all the tasks at the beginning wasn't an option because of the 18 task limit which has been a huge annoyance this expansion.

Well. It is even more me wanting to enforce an order to things. It also keeps a certainly level of difficulty, enforcing that you must do things in a certain order, or making you sacrifice space in the quest book for more flexibility. Both have an element of choice I want to enforce.

[RymeEM]

What mobs / area are the Purple and Yellow Gem Grade Faycite from in The Steam Factory? I have gotten all of the hairs and steam suit fluids and finished that combine even, and have yet to see one of either color. I had figured like the other tasks they would drop off the mobs needed for the other parts of the combine but I can't see my luck being this bad.

Thank you.

[Archus]

What mobs / area are the Purple and Yellow Gem Grade Faycite from in The Steam Factory? I have gotten all of the hairs and steam suit fluids and finished that combine even, and have yet to see one of either color. I had figured like the other tasks they would drop off the mobs needed for the other parts of the combine but I can't see my luck being this bad.

Thank you.

I have seen them drop very rarely everywhere in the zone, but when I have camped the mobs in the big huge open room on the west side, they seemed to drop like candy - mostly from the steamworks there it seemed. Got about 4-5 of each color there in an hour +. Elsewhere in the zone I seemed to average 1 per hour.