The SOF Tradeskill Quest!

[filobeto]

For the Bloodmoon spider eggs, what's the best way to get to the spider camp? Our bard said the shortcut tunnel doesn't work because the mobs won't path into the tunnel. So we either go the long northeast from zone-in through the underwater tunnel, or east from zone in through the heavily populated rooms. Which is better?

There are two tunnels, the southern most is the one that I would call the shortcut - and it's safe there. You don't need to go thru there but it can save time. The northern tunnel is also safe, that's where we set up camp and pulled to for our egg farming. Getting there depends on your group / creativity.

[dbrownie]

Fletching

On the fletching part, is it safe to say that the same time periods correspond to day and night, both when removing the shrouds and placing the boxes? aka i can remove the 3rd shroud from 5am-7pm?

Also, when choosing the box in the last step, I am a little confused as to how you are supposed to add the hourly angle. I noticed in a writeup somebody said at 6am open box 1, but it seems to me since you start on box 1 at the start of the day (5am) and add the hourly angle after that, 6am should be something different. For instance at 6am, would I add 1 hour and open box 2, or would I add 23 hours and open box 3? The wording on that is a little ambiguous.

[Niphreedil]

Unless you already combined and/or clicked some of your boxes, I suggest you follow this walkthrough, originally posted by Zolina:

. Move to Hills of Shade (at loc 2480, 760, 50) with the 3 boxes, a fletching kit, 1x Celestial Essence, 1x Vodka and 1x Juice of Quellious. Have a free inventory slot. Drink something to make sure the Juice of Quellious is not wasted.
. Wait until 12 AM (Midnight)
. Combine one box with Celestial Essence in a fletching kit
. Combine one box with Vodka in a fletching kit
. Wait until Noon. While you wait, read and practice instructions below to be sure to do the right thing.
. At Noon, combine one box with Juice of Quellious in a fletching kit
. Move the first Shadow Box into your empty inventory slot.
. Move south of the altar, face north, right-click the first shadow box.
. Move the second shadow box into your empty inventory slot.
. Move west of the altar, face east, right-click the second shadow box.
. Move the third shadow box into your empty inventory slot.
. Move east of the altar, face west, right-click the third shadow box.
. You should now have 3 black boxes sitting on the altar. Target the middle shadow box, /open it and loot.

[RekirtsDarigaz]

I thought the one you open was also dependent on the time. Or is it always the middle box?

[silent_hand]

The problem isnt that it is better then Pre-SoF gear. We allready know that SoF is massively better then anything we've seen in the game, It's just that in comparison's sake...Every major tradeskills quest I can think of the reward has been leaps and bounds greater then the other groupable loot.

PoP
Signet of Might 25ac/145hp (Melee PoP tradeskill reward)
vs
Gleaming Hoop of the Silverwing 24ac/90hp (BEST Groupable PoP Ear I could find)

SoF
Eron's Jewelry 30ac/470hp (Melee SoF tradeskill reward)
vs
Jagged Icy Loop 28ac/480hp (BEST Groupable SoF Ear I could find)

So from the best groupable PoP ear to tradeskill reward we saw a 61% increase in hp and a 4% increase in ac.

So based on this...Eron's Jewelry should be...775hp and 30ac.

Throughout EQ I'd be willing to say that only about 15% of the population would put force the effort for this quest. Currently, I know of 6 members of the 2100 club, that are not going to bother with this "Waste of time".

Hands down, the risk vs. reward on this is out of whack.

Suggestions:

Since the ac is never going to be what we want it to be, give us a click that is worthwhile enough to make people jealous enough to perhaps explore a part of the game they have said no to since day one. It worked with LoN. As soon as people saw items that they wanted, they began to dump hundreds and hundreds of dollars into it.

--Poohjure

The point I would like to add is that, the time to get this reward isn't just doing the quest, its the many weeks and months getting your TS skills up.

Compare that to getting crystallos keyed in a few hours and getting 500hp groupable loot.

This need to be 600hp plus a decent clicky plus a minor ac boost. In my humble opinion, raid gear is 1000hp plus in this expansion 600 for this item is not asking too much.

By the way I stopped reading on page 7

[Niphreedil]

I thought the one you open was also dependent on the time. Or is it always the middle box?

It does depend of the time, but if you do all the clicking and /open /loot at noon, it's the middle box.

[Niphreedil]

Finished my quest 2 days ago, thanks everyone for information on this post

FYI: The last step must be bugged, because I went to the far NE room in Steam Factory (not the room with the 4 generators).. and I hit combine with a FULL pop of mobs and it worked first try

I confirm this worked for me too as of 12/30/2007. I went at loc 1482, -1127, 164. There is a power generator there, and the description of the task doesn't mention that rooms must be cleared, so maybe this is intended. I /bugged it anyway.

[silent_hand]

Is the triv for step 4 oil supposed to be 400? Eron's Tertiary Setting.

Seems a bit harsh for a below groupable crystallos reward item, adding in the fact you spent years getting your tradeskills up.

[Aldier]

Each step in the quest has a 400 trivial combine. That is the "hard" part of the quest.

[Zolina]

For the bloodmoon spider eggs, the spiders spawn in the big rectangular room in the far northeast. We had a monk pull from the room to the tunnel west of it, which was safe (no spawns or roamers). Spiders seemed to drop an egg about 1 in 3.

[Kagmor]

Steam Factory - Combine

No matter where I went in NE room, could not get 'close enough to the static'. We had a group there for a couple hours and kept the room clear, probably tried to combine over a hundred times, never got an activity message... just that I should get closer to the static.. I crawled up under the spinning rings and everything I could think of. Any Suggestions?

[Wyvernwill]

Try shrinking. It might not impact anything, but afterall, this is a gnome based expansion, and I know when I tried it that I was shrunk. The combines worked like a charm for me and my druid buddy.

[Ngreth Thergn]

I got a question:

I just succesfullly combined the 2nd part. Pottery. The final Combine used the Reward of the first step.

I didnt fail, but a 250 Skill combine can fail. So there is always a chance to fail the last combine at any step, where you have to restart the complete quest? Its never possible to say: Got this step done. Great iam save!

Or is something given back, so you have to restart only the actual part of the quest?

da Blubb

I tried to make sure you would never loose anything you cannot recover. Feel free to let me know if it ever happens.

If you fail the worst that should happen to you is that you have to go farm some parts specific to that step again.

[Ngreth Thergn]

I got this after competing 3rd part

"This seems correct but something is wrong. Perhaps you need to know something more in order to combine this"

I went back to Eron and hailed him and nothing.
The recipe was activated before I turn in (appear in mw book) but when I turn in the 2nd part to Eron, when he gives me back the item, it dfoes not recognize anymore the 2nd aprt in my recipe, adn the recipe is already scribed....

Do I have to redo the whole task ? sigh

you should have a note from Eron somewhere. Scribe that note.

[Garokor]

but

Thank Ngreth, but it is the problem, I wrote the note before finishing part 2, and it seems it bugged the quest, I have the recipe in my Jewelry box this is the problem...


Here is the screenshot of the problem.