Aid Grimel Quest

[Gorgin]

Aladriel I think Khoren was eluding to the fact that the item REQUIRES you to be elementally plane flaged to get, the Hopestone is a random drop in all four elemental planes, given this IF you're elementally flagged there is a good chance you or your guildmates are probably wearing elemental armor. Priest Boots and Intelligence Caster Sleeves both have Preservation of Xegony on them and given the fairly good droprates of boots and sleeves on their respective mobs most of my guildmates have this focus on their armor somewhere. There's a chance that someone finishing this quest MIGHT need this foci(and I would've needed it myself if the Platter recipe hadn't gone unsolved for so many months), but the chances that you will get elemental sleeves or boots is probably much greater then your chances of finishing this quest and I don't think the effort for such a time consuming quest should be somewhat overshadowed by a mob that can drop sleeves or boots in about 10minutes from zone in to death if you're organized.

[Khoren Stonefall]

In my own defense, that wasn't me being quoted! =) I'm the one who loves the effects, because they're perfect for hybrids like me.

[Barraind Faylestar]

It's nice. Would require the best gear in every slot to be worthless, and I would wear this over a Clawed Earthcrafters in ear slot 2 simply for the focus effect (wow, I would lose veng4 regen2) The effect is quite nice for hybrids, and the earring itself is good. Could be better, but nearly everything could. I have new desire to buy a new modem and login to tradeskill more

[Caladel]

Well least its finally sloved.

The stats are nice, tho i wonder why its 130/150, 140/140 woudl been a better middle ground. The effects are in a way disappointing.

For me personally they are much better then the regeneration. Im a paladin and am still short on FT, and the preservation effect is better then the mana prev 4 i get on elemental boots. But in the long run they are not as good as i would have hoped.

Would have much rather seen an effect like 'Blessing of Vah Kerrath', something with regen/mana regen/attack, and then mabye a focus effect to go with it. 5 regen/5 mana regen/20 attack along with prev of xegony would have worked.

I mean ill definately be finishing it tonight when i get off work and its a hell of a lot better then what im wearing atm. But after months of buildup, the effects just seem a tad disappointing.

[khalysta]

As a ranger and a hybrid I think this effect is worthless for me and I don't like people saying I need these two effects because I don't. I chain nuke all the time on mobs and with ft5, voq and sd I rarely go below 90% mana except if i have to buff a wipeout or something. So to me 3 more flowing thought and a preservation effect are not ideal. As a ranger I strive for atk so a melee effect like aura of valor or aura of resolution is what I would rather see. Since regeneration is 5 hp regen, aura of resolution(50atk/5 regen) seems appropriate. From sources I heard there were supposed to be 3 earrings, arcane, might and one other that sounded like it was for priests. So this could be a bug or the round robin turnin isnt working like with bracers of benevolence quest. If there is only truly one earring then it should be more like the final book quest is but with aura of resolution and conservation of xegony maybe. That way at least it would appeal to melee, hybrids, casters and priests alike. However signet of the arcane really does sound for casters so I do tend to believe there are more and await some melee to make turnins while I grind away at tailoring.

[Aladriel]

Gorgin, I understand what you're saying, but you are basing your comments on experience from your own server. I doubt you are on CT server as I am. I have been flagged for the elemental planes for months. But on CT server there are 4 major high tier alliances all trying for the same mobs/planes. Makes it a bit more difficult to have everyone outfitted in full elemental armor. That's where I'm coming from when I replied to that quote.

Your reply probably applies on servers where there is one major uber guild, but not when there are 6

[Gorgin]

Ah we've got 3 elemental flagged guilds so probably don't have quite the competition you guys do on CT, but I doubt most servers do so I was just going from my personal experience as well.

[Gorgin]

Also even being elementally flagged you'll probably EVENTUALLY get that focus effect if you're a caster or priest, I was kind of hoping for an effect that wouldn't be replaced for quite awhile(like the Zephyr of Brell from the 8th Coldain Shawl is STILL a viable focus effect a year or so later). I just am hoping that they maybe up it to Conservation of Xegony and maybe change the ft3 to an Aura assuming that there aren't different versions for each archetype(I'm missing my hopestone or I'd see if a cleric gets the Signet of the Arcane as well).

[Torelan]

I got the Signet of the Arcane as well as a shaman after having to endure a 9 hour raid where I couldn't finish the **** thing

I must agree with preservation of xegony being a major waste on this earring though. Personally I would have preferred some FT and an aura of xxxx effect to make it appealing to most classes.

[EnfinitiStarr8]

First off, WHHOOOTT!! It's done!

Second, sucks that the Platter is No Drop but good thing I'm GMing Baking, can try and make it for myself.

Third, Ya, the earring kind of sucks for all the effort;

Signet of the Arcane
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP
Slot: EAR
AC: 25
STR: +25 DEX: +25 STA: +25 WIS: +25
INT: +25 AGI: +25 HP: +130 MANA: +150
SV FIRE: +15 SV DISEASE: +15 SV COLD: +15 SV MAGIC: +15
SV POISON: +15
Effect: Flowing Thought III (Worn)
Focus Effect: Preservation of Xegony
WT: 1.5 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL

Vs.

Sigil Earring of Veracity
MAGIC ITEM LORE ITEM NO DROP
Slot: EAR
AC: 25
STR: +25 STA: +25 WIS: +25 INT: +25
HP: +100 MANA: +100 SV FIRE: +10 SV DISEASE: +10
SV COLD: +10 SV MAGIC: +10 SV POISON: +10
Effect: Acumen (Casting Time: Instant)
WT: 0.1 Size: TINY
Class: ALL
Race: ALL

for the time/effort and everything...

As far as the whole different effects for Caster/Priest/Melee you would have to do either one more quest to separate them or not make it an All/All earring b/c then someone like my little Ranger self would get two of them with different effects and use both for double the damage.

Just my 2cp...

[Taraddar]

The thought was that you might just get the right earring for your class. NPC's can tell what class you are and hand back the appropriate item. For example ornate/elemental armor. Everyone gives the npc the same 500pp but each class gets the correct container and emblem back. With a shaman and now ranger turning in too it seems pretty clear that it's just 1 earring.

[Gorgin]

The more I think about it they should've seperated them into 4 archetypes probably.
Melee version with Aura of ..... and a skill mod of some kind(dodge or offense or defense or something) and like 170ish hp no mana
Hybrid version with probably a 150/130 hp/mana with the preservation effect and a mini talisman of vah kherrath type effect(some atk, some mana regen and some regular regen)
Priest version with balanced mana/hp(140/140) and maybe conservation of xegony(maybe a different focus effect like the Marr's Blessing or something else the priests would ALL find useful) with a right click mana regen buff(aura of eternity or koadic's heightened focus)
Caster version that would be 130/150 and conservation of xegony(or a focus casters might want, I'm not up on casters really) and a right click mana regen buff(aura of eternity or koadic's heightened focus)
Those would've been suitable reward to me for the sheer amount of effort this quest takes to complete.

[Gorgin]

Finally got my Hope Stone and turning it in with the Marked Runed Signet yielded the Signet of the Arcane for me as a cleric as well.

[Khoren Stonefall]

I think this is getting a bit silly. A 25ac 25stat 15save 130/150 FT3/Pres of Xegony earring is MORE than enough reward for the effort. It'd be enough without having the focus at all. Yes, I understand it would be nice if it was even better, but once you have your skills, this quest just isn't hard. It's not like you get nothing else out of being a GM in all trades. This is a reward quest.

After you get the trades (which have their own benefit) and the flags (which also have their own benefit), I'll say it agian, the quest itself is extremely easy. Since it is for septuple GM traders, no one working on this quest has a great deal of competition, and if your guild won't help you out with the air bow component, they don't deserve the benefit of having a 7x GM in their ranks.

The only part of the quest that I found even the least bit annoying (doing it for both earrings) was the sacred waters. Everything else is droppable or XP campable or soloable.

And if people are getting 220+ in all seven tradeskills and getting their flags JUST to get this earring, and then never make use of the peripheral benefits of being elemental flagged and being able to craft anything they like, I think they're missing the point. And as for having aura effects... That'd be nifty too, except if your gear is so uber that you don't think this earring is any good, you'll also already have Veng 50, so it won't matter.

I do actually have three other quintuple GMs in my guild who thought that even the 6th earring was enough reward in addition to the benefit of being a multi-GMer that they have worked on their skills for it.

EDIT: One other thing. This quest rewards you with TWO earrings for the effort of flaggage and tradeskills, too. Most people do not consider the 7th earring something to sneeze at.

[Gorgin]

I actually agree with you Khoren, the earring is very nice but the reason I believe most people are upset(and me a little) is we spent months trying to figure out the stupid platter so when it was finally solved(albeit with a new clue) people were kind of disappointed that Verant made us leap through hoops just for what I kind of expected the reward to be at the end. I had expected the 7th earring to be about 125/125 15 to resists 20 to stats and Aura of Bravery(or whatever the 3 regen 30 atk one was or the current effect of regeneration to build it up from 3 to 5). If there was an 8th one I expected it to be about 150/150 with 25 stats 20 to resists and something that added a little mana regen(Aura of Eternity) to go with the regular regen(AoE is 5/5) and then I expected the earring to completely stop. If there was no 8th I expected the 7th to be like my proposed 8th. The fact that they changed the earring to ft3 and added a focus when the first 7 had been melee based with the regen component confused me a bit. It seemed like they were shifting the focus of the earring from melee type to caster type but with adding a focus most caster types will have when completing this quest and unbalancing the mana hp they left themselves open to criticism I believe.