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Spell research is soooo broken but i think SOE has not addressed it because researchers are such a small percentage of the player base relative to other tradeskillers. Please, EQTraders, you are a strong voice in the community and you need to put some pressure on SOE in this area.
In searching the eqtraders forums about SOE developers' comments on research at the last fan faire -- research barely got mentioned and when it did, about the only positive comment (if you call it positive) was:
Wow Absor -- talk about high interest level!!!
Others have mentioned fixes such as making training components vendor purchasable and expanding recipes especially to move beyond the 227 trivial. To me, however, the biggest improvement could be increasing the drop rate of components, expanding the mobs that drop them and at least making them drop as SOE says they should -- from ANY mob in norrath that is the level or 4-5 over the spell level the component makes. As it is, the component drops ARE obviously zone-specific and mob-specific and it is absurd to have to rely on searching message threads for rumors that 'component x' dropped from this or that mob in February 2003.
Every other tradeskiller has a way to 'path' to whatever skill level they are pursuing by making 'runs' of combines (e.g., baking) at least to 250. Researchers must rely on rare drops of rare components, especially in moving beyond 202.. If I could only farm 'component x' the way a baker farms eggs!!! I have actually managed to find components (reasonable bazaar prices, vendor mining and drops) over the past couple of weeks of playing casually to attempt 3 -- count 'em -- 3 combines with a 202 trivial. And trust me, I've scoured the recipes to find the most common components to use. In that same time...a baker can go from zero to grandmaster lol.
No, we either have to vendor mine or shop the bazaar for components -- we shouldnt get a research trophy, we should get a grandmaster scrounging trophy!!! I think a lot of components never make it to the bazaar because people find it easier to sell them to a vendor. You rarely see someone in a group oohing and ahhing over a yaeth's 63R page drop the way they would over a weapon or armor LOL. This creates an artificial lack of supply. Heck, I'm a researcher and cant begin to remember all the words runes and pages that have value -- and I'm sure a warrior doesnt.
And when they are for sale in the bazaar, they are often priced rediculously high. This is the biggest problem in my opinion -- artificially high prices for components set by bazaar merchants not because of actual supply and demand, but because most that do put them on mules pull a price out of air based on what they see other components going for without a clear idea of value. How many times do you see components selling for more than the price of the spell? I do often.
Or alternatively, some enterprising souls just vacuums vendors willy-nilly for components after a patch and sets high prices on all in the hopes of finding one or two valuable items that sell out of what they have collected. Using this shotgun approach example, I dont have to know that yaeth 25L or words of virtue are valuable, I just price everything at 1k. The components I dont sell for that, I just dump back to a merchant since they cost me almost nothing from the vendor and am still way ahead.
Again, the only ways I can see to fix this is to increase the drop rate significantly, expand the mobs they drop from and/or, if SOE doesnt want to stand by their official statement that component drops are NOT zone specific, at least be specific about what components drop from what mobs in what zones so they can be 'farmed'. Either way, it's time SOE put the same attention to fixing research that they have to other tradeskills.
In searching the eqtraders forums about SOE developers' comments on research at the last fan faire -- research barely got mentioned and when it did, about the only positive comment (if you call it positive) was:
Considering that research was, until resently, a purchasable skill, I'm not impressed with the idea of a trophy. Perhaps once we get the rest straightened out.
No one-shot scrolls or other new items planned at the moment. I do need to talk to Rytan a bit about researching other spells, tho.
For the most part skill gaps will be filled when then second (or third, I forget which) part of the revamp is done. When that will be I still don't know. Sorry.
Absor
No one-shot scrolls or other new items planned at the moment. I do need to talk to Rytan a bit about researching other spells, tho.
For the most part skill gaps will be filled when then second (or third, I forget which) part of the revamp is done. When that will be I still don't know. Sorry.
Absor
Others have mentioned fixes such as making training components vendor purchasable and expanding recipes especially to move beyond the 227 trivial. To me, however, the biggest improvement could be increasing the drop rate of components, expanding the mobs that drop them and at least making them drop as SOE says they should -- from ANY mob in norrath that is the level or 4-5 over the spell level the component makes. As it is, the component drops ARE obviously zone-specific and mob-specific and it is absurd to have to rely on searching message threads for rumors that 'component x' dropped from this or that mob in February 2003.
Every other tradeskiller has a way to 'path' to whatever skill level they are pursuing by making 'runs' of combines (e.g., baking) at least to 250. Researchers must rely on rare drops of rare components, especially in moving beyond 202.. If I could only farm 'component x' the way a baker farms eggs!!! I have actually managed to find components (reasonable bazaar prices, vendor mining and drops) over the past couple of weeks of playing casually to attempt 3 -- count 'em -- 3 combines with a 202 trivial. And trust me, I've scoured the recipes to find the most common components to use. In that same time...a baker can go from zero to grandmaster lol.
No, we either have to vendor mine or shop the bazaar for components -- we shouldnt get a research trophy, we should get a grandmaster scrounging trophy!!! I think a lot of components never make it to the bazaar because people find it easier to sell them to a vendor. You rarely see someone in a group oohing and ahhing over a yaeth's 63R page drop the way they would over a weapon or armor LOL. This creates an artificial lack of supply. Heck, I'm a researcher and cant begin to remember all the words runes and pages that have value -- and I'm sure a warrior doesnt.
And when they are for sale in the bazaar, they are often priced rediculously high. This is the biggest problem in my opinion -- artificially high prices for components set by bazaar merchants not because of actual supply and demand, but because most that do put them on mules pull a price out of air based on what they see other components going for without a clear idea of value. How many times do you see components selling for more than the price of the spell? I do often.
Or alternatively, some enterprising souls just vacuums vendors willy-nilly for components after a patch and sets high prices on all in the hopes of finding one or two valuable items that sell out of what they have collected. Using this shotgun approach example, I dont have to know that yaeth 25L or words of virtue are valuable, I just price everything at 1k. The components I dont sell for that, I just dump back to a merchant since they cost me almost nothing from the vendor and am still way ahead.
Again, the only ways I can see to fix this is to increase the drop rate significantly, expand the mobs they drop from and/or, if SOE doesnt want to stand by their official statement that component drops are NOT zone specific, at least be specific about what components drop from what mobs in what zones so they can be 'farmed'. Either way, it's time SOE put the same attention to fixing research that they have to other tradeskills.
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