Shrieking/Wailing Drop Rates Changed?

[Ravenswood]

I'm getting close to the end of the Enchanted Velium Bits production line, and decided to start gathering some components. The Swirling Shadows aren't really a problem; I just root and shoot to break up the spawn, and in 15-20 minutes have the island cleared. I usually camp to an alt or to my trader until respawn.

Last night, I went to gather Shrieking/Wailing Substances, and have been reading that the drop rates were around 1 in 4, with the AoE'ers claiming around 60 an hour. It took me almost three hours to get a stack of each... It's not the kill rate thats the problem; most go down with 3 or 4 bow shots, some with a single shot when I get lucky and hit for a 900+ crit. I figure that the drop rate last night was 1 in 10 or worse. This is horrible! Anyone else farmed the substances lately (ie, post-DoN)?

[wold2]

re: wailing substances

I never did this before, since I maxed smithing back in 2002. But now that the cap was raised, we tried it. I killed about 120 owlbears and got about 6 wailing substances in hollowshade.

[Centuri]

Farm in the south area. Drops in the other 2 areas aren't nearly as good.
You'll probably need to manipulate the spawns to get the drops you want.

[Nolrog]

I've been hunting there off and on for a while now. I don't ever remember the drop rate being as good as 1 in 4. One in 10 (or slightly worse) is usually what I see. It also seems that the owlbear drop rate is a little better than the sonic wolf one, but this is anecdotal at best. I hunt exclusively at the southern camp. The drop rates at the other camps are bad to horrible on a good day.

[Xulan]

I just spent a good part of the day there yesterday, and collected 270 of each. That's 540 items. 60 an hour would make it 9 hours, which is about right. I'd say 1 in 4 or 1 in 3 is accurate.

[Qadain]

The drop rate seems like how it was when I farmed substances a year and a half ago.

I AE and get around one substance per 3-4 corpses looted, but keep in mind that the empty corpses decay after 30 seconds, so I don't get to check them most of the time. And I've always gotten noticeably better drop rates from owlbears than sonic wolves.

[Eladnarii]

Substance

I did a bunch of Aoeing also today , got around 30 - 40 an hour, I also have much better luck with the Owlbears then the wolfs.
Elad

[Daegul Mistweaver]

On a related note, as it's been about a year since I thought about working on smithing again, is it possible to add the combines for shadowscream to that recipie list thing? I tried looking for shadowscream, orbs and even mistletoe but got nada. If I'm going to pick up the hammer again I'd prefer it be a 2 click process, as my wrist is already shot these days.

[greebmushroome]

i agree with what's been said... i farmed HSM tonight. the wolves were up the entire time i was there, for prolly a little over an hour. got 2 stacks of substances.

i was PBAEing. the hardest part is getting the mobs to notice and chase me.

[Ravenswood]

Well, I completed the hammer quest last night (and it was a pain since I couldnt use the Vah Shir forge) and still had some time before bed, so I did some farming. I did see a better drop rate, although it still wasn't 1 in 4. In about two hours I collected 2 stacks of each. This is a drop rate I can live with ;P

As far as being on the recipe list, you still have to make one successful combine for it to show up. You can then do a search for it, and add it to your favorites.

Someone mentioned earlier about losing the corpse because they didnt get to it within a minute; from what I've seen the only corpses that despawn that fast are the ones with no loot.

[Nolrog]

I saw a decent drop rate last night on the wolves. I was lagging behind on shrieking substance, and that helped me catch up. I even headed to TS to start farming swirling shadows. Drop rate there was pretty good, but those buggers hit hard, and were highly magic resistant, so they kept breaking root. They also have a ton of HP, so my big AOE nuke can't take them down. Grrr. Make em all level one with 3 HP please.

Oh how I wish they'd lower the SS requirements on those combines. Make it 1 or 2 per combine.

[Boleslav]

You can make gauntlest to 262. They require 2 shadows. So you're only eating 5 points of a 3 shadow recipe, as cloaks triv out at 267.

That said, it would be nice if they simply subtracted one from the required number of shadows on all the recipes. What is the point of requiring at least two for any combine?

Boleslav

[Ravenswood]

Nol, get to 61, get your archery AA's, and get an elemental bow. It shouldnt take you long, and it makes farming infinately easier. When I farm shadows, all I usually need to do is snare them from a distance and they're dead before they can get to me. Takes less than 15-20 minutes to clear the island.

[Boleslav]

I didn't notice you were 55th level Nolrog. When I was in my 50s, I got shadows much faster in Shadeweaver Thicket. However I still did a lot of shadow farming in Twilight Sea as I got some experience from the mobs.

But it was no where near efficient. However, the gear you can get at 55 nowadays makes my kit back then look pretty pathetic, so you may do better that I did.

Boleslav Forgehammer
Paladin of Brell in his 66th Campaign
E'ci - Sacred Destiny

[Daegul Mistweaver]

As far as being on the recipe list, you still have to make one successful combine for it to show up. You can then do a search for it, and add it to your favorites.

Thanks Raven! Do you know if, in addition to humming orbs and shadowscream, the enchanted velium bits recipie will add? Back when I was smithing and that feature was just added, no quest combines would show up or add.

Edit: added question
Anyone know offhand at what level the MOBs there cease to agro by proximity? Thinking perhaps I can hire a youngling(properly buffed of course) to agro them all and help loot the non-substance items. Seems like a win-win if I pay decent; the vict, er assistant, would make decent plat off the drops in addition to what I pay.