MCS vs. Shadowscream vs. Velium Gemmed?

[tuis]

Another option is Magnetic. I'm starting to use drops from raids/groups to make magnetic, then recycling it when new broken pieces become available.

It's not fast, it's not cheap (if you buy pieces in bazaar) but it's more chances for skillups if you got the stuff on-hand.

[Cruento]

the shadowscream path is extremely easy... except i run out of swirling shadows a lot. the substances drop a lot. i can store about 180 humming orbs in my bank at any one time. it's keeping myself in swirling shadows that is difficult, since the spawn rate is so slow on the shades, and there are less of them per spawn cycle, and the drop seems less common.

[Quichon]

A very easy place to farm craptons of swirling shadows is in Twilight Sea. on eqatlas.com, it's island number 9, nearly due west of the island with the tower on it that you show up in from Fungus Grove. Nearly everything on that island can drop at least one, or even more, and it has a high population/respawn rate. With sufficent AE skills, you can rake it in quickly. No room to kite, though. Mobs have just around 1200 hps, I think.

And of course, you get your wailing/shrieking substances by manipulating the Hollowshade War. I tend to gank the Grimlings so they all die off since they won't have what I want, then let one or the other take over and start farming the heck out of them. Once I've got enough, I kill off the named in the tower, kill the grimlings and the ones I've farmed to death, then let the third faction take over and start farming them. Be nice and reset after you're done.

It doesn't really take a whole lot to get a whole lot. Just make sure whichever faction you're farming has the southern islands, then proceed with the mass destruction. Kill off attackers who threaten to change the faction in your area.

So there ya go, farming for Shadowscream Steel isn't really all that hard, just a tad time consuming.

[Qaladar Bragollach]

Respawn rate on the TS island is too slow. One person can easily kill everything then have to wait 6-7 minutes. Its as good as it gets though and they an drop multiple swirlies and the coin loot is pretty decent too (up to 6-7pp per mob it adds up slowly).

[Cruento]

yyeeaahh... quichon... isn't that pretty much the only place to get swirling shadows? i dunno. that's how i've been doing it. i get maybe 10 shadows an hour. it sucks hard.
and btw, the no-drop substances drop like candy in hollowshade. that part is easy.

[Hezz]

Farmed 206 swirling shadows in about 3-4 hours in Maiden's Eye. Not really fast but did it with a 70 paladin and got an AA or so doing it.

I pull to the wall North of the UP zoneline, if you take an enchanter you can go out into the open there and get nothing but undead mobs that drop shadows at a much faster rate. Much faster as in you'll never kill them without chanter to mez the 6 cleric mobs that add and all sit there and CH each other....

Much less tedious than Twilight to me, lots of shaded weapons and misc. spells for bazaar will drop as well.

[Drawde]

There's a place in the new TSS zone called Blightfire Moors. In the northwest corner of the zone is a ruined tower. Theres some skeletons around it that drop swirling shadows, though it's not an extremely common drop. The skeletons are called "an accursed lookout", and are wizards (I think). They also drop some stuff with a decent vendor price. With a Bazaar equipped lvl 62 monk, I could kill them easily, and almost nonstop. They have a respawn time around 6 minutes, and there are quite a few around the tower. The only things to watch out for, are they are quite aggressive, and the witch that roams the area right to the south of the tower. She just took a little longer to kill, and managed to lower me around 20-30% of my health, so she might be quite tough to lower levels. Although the drop rate isn't as quick as in TS, there are a lot more of them, you can get some money while killing them, and, as I said, you don't have much waiting for respawns. Two people/groups could easily share the area.

[sprucecln]

I copied my original post from the thread titled "222+"

Skip to the end to read my opinion/suggestion.

BTW - Very second post here! = P



Shadowscream - what I do

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Hey,

Very first post here! 'Been using eqtraders for a few years and it is the best around.

Anyways, the choice to use shadowscream as my path to higher level smithing was initially based on cost. After studying this site for the recipes and allakhazam's for the logistics, I felt that I had a neverending farming adventure ahead of me.

I play three accounts and therefore my farming abilities are much better than solo. My characters, all lvl 60, are a Warrior, a Shaman and a Cleric. As you can see, I am set up fairly well for farming with those classes. No, the warrior does not own an Earthsaker. = (

I detest farming greens (doh, greys), worst kind of farming to do, but I knew it was necessary to a point. I also didn't want to base the majority of my play-time around farming non-stop.

I'll break down the components of farming I have done and tell you what I did to maximize both drops per hour and xp (Yes! XP!)

Shrieking/Wailing Substances:

I hadn't fought in Hollowshade very much prior to this tradeskill endeavor. I read quite a bit about "the war" and had a fairly good idea about how to manipulate it. It took an hour or two to understand how the war works and in what order to kill named, etc.

When I go there now and noone is farming, I am able to get the mobs I want on the southern island in 10-15 minutes. Switching races mid-farming takes 20-30 minutes maximum.

I am able to grind out about 40 shrieking/wailing substances in an hour, after the switch is made. I could probably do more if it weren't so boring, I was higher level and my weapons were better (on the warrior.) Warriors get a riposte /disc that works great with a 2h long delay weapon and rampage aa (which I don't have yet.) I plan to camp the kobold in Sol B for the "Baby Earthshaker" and test that out. The shaman buffs and his pet kills runners while the warrior loots. The cleric has a wonderful pb aoe that takes over half their life and often kills many at once (I tend to train at least the one big island/penninsula and often the surrounding islands when furious refreshes 30-60 mobs.)

I found the bears are easier beacuse they don't get sow'd.

I have done this in few hours-long sessions and realized that it isn't so bad. It's kinda fun actually. My skill raised from 222 to 237 in two tradeskill sessions and about 180 final (money) combines.

I have found that this is extremely efficient and am willing to share more details on how I do this. I am also willing to take advice as to how I can be more efficient with the current class setup.

Swirling Shadows:

Farming these are actually more boring and repetative than the shrieking/wailing substances. And, contrary to what many do, I farm these in Maidens Eye from Xi's. At level 60, most of them con light blue with the new con system. I am able get some xp while farming. Before the TSS patch, xp was weak from the XI's. Now, I can actually see the aa xp bar move on each kill (~1%.) I have camped at the UP zoneline for all of my farming sessions due to it's safety, but, I am considering moving to the spires nearby for shorter pulls and more mobs. I often get non-Xi adds but it's not a big deal. I get xp to farm for the cheapest smithing route to 267. A 62 or 63 player (can't remember) said most Xi's were green to him. I can't remember if this was before or after the TSS patch. I can check my insanely long logs (that I forgot to turn off!) to confirm this information.

An ancillary benefit to getting the tradeskill drops and xp are bazaar-sellable spells.

I haven't made note, but I probably get about 15+ shadows per hour. I'll keep track next time. The cleric can nuke nonstop with the new ooc regen so I expect that to effect the drops/hour. I would need to farm at least twice that amount per hour to move to a non-xp location. Any advice?

Now, this method of farming probably takes a fair amount of time longer to get the desired amount. The pros outwiegh the cons to me. It may not make sense at higher levels, which most are.

This is the cheapskate method. I do many other things besides farm for smithing. I do this in between doing many other things and started this route at level 55. I intend to stay at or very near my current level of 60 until this smithing route is complete.

I should write a book titled "The Cheapskate Method." On most of my recent characters that tradeskill heavily, I have factored tradeskills into levelling so I can get the most xp benefit possible. I have also used this playstyle in conjunction with tailoring.

Long post /salute

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Regarding a GoD path to smithing -

I have spent a lot of time in natimbi farming the uncommon tradeskill drops for the various tradeskills while xping in the 50's (3 talisman and 2 shell inlaid collars, to give an idea.) It is not a viable primary route to skilling up past 222. I use it as an extra method.

MCS -

I have cash for about 400 intial combines. Many of you know that 400 MCS-combines-worth of plat is not very much, relatively speaking. For me, this is not a viable primary route to skilling up past 222. I won't use it until I finish shadowscream, if at all. The current low price in the bazaar is 190. I saw that price a week or two ago, if memory serves. It leads me to believe they don't sell often on my server.

Great Reptile Teeth/DoN cultural -

Being an Iksar, I use GRT for master's armor. I have made and fully equipped my 60 warrior with Master's armor and augs. Let me tell you, farming 14+ GRT took forever! I actually used 20+ because I failed my final piece, the breastplate, two times in a row after spending only two hours to acquire the six teeth I needed for the combines. Talk about a RNG teaser. I was extremely lucky to have them drop so quickly, only to fail twice and be left in the same place as before, with the RNG laughing sadistically.

I kept a tally of mobs killed throughout the 20+ drops I received. A GRT drops about once every 25 kills. To clear all six crocs near the river before respawn equates to about one GRT per hour. The crocs spawn at about 15 minute intervals. I camped them for well over 20 hours in many sessions. I began to tally them after I had two drop much sooner than expected.

Iksar master's armor is not a viable tradeskill route. Other races use shissar scales as a component. From my experience camping entry-level shissars in SSRA, the drop rate of shissar scales makes DoN cultural a viable route past 222 for those races that use them.

Crushed diamond dust drops uncommonly from bulthars and possibly others in Siren's Grotto and I consider that also to be not viable post 222. If you know where they drop more often then in SG, please divulge. = )

Shadowsream -

I chose shadowscream armor as my primary skilling path post 222. The above post gives my method and essentially, my reasoning for using it.

According to some posts in this thread, it may be possible for me to farm shadows much faster than I am currently. Please let me know if you think it is possible considering my group setup. I'll reiterate - 60 warrior; 60 cleric; 60 shaman -Thanks

That's my take on it. "The Cheapskate Method" ftw

[Nolrog]

I did (am doing) ShadowScream. For me, I don't mind spending the time doing the farming, but don't have tons of money to spend for MCS.

MCS does tribute well, so it has some value.

[Ntuok]

Swirling Shadows

Not sure if this is the appropriate thread but here is a lil info i have experienced.

I killed a skelly in the NW section of Blightfire Moore (sp) and noticed it dropped swirling shadows.

I also have gotten 5 crushed diamond dust in blackfeather roost in about 4 hours of hunting there.
Ntuok

[Camulus]

Actually that, those skellies are in the NE section of Blightfire Moors and are triggered. There is a shade quest NPC, name eludes me atm, that you speak to, it is a 2 arc event. I did this at lvl 40 (Drakkin Ranger) with a little difficulty on the second arc. The whole point here is you will have anywhere from 6 to 10 wondering skellies in the center of the circle of stones for the first arc, all of them can drop the shadows and during the second arc you pull a skull from the bigger stones in the circle to spawn 2 more skellies. The event is up for an hour and you can continously kill, the skull's refresh every 7 or 8 min, and the center skellies respawn every 4 to 5 min, its can keep you pretty busy. In the 40 min I took to do the event by myself i yielded 23 shadows and that was killing only two more mobs then i need to to complete the quest. To boot you get a nice trap item that when triggerd will mez undead LOL.

Camulus

[caster66]

Two Skelly locs in Blightfire

There are two seperate skelly camps in Blightfire and both camps drop the swirling shadows. One camp is the Dark Tower in the corner of the map due north out of the Crescent Reach ZL in Blightfire. The other as mentioned above is the undead circle near the Goru Kar Mesa zoneline. I noticed that there was also another drop there at this camp that looked a lot like the swirling shadows but isn't. While both camps can drop them I had the best luck at the tower. I was also able to get the Runic and Fine Runic hides I needed for spell research on my chanter.

It is also important to note that the skellies in Shadeweaver also drop the shadows. I was working on the Shadowscream steel armors long before I was high enough to farm the shades in Twighlight and these were my primary source. They only drop one at a time so they ain't great but they work for sub 50s. On the plus side the skellies in Shadeweaver also drop Shadeling silk which can be used with LQ Hopper hides to make leather padding.

Lizath, 70 Beastlord, Quellious