HQ Ore observations, suggestion for human smiths.

[Leewei]

After looking at http://www.eqtraders.com/secrets/inf...base_drops.htm, I decided to try hunting for ore to work smithing skill up (I can use Freeport recipes to cap smithing skill with determined Seafury camping).

I found that Highpass was by far the best drop rate of any of these for the HQ ore. By appearances, Solusek A goblins no longer drop any HQ ore -- only Fiery Ore or Unrefined Ore drops there now, or at least that is the case from roughly 50 goblins killed.

Likewise, Permafrost Caverns has abysmally low or even nonexistant drops. After completely clearing the king area, I found no ore drops whatsoever.

Runnyeye had no ore dropping from goblins. I did not try killing Sporali, however -- maybe they drop it?

Highpass certainly still has ore drops still, however the number of mobs is slim for farming big amounts of ore.



So, what is left for ore? Fine Steel seems too time-consuming. As long as I'm camping seafury cyclopes anyway, the fastest way to get ore appears to be not camping it at all, but rather farming cash as I gather mugs of sea foam and flat out buying the ore in Qeynos or other areas with the appropriate merchant.

Anyone else have suggestions?

[Cubwynn]

HQ ore does still drop in Perma and SolA, personally confirmed. It's just a little rarer now that the unrefined ore has entered the loot table.

Also, keep in mind you can break down Fine Steel weapons in HQ ore.

[KyrosKrane]

I'm currently levelling in Lower Guk (undead side), and it seems every other mob drops a fine steel weapon or a bronze piece of armor (3-4pp easy), not to mention decent cash and other drops. If you're too high-level or too bored to get exp there, have a chat with one of the AE faction groups in the deeper parts. They often leave the corpses to rot or destroy what's on them. You might be able to convince them to let you clean up after them.

[Hateborn]

As a 34 human warrior planning on smithing (my main on KB) I am intending to use HQ ore as far as possible. I have hunted in Sol A and can confirm that it drops, but rarely. Permafrost seemed as rare or worse - even though I didnt have to compete with Firey Ore.

But the main source of ore for me is gathering fine steel weapons - Sol A and Feerott have been good sources for me (my group can xp, collect useful items and I get ore) and there are always odds and ends of FS dropping around the place (we like killing giants too!). I convert to ore, then rings and am storing for a push.

I dabbled a toe in the Ornate chain water last night and got 2 skillups for 2 attempts (114 - 116) making mantles (1 success, 1 fail) - which was an upgrade from my banded!

As we can start camping Seafuries in a couple more levels I am currently intending to largely skip FS and go right to lower cultural for skill once I am done with Ornate chain and the occasional DeathSteel.

[Araon]

I tried the farming HQ ore route when I first began cultural smithing but found it was easier to farm plat, since you can choose from a wider variety of zones.

My one foray awhile back into Sol A got me a fair bit of HQ ore but the time spent (and occasional failed combine) converting it into HQ blocks was greater than any savings in plat. Did stumble across a piece of the cleric epic (Gimby's ring) thanks to a kindly fellow cleric, so it certainly wasn't a wasted trip

Saving my non-plat farming for the padding and the seafuries at this point.

[xaanru]

Try to get the gornit camp while you farm seafuries for sea foam. That way, you farm plat, sea foam, and FS weapons, all at once.

Last time I did that, with a melee partner (which gave me time to fish as well) I got enough sea foam and sea temper for about 20 tempers, and enough FS for about 5 sheets of HQ folded. Also had enough plat to buy the ore for the rest of my combines.