Shadowscream 188 to 195 experience

[Liwsa]

Drops of shreaking substance from wolves is much less then wailing substance from owls. In a set of 20 might get 3-4 shreaking but will get 6-7 wailing. Also wolves have casters Owlbears do not.

[Reflan]

Luck holding true.

Switched after 209 to sickles to 215. That took another 200 combines. Then had a run of 140 sickle combines without a skill-up, which was not just going broke, but going broke for no reason. Switched back to shadowscream and did 63 shadowscream combines. STILL at 215. So I've done 203 combines at skill level 215 so far.

Wisdom (maxed) at 305, KEI on, geerlok in hand.

So far, from 188 to 215, if my numbers are correct, it's been 1155 combines. 42.77 combines per skill up.

Every time someone talks about 20 combines per skill up I want to slam my head into the wall. But by pursuing smithing, I guess I'm already doing it.

[Kradlum]

My experience was that some days the wolves dropped more than the owlbears, others it was the other way around. The one thing I found was that the owlbears were more likely to be in control of the South, so I got more of their substances. I think this is because whenever I have killed the Grimling chief, the owlbears have always been the first to attack. I don't recall the wolves ever attacking first.

I always farmed the 2 hut island in the far south east. There are only 4 possible casters there when the wolves have control, so I would always split them so only one would be up at once and would not be able to SoW/heal his fellows. If I was quick enough to clear the island, the mobs around the edge of the adjacent bit were within easy bow range.

[Slippyblade]

Reflan, the mention of 20 combines per skill up is an average of 1 - 250. Remember back in the lower numbers when you would get 4-7 skill up per stack? Well those successes are what are scewing the results.

[Silound]

I am lately finding myself to think that either the drop rate or the difficulty of wolves needs to be examined. Regardless of ac, wolves still hit for a rediculous amount, and the rate IS slower. I suggest simply knocking the melee capabilities of hte wolves, keep the drop rate lower so there is still some bottleneck in SS, that way someone couldn't just go gung ho and hit 200 isn smithing on orbs and SS alone (God help the fool who tries that, and his eyes and wrists)

Silound
Minstrel of Prexus

[Slippyblade]

And also wolves run fast! I am a poor melee that can't AE farm and so kill one at a time and chasing those buggers is a pain! I frequently just sit down till they run back to me.

[Reflan]

Slippy, my impression is that you are quite wrong about that.

I've seen endless numbers of people writing here about their successes and difficulties specifically at high level. And quite a few people have drawn up little lists of how many clicks they took to get through high level trades, and handily summarized their results, including the average combines per skill up. Not infrequently, people really do get 20 combines per skill up at very high tradeskill levels, or something close.

Monual's smithing guide on this site estimated 1000 shadowscream combines to get from fine steel at 188 to 250 skill. I put in close to that amount, 952 combines, merely to get to 209 from 188. The gap between 209 smithing and 250 is definitely enormous.

So the variation I've seen from an oft-expressed normative number of 20 combines per skill-up is a significant one.

[Gonan]

My 2 cp

Total combines from 194 to 250 was 942 for me. Bottle neck of 373 combines from 212 to 220. Longest number of combines without leveling was 94. Did shadow scream from 216 to 250 with about 35 imbued field plate, 20 heraldic, 10 acrylia plate and 650 SS.
My opinion is that shrieking substances drop a little less than wailing, but don't have number to back it up.