Hollowshade war automatic now?

[Cerridanae Nytesoul]

I just picked smithing back up, after dropping all tradeskills for a while, following complete tradeskill burnout after the PoTC craze.

I've decided to start working on the Aid Grimel quests (yes, I am apparently completely insane), so was farming Shadowscream armor components the other morning for about 6 hours. Now, I quit smithing before needing to work Shadowscream armor, so I never had to do the Hollowshade war before, and was nervous about screwing it up.

However...it doesn't seem to need to be changed over anymore. For the 6 hours I was there farming, the owls and wolves fought and won the war automatically, switching every few hours, with NO grimlings spawning on the islands or (by zone announcement) participating in the war at all. (I do not know if there even WERE any grimlings in the zone, I didn't bother to check). There couldn't have been anyone triggering the wars themselves, since there were only 3 people in the zone at any given time, and NONE of them were killing nameds, 2 were farming and one was exping in a corner somewhere. (unless I'm misunderstanding how to begin the fight to change control of the islands, you need to kill the nameds to trigger it?)

Is this a new change? I checked the news page and went back thru about 3-4 pages in this forum, but didn't see any news/posts to this effect. This was on Fennin Ro, for reference.

If this is true, and a permanent change, congratulations to the smithers out there trying to skill up, as this seems it would make farming components FAR easier. (hope this isn't a bug and I'm being premature about my happiness regarding this change)

[Perseverence Rewarded]

It is not a bug. It is finally fixed. All attacks are automatic but can be triggered. If the whole zone is owned by one mob the small merchant fort will be overrun by that mob. Go inside it and kill the named "Prince" and it will reset the zone to its beginning point. Lots of smiths on Quellious having the time of their lives here.

[Mahlig]

I was farming the South island and there was a zonewide announcement that the leader of the wolves was killed and the south island was reset to grimlings while they waited for a new wolf to arise. I found this odd since I was the only one in the zone. It does auto reset once it a while, it appears.

[Kradlum]

As a smith, the best thing to do once the zone is reset is kill the grimling chief and wait for one of the other sides to attack, then kill the defenders. Once that is done the war will go on automatically while you farm either substance.

Once one side has 2 of the camps, it doesn't spawn defenders when it is attacked, so the attackers always win. If a side only has one camp, defenders always spawn, so as long as no-one else is messing with the war you should be able to farm away happily.

[Svigermor]

I had the great fortune of being with a high level bard farming. Had one warrior running around grabbing all the mobs he could, running to bard that had AOE slow/dot running and I had the sole job of looting

5 stacks of substance in notime. And those mobs repop very fast.

I am sure a good 50+ wizard would do wonders there too as long as someone else gathers the crowd.

A little slower getting the swirling shadows, but I do farm them with my lvl 41 pally in Twilight - slower going but he gets decent xp off the shadows, even grouped with my lvl 59 main.

[Ryonas]

I am sure a good 50+ wizard would do wonders there too as long as someone else gathers the crowd.

Hehe, a good Wizard doesn't NEED anyone else to pull this. It's a little harder to do solo, as you are interrupted a lot. But your PBAoE goes off eventually, then all that is left to do is loot bags full of substances. =)

I usually get a BoA/Virtue just to be safe, and always have my Epic rune up. Easy as pie. =)

[Grimsoul]

Is there a way to force a faction shift?
I killed the gimlings and the owlbears took the camp after getting a few stacks of the wailing substance I would like to have the wolves take over and farm them. What would I need to do to force this if I even can
I've been seeing messages about the owlbears and wolves taking turns controlling the caves but havn't had them come down to take over the islands while I was on.

[Stugein]

When one faction is in control of the main camp, there should be a named member of that faction standing around somewhere in one of that faction's camps. Killing the named (leader) spawn prompts one of the other factions to attack and take over the camp. So for example if the owlbears have control and you want the wolves to sweep in, kill Named_Owlbear_01 to cause a power shift. Continue until you get the group that you want at the camp.

[Grimsoul]

Thanks for the reply, I'll look around the camp and see if I can find the named one. He must spawn in a different spot than the grimling chief was in. I figured he would be in the same spot.

[Liwsa]

Grim he does spawn on the same spot as grim chief

[Anjar]

Are you sure, Liwsa? I've been farming this zone the last couple of days and playing a bit with the war. The Grimling Chieftain spawns on the south wall of the zone, but when he's not up and owlbears are, there is no named in that spot. I tried killing the Owlbear there just in case and got nothing as a result. I suspect that the bosses for both sonic wolves and owlbears spawn in different locations, though I'm not sure just where ATM.

[Kieroth_whiteleaf]

I killed sonic wolves for a couple hours in the NW corner of the zone, they had the cave, and I didn't get a single substance pop.

Am I just exceptionally unlucky or is that a bug or am I doing something wrong? Previously it seemed like I could get a substance every 8-10 kills or so.

SFG

[Grimsoul]

I killed sonic wolves for a couple hours in the NW corner of the zone, they had the cave, and I didn't get a single substance pop.

For the best farming of substance you need to get the wolves or owlbears to take over the southern islands where the Grimmlings are

I killed the chief again today and the owlbears moved in again. I spent a few hours killing the owl spawn where the chief was and it didn't bring the wolves over. If that is the way it's suppose to work maybe it's just broke on my server. I play on Test so it's possible.

I sure need the wolves to move into the islands tho. Have over 100 wailing substance and need the skrieking substance now.

[BuilderOfCastles]

Some More Information

There are lots of posibilities in this zone now, including, that one faction wins all by itself; no help from outsiders.

Now there are 6 named spawn points. (1 is under the bridge)
This is a spot where a named may spawn.
The most well know is where the grimling chieftan spawns, south of
the south islands. Of all of the possible spawns, (each faction at each
point), the grimling chieftan is the only one who spawns every time.
All other named have place holders. Kill place holder til named spawns.
Killing named causes an attack.

An interesting phenomenon nobody has brought up yet, is that sometimes
when a faction with 1 corner (i.e. wolves in the east) attacks a faction
with 2 corners (i.e. owls in the north and south) no defenders will spawn
and the attackers (wolves) will just walk in there. The emote for this is
"The owlbears are stretched out too far and cannot defend" (or some such)

Also to note, the spawn timers on the south islands have been cut in half.
Before, I could keep 2 camps clear, running back and forth, now I just stay
in 1 and continuously kill.

So all you trade skillers, kill the grimlings off...
1) Because the grimling chieftan is always up
2) You are only left with owls and wolves
3) The owls and wolves will trade off on there own
4) Because grimlings don't drop substances :-P