On the rarity of Clockwork Gnome Bolts...

[Turrosh Mak]

After 5 hours of hunting the Creep Reapers (and the occasional Scuttlebucket PH and any other rat that annoyed me) I came away with:

21 Tiny Clockwork shafts
5 Small Clockwork shafts
8 Clockwork Gnome shafts
9 Clockwork pinion gears
7 Clockwork gears
10 Clockwork Gnome gears
8 Small Clockwork screws
8 Clockwork Gnome springs
2 Clockwork Gnome bolts

Now considering that you need the following to make 1 AAAA (no fails /snicker), the drop rate on Gnome Clockwork bolts is clearly out of whack.

1 x Small Clockwork Screws
1 x Clockwork Gear
2 x Clockwork Pinion Gear
2 x Clockwork Gnome Shaft
4 x Clockwork Gnome Bolts
2 x Clockwork Gnome Gear
1 x Clockwork Gnome Spring
9 x Tiny Clockwork Shaft
2 x Small Clockwork Shaft

I don't think it can be said that I am the victim of the RND. In this thread others have seen the bolts drop at 1/4 the rate as other items. You need twice as many bolts as the other items, why is the drop rate 1/4 less? All it does is increase the farm time 8 fold. Is this "working as intended"? Oops, /rant off.

Anyway, could someone bring this up at Fanfaire?

[Mukkul]

After a while you end up farming the camp JUST for clockwork gnome bolts, because their supply lags far behind the other parts which drop there.

[Turrosh Mak]

Another 2.5 hours of hunting the Creep Reapers and I came away with:

12 Tiny Clockwork shafts
5 Small Clockwork shafts
3 Clockwork Gnome shafts
8 Clockwork pinion gears
2 Clockwork gears
5 Clockwork Gnome gears
8 Small Clockwork screws
4 Clockwork Gnome springs
0 Clockwork Gnome bolts

I also killed Creeper 3 times, Vernon 1 time, and Skuttlebucket 1 time. So basically the NAMED MOBS are more common than bolts. Wow... just... wow...

[Aryse Andenter]

I spent 6 hours on reapers once without getting a single Clockwork Gnome Bolt. You try chasing other people away from your Reaper camp for 6 hours straight and then get nothing for it (you have to be sooooo alert to keep people from kill/camp stealing there). Another time after camping them for a bit I counted up my results, and had enough of all other parts to make 4 AAAA and only enough of the CGB to make one. There is definately a disparity in the drop rate.

[Qualan]

rarity is one way to control influx of items into the game

also it makes a semi decent chance for the tinkers to make some pp.

and tbh- i have more issues with the shadowmane pelts than with bolts to mass produce the aaaa

then again, i tend to now buy the ingredients instead of farm em myself

on the bought ingredients i get far more bolts than pelts. Also bolts are a lot streakier in droprate than most othe pieces. I did plenty of combines for people who spent 3 hours to farm all the bolts they needed

[Turrosh Mak]

rarity is one way to control influx of items into the game

also it makes a semi decent chance for the tinkers to make some pp.

and tbh- i have more issues with the shadowmane pelts than with bolts to mass produce the aaaa

then again, i tend to now buy the ingredients instead of farm em myself

on the bought ingredients i get far more bolts than pelts. Also bolts are a lot streakier in droprate than most othe pieces. I did plenty of combines for people who spent 3 hours to farm all the bolts they needed

Lets take this point by point:

1. Rarity is one way to control influx of items into the game.

There is already a control on the influx of items, its called the drop rate off the RAID MOB!!!! Why should the influx of lastblood/bazu/discordant/chronal augs be controlled by green and light blue mobs in CC? In my own guild, we have 8 bazu stones rotting in member's banks, waiting on bolts.

2. Also it makes a semi decent chance for the tinkers to make some pp.

How many times have you heard (or thought to yourself) "Wow, this AAAA was so hard to make there is no way I'd waste it on anything less than a Bazu stone". We are really discussing two economic theories. Either have AAAA drops abundant, thus making AAAA available in quantity to sell for a reasonable price, or sell a few and charge prices that make your customer hate your guts, and result in alot of unmade chronal, discordant and bazu augs.

3. and tbh- i have more issues with the shadowmane pelts than with bolts to mass produce the aaaa

Hardly surprising because shadowmane pelts drop off higher level mobs.

4. on the bought ingredients i get far more bolts than pelts. Also bolts are a lot streakier in droprate than most othe pieces. I did plenty of combines for people who spent 3 hours to farm all the bolts they needed

I would like to see hard data like I provided. Hearsay that "so-and-so" got them in 3 hours isn't reliable.

[Qualan]

Neither is your hard data

it is easy to produce any "evidence online"


My hearsay was good enough for me as the person in question was farming and sending me the tells cause i warned about the droprate.

Your evidence is good enough for you cause you know you collected it.

Now you doubt my hearsay cause you cant prove it. If i provide "hard" evidence- you still can't prove it. Just the fact i went thru effort to make a list doesn't mean the list is reliable.


To be perfectly honest: I am sick and tired of the recent trend of complaints and requests for gimping. Seems everyone want it easier and faster. Trophee quests suck cause you can't finish em in a night, aaaa are crappy cause you need to farm for 2 days if you have some bad luck, spells are too hard to get cause it doesnt drop where the people hunt and the list goes on and on.

It seems to me that most of these people belong in wow not in eq. The more eq caters to this crowd, the more old eq players will sign out due to the gimp effect.

[Turrosh Mak]

No Message, thought better of it

[Kahmon]

Most recipes have parts that are harder to get then others. In the case of AAAAs the bolts are one of the harder parts.

[Mukkul]

Most recipes have parts that are harder to get then others. In the case of AAAAs the bolts are one of the harder parts.

It was already stated in the beginning of the thread that the bolts drop rate is way out of proportion in relation to the other parts from the same camp. They are not any "harder", so not sure what your point is. Items with a different drop rate would best come from a different camp, as the shadowmane pelts and the steel and the stones do.

And Qualan, on this site we rely on each others hard data all the time and we thank them for sharing it. We do not tell our fellow tradeskillers to go play WoW. {snip}

[Tudani]

Keep it clean and watch the personal attacks guys. I'm leaving this thread open for now so please don't make me close it later.

[tuis]

Already been mentioned before but the real bottleneck is already in place - the stones required to make the final product. A drop from greens and light blues should not be the bottleneck. The whole line of combines has enough speedbumps as it is: dreadspire gargoyle dust for ink, sporali skin for parchments, shadowmane pelts for bundles, innovative clockwork gears, not to mention the grinding of turning ore into a certain size to turn into steel to turn into blocks to turn into sheets to turn into various other parts.

I have enough screws to make 100 AAAA, but bolts? Heh.

[Ngreth Thergn]

The Bolts are not rarer than we want them to be.

[Chip194]

Agreed, I prefer the bolts as rare as they are.

Go Toes!

[tuis]

Sadists.