Disappearing supplies

[Catweazel]

I have a question about the slowly disappearing supplies for some staple tinkered items.

The items in question include Raw Infused Dark Matter and its lesser cousin Raw Dark Matter from GoD zones

Various glowrocks/stones and gems from DODH zones

There are probably others.

With the ghost like nature of GoD zones and the rapidly declining popularity of DODH missions these supplies are far lower than original designs I am sure.

I am not averse to camping zones like Riwwi or Undershore and it will certainly become easier at level 80, but the drop rate for these items which are required for commonly used tinkered items now seem out of whack based on how often mobs in these zones are killed.

Does anyone else notice the same problem?

[Druegar]

Oh yes! But I have no solution to offer...

[Aldier]

This is not a problem for just tinkering. Look at the prices from MDS and GDH. As expansions become dated, the influx of supplies for tradeskillers from those expansions dwindle. The solution is to get a group and go farm them, or go solo and farm them if you can OR old drops are added to new content. I think with SoF and the amount of clockwork type mobs supposedly coming, it could be possible for Glowrock/stone/gem to be on them as well.

I have seen, in the last 3 months, 1 time someone was selling Taelosian Mountain Wheat Flour, and they had 1. Most of the time, you can find the glowrock/stone/gem on vendors in and around PoK/Bazaar though, at least I do. It just takes patience. Another option for the high end GoD stuff is try and find if anyone on your server is going through old raid progressions and in that content or if anyone solos in those zones (vxed I think is still solid solo exp) and see if they can collect them for you. If you are in a guild, let them know what you are looking for and see if they can help you at least keep an eye out for you or have any stored on some alt from when they did that content.

[Gaell Stormracer]

At least in the case of the DoN cultural drops, we DO know the answer is imminent. But the Infused dark matter only comes from locked zones - KT and later -- for which people have fewer and fewer reasons to visit -- generally, only those people doing Epic 1.5/2.0 things remain, and even those may well be obsolete in SoF.

[Gorse]

In general I find that farming supplies is always the way to go, rather than trying to rely on the bazaar to meet my needs.

At least in the case of the DoN cultural drops, we DO know the answer is imminent. But the Infused dark matter only comes from locked zones - KT and later -- for which people have fewer and fewer reasons to visit -- generally, only those people doing Epic 1.5/2.0 things remain, and even those may well be obsolete in SoF.

While you cannot just zone into Kod'Taz, all that is required is a single run through Tipt, which can be completed in a couple hours and without a full group these days. And after that single run you are flagged for KT.



Gorse

[KyrosKrane]

Look for people who are doing the BiC quest as well. Those folks have a number of events in Kod'Taz and Ikkinz, which while easy enough nowadays, still go quicker with a group (or in some cases, three). They will likely help you get your KT flag (from winning a Tipt) if you help them with their events in the zone.

[Bobaten]

I just did Tipt for my bot the other day, a couple hours is way overestimating.

[Catweazel]

I should have stated my concern a little more clearly:

Raw Infused Dark Matter is required to recharge two very common tinkered items, the invis and lev devices. Unlike Mana batteries which can be vendor purchased (or player made), Infused Dark Matter can only be obtained from mob drops.

As the mobs are now killed with far less frequency than originally intended, recharging these popular devices will become more expensive/difficult.

Two Tipt runs netted 3 raw infused dark matter. Even on raids into KT instances and Qvic where many mobs were slaughtered, a nights killing would result in less than 5 drops on average.

I am not disputing that they drop or that they can be obtained, however, no-one is going to set up a group for that purpose, and more and more, the reason to go to any of these zones where the material drops is rare to say the least.

It would be extremely disappointing if drop rates could neither be increased or added to existing populated zones as I am sure the original design intent was not to have Raw Infused Dark Matter available in such miniscule amounts. They are not on a skill up path and they are surely not intended to be a road block for the many owners of invis and lev tinkered items.

There are other "needed" items for tinkering recipes that might eventually fall into the same category (like glowrocks etc.) that might need to be addressed in the future, however my concern today is specifically Raw Infused Dark Matter.

[Aldier]

Honestly, I think that is why the half charged options from vendor batteries is available. If you really need to get those other 5 charges, then you will go and farm the dark matter. It is probably easier and cheaper to just put 5 charges on it and use potions if you need more than that or carry batteries with you to recharge.

[Catweazel]

Honestly, I think that is why the half charged options from vendor batteries is available.

Then perhaps the Levitation device can be changed to accept mana battery class 5's then? Right now it only accepts dark matter (although I have to admit I never tried recharging it with anything else).

[Bobaten]

This isn't actually any thing new for the lev device though. It's a PoR era recipe, and infused dark matter isn't really any rarer today than it was a year ago when this recipe was introduced.

A night's killing resulting in only 5 dark matter, still translates to 300 charges of levitation. I don't see it as that rare, I am still able to buy it in the bazaar and convert it to class 6 mana batteries to sell at a profit. Less profit than I used to be able to make, but still profit.

[Rinikku]

I know my cleric has an invis gnome device... and I know she has charged it with a mana battery (i believe it was class 5) and gotten 5 charges of invis off of it... I didn't know there was another option. LOL. Hubby is a gnome and told me how to recharge it.

[Aldier]

Check for the recipe to make the FULLY charged device instead of the HALF charged device.

[greblhad]

This is not a problem for just tinkering. Look at the prices from MDS and GDH. As expansions become dated, the influx of supplies for tradeskillers from those expansions dwindle.

Actually, its not just a problem with tradeskilling. Its a problem with EQ in general. As expansions age it becomes more and more difficult to find items, complete tasks, missions, quests and progression. The advent of instances with 3 person requirements makes it even more difficult.

[Wyvernwill]

Instancing has nothing to do with the fact that there are less and less GDH and MDS available.

The reason is as simple as "Why farm something if in a month, if you haven't moved it... it's now 2pp vendor trash?"

People that farm stuff for cash generally will not waste their time farming those anymore. Instancing was far from a problem as until the patch messages started stating deadlines to when recipes are changing... the bazaar generally had 10-20 floating around constantly.