Is PoP flagging truly an intended bottleneck to the Artisan Aug?

Well I guess we may as well just give you your cookie then.

In the end I raised my skills from 0 to 250 and got half the mats done before getting the PoP flags finished, but did not get bottlenecked by the PoP flags. I can imagine that someone who already has their tradeskills up will be heavily bottlenecked though.

My recommendation to people is to work on their tradeskills and getting the mats together, and just check the spawns periodically throughout the day. Wake up, check them. Get home from work (or whatever), check them. Check them right before going to bed. Over several weeks this should result in you getting most of them. Keeper of Sorrows, Mithaniel Marr and Rallos Zek are the worst because it's easy to kill Maareq, the Decorin brothers etc before it's ready and before people get a chance to get notified and show up. Oh and please broadcast it for 15+ minutes when you see a boss. Even if nobody shows up it at least lets people paying attention know when it's killed so they know when it'll respawn again.

Now that I'm done with that stage, I stand by my previous recommendation of moving the spawns to eight hours. Enough to make it an event and have players seeking the Artisan's Prize to go get flagged, but not enough to be the focal point of the entire Artisan's Quest for many people.

He doesn't need a cookie, he'll have The Artisan's Prize.

Give the cookie to those who keep crying about flagging being impossible.

I've done it on a second toon now too. Started flagging him AFTER completing the progression on my main. It's so ridiculously easy it's laughable. Just takes time.

As I stated in another post it's clear that some people have much more time to waste so congrats on the flags because you can sit around a lot?

Your argument is anchored on the notion that people who put in time and energy to achieve something that requires time and energy are the idiots?

The Artisan's Prize. Yep, time well wasted. No need for congrats here, thanks though...


Don't be jelly.

I must ask...how is anything that is done to accomplish this aug a waste of anything?

I wouldn't go so far as idiots... but suckers? Yes, you are most definitely suckers.

But that's exactly my point. Those who want to put the time in, reap the reward (and may be considered suckers by some). Those who don't, don't.

Just tired of those who AREN'T willing to put the time in, complain about it.

Oh I'm not jelly. I have the aug to and I never called anyone an idiot I just stated how some people have a lot more time these days. When I was a kid this wouldn't even be a discussion but now it is.

Not everyone has the time to sit around in a 13 year old zone and wait for them to spawn. Its not really about choice.

I sit in zone for hours, my kid wakes up, change him, get him back to sleep, come back to find someone ran past me and killed it and projection has despawned.

I don't understand why some people are denigrating others that cannot spend 24/24 hours in the game staring at a screen to check the respawn time of a PoP God.
There is nothing to brag about these PoP flags. There is 0 skill involved in succeeding PoP flagging.
Just lame wasted time.

You don't have time to play the game as much as others. That's totally cool. Some people do have the time. And they reap the rewards.

What do you think this game would be like if every casual player out there could attain every single item, in the limited time they have to play, within a week or so if things coming out?

This game wouldn't exist, because everyone would be so bored of having nothing new to work towards, because everything was handed to them.

Also, there's NO need to sit and camp things for hours and hours and hours. As stated several times, work better with your server. Let people know when stuff is up. The demand for these mobs has already died down. It's much easier than it was. The second toon I flagged for this stuff was purely done from watching the server's "Popflag" chat and running to stuff when others said it was up. Didn't spend any time camping, and still got it done in a couple of weeks.

Then you're doing it wrong. There's no need to spend 24 hours a day to get these flags. Its been posted several times in this thread how to effectively and efficiently get this done. If you refuse to listen, then you're being denigrated for that, not your lack of free time.

It's still very much hit and miss when you're logged on. There is no challenge, skill nor effort test to the flagging. It's merely being online at the right time and hooking in to the right communication channels on your server. Tying old progression that was designed to throttle full raid forces which is now one-roundable is not good design. Yes, it's doable. No, it's not fun nor a constructive use of ones time in an entertainment activity.

I don't see getting flagged as any sort of badge of honor. It's more of shared sense of empathy for having gone through it (the spaghetti of hails is almost as bad as the spawn timers). This entire quest line is nothing more than trivial tedium. It's sad that the best aug in the game presents no actual achievement beyond time sinks.

/Shrug you may be right but this is an old game, lots of old content to re-explore, and lots of stuff needing to be re-done.

I don't think I'm going to convince anyone of anything with any new arguments. It's been hashed out.
Some feel it's too difficult, too time consuming, redundant, etc., others think that's part of the game, get on board or don't.

Agree to disagree at this point.

It's part of the game and those that want it, need to deal with it. It's not impossible nor out of reach of more casual people (just takes more weeks and some luck). My view, however, is that there really is no valid reason to defend it. It is what it is, but it's lazy design to include it.

You don't need to. What a ridiculous scenario you have set up.

If the difference were skill, or the ability to co-ordinate with large numbers of other players, then, yes, your point is valid.

But the required actions are trivial. The determining factor is how much time you can sit your in your chair, compared to others.

And it's not every item in the game. We're talking about one item. Actually, flagging, so that you can make an item, to get another item.

Yes but you, among others, are making it seem like this is some 18 month project for casual players. It's not. You don't need to camp the mobs for hundreds and hundreds of hours. You just plain-and-simply don't. Work with your server, and it may take you a bit of time.

Doesn't mean you have to quit your job, drop out of school, and become some reclusive, hermit, mom's basement gamer .

If you really and truly don't have the time to put into this, then honestly, you're probably too casual to achieve such an incredible, end-game item. Or if you don't WANT to put the time in, then good for you, you're just as entitled to NOT do it as everyone else is to spend the time.

I just keep loling the longer this goes on.