Was there a reason that other epic parts for other classes are dropping off random mobs, but staff is only dropping off phinny? Other than the kronolords, not sure who is enjoying the lack of staves.
Phinny is not random because there are no other raidmobs near his level. Hold true for his other drops as well.(Backbone and wizzy staff). At least the mage staff is tradeable. Wizzy and Bard are not =(
I think the other potential solution would simply be to increase his drop rate slightly. Where other mobs can drop 2 or 3 different loot tables on one kill, Phinny always just drops his standard quality and quantity of loot. If they don't want to add his stuff to other mobs, which I understand, then maybe just making him perform a little more like a Mischief raid mob would be enough?
We got a Robe of the Kedge off of Drusella Sathir. I guess that's from it dropping off of the rogue epic mobs in Kithicor?
Yeah, mage water staff is super suck now vs. all the other epic items. Seems like they should just add it to the hate mini list. I think part of the problem is the short amount of time spent in classic. Some of these items that had months of farming time in prior TLP's were condensed into a couple weeks of pre-epic farming. the prices will start relaxing considerably in the next week as everyone single/double groups phinny.
This mob also has its own aoc that pops you right on his door step. That's pretty good. They could double his loot then put you at the zone in and that would be 100x worse.
I don't think anyone here said anything about him being hard to kill. It's more the horrid drop rates.
Yes, Mage Epic has moved to the very top of the list for difficulty because of this. A 12 hour mob shouldn't have a 7 day AoC lockout timer. And he seems to be the ONLY one who drops Water staff too. Most people probably won't get mage epic until it becomes obsolete. It's unfortunate the staff is tradable because it's turned it into a Krono farm spot.
Basically 1 month of classic + not worth it for the big guilds to farm due to non random loot means that it's only killed by box groups who have not lowered the price from 9kr-10kr. They are available to people who want to spend the money, but most mages don't.
If that happens you get hate minis/fear golems on Phinnys loot table. Then you have the potential for all their valuable loot dropping off a mezzable 60k hp mob that pops every 6 hours. Not the same tier.
I mean.... minis in fear are somewhere in the 6-8 hour respawn with about 60k hps, so not that different. Can be 1 grouped easily AND spawn in picks..... so how rare/valuable is the golem loot anyway? Trak guts and scales are each available off a half dozen of more mobs at this point. Why not staves.
Because it would take a competent code monkey 30 minutes. Which means it would take EQ devs several hundred hours