Stonewood Bow Staff and Plane of War Progression

This is evercamp at it's worst. I cannot imagine what was going through the minds of the powers that be when someone suggested this. The staffs drop maybe 20% of the kills, 12 spawns if I remember correctly and around 500 people wanting this in the next week or so. That doesn't even account for the other drops, the vines and steel. This is obscene.

I am at 30 kills with no staffs

Steel was the easiest part in that zone to get. vines are uncommon and of course the staff is the rarest of the bunch. Stonewood sap dropped at least twice as much as the staff but isn't needed to make the bow go figure. Biggest camp for tree's at zi although theres tree's all over the zone just not in bunches.

Andarriel

It may not make sense lore wise, but would be at better than throttling access through a funnel of 12 mobs in one zone with a 2-3% drop rate.

I don't think many object to the low drop rate - but the fact that is drops from so few mobs sets up a wonderful situation for KSing and frayed tempers. If it was, say, a 2-3 pct drop rate from mobs in PoW - even with the reputed low exp there - I don't think most would mind. They could at least kill mobs to try and get it, as opposed to just sitting waiting for respawns.

Gee - what other design decisions can SOE make encourager inter-player conflict?

This is not quite my cup of tea. Guess I will have fun playing around in the Field of Blood.

I can see them sitting around going. They always complain they finish the content to fast so lets make it take days just to get into the content with your 2 groups you need to kill a named that will make the content last longer.

Magelo lists drop rate as 2-3pct.

So theoretically we can expect ~20 bow staffs to drop every day, if all appropriate mobs are insta-killed 24/7.

You were unprepared for new content.
Plain and simple.

You can complain about all the other unprepared players farming the same mats....
...Or you could take some accountability for your actions.
This content has been released on test. You had access to the quest, and the bow being a requirement for more than a week.

I personally farmed up bow staffs this whole weekend, and am currently making a killing on all the unprepared players. Bows have been flying off the shelf at 400k all morning.

Congratulations sony after 10 years you finally did me in. Including a super rare drop necessary to enjoy the new zone has pushed me over the limit. I have canceled all three of my accounts i do not have time for this nonsense. I was paying you for enjoyment not for wasting my time.

EQ is bringing out the pure EVIL in me. I am sniping your trees and IT FEELS GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!

CIHYS?

Hmm, so give me a 'like' if you, like myself, don't even plan on entering plane of war in the immediate future (or more specifically getting to the point where you need this item).

Will let it die down a bit first before I start worrying about needing this.

Yep.. I think I'll enter when CotF T2 comes out.

I love things like this. It's like old EQ. When you finally get it done you get that sense of accomplishment, it forces you to interact with people (the good and bad, but potentially meeting new friends), and encourages gameplay. Tradeskills, trading, selling, buying, etc. Maybe if your're a tinkerer, going to PoE and offering already made components for a staff would work or whatever. Anything, really, would be more productive than whining how hard it is.

Not trying to be mean, but the person threatening to cancel 3 accounts over this is making me laugh. You play enough to pay for 3 accounts, but are quitting over a level 65 drop for a zone that isn't even necessary for progressing through the game? Give me a break, lol. "Enjoying the new zone" should include the work/accomplishments done to get to it.

No one "suggested this", I'll wager.
I'll bet this yet another case of something getting rolled out without thought or testing.
I'll bet that having that Bow was some archaic requirement "left over" from old PoP code.
And I'll further bet - that no one thought to revisit the issue before pushing it out the door.
Regardless. The reality is that once again SOE has (mis)managed to take a "good thing" like a new zone and turn it into yet another PR nightmare. (and this way too soon after the HA drops fiasco)
I don't know why I still get amazed even........... (sigh)
-Rat

Or you can be like me and wait for content to be released instead of "cheating" and learning everything prior to the actual release. It's not a matter of being prepared, its a matter of stupidity on SoE's part of making a 5% drop rate item max that drop from a grand total of 12 mobs. It's just a pointless bottleneck to a zone that was so hyped up for months. It's one thing to make progression difficult, its another to force players to perma camp grey con mobs for a drop to make a bow that was completely irrelevant, minus tribute points until today.

There you go. Didn't take even half a day before the entitled people started the 'Gimme everything RIGHT NOW or I cancel all my accounts!!' hysterics. Of course it's all totally true about 10 years and 3 gold accounts.

As I've been saying, there is no way SOE can make hard content anymore. After you told "the 1%" to basically bug off and declared that you are now focusing on content for these people, you have to make all content cheesy easy, and easier with each release too. There is no way they are spending hours to achieve anything. Either you give them the Easy button, or they quit and cancel their accounts. Everything should be achievable within 2 hr, or else.

the bow is only needed for the 1st locked areas
Flagging for the Field of Strife and The Mines of Narikor

I don't think it was intentional to to bottleneck the only thing they've had to offer us in months.
But the other option isn't really much better. In fact it's worse in some ways - as it seems systemic of late.
-R

Like the majority of players I don't play on Test. I was not aware of this requirement for Plane of War progression. I was hoping to run some guild events in Plane of War, but that will not be practical.

As a guild leader, I will stick to content that is more inclusive, and give the 15th anniversary Plane of War a miss.