There is community of EQ2 players who like to spend time working on what most might find insane, like working on the 10k kills of brownies to get the Destroyer achievement. An every growing number of players enjoy, like myself, working on their sets of collections.. the shiny hunters. They are the players who: spent way to much time solo farming shinies from earlier tier zones to complete old sets; paying stupid amounts of plat buying the shinies you put on the broker to finish our sets; working with any players doing the beastlord epic to let them tag along for the unique no trade shiny sets; and try to convince groups of guild mates to clear not so old raid zones to finish raid collection sets. Fabled Echoes of Faydwer in 2015 saw the shiny hunters nightmare begin with 4 tiers of meta sets to finish the available collections. Complete solo and heroic to see another (blue) tier, complete that tier to see another tier (green) and complete that tier to see another final tier (purple), each tier adding a piece to the final collection meta set. Combine that with each set having a rare and that you could only get the higher tiers in one of the 3 heroic fabled dungeons, and you had a lot of work to do. Thankfully there were reasons for people to do the three fabled heroic zones, including quests with currency. A later GU update "feature" that meant collection shinies popped on a trash kill in heroic/solo instances and you had a lot people happy again, completing all they could. GU100 with Scourge Keep heroic/solo reverted to shinies spawning with each named killed but at least no rares. Then GU101 and Fabled Fallen Dynasty. Again it was like the Fabled Echoes of Faydwer collection progression - sets with rares, as well as: 10 shiny sets each with a rare in the one solo instance and a nice meta reward in a final solo collection. 10 sets also in the one heroic, with a meta set on top, and then you can see a new tier (6 collections including meta), complete that tier to see a new tier (4 collections including meta), complete that final tier (2 collections) and with each meta and the last tier sets each adding a page to the final 6 pages of the Ancient Nizari Spells collection. At minimum, 184 shinies in 35 sets by my count (yes EQ2u says 34, but i can see at least one set for the timeline not showing as completed, when it has). The final meta set is not completed yet but a couple of dedicated players (not me) on two servers are getting close. I think my obsession is over. The designers combined some of the past collection features with this fabled collection timeline that made it a bit more of a block than usual for many shiny-hunters: The T2-T4 shinies drop in the ONE and only heroic instance; There is not as many reasons to complete this zone as there was with prior fabled heroic zones; The zone has trash at front door to be killed for the door to open, to even get into the zone and they returned to shinies spawning in this heroic instance on the kill of any named (all spawn); The shinies that spawn are around each named in the zone; and Set shiny locations like 1 heroic set in the end boss area.. requiring progression through the zone to get access behind the force shields. So to those dedicated teams of players working hard on the sets and those who groups who are by far the Best Of The Shiny hunters, good luck. I hope that the final reward is attractive enough and isn't left behind with just one more game update like the final Terrors of Thalumbra meta collection reward was. If its good enough, or the recent updates to zone loot means gear-progression, the zone may get some more action. Gelenor.
I Fixed that for ya Though seriously I don't see 6 real ppl coming together to finish this one either. The zone is a gigantic time sink unless your people are really high end. The gear isn't worth it either. So grats botters on having a shiney set just for you. I've heard through the grape vine one of the ppl plowing through it now utilizes this method. I find it kind of sad after the mass bannings this game is back to ignoring this element but at least we'll get to see the final reward this way!
I choose to look at it the other way around. The shiny grind *is* the reason to do the zone. Without it, if it was too easily completed, if it didn't require progression through the zone, or if they could all be brawler-flopped and flooded on the broker, nobody would run the zone at all. It'll be interesting to see what happens once the final item is discovered, if it turns out to not be worth the effort, I bet runs of the zone come to a complete stop, and everyone wanders off until the expansion launches. The final meta better be *spectacular*. If it's a charm with an 8 minute cast time, or a neck with just 100 more pot, we'll laugh, we'll cry, we'll strip off all our clothes and run naked into the forest to commune with the wildlife.
Learn to read better. I said the zone is a huge time sink without high end players and really not time efficient to try and finish that collection even with a static 6 person group where they all are needing on shinies. Botters are the ones that have progressed the quest far enough to start seeing the end of the tunnel at this point on the final collection.
That's just assumptions on your part (about bot teams). Guildie in my Guild duos (with his wife) in the zone until the shinies pop, then he collects them all on his Brawler. Then they change roles and do it again on different toons. Then they do it YET AGAIN on two different toons. He's discoed all the meta pieces so far, we're all pretty sure he'll be the one to disco the final reward in the very near future. So, it's not all bots...it's normal people. I'd venture to say that a team of bots would find this zone almost impossible to run through anyways, as it's new enough that scripts haven't been written for it, most likely.
So from what Gelnor has said above, we're back to having to constantly grind a zone to find several stages of hidden colored shinies. As someone who has done almost all of the collection quests, I just have a feeling I'm not going to be finishing this round out anytime soon. I'm with a group of 5 other folks, and we're grinding when we can, but I doubt the interest will last long...especially when it takes a long time to clear the zone. Nobody has time to do the whole zone each day like previous heroic zones. November is quickly approaching, and getting the same 6 people to go back and do old content to farm shinies in this zone will be impossible. I'll just have to wait until I get to level 110 and farm it with a merc one day....in a few years....that's if this game will still be around for a level cap of 110.
If they can duo even one name in there they must be in the top one percent of geared/skilled players and good for them. For the rest of the population actually obtaining the shines the way it was intended is unreasonable due to zone difficulty, number of shinies, and reset. Which then falls to clearing the zone with bots which I have heard is being done but can't confirm. Also if real ppl are duoing the barrier named to get into the final area, then I really am truly impressed
Do we know that shinies are related to the mob in question? I have not paid perfect attention, but I *swear* that any shiny collection seems to come from the spawn point near any mob. I swear I've seen the *same* shiny from two different nameds back to back. If so, you could get them all without dropping the barrier once. But to be sure, I'd have to go scan my logs, which I might do later. I'm just curious if anyone else is *sure* one way or another.
Speak for yourself, our guild clears the zone at least 3-4.times a week. I'd also love to add that we don't raid. You assume to much when it might just be that you're just not that good. Did nobody play when heroic lockouts were 18 hrs? Cry me a damn river. Place blame where it belongs, with you in case you're wondering.
No, they just spawn at named areas (random) including one spawn in the final named area behind the force fields, which can only be reached by progression through the named in zone. Duo killing a named to pop the shinies is impressive, but it is experienced and well geared Kindred players on Halls of Fate. The bruiser they have is collecting the sets to be able to see the new shinies once they have finished the 10 heroic starter sets (Seals of Vindicai). So that system works.. Ragada on Thurgadin is next, and into first tier of the hidden shinies with his six officers of Bunnies Cabal group. The one to watch is "Unknown" of Maj'Dul. Miles ahead of the pack, into the last tier with 4-5 shinies to finish the whole thing. So there are different ways to do this, its just harder than in the past. Rewards so far are a mixture of armour, stats wise about Master's Chosen level. Often 2 choices as reward but most of it is not heirloom (can trade), some of it even tagged as prestige. One collection offers Exceptional level infusers as a choice. If the final reward is a charm clicky in the Zek theme, I am sure we will hear the screams
My goodness the folks that post on these threads can be a waste of space. Again I say read better. We are not saying the zone can't be cleared. We are saying that its not worth clearing the zone and the time required just on the slim chance you might finish the collection by the end of year. 3-4x a week eh? And is any one person even close to completing the first visible set? If not then our point is made.
It might work until the first hidden set. Seems to me in the past the player that could see the hidden set had to be present for a name kill and couldn't be brought into the zone after the fact. do we know if its the same way in this zone? if so they may still be able to do it once every six but it will slow them down some.
Anyway, friend and I are the ones on Ungukerfrest (HOF I guess... ) that you guys were talking about. We've been doing shinies like this the past couple of expacs, and we've never run into an issue really. And yes, you can zone someone in who can see the different tiers to loot the blues/purples/greens etcs in the zone even if they weren't there for the kill. We would do that in fabled EOF, and maybe Rum Cellar. I forget. I doubt we'll be disco'ing much more, except for maybe different rewards, as the botters (and yes, they are botters, idc what they say really) on HOF have started running the zone. Friend and I are really only able to do it a lot during the weekends, as we work at different times, so botters will have the upper hand (cuz why wait for people if you have 6 "friends" to play with?). But whatever, it's something to do until more content comes out. I will agree that it's basically impractical to think 6 people would get this done, unless they had a plan from the get-go and consistently ran with the same 6 people every time. But even then, I seriously doubt it would be finished by 6 people before the next expac. There appears to only be one shiny left to disco on Maj, then we will see if it's even worth doing anymore. It's been a while since one of the collection rewards actually wow'd me.
Yes, we have two people who've finished the regular set and can now see blues and one of them is over halfway through blues. Sure, they bought some missing shines to finish and move on to the blues. Isn't that what the broker is for anyways?
I'm the exact type of player you are talking about. Trying to get 10k destroyer kills on everything and all the collection quests. The Airship Architect collection is driving me crazy. If I complete the last of my open collections, then I'll still be short like 2 or 3 collections from the server top.
