Auto-mentoring - Contested Bosses

MrWolfie wrote:

I actually said as much about 5 posts back.
However, whos to say its not those that are having a hard time with mobs that are having experiances that different from the rest of us? Whos to say that they have the same expectations of what it should take to spawn these mobs as the rest of us do?
I mean, if I get a single named spawn 9 times in a matter of a few hours, I am inclined to believe that the spawn is not at all too long. This leads me to believe that anyone that IS having trouble getting this named to spawn is either doing something wrong, or is unlucky.
Bad luck is not something that needs a coder in order to have it fix.

oh, the contested epics in the KoS zones would be nice. I've only ever seen the 3 princes up ONCE in BS ever.
the scions in stormhold would be good too. i've never got that quest finished on any toon!

several of the named in the claymore questline are just ridiculous timesinks. i remember there being one you don't even need to kill, just talk to and it took some people up to 8 hours to spawn... "stormy weather" or somesuch name.

Noaani wrote:

MrWolfie wrote:

Logically, if there's no such thing as "bad luck" in this context, then there's also no such thing as "good luck", because "the game gives you what the developer wanted you to get."
If that's the case, it also means there's nothing the devs intended to do that is "broken", either.

MrWolfie wrote:

I didn't forget anything, I was mearly pointing out the other possibility. Fact is, I've killed that particular mob a good number of times, and it has a rediculously high spawn rate in comparison to the respawn on the ring event.
The fact that this is still a plat farming spot for a lot of people means it can't be too bad a spawn rate.

There is such a thing as bad luck. Ask Rijacki about bad luck with RNGs in MMOs some time.
Fact is, the RNG is random. There is a possibility that someone could go through 100 sets of placeholders on a mob that has a 25% spawn rate. There is nothing in the code to prevent this. The very fact that so many people seem to have so many different mobs that they have had trouble with says to me either they are doing someting wrong (as is probably the case with the mob in Silent City), or they simply had a run of bad luck.
The only mobs in the game that have a good number of people actually complaining about them are the HQ mobs in CT, and this is largly due to the need to camp four individual mobs at the same time, making it seem like it takes longer than it actually does. If there was an actual issue with specific mobs, there would be a large number of people complaining about them, rather than a single person.
The only real exception to that is for mobs that are either so rare or so out of the way that many people simply do not know the exist. That is mostly what the list I posted is made up of, with Fire Toad being the only exception.

I would totally love to see the named icegill goblin in everfrost lowered to something more reasonable, I've been waiting to finish the hq in that zone for an age and no matter how many times you kill the surrounding mobs, he doesnt spawn!

Noaani wrote:

I've been playing on & off since July '04, & the only one of those mobs I've ever even heard of is Fire Toad. OTOH, I'd not thought of Fire Toad as being a "rare" spawn, because it seems to be up at least half the time I go to LS.
Anyhoo, thanx for the list. Now I've got things to plan for when self-mentoring comes around

BLOODTALON!!!!
I have played since launch, and I swear, he is the most annoying mob to spawn in the entire game. Sometimes you kill one majestic and he pops, other times it's hours and hours. I recall all the old rumors out there on how to spawn him none of which h work consistently.
I helped a few baby guildy toons recently, and it took us over three hours to spawn Bloodtalon. Not good for a low level HQ.

Spectre of Ire in Crypt of Betrayal for Restoring Ghoulbane quest was one major bottleneck for me. I had to return around 4 times killing the place holders over and over and over and I couldn't get the mob to pop. Heck, I think it took me less time to get my mythical epic than to get Ghoulbane. And to think back in EQ, some kind soul just handed me a Ghoulbane when I first created my character.

Well a first pass over ALL old-world heritage quests should get you a TON of things that need adjustment, but here's a few specifically that are particularly bad:
An Eye for Power: Where do you start with this one? All of the shards should have a static spawn, and be "clicky" so that multiple people questing together can all just "get" them. Right now, they're rare spawns, varied locations, and NOT always up. And then when you get past that, you have the 3 named you need to kill that are speculative spawns from ring events. They are called Bloodrage, Master Webclaw, and Chieftain Iceburn. I've spent literally more than two HOURS camping Bloodrage on BOTH spawn points before I got him. And then I had to do it again for another character. VERY bad. All of those things should either update from placeholder (and have the placeholder guaranteed to spawn as well, as even that doesn't happen necessarily), or the named should always be up.
A Strange Black Rock: This one is bad because of the Tome of Life and Tome of Death in the Ruins of Varsoon. They HAVE placeholders which don't update the quest. Basically all you need to do to fix this is make the placeholders also update it (just like you do for the Claymore Questline), as the spawn time is reasonable otherwise. Related (but not for this quest) in RoV are the 3 named for the access quest for varsoon's chamber that you don't need to do anymore. They're virtually never up.
Foomby's Stolen Goods: Chomper in EL. As has been mentioned already, there's placeholders that don't update it. Can be a long camp.
Restoring Ghoulbane: The Spectre of Ire in CoB and The Creator in RoV. Both not necessarily up, with possible long camps.
The Lost Legend of Lavastorm: The 8 rare rocks update is totally unreasonable for rare drop rate (At least it used to be prior to re-vamp of the zone, I haven't done it afterwards).
Berik's Revenge: This is a sub-quest for the Bone-Bladed Claymore quest, that comes off of a rare drop in Stormhold. There should be a more reliable way to get the starter for this, rather than killing, as that can be super-tedious.
The Stein of Moggok: It Can Be Rebuilt: For this quest, the 4 bouncers should be always up, as I don't think their placeholders count for the quest. In addition, the "running" bouncer (Bouncer Prud) should have a circuit, and not spawn and de-spawn.
I think that's a good start.

Eriol wrote:

I agree with this entire post. And naonii or whatever your name is, please respect other people's posts on nameds and not think that your list is the ONLY list that matters.

I've done name hunting, and spawn camping on several toons, and here is my experience...
Thank you very very much for the ph updates in some zones, like PoA and SoS. While not getting named every time, the updates are nice.
Thank you for increasing the spawn times on a lot of heritage names, like Chomper and the names in Everfrost. While Webclaw can be a little long, the others are well within limits.
The BAD:
The names for Screaming Mace. Out of all 5 toons I've done this quest on, only 3 have finished and WAY after it greyed out. The Cenobite and Champion come to mind as the absolute worst.
Sentry Goorlux is crazy rare. I've finished this heritage on 3 toons, and only one while it was level appropriate.
High Priestess Alexandria? in Stormhold is also one that I've camped for literally weeks. It was a long time ago, and it may have changed since then, but all I remember is sitting in that room for days killing that Battlepriest over and over and over... well, you get the idea. (Yes, I know the Battlepriest is a different spawn, but he's in the same room.)

With regards to the Stein HQ, I do believe the named bouncers are always up now; I'm not sure what the respawn rate is on them though.

Noaani wrote:

That's fine for you, grats. I have leveled 2 times while camping the bugger 3 years back just from killing the trash. When retrying recently I still had no luck. In all those years I just have seen him once - when a darn conjuror killed him.
I had this discussion also with a colleague, former eq1 player, who *really* likes camping and grinding, he explained to me the "need" of all these ph stuff and camping. While I understand his point, I think all those now low level quests should nevertheless be adapted to avoid outleveling with nowadays leveling curve. It is after all a quest update, ie. they don't drop anything useful anyways. It should not take ages (anymore).
For nameds like the staff mummy, well, maybe not everything should be handed on a silver plate, although I think the drop is nothing really important as e.g. the mythical, especially if you see the level. When the guy was endgame it was fine. Now he is just a source of AA

Eriol wrote:

The bouncer are always up on their usual spawn timer of 15 mins. It is ok as it is imo.
WHat about the named griffons in TS and CL for the other HQ-dunno-the-name-rt-now?

The following HQs have unreasonable bottlenecks, contested or otherwise:
In Honor and Service - The named orcs (Crushbone Expedition Leader/Chef/Weaponsmith/Planner) have incredibly annoying camps that can take several hours to complete. PHs do not update the quest.
These Boots Were Made For... - a caveroot horror in Stormhold, a sabertooth miner in Blackburrow, and Bloodtalon in Thundering Steppes are all very long camps.
A Strange Black Rock - The Tombs of Life and Death, in Ruins of Varsoon, have a long respawn timer, PHs that don't update the quest, and do not always pop.
Dragoon K'Naae of the Thexians - 30 undead near Nektropos Castle will take awhile if a lot of people are farming them. Captain T'Sanne at the Citadel of Gul'Thex is a historically long and boring camp, and much could be done to speed up the respawn rate of that camp. If Dragoon K'Naae is killed, it's a long time before he repops again IIRC.
Hadden's Earring - Requires killing Hrath T'vol, which is a long camp.
A Missing Mask - Nektropos Castle is not a contested zone, but that doesn't mean that this zone couldn't use a fresh look. Trying to spawn Billy and the Swine Lord is a very trying affair.
Stiletto's Orders Intercepted - You have to kill Weavemaster Esh'Rax in Ruins of Varsoon; his placeholder won't work.
Restoring Ghoulbane - The Spectre of Ire in the Crypt of Betrayal is a very trying camp. You also have to kill The Creator in Ruins of Varsoon, his PH won't work.
War and Wardrobe - You have to kill clerics of Hate, which are quite rare.
Foomby's Stolen Goods - Chomper's PH will not update the quest.
The Rescue of the Green Hoods - Setry Goorlux is a painful camp, not to mention he has a chance to despawn!
By Hook or By... - 100 nightbloods means lots of competition for them if a lot of people are killing them. I'd suggest lowering the amount by half.
An Eye for Power - The camps for the three named in Everfrost directly interfere with solo quest lines in the zone.
The Lost Legend of Lavastorm - The quest is fine, but the respawn time for mobs in Solusek's Eye is 20 minutes. Needs to be shortened.
Saving Soles - Magolemus is a 2 hour respawn. Should be shortened to 15 minutes.
The Screaming Mace - Agony's camp is a long and boring one. She should simply spawn more often. The mobs you need in Temple of Cazic Thule have long-respawn placeholders that don't update the quest.
The Staff of the Observers - The named kobolds you need in Steamfont Mountains are all long camps: 10-15 minute respawn, and PHs do not update the quest.
An Ancient Desert Power - The respawn time on the Rahotep ring event is 2 hours...which is a very long time if you want to go in and do it yourself, and someone beat you to the punch.
The Wondrous Inventions of a Crazed Gnome - The young dragon doesn't always seem to be up when you need him.

the only spawn timer id change is the billys in Nek castle. make them all proxy spawns rather than placeholders.
i think removing place holders is a bad idea. please dont dumb down HQs any more than they have been already.

I realize this isn't quite on the scope of what we're talking about, but it's close enough I think. What I'd like someone to look at is something like this, which I believe happens in at least one HQ, & at least one deity quest line ....
While in Zone A, you kill Quest Mob B, which updates your quest, & tells you to return to So-&-So. So-&-So then thanks you for your time, & sends you BACK TO ZONE A to kill the next update mob.
Is there any chance those could be combined into one step, so that you kill the first mob, go on to the next one, & don't have the stupid travel to-&-fro in between?

Xalmat wrote:

You can insta-spawn the young dragon. It takes him about five minutes to get up to top once you leave the questgiver on that part of the HQ
http://eq2.wikia.com/wiki/The_Wondr..._a_Crazed_Gnome
To spawn the young dragon if his timer is ready: Go the entrance of the Halls of Fate at (-4, -376, -33). The young dragon will spawn down near where you picked up the cog earlier, and slowly fly up to his perch on the Halls of Fate building (takes about 5 minutes).