So i got two essences of war the first time i logged in AOM, so on the 13 ... I was not aware of anything (i never tracked them since I was not knowing that those ressources existed) ... so i saw some shinning crystal on ground and harvested it, i had no idea if it was simply there or if it dropped from the mob i killed nearby. Since I have been harvesting quite more and i never saw again such a crystal. I have not found either any super-rare, despite getting enough rares to make several jewels and some armor sets. I have like 4 transcendances, but it seems that we cannot get those anymore, salvaging 96+ items returns 90-95 materials and some crafter tried to salvage level 100 MC armor and got 90-95 items too.
I've logged in and done nothing but harvest for hours. I'm still to find a spellshard. I have however found a war essence but it was before the change to tracking them. I found mine underwater which is somewhere I would never go to harvest. The crystals I believe now only spawn two at a time? (someone correct me if I'm wrong) and are non-trackable. I guess now more players know what they're for, and are possibly actively looking for them, they are really going to be rare. There is another thread somewhere on transcendances/salvaging, Here it is. https://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/index.php?threads/salvageing.554020/ I'd like to know if finding rares like spellshards relies on anything more than RNG. I know RNG stinks, but with the amount of stuff I've harvested without finding a single one, I'm starting to wonder if I need to be decked out in tradeskill gear to find them.
I tracked one once. It was inside a treetrunk and I went around that thing 18 times trying to find an angle to harvest from...no luck.
I believe, not sure though, that the mysterious crytsal can spawn in place of other normal harvest nodes. Those that we found underwater would probably be from a fish node.
I am certain that this was true before the change. And as a result, they spawned regularly in places that were heavily harvested. Since the change, I have no idea.
Ive yet to see or hear of anyone getting an essence of war after the harvest tracking was taken out, i myself actively keep an eye out for them as i harvest quite a bit. also.. after id say close to 30 hours of harvesting in AOM so far with full harvest gear and everything.. and 0 Spellshards or Foundations. i get that they are suppose to be rare.. but really? lol Salvaging seems to be broken.. if you salvage something level 96.. it SHOULD NOT give back t10 mats.. and Transmuting.. lol.. thats a whole different story.. there is almost nothing fabled anywhere to get mana from.. overland named often drop level 95 items that cant be muted. and anything level 100 you pretty much have to salvage at this point just for a chance at a Quintessence... They as usual.. completely over shot the "fix" to salvaging. good job
One of the locations I use to see the Essence of War and I check often doesn't have a harvest node in that area. I can't say 100% that your wrong, but I don't believe your right either.
Removing the Essence of War from track was a huge blow to finding them. An even larger blow to the supply was limiting them to the first instance. If your in Tranquil sea 2 or higher don't bother looking, essence of war don't spawn there. Also in general harvesting hasn't been as productive for me as I expect. Regular rares seem more rare than Rare Harvest Chance would dictate. The goblin and pony show were bringing back quite a few rares the first few days. Now they seem to produce them much less frequently. Spellshards and Foundations are more rare than T10. I haven't gotten any and the broker is dry. Salvaging got the heavy nerf bat because it wasn't working right in the first place. 92 items shouldn't of been producing Quintessence and 96+ rares. They were. The quick fix was bumping it to 100. Hopefully dev is trying to fix salvaging still and will get it to where 95 or 96+ salvages into T11. But I'm not holding my breath. All in all, dev clamped down on the supply of materials with this expansion, and raised the amount of materials needed. The double whammy is making crafting a lot less rewarding that it should be. I would say that this is a temporary situation and that a large supply of level 100 adventurers salvaging everything in sight will fix it. But that isn't exactly true. The raise in materials cost throws off the normal situation. Only if the demand for the things that can be made decreases as well will the situation reverse, and if that happens crafting materials will take a dramatic nosedive in price. Its more or less only a question of when.
This whole mysterious crystal nonsense really needs sorting out. I have harvested about 75% of my time since this expac went live and have never seen one. Yes, I have been limiting the search to TS&PS (not TS3 or PS6). Never seen one, never heard of it in general chat, etc. Either a) they have been removed, b) they spawn underground like brambles still do, or c) they have timers and set locations and one or two people have them locked down. I dont understand the issue with salvaging, frankly. Ive always been of the mindset that the "tier" is determined by the fuel used un item creation with the mats. As the fuels are the same from 90-100 it isnt a shock to get rhenium from a lv 97 item to me. The standard rares from the aom nodes seem fairly common as is.
Hmmm do you think that holds true for spellshards too? That could explain why with all my hours harvesting I have found exactly ZERO.
I have found exactly 1 transcendental spellshard since the expansion launched, and it wasn't until nov 30th. I'm fairly sure I was in tranquil sea 1, but I really don't think that had anything to do with it. I believe I found it in a root node. I definitely wasn't bothering with fish.
I have found 2 essences of war, which i found on the tracker before they nerfed it. One was was in the ocean, and another just laying around. They are a "mysterious crystal", they are very small, and they are not harvested from other nodes. Finding them without a tracker is going to be nothing but pure luck.
Nope. I deliberately do all my T11 harvesting in #2 or higher zones, because there's less competition. I know I'm giving up Essences of War, but I found oddles of them before they changed the mechanics. I am absolutely getting T11 Transendentals from #2 zones.
I forget which thread it is in but Caith did respond regarding Salvaging. He said currently it is basing the material returned off the hidden level on items not the actual level seen by the players. He said they have a fix for it so Salvaging will use the shown level like Transmuting does for determining what materials can be created. I believe he said it was still in testing and wasn't sure when the hot fix would occur. As for Transendental Spellshards and Foundation I don't see them changing. The way it is now works perfect for getting people to pony up for SC Cards for grandmasters because they don't want to spend all their in game time chasing a 1 in100000000000 chance of finding one.
I think the story about some items only being available in the first instance of a zone is a total myth. I have gotten 2 Essence of War, neither was from TS or PS1. same with Spellshards - gotten 2 - one from a random harvest in PS2 or 3, one from refining trash.
https://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/index.php?threads/update-notes-tuesday-november-18-2014.553895/ Down in the tradeskill section it says how its suppose to work now. That was back on November 18th. Before that you could track and find these crystals in any TS or PS instance. So when did you do this? And also people want some clarification on "refining trash". You mean refining T11 common harvests?
I know salvage is suppose to return Quintessence. Are you sure it returns Spellshards/Foundation as well? Any other products it produces other than LQ/HQ slag and refined rares?
I'm guessing, but I doubt they come from tearing up cords of larix lumber, since we can't even get high-quality slag from that anymore. We'll have to wait for Laiina to reply.
