Maximizing Harvesting Stats(AKA getting the most crystals)

Discussion in 'Tradeskills' started by Zhevally, Jan 27, 2021.

  1. Zhevally Well-Known Member

    I shared the rare harvest part of this in discord but figured I'd post the whole thing on the forums. This is everything you should be using/doing if you are trying to maximize all your harvest stats.
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    How to maximize rare harvest chance:
    Seasoned Harvesting -- 5% rare harvest, AA in Tradeskill Prestige tree(top left), also gives track harvestables
    Trim Reaver -- 1% rare harvest, AA in tradeskill(bottom left)
    Far Seas Harvest Technique -- 1% rare harvest, AA under Far Seas tab in Tradeskill Prestige(top ability)
    Girdle of the Vigilant -- 5% rare harvest(also 35 harvest skills)[belt], comes from Piercing the Darkness: Carving a Legacy quest (pre-quest to BOL tradskill timeline)
    Potion of Bountiful Harvests -- 2% rare harvest(potion lasts 6 hours), comes from personal researcher daily quests
    Recuso Specialized Reconnaissance Helmet -- 20.8% rare harvest(also 35 harvest skills, 8 shadow prospecting)[helm], purchased off merchant Gwennie in Fordel Midst with currency from ROS harvesting missions

    Mount gear:
    Void Etched Saddle of Harvesting -- 16.5% rare harvest, pattern drops off the harvesting missions
    Shadowscream Saddle of Harvest - 13.4% rare harvest, use until you get a void-etched one, craftable with a Lustrous Rockhopper Hide
    Void Etched Hackamore of Harvesting -- 13.7% rare harvest, pattern drops off harvesting missions
    Shadowscream Hackamore of Harvesting -- 11.2% rare harvest, use until you get a void-etched one, craftable with a Lustrous Rockhopper Hide
    Finder's Stirups -- 11.2% rare harvest, came in the mount gear crate with premium ROS xpac
    Little Bit of Barding -- 3.9% rare harvest, came in mount gear crate with premium chaos descending xpac

    Familiar:
    Gaggelu Pearwood, 14% rare harvest at max level(also 70 harvest skills), comes from A Stitch in Time Part V: Sealed with Hate quest (POP crafting timeline)
    Mischievous Beasty, 14% rare harvest at max level(also 70 harvest skills), comes from Mischief Managed: Duty and the Beast quest(Mischief and Mayhem crafting timeline)
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    How to maximize bountiful harvest:
    Ample Harvest-- 15% bountiful harvest, AA in Tradeskill(top left)
    Compact Sumac Harvesting Kit -- 12% bountiful harvest, crafted item(buy off broker) and set to autoconsume
    Gi of the Ashen Artisan -- 12% bountiful harvest[chest], crafted item(buy off broker)
    Voidfarer/Shrouded Artisan's Expertise -- 10% bountiful harvest, from premium BOL/ROS xpac(clickie that lasts a day)
    Blessed Coldain Prayer Shawl--27% bountiful harvest[neck], from quest What Dreams May Come
    Mark of the Far Seas -- 10% bountiful harvest[ring] plus 10 harvest skills, from quest Return to Refuge(AOM tradeskill timeline)
    Shroud of Hidden Harvests -- 1% bountiful harvest[cloak], from quest Totemic Reinforcement(Withered Lands tradeskill timeline)

    Empyral Nail of Harvests -- 9.4% bountiful harvest which can go in chest, legs, feet; charged recipie from overseers(also can be bought off broker)
    Acrylia Nail of Harvests -- 7.9 bountiful harvest which can go in chest, legs, feet; can be crafted in any quantity

    Harvester's Balm -- 3% bountiful harvest in potion that lasts 1 hour, crafted from amalgamations(or bought on broker)

    Can wear up to 5 of the nails. There is no benefit to having more than 100% bountiful, so use as few nails as possible to get there. You will need either the Mark of the Far Seas, the Prayer Shawl, or the Shroud to cap it, otherwise you can reach 99%. (Ideally do not use the Shroud because you can get more harvest skills out of that slot)
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    How to maximize shadow prospecting:
    Once you do the ROS tradeskill line you can skill up to 50 from harvesting.
    Shadewrought Barding -- 10 Shadow Prospecting, came in the mount gear crate with premium ROS xpac
    Shadowscream Shoes of Prospecting -- 12 Shadow Prospecting, craftable with a Lustrous Rockhopper Hide
    Shadowscream Reins of Prospecting -- 12 Shadow Prospecting, craftable with a Lustrous Rockhopper Hide
    Shadowscream Breeching of Prospecting -- 12 Shadow Prospecting, craftable with a Lustrous Rockhopper Hide
    Shadowscream Stirrups of Prospecting -- 12 Shadow Prospecting, craftable with a Lustrous Rockhopper Hide(If you wanted to maximize your chance at getting a Shadow Balanzite Crystal, you shoud wear this when trying to get a glass orb for shadow harvesting, but when shadow harvesting should use the rare harvest stirrups if you have them)
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    How to maximize harvest skills:
    Experienced Reaping -- 50 harvest skills, AA under Far Seas Tab in Tradeskill Prestige(endline on far right)
    Overclocked Automated Combine Harvester -- 13 harvest skills, crafted item which can be bought off broker
    Overclocked Automated Watersafe Net --10 Fishing and Trapping, crafted item which can be bought off broker
    Overclocked Automated Pickaxe -- 20 mining, crafted item which can be bought off broker

    Brightfire, Essence of Arcanna'se -- 80 harvest skills(mount), only worth using if leveled
    Far Seas Pack Pegasus -- 80 harvest skills(mount), only worth using if leveled

    Empyral Nail of Harvesting -- 22 harvest skills which can go in any slot, charged recipe that comes from overseer quests
    Acrylia Nail of Harvesting -- 19 Harvest skills which can go in any slot, can be crafted in any quantity

    Shadowed Staff of Luclin, 25 Harvesting skills(2-hander), from Piercing the Darkness: Message in a Shadowed Bottle Part III(BOL tradeskill timeline)
    Earring of the Solstice, 25 harvesting skills when activated, from The Proof of the Pudding quest(note it is on the activated effect so you do not need to wear it, use two white adorn slot gear instead)
    Cloak of the Harvester, 25 harvesting skills, comes from A Gathering Obsession, Final Errand quest
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    You can get gear with two white adorn slots through either running high keep contested(or other TOV zones), buying it off the broker(will be level 92-95 stuff, excluding some of the 95 stuff), or the loyalty merchant in your city sells gear some of which has two white adorn slots.
    This will allow you to double up on nails in any slot you are not using another piece of crafting gear(which should maximally be cloak, chest, neck, 1 ring, and weapon).

    If you did the Chaos Descending Timeline, you can craft Masque de Lorme, a helm with 4 white adorn slots(only do this if you can't use the Recuso Helmet).
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    Harvesting speed:
    Doing the Kunark Ascending Growf quests, your gathering goblin(in Tradeskill prestige AAs) will lower the base harvest time 1.5 seconds, which means with the other reductions your harvest time will be .75 seconds.
    The gi of the ashen artisan, sumac harvesting kit, and overcloked automated combine harvester all reduce harvest time by .5 seconds. If you do not have the Growf quests done, your harvest time will be 1.5 seconds.
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    Notes on getting Shadow Balanzite Crystals and Glass Orbs of Swirling Shadows:
    According the Gninja your harvest skills affect the chance of getting the Glass Orbs. However he said he is unsure what the cap is on this(ie at what point having more skills no longer helps). He has also stated that harvest skills do not affect the drop chance of the crystals.
    Additional, he has stated that shadow harvesting affects only your chance at the Orbs and does not affect your chance at the crystal. Rare harvest chance does affect your chance of getting the crystal.

    When shadow harvesting, try to find an area with a bunch of nodes close together. It is worth continuing to normal harvest until you find a good area or get a second orb. With my harvest time at .75 seconds most of the time I can get 6 nodes in the 30 seconds.
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  2. Tanto Done, finished, gone.

    Or, just wait for the inevitable, which is that either the requirements for the scepter of illumination will change, or the drop rate will get the easy-mode treatment, because this is such a horrible, miserable and universally unpopular gate for raid progression. People ARE leaving the game because of THIS feature, make no mistake, it is utterly HATED in the entire raiding community. Absolutely nobody wants this and the objection to it is very loud. I'm not sure if we've had a single feature be responsible for such decimation of the population in recent years. Pay to win ascensions was probably the last one.
    Observing and Argosunited like this.
  3. Dockter Well-Known Member

    You're mistaken if you think the development team cares, at least that is my opinion. Nothing gives me a reason to think otherwise.
    Argosunited and Lateana like this.
  4. Trilly Active Member

    I'm confused a bit. Orbs are Lore. If you find one, are you saying you USE it right away? and keep looking for more? Or are you also using your Staff? And the crystals come from??? anything harvestable? via shadow harvesting right? Use staff til quits...then orb...then just regular "rare harvest" til get another orb and can reuse staff?? Is that what I am reading? Thanks!
  5. Argosunited Well-Known Member

    So really they've butchered crafting and made raiders harvest. It's time there was a tradeskill dev again.
    It's also time Jen Chan did some sort of PR if we're even to believe she still works there.
    Tkia, Lateana and Finnwizz like this.
  6. Benj Well-Known Member


    Yes, you should use an Orb as soon as you get it. Each one gives you another chance at shadowed harvests and crystals. Holding on to an Orb effectively "wastes" any orbs that you might have found later. The Orb and Staff have the same ability. You should be using the Staff as often as possible, in addition to any Orbs you get.

    My understanding is that any shadowed harvest node can drop the crystals, but I've never found one myself.
    Kittybock likes this.
  7. Zhevally Well-Known Member

    Use the Orb right away. Always use the orb before the staff(however you should be using the staff on cooldown). The Crystal comes off any shadowed node, so keep looking for Orbs to get more shots at them.

    Running 100% bountiful, 96 SH, and 1600ish harvesting skills I average 3 orbs an hour overall.
    Kittybock likes this.
  8. Zhevally Well-Known Member

    As far as the crystals it seems with 65-70% rare harvest the drop chance is around 1%.
    This means with getting 3 orbs an hour and 5-6 nodes an orb, I average two hours of straight harvesting to get one. Of course it will vary with different stats and due to RNG. The big thing to remember is crystals only come off shadowed nodes so the amount of time you spend normal harvesting doesn't mean a lot, its just about how many orbs you can get and nodes per an orb.
    If you are getting only 3 nodes per an orb, it'll take you twice as many rounds of shadow harvesting to get a crystal.
    If you are only getting 1 orb an hour, it'll take you 3 times as long harvesting to get the orbs.
    So this is why I refer to the amount of orbs I average and the nodes I get per an orb since that's what really lets you look at drop chance.
  9. Beee Well-Known Member

    And a very big thing stays character luck

    A friend harvested one singe crystal harvesting half a day at maximum equipment, and got some crytstals with an almost unequipped toon on his second account.

    I know a player getting 2 crystals out of one harvesting node too

    Would like to get a random generator reset for me ;)
  10. Zhevally Well-Known Member

    Luck is how random numbers work. But like if you do it over large period of time you average out, that's how it works. So the more time you put in the closer you'll average to the actual drop rate.
    Sigrdrifa and Breanna like this.
  11. Beee Well-Known Member

    Simply NO

    It's like getting 30x red in roulette.. the next run has the same chance to get red again. If you are unlucky it will be red again ;)

    So hopefully you stop playing befor reaching 30x red.. same with harvesting 4000 shadowed rares by getting 2 crystals.. hopefully you stop harvesting before reaching 5000 ;)
  12. Zhevally Well-Known Member

    I mean if someone harvests 1000 shadowed rares without seeing a crystal, running that 65ish rare harvest, then it is more likely that the drop chance isn't 1% at that point.
    But assuming 1% each time you click a shadow node theres a 1% chance you get the crystal. If you harvest on shadowed nodes 1000 times you would then end up with around at something close to the 1%. If you do it 10,000 times you'll be even closer to 1% more often than not.
    However if you say hey okay I'm going to go and harvest 100 times and don't get one, that is not surprising. There's a 36% chance of not getting one across 100 harvests. At 200 harvests you are looking at a 13% chance of not getting one.
    What I'm trying to point out here is people are complaining about not getting them in amounts where it is still reasonable to not get one.

    If you flip a coin only twice it'll land on the same side both times a lot. If you flip a coin 100 times the percentage of heads will likely be close to 50. If you flip a coin 1000 times, your rate of heads will be a lot closer to 50% with fewer flips.

    Like these one off someone got 2 in one node or someone didn't get one in 300 harvests are to be expected events. However if someone harvested 1000 times on shadowed nodes and didn't see one crystal, then you can say there is something wrong. But if 1000 people go and shadow harvest 450 times you'd expect on average ten of them to not see a crystal(assuming the drop chance is actually 1%).
    I would be start being concerned that something was wrong when a person hit 700 shadowed harvest without seeing one(less than a .1% chance of happening). I'd be really concerned when someone hit 917 shadow harvests without seeing one(less than a .01% chance of happening). This is where if a person had the 65ish rare harvest it would be worth investigating to see if someone is going wrong.
    It takes me about two hours to shadow harvest 100 times(and I know a lot of people doing it don't have the stats up to pull orbs as often or aren't consistently hitting as many nodes an orb as I am so time harvesting alone isn't a good metric for comparing orb drop rates). So when some people are going 5 hours without seeing one that's to be expected,
  13. Beee Well-Known Member

    I decided not to harvest my missing crystals at this point. It's just a big useless timesink for me.

    But really thanks for the above summary for harvesters!
  14. Tanto Done, finished, gone.



    Totally agree. I think I've found my red line with this feature. I won't put any effort into getting the crystals, and if that blocks me from raid progression, my sub will be cancelled as soon as I hit that point.
  15. Zynt Feldon's sock puppet

    Are the crystals only harvestable in RoS or do BoL shadowed nodes have a chance as well?
  16. Sigrdrifa EQ2 Wiki Author

    Only in RoS, because they are Darkened Balanzite.
  17. Yenk Active Member

    The receipe for the Void etched Nail of Harvesting (3 uses) with 44 harvest skill only drop in raids, but never as reward from TS-dailies? :(
    Kittybock likes this.
  18. Ingerimm Well-Known Member



    It has been working as it should for just about 36 hours.
    So to speak of a "great timesink" here is ridiculous.

    I have collected a few hours every day and have now received 22 Shadowed Balanzite Crystals.I see this as easily feasible and not too much of an effort. Sure, you can be divided, but sometimes 2 to 3 days to collect the 5 to 6 hours does not bring you in relation to an addon that lasts a year.

    Whine less and collect more and the problem is over or solved.
    Yenk likes this.
  19. Kittybock Well-Known Member


    Yep, as do the Void Etched mount item recipes. Since those are items commonly used by Tradeskillers, I'd much rather they be available from the TS dailies. If they were, Tradeskillers would have made them, their Shadow Harvest skill would be higher...more Balanzite Crystals would be for sale on the Broker.
    Yenk likes this.
  20. Tanto Done, finished, gone.


    That's the issue for me. I don't play this game to mindlessly harvest for hours on end every day. I will not be doing it.

    This isn't fun. Games are there for entertainment, to be fun. If it's not fun, I won't do it. Which is why raiding is practically all I do right now on EQ2. The rest of this xpac is a grind, a chore, slow, unrewarding and dull. When you start feeling that way about a game, it's probably time to move on to pastures new.

    I appreciate it's hard for you, having spent more money in this game than pretty much any other player, you would probably endure literally anything the devs put out there and be blind to the flaws. But not all of us are that... well... sad.
    GoblinTown, Observing, Beee and 3 others like this.