Rare Harvests are too rare again :(

Hum, are rare drop rates diffrent form tier to tier. I made Bruseir on PVP test earlier to day locked he at lvl 5 and just started to harvest, how long i did so i am not sure, but I ended up with bronze, bonded loam, waxed leather, 3 yarrow , and 2 alder. Honestly, i don't think Domino or the other dev should worry to much about the drop rates at this point and just work on something else. Honestly there really isn't anything wrong with them, if i did nothing but lock my self and started to hunt in tier one , after an hour i would have 3 or 4 adepts. I think this is comparable.

I dont harvest for long periods,1-3hrs max.But i do harvest any node that i see,due to i can use anything to craft with.I i would say in less than 8 days i have the rares to equip,currently a 33 zerka and 40s dru.In everything master crafted untill the next exspansion comes out and i need 70-80s stuff.They also have a minimum of adept 3,ive enough loam to make every spell to 70 adept 3 for the zerka.I dont sell rares so also have rares left over already waiting for alts to use them and this stash is only going to grow. Dont go on what individuals tell you,just look at the brokers.When you see rares there in stacks and more,in some cases selling for just a few gold.You should know something is wrong.The game is becoming to easy to level euip chars,its ideal for those who dont play for long and want everything there and then.But becoming a little repetative for those that play long hours,and run out of crafts to take up and dont have to work on euipping or leveling new alts anymore. I used to love it when you found a rare and,went yes! and actually got a kick out of it and sat there with a smile on my face.If it wasnt for the found rare sound,i wouldnt even acknowledge them now just check my bags when i got back to the bank.

[p]I agree rares are now all to rare.[/p][p] [/p][p]Best thing for the Dev is stop listening to us from forum. make a poll in the game and see the general player base.[/p][p]Why should rare be so rare. A player that dont like tradeskill will not make one eventhough its a bit more easy to get a rare.[/p][p]the only reason i can see for making rare even more rare, is earning extra plat = greed[/p]

[p]I decided to look at all my harvesting alts and found this trend:[/p][p]Really bad harvester: No change after Lu37 or after nerf (these alts found maybe one rare per month)[/p][p]Average harvester: Low rares before LU 37, great after, back to normal post nerf (these alts found found one rare per harvest session)[/p][p]Excellent harvester: great rate Before LU37, fabulous after, downgraded to bad post nerf (these found about 10 rares per hour)[/p][p]I have alts harvesting on two different servers, Runnyeye and Bazaar, both behave the same. Also my husband has noticed the same trend with his avatars. [/p][p]Comment: Apparently small changes to the harvest tables result in large changes in the game. DominoDev was sure that only minor changes had been made in Lu37 but the results were far from minor. The post Lu37 nerf has resulted in very strange behavior and certainly is not what was anticipated. [/p][p] [/p]

Duka wrote: the only reason i can see for making rare even more rare, is earning extra plat = greed ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ You can make lots more plat selling stacks of rares at a lower price,than one or 2 rares at an higher price.The farmers and plat sellers,must be loving this period in time.They are making cash for no effort or time put in at all,they will never quit while its like this

Te'ana wrote:

[p] Well that should be about your own average since you only harvested 443 rares total for 11 characters (44 average). You do seem to have a poor harvest record. [/p][p]Note: Your character Ratatooee is resticted, so I could not get a count of his/her harvests.[/p]

Jrral@Unrest wrote:

[p]You do have a good point here, and I had hoped that we would see more accurate reporting by now. But that doesn't seem to happen.[/p][p]I don't know if polls are allowed here, but it would be interesting to hear how often people would like to have a rare drop. Assuming a 'normal' character, without harvesting tools and at max skill. How often should one get a rare drop?[/p][p]* 2% of the time[/p][p]* 1% of the time [/p][p]* 0.5% of the time[/p][p]* 0.2% of the time[/p][p]* 0.1% of the time [/p]

As a carpenter, I disagree completely.

As a casual player, I also disagree completely.

As a player recognizing the value of rares and what's made from them, I also think 1 in five hours is a bit extreme. Polls or anything don't matter at this stage. Now that the supposed problem has the attention of Domino, she has far more accurate tools to see what's what over the whole of the game. Her decisions in this particular area are going to be made more in favor of game balance/ her own unstated goals than anything else so, until September at least we're effectively posting for posting's sake. Even if rares are rarer after the hotfix, they are still more common than they were pre-gu37 and more accessible for people in tier, overall this is still an improvement over what was.

Glad to hear it! They aren't as rare as they used to be, but I've noticed that rares are almost semi-rare again and it's great! Every time things get easier, it's never easy enough and I really thought we'd gotten onto a slippery slope from which there was no return. I was so bummed yesterday when my level 19 and one level 20 ran Lightbringer up to the final raid (which is no longer a raid) in about 20 minutes. Rama isn't Heroic any more, all the nameds are up all the time, or repop in a minute or so. It's really a joke. So, reading this is the best news I've heard in some time. The thought of this beautiful, complex game being dumbed down to 15 minute fulfillment chunks strikes me as a monumental waste.

[p]I disagree. This game should be about *fun*, and timesinks and grinds are *not* fun, except for the masochists amongst us. But this is probably off-topic and a controversial topic, so I'll digress.[/p][p]Anyway, my own personal experience is that the rares are now as rare as they were before GU37, and it kinda sucks a bit. GU37 allowed me to make enough spare status furniture to be able to upgrade soon to a 5-room house where I won't have to pay any weekly status. Us humble carpenters kinda like rares![/p]

[p] I hate to say "I told you so..."[/p][p]Should've seen this coming a mile away. [/p][p]SC[/p]

[p]*gives Domino a hug*[/p][p]Thanks for all the hard work, Domino. I'll hold all my harvesting comments (good, bad or indifferent) until September as requested.[/p][p]From the "State of Tradeskills" post:[/p][p]"Another harvesting tweak, IF needed, AFTER things settle down -- however, any demands for immediate changes will be ignored till at least September."[/p]

Well, as far as =I= can tell, it's just about "right" right now. Granted, this is only from about 6 hours of harvesting on three different characters (mostly in CL and Zek), one of which has always historically been "lucky," but I've found that, just as I start to get frustrated a rare will pop. Found a total of 8 or 9 rares in those 6 hours, which seems reasonable to me. My only observation is that, while hard metal nodes seem more common, at least in CL and Ant, hard metal clusters are still far and away the rarest rares. Got about a 5 to 1 ratio of loams to hard metals. Given the small sample size, I'd write it off as streakiness. Maybe the next time I do one of my harvesting sweeps (Antonica>TS>EL>Feer, clearing each zone once) I'll run a parser and take a critical look at the results.... But for now I'd just leave it alone and wait for more data.

Mostly off-topic but I'll toss in my two cents anyway.... Liyle wrote:

Drull still requires a raid unless you've got a good level 30 group with some high-level mentors. And I think the changes to the Lightbringer are fine. Nothing more IDIOTIC to me than running around an area trying to figure out which ridiculous mob is the placeholder for the named that only spawns once an hour and wanders the zone for three minutes before depopping. I would rather the nameds were a =little= more challenging, but making these steps soloable is a wonderful thing. It's not like a soloer is going to actually finish the HQ without a group or raid on the final step. No need to drag 2-5 extra people through all the drudgery steps leading up to the big one. I will echo what other posters have said: time sinks are NOT A CHALLENGE; they are a form of rationing by inconvenience and there are better ways to make these things challenging. Here's my opinion on how these things stack up: heroic Rama'nai who only pops once an hour after killing an inobvious placeholder = time sink heroic Rama'nai who spawns "on demand" when you enter the area = challenge wimpy Rama'nai who spawns once an hour after killing a "majestic lion' = time sink, still wimpy Rama'nai who spawns "on demand" but wanders far enough that you need to track him down = iffy wimpy Rama'nai who spawns right in front of you when you enter the area = too easy The hunting and the fighting should be the challenges. Trying to figure out that killing badgers will make a griffin spawn (made up example) is just stupid. Getting rid of time sinks is a wonderful thing. Reducing the challenge of fights is questionable: good if it makes an intermediate step soloable, bad if it makes a final battle trivial. Applying this to tradeskills: tradeskills are by their very nature somewhat of a timesink; people either do them because they want the end result (much like painful HQs) or because they enjoy the actual process. Personally, I find tradeskills to be somewhat of a relaxing experience: just playing whack-a-mole for an hour or two can do wonders for those of us who have trouble meditating in a more traditional way ;^) As long as the process itself is fun and the end result is both worthwhile and achievable in a reasonable amount of time, a "time sink" has its place. This is a contrast to adventuring time sinks, which are generally frustrating (not fun), with questionable end results (my level 24 bruiser will outgrow the reward from the Lightbringer quest in about a week), and don't take a reasonable amount of time (hunting Greenblood bouncers in Feerrott for the Stein of Moggok comes to mind), are not good. A very, very small percentage of players may feel like they've "accomplished something" by completing one of these quests, but the vast majority will simply feel that the devs have disrespected them by making them "waste their time."

[p]Rares are where they should be - Rare![/p][p]I took my harvester (T6) out last night: SS (T6) - 3 rares, 1 lambent in about 2 hrs EL (T4) - 4 rares, 5 glimmerings in about 90 minutes.[/p][p]I'm happy with this output. Keep them rare![/p]

Mighty Melvor wrote:

ROFL. That's not rare. Not even close!

THe problem with rares is that their main purpose is to be used...I would guess the ones that are complaining that they drop too often are thsoe that are selling them for a higher amount of gold....As a tradeskiller thoughj I dont want the rares to be ultra rare because I want to use them in my combines....Im not saying I want a rare to drop every node but I dont want one to drop every five hours either......When the price of rares is so high that you arent even tempted to use them then there is something wrong..... Many of us just want to use the rare so that we can get the XP from it in tradeskilling...My armorer is lucky to get 3-4 recipes per level (sometimes 1-2) and having a couple of rares to use really helps for leveling....When the rares were much more rare I did not use them for combines very often because they were simply worth much more to sell......

I have my times when I go through dry spells and I have times when I don't go a dry spell. I designate certain days for only harvesting. I will spend 5-7 hours total (not consecutive) in one day harvesting all nodes within one or two tiers. Sometimes I'll end up with a nice handful of rares from different types of nodes (YAY!!). Other days I'll end up with only 1 or 2 rares, and on rare (once in a blue moon) days I'll end up with none at all. This is ok to me, because I can not expect something like a rare harvest to be commonly found. They are meant to be rare, and that's what they are...rare (some days moreso than others, but that's ok). I think the new changes since GU37 are spot on to be honest, and there will never be pleasing everyone. *grabs a mop and bucket from the corner to clean up Domino's head fluids, calls for a medic, gets her all fixed, and offers her a cookie*