Why Do Tradeskills And Harvesting Have To Involve Fighting Or Lethal Quests?

I used to love harvesting and tradeskills but over the years they have evolved from leisure activities to ones that involve a lot of fighting and lots of deadly encounters. If it isn't the mobs, causing grief, it is the zone itself.

For example, today's Myrist tradeskill repeatable involved the Plane of Air. It is a lovely zone and it should be fun harvesting there but it isn't. The nodes, I needed, always seemed to be under at least one mob with another hovering close by. It wasn't unusual to get ganked by three mobs while trying to do the quest. I was absolutely exhausted by the time I completed that quest, one round of Anchorage quests, and the GH harvesting quests.

Moving to another zone didn't help. It was still a gank fest only there wasn't any pretty scenery to look at while trying to harvest.

I understand that there are a lot of young players (and maybe even some older ones) who love to constantly be fighting, when they are playing. My sons, when they were younger, would spend hours playing first-person shooter games.

So I have no problem with there being zones that are just constant battle areas. I just don't think they should be the main harvest areas.

Harvesting, tradeskills, and decorating appeal to a different type of player. Sony recognized the difference and kept the two pretty much apart. While it is possible for a football linebacker to enjoy interior decorating, it is not usual, just as the reverse isn't usual.

I think DB is making a huge mistake forcing players, with little aptitude for fighting, into having to perform video-type gaming just so they can craft or decorate their houses. I think the same is true of forcing raiders to craft.

There is only a minor population of players who enjoy intense fighting, crafts, harvesting, and decorating. These players will not lose anything if harvesting, crafts, and decorating quests are designed for less intense play. It will, however, help retain those players who have little aptitude for fighting but enjoy all the other features EQ2 has to offer.

I can quite agree with the sentiment expressed here.
Rather uncharacteristically REAL-WORLD is it not? Where something offensive/hateful attempts to prevent one from even attaining even the simplest of things?
One thing that can be stated of my personal experience, is having donned quite a bit of MasterCrafted gear (which a few pieces are exchanged out for the few Harvesting Items I have acquired over the years), and having Perrin tag along, the beasties, for the most part, as as annoying as gnats are in said REAL-WORLD--and can be as easily disregarded, as they do not do much damage, Perrin jumps in to heal, which draws the hateful beasties' attention, I can finish harvesting, and then just waddle over to the next harvest node,... ignoring the beasties, which get to the end of their leash, and go back to wait to bother someone else,...

As Ceyarrecks stated above harvest with a Merc in the areas that are a problem to you.

ive harvested in CD zones with a lvl 70 adv and yeah, it's not easy to get at certain nodes. Just have to take the time to explore all the zones and find which ones are easier for which nodes. Ive found doomfire best for low adv level gathering.


edit : find the non-agro mobs. Like doomfire, i rotate and give the nodes in the Frog, Snail and Trees (under the firefly area) time to re-pop. The rocks and reefs can be found around the outside edges of cliffs that have no mobs at all. Hope that helps someone

You are just completely wrong here. Your problem is that you haven't adequately LOOKED for the safe places to harvest. If there's a critter sitting on a node, go find another node!

Secondly, DO NOT have your merc out, or any combat pets, all they do is blunder their big butts into aggro (the harvesting pony doesn't get aggro, so it's okay). DO have a stack of Defibrillating Heart Stoppers: if you do catch aggro, run a few steps to where it will be safe, then feign death using the Heart Stopper. Wait for the aggro mob to move away, then hit X to stand back up.

On my warlock, I use the spell Null Caress to port the aggro mob(s) away, then finish harvesting the node, and get the Heck Outta Dodge before the mobs make their way back. Enchanters may be able to use Blink. The Bristlebane miracle Disappearing Act works nicely.

Eryslai Harvesting
Erylai overland harvesting should start by flying moderately high (so as to avoid aggro) to the base of the waterfall, then circling the lake and its two outlet streams. There you will find fish, reef, an occasional flecked ore, an occasional log, an occasional basilisk den.

There is a big stone pillar behind the waterfall. Circle the base of that fairly high for more reef. Fly up to the source pool for the waterfall and look around its edges.

Next, fly around the outer edge of the island, both the one where the portal is and the one above it. Fly far enough out that you can avoid aggro. You will spot some logs, bushes, and the occasional strangler root, and some of it you will be able to get without aggro. Don't spend a ton of time on this part, and pass by any node that a mob is camping.

Go to the Bixel Hive next. As far as I could tell, nothing in there sees invis, but you really don't need it. At the entrance fly in above the heads of the guards. Follow the outer edge of the hive, looking in each opening. Most will have a basilisk den. When you've made a complete circuit, move up to the next set of openings. As you fly around, there will be nodes you can get to on interior paths with no aggro... these are going to mostly be bushes or reef. Just below the queen's platform is a "honey funnel". The edge of that usually has several nodes of flecked ore.

I don't generally waste time harvesting on the aviak island, unless I really, really need logs.Right as you come in, there's a spider, which you can fly over (go high before you go sideways). There's usually a log or two just below that spider, but you can edge up to it without getting aggro because you're below the spider and it can't see your feet. It's way easier to go back to the area near the zone portal and cruise the edge of the island looking for an aggro-free log.

I may harvest at the Precipice of Winds, but you have to pay attention to mobs in three dimensions, and there really aren't a ton of nodes there. You may get bushes, roots, the occasional reef or den, and in among the djinn there are sometimes flecked ore, but that requires dodging aggro mobs.

I don't actually fight too many mobs as I duo and the two mercs can usually handle up to two mobs. It's when I get three, or more, that I have to stop harvesting and fight. Still, it is irritating and it takes so much of the fun out of discovering nodes and harvesting them. I only use the track harvest tool if I have to as it also detracts from the fun of visual harvesting.

I love harvesting in PoP. There are areas with lots of nodes and few aggro mobs to worry about plus I rarely have to use tracking. Unfortunately, the TS timeline is the pits whereas the CD TS timeline was really good. I just don't understand why DB can't give us good harvesting and a good TS timeline in the same xpac. They have heard the many complaints from players about this in previous xpacs.

And the problem with harvesting around the edges of a zone is that it requires a lot of flying which requires far more hand effort than just running around. I can run around The Enchanted Lands for hours on end without my left hand getting tired. Today, after just three hours, in CD, my hand was hurting so much I had to stop playing. Flying up and down cliffs is really hard work.

CD could make it a lot easier, for harvesters, if they would just decrease the aggro range of mobs a smidgen so we could harvest in the flat areas where most of the mobs are located. Classes, that love collecting mobs, and then casting an AOE, would still be able to do that so it really wouldn't change the game dynamics. Harvesters would still have to contend with mobs but not to the point where it is physically and mentally exhausting. It is a simple fix that would make the current xpac far more fun to play.

There are lots and lots of harvest nodes, in CD, that you can get without aggroing mobs. (Both parts of all areas with little/no aggro and areas with avoidable aggro) I almost NEVER kill anything when I'm harvesting as it's faster (on healers) to not waste the time.
It DOES mean you have to be aware of the mobs around you and pass up nodes that mobs are 'guarding'.
Perhaps it comes from doing too many gathering obsessions on toons well below zone levels, but it isn't really that hard to do...

Sigrdrifa I know where the nodes are located on the various planes but as I said before, that isn't a big help when multiple players are looking for the same nodes. At 4:30am, this morning, there were a lot of players looking for the same 4 types of nodes I was looking for on Maj'Dul. I was in no position to let a mob stand in the way of my harvesting a node I needed.

And I'm sorry your merc pulls a lot of aggro you don't want. I haven't had too much of a problem with that with my mercs. There were only a couple of times, this morning, when my mercs were responsible for pulling aggro and they took care of the mobs while I continued to harvest.

I think we are talking about two different issues. Being able to harvest, and enjoying harvesting, aren't the same thing. I can harvest just fine but I don't enjoy it in CD for the reasons I have previously stated.

A raider has the ability to craft but that doesn't mean they will enjoy being forced to craft. And a decorator can kill things but that doesn't mean they will enjoy doing it.

But DB has decided that all players have to do the same types of things whether they enjoy it or not. Raiders have complained about having to craft and decorators/harvesters/crafters have complained about dungeon crawling and highly-scripted quests such as the ones we had to do in KA and PoP.

This policy goes against all we know about what motivates people to continue doing something and that translates into a loss of players. I don't want to see that happen because there is no other game available that offers so much to people who like to decorate, craft, and harvest.

I shouldn't have to dread harvesting, or TS quests, so I can craft furniture and decorate houses. I love visual harvesting (using my eyes rather than tracking) in areas with reasonable aggro. I find it relaxing with just enough challenge to keep things interesting.

But CD doesn't offer this and it is a shame since they did so well with other aspects of the game for crafters, harvesters, and decorators. But a simple tweak could solve that and I hope they will do as I suggested so that harvesting will once more be fun to do.

I'm sorry but I don't want the game dumb down anymore than it is. Sometimes you just have to figure it out... It can be done.

I totally agree. I long for the day when you actually had to use your brain, and nothing was handed to you on a silver platter.

Harvesting areas in one zone aren't always going to be safe compared to harvesting areas in other zones. It's not that the creatures in those area are realistically guarding the resources its that they are guarding their home and resources happen to be near their home. In most cases, resources are put near areas that make sense to that type of resource. There are exceptions, but most of the time that is the case. Rocks near rocks, fish near bodies of water or lava fish near lava lol.

We have no plans to move harvesting nodes to places that do not make sense just to make it easier for players to go and collect those resources at lower levels. There are tools within the game to help with that, you can choose to use them or you can have a higher level friend go and collect them for you or use the broker system.

If you are doing the missions at a lower level you will need to be creative if you want to get to nodes that appear to be "guarded" or you'll have to find other areas to find nodes that are not as dangerous to get to. We cannot make entire areas devoted to just danger free harvesting. Part of the game is finding safer areas that you are able to obtain resources without ending up on an Orc's dinner table.

Can u use the Diplomacy skill?

It has been this way this the beginning, you have always had to avoid mobs to harvest. Some zones are just easier than other zones.

whoa! Silver?! you got platters made of silver,...?
hhmm,... as of late said platters were seemingly made from guano,...
and yes! I also hate the rampant pacification of everything*,... i.e. Plane of Magic yard trash just being breathed on and dying is just one example.

Then that was rather part of the fun, was it not,...? inching closer,... and inching closer,...
while in Enchanted Lands, hoping not to be seen by the floating wasp, trying to harvest that lumber that Quo just had to have!
This is one of my L29 memories while completing the Pack Pony quest.

*I rather understand where this is coming from, but a protracted conversation that few can endure, and beyond the scope of this post.

Guano bowls... collect the whole set!

was hoping someone would catch the reference

It's likes to me, especially about creative approach. As for harvesting simplification, I suggest to look at 7th tier. Place still a part of resources on perimeter of zones of this tier, especially in Kingdom of Sky. Let fly around and harvest from slopes

Gninja: I didn't ask that the nodes be moved. I suggested that the aggro range, of mobs (especially those that are closely spaced) be reduced a smidgen so harvesting becomes less like labor and more like fun.

Breanna That hasn't worked out well for the game as can be seen by the reduction in player base. The three main reasons people give me, for leaving the game are: 1) It takes too much time to keep up with guild mates which leaves them no one to group with; 2) It's too complicated; and 3) It's too confusing due to the constant changes to classes, equipment, etc.

I've seen a lot of players leave, over the past 11+ years, and I generally ask they why they are quitting. Not once, that I recall of, has someone said it was because the game had been dumbed down and made too easy to be a challenge.

Furthermore, DB offers the TLC servers for players who prefer the old ways before things were made "too easy."

WoW, in comparison to EQ2, is kids' stuff but it has millions of players. The goal of all business is to make money. Paying player base equals money.

I don't want to see EQ2 become another WoW but making it easier to play, on the FTP servers makes financial sense. It lets players chose the level of difficulty, in playing, they want. The more choice you give players, the more attractive a game will be to a wider range of players--assuming the options are advertised.

To each their own. I like the game the way it is, but I liked it better before. It is very obvious that you do not. And yes I do like to use my brain to think about things, you get a nice drop and you spend time to compare what will agility do for me what about strength, no I need something with Int. Back in the day a fighter could bump up their agility so high they could avoid a lot, now it does nothing for fighters.

Now you just walk up to a lock box and pull out all the gear and you're ready to go, they are already giving you all the free stuff, how much easier could they make it for people. Or maybe they should just make all the mobs non-agro so you can walk around and not worry about getting attacked. This game has been dumbed down ALOT.