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Author Topic: CT Essences  (Read 26401 times)
warrior5
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« on: February 19, 2015, 03:41:41 am »

On a related note, CT essences seem to drop at an unusually low rate - which obviously drives the price up. Working as intended?

To add some detail to my comment about CT essences on Maslow's T9 plat post - I've been farming the zone recently and averaging 1 CT essence every 30 minutes. I'm not pulling the entire zone, but doing a section at a time since running the whole zone for the millionth time has proven incredibly tedious, and many mobs often die one way or the other during the trip rendering the results less than optimal. I'm not posting this to argue how long it takes to get a CT essence. 30 minutes is my experience under the new instance system (since we can no longer stick by the pyramid), and with my play style.

For 100 essences for UW that's 3,000 minutes or 50 hours of farming a newbie zone with no loot to speak of outside of CT essences (which is also apparently a lot of folks' least favorite zone to pull). Personally, it has become my least favorite zone overall.

If you count essences for augs for a couple groups of toons, the new mana necks (4??), shield(s) of the ages, maybe another UW etc. we're talking easily 100-200+ hours of farming a zone with nothing to offer besides the occasional essence.

I know EZ is about the grind, but it's no surprise at all no one in their right mind wants to farm essences in this zone despite the fact that CT essences are used for everything. At least in Qvic there are plat bags, and you can run through the bosses so you know you will probably get at least one essence every 10 minutes. Qvic essences also aren't needed for augs at all, dropping the demand significantly. For later essences you can look forward to the rare GSOA drop, AA crystals and other goodies.

CT essences are also especially rare as newbies will often use them to make early level augs instead of selling. Additionally, EZ hasn't had many new players recently (as evidenced by the emptiness of Surefall Glade) - so the influx of CTE has gone down.

To put this into perspective, I've taken at least thirty toons through all of their required gear in CT, and farmed probably twice that much time for just the essences alone, and all together I've collected somewhere between 60 and 80 essences from the zone - total. Not nearly enough for one UW, and not nearly enough to create augs for my core toons let alone other items.

There is an economic reason why GSOA and CT essences are trading for ridiculous prices. GSOA because it almost never drops, and CT essence for the reasons above.

Hate - I think you should review the drop rate of CT essences, or at the very least consider adding something to the drop pool in CT to make the experience less daunting for everyone. Maybe you could adjust it so CT bosses drop the essences as a common drop similar to Qvic, and add rare plat bags or something.

As it is I will get mine done just as everyone else has, but I have no problem seeing this reviewed for future players. Now, cue the "everything is too easy" folks with 4 UWs:
« Last Edit: February 19, 2015, 03:55:15 am by warrior5 » Logged

Goth
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« Reply #1 on: February 19, 2015, 08:15:19 am »

I would be happy with 1 every 30 min ... lately it seem like 1 per hour to 1.5 hours for me
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Dinadas
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« Reply #2 on: February 19, 2015, 08:25:53 am »

Add plat bags to CT

Add Ct essences to pool for t2-t4 daily.

Everyone is happy.

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Peign
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« Reply #3 on: February 19, 2015, 08:33:15 am »

Hmmm, I just geared 3 toons in CT.   I came out of there with 14 CT essences.   That was not even full clears.   

Drop rate in CT has always been a point of contention.     Scrap CT as the zone blows chunka, I mean chunks and bring back Tacvi!


Pro tip:   If mobs die during pulls, take your weapon off.
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Darpey
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« Reply #4 on: February 19, 2015, 08:37:37 am »

I liked Tacvi

Cazic Thule was one of my two favorite zones on old live - but it's so bland and tedious on EZ

Adding CT to Dranik would help the problem
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WatchYouDie
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« Reply #5 on: February 19, 2015, 08:39:24 am »

I get 2-3 a clear ...clear in 10 min I only avoid the tunnel at zone in because it doesn't connect with the rest of the zone....take out uw pull zone takes 10ish min with loot looking at 4-5 clear an hour so 8-15 an hour so 6ish hours...if you hardcore grind it...so that's pretty quick ct has one of the highest drop rates of ess per change of Hunter as they drop off trash and named at similar rates unlike other zones
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Fuzzypoodle
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« Reply #6 on: February 19, 2015, 01:38:04 pm »

Agree with Ishallnotdie ... CTs are as easy as Qvic. Oh, I don't have multiple UWs yet ... been back farming.  If its a progression thing ... suck it up, that's what progression means.  But they are dropping as Hunter last left them.
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Chunka
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« Reply #7 on: February 19, 2015, 07:35:02 pm »

Seem slower for me.....maybe just bad run of RNG. During DLW I did 22 clears for 46 essences (avoiding sewers, clearing everything else). Today I did 9 clears for 4 essences.
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warrior5
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« Reply #8 on: February 19, 2015, 08:29:59 pm »

I did two clears zero essences today. Very discouraging.
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Gannicus
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« Reply #9 on: February 19, 2015, 11:41:46 pm »

50 hours seems about right, during Christmas double loot last year - I did CT essences in a 27 hour straight grind (minus the servers 5 AM reboot) down time period.
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balidet
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« Reply #10 on: February 20, 2015, 12:35:21 am »

this is a horrible horrible mind numbing grind..

why do we want these types of things to be the checks on this server? CAN YOU STAY AWAKE TOTALLY borred for 50 hours....congratz!

fuck...

sorry...

any ideas to improve this?
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warrior5
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« Reply #11 on: February 20, 2015, 03:05:18 am »

Update: I was able to get a couple essences on a couple of clears. I honestly believe I am averaging 0-2 essences per clear max, so maybe one per clear if I'm really generous.

Regardless, it's not the same as Qvic. You have to pull the entire zone (apart from sewer since it's a wasted area) in order to get one essence. In Qvic, I averaged 1.5 essences per clear, and it was significantly easier to pull the bosses. I was able to clear Qvic in 6 minutes flat, that's 1.5 essences every 6 minutes. CT takes significantly longer to clear, there is risk of death, you need to catch every mob, and the zone sucks the life force out of you it's so boring. Qvic was a pain. A test if you will. CT is just a waste of time.

The problem with CT is, the essences are needed way more than Qvic essences, the drop rate is extremely low and you have to kill every mob for the opportunity. Additionally, CT is not built for zone pulling. It's the worst zone in the game to do this due to it's size, the distance between mobs, the tiny halls, dead-ends, doors and all the pitfalls. As a tank who just entered T9, I am forced to remove all weapons and ds buffs to avoid killing the mobs, and even with full T8 gear, one bad move can spell disaster as I'm hit 1000+ times for 1000+ dmg in an instant, forcing me to clear the current group before moving on. God forbid you accidentally kill them too close to a wall or you won't be able to loot all the corpses. Considering 90% of the zone is made of up tiny hallways from 1999 this can and does happen. Also, in CT you must loot every corpse, while in Qvic, you can loot just the bosses. The two zones don't even compare.

Personally, I'm not a fan of zone pulling to begin with. I never did it with drake in higher tiers, and I hate feeling like I have to do it with CT. It doesn't feel like I'm playing a fantasy mmorpg when all I'm doing is running around tiny maze-like halls pulling a thousand weak lizards for 50 hours. Some of you seem to enjoy this - no idea why. I prefer to pull small groups of mobs, always have. Didn't Hate nerf Skin specifically because he didn't want us pulling zones? In that case CT is even harder.

As I said before, every other zone that drops essences provides incentives beyond just the essence, they are more fun to play and navigate, and the time/reward ratio seems on par.

CT is the exception. It's an outlier in the mix. Anyone who says farming CT essences isn't a bottle neck of unreasonably boring boredom-filled painfully tedious lizard puke pie is kidding themselves.

I've seen higher tier folks on this server pay lowbies to farm CT for them that's how bad it is. Literally, not like "wtb ct essences" - I'm talking "if you farm 20 CTE for me I will pay you 20mil plat" or whatever. That's how you know it's a problem.

That combined with the fact that no one ever has CT essences just lying around. Ever.

Never Ever.  Tongue

« Last Edit: February 20, 2015, 03:56:18 am by warrior5 » Logged

Peign
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« Reply #12 on: February 20, 2015, 08:37:16 am »

Not everyone is going to get all the shinies.
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WatchYouDie
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« Reply #13 on: February 20, 2015, 09:00:08 am »

Funny how the people complaining the server is to easy blah blah are on here complaining that it's not far enough and they are getting stunned to much and the server is to hard...you guys need to get on some xanax
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Peign
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« Reply #14 on: February 20, 2015, 09:10:02 am »

if every item is within everyone's grasp, then nothing is special.    Part of mmorpgs is that you get out what you put in.    If you choose to sit in nexus and or write buff bot macros during your play time, so be it, you get what you put in.   

all mmorpgs had some element of grind and or bottlenecks.     Lets look at EQ live.   When epics first came out, they were difficult to obtain.   You had to jump through a lot of hoops.    Not everyone was capable and or willing to jump through those hoops so therefore not everyone got the epics.     

Everything should not be easy.   Everything should not be just given to everyone.   That entire concept diminishes the value of the items.

Stop bitching that things are too hard and get your candy asses into the grind.    Less talk more grind == more items. 
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