Post by squirrelloid on Jul 7, 2011 0:07:37 GMT -5
So, for anyone who has decided they really want to put together the crafted travel power items, well, you may have noticed its pretty daunting. It requires a *ton* of dropped components. And a quick look in the AH is even more discouraging, with the ridiculous 4-5g apiece for knives, tissues, and power cores.
The purpose of this thread is (1) to try to find out what a good and realistic price is on components, (2) identify areas where you could best spend your time farming components.
This is a perpetual work in progress. And i need feedback from others on their experiences since i've only tried for science so far. I will compile relevant experience in the first post to serve as a quick guide.
I'll use tier 1, 2, and 3 in reference to dropped components, with the obvious meanings. Each tier has 2 components for each R+D type.
Buying
Reinforced Tissue - I've payed 1G apiece on over 100 of them, be patient, advertise in MC or wait for someone sensible to advertise and make that offer.
-I've now paid around 70N apiece on over 60 of them.
Many players don't understand these are valuable at all, and when you offer to buy them are quite willing to part with them at more reasonable values. I'd still give them a fair return on them (lower than 50N at this point is probably ripping them off), but as awareness that these are worth selling to other players increases it should generally bring the price down because the available supply will dramatically expand, but i doubt the number of people building CTPs will increase all that much.
Farming
Science:
Tier 1
-Probably best farmed in the Rats in a Maze mission by most characters. Just don't complete the 'explore the lab' portion of the mission and you can run it repeatedly. Run it on elite for more drops. The piles of rat manimals on this map make it ideal for farming these components. Map can be exited and entered again immediately - it will reset.
-For an instanced map that doesn't go away if you complete its quest, the Lost Caves is populated with only creatures that drop tier 1 science components, but few to no rat manimals make it less good.
-If you can run Moreau's Lab by yourself, you can fight rhino and moreau for a long time and farm the rat manimals moreau summons. Even on normal this drops a stupid number of components, and also a lot of healing power-ups to let you keep going indefinitely. The hard fight in moreau's lab is chimera, so run it on the highest difficulty you can beat him on (in reasonable time). Be prepared to spend awhile fighting rhino and moreau, but its probably the absolute best tier 1 science farming in the game. (Will also pick up some Tier 1 arms against viper on the way down, as a bonus). You will want a good AoE attack. Do note that Rhino/Moreau are the ones capable of dropping the storm rider 1.1 blueprint, so you have other reasons for wanting to farm them as well =).
Tier 2
-There are exactly 2 instanced maps which drop tier 2 science components.
::Radiation caves is soloable at elite, but really short, but doesn't require the mission to enter. Questionable farming potential, but there are 3 Qularr Hives to milk if you're willing to wait for spawns. Not noticeably fast, but don't need to move around much.
::The Viper lair jungle area has dinosaurs which drop tier 2. Getting to it on elite solo is *really hard* because you have to get past ripper, most characters will not be able to do so. Not recommended at all.
-There are four overland areas of MI that drop T2 sci.
::The Qularr mechanics are sparsed and interspersed with level 35 Qularr who'll drop T1, so not a good location.
::There are rare instances of manimals and teleiosaurs in the Argent preserve, but they're sparsely distributed and thus hard to farm, not recommended.
::Telieosaurs in Slither Beach are ok, but they tend to attack each other. This reduces the number of creatures available to farm if you aren't on them shortly after spawn.
::Echinos Shores has 2 areas of level 38 worms. The north coast road is entirely 38, and the area from the west most lava river past the quest givers and along the ridge to the south is level 38 worms. (The main road towards slither beach becomes 39s).
I personally recommend Echinos Shores and maybe Radiation Caves, but there's no good location for T2 Sci.
Tier 3
-Relatively easy to get because many UNITY missions will feature enemies that drop science components.
-Overland areas - worms in eastern echinos shores, along the road towards slither beach in western echinos shores, and bleak ones in rastifhar abyss in Lemuria. Note UNITY missions will also send you to both these areas to kill these monster types.
-Sluggy's temple is repeatable, instanced, easily soloable, but I *think* you need someone else to have opened it after you've finished the quest to get in (and getting in with the quest requires grabbing 4 worm gems).
Mysticism:
Arms:
Tier 1: The quest for sabotaging the arms shipments may be your best bet, but i don't believe it resets immediately upon leaving (but have not tested). It is instanced and easily soloable, but will not be available if you complete the mission.
Tier 2: The freedom trail cave is instanced and thus elite-capable, easily soloable, and is available whether or not you have the mission. Its not anywhere near as good as farming rat manimals, but its better than the world map.
Tier 3: Fairly abundant due to UNITY missions since Viper drops them.
If anyone else has recommendations on price or places to farm, please post.
The purpose of this thread is (1) to try to find out what a good and realistic price is on components, (2) identify areas where you could best spend your time farming components.
This is a perpetual work in progress. And i need feedback from others on their experiences since i've only tried for science so far. I will compile relevant experience in the first post to serve as a quick guide.
I'll use tier 1, 2, and 3 in reference to dropped components, with the obvious meanings. Each tier has 2 components for each R+D type.
Buying
Reinforced Tissue - I've payed 1G apiece on over 100 of them, be patient, advertise in MC or wait for someone sensible to advertise and make that offer.
-I've now paid around 70N apiece on over 60 of them.
Many players don't understand these are valuable at all, and when you offer to buy them are quite willing to part with them at more reasonable values. I'd still give them a fair return on them (lower than 50N at this point is probably ripping them off), but as awareness that these are worth selling to other players increases it should generally bring the price down because the available supply will dramatically expand, but i doubt the number of people building CTPs will increase all that much.
Farming
Science:
Tier 1
-Probably best farmed in the Rats in a Maze mission by most characters. Just don't complete the 'explore the lab' portion of the mission and you can run it repeatedly. Run it on elite for more drops. The piles of rat manimals on this map make it ideal for farming these components. Map can be exited and entered again immediately - it will reset.
-For an instanced map that doesn't go away if you complete its quest, the Lost Caves is populated with only creatures that drop tier 1 science components, but few to no rat manimals make it less good.
-If you can run Moreau's Lab by yourself, you can fight rhino and moreau for a long time and farm the rat manimals moreau summons. Even on normal this drops a stupid number of components, and also a lot of healing power-ups to let you keep going indefinitely. The hard fight in moreau's lab is chimera, so run it on the highest difficulty you can beat him on (in reasonable time). Be prepared to spend awhile fighting rhino and moreau, but its probably the absolute best tier 1 science farming in the game. (Will also pick up some Tier 1 arms against viper on the way down, as a bonus). You will want a good AoE attack. Do note that Rhino/Moreau are the ones capable of dropping the storm rider 1.1 blueprint, so you have other reasons for wanting to farm them as well =).
Tier 2
-There are exactly 2 instanced maps which drop tier 2 science components.
::Radiation caves is soloable at elite, but really short, but doesn't require the mission to enter. Questionable farming potential, but there are 3 Qularr Hives to milk if you're willing to wait for spawns. Not noticeably fast, but don't need to move around much.
::The Viper lair jungle area has dinosaurs which drop tier 2. Getting to it on elite solo is *really hard* because you have to get past ripper, most characters will not be able to do so. Not recommended at all.
-There are four overland areas of MI that drop T2 sci.
::The Qularr mechanics are sparsed and interspersed with level 35 Qularr who'll drop T1, so not a good location.
::There are rare instances of manimals and teleiosaurs in the Argent preserve, but they're sparsely distributed and thus hard to farm, not recommended.
::Telieosaurs in Slither Beach are ok, but they tend to attack each other. This reduces the number of creatures available to farm if you aren't on them shortly after spawn.
::Echinos Shores has 2 areas of level 38 worms. The north coast road is entirely 38, and the area from the west most lava river past the quest givers and along the ridge to the south is level 38 worms. (The main road towards slither beach becomes 39s).
I personally recommend Echinos Shores and maybe Radiation Caves, but there's no good location for T2 Sci.
Tier 3
-Relatively easy to get because many UNITY missions will feature enemies that drop science components.
-Overland areas - worms in eastern echinos shores, along the road towards slither beach in western echinos shores, and bleak ones in rastifhar abyss in Lemuria. Note UNITY missions will also send you to both these areas to kill these monster types.
-Sluggy's temple is repeatable, instanced, easily soloable, but I *think* you need someone else to have opened it after you've finished the quest to get in (and getting in with the quest requires grabbing 4 worm gems).
Mysticism:
Arms:
Tier 1: The quest for sabotaging the arms shipments may be your best bet, but i don't believe it resets immediately upon leaving (but have not tested). It is instanced and easily soloable, but will not be available if you complete the mission.
Tier 2: The freedom trail cave is instanced and thus elite-capable, easily soloable, and is available whether or not you have the mission. Its not anywhere near as good as farming rat manimals, but its better than the world map.
Tier 3: Fairly abundant due to UNITY missions since Viper drops them.
If anyone else has recommendations on price or places to farm, please post.