14 replies to this topic

[Enscheff]

Before last night I had done 5 level 10 dailies without a ring, and enough total fractal runs to have acquired almost 750 relics. I still had not seen a Mists Essence drop to make my back item, and I was sick and tired of trying to progress past level 11 with no agony resist.

I'm sure this horrid luck with drops plagues some of you as well, so this is how I farmed my Mists Essence solo:

I bought a full set of green Explorer armor, a full set of green Opal jewelry, 3 Major Pirate Runes, 3 Major Traveler Runes, a yellow Axe with magic find, a Major Sigil of Luck, and some peach tarts. These are not the best magic find items, but they offer a LOT of magic find for around 2 gold total.

I then went in and out of level 9 fractals until I found one that contained easy to kill mobs that respawned quickly and dropped loot. Surprisingly, many of the mobs that respwn indefinitely do NOT have a chance to drop any loot.

You can tell a mob has a chance to drop loot because your Sigil of Luck counter will only increment if the mob you kill has a chance to drop loot.

I finally settled on the swamp fractal. The Jungle Spiders, Mosquitos, Fireflys, and Slamoths all made the Sigil of Luck counter increment, so they all have a chance to drop loot. They die quickly. They respawn quickly. I ended up making a circuit killing the 3 Mosquitos near the pillars, then the 3 Jungle Spiders near the spider egg wisp, then the 3 Fireflies just beyond the annoying wall in front of the pillars. I skipped the Slamoths because they were more out of the way and the other mobs respawned fast enough.

After about 45 minutes of nonstop killing I finally got my first Vial of Mists Essence.

I know this may seem pointless to most of you that have gotten many of these vials to drop, but I was one of those unlucky few that has never seen one in dozens of fractal runs. This is a way to farm by yourself until you have some agony resist to help you get past level 10.

Edited by Enscheff, 19 December 2012 - 05:53 PM.

[Vysander]

Careful, any method of farming not intended by A-net will be nerfed (and some methods intended)

[turbo234]

Vysander, on 19 December 2012 - 06:45 PM, said:

Careful, any method of farming not intended by A-net will be nerfed (and some methods intended)

yeah, no. this doesn't hurt the game in any form so there is no reason to nerf it. You can't sell the vials anyways. And him running around and killing things is the same as doing it in any other zone.

[X Ghoul]

People that don't understand how agony works think it's a necessity from lvl 10+ when it only actually starts to matter when you hit lvl 20+. An "easier" farming method is getting a group of friends and resetting fractals until you hit dredge and load up on MF gear or food buffs and farm lvl 10-19 for a essence/glob (since you can make 1 glob = 3 essence).

[Vysander]

turbo234, on 19 December 2012 - 06:48 PM, said:

yeah, no. this doesn't hurt the game in any form so there is no reason to nerf it. You can't sell the vials anyways. And him running around and killing things is the same as doing it in any other zone.

What else do those mobs drop?

Just sayin, if enough people do this, they will look at it.

[Gilles VI]

Vysander, on 19 December 2012 - 06:45 PM, said:

Careful, any method of farming not intended by A-net will be nerfed (and some methods intended)

Tinfoil hat!
What is the difference between people doing fractals normal and killing stuff fast and with him soloing some stuff?

Exactly nothing, they can't really nerf this, except when they should nerf it for everyone..

[Enscheff]

X Ghoul, on 19 December 2012 - 06:55 PM, said:

People that don't understand how agony works think it's a necessity from lvl 10+ when it only actually starts to matter when you hit lvl 20+. An "easier" farming method is getting a group of friends and resetting fractals until you hit dredge and load up on MF gear or food buffs and farm lvl 10-19 for a essence/glob (since you can make 1 glob = 3 essence).

I'm well aware of how the Agony mechanic works. There are ways to avoid it sometimes, and ways to heal through it, but it is undeniably better to have 5-10 Agony Resistance than to have 0.

This post was to tell unlucky casual players how they can solo an essence, which is precisely why the word "solo" appears in the subject line. If you have a group of friends willing to farm a vial with you then obviously you will not be interested in this method.

[Zebz]

Nice post.  I was having awful luck with this as well.  May not be the best choice but if you don't have a group to play with atm, it is helpful.  Literally did this for 5 minutes and got my first vial drop.   Have done 12 fractals with replays.

[ngoc50]

Hello, does anyone know if maybe this has been nerfed or maybe I just have bad luck. I did this for a total of 5 hours yesterday, 2 hrs in the morning before work and 3 more before I went to bed. I only had 50% magic finding so I was prepared to farm a bit longer and I still don't mind farming even more since I used to play everquest its no problem to me but I was just wondering if this method still works or am I just killing time. Thank u

[Stigma]

This is a common way of swamp farming

[Enscheff]

ngoc50, on 11 January 2013 - 05:31 PM, said:

Hello, does anyone know if maybe this has been nerfed or maybe I just have bad luck. I did this for a total of 5 hours yesterday, 2 hrs in the morning before work and 3 more before I went to bed. I only had 50% magic finding so I was prepared to farm a bit longer and I still don't mind farming even more since I used to play everquest its no problem to me but I was just wondering if this method still works or am I just killing time. Thank u

I can confirm this still works as of Sunday night because I did it to farm a GLob in a level 14 fractal.

It is important that you kill the right mobs though. There are only 3 Jungle Spiders, 3 Mosquitos, 3 Fireflies, and 3 Slamoths that can drop loot. If you don't see your Luck counter increment when you kill the mob, it will NOT drop loot for you. Skelks do not work. The spiders from the eggs do not work. The 12 mobs I listed above are the only ones that work.

With a full set of MF I usually get one mist about every hour (obviously its streaky, but that is the average over many times farming in there). I'm not convinced MF affects the drop rate, but it can't hurt to have it on anyways since I can usually pull 2-3 gold per hour out of there by selling venom sacs, dyes, and ectos from rare drops. All solo.

[Gaidaigoji]

Ok sorry to ask but what is a fractal and are the lvl's you are talking about player lvl?

[Job_Ox44]

A couple of us tried this after the 1/28 patch, at fotm 10 and 20, and we got no drops. Not just zero mist essences, but zero ANYTHING. At least 3 full rounds on each difficulty of the siamoths, fireflies, etc with my sigil of luck counter registering and neither of us got a single drop of any kind.

Wondering if anyone else has tried since the patch? Is this an anomaly of the worst luck possible or have they nerfed drops completely in the Swamp?

[Eon Lilu]

Job_Ox44, on 31 January 2013 - 06:01 PM, said:

A couple of us tried this after the 1/28 patch, at fotm 10 and 20, and we got no drops. Not just zero mist essences, but zero ANYTHING. At least 3 full rounds on each difficulty of the siamoths, fireflies, etc with my sigil of luck counter registering and neither of us got a single drop of any kind.

Wondering if anyone else has tried since the patch? Is this an anomaly of the worst luck possible or have they nerfed drops completely in the Swamp?

They made fotm harder, take alot longer, made it alot harder to pug and nerfed all drops in all fractals, rares and exotics drop alot less and alot of people have been saying they are getting alot more whites and blue's now.

Stealth nerf as nothing in the patch notes, also the chest looting system is bugged, people getting whites from chest npc drops.

Edited by Eon Lilu, 31 January 2013 - 06:51 PM.

[Elysen]

Eon Lilu, on 31 January 2013 - 06:51 PM, said:

They made fotm harder, take alot longer, made it alot harder to pug and nerfed all drops in all fractals, rares and exotics drop alot less and alot of people have been saying they are getting alot more whites and blue's now.

I can't speak for exotics as I never got these with a degree of reliability, but for the past few days I have been getting more rares in every fractal than previously. In addition to that, this has been in lower level fractals. Perhaps this is just you being unlucky, or have you got quotes by AN Devs confirming drop rates being reduced?