Curse

Nightingale 001 · Feb 08, 2011, 10:55 PM // 22:55

Hello; decided to edit this after the comments below, it should be alot more accurate and helpful.

A few months ago I looked at the amount of gold in my storage and gave a big *sigh*...i've never been one for farming and never had one of those lucky drops worth ectos and ectos...nope just an ordinary poor player. What i needed was something where i could keep the treasure hunter/lucky/unlucky titles going and make cash.....consets.

For a basic recipe of 50 consets you need 5000 ingots, 5000 dust, 2500 bone, 2500 feathers and 150 skill points. You will also need 1 superior salvage kit (100 uses), 1 salvage kit (25 uses) and an ID kit (100 uses). oh and of course time... approximatly 12hrs playing time.

The initial cost is therefore 2600g. All the materials can be farmed or salvaged, there is absoultly no need to buy any of the basic materials for the consets, this includes the 38K that you will need to finally make the sets.

The Salavge kit is used for salvaging common materials, the superior salvage kit is used when you want to salvage runes.

Feathers first. I farm feathers in Jaya Bluffs. A NM run may be quicker and easier however you are not going to get the rune drops that you need to make the method self sufficient. It is therefore important to farm in HM. A run takes about 30 mins. The yield in feathers works out at an average of 127 feathers dropped per run + 18 feathered crests (each can be salvaged into 3 feathers on average).This works out at 362 feather per hour (I'm intersted in figures for NM, no probaly or maybe pls, i took the time to document my HM runs to give accurate figures over a long period of time, estimations after a few NM runs is not good enough). This average was worked out over 120 runs. The highest was over 300 feathers dropped...the lowest 0 (and i was not a happy bunny on that one!).

The important thing is to look at the other "non feather" drops, they are the ones that are going to allow you to recycle you cash. First up, we are also looking for iron and bone. Bone drops also from sensali (about 30 per run), so you are going to end up with some bone directly. The rest of the bone and the iron is going to come from salvaging materials with your basic salvage kit. I've made a small list of the most common weps that drop that will salvage into either bone or ingots:-

Deadly Cesta (Iron)
Truncheon (Iron)
Sunqua blade (Iron)
Skull shiled (Iron)
Melon Hammer (Iron)
Smiting rod (Iron)
Sensali crestgaurd (Iron or Tanned hide)
Kamas (Iron)
Grim Cesta (bone)
idol (Bone)

Not a full list but just the most common drops.

The rest will salavge into wood or cloth, it is therefore probably more profitable to sell the wep to the merch rather than salvage it.

Runes come from 2 sources, Sensali Crestgaurds and Sensali Garbs. All runes can be sold to a rune trader for a minimum of 25g. However it is always a good idea to check with the rune trader before farming to see which ones have real value, these runes are the ones that are going to make you the cash. I've compiled a small list of the ones of value at the moment, this can change, so check first, some runes are just not worth it :-

Runes to be salvaged.

Rit minor spawning, Minor marksmanship
Rit minor communing , Minor healing
Knight insig, Minor Protection
Stonefist insig, Minor divine
Sentinal, Bloodstained insig
Minor strength, Minor soul reaping
Minor swordsmanship, Minor Death magic
Minor hammer, Minor fast casting
Minor axe, Minor inspiration
Minor tactics, Minor Energy storage
Minor expertise, Minor Fire Magic
Vangaurd insig, Nightstalker
Minor critical strikes, Minor dagger
Attunement, Survivor
Maj. Vigor, Minor vigor
Radiant, Blessed insig
Stalwart insig, Vitae

It should take about 14 runs (7hrs of playing) to get the 2500 feathers that you need. However if you are getting bored you can always skip and change between dust and feathers to clear the brain, this also has for effect to stop the anti farming nerf, i would therefore suggest it.

once the feathers done, you should also have around 1300 ingots and 1000 bones, this depends on your drops of course. You will also have accumulated about 20k in cash.

Next up dust. Two places to farm. Outside ToA running to the west is an area full of fog nightmares that can be farmed (approx. 80 dust per run a run being 8-10mins in NM). This is quick but the downside is that the the other drops are virtually worthless when salvaged and give you hardly any ingots...or golds. Even worse, after a short time i have found that the drops get really bad, alot of no dust runs. It becomes a waste of time after a while...and of course we can make better money elsewhere!!

So i use FoW (NM). With exactly the same build that i use for Jaya. The idea here is to collect the Dark remains which salvage into 14 dust (on average). However only the shadow army will drop these so you need only farm the part around the tower of courage. You should be able to get 8 (average again) dark remains, and about 20 dust, the most i ever got was 22, and i also got 0 from a run. More importantly you will get 2 obsidian shards on average per run. Salvage all the items dropped again. Each run takes about 15 mins. You will need to do about 35 runs...but you will get scroll drops and the conset useless materials can be sold (as can the shards), so you shouldn't need to touch the 30K you have allready made. The great thing about FoW is that shards drop...on average you will get 1 per run...so 35 shrads, thats more or less 140k.

I've done this 4 times now and i have never had to buy materials...however, if you dont have quite enough iron (which is possible because its dependant on the drops you get and salvage) you can buy some with your excess cash or simply go do a DoA run or two in a PUG group, most other players will leave the drops so you can pick up the iron containg ones as you go round.

Once the materials got you can and get the cons made up.

Personally i use alot of my sets in PUG groups, some i sell in ToA or DoA. If selling you can undercut the "material buyer" conset sellers and sell very quickly.

A final point on skill points. 150 skill points is 2,250,000 exp or the equivilant of killing 8929 sensali in HM.... From this method you will only get 65 or so skill points (2 points from the feather run and 1 pt from the FoW run....more or less if you do the first quest in FoW...). If you are short on pts i would suggest.....PLAY THE GAME!!

So with 2600g you now have 50 consets....

Have fun

Final point....my build....I am not a build whizz...but it gets me through...and i know how to use it....my best suggestion is find something that works for you and to practice , make refinements, until you are happy to play what you like...but for the record...

Runes...Superior channeling, Superior Communing, Sup vigor, and energy runes.
WEP, Halves recharge of spells and energy +5

SoS
Vampirism
Bloodsong
Shadowsong
Pain
Painful bond
Summon Spirits
Assasin support

How it works (or how i do it!!).. set up spirits close to the group you are aiming for, send in sin support (which will cause the group to bunch up), fire off painful bond once the enemies are bunched, fall back behind sprit wall, reset shadowsong, pain and bloodsong, fall back, reset SoS and Vampirism, fire off sin at almost dead targets. A senasli group killed in under 3 mins, shadow army group even quicker.

have fun

Star_Jewel · Feb 08, 2011, 11:32 PM // 23:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Nightingale 001

You will also need 1 salvage kit (100 uses) and an ID kit (100 uses).
...
You should also have around 800 ingots plus 50-60 steel ingots (salvage into 3 iron ingots on average).

If your goal is earning/saving money, why oh why are you using Superior Kits (twice! in some cases), when you could use regular kits? I know inventory space is a premium when farming, but if you salvage as you go, the kits should get used up and free up space before most of the runs are over.

Granted, there are exceptions for kits acquired with trophies.... But if you're buying the kits, it seems like a bad practice to me. Especially if you're trying for common mats, like iron.

Ariena Najea · Feb 09, 2011, 12:09 AM // 00:09

Quote:

Originally Posted by Star_Jewel

If your goal is earning/saving money, why oh why are you using Superior Kits (twice! in some cases), when you could use regular kits? I know inventory space is a premium when farming, but if you salvage as you go, the kits should get used up and free up space before most of the runs are over.

Granted, there are exceptions for kits acquired with trophies.... But if you're buying the kits, it seems like a bad practice to me. Especially if you're trying for common mats, like iron.

When aiming for the basic crafting materials, always use a normal salvage kit (not Expert or Superior).

loopysnoopy · Feb 09, 2011, 12:16 AM // 00:16

Nice guide I would like to point out one little thing some times you can make more money by adding a summon stone with the batch of cons when you sell to make more of a profit.

Dust I have always found farming tahnaki,nahpui HM for dust and drops and the weapons sell for a fair bit too. Both missions are simple to solo in HM or NM so the choices are yours. I'm a stickler when it come to paying for entry in to places like FoW or UW when you can farm missions for the materials and lets not forget Eotn great place for most MATS dust vetiers alas your guide is not bad but you need to think of the simplicity of other areas. Yes obbys are great but do a full run of FoW to achieve much more not quick it will take longer.

SoS is the most simple farm around why not mix and match this way you will not hit the fabled drop rate nerf bat and try vabbi areas for dust,iron,cloth etc or the desolation another fun area. My point is, many areas can yeild much much more in terms of how you tackle it, but in 12hrs play time I'm sure if you was dedicated enough the time could be cut down by using different areas say jaya 1st then vabbi then say north kryta you will find after an hours farming you will have netted your self much more.

Solar AUS · Feb 09, 2011, 12:35 AM // 00:35

thanks for bringing this up again. However, there has been a more extensive guide up (at least) since 2009:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/u...t10391674.html

Seems its that time again and ppl want cheaper consets

El Perma Shadow · Feb 09, 2011, 12:44 AM // 00:44

hey i trolled in that one too!

On the other side just buying the mats will next you a return anyways if you plan to sell them
5 consets only cost you (10k for feathers, 12 for iron, 8-10k for granite and 8k for dust, unsure on all i dont do full cons anymore)
1set = 9k 5=45k you get a little profit on this side for more cons

Voodoo Rage · Feb 09, 2011, 02:13 AM // 02:13

Just an aside, I tend to get a crapload of dust salvaging Great Conch Shells dropped from raptors. If you stick a Measure for Measure on a Gold one you usually get like 80-150 dust from a single salvage.

El Perma Shadow · Feb 09, 2011, 05:19 AM // 05:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Voodoo Rage

Just an aside, I tend to get a crapload of dust salvaging Great Conch Shells dropped from raptors. If you stick a Measure for Measure on a Gold one you usually get like 80-150 dust from a single salvage.

^^ one of the one farms i got a lot of dust from.

Amber items salvage into dust 99% of the time

Spiritz · Feb 09, 2011, 09:33 AM // 09:33

ok - if others already stated some things im going to add here anyway so its all in 1.

Salvage kits - ONLY use normal kits , when you salvage materials for consets you only want the 4 types and a 100 use kit is a superior salvage kit which will attempt to salvage materials into rare and normal.You will waste money via cost , you may not get iron all time but steel instead - whats worse is salv something with m4m and instead of 100 iron you get 10 steel.
You say sell runes even if 25g - nope
If your using a sup salv kit ( or the expert kit ) the cost of use is higher and that 25g you thing you get is probably worth 5 - 10g after useage cost.I only sell runes that give me bk 100g or more anything else is sold to merch.
Fogs are fine for dust and they can provide some iron tho i usually get more than 3 iron per salv.
Iron really needs to be farmed in hm and many will agree its not hard to find places that provide easy iron in hm - go for certain foes.

Lastly - if your in conset farming for the money then why the hell are you BUYING mats , hell its not exactly the hardest thing in gw to farm the mats needed.I kno how big the profit margin is when you farm the items.
And id guess the rise in conset price isnt from the true conset farmers but the idiots who buy the materials because they are either too lazy to work for the money or they have no idea where to farm it.Price rises in iron/dust/feathers dont affect true conset farmers - the only cost we have to pay is 3skill points a set , small amount of gold per set and price of xx salv kits and a huge profit thats probably around 3x that the fools that buy mats get.
One day i may pop to toa and charge 8k again for consets an make sure i got around 100 sets to sell and i`ll annoy the mat buyers but could i bee that evil .. can anyone be that evil :P

Nightingale 001 · Feb 09, 2011, 11:51 AM // 11:51

Hello again...

Point taken for the salvage kits...and i really should have stated this in the first place. I know (as i think everyone does) that you get the common (and no rare materials) from just using normal salvage kits, its just that when you have more than 75 weps/armor drops to salvage from a feather run (around 140 creatures killed) I quickly run out of space in my bags...but obviously its better to use normal ones...the remark is taken and thanks to all for pointing it out !!

To answer another point. The only mats you may need to buy would be iron, and then only a stack at most to complete the 50 sets, because i'm farming feathers in HM and mostly melee creatures who drop metals containing stuff, i dont need to buy iron. The other stuff is completly farmed (i've never had to buy/farm bone as salvaged stuff gives me more than enough). Remember that this was a basic guide, dealing to all, who may or may not get all the mats they need. Another option would be to do a full run in DoA, alot of players just leave the drops, go back later and pick up the metal containing stuff (this is just an example!!).

Thanks for the input on different zones...everyone has their favorite spots for farming different mats, and often a change of area does help. The feather drop average was calculated over 100 runs (from 130 done)....i didnt include the first 30 runs in the calculation and the average seems to be fairly standard. Its probably because im clearing 140 monsters or so. Other zones tend to have fewer monsters and the drop rate nerf seems to come into affect alot quicker...i found this with dust drops from fog nightmares, i'm not an expert on this though and there are allready threads concerning this point. Dust itself can be got from numerous areas, FoW is just a fave because of mine because of the obby shard drops. you also get scroll drops which of course means entry is free.

And finally i agree with the point of selling for 8K...it would be 8k of pure profit anyway.

A final note. Before writing this post i tried it out. I started with 2500g initial investement and made 50 consets with no other cash input needed, I wanted to be 100% certain that what i wrote worked...and it does. The feather drop rate was deliberatly calculated and im confident that it holds up over the long run, i'm still collecting data on the dark remains farm but the figures given above seem to be holding up quite nicely after over 70 runs. Obviously if the dust run goes cold i will have to find somewhere more reliable but this one is working for me atm.

Thanks all for the feedback...very interesting.

North Dragon Slayer · Feb 09, 2011, 03:27 PM // 15:27

How about including some builds?

luwe80 · Feb 09, 2011, 04:20 PM // 16:20

don't cons cost 750$ gold to make as well? So to make 50 sets you'll need almost 38k in gold.

Nightingale 001 · Feb 09, 2011, 04:39 PM // 16:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by North Dragon Slayer

How about including some builds?

As stated, I'm not a build freak, i dont invent new stuff, all my build are just tiny variations on stuff from here (thanks to all those who put builds up). It also depends upon which prof you are using to farm and also your style of play. My rit build is basic SoS with sin support added in.

The best advice is, now you know how are where to do it, find the stuff that suits you best and run with it. Over time and with practice you will perfect your tactics.

Quote:

Originally Posted by luwe80

don't cons cost 750$ gold to make as well? So to make 50 sets you'll need almost 38k in gold.

Yep...i see someone has been using a calculator. You will easily make enough money from the drops (maj. vig runes drop quite alot as do black and white dyes) to cover the costs of buying the consets.

The 2500g starting investement includes buying the cons aswell.

Spiritz · Feb 09, 2011, 04:55 PM // 16:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by North Dragon Slayer

How about including some builds?

Builds are already covered a while ago in farming section

luwe80 - add say 2k for salv kits and you have a rough idea of costs and profit

also it can be quicker and more feathers per hr in nm than hm .
Most will judge say 300 feathers easily per hr nm vs a stack in 1 hr hm even tho in hm you get better drops ( but farmers want only feathers lol )

CrustyEarl · Feb 09, 2011, 05:30 PM // 17:30

Quote:

Most will judge say 300 feathers easily per hr nm vs a stack in 1 hr hm even tho in hm you get better drops ( but farmers want only feathers lol )

^this Plus it saves on space if you only pick up Runed drops and Feathers/crests. This way you can run the cheaper kits.

NoSkoollikeOldSkool · Feb 10, 2011, 07:31 AM // 07:31

@OP.

What char type/build were you using to do the HM feather farm

Bad Company Sin · Feb 10, 2011, 08:14 AM // 08:14

in HM, Im sure its an SoS build.

Nightingale 001 · Feb 16, 2011, 09:19 PM // 21:19

lots of very positive feed back in-game from all the real players..thanks alot

Whatever builds that you are using, practice makes perfect, its better to have a good feeling for your build/playing han to follow what is written.

I dont mind giving a helping hand...just remember that i am PLAYING the game and that sometimes im not gonna be able to reply....you are not forgotten.

good luck and yet again thanks...

El Perma Shadow · Feb 17, 2011, 01:35 PM // 13:35

use the ele build harro used because its only a 9 minute run for feather, when i got i get close to 100 per run

Xiao Erh · Feb 18, 2011, 04:15 AM // 04:15

Reading OP's post, I gather he/she is basically using a ritualist to farm everything for the consets. Doable but slow and using the VwK build is faster in NM imo as an SS build is slow in NM, hence in HM. Ele or Mo farming North Kryta in HM yields lots of bones and dust. Ele farming in HM at Jaga Moraine will net lots of iron. 55 HP Mo or Ele can also get lots of iron in Skyward Reach. For dust go further from ToA to Talmark Wilderness where there are more Fog Nightmares. UW is much better for Rit Solo for ectos and dust rather than FoW. 6-9 ectos per run is not uncommon.