Curse

Friar Khan · Aug 29, 2007, 08:31 AM // 08:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrSlayer

Do NOT mass farm these. They are loot scaled. Killing the enemy 1 by 1 (even in just a big group) means MUCH more glacial stones drop.

Thanks for pointing that out, that's a good point. I ended up farming them 1 by 1, but only because that was the fastest way my toon could kill them. The loot scaling is defintely something to keep in mind when I start farming for the earth/fire/air gloves (assuming they'll also be traded for common drops).

T1Cybernetic · Aug 29, 2007, 09:40 AM // 09:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrSlayer

Do NOT mass farm these. They are loot scaled. Killing the enemy 1 by 1 (even in just a big group) means MUCH more glacial stones drop.

55 with SV + Vampiric Gaze works fine. Got me my stones and every single enemy I killed dropped SOMETHING. I pulled groups of 4-5 at a time and SVd them.

Killing them 1 by 1 wont make a difference to loot scaling? Loot scaling is based on how big the party is not how you kill them.

Or am i missunderstanding something

MrSlayer · Aug 29, 2007, 09:51 AM // 09:51

It's supposed to work one way but I am a massive W/Rt fan and here's what I notice.

I pull 16-20 smites in the first pull. I have got something like;
* 1-3 piles of 100 gold
* 2-3 white/blue drops
* 1-(3; from the same group xD) ecto

Thats from pulling 16-20 smites.

However when I pull the same number of smites but in SMALLER pulls (4-5 per pull) this is more like what I get IN ONE PULL FROM ONE GROUP
* 1-2 piles of 100g
* 1 white/blue drop
* chance of an ecto

Now you can easily see that if I pulled the SMALLER group x 4 (to make the 16-20 off a BIG pull) I SHOULD be getting

*4-8 piles of 100 gold
*4-5 white/blue drops
*ecto chance

Loot scaling works the same on single enemy. I tested this on the Vaettir, so I'm not just pulling this out of my ass as the expression goes. I tried mass farming them with SS. Ether Feast made it slow, but also I got WAY less drops.

But with SV you can pull 4-5 at a time for boundless energy, and kill them 1 by 1. Pretty much every single one to die (infact I only remember about 5 enemy in the hour and a half I farmed who didn't) drop something.

Hope this helps anyway

I have also been using this to farm Skree Wings for myself for Nesting Material. Killing the enemy 1 at a time (I use my sin) always gets me a drop.

Krazi Bastid · Aug 29, 2007, 10:12 PM // 22:12

this is what i used. money in the bank. fast, easy, no e-probs.

ps, h.breeze, dual visages, soj, ess bond, balth spirit, mending

i forget the atts, but i had like 8 second visages 12pip regen with hb up. aggro half of em. alternate visage and soj. they were left with a sliver of life when i did it. but i only had 14 smite and had useless pts in divine. put it up to 15 and they die in one soj.

fog_of_redoubt · Aug 30, 2007, 01:44 AM // 01:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by T1Cybernetic

Killing them 1 by 1 wont make a difference to loot scaling? Loot scaling is based on how big the party is not how you kill them.

Or am i missunderstanding something

Yes it has been proven many times. Killing a large group all at once has many times less drops than the number you would expect. It was an un documented "feature" of loot scaling.

Zelnehlun farming is the best place to see this in action... I can frop the entire group of 16-18 and sometimes get 100g, and NOTHING else. But killing one at a time give a drop by each enemy.

Horseman Of War · Aug 30, 2007, 01:48 AM // 01:48

I famed these (and sold at LOL price).

I was using my Rit. I went with the old school vwk but was way too slow for my tastes.

My build was backfire, resilient was xiko, the elite version of vengeful weapon, and "finish him!" those things just dont attack enough for VwK, or your basic 55 build.

they always cast their 3 spells in the same order, so as long as you catch them with it before they aggro, they kill themselves (accumulated pain triggers vengeful which sets up for the shout-kill

Just like MrSlayer said... you kill one at a time, and you get the glacs so much quicker. Im thinking the best way to farm them would actually be with a Mesmer, with a higher domination score...

kenichiukiya · Aug 30, 2007, 01:51 AM // 01:51

On another note....i was having a 'discussion' with my guildies about loot scaling with glacial gemstone...unless i am mistaken...normal collector drops such as glacial stones, troll tusks, etc are NOT exempted from loot scaling...so it doesn't matter how many ppl r in the party. but my guildies still said soloing them nets the most stones as they're not in loot scaling.

can anyone shed some light on this?? point me into some proof that normal collector items r exempted from loot scaling???

MrSlayer · Aug 30, 2007, 11:54 AM // 11:54

They aren't exempt from loot scaling. if you use your brain and actually read ANY of the previous posts, you would already have the answers to your question.

kenichiukiya · Aug 30, 2007, 12:30 PM // 12:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrSlayer

They aren't exempt from loot scaling. if you use your brain and actually read ANY of the previous posts, you would already have the answers to your question.

Hello?? the previous post talks about whether killing 1 by 1 or killing mass groups affect the drops...i was asking about going in solo or in a party of 8 with hencheis or heroes. it is totally two different thing. and i know they are not exempted from loot scaling.i just want some solid proof so i can show my guildies. and yes your previous posts did say they are loot scaled. but my guildies won't believe your word just for that. they wants solid proof.

anyway...i tried with H&H and solo.....i noticed glacial stones drop more in solo...unless i'm wrong...loot scaling means the drop rate is the same no matter whether u're soloing or with H&H??

Friar Khan · Aug 31, 2007, 03:58 AM // 03:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by kenichiukiya

Hello?? the previous post talks about whether killing 1 by 1 or killing mass groups affect the drops...i was asking about going in solo or in a party of 8 with hencheis or heroes. it is totally two different thing. and i know they are not exempted from loot scaling.i just want some solid proof so i can show my guildies. and yes your previous posts did say they are loot scaled. but my guildies won't believe your word just for that. they wants solid proof.

anyway...i tried with H&H and solo.....i noticed glacial stones drop more in solo...unless i'm wrong...loot scaling means the drop rate is the same no matter whether u're soloing or with H&H??

Glacial stones are collectable drops and as such are NOT exempt from loot scaling. If you want to kill with a full party that doesn't cause fewer stones to drop, but the drops will be divided amongst all the party members. However, you never see a drop assigned to an npc of course, so you'll see fewer drops when npcs are in your party.

If I can presume to guess what you guildies were thinking when they incorrectly told you that glacial stones were not loot scaled... The way I understand it, a non-documented feature of loot scaling is that it's countered (or half-countered) by killing enemies 1 by 1 (it's something that was proven pretty well and discussed in this farming forum a few months ago, but I'm not sure how to best go about searching for that thread). If you kill things 1 by 1 you'll get plenty of whites, blues, collectable drops, etc. and if you were solo then you might jump to the conclusion that those things are naturally exempt from loot scaling.

kenichiukiya · Aug 31, 2007, 10:06 AM // 10:06

Thank you Friar...I understand totally what you're saying and that was what i was trying to tell my guildies... anyways it doesn't really matter now that i've got my gloves

fowlero · Aug 31, 2007, 07:10 PM // 19:10

dont know if anyone has noticed or said this, but i just recently went to a collector out of interested.

turned out to be the collector for glacial gauntlets, except now you need 100 glacial stones to aquire the gauntlets.

Abedeus · Aug 31, 2007, 09:16 PM // 21:16

Any chances for a Mesmer build? Anyone? Maybe a Mantra of Earth + Stonestriker or something like that + Energy Drain + backfire/other damaging spells? Anyone wanna test it? ;d

Friar Khan · Sep 02, 2007, 05:23 AM // 05:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Abedeus

Any chances for a Mesmer build? Anyone? Maybe a Mantra of Earth + Stonestriker or something like that + Energy Drain + backfire/other damaging spells? Anyone wanna test it? ;d

Look on page 1 of this thread. In post 13 I link to 2 backfire based builds. While these builds use a mesmer secondary, the fact remains that backfire is one of the best ways to kill these guys. Looking at the backfire builds should give you ideas for making a build you like. You'll probably have an easier time farming them because you can set domination higher than 12.

These guys don't hit hard so skills that reduce the damage like stonestriker aren't worth it. You'll loose most of your health from their multiple degen spells, so skills that give you regen help you relax while you kill them. Off the top of my head I'd suggest using Backfire as your main damage, and empathy is also a must have. And you may want to bring e-drain, shatter enchantment, power spike, and/or wastrel's demise if you feel like it.

Bark · Sep 02, 2007, 12:55 PM // 12:55

So, any chance of an ele build that can work for farming those? =/

Miss Filth · Sep 03, 2007, 10:09 AM // 10:09

Ive been thinking about a monk backfire build - if u wer to use spellbreaker as the elite, would u still be able to backfire them or does the whole "unable to cast spells" thing from spell breaker prevent backfire from dmging?

SotiCoto · Sep 03, 2007, 01:20 PM // 13:20

I'm fairly sure Backfire is on cast. If they can't cast the spell then they won't get backfired. On the other hand if the spell just doesn't do any damage then they still get hurt by it.
Spellbreaker is sure to mess up the entire build.

okashii · Sep 04, 2007, 01:12 PM // 13:12

on the way to the farming spot or after re-zone you can find some snowman fighting with grentch goblins :

farming glacial stones with a 55 N/Mo 1by1 is easy as 1,2,3...2

tox_169 · Sep 05, 2007, 04:21 AM // 04:21

Maybe you guys already know this, but am posting as added info.

If you have running skills, you can use the hill pass just behind a Norn (forgot his name) and res shrine. The pass has Mountain Pinesouls prowling about but can do nothing if you zip by them. This shortcut avoids having to go the route depicted earlier in the map (near the collector, ursine form NPC and the other NPCs) and having to encounter other enemy patrols.

Run time to spectral vaettir area is timed at 3 minutes. Sorry am at work atm (shhhh) so can't provide screenshots. The pass /shortcut is easy to find, however.

Got 21 glacial stones last night for my efforts, 4 rezones. 4 more sessions like that and I'm set. Still don't know who to give the glacial gloves to, though

ReZDoGG · Sep 05, 2007, 05:50 AM // 05:50

I been using my sin to farm these... and for around 4 hours of on and off farming, i got around 70 glacial stones. I usually tried to take on 2 or 3 if possible to pull together quick enuff... but they seem to drop alot more just taking them 1-3 at a time. I use a A/Me Shadow Form Empathy build I put together which is similar to past ones... but meant for this type of farming where you cant use degen conditions.

Sh*tty thing was on preview weekend... i was farming stones in the last 2 hours of event, and ended up being 3 stones short of gettin Gauntlets right when I was cut off. When GwEN went live, I came to find out you needed 100 stones.... I had 35 stones too, but sold em during event, and went and farmed more to get some myself. Now it will take a hell of alot more farming to get that many. Crappy deal. Not even sure if I will bother now.