Weird HM drops

Now here is something thats always struck me as weird - we`re told that in hm materials should drop in larger quantities and most of the time thats true.
Ive seen several times when doing a vq in mount qinkai that ive had a drop of 2 scale - even same in nm and that was from naga both times.
Ive seen this only a few times in cantha hm and im unsure if this happens elsewhere.
Am i going mad and this affects just me and my party ( guildies has seen it and lol`d ) or has anyone else experienced this.
Im not saying this is a bug so its not in the bug area but it may be something thats overlooked by anet and us players ( do we ever count drops ? ).
Just thought of another one in hm but alas cant think where it was but 2 tanned hides in hm - think i need to farm richer enemies lol.

I can't say that I've ever heard this, or experienced it. It seems to me that common 'materials' drop at about the same rate in either mode. What I see dropping more in hard mode are gold items, rare crafting materials, and HM specific things like Tomes.

I have had the same experiences as Quaker. I seem to get more rare materials in HM, but common material drops are the same in HM and NM for me. Like in the desert of prophecies, I get 2-3scales dropping from the forgotten mobs in HM (I think it was those).
This is also the reason why I farm my materials (mostly feathers, obviously) in NM, because HM doesn't improve common material drops and only makes the farm harder.

Actually, hard mode does increase drops of common materials. However, some creatures seem to have a set quantity of materials they drop which doesn't change. Skeletons drop more dust and bones in hard mode as does birds drop more feathers. UW, FOW and some creatures in factions seems to have a set amount of common material dropped such as 4 glittering dust for Aataxes and 2 scales for naga. I farm feathers in NM anyhow as the trophy crests salvage the same in either mode.

I've found the places that mobs drop things in small numbers (like 2 scales, 3 chittin) seem to drop the exact same thing in HM as well (been v'qing too --its usually the starter type areas I find this).... I probably have a screenie somewheres------


edit--found one...was doing part of the jade sea TODAY...and yep, good ole nagas like to drop 2 scales

Actually the reverse is true, common materials drop less in HM (albeit not by much) and if you do a little searching you willl find out the reason for it.

I will leave up to you as detective work is fun.

I believe they were referring to 1 foe dropping for example 6 feathers in NM and dropping 17 feathers in HM. Most of us know from farming nick items that trophies drop less in HM (which is what I think you are referring).

As for HM foes dropping set low amounts.....this is definately true as noted above by someone about FoW. In cantha surrounding shing jea, kappa will drop 2-3 bones in HM as well.

2 cloth too. Frankly? Mount Qinkai the loot is terrible in hard mode. I have vq'd it more times than I want to admit. Got the wretched greens. But mostly the loot is just trash. Some leather squares and similar such. Wood. About 300 rot wallow tusks. Nothing else.

In general HM has been unkind to me loot wise. Crystal Desert probably the best. EoTN ludicrously bad.

I obviously wasn't clear. I meant a single enemy in NM may drop say 5 feathers and in HM the drop would be 15 feathers. This is not to imply the haul would be greater in a single farming run. However, in factions materials drop far more than in other areas and I have seen a major increase in feathers and bones in Nahpui Quarter. Plants in Kourna drop far more dust and fibers and skeletons die by the tons daily in HM giving up vast quantities of bone and dust. I was simply explaining some monsters seem hard coded to drop 2 scales, 4 dust, etc. no matter the difficulty chosen.

Ah ok.

As for that, feather farm is the Bluffs is very poor.

Farm Nahpui mission, 250 feathers per run NM as opposed to 120 (or less) in the Bluffs, also Nahpui cost nothing since there is no salvage at all for feathers required, and bundles in NM are just about the same as HM.

Another benefit is almost everything else salvages into iron (stack per run without too much fuss) + the odd Cele wep.

Certainly bundles of feathers drop less per bundle NM in the Bluffs, but as I mentioned before more bundles drop in NM, hence what I said is correct, common loot drops more in NM (even in the bluffs).

I have never, ever, gotten a gold drop or rare mat in solo HM. Because of this I avoid HM like the plague unless I'm doing Z missions/bounties.

I have seen absolutely zero profit in HM and it makes me rage.
Am I the only one?

I can vouch for this, having completed several hundred mqsc runs in the last 1.5-2 years. Even with high luck/Treasure Hunter, lockpicks on chests break about 80% of the time.

The only real saving grace (at least for those fighting the Yeti Rit boss Tomton Spiriteater) is a chance for an elite rit tome (which can still fetch a nice sum of money) to drop and sometimes even two drops.

Im glad in a way others have seen/experienced the same as me - proves im not losing my sanity.Mount qinkai was one of the usual places i seen it happen tho i feel thinking back that even the naga outside tsumi village with the naga source quest also drop 2 scales so it may be something to do with their drop settings.

I certainly found from vanquishing that common materials seem to drop less frequently in HM, although when they do the quantity tends to be larger per drop. I'm not sure about trophy drops - never really noticed they were less frequent in HM, but won't argue with someone who has looked into this specifically. Always managed to get reasonable gold and tome drops in HM but never felt I was about to suddenly get rich from it either ;-)

As for Nick trophies, my friends and I set up a system a while ago, where one of us acts as 'librarian' and keeps 5-6 mule chars where we store every trophy we get. After a while we have a store with good quantities of most trophies and more often than not have enough for the Nick gifts each week. We found this actually makes it fun to collect trophies, whereas in the past they were just part of the background chaff.

Actually, and on a related point, I'm somewhat annoyed at the proportion of gold drops doing WiK bounties or Z quests in HM that are monomodded. It's got to the point that when a shield or focus drops I expect it so be single modded these days