Phantasmal Fortress Treasure Trove in Dread Ring does not contain Union Mark on Saturday and Sunday

nameexpired

The description of the Phantasmal Fortress Treasure Trove (reward from finishing the Phantasmal Fortress lair) reads among other lines:

On Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday, you will also receive one of the following:
A Lesser Mark of Union
A Mark of Union
A Greater Mark of Union

Similar the other 2 lairs say:
Dread Spire Treasure Trove

On Tuesday, Saturday, and Sunday, you will also receive one of the following:
A Lesser Mark of Power
A Mark of Power
A Greater Mark of Power

Death Forge Treasure Trove

On Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday, you will also receive one of the following:

A Lesser Mark of Stability
A Mark of Stability
A Greater Mark of Stability

A bug must have slipped in as the rewards on Saturday and Sunday seem to be random.

asterotg

This is the state of the game since the changes with the lvl cap raise from lvl 60 to lvl 70. Tuesday to Thursday there is a chance for a specific mark in a specific dungeon. Saturday and Sunday it is totally random.

nameexpired

asterotg said:

This is the state of the game since the changes with the lvl cap raise from lvl 60 to lvl 70. Tuesday to Thursday there is a chance for a specific mark in a specific dungeon. Saturday and Sunday it is totally random.

Your observations seem to match with mine. Thank you for this confirmation.
Nevertheless, the tool tip claims that a specific marks of unspecified power drops from a specific dungeon.
We are the witness of a deviation of game reality from the game rules.
Not the first, certainly not the last, but it is what I consider a bug. Thus I entered the data in this forum.

pitshade

I was told this weekend that the bug only affects the chest if you are running the daily but not if you are using keys bought with scrips. Have never tried to verify this, however.

beckylunatic

pitshade said:

I was told this weekend that the bug only affects the chest if you are running the daily but not if you are using keys bought with scrips. Have never tried to verify this, however.

There was some intense discussion in my alliance about this which does seem to bear out that Knox's quest randomizes the mark but using lair keys allows you to farm for a specific type.

(Still did not achieve complete consensus, but it explains the difference in results between me running a Knox quest on umpteen alts and someone else using keys with their main.)

plasticbat

Couple weeks ago, on a Saturday, I wanted to check out something about Phantasmal Fortress. I did that 10 times. One daily quest and 9 bought keys. I got 5 Greater Mark of Union and did not get a Greater Mark of Stability or Power. I did get a SMoP. GWF, straight run all the way to the end room and kill the catch up outside mob afterward. Not sure if that makes any difference but that was what I did.

nameexpired

plasticbat said:

Couple weeks ago, on a Saturday, I wanted to check out something about Phantasmal Fortress. I did that 10 times. One daily quest and 9 bought keys. I got 5 Greater Mark of Union and did not get a Greater Mark of Stability or Power. I did get a SMoP. GWF, straight run all the way to the end room and kill the catch up outside mob afterward. Not sure if that makes any difference but that was what I did.

it would appear that bought keys give you what is in the description.
If you do the quest the game/devs/managers/PWE are cheating on you with another layer of RNG.

beckylunatic

Oh, I dunno. I dislike running DF (apparently so does everyone else judging by market prices) but still manage to scrape up enough Greater Stabilities to meet my needs in the randomized rewards from running the others.

Ed for further info: I'm positive the weekend event description does say it's randomized. This is the event schedule in the campaign UI (which was wrong for a long time).

I think @nameexpired is looking at a tooltip on the quest description in the Knox dialogue and journal. Maybe if you mouse over the bag in the chest as well instead of just grabbing it.

nameexpired

@beckylunatic
I get my information from the quest window.
[pictures removed]
there also is no reference of randomness. That is why I think its a bug.
Not that anyone cares, though.
[edit]
Not that anyone cares who can fix this, though.
[/edit]

pitshade

I care. I have neither the time nor the inclination to farm specific marks during the week and the random marks on the weekend frequently give me what I need least. But it seems that I am so inured to the bugs in this game that I am just thankful to have my trusty signpost and be able to leave the lair safely unlike before when I would get stuck in the outside door until I could change instances!

nameexpired

pitshade said:

I care. I have neither the time nor the inclination to farm specific marks during the week and the random marks on the weekend frequently give me what I need least. But it seems that I am so inured to the bugs in this game that I am just thankful to have my trusty signpost and be able to leave the lair safely unlike before when I would get stuck in the outside door until I could change instances!

Sorry, my mistake. I care, and you care, and many other players care.

What I tried to say is "Not that anyone cares who can correct the random mark distribution".
(changed original post)

sobac

Schedule description is correct, imo.

evalira

Wouldn't surprise me if they recently nerfed the drop rates as well. Did 10 PF and only got one greater mark of anything. I'm sure it was around 30% chance, now seems to be 10%.

nameexpired

beckylunatic said:

if you mouse over the bag in the chest as well instead of just grabbing it.

I just did that now. The tool tip of the treasure in the lair says exactly the same as in the quest dialogue. (today for DF, obviously)

On Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday, you will also receive one of the following:

A Lesser Mark of Stability
A Mark of Stability
A Greater Mark of Stability

reg1981

As mentioned above, the tool tip is broken. I have done thousands of these runs and my findings match most others...

On the weekends if you take the free key, the mark is random as is the chance to obtain it. You can then start farming with purchased keys for specific marks depending on the lair.

nameexpired

Why would you say that the tool tip is broken rather than the loot box is broken?
The point of selecting a specific lair on the weekend is to give players a chance to get a specific mark they need.
In my opinion they broke the troves when they added green and blue marks to them.
No one complained/mentioned it as we all know the Cryptic speed of fixing stuff - it usually
* takes forever,
* breaks 5 more items and
* on top does many times not fix what was claimed to be fixed.

(Anyone who disagrees can search for me in an unbugged PoM instance)

nameexpired

evalira said:

Wouldn't surprise me if they recently nerfed the drop rates as well. Did 10 PF and only got one greater mark of anything. I'm sure it was around 30% chance, now seems to be 10%.

it was 100%.

I used to feed stacks of 99 Greater Marks of Union into my artifacts in M2.
According to the wiki in June 2015 the
* Complete the Dread Spire quest today and receive an additional [Greater Mark of Power].
changed to
* Complete the Dread Spire quest today and receive an additional [Lesser Mark of Power] or [Mark of Power] or [Greater Mark of Power].

This probably was when they broke the weekend drops as well.

beckylunatic

Conventional interpretation of the "any quality of any mark type" for weekends according to the campaign schedule is that it basically means randomized, but the loot sack tooltip you can see in other locations doesn't agree with it.

In my opinion, the quest drops are intentionally randomized (and this mechanic works reasonably well for me, but ymmv) and the bag tooltips are wrong. But because Cryptic language is cryptic, it's also not entirely unreasonable to feel the drops are wrong and should still correspond to specific lairs (and they do if you use keys).

asterotg

You had an epic mark at the end of the dungeon, as described above. DS=power, PF=union and stability at the lair. This changed with the level cap raise.

Why do I remember? Bc I saw these changes on preview. I told my guild mates, to stack up on epic marks. 3 month later ALL of them came leeching marks from me, except one guy, who saw this as a chance to make ADs. He bought thousands from the AH and sold them later for 10x his investment.

beckylunatic

The complaint isn't about the randomized quality (c'est la vie), just the randomized type.

nameexpired

beckylunatic said:

The complaint isn't about the randomized quality (c'est la vie), just the randomized type.

True dat!
I have no problem with the quality dispersion. What I consider a bug is the random type (union, stability, power) when all UI features (with an argueable "but one") indicate a distinct type.

frozenfirevr

beckylunatic said:

Oh, I dunno. I dislike running DF (apparently so does everyone else judging by market prices) but still manage to scrape up enough Greater Stabilities to meet my needs in the randomized rewards from running the others.

And I thought I was the only one who didn't like DF. PF's my favourite BTW, until not long ago, since inception, GMoS was worth a third of the other marks, possibly due to poor artifact choices or something.

frozenfirevr

nameexpired said:

evalira said:

Wouldn't surprise me if they recently nerfed the drop rates as well. Did 10 PF and only got one greater mark of anything. I'm sure it was around 30% chance, now seems to be 10%.

it was 100%.

I used to feed stacks of 99 Greater Marks of Union into my artifacts in M2.
According to the wiki in June 2015 the
* Complete the Dread Spire quest today and receive an additional [Greater Mark of Power].
changed to
* Complete the Dread Spire quest today and receive an additional [Lesser Mark of Power] or [Mark of Power] or [Greater Mark of Power].

This probably was when they broke the weekend drops as well.

Yea, they used to be worth like <2k.

plasticbat

frozenfirevr said:

nameexpired said:

evalira said:

Wouldn't surprise me if they recently nerfed the drop rates as well. Did 10 PF and only got one greater mark of anything. I'm sure it was around 30% chance, now seems to be 10%.

it was 100%.

I used to feed stacks of 99 Greater Marks of Union into my artifacts in M2.
According to the wiki in June 2015 the
* Complete the Dread Spire quest today and receive an additional [Greater Mark of Power].
changed to
* Complete the Dread Spire quest today and receive an additional [Lesser Mark of Power] or [Mark of Power] or [Greater Mark of Power].

This probably was when they broke the weekend drops as well.

Yea, they used to be worth like <2k.</p>

The blue marks were the real treasure and the purple marks were garbage back then.

plasticbat

frozenfirevr said:

beckylunatic said:

Oh, I dunno. I dislike running DF (apparently so does everyone else judging by market prices) but still manage to scrape up enough Greater Stabilities to meet my needs in the randomized rewards from running the others.

And I thought I was the only one who didn't like DF. PF's my favourite BTW, until not long ago, since inception, GMoS was worth a third of the other marks, possibly due to poor artifact choices or something.

For PF, basically after getting into the main area, just run to the end, enter the chamber without fighting. Then, kills everything. Then, loot. Then, exit. Then, re-enter. 3 minutes?

beckylunatic

frozenfirevr said:

beckylunatic said:

Oh, I dunno. I dislike running DF (apparently so does everyone else judging by market prices) but still manage to scrape up enough Greater Stabilities to meet my needs in the randomized rewards from running the others.

And I thought I was the only one who didn't like DF. PF's my favourite BTW, until not long ago, since inception, GMoS was worth a third of the other marks, possibly due to poor artifact choices or something.

Yup. There are a lot more viable Stability artifacts now, so the mark price jumped.

frozenfirevr

I just wanted to add, I never run to the end, in any place, and I find it faster that way. Just run, pop an Icy Terrain or Steal Time and HAMSTER dies. That also avoids some problems with aggro, where the enemy might have you in combat but gets lost enroute and doesn't leave you, or pick up skippable mobs and stuff.

plasticbat said:

frozenfirevr said:

nameexpired said:

evalira said:

Wouldn't surprise me if they recently nerfed the drop rates as well. Did 10 PF and only got one greater mark of anything. I'm sure it was around 30% chance, now seems to be 10%.

it was 100%.

I used to feed stacks of 99 Greater Marks of Union into my artifacts in M2.
According to the wiki in June 2015 the
* Complete the Dread Spire quest today and receive an additional [Greater Mark of Power].
changed to
* Complete the Dread Spire quest today and receive an additional [Lesser Mark of Power] or [Mark of Power] or [Greater Mark of Power].

This probably was when they broke the weekend drops as well.

Yea, they used to be worth like <2k.</p>

The blue marks were the real treasure and the purple marks were garbage back then.

Yea, lol. I still remember buying large stacks of those and selling them one by one at a higher price (I'm terrible at making AD )

pitshade

None of the free stability artifacts were that great back then. My chars almost all have CW artifacts now, but Crit was easy to soft cap back them. HR has recovery, which wasn't favored and again easy to softcap. Then there is the Catalog...

Death Forge is the fastest for OP characters since it's so short. I have done a 3 min run with my GWF who doesn't even have great gear (2.5k w/augment). You have to be able to clear the zombies to open the door, kill the wizard and guards. Burn the bodies, ending with the one thay spawns zombies. Ignore them and run to the end. Burn it all down. If you are lucky, you might drop combat due zombies being slow and enter the boss room before they get there. Jawbone is the toughest of the bosses, but I only do this on cerain characters.

qexotic

beckylunatic said:

frozenfirevr said:

beckylunatic said:

Oh, I dunno. I dislike running DF (apparently so does everyone else judging by market prices) but still manage to scrape up enough Greater Stabilities to meet my needs in the randomized rewards from running the others.

And I thought I was the only one who didn't like DF. PF's my favourite BTW, until not long ago, since inception, GMoS was worth a third of the other marks, possibly due to poor artifact choices or something.

Yup. There are a lot more viable Stability artifacts now, so the mark price jumped.

Forgehammer of Gond springs to mind as being a highly desirable stability artifact these days >:)

sorce

qexotic said:

beckylunatic said:

frozenfirevr said:

beckylunatic said:

Oh, I dunno. I dislike running DF (apparently so does everyone else judging by market prices) but still manage to scrape up enough Greater Stabilities to meet my needs in the randomized rewards from running the others.

And I thought I was the only one who didn't like DF. PF's my favourite BTW, until not long ago, since inception, GMoS was worth a third of the other marks, possibly due to poor artifact choices or something.

Yup. There are a lot more viable Stability artifacts now, so the mark price jumped.

Forgehammer of Gond springs to mind as being a highly desirable stability artifact these days >:)

Heart of the Blue Dragon, Eye of the Giant, Horn of Valhalla - all stability that is seeing more usage as well.

beckylunatic

Players who use whatever they can get their hands on all have access to Bruenor's Helm and Champion's Banner, both stability.

And the Hunter's Sigil has gained popularity as more players look for recovery.

And Challenge of the Gods has spat me out a few Oghma's Tokens, which I like to keep around due to my delusions of occasional PvP.

(I *really* should have thought to stock up on Catalogues while they were cheap.)