test content
What is the Arc Client?
Install Arc

Grinding for SKT too much?

reposterzreposterz Member Posts: 293 Arc User
I got two level 70 accounts one DC and the other SW. They are both lL 2500+, for some reason or another I do not imagine how I could get Item Level 3100 for Fang breaker Island as well as the Tarmulane Trade Bars for Everfrost Resistance Equipment. I don't know what to do with the voninblod requirement.

Do you guys who do not buy Zen feel the grind for SKT really difficult and too much? With the new update, things are getting what I feel not worth while to continue playing... not too sure though just asking for points of view.
«1

Comments

  • aulduronaulduron Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,351 Arc User
    I'm already 3.1K + but already gave up trying to advance far enough to get into Fangbreaker.
  • ohms66ohms66 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 35 Arc User
    I gave up on it too. It's Elemental Evil all over again. Very dull.
  • kvetkvet Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 2,700 Arc User
    edited October 2016
    I don't plan to do FB - it's a ripoff. Once you get the gear you need to empower it. You'll be running SKT dailies every day... for ever. Unlike IWD where at least you could mine black ice when you were running low, you can't farm vblod solo - it's only dailies and HEs. So, have fun with that. Also, the 21k vblod for the 5th boon...

    Nope. M10 gear is one to skip - maybe next mod. One day, maybe, I'll do FB, but I'm on no hurry. I only got my 6th ToD boon last week, only took me 2 years. Stupid Linus. Once Cryptic comes to their senses and drops the resistance garbage like they did with Black Ice... then I'll do FB, since clearly it's not actually NECESSARY to have that resistance, they just did it to promote spending. Meh. Don't fall for it.
  • lantern22lantern22 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,111 Arc User
    kvet said:

    I don't plan to do FB - it's a ripoff. Once you get the gear you need to empower it. You'll be running SKT dailies every day... for ever. Unlike IWD where at least you could mine black ice when you were running low, you can't farm vblod solo - it's only dailies and HEs. So, have fun with that. Also, the 21k vblod for the 5th boon...



    Nope. M10 gear is one to skip - maybe next mod. One day, maybe, I'll do FB, but I'm on no hurry. I only got my 6th ToD boon last week, only took me 2 years. Stupid Linus. Once Cryptic comes to their senses and drops the resistance garbage like they did with Black Ice... then I'll do FB, since clearly it's not actually NECESSARY to have that resistance, they just did it to promote spending. Meh. Don't fall for it.

    Whilst I wont be farming VB to empower the gear, you can definitely farm it solo by using your trowel and farming the nodes on a map and then changing instances and doing it all again. I've been doing Brynne Shander and getting around 10-15K VB per hour (not 100% sure that's just a gut feel) with just the stock standard trowel. I think that is much faster than farming HE's
  • qexoticqexotic Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 841 Arc User
    edited October 2016
    lantern22 said:

    kvet said:

    I don't plan to do FB - it's a ripoff. Once you get the gear you need to empower it. You'll be running SKT dailies every day... for ever. Unlike IWD where at least you could mine black ice when you were running low, you can't farm vblod solo - it's only dailies and HEs. So, have fun with that. Also, the 21k vblod for the 5th boon...



    Nope. M10 gear is one to skip - maybe next mod. One day, maybe, I'll do FB, but I'm on no hurry. I only got my 6th ToD boon last week, only took me 2 years. Stupid Linus. Once Cryptic comes to their senses and drops the resistance garbage like they did with Black Ice... then I'll do FB, since clearly it's not actually NECESSARY to have that resistance, they just did it to promote spending. Meh. Don't fall for it.

    Whilst I wont be farming VB to empower the gear, you can definitely farm it solo by using your trowel and farming the nodes on a map and then changing instances and doing it all again. I've been doing Brynne Shander and getting around 10-15K VB per hour (not 100% sure that's just a gut feel) with just the stock standard trowel. I think that is much faster than farming HE's
    As you say, it is possible to farm VB solo. I have been doing so with all three of my characters so that I can progress through the campaign. I have only been using the freebie trowel, though I have now started using the green one you can buy, and haven't been finding anything like as much VB. My haul has been more like 2-3k an hour. While I have been switching to empty instances and I do now know most of the locations where the relics appear, I cannot stand doing farming for more than about 20-30 minutes at a time which is probably why my total is a lot lower.

    If you want to empower even the Relic Boots, the only option is to join the HE Zergs in Bryn Shander. These are the only source of the Boots and one of the only ways you can collect enough Lanolin to restore them. There are also HE Zergs in Lonelywood as an alternative source for the Lanolin you need. 25 Lanolin per set of boots. Failing that, they are around 14k AD each on the AH.

    You do not need any empowered gear or even a significant amount of everfrost resistance to survive the current live zones for SKT. However, this may change when part 2 drops next month. I have taken my HR there a couple of times and there are some new(ish) creatures that hit with a whole lot more everfrost damage. As a result, my HR died a couple of times quite rapidly. The new Trial will probably require a higher everfrost resistance level just to get in but that is an unknown for now as it has yet to appear on Preview. What you will require for the new gear is known though and it makes unpleasant reading :(:s

  • wylonuswylonus Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 2,376 Arc User
    like i said few months ago, devs had made a big "wall of no-progression". many players are getting point of burnouts and nowhere to improve the characters. others already exploited to stay ahead so far before devs decided to nerf, and creating Haves and Havenots, very big gap.
    doesnt devs realized it was too late to nerf while others are too far advanced, then the newer players will have very short time to play NWO and then to discover there is no way to grow (without paying for "shortcuts").
  • silverkeltsilverkelt Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 4,235 Arc User
    Its one of the most UN-FUN items they have ever done, its clearly also a cash grab (congrats, you guys, we really have nothing for you, but the 1 fun dungeon we have made in like eons, is now gated behind HAMSTER, you dont have to do that HAMSTER HAMSTER if you dont want to.. but we made it really really super extra boring, so if you want to do it and still play the HAMSTER HAMSTER game, give us money)

    Here is the TERRIBLE point of all of this, is I was one of the people giving them some money from time to time, I will not give them money to skip extra special HAMSTER hamster HAMSTER HAMSTER mother HAMSTER HAMSTER.

    They need to have thier HAMSTER head examined.

  • arabaturarabatur Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 778 Arc User
    I must be the unluckiest person ever, because I just cant find any active HE's, just plenty of empty ones. Not that grinding for VB is in my diary either, but the change would be nice!
    Definitely not an Arc User.
  • qexoticqexotic Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 841 Arc User
    edited October 2016
    arabatur said:

    I must be the unluckiest person ever, because I just cant find any active HE's, just plenty of empty ones. Not that grinding for VB is in my diary either, but the change would be nice!

    Finding active large HEs is hard if you just try randomly switching instances. The best option is to monitor the Zone chat, invites to and announcements for HE Zergs are often found in there. That is where I find most of mine. Or you could just go to an almost empty instance and invite others to come join you to start one through Zone chat. If you are in a Guild or Alliance you can try the same in the Guild and Alliance chat channels.

  • nathan#8975 nathan Member Posts: 225 Arc User
    Just wanted to add some thoughts as a "p2w" type customer ( please don't judge for that lol ).

    I spent maybe two days doing the dailies for the new campaign. Between the environment design ( white out haze, drab scenery ), progression barrier, and lack of worthwhile rewards - I just stopped the campaign all together. At this time I have zero plans to progress further in it and my time spent in game, now with not much to do, has drastically decreased. Which also means I have a lot less reason to spend $$.

    In my opinion the entire campaign system needs reworked. I would like to see it function similarly to how elemental evil currently does - as in you can play through the quests consecutively, without having to wait 24 hours, and then do the "dailies af
  • nathan#8975 nathan Member Posts: 225 Arc User
    also. Whoever came up with this idea to add a new zone, where the big attraction is the ability to go fishing on a boat, needs to be far far far away from game design.
  • silverkeltsilverkelt Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 4,235 Arc User
    Its sort of funny in the sad sort of way that makes your heart break.
  • neirgaraneirgara Member Posts: 334 Arc User
    I find the Set Bonus for the underwear to be quite useful for my GF. Also I kinda like the new drills, that also net me new boons, a good deal of experience (the enemies there are strong and give more xp than at other places) and a new environment.

    So I either can grind there, or at other places that are not as interesting and give me nothing new. It's just not worth, to grind for the new equipment, which is not better than the old, and I take my time for my first few runs of Fangbreaker. It's possible to enter it with both underwear, the enhancement kits, a potion, the 2 boons, Makos' Signet and two items from the Tarmalune Bar merchant. You get the few bars from lockboxes, and you can buy the keys by changing AD to Zen (though at the moment it's very difficult, as there is less Zen at the market, due to problems with buying Zen by Steam Wallet). If you wait for the next part, you can also get the stringer Kits and just need one of the armor pieces.

    The grind is not too bad, if you take it easy and don't feel the need to do the HEs a few hundred times in a row. Just enjoy the scenery and diversion and try to get the new achievements. That makes it quite worthwhile.

    Though I have to admit, while you have less than 3k iLvL, you would make more of your time, when you do other content, that yields you more AD (daily dungeons and skirmishes) and enchantments and gems for leveling your artifacts and enchantments.
  • jumpingmorksjumpingmorks Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 876 Arc User
    Not sure if I'm missing something but unless you want to grind FBI so you can grind FBI the boons don't require an iLevel requirement?

    Personally I love the new areas and it's what we've been asking for since they started recycling lairs in ToD campaign and then EE took it to a whole new level. Original areas, lots of quests, on top of that lots of mini bosses spread out for more back story and nice story, am really enjoying it but am not fussed about FBI unless I want to run it, I certainly won't run it for the gear they are offering and I am most definitely not grinding voninblod 24/7 just so I can feed it into my relic armor while I'm grinding voninblod to feed it. In 3 mods they'll remove Everfrost damage like they did Black Ice damage.
  • silverkeltsilverkelt Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 4,235 Arc User
    WEll those are sterling arguments.. The complaints are not about the zones or dungeon, its about the worthless gating and the lack of vblood and lanolins.

    Drop gating would be my first thought... then if they wont, increase vblood aquistion level.

    I like the dungeon, the zones are ok. None of them award anything other then for HAMSTER for new zones. So its mostly a waste of time.

    At least the other weeklies gave us AD at some point. These give minuscule (really small) amount of campaign task completions.

    I dont anyone has complained about FBI outside of the gating and loot, nor do I think poeple would care if this was more reasonable Vblood acquisition levels and lanolaon ones.

    These small fixes , would go along way to placating a majority of players, I dont think its all that much of a request.. to you know, do some maths and figure it out.


  • jumpingmorksjumpingmorks Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 876 Arc User
    No-ones arguing the merits of voninblod grind or lack or loot in the new dungeon, they have however given us exactly what we asked for repeatedly since ToD, more life in a mod, no more recycled areas and a story we can engage in.

    Maybe I'm too casual to understand but the boons are dead easy to obtain, I don't have to bother with everfrost resist, I get to pick what quests I can do and what ones I don't and they're all relatively pretty straight forward and easy.

    For 20 mins a day it's nice compared with Sharandar, where getting 3 of each currency seems too daunting to muster the courage to attempt it sometimes. Same goes with Dread Ring Arcane Gauntlets, it's a massive grind to get them to top tier and pretty sure I don't have to mention (although I am anyway :p ) the 80 Linus you need to complete ToD not to mention the original RNG grind to get the Dragon MH you wanted.

    From my point of view, I think it's the best mod they've released, it's easy, entertaining and straight forward and there is a lot of variety in the quests. Best moment for me was my first fight with the giants on the longship, felt like battling giant Vikings.

    If you want to grind Relic Armor in FBI so you can get on the endless treadmill of grinding voninblood, well good luck to anyone who wants to do that. Underdark taught me to never expect anything but salvage at best, am certainly not gonna grind for an orange ring that will never drop.
  • aulduronaulduron Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 1,351 Arc User
    It's recycled IWD. The worst zone they ever made.
  • scaredstraitscaredstrait Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 42 Arc User
    hmm i have 2 3.7 chars and 500 rep in skt and have not and have no need to run the new dungon for meh at best rings ! only doing the campaign for the boons !
  • remfdtremfdt Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 83 Arc User
    My primary complaint at the moment is that, after finishing all the daily/weekly quests yesterday, I was left at 99/100 secrets... ONE shy of finishing the last boon. I was quite annoyed.
  • nevfenevfe Member Posts: 214 Arc User
    I worked my through the new zones and enjoyed the storylines - until I got the quest to do the Fangbreaker Island dungeon. Up to that point I hadn't checked what the gating on the new dungeon was. When I found out, I felt very let down. The 28% Everyfrost resistance seemed a little extreme but it was the 3.1k IL that really got me.

    Do Cryptic even understand their own game any more? If you're not a veteran player with years of refining behind you then 3.1k is an awful grind - well unless you decide to dump a large amount of money into the game. I've played solidly for six months, focusing on mainly one toon and still only have 2.8k. And to cap it all, that extra item level isn't even where most of your extra power comes from now. As has been pointed out in a different thread, it's companions, guild boons and mounts that add the most.

    Oh and the final irony, the zone underwear that gives some of that 28% resistance you need is actually lower item level than most people will already be wearing. Ok only by a few points, but it's still a kick in the teeth.
  • cdnbisoncdnbison Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 806 Arc User
    I'm OK with a lot of SKT, personally. I like the zones and quests. I don't mind grinding for voninblood.

    However, it's the *combination* of grinds that gets to me. To whit:
    1. Grind HEs until your boots drop.
    2. Grind HEs for Lanolin
    3. Grind for more voninblood to empower it.
    4. Grind FBI for an equipment drop.
    Repeat steps 2 & 3 until set is complete.

    Now, Cryptic got it right by not tying the empowerment to a profession, thankfully. But having to grind HEs for both the boots *and* materials to restore them? Then having to empower them on top of that? Too much, IMO.
  • raydrootraydroot Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 110 Arc User
    null
    LOL I'm in the same boat 99 of 100:(
  • lirithiellirithiel Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 2,482 Arc User
    aulduron said:

    It's recycled IWD. The worst zone they ever made.

    Well that's just like your opinion man. What made IWD a PITA wasn't the zones, which were beautiful, but the Black Ice empowerment, which is rearing its ugly head again in the shape of Voninblood etc.
    Our pain is self chosen.

    The most important thing in life is to be yourself. Unless you can be Batman. Always be Batman.
  • jumpingmorksjumpingmorks Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 876 Arc User
    I still don't understand why people want this relic gear, you'll spend all your time grinding voninblod before you can even get any use out of it.
  • johnjohniiijohnjohniii Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 108 Arc User
    ya, the grind is really killing me. it's just not fun. let me grind dungeons. i love that. it's why I play. if they did that, i'd totally be on board.
  • niadanniadan Member Posts: 1,635 Arc User
    edited October 2016
    Just finished last boon...done...will not grind for relic gear. When mod 10.5 comes out I will probably grind out the weapons.
  • ghoulz66ghoulz66 Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 3,748 Arc User
    Even the first boon is absurdly tedious compared to every other campaign.
  • wylonuswylonus Member, NW M9 Playtest Posts: 2,376 Arc User
    Devs really to bring back those dragon hoard coins, drops are too few and buy from AH get too much for Linu's Favors. there no reason to nerf the drops, my alts need for boons.
Sign In or Register to comment.