Hunting Areas

Daskalos

Where?

Alexina

Xavin said:

Alexina said:

Please more endgame areas like Tiyen and Xaanhal.

They just added a new 99+ hunting area

The mobs there are of the same standard as Nal'jin so I doubt anyone will really go there to hunt (unless people hunt in Naljin? It is generally full of mobs when I check compendium deathsense).

Sarita

Are you talking about the corrupted grotto area?

Alexina

Yes. Xavin was referring to Spiral of the Corrupt.

Slyphe

Alexina said:

Xavin said:

Alexina said:

Please more endgame areas like Tiyen and Xaanhal.

They just added a new 99+ hunting area

The mobs there are of the same standard as Nal'jin so I doubt anyone will really go there to hunt (unless people hunt in Naljin? It is generally full of mobs when I check compendium deathsense).

Can you elaborate on this a bit in terms of what you mean by them being the same standard? It was our intention for this to become a new bashing area for 99+, so any input would be appreciated.

Teani

The experience from killing the creatures differ enough to make it not worth the trouble of going to either Nal'jin or the Spiral.

I just went testing the various areas and here are some stats I pulled and it shows that both the Spiral and Nal'jin are more equal to Ollin (flagged for level 80), Fengard (flagged for level 85) and Ayhesa (flagged for level 90) than Xaanhal and Tiyen:

Tiyen

Having slain a crazed Nazetu cutter, you retrieve the corpse. +0.09% XP

Having slain a bound shade, you retrieve the corpse. +0.07%  XP

Having slain a Nazetu captain, you retrieve the corpse. +0.08% XP

Having slain a Nazetu provost, you retrieve the corpse. +0.07% XP

Xaanhal

Having slain a suspicious Xorani patrol, you retrieve the corpse. +0.07% XP

Having slain a scraggly, insane Xorani mage, you retrieve the corpse. +0.09% XP

Spiral

Having slain an ethereal, scarred jellyfish, you retrieve the corpse. +0.02% XP

Having slain a five-tentacled octopus of jade, you retrieve the corpse. +0.03% XP

Having slain a miasma-wreathed electric eel, you retrieve the corpse. +0.03% XP

Nal'jin

A sharp, blackened spine tumbles out of the corpse of a shadow ray. +0.03% XP

Having slain a sinewy Nal'jin eel, you retrieve the corpse. +0.02% XP

Ayhesa

Having slain a Spellshaper Adept, you retrieve the corpse. +0.02% XP

Fengard

Having slain a horrid basilwyrm, you retrieve the corpse. +0.03% XP

Having slain a massive argobole, you retrieve the corpse. +0.02% XP

OllinHaving slain a blackened, ravenous shark, you retrieve the corpse. +0.02% XPHaving slain a massive black crab, you retrieve the corpse. +0.02% XP

Xavin

Yeah, the xp in the spiral probably could be boosted up a bit, since it's a tough area in terms of writhes and damage.

Alexina

Slyphe said:

Can you elaborate on this a bit in terms of what you mean by them being the same standard? It was our intention for this to become a new bashing area for 99+, so any input would be appreciated.

I checked the area earlier today a bit after I saw Xavin's response to the thread. Essentially, the shark mob in the spiral gives a bit more than half as much experience as a Xorani (these tend to be just a bit shy of the average mob in Tiyen), and considerably less than a third of a mob in the Volcano. Heck, an enraged servant in Arbothia gave more experience than the shark, and from what I heard when discussing the area with Tina, the sharks are the mobs that give the most experience in the zone.

I went to get some numbers again:

With a low hiss, you launch yourself at an ethereal, scarred jellyfish, battering him in a frenzied flurry of strikes.
You have scored a CRITICAL hit!
Health Gain: 11
Damage done: 4603, blunt.
You have dealt 11640 damage to target mob.
Experience Gained: 3496 (Bashing) [total: 34193876]

With a low hiss, you launch yourself at a five-tentacled octopus of jade, battering him in a frenzied flurry of strikes.
You have scored a CRITICAL hit!
Damage done: 3549, blunt.
You have dealt 13020 damage to target mob.
Experience Gained: 4662 (Bashing) [total: 34198538]

With a low hiss, you launch yourself at a taint-infested shark, battering him in a frenzied flurry of strikes.
You have scored a STAGGERING CRITICAL hit!
Damage done: 12960, blunt.
You have dealt 12960 damage to target mob.
Experience Gained: 5236 (Bashing) [total: 34203774]

Let's compare this to other areas:

Volcano:
With a low hiss, you launch yourself at a large earth elemental, battering him in a frenzied flurry of strikes.
You have scored a CRITICAL hit!
Damage done: 4958, blunt.
You have dealt 18000 damage to target mob.
Experience Gained: 19281 (Bashing) [total: 34402464]

Xaanhal:
With a low hiss, you launch yourself at a merciless Xorani warrior, battering him in a frenzied flurry of strikes.
You have scored a STAGGERING CRITICAL hit!
Health Gain: 585
Damage done: 5529, blunt.
You have dealt 13740 damage to target mob.
Grief and terror rise unbroken in a merciless Xorani warrior's eyes. "I have...failed..." he gasps raggedly, before his eyes glaze over and death claims him.
Experience Gained: 10501 (Bashing) [total: 33982382]


Arbothia:
With a low hiss, you launch yourself at an enraged male servant, battering him in a frenzied flurry of strikes.
You have scored an ANNIHILATING CRITICAL hit!!!
Damage done: 9120, blunt.
You have dealt 9120 damage to target mob.
Experience Gained: 5399 (Bashing) [total: 34407863]

Tiyen:
With a low hiss, you launch yourself at a massive, sacred serpent, battering it in a frenzied flurry of strikes.
You have scored a CRUSHING CRITICAL hit!
Damage done: 6703 (7037 overkill), blunt.
You have dealt 13740 damage to target mob.
Experience Gained: 13579 (Bashing) [total: 34430909]

Nal'jin:
With a low hiss, you launch yourself at a sinewy Nal'jin eel, battering it in a frenzied flurry of strikes.
You have scored an ANNIHILATING CRITICAL hit!!!
Damage done: 11940, blunt.
You have dealt 11940 damage to target mob.
Experience Gained: 4133 (Bashing) [total: 34435042]


Essentially, the Spiral is worse than the Volcano, Tiyen, and Xanhaal to such a degree that it would not be worth hunting there unless Arbothia was also empty -- it most closely matches the Nal'jin depths in terms of experience rewarded. This is not really meant as criticism towards the area itself, just trying to explain why I think it will not see as many people hunting there as the more mainstream bashing areas. I might be completely wrong and people will love going bashing there.

EDIT:
I've been using chalice, mint chocolate, and gold pot experience buff when hunting, so these numbers probably do not correlate with what most people are getting. That said, I had those buffs for all of the areas I visited so the Spiral definitely is not as awesome for bashing as some of the other areas available to us.

Zsadist

@Slyphe: When I speak about endgame areas, I mean areas that are beneficial to hunt. As it is, I refuse to hunt Nal'jin, Feral Caves, and the newly created Spiral (thank you for that event, it was quit entertaining to watch). Not because they are bad areas, just that they are bad in terms of xp.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--Xaanhal

Damage done: 4584, blunt.
Grief and terror rise unbroken in a merciless Xorani warrior's eyes. "I have...failed..." he
gasps raggedly, before his eyes glaze over and death claims him.
Experience Gained: 3456 (Bashing) [total: 4343859]
[Leveling Stats] To Level: 35390593xp (10240 mobs) | Haven Point: 5589754xp (1617 mobs)
Having slain a merciless Xorani warrior, you retrieve the corpse.
A rush of energy fills you as you feel ready to deliver a devastating blow upon your next
target.

--Tiyen

You have scored a STAGGERING CRITICAL hit!
Damage done: 1020, blunt.
Experience Gained: 3725 (Bashing) [total: 4347584]
[Leveling Stats] To Level: 35386868xp (9500 mobs) | Haven Point: 5586029xp (1500 mobs)
Having slain a Nazetu crossbowman, you retrieve the corpse.
A rush of energy fills you as you feel ready to deliver a devastating blow upon your next
target.

--Volcano

You have scored a STAGGERING CRITICAL hit!
Damage done: 7038, blunt.
Experience Gained: 6008 (Bashing) [total: 4373305]
[Leveling Stats] To Level: 35361147xp (5886 mobs) | Haven Point: 5560308xp (925 mobs)
Having slain a large earth elemental, you retrieve the corpse.
A rush of energy fills you as you feel ready to deliver a devastating blow upon your next
target.

--Nal'jin Depths

You have scored a CRITICAL hit!
Damage done: 2340, blunt.
Experience Gained: 1136 (Bashing) [total: 4352252]
[Leveling Stats] To Level: 35382200xp (31146 mobs) | Haven Point: 5581361xp (4913 mobs)
Having slain a serpentine jawsnapper, you retrieve the corpse.
A rush of energy fills you as you feel ready to deliver a devastating blow upon your next
target.

--Feral Caves

Damage done: 498, blunt.
A gigantic green blob quivers a bit, before splitting into several smaller blobs.
Experience Gained: 3439 (Bashing) [total: 4356113]
[Leveling Stats] To Level: 35378339xp (10287 mobs) | Haven Point: 5577500xp (1622 mobs)
Having slain a gigantic green blob, you retrieve the corpse.
Balance Used: 2.92 seconds

You have scored a CRITICAL hit!
Damage done: 2070, blunt.
A massive green blob quivers a bit, before splitting into several smaller blobs.
Experience Gained: 1769 (Bashing) [total: 4357882]
[Leveling Stats] To Level: 35376570xp (19998 mobs) | Haven Point: 5575731xp (3152 mobs)
Having slain a massive green blob, you retrieve the corpse.
A rush of energy fills you as you feel ready to deliver a devastating blow upon your next
target.

You have scored a CRITICAL hit!
Damage done: 2110 (1550 overkill), blunt.
A slimy green blob quivers a bit, before splitting into several smaller blobs.
Experience Gained: 621 (Bashing) [total: 4358503]
[Leveling Stats] To Level: 35375949xp (56966 mobs) | Haven Point: 5575110xp (8978 mobs)
Having slain a slimy green blob, you retrieve the corpse.
A rush of energy fills you as you feel ready to deliver a devastating blow upon your next
target.

--Arbothia

You have scored a CRUSHING CRITICAL hit!
Damage done: 7472, blunt.
Experience Gained: 1560 (Bashing) [total: 4360063]
[Leveling Stats] To Level: 35374389xp (22676 mobs) | Haven Point: 5573550xp (3573 mobs)
You collect 180 gold from the corpse.
Having slain an enraged female villager, you retrieve the corpse.
A rush of energy fills you as you feel ready to deliver a devastating blow upon your next
target.

--Spiral of Corruption

With a low hiss, you launch yourself at an ethereal, scarred jellyfish, battering him in a
frenzied flurry of strikes.
Damage done: 432, blunt.
Experience Gained: 1135 (Bashing) [total: 4361209]
[Leveling Stats] To Level: 35373243xp (31166 mobs) | Haven Point: 5572404xp (4910 mobs)
Having slain an ethereal, scarred jellyfish, you retrieve the corpse.
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As @Alexina posted above, some areas are just not worth listing as endgame area. I went and took examples from each area listed as endgame, and the only ones worth bashing as a 100+ Azudim, Yeleni, or Ankyrean is Volcano, Tiyen, and Xaanhal as they give the best xp gain. Feral Caves has decreasing xp as the blobs get smaller, which makes it relatively pointless to hunt. Arbothia has 1/3 of the value of Tiyen or Xaanhal, and practically 1/4 the value of Volcano, despite every single mob being aggressive and usually consolidated in groups. Spiral/Nal'jin Depths is worth the same values as Arbothia, which eliminates them as beneficial endgame areas.

That being said, when I say endgame areas, I'm referring to areas that give great xp gain such as Xaanhal, Tiyen, and Volcano and are actually worth bashing, which also exposes them to being ridiculously high traffic of hunting. Sadly, I understand that @Razmael has no intentions on changing the times on the Xaanhal instance, nor changing the Hunters toolkit usage time, which is fine.

So when it comes to making endgame areas, is it possible to take into consideration the xp gain of the mobs compared to the top 3 areas that are hunted? Or even, make a Tiyen instance like that of the Xaanhal instance?

Moirean

Arbothia is ok to bash if you're tanky and want some quick gold. It's over 15k with the quests. Nal'jin seems like it would be good for reanimation, but apparently the sea creatures there are derpy and don't actually have swim bladders. I'm guessing the spiral is the same.

Teani

With three people having posted the same thing about XP now, I think @Slyphe has got the picture. <.<

Arbre

Have you ever -met- @Slyphe, @Teani?  A few more people might need to post their numbers.

Moirean

That seems randomly mean...

Slyphe

Arbre said:

Have you ever -met- @Slyphe, @Teani?  A few more people might need to post their numbers.

I quite understood it after the first post and was trying to learn what exactly determines the experience output for mobiles. Thanks though Jerkbre

Daskalos

It would be awesome if these other level 99 areas could come up XP wise to what Xaanhal\Tiyen\Volcano are.

Damonicus

I would not mind seeing like Lower Tiyen turned into an instance like Lower Xaanhal.  And Nal'jin does not net bladder the way it should from my last trip there.

Moirean

Alternatively, they could increase the benefit in the other areas. Make Naljin/Spiral give out bladder with every mob, increase gold drops for other areas, etc. XP isn't the only reason to bash an area - something like high bladder drops PLUS so-so experience would definitely make an area worth visiting (would beat runs through Riparium).

Toz

The only 2 places worth bashing at end-game are Tiyen and Volcano. You go to Xaanhal if you're a massive arti-tank who can auto-bash it and you don't want to compete with anybody else. It's sub-par compared to Tiyen gold drops, 300 less xp/mob for end-game, and they hit harder (phys audits tend to be higher, but I usually get hit for 800-2k in Tiyen, and Xaanhal hits me for ~1.7k per). It's weird to be able to go to Tiyen, tank all day and gain like 10k gold on a good run, then go to Xaanhal and get murdered for 3k.

Arbre

I was just picking on @Slyphe, I didn't intend to be sincerely mean.  I'm sorry if I was.

Zsadist

Daskalos said:

It would be awesome if these other level 99 areas could come up XP wise to what Xaanhal\Tiyen\Volcano are.

Mark this day in your calendar @Daskalos, because for the first time, I will agree with you, this would be a more viable solution. As well as @Moirean's suggestion to increase bladder slices in Nal'jin.

Moirean

So I've been spending some time bashing a bit more, and with a hunting arti and a statpack suited to bash, it goes...fast. Right now, Arbothia, Upper Xaanhal, Volcano (excluding daemons and smoke elementals because f that noise, I am going for speed), most of Fengard and soon Nal'jin are cleared, before any of them repop. Ezalor's cleared out Tiyen. Time for blobs, I suppose. That's really not an ideal setup if only 1-2 people on their own can clear out ALL of the high-end bashing areas and be sitting twiddling their thumbs waiting for repops.

Nalor

I normally do Tiyen, ollin, cliffs and arbothia (when can be bothered) and return to Tiyen and tiyen hasn't even repopped fully.. it sucks when others are bashing the same areas tho

We need more instances like Xaanhal which dont take 3 hours to repop and maybe not that high a gold drop and xp..

Amberlea

My main complaint with the spiral in regards to its value as a bashing spot is the risk vs reward. The xp wasn't too great, with aggro mobs that bunched up. I have no idea what the gold drops were because I ended up splatting when too many things came in at once and then couldn't run. This was a couple of weeks ago, though, so if anything's changed since then it might be irrelevant.

15k for a trip through arbothia -sounds- nice, but in truth it's such an incredible pain in the rear trying to snag individual mobs off one by one that I will just never bother. In the time it would take me to actually achieve that I could have earned the same amount doing other quests/areas with less sloppy wolf guts getting splattered all over everything. Despite having a tanky statpack, enhancing con, green amulet, white amulet, safeguard, blessing (when they stacked) I just can't take the damage there, especially not in the blackout spam.

I get that some areas are supposed to be done as a team, and that's totally cool. I love that idea. One thing I would consider for at least one future area of this type, though, is instead of just mashing a bunch of hard, aggro mobs together in a tight space, put in mobs that are really tanky and do big damage, but split between everyone in the room, along with tactically challenging afflictions (like pushing people out of the room to try to concentrate the damage, so people will scramble to run back in to keep the group alive). Nobody can go in solo and tank like 6k hits from these things, but a group of four can go in and split the damage and duke it out. Of course, up the xp and gold drops to be representative of the fact they will be being split as well (which I imagine is why arbothia drops so much + the quests).

Serrice

I went through Arbo once and got really crappy gold. Where are all these mysterious uber Arbo gold drops coming from!?

Zsadist

@Amberlea, I have no idea how you're getting 15k off one round in Arbothia....cause when I do it, I'd be lucky to get 5k.

Nalor

Zsadist said:

@Amberlea, I have no idea how you're getting 15k off one round in Arbothia....cause when I do it, I'd be lucky to get 5k.

Quests too. but with Marcello bugged I dont think its 15k worth... just bashing its like 5k.. but no one bashes it soo it normally has things in it

Moirean

Arbothia is like 7k, tops, including the rescue quest. Marcello is bugged.

Amberlea

I was quoting Moirean, or perhaps misquoting. Not hardcore enough to go back and check.

Moirean

Yeah, I've noticed a drop in gold lately from bashing. Maybe I'm just having bad luck, but Arbothia used to be around 10k+ and Xaanhal was around 8K+. Ever since the Great Hunt, when I got back into heavy bashing, I've noticed a significantly lower amount.

Xavin

Moirean said:

Yeah, I've noticed a drop in gold lately from bashing. Maybe I'm just having bad luck, but Arbothia used to be around 10k+ and Xaanhal was around 8K+. Ever since the Great Hunt, when I got back into heavy bashing, I've noticed a significantly lower amount.

I think gold drops have been toned down fairly recently across the board.