IlIllI
01-20-2021, 03:50 AM
Hi,
I have been crafting an L20 set for Epic Reincarnations - and came across (again) the classic Polished Ore problem.
Which is to say: I needed it and didn't have any (for Acid Lore in this case for my Acid Archer).
I am writing this because the information that exists is both limited and somewhat wrong - and the parts that are right require paid Wheloon prison access. This tale offers an alternative.
I remember the last time I crafted an acid lore item - polished ore was a huge problem.
Searches back then came to the various guides - EllisDee37's classic https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/508015-An-ultimate-caster-druid-build-awesome-damage-DC-heal among others.
However, the last time I needed Polished Ore - it was during the COVID summer of 2020 with its free all quest access - and I don't have Wheloon Heroic access anymore...
Digging through older threads, I found mentions of monsters dropping polished ore. A significant amount of investigation later - I discovered a way to get Polished Ore without Wheloon Heroic and possibly some fundamental knowledge about Cultural/monster drops in general.
Basics: Polished Ore is L4 Cultural. Monster to drop: Gargoyles.
There are gargoyles in a number of places (thank you DDOwiki) - but L4 seems to be the key. If you go to say, the Lair of Summoning - the adventure seems to be just too low level or maybe I was unlucky. I did get 3 ivory scorpions out of 20+ purple sacks - but never got a polished ore even though in theory the ivory scorpion is the same uncommon as polished ore.
Instead, I validated that Old Grey Garl works https://ddowiki.com/page/Old_Grey_Garl
First, you need to get to Elite. It also requires a multiple runs: Hard completion plus pre-run Elite - the fireball throwing Troglodytes. But since I was doing this as a L27 just for polished ore, they weren't an issue at all unlike the first time I ever did this quest.
Once you flag for Elite and get through the pre-quest, the strategy is simple: run from entrance to the chest+6 gargoyles.
You don't need invisibility or anything - or even to fight anything along the way. Just run to the chest, loot it (to ransack) which activates the gargoyles, then blast them.
You get a purple sack roughly 10% of the time per gargoyle - so perhaps slightly more than one purple sack every 2 resets.
In practice, I would get a polished ore around 1 in 5 sacks = 10 resets. I only needed 5 so had only around 30-40 purple sacks - but I did not get anything beyond the common and uncommon. In fact, I didn't get any ivory scorpions - only the common or polished ore.
Now: why Old Grey Garl vs. Wheloon Heroic? Is there even a debate?
Well, Wheloon Heroic is backpacks. Backpacks can get anything. But Anything means polished ore is one of a much larger set of possible pulls than if you only do cultural.
There are 4 categories: Lore, Natural, Arcane and Cultural - and there are 6 common and 7 uncommon pulls from all the L4 collectible categories. Compare this vs. L4 Cultural: 1 common and 2 uncommon (and maybe just 1/1).
If common is say, 4x more likely than uncommon - then pulling a polished ore using Wheloon Prison is 1 in 31 chance per backpack. I don't know the exact ratio but it is in this area from my own recollection of Wheloon prison. You can pull 16 in 4 minutes in theory - with all manner of wings and boots and spells but I think it is more like double that for regular toons. When I did polished ore runs over the summer, I would do the 2 backpacks nearest the entrance and take well over over 2 minutes each time.
With Old Grey Garl - it takes about 1.5 minutes to repeat a run. Enter, open chest, kill gargoyles, pick up - maybe shoot an ooze that follows you in, reset back to right outside the entrance, jump back in range of entrance, reset, re-enter.
I got 5 in about 1.5 hours/25 purple sacks = 40-ish runs (I wasn't 100% active). This comes out to 18 minutes per polished ore. I was using a Ranger with Blinding Speed/Striding 30% - so nothing special speed wise.
Wheloon Heroic in comparison would take a min 8 minutes according to EllisDee37 - more like 16 for a non-optimized pull character. The 2 backpacks near Wheloon prison entrance would take 30+ minutes per polished ore and more probably 40+.
Again, all probability estimates are just guesses based on a short sample of real world results.
Maybe Lair of Summoning or other low level quests can actually drop polished ore, someone else can try and see.
Maybe the uncommon vs. common ratio is greater or lower.
The only good news is that polished ore is typically only required in batches of 5 - so it is like doing 1.5 long quests: painful but tolerable (at least to me) and it is confirmed that the gargoyles in Old Grey Garl - HE will drop polished ore.
I have been crafting an L20 set for Epic Reincarnations - and came across (again) the classic Polished Ore problem.
Which is to say: I needed it and didn't have any (for Acid Lore in this case for my Acid Archer).
I am writing this because the information that exists is both limited and somewhat wrong - and the parts that are right require paid Wheloon prison access. This tale offers an alternative.
I remember the last time I crafted an acid lore item - polished ore was a huge problem.
Searches back then came to the various guides - EllisDee37's classic https://www.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/508015-An-ultimate-caster-druid-build-awesome-damage-DC-heal among others.
However, the last time I needed Polished Ore - it was during the COVID summer of 2020 with its free all quest access - and I don't have Wheloon Heroic access anymore...
Digging through older threads, I found mentions of monsters dropping polished ore. A significant amount of investigation later - I discovered a way to get Polished Ore without Wheloon Heroic and possibly some fundamental knowledge about Cultural/monster drops in general.
Basics: Polished Ore is L4 Cultural. Monster to drop: Gargoyles.
There are gargoyles in a number of places (thank you DDOwiki) - but L4 seems to be the key. If you go to say, the Lair of Summoning - the adventure seems to be just too low level or maybe I was unlucky. I did get 3 ivory scorpions out of 20+ purple sacks - but never got a polished ore even though in theory the ivory scorpion is the same uncommon as polished ore.
Instead, I validated that Old Grey Garl works https://ddowiki.com/page/Old_Grey_Garl
First, you need to get to Elite. It also requires a multiple runs: Hard completion plus pre-run Elite - the fireball throwing Troglodytes. But since I was doing this as a L27 just for polished ore, they weren't an issue at all unlike the first time I ever did this quest.
Once you flag for Elite and get through the pre-quest, the strategy is simple: run from entrance to the chest+6 gargoyles.
You don't need invisibility or anything - or even to fight anything along the way. Just run to the chest, loot it (to ransack) which activates the gargoyles, then blast them.
You get a purple sack roughly 10% of the time per gargoyle - so perhaps slightly more than one purple sack every 2 resets.
In practice, I would get a polished ore around 1 in 5 sacks = 10 resets. I only needed 5 so had only around 30-40 purple sacks - but I did not get anything beyond the common and uncommon. In fact, I didn't get any ivory scorpions - only the common or polished ore.
Now: why Old Grey Garl vs. Wheloon Heroic? Is there even a debate?
Well, Wheloon Heroic is backpacks. Backpacks can get anything. But Anything means polished ore is one of a much larger set of possible pulls than if you only do cultural.
There are 4 categories: Lore, Natural, Arcane and Cultural - and there are 6 common and 7 uncommon pulls from all the L4 collectible categories. Compare this vs. L4 Cultural: 1 common and 2 uncommon (and maybe just 1/1).
If common is say, 4x more likely than uncommon - then pulling a polished ore using Wheloon Prison is 1 in 31 chance per backpack. I don't know the exact ratio but it is in this area from my own recollection of Wheloon prison. You can pull 16 in 4 minutes in theory - with all manner of wings and boots and spells but I think it is more like double that for regular toons. When I did polished ore runs over the summer, I would do the 2 backpacks nearest the entrance and take well over over 2 minutes each time.
With Old Grey Garl - it takes about 1.5 minutes to repeat a run. Enter, open chest, kill gargoyles, pick up - maybe shoot an ooze that follows you in, reset back to right outside the entrance, jump back in range of entrance, reset, re-enter.
I got 5 in about 1.5 hours/25 purple sacks = 40-ish runs (I wasn't 100% active). This comes out to 18 minutes per polished ore. I was using a Ranger with Blinding Speed/Striding 30% - so nothing special speed wise.
Wheloon Heroic in comparison would take a min 8 minutes according to EllisDee37 - more like 16 for a non-optimized pull character. The 2 backpacks near Wheloon prison entrance would take 30+ minutes per polished ore and more probably 40+.
Again, all probability estimates are just guesses based on a short sample of real world results.
Maybe Lair of Summoning or other low level quests can actually drop polished ore, someone else can try and see.
Maybe the uncommon vs. common ratio is greater or lower.
The only good news is that polished ore is typically only required in batches of 5 - so it is like doing 1.5 long quests: painful but tolerable (at least to me) and it is confirmed that the gargoyles in Old Grey Garl - HE will drop polished ore.