Spirit Wracked Cords - Dropping?

[Para99]

My understanding through semi-reliable secondhand knowledge is that these are dropping off of Grand Lorekeeper Kino Shai`din. I assume this is unintentional like the Beastlord arms? In case it isn't unintentional -


I can't find any posts that anyone saw these drop until post-Luclin. Even in late 2002 people were acting as if it was a new development or possibly a bug. If they do drop they should at the least be insanely rare, possibly one of the rarest drops in the game. People are talking about camping him for weeks to get the Vocal Cords without ever seeing the Spirit Wracked Cords.

The wayback capture of how.to/chardok, which was considered the definitive in-era guide, makes no mention of a drop. Even though the capture is from 2003 and it has the updated reference to Angry Goblin spawning in FM and a last updated date of 2003, the guide was originally written in 2001 and is referenced by in-era posts.
https://web.archive.org/web/20030124013531/http://how.to:80/chardok/

His eqbeastiary page from June 2002 only shows him dropping the Cloak and the Vocal Cords
https://web.archive.org/web/20020703223933/http://eqbeastiary.allakhazam.com/search.shtml?id=8458

No mentions on Zam comments of it dropping prior to 2002 and even after that the mentions are mostly spread out by years.


This October 2002 post, and a similar post the same guy made on the Zam Spirit Wracked Cord page, is the earliest reference I can find to them dropping.
Oct 08 2002
Dropped Spirit Wracked Cords for our Royals raid.
Yes you read right.
Our MA got them.


(In Reply to the October 8 post)
Oct 10 2002
Hmm. Spirit Wracked Cord is supposed to be a quest item only.


Feb 05 2003
The Lorekeeper dropped the Cords for us as well several months ago. Since then however we've killed him numerous times and he has not dropped them since. It's either an extremely rare drop, or it was a bugged loot table and it has been corrected by VI (without letting the players know of course).

There are some other posts mentioning them dropping post 2005, but people mostly camped him for the Vocal Cords.
http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=8458


A Concert Hall thread about farming the Vocal Cords, which were apparently extremely rare in their own right -

Sep 25, 2003
Grand Lorekeeper drops the damnable cloak of imperception (you'll grow to hate it as much as I do), tanned iskar leggings (lower level caster pants), History of the Greenmist and the preserved chokidai vocal cords.
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/theconcerthall/preserved-chokidai-vocal-cords-t904.html


Nov 15, 2003
...Thankfully I was wrong -- spent only about 20 hours down there, and got both drops I was after (the other being Anklesmasher).

Here's a rundown of my spawns (41 in all):
LP (HD), LP (NB), AL, AL, AL, LP (HD), LP (NB), AL, GLKS (TIHL), LP (HD), LP (ISR), AL, LP (HD), LP (ISR), AL, AL, LP (HD), LP (HD), LP (NB), AL, LP (NB), AL, LP (HD), AL, AL, LP (NB), LP (ISR), AL, LP (HD), LP (HD), AL, AL, AL, LP (HD), LP (NB), AL, GLKS (TIHL), AL, GLKS (PCVC), AL, LP (AS)

Legend:
AL -- an Apprentice Lorekeeper (x18, 44%)

LP -- Loremaster Piza'tak (x20, 49%)
. . . HD -- History of the Di'zok (x10)
. . . NB -- Nathsar Breastplate (x6)
. . . ISR -- Intricate Silver Rapier (x3)
. . . AS -- Anklesmasher (x1)

GLKS -- Grand Lorekeeper Kino Shai'din (x3, 7%)
. . . TIHL -- Tanned Iksar Hide Leggings (x2)
. . . PCVC -- the jackpot, Preserved Chokidai Vocal Cords (x1)

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/theconcerthall/preserved-chokidai-vocal-cords-t904-s10.html


A Safehouse Thread questioning if they still drop in 2003 -
08-16-03, 11:44 PM
Re: Do Spirit wracked cords still DROP ......

Yes it still does drop, though it is rarer than the halfling mask if that helps tell you how often.

Drops off the Grand Lorekeeper who is the rarest of 3 spawns. Common being PH, rare being Lore keeper, rarest being Grand lorekeeper. On top of that the chords are his rare drop. Honestly I think it is easier to work faction and quest them.

Re: Do Spirit wracked cords still DROP ......

Factioning and doing the ring quests, getting sinew from Trak/Juggs, and killing DS/buying the urn MQ is still going to be MUCH MUCH easier than trying to get the item to drop for you...
https://thesafehouse.org/forums/forum/everquest-wing/quests-of-norrath/8979-do-spirit-wracked-cords-still-drop

08-21-03, 02:26 AM
Re: Do Spirit wracked cords still DROP ......

The cords being a drop, rare or not, sounds suspiciously like a "brother's friend's cousin heard from this guy who knows this kid..." type story. Anything is possible, but I'd bet good money that this item doesn't drop. Knowing SOE and their penchant for screwing up, I suppose it's possible that it dropped for a period of like 4 hours between some patch and the emergency-patch-to-fix-the-patch one day, but that'd be the extent of it. Especially with a long & involved quest in place to attain the item.

09-12-03, 01:30 PM
Re: Do Spirit wracked cords still DROP ......

They dropped on a Chardok raid 8/23/03. First time EVER that I've seen them drop, and I've spent quite a bit of time there.
https://thesafehouse.org/forums/forum/everquest-wing/quests-of-norrath/8979-do-spirit-wracked-cords-still-drop/page2

Here's an incomplete loot table from January 2002 that only has him dropping the Cloak
http://www.oocities.org/stoikeci/Charts/ChardokLootNew.htm

I can never get Magelo wayback to work, but Spirit Wracked Cord wasn't added to the Magelo database until 12 days after Luclin
https://eq.magelo.com/item/5723


The only thing I've seen that mentions them dropping in 2001 is a guy in the Safe House thread claiming they dropped for him on day 1 of the Chardok patch, and he claims in the 2 years since he never heard of them dropping again.
09-02-03,
I got my cords as a drop first day they patched the (old)new quests/items into Chardok. (read: first day they existed on live) We were heading down to do the king/queen and just happened the grand lorekeeper was there. Drop him, he drops cords, I get cords, I wet myself.

At first I stocked it up as a glitch in the loot tables, but apparently it isn't. Still, as far as I know I'm the only person on Tribunal to get one as a drop.
https://thesafehouse.org/forums/forum/everquest-wing/quests-of-norrath/8979-do-spirit-wracked-cords-still-drop?p=184347#post184347

Anecdotally, if these were dropping on Live as soon as Chardok was patched it seems like someone would've mentioned it in the 12 months between October 2001 and October 2002. Hopefully I didn't look over something obvious didn't want to spend much time looking into this since I assume it's unintentional.

[Para99]

Didn't see the thread in server chat before my post, but apparently it is dropping on P99 per our forums.

https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=315055&page=17

[Jan Jensen]

1) The chardok update was a novelty patch that few people really cared for on Live, especially early on with the Luclin update looming.

2) Allakazam was (and is?) a cesspool for cluless players; the notion of the typical site visitor sitting down to camp the Library between October '01 and December '01 is laughable. Even moreso for any length of time required to statistically get the drop.

Personally, I was one of the only people killing Loremaster on my server and never saw the cord. Does this mean it's doesn't belong on the table? Of course not; that camp was a pain in the ass to hold down back then, especially without gimmicky faction/charm antics. Just because it's rare doesn't mean it's not classic.



Anecdotally, if these were dropping on Live as soon as Chardok was patched it seems like someone would've mentioned it in the 12 months between October 2001 and October 2002.

Why? Noone went down there. And if you wanted the cords, you simply quested them. The quest wasn't widely known about and there was no ridiculously dumb queue for shady/angry goblin.

After Luclin hit, even fewer people cared.

[Para99]

The same logic that applies to why holding the library is easier now applies to the entire quest. People weren't double invising and lev tricking off the pillar to get to Drusella's room 2 minutes after zoning in and then soloing her, it would have been a multi-hour clear of South and the front of East to even get a chance at a rare drop from a 24 hour respawn. Then farming another rare drop from Juggs. That's only after killing thousands of mobs to even be able to start the quest.


As it is this looks to be based on post-Luclin loot tables the same as Hammered Golden Loop, the Pearly Sarnak Bauble, the beastlord arms, the "No Pet" tagged proc weapon and whatever else is not classic and is or was dropping. A lot of Chardok loot was changed after Luclin.

[Rygar]

Lol @ the notion that no one explored Chardok cause Luclin was 2 months off. I mean, really? Total joke, guess they stopped killing royals because click sticks were becoming obsolete with Luclin around the corner.

Some people will say anything to keep non classic pixels.

[pasi]

I can never get Magelo wayback to work, but Spirit Wracked Cord wasn't added to the Magelo database until 12 days after Luclin
https://eq.magelo.com/item/5723

Oddly enough, Spirit Wracked Cords entered the Magelo Database 2 months prior to Spirit Wracked Urn did. So, if you're going off Magelo entry dates, you'd come to the conclusion that the drop cords predates the quested cords. Of course, the Undead Dragon Sinew predates both. Perhaps you could make the argument that the quest was broken initially?

IMO, this seems like an easy case of argument from ignorance (or rather the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence).

I've got longer explanations on using item IDs in the past explaining why its not 100%. The TLDR is that for itemIDs that are likely wrong will have either deleted or out-of-era items next to them. In addition, an item being in the database doesn't mean it was actually dropping in game. In this case, the nearby item IDs (guard captain's mallet, nathsar bracer, finely woven mantle, cloak of imperception) all seem to suggest this going in with a bunch of other items known to exist in that time period.

Consider that royals raids weren't exactly a daily thing, generally required 3+ groups, and the library w/ Lorekeeper had to be the absolute worst place to wait out 2-hour spawns. Extremely rare drop from a rare spawn in an area where very few folk ventured. Said rare drop still exists on live. http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=12318 talks about them dropping in 2015.

Your one quote about getting 3/41 (7%) spawns of Grand Lorekeeper.
Assuming his figures are accurate and that magelos droprate (2/34 or 5.8%) are samples not far from the actual figures: you'd be looking at an individual pH chance having a 0.4% chance of dropping Spirit Wracked Cords. An average of ~1/250 spawns or 5000 minutes of camping (assuming the pHs are instantly dying).

Scenarios
1) Spirit Wracked Cords have been in the game from Oct 11 2001 onward (or lets say March of 2015 based on the most recent allakhazam comment from live).
2) Spirit Wracked Cords were intentionally added (but undocumented via patch notes) sometime after Chardok 2.0 Revamp, but before the first reported instance of them dropping in October 2002.

Scenario #1 seems a lot more likely to me. Frankly, I feel that Kino dropping the cords was probably a mistake that never got corrected.

[Jan Jensen]

Lol @ the notion that no one explored Chardok cause Luclin was 2 months off. I mean, really? Total joke, guess they stopped killing royals because click sticks were becoming obsolete with Luclin around the corner.

Some people will say anything to keep non classic pixels.

Aside from an infrequent royals raid, noone was there on the Rathe. Perhaps you have better firsthand knowledge than me. Or perhaps you didn't even play back then and you take the incessant ramblings of clueless people on Allakazam as gospel.

[Para99]

Scenarios
1) Spirit Wracked Cords have been in the game from Oct 11 2001 onward (or lets say March of 2015 based on the most recent allakhazam comment from live).
2) Spirit Wracked Cords were intentionally added (but undocumented via patch notes) sometime after Chardok 2.0 Revamp, but before the first reported instance of them dropping in October 2002.

Scenario #1 seems a lot more likely to me. Frankly, I feel that Kino dropping the cords was probably a mistake that never got corrected.

I'm not arguing Spirit Wracked Cords didn't exist, I'm arguing they didn't drop until after Luclin. They were a quest, and the quest was documented. There are references to people completing the quest prior to Luclin. There was an entire forum, and later an entire website, dedicated to the quest. None of that exists for the drop.

Kino's cloak was nerfed after the Chardok patch but before Luclin, if it was a mistake and they were on his loot table at that point seems like they would have noticed a random BIS item that required a lengthy quest on his loot table when they were nerfing it or at the least they would have noticed it a month later when they were altering loot across the entire zone.

Imo the likely scenario is they were introduced as a quest. Once Luclin loot was introduced making them less desirable Verant introduced them as a drop as part of their effort to make the game easier. The same reason they made Hammered Golden Loop droppable and all the other things they changed in Chardok post-Luclin.

[Pint]

Idk the king is a few feet away and dropped a bis item in kunark, it's not that crazy to think the guys who designed chardok put another extremely rare bis item deep in it's depths. Holding kino down in era for something that rare would have been wildly difficult, certainly difficult enough to go unnoticed or unreported. Also all of your evidence points to the fact that they did drop, nothing shows that it was a later addition with a balance patch or that it didn't drop originally, that's all just ppl speculating which sounds like pretty poor classic questing.

[Para99]

Idk the king is a few feet away and dropped a bis item in kunark, it's not that crazy to think the guys who designed chardok put another extremely rare bis item deep in it's depths. Holding kino down in era for something that rare would have been wildly difficult, certainly difficult enough to go unnoticed or unreported. Also all of your evidence points to the fact that they did drop, nothing shows that it was a later addition with a balance patch or that it didn't drop originally, that's all just ppl speculating which sounds like pretty poor classic questing.

Nothing King drops can be obtained through a lengthy quest.

[Rygar]

Aside from an infrequent royals raid, noone was there on the Rathe. Perhaps you have better firsthand knowledge than me. Or perhaps you didn't even play back then and you take the incessant ramblings of clueless people on Allakazam as gospel.

I actually played day 1 of release and through Luclin, having a brief step away during Kunark but came back before Velious. Find it funny people knock ZAM comments all the time about 'no clue nerds' but then on the backhand use it for evidence. As with anything you use your judgement and find corroborating evidence of it where you can.

Idk the king is a few feet away and dropped a bis item in kunark, it's not that crazy to think the guys who designed chardok put another extremely rare bis item deep in it's depths. Holding kino down in era for something that rare would have been wildly difficult, certainly difficult enough to go unnoticed or unreported. Also all of your evidence points to the fact that they did drop, nothing shows that it was a later addition with a balance patch or that it didn't drop originally, that's all just ppl speculating which sounds like pretty poor classic questing.

I think people forget the scope of all the servers that were available. Its not like P99 where there is 1 populated server farming or exploring. There were like 20? 30? 40? at the time, don't know the exact numbers. But that is a lot of data to capture.

There could be evidence out there elsewhere (one way or the other), but unfortunately nearly every EQ message board used EZ boards which don't allow wayback links.

[pasi]

I'm not arguing Spirit Wracked Cords didn't exist, I'm arguing they didn't drop until after Luclin. They were a quest, and the quest was documented. There are references to people completing the quest prior to Luclin. There was an entire forum, and later an entire website, dedicated to the quest. None of that exists for the drop.

Kino's cloak was nerfed after the Chardok patch but before Luclin, if it was a mistake and they were on his loot table at that point seems like they would have noticed a random BIS item that required a lengthy quest on his loot table when they were nerfing it or at the least they would have noticed it a month later when they were altering loot across the entire zone.

Imo the likely scenario is they were introduced as a quest. Once Luclin loot was introduced making them less desirable Verant introduced them as a drop as part of their effort to make the game easier. The same reason they made Hammered Golden Loop droppable and all the other things they changed in Chardok post-Luclin.

I should have clarified the scenarios as the cords specifically being in the game as a dropped item off Kino or not. I assumed incorrectly that the discussion wasn't going to veer into the quest.

Your own post references comments about people camping vocal cords for weeks without seeing SWCs or vocal cords. You can find similar comments later on as well. In addition to this, I had posted some maths. Low% drop off low% spawn in area that is very difficult to camp (dangerous area behind locked door). Do you not find it plausible that it simply took a year for this drop to be reported somewhere?

My own anecdotal experience from live on Innoruuk is similar to Jans from the Rathe: Chardok was a pretty barren place. There'd often be a group at Castle Entrance or people exping on mobs at zone out, but that was about it. P99ers who didn't play on live dont realize that the majority of even uber raiding guilds weren't 60 until Luclin. A lot of "raiding" was bringing 2-3+ groups of 50+ to a zone like The Hole, Chardok, Sirens Grotto, Dragon Necropolis, etc. and just dungeon crawling with no specific targets in mind. That's how the majority of these zones got discovered and documented.

[Pint]

Even if there were 30 instances of revamped chardok the likelihood of there being farm groups holding down the royals area during live we're probably nil. The reality is that with the methods we use today nothing is really "rare" in the same sense as live. Honestly I won't be putting this item on my paladin so I really don't have a dog in the fight, but it seems wrong to claim these didn't drop in classic with 0 proof to back up the claim. Surely if they were added later there would be comments stating as much.

[Para99]

I should have clarified the scenarios as the cords specifically being in the game as a dropped item off Kino or not. I assumed incorrectly that the discussion wasn't going to veer into the quest.

Your own post references comments about people camping vocal cords for weeks without seeing SWCs or vocal cords. You can find similar comments later on as well. In addition to this, I had posted some maths. Low% drop off low% spawn in area that is very difficult to camp (dangerous area behind locked door). Do you not find it plausible that it simply took a year for this drop to be reported somewhere?

My own anecdotal experience from live on Innoruuk is similar to Jans from the Rathe: Chardok was a pretty barren place. There'd often be a group at Castle Entrance or people exping on mobs at zone out, but that was about it. P99ers who didn't play on live dont realize that the majority of even uber raiding guilds weren't 60 until Luclin. A lot of "raiding" was bringing 2-3+ groups of 50+ to a zone like The Hole, Chardok, Sirens Grotto, Dragon Necropolis, etc. and just dungeon crawling with no specific targets in mind. That's how the majority of these zones got discovered and documented.

Nah I don't find that plausible, every other piece of Chardok loot was documented at least 6 months before that. Kino isn't a mob of Tunare difficulty where it makes sense the entire loot table wouldn't be discovered in a few month period.

If it dropped from Queen I would be more inclined to believe it came with the revamp, but a random sub-60 mob with no status as a zone "boss", no special skills, and no involvement with the quest says to me it was part of Verant's effort to make the game easier and they added it at the same time they quietly made all the other Chardok loot easier to obtain.

I can't think of a better piece of loot that's found on a non-raid mob in this era, or another high end quest that can be completely circumvented by killing an unrelated mob. The quest is specifically designed so it can't be started before level 51 but a lvl 5 can loot the final quest reward on P99. Regardless, my opinion is irrelevant.

[Para99]

Even if there were 30 instances of revamped chardok the likelihood of there being farm groups holding down the royals area during live we're probably nil. The reality is that with the methods we use today nothing is really "rare" in the same sense as live. Honestly I won't be putting this item on my paladin so I really don't have a dog in the fight, but it seems wrong to claim these didn't drop in classic with 0 proof to back up the claim. Surely if they were added later there would be comments stating as much.

Didn't see this before my post, loot was changed in Chardok with Luclin with no mention in patch notes. Why would this be any different?

[Brocode]

Halfling Mask was declared a Myth and No longer dropped if not in all servers atleast on Povar until my brother camped it for a full week non stop 24/7 and got one then it started getting camped again. Of course people wont find superfarm a mob that they dont know that item drops, and who found out i doubt they were telling all people so they could compete. Pretty sure you get the memo when it dropped here and announced on forum right?

Those are all info Post Era, and lots of frustrated posts thinking it doesnt drop anymore, meaning it did drop and on live still drop, what else you need?

[solrokk]

Halfling Mask was declared a Myth and No longer dropped if not in all servers atleast on Povar until my brother camped it for a full week non stop 24/7 and got one then it started getting camped again. Of course people wont find superfarm a mob that they dont know that item drops, and who found out i doubt they were telling all people so they could compete. Pretty sure you get the memo when it dropped here and announced on forum right?

Those are all info Post Era, and lots of frustrated posts thinking it doesnt drop anymore, meaning it did drop and on live still drop, what else you need?

Pretty much this. Assling mask was a myth on bristlebane for a long time. Oh, and I sold Hammered Golden Hoops at 75k a pop. Why wasn't I in Luclin doing Luclin stuff for money?

The cords drop, let it be. They already made HGL no trade.

[Telin]

We have already removed these as a rare drop on p99 until there is definitive proof these dropped prior to Luclin.

It would otherwise be debatable whether developers added it as a drop months after the zone launched, or if it was always available but too rare to have been posted online (where we can still see it) during our timeline.

[Pringles]

We have already removed these as a rare drop on p99 until there is definitive proof these dropped prior to Luclin.

It would otherwise be debatable whether developers added it as a drop months after the zone launched, or if it was always available but too rare to have been posted online (where we can still see it) during our timeline.

I'd think with this person's confirmation https://thesafehouse.org/forums/forum/everquest-wing/quests-of-norrath/8979-do-spirit-wracked-cords-still-drop?p=184347#post184347 they dropped on 2.0 release. Skimming through the rest of OP's sources lots of mentions of the rarity of it one person even going so far to say factioning/questing was easier. This makes me lean toward it always dropping just with a chance dwarfing the halfling mask.

[xerozz]

removing them wasn't in the patch notes, why? if they're re-added in a future patch , can it be added in the patch notes please?

[Not_Mikeo]

removing them wasn't in the patch notes, why? if they're re-added in a future patch , can it be added in the patch notes please?

this?

[Rygar]

removing them wasn't in the patch notes, why? if they're re-added in a future patch , can it be added in the patch notes please?

Changes not in patch notes? Shit's classic, deal with it.

[pasi]

Though it's some level of a judgement call (as with most changes), this change seems wrong given everything in this thread including a safehouse post talking about them dropping in-era. I understand though if doing if doing it for "spirit of the game" purposes.

[Baugi]

Nah I don't find that plausible, every other piece of Chardok loot was documented at least 6 months before that.

Where are you getting this? Initial entry for Desiccated Halfling Mask, for example, was almost three months after Spirit Wracked Cord.

[Buellen]

Everlore post from 2002.

https://web.archive.org/web/20030324052715/http://www.everlore.com/quests/default.asp?mode=35&id=561240

Just adding that

[Rygar]

Everlore post from 2002.

https://web.archive.org/web/20030324052715/http://www.everlore.com/quests/default.asp?mode=35&id=561240

Just adding that

Am I missing something? That is just referring to the quest, not it being droppable.

[Buellen]

yea sorry 8(

didnot realize my error till later and could not edit it out 8(

[Baugi]

Halfling mask should also be removed if we're using the logic in this thread as precedent. there's no non-anecdotal evidence that it dropped prior to Luclin release.

Of course... assuming that they made random changes to Chardok loot tables with the Luclin release is ridiculous.

[Senescant]

Halfling mask should also be removed if we're using the logic in this thread as precedent. there's no non-anecdotal evidence that it dropped prior to Luclin release.

Of course... assuming that they made random changes to Chardok loot tables with the Luclin release is ridiculous.

This, please delete all halfling masks.

[Para99]

Where are you getting this? Initial entry for Desiccated Halfling Mask, for example, was almost three months after Spirit Wracked Cord.

Halfling mask was documented within a month and it was constantly talked about.

https://web.archive.org/web/20011211181301/http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=6896
Last updated: October 29, 2001 and by that point someone had even sent in an in-game screenshot not just the stats.



Of course... assuming that they made random changes to Chardok loot tables with the Luclin release is ridiculous.
There were random unannounced changes to Chardok after Luclin, that is not an assumption.

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

The only thing I've seen that mentions them dropping in 2001 is a guy in the Safe House thread claiming they dropped for him on day 1 of the Chardok patch, and he claims in the 2 years since he never heard of them dropping again.

https://thesafehouse.org/forums/forum/everquest-wing/quests-of-norrath/8979-do-spirit-wracked-cords-still-drop?p=184347#post184347


How is this not enough evidence for these to continue dropping? There were a lot of things "wrong" with Cdok drops, but there was very little evidence to REMOVE SWC from his loot table.

It seems like the decision to remove them was made in haste. It also violates the drop structure that is mostly correct on all mobs in Cdok - see below.


Loremaster (NOTE: he is dropping history and rapier simultaneously, may be bug similar to others resolved lately)
common - History of the Di`Zok
uncommon - Intricate Silver Rapier
rare - Nathsar Breastplate
ultra - Anklesmasher

Grand Lorekeeper
common - Cloak of Imperception
uncommon - Tanned Iksar Hide Leggings
rare - Preserved Chokidai Vocal Cords
ultra - SWC


There is no evidence implying they were added, therefore it seems logical they existed since inception - given the "system" of Cdok itemization, and sporadic reports of drops occurring, and the difficulty/rarity it would of been done on live.

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

Bump

[Dolalin]

I'll search my archive for this and see if there are any in-era posts about it.

[Dolalin]

A character in Afterlife had Spirit Wracked Cord in their guild character inventory at least as of December 15, 2001:

https://web.archive.org/web/20011225013457/www.afterlifeguild.org/members.cgi?page=details&character=Delnatha

Capture is from Dec 25 2001 but the page says "Last Updated: 12-15-2001 22:23:09 CST"

This is like 10 days after Luclin launch. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say Spirit Wracked Cord was in from the Chardok revamp patch itself.

[Dolalin]

A thread from eqnecros started on Dec 20th 2001, referencing these quests and of course the Spirit Wracked Cord.


Posted - 12/20/2001

im surprised no one has posted about these, or if they have, ived missed it
i find them to be someting to fuss about
Di`Zok Signet of Service
1st ring = 2ac 1int/wis/cha 65hp, 45mana lore, no drop

Regal Band of Bathezid
2nd ring = 5ac, 2int/wis/cha 5sta 85hp, 50mana, 5charges of a 25point DS, lore,nodrop

3rd reward(you get 2nd ring back) =
Spirit Wracked Cord (Lore, No Drop)
Shoulder, Arms Wrist
AC12, Sta5, Hp100, Svc10, Svm5
Effect: Aura of Battle(regen for 2 hps per tick and +10 atk)
All/All Weight 0.0

ive personally spent about 6-7hours in droga (solo) working faction, boring, but they drop up to 4p, some decent drops in there, and its ALWAYS empty

as it is, im looking to have djars ring + 2nd chardok ring (till i get my 10th coldain ring :P), or 2nd chardk + bonering

anyone else doing these quests?

54necro
35monk
Veeshan

http://web.archive.org/web/20020130200805/http://necro.eqclasses.com/forums/topic.asp?CAT_ID=1&FORUM_ID=1&Forum_Title=General+Discussions&TOPIC_ID=8858&Topic_Title=chardok+ring+quetss+and+YOU%2E

Original source of the quest info seems to have been a Safehouse thread at:

http://pub35.ezboard.com/fthesafehousefrm13.showMessage?topicID=3273.topic

(of course Excluded from Wayback...)

But in that thread we can see people already saying things like:


I have heard of those long ago, very nice rewards.

[Dolalin]

Oh I see, silly me. This is about the cords being DROPPED, not quested. I need to work on my reading comprehension.

Sorry, I don't see anything in-era about them being dropped, only quested.

[Nirgon]

Every single cord obtained on RZ was quested

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

The safe house post is time stamped in era report of drop - which it seems would be qualified as 1 “ example of evidence”.

If there was any single example of evidence that this was altered or later added; it would be up for debate I would think as split decision.

In this case there is 0 examples of evidence showing that SWC eventually was removed or added. Does this not constitute enough that it is reasonably likely to have dropped?

All cases of not dropping are anecdotal/recall without base.

All withstanding that the mob (with SWC removes) does not follow loot/itemization pattern; or the era concept of killing quest giver to receive quest drop as alternative process (as with Kael); and the considerable difficulty and rarity of the mob/drop combined with the much lower kill rate of live servers on this PH would make finding the drop incredibly rare (as discussed with halfling mask (the other “4th drop” from a spawn))

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

That being said on Quellious I never saw one drop, in any era. But it took 7+ 24hr days to get halfling mask and I had one of the very few kin-pop on the server.

I don’t know if anyone who camped single cdok spawns in a proportion high enough to obtain or discover this in era.

Items like bone shear were incredibly valuable and rare which is much more common off an easier mob/camp by comparison

[Danth]

Approaching this from the opposite direction: Are there any other chardok-revamp items that were definitely in immediately but which were not discovered until after Luclin opened? The argument of "it was there but undiscovered" becomes stronger if there were other similarly unknown items.

Danth

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

Approaching this from the opposite direction: Are there any other chardok-revamp items that were definitely in immediately but which were not discovered until after Luclin opened? The argument of "it was there but undiscovered" becomes stronger if there were other similarly unknown items.

Danth

I am not immediately unaware of "luclin or beyond" added items outside of BST/BRZ specifics - there is a "missing" spell (conglaciate bone) which is the next tier if ignite bones (and has VERY poor data surrounding when/where it dropped, but given the "theme" of skell/non-skell alternative spells, it should have dropped in era), and a later change to the necromancer gangrenous touch which significantly improved it (at a time when all necro taps were improved).

So from that "consideration" it would seem MORE likely that SWC always dropped - since very little was added/removed.

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

These don't serve as proof, but given that SWC was removed as a drop with proof the loot was ever changed may serve to bolster the argument for "let them continue to drop".


#1 This is from 4/04 where someone confirms it drops, AND acknowledges that it has been dropping the entire time.

https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/monklybusiness43508/guide-to-spirit-wracked-cords-t727-s10.html

6:57 PM - Apr 04, 2004 #17

If people are still wondering about it, I have gotten the cords by looting them. It is not a rumor but a fact. It came from the grand loremaster or something like that down there. I won them a while ago, but it was a good time after they put the quest in so I am to still believe that they can drop.

I view me winning these as probably the luckiest moment in EQ just because it's evidently an EXTREMELY rare drop off a named. I think you'd be able to get the cords by questing faster than trying to camp for the drop. We saw it drop when we killed the named on the way down to slaughter King/Queen for epics quick.
I won in a 15 person roll heh.

As more proof that this drop is as rare as it is, it's been dropping this entire time and look at how unsure people still are that it drops.

#2 Less interesting but earlier 03/03 another case of dropping being "lesser known".

https://thesafehouse.org/forums/forum/everquest-wing/quests-of-norrath/8800-ally-or-max-ally-needed-for-spirit-wracked-cords

03-14-03, 03:44 PM

yes, the cords can drop VERY VERY rarely from a rare mob in the library area.

Not a miss-post. Saw them myself. Our MT got them. We were on our way in to kill the Nobles for the epic drops and got delayed in the Library. *make damn sure everyone knows not to cast heals when your not pulling and someone starts taking dmg in that room, TRW from 1 stupid person. /sigh*





These imply a few things to me.

1. If this was a "stealth add" as a drop sometimes in Luclin - why in 2003/2004 (and beyond, just not examples supplied at this time) when the content was easier/yet the value of the item was still high, did so few people know this was dropping?

2. If so few people knew it was dropping even after a "stealth add", doesn't that increase the likelihood it could of been always dropping?

3. With no patch notes outlining its removal (if it was an accident to be dropping either at release or later); or patch notes or definitive posts indicating a confirmed addition to his drop table; don't we have to assume it was dropping the entire time but not being killed at sufficient a quantity?

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

Bump for any additional discussion - it seems like based on evidence this should not have been removed as there is no tangible in era information to imply it ever did not drop/or was a bug and removed/or was later added.

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

Any thoughts?

[Dolalin]

Seems like on the balance this should be dropping as a very, very rare chance. Maybe earth staff chance? :D

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

https://i.imgur.com/Roq2PhG.png

This is data from 7/2-8/15. Far from enough to calculate accurate %'s but if you compared this to existing drops I would say

1. Set SWC as Grand's 4th drop to compare same rarity as Anklesmasher on Lore
OR
2. Set SWC to drop in place of Greenmist Book at a % similar to Anklesmasher only on Grand

Number one seems more reasonable, but some of the emu's seem to show it as an alternate quest item drop, not a loot drop. I do not have records of the SWC that dropped on red/blue what other items dropped.

NOTE: "no loot" is addressed per Telin pending patch.

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

I have also wondered that the mobs with "no loot" (which has been confirmed to be a % value bug) that have been corrected; had a correlation with removed drops - such as wild lord sleeves removal, courier missing dizok scroll, the Sarnak bauble change, the golden hoop change, adjustments to wizened/acolyte loot arrangement, et al.

Could the "no loot" occurrence be related to the removal of SWC? That would not seem likely in this case since "no loot" has occurred on LORE and presumably SWC only dropped from GRAND.

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

Bump for further discussion - this seems to have been removed based on assumption/preference (without evidence, or in era anecdotes of a removal occurring) despite in era anecdotal evidence implying it did drop.

[Erati]

They removed the bangle for some reason too

I looted no drop bangle and one day turned into tradable bauble

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

>

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

Can this either be flagged for adjustment, denial, or for more information needed? Based on other changes, this seems to have enough information to be confirmed as adjusted.

[mycoolrausch]

It seemed more implausible to me that SWC was stealth added way out of era as an ultra rare drop for no reason vs it being in the loot table in-era with the revamp from the beginning.

The argument against it is that it doesn't make sense, but this is classic everquest. Nothing is balanced. Nothing makes sense. If I described 60 shamans to a non EQ player they would also assume implausible and not add to game.

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

You are saying it seems more likely that SWC just existed forever, and was sparsely reported, than that it was added as some bonus sometimes in luclin or beyond? If so I agree, and the only related posts out there seem to imply.

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

bump for discussion/decision?

[Brocode]

Well atleast there is info now as in old post saying it was dropping, halfling mask was thought to be a myth and people thought it was not dropping for a while until a bard on my server got one after camping 5 days straight, that rare.

[Brocode]

Also keep in mind that named wasnt even listed before 2002, the access to this spawn point was not very accessible, that doesnt mean he didnt exist before.

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

Bump again for GM/Dev response

[Solist]

It does make zero sense that they would go and add a random item like this to drop from a random named they picked in the zone years later, rather than having it drop all the time and it just went without discovery for a long period of time.

It's not like they went on a big mission to fill the loot tables of all these other mobs in the game more thoroughly with extremely rare drops, on a whim, an expansion later while working on future expansions and ironing out VT drama.

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

Bump again for GM/Dev response

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

Bump

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

Bump

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

Bump again - seems like plenty of evidence to put this back, no evidence this should of ever been removed. Can a judgement be made on how p99 will regard this

[Croco]

piggy backing on this so maybe nilbog/telin will see, essence lens quest still isn't fully working, no sign of melalafen even after multiple quakes

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

That is entirely unrelated to this post, and your issue has it's own post. This is an unconfirmed research proof thread. Essence Lens is a confirmed, but possibly broken issue.

I appreciate the bump but stay in your own space =p

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

Robe of the Spring is an excellent "anti comparison" for this.

It still drops on blue/red because there is no "proof" it stopped dropping.

Why did this get removed without "proof" it stopped dropping?

Either BOTH should drop, or BOTH should not. This is an example of inconsistent ruling on "classicality"

https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65686&highlight=robe+spring

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

Bump more evidence was posted clarifying that the removal of SWC is not classic.

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

Still looking for this to be considered for correction or closure.

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

There was never conclusive evidence this did NOT drop. It was over aggressively removed. Only in era evidence implies this drops - incredibly rarely.

in 210 PH kills over 2 months Grand Lore Keeper dropped "no item" 2 times. Seems likely this is a small representation of the rarity of the SWC which when removed left a gap in his loot table total drop %.

It would also be the 4th drop on a 3 drop mob, whose other named spawn also has 4 drops. This is consistent with the overall Cdok loot meta.

https://i.imgur.com/NvXMmMl.png

[Tigerstyle Wutangfist]

bump for possible reconsider or closure with review of additional data