Ancient blade did not drop from queen in chardok

[Enygma]

Just posting, we have killed her twice now since epic release, and she has yet to drop the Ancient Blade, from our best recollection it should be 100% can you please confirm / deny and check that it has been added to the loot table appropriately, Kelendil and myself (Sworen) were to be awarded these blades on the 2 kills.

Thanks,

Sworen
The Mystical Order

[Kelendil_Arclight]

Thought this was a 100pct drop rate in classic. Two kills, no blade. What gives?

[Daldaen]

Submited by: Ragorn On: 4/13/2001 12:40:43 AM Rank: worst 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 best
Okay, heres the news. This is one of the tougest pre-velious mobs you will see. She hits around 300, and has a 2400 nearly unresistable hp DoT over 4 rounds.

I'm not kidding.

Here is how you do it, a whole guild of about 30-35 people at least fight to the overking room. (Which isn't an easy task in itself) Don't use pets until you get to the King room. After you whack the overking (he WILL cheal 3 times) stay in the room for the next set of repops.

Kill the repops in the king room, you have to move fast. Then have someone pull a few from queen room with the superior camo and call of the heros. Now, you NEED 2 tanks above level 58. Buff them to high heaven, i'm talking all ya got. Have all mages make FIRE pets.

Now, assign 2 clerics to both fully buffed tanks.

The tanks should have very low delay weapons, two lamentations are good.

Now have several enchanters ready, this is your queen squad. The tanks charge in and engage the Queen, the clerics stay out of melee range and chain cast devine light on the tanks. The enchanters mez all the mobs that may still be left in Queen room. The mages send there fire pets in after the Queen AFTER the two tanks engage.

The rest of the raid should be clearing repops from the king area.

The queen only has about 16000 hitpoints and doesn't heal. The tanks should be able to taunt effectively with low delay weaps. She will die really fast if you do everything properly

This all has to be done really fast, after you clear the 2nd spawn from king room start buffing and pulling immediately

The queen doesn't drop the blade for warrior epic every time which is very aggrivating.

I hope this helps

http://web.archive.org/web/20010708043019/http://everlore.com/bestiary/beastdetails.asp?mode=show&BID=267709

Which would suggest you are incorrect unless you have evidence pre-April 2001.

[Enygma]

Read Daldaen's post on Kelendil's post, but please confirm its in game.

Thanks,

Sworen

[Rogean]

Working as Intended.

[Kelendil_Arclight]

0/4 queens and counting.

[Rusl]

0/4 queens and counting.
bad luck on a RNG is not a bug

Working as Intended.

[Gmal]

So is it the march 14th 2001 patch that addresses the drop rates?

See Source: http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20010314.html

Epic Quests:

As part of the Plane updates, we've made several adjustments to Epic quests for a number of classes. Previously, questers of many classes were put in direct competition with regular non-questing adventurers for a few coveted spawns. In these cases, a new step has been added to separate the "Epic Encounter" NPCs from the "Epic Quest" NPCs.

For those who are mid-quest, all quest requirements have remained the same. In other words, if you turn the same items into the same NPC, the same reward applies. What has changed is that some components may be in a different location from where you expect them. It is recommended that you check with the last NPC in line or other adventurers to find where you need to go next.

Im starting to feel like you guys enjoy the drama of it all. Why not just make the final changes that Verant deemed neccessary? I am just not getting it I guess. If was coding all this and implementing these changes Id try to follow the KISS principle. Huge cock blocks on multiple Epic piece farms is really going to turn off the population from even wanting to do these in the first place. I am not saying it should be easy... but it should be doable without keeping your guild hostage at spawns so you dont risk loosing a mob you need for epic. Its all going to be 1 big giant cluster.

[nilbog]

The queen spawns every 2 hours. What is the big deal here.

Im starting to feel like you guys enjoy the drama of it all. Why not just make the final changes that Verant deemed neccessary? Because when creating something, we start with its classic implementation, and work from there.

If was coding all this and implementing these changes Id try to follow the KISS principle. Huge cock blocks on multiple Epic piece farms is really going to turn off the population from even wanting to do these in the first place. Not everyone will have their epic. I hope everyone realizes this.

For those reading, who didn't play classic EQ, some epics were all about cockblocking. Some of them can be completed easily compared to others. i.e. Rogue, shaman, enchanter, and even paladin.

If you're wanting a clicky res stick for a cleric, well, that's gonna hurt.

[Daldaen]

I'd guess the issue is that queen is pseudo challenging due to the AOE. But if you're already down there for cleric scrolls it shouldn't be too bad.

[Gmal]

The queen spawns every 2 hours. What is the big deal here.

Because when creating something, we start with its classic implementation, and work from there.

Not everyone will have their epic. I hope everyone realizes this.

For those reading, who didn't play classic EQ, some epics were all about cockblocking. Some of them can be completed easily compared to others. i.e. Rogue, shaman, enchanter, and even paladin.

If you're wanting a clicky res stick for a cleric, well, that's gonna hurt.

Yes but what if classic implementation wasnt the intended design of what they had in mind? I figure youd want to fall the path of least resistance and actually patch things in with the way they intended for Classic to be. Thats all I am getting at here.

If we are going to go with your cockblocking theory do normal server rules still apply or can we get a exception to the rules related to spawns on the server. I.E. Training, KSing, Grieving other guilds. (this wouldnt be to far from the truth as it is now.)
I get not everyone will get their epics. No issues with that. This should be a challenge. No issue there. But we need also keep in mind that there will be alot of drama over it all as for example being KSed on Mage Epic mob in COM last night.

[Gmal]

I'd guess the issue is that queen is pseudo challenging due to the AOE. But if you're already down there for cleric scrolls it shouldn't be too bad.

Nope we can literally 2 group the Queen probably less. Issue is tying up the classes on spawns for days and days for 1 piece of the epic. I think there should be a certain choke point for all epics but multiple chokes is obscene =-)

[Rusl]

Multiple choke points is classic...

I enjoyed your argument the first time I read it about hybrid xp penalties, or dot stacking, or root over-writing snare or the million other classic things people love to whine about. Doing classic "the way it should have been" isn't the goal here, it's simply to recreate classic EQ with all its glorious mistakes and oversights included.

[Szeth]

You have been slain by Rusl, Defender of Classic.

[Gmal]

You have been slain by Rusl, Defender of Classic.

Nah he more confirmed what the vision is here which is what I was after.

[ElanoraBryght]

Confirmed dropping.

[Kelendil_Arclight]

Good to know. Now that hand from Maestro is a whole other story.. so many rare drop roadblocks in this ordeal.

[Gmal]

Yeah for sure.

[ownrage]

Anyone else seem to have any evidence that the only major bottleneck in this epic was the green scales? I know from live maestro and queen had much better drop rates that what we've seen so far. Trying to dig up some resources but it's sort of hard to provide empirical evidence outside of "well I remember queen dropping blade or maestro dropping blade at least 2 of 3 kills" even though that's mostly what we all experienced...

Here's to major bottlenecks!

[Trystych]

We have killed queen 15-20 times now and have never seen the ancient blade, obviously it drops but a run like this should be very statistically improbable for an item that should have a 20-25% drop rate. Magelo lists it at 85% but this was buffed much further down the line.

What is the droprate set at currently on p99? The fact that we have seen multiple insignia protectors and vibrating gauntlets of infuse with no blade is awesome but not how it should be.

[Crom]

So anyone know what the drop rate is on the blade on p1999 ?

(I know they changed it to allways before aug 11 2001 on live based on:

http://216.237.114.98/cgi-bin/valorguard.pl?Page=News&Monthnum=09&Monthstring=September&Year=2001

"
[Sat Sep 01 14:31:27 2001] Queen Velazul Di`zok has been slain by Valshea! (A mere 28 seconds later the Queen dies - VG forces then kills the other 13 adds)

That was our first Queen kill, then another 2 complete wipeouts of the chardok royalty followed.

Congrats to Druaga, Buemonster and Valshea on your Ancient Blades!"

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=4979&p=2#comments

"Aug 11 2001 at 3:46 AM Rating: Default
Anonymous
Anonymous
the **** drops blade every time now.
"

My guess would be they changed the drop rate at the same time as they did the green dragonscale change:
http://www.tski.co.jp/baldio/patch/20010627.html

But whats the drop rate set at on this server ?, cause we been having the worst of luck with the blade, we've dedicated full days killing queen over and over up to 6 times in a row without a blade..(and we've done it several days without any blades).

it's supposed to be semi rare but not that rare....

[Daldaen]

EQClerics March 2001 (http://www.eqclerics.org/forums/showthread.php?t=10860&highlight=Queen+Chardok+blade) - Pre Epic Patch

I haven't tried this method since the healing agro changes so it may not be viable anymore but it is worth a shot still for the warrior epic (too bad she only drops blade 40% of the time ).

I'll toss in some thoughts. I've lead Chardok Royal's 4 times and been on 4 or 5 other runs now. Killed Queen twice, once with three deaths, other was not so pretty, several total wipeouts. All about strategy on her.

-Snipped long discussion about how to kill Royals-

FYI - her AE is around 1800 damage, reducable with FR, and goes off about every 12 seconds. Extremely nasty. It's range isn't super large tho. Last time we took her, she agro'd the clerics so we scrabled in the room. Most were down but we finished her off. She was in the middle of the room and I was on her platform nuking and wasn't getting hit with AE. Finally got a blade on that one...heh.

Lol at "finally" on 5 attempts and only 2 successful kills.

What's the drop rate currently on this server? We are currently at 0/24 I think? Seems like a absolutely horrible RNG run if 40% is what a very reputable poster from EQClerics comments it as in era.

[Daldaen]

More from Allakhazam:

Allakhazam July 2001 (http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=4979&p=2#comments) - After epic patch, before August patch making it drop every time.

Well, the queen is killed a lot now, she is not a mob that large guilds have much of a prob with anymore. My guild took her the other night, and one of our warriors got the blade for his epic =). It is an uncommon drop, so if you see like three warrior epics on your server, then the queen has probably been killed about 9 times. But now like 50 warriors on each server have their epics. There are many in my guild that have one, well, at least 3 or 4. Solusek Ro has some power guilds though, like Paradigm and Midnight, and many others that kill queen all the time, sooooo.....

That puts it at 33% estimate as well.

[Daldaen]

http://www.legacyofsteel.net/Archives/Post/2000-11-14

Dead Queen (x2) Many Congrats to Ariel and Glubgawd on Ancient Blade!!!

http://www.legacyofsteel.net/Archives/Post/2000-11-08

Our main hope was that the Queen would drop the blade required for the Warrior Epic Quest. Instead she dropped a bunch of junk not worthy to sell in the East Commons tunnel. At least the fighting was fun. That in itself was a nice reward.

http://www.legacyofsteel.net/Archives/Post/2000-12-19

All that matters is that two out of three Queens dropped blades tonight.

http://www.legacyofsteel.net/Archives/Post/2001-01-10

Killed this Ho again. She dropped. . .nothing.

Editor's Note: Shitty SK daggers qualify as "nothing

http://www.legacyofsteel.net/Archives/Post/2001-04-12

So we also spent some time in Chode-suck, er, I mean Chardok. Killed this beeotch:

She finally put out!

Congrats to Cowboy on the parking lights

In summary: 2/2, 0/1, 2/3, 0/1, 1/1

So... 5/8 from Legacy of Steel's archives. People on this server have had runs of 25+ Queens with no blade. The statistical chances of that happening, to multiple different guilds/warriors, is EXTREMELY low.

Please review the drop rate on Ancient Blade. Pre-August-2001 it should be a 30-40% drop rate roughly based on previous links. I feel like this server has a 5-10% drop rate.

[nilbog]

It's at 25%.

[nilbog]

Her dropping it is not broken. The % at which she drops it can be discussed. However, I just spawned 6 Queens, and two had blades.

[koros]

The warrior epic was one of the last ones solved for precisely this reason. Does no one recall? The queen had been killed before (but only a few times), and since it was an uncommon drop no one found it, until the GMs confirmed for the Nth time that it did drop.

[Daldaen]

Damn... Sounds like our luck is just terra bad. Going 25+ without one at a 25% drop rate, is less than a 0.1% chance to occur.

Well the posts I have, although limited and not exactly precise, suggest 25% is low and 50% is high. 30-40% is roughy what is estimated based off EQCleric comments, Allakhazam and Legacy of Steel archive.

[Daldaen]

The warrior epic was one of the last ones solved for precisely this reason. Does no one recall? The queen had been killed before (but only a few times), and since it was an uncommon drop no one found it, until the GMs confirmed for the Nth time that it did drop.

This I definitely recall.

It was mainly because people didn't kill it cause her AE. On this server people just use dispell to get rid of the AE... I have a feeling on Live it wasn't that simple. All the guides from back then suggest you have to burn it out before you all die or you need to use fire pets who are immune to the AE.

It was not due to the blade being absurdly rare.

[koros]

That is a crazy # of kills for no blade. Possible but yeah, very unlikely.

[Daldaen]

Her dropping it is not broken. The % at which she drops it can be discussed. However, I just spawned 6 Queens, and two had blades.

Dunno if this is a dev or player discussion, but I think the more fitting drop percentage on blade should be somewhere in the 30-40% range as compared to 25%. Nothing major but having multiple warriors on this server go 0/20-0/30+ on Queens shouldn't be happening with any frequency.

This won't flood the server with warrior epics (since the green scales will be the limiting reagent, especially with the classic Hoshkar fix). But it will make warriors dread doing royals for the 30th time to get their 28th shitty SK dagger.

I can see if I can dig up some more guild posts about their runs of queens and blade drops if that helps.