I came across this by random luck. Hope it usefull foe everyone,
A BlackHeart's thoughts on Anky **Revised**What EVERYONE should know about boss farming. **Preface** | |
*** A Note ***
Anky farming under the BlackHeart's name should be drastically reduced from now on. I have also revised the general feeling of the message to reflect this and remove any statements which might be interpreted to target specific people.
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There are players who would prefer that some of the knowledge contained below be kept to themselves, to anyone who feels that way, too bad. =)
I am assembling this post because I believe that a small number of players are over-farming Anky and having a detrimental effect on other players of the server. For any of you who may have felt ill-treated by a boss farmer, please note that they represent only a very small part of our player base and the guilds to which they belong. Of course, I can only speak for myself outloud, so I will and if any of my guildies wish to contradict me, they're welcome to =).
The goal of this post is to spread knowledge which will help to level the playing field for everyone. I have observed these type of behavior on both servers now and on both sides, so this applies to everyone.
**The Anky Spawn** What I am saying here often applies to Asmo as well, however Anky (and the fury version) is probably the most hotly contested boss so most of what I say here will refer to him. Anky (short for Ankyful sonofasomethin
), is a higher level boss which spawns approximately every four hours in the lower level of the Maitreyan dungeon. Every player who wishes to complete their mid-40's epic quest is required to kill Anky as a portion of the quest.
Because Anky only spawns four hours after his previous death, there are only up to 6 chances to complete the quest per day. This also means that at most, only a maximum of 42 players can complete the Anky quest in a given day.
The Anky spawn location is probably the site of some of the worst behavior between experienced players in the entire game. Because of disputes over Anky, I have seen players booted from guilds, and sometimes half a guild will split away because of a dispute over this boss. In short, it can get very very very ugly.
**Legend Loot** Anky drops a piece of Legendary loot (5 lapis slots, must be hard mode+ to wear) each time he dies. Because of the rarity of Legendary loot and the extremely low odds that the specific pieces a player needs will drop, Hardcore Anky farmers will farm him for days, weeks, months just to get that one piece of armor or whatever it is that they desperately need.
**Farmers** Because of the extreme amount of time between spawns and the quality of loot dropped, farmers will park some of their characters within the "Anky room". These players will then log their characters into the game at the approximate time when Anky is due to spawn to improve their chances of being able to farm.
Of course, all farmers are not equal:
You'll know the hardcore farmers because they're the ones that are there 2 or 3 times a day, if not more.
These are usually accompanied by guildies or friends who are recruited for backup, these usually show up maybe once a day, if only a couple times a week.
**Loot Drops are Not Random** If you skip everything else, read this part. Farming parties usually know who will get the loot ahead of time.
Some players know this, others don't: Loot drops always fall in party order.
The next time you party with a friend, test the order in which you receive loot. Kill a mob, if it drops a piece of loot, note who received the drop, then kill another mob. You will see that your loot drops proceed through the party order from top to bottom.
In most cases (not all), if you are joining an Anky farming party, it is structured so that a specific person will receive the Legend drop, then the next two will receive the Dread drops (anky usually drops three items).
**Why farmers want questers** By "quester" I mean a player who has a quest which requires the death of a specific boss for completion.
This is not "all" farmers, but for the most part this holds true:
Early on in the game, questers were often excluded from killing bosses. Farmers would repeatedly kill boss mobs for the loot without allowing questers to party. In many cases, questers would wait for days trying to complete a quest, with many of them giving up rather than succeeding in the end.
To combat this, it has been emphasized repeatedly that Questers have priority, resulting eventually in this post to report farmers:
http://forums.aeriagames.com/viewtopic.php?t=123893 As a result: Questers are now a sought after commodity.
Farmers now attempt to ensure that they have questers in their party as often as possible to ensure that they have the moral authority to farm.
You will still see the same parties of farmers (it's really only a handful of the same players usually) showing up to kill a boss, but now they each attempt to have a "quester" in their party to hold over any other competitive parties of farmers:
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Example:
Party A. has four members.
Party B. has four members and one quester.
Party B. members will threaten to report party A. members for KSing a quester if they attempt to farm Boss.
Party B kills boss. Members a,b,c usually are structured to get loot, member d (quester) completes quest and leaves.
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To be clear: I'm not saying what party B does here is bad... I am saying, do not be deceived into thinking that their motivation is to "help the questers". Their only motivation as far as a quester is concerned is to ensure that they have the authority to kill the boss and grab the loot (see **Loot Drops are Not Random Above**).
**How do you prove you have a quester?**
Several guildies and friends have told me after the fact that they were instructed by farmers to lie about having the quest. This is a very common practice among farmers, but how do you prove it? And how are the competitive farmers to know that you're lying unless they've seen that specific character in a farming party before. Food for thought if you decide to go after the big boss. Also food for thought if someone threatens to report you if you attempt to take the boss spawn...
**The Anky Spawn Time**
Last but not least: The Anky Spawn Time. Anky spawns approximately four hours after his last death. Typically, the only people who know when Anky is due to spawn are those people who were present at the last killing...and any friends who are invited for the next spawn.
The time of Anky's next spawn is a closely guarded secret and you will rarely see people announcing it much more than thirty minutes or so before he's due, and only if they believe they need help, or if they are attempting to secure a quester.
**Solutions?** Publicise the Anky spawn times. And by that I mean, if you know when Anky is next due, spam Trade chat, guild chat, your group, your friends and make sure EVERYONE knows. If it's gonna be a farmfest, lets make it an outright mob lol. And here's the real trick:
Questers get priority, REALLY: This means, we spam the **** out of trade chat when Anky is due, a full party of people who NEED the quest completion go in and kill him. If they absolutely can't do it without help (which shouldn't be happening now that we have HM and UM players levelling....) then maybe a couple lv50's join in.
**Solutions?** In reality there is no long term solution. Farmers will keep farming and the world will keep going round. BUT, at the very least you'll have a better picture of what's really going on in the boss room.
Fri Feb 17, 2012 2:06 am by kinger2256
