Update 2.1 surge T4 drop rates have been increased drastically

After doing 15 surges on testlive update 2.1, revision #252671/26796, I got some interesting results.
These contain only T4 crafters, with other T4s such as dancers, bearers, fighters, archers being excluded. The test was done only for Focus Altar of the East.
Here are the results for each surge (spoiler altert if you don’t want to see the names of the crafters):

  1. Alphonze the hammer[bladesmith]
  2. Ruka the Fierce[overseer]
  3. Chulin the Brutal[overseer]
  4. Master tanner Hinna[tanner]
  5. Master tanner Hinna[tanner], Itria Peeling-Skin[tanner]
  6. Merkel the Bladesmith[bladesmith]
  7. Ana the Torturer[driver], Anora Steelfingers[tempersmith], Blacksmith Kapt[edgesmith]
  8. Derketo’s chosen[guardian], Derketo’s chosen[guardian]
  9. Master Tanner Hina[tanner]
  10. Master Blacksmith Kiris [bladesmith]
  11. Derketo’s Chosen[seneschal]
  12. Johann of Nordheim[bladesmith]
  13. Master Tanner Hina[tanner], The Tyrant of Kush[overseer], Master Tanner Hina[tanner]
  14. The Tyrant of Kush[overseer], Alphonze the Hammer[bladesmith]
  15. Derketo’chosen[guardian]

Other surge changes:

  • crafting a focus now requires 50 hardened steel instead of 50 decaying eldarium.
  • every boss that spawns at the last surge wave will 100% drop a legendary weapon.
  • a new sound effect has been added when a surge is spawned
  • spawn rate for fighter_4_purge has been decreased

Not sure if this is intended, but it appears that each focus will spawn specific classes of crafters. For Focus alter of the East, only blacksmith, tanner and taskmaster are spawning, although in admin console you can clearly see a complete set of T4 and T4_purge crafters.

Bear in mind that this is testlive and things might be subject to change.

Best regards.

7 Likes

Realizing that this is an admission that I can never be satisfied, I have a feeling that now I’m going to b**ch about summoned surges because the increased drop rates will make me want to do them.

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If these rates will go live, T4 crafters will become a comodity easily obtained through trading.

Which is fine in my book. I haven’t actually bothered to trade for anything… erm, ever. Except for fun, but never necessity.

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I’ve actually started trading for stuff (and using the merchants) for the first time ever in this game. That tells me the economy balance in general is better now.

2 Likes

Hey everybody, quick update.

We have added the following line to the patchnote changes.

Please be aware of the disclaimer. This is still a work in progress change that will come fully realised with an upcoming Testlive patch, so these values might not exactly be the ones present in this build. They will also be present in the new patchnotes.

5 Likes

200 point Surge now sure is a useless waste of time end effort. To be completely honest, I am not even sure going for 400 point Surge is a reasonable behavior :upside_down_face:

It’s still massively more likely to net you T3’s (5%->50%) - but whether that is worth it is of course a good question (and hence why these values are WIP I’m sure).

The new T4 thrall drops rates seem a lot better than the old ones. At the same time I don’t like that the summoning material has been changed to hardened steel. It changes the progression path, and reduces the competition that currently exists in the game. Right now everyone is competing for eldarium to do crafting, delving and summons.

  • Changing it to hardened steel just means that now you don’t do vaults until after you have gotten all your T4 thralls. This significantly shortens the longevity of the game for folks that are primarily builders, since now they will never have to step foot into a vault and they ultimately miss out on all that wonderful content.

  • It also makes the vaults easier as well since now you farm the mats do your T4 summon get a T4 fighter and let the thrall do all the work for you.

  • Add to all this the fact that you made T4s more common in surges, this means the biggest part of your endgame is over much faster. Since the new progression is get hardened steel and your ??? mats do a T4 summon lather and repeat till you are full T4 crafter.

  • The change also means that there is no choice between smelt to craft or use for summons, only thing now for decaying is crafting, and delving which means smelt it all.

Ultimately, I think you should leave the leyshrine summons on decaying because this makes all of the content relevant and increases the competition and player interactions on the map. I have had so much fun playing this map than I ever did playing exiled lands because of the competition that eldarium has provided. This competition has caused everyone that I have played with to put in significantly more hours than they ever did on Exiled Lands. But if it was hardened steel to begin with we would have likely been done with the map the first week it came out. Instead we are still going strong and we have had a way more interesting time playing with significantly better playing experience.

Not that I agree with their change, but this isn’t quite correct. Running vaults is still important for a variety of reasons:

  • Sigils. You don’t need them, but they’re damn useful, especially on your followers.
  • Recipes. Even though I loathe this aspect of the vaults and wish they would change it, the only way to get the majority of Exiled Lands recipes is by running the vaults.
  • Unless they changed this too, eldarium is still useful for summoned surges, if you want to use the “stunners”.
  • Eldarium bars are used for the delving bench. Again, you might not need anything from it, but it’s definitely not something that I would put off until I’ve gotten T4 thralls.

But yeah, I honestly don’t get why they changed the altar materials from decaying eldarium (boring, repetitive, but quick grind) to hardened steel (boring, repetitive, pain-in-the-rear grind).

1 Like

How is hardened steel a hard, repetitive pain-in-the-rear grind when steel isn’t hard to get and upgrade to hardened steel with black ice (and brimstone? Not sure on it) as black ice is relatively easier to get in Siptah?

I didn’t say either of the grinds was hard. I said hardened steel was a pain in the rear, because of all the farming that goes into it: bark, hides or pelts, brimstone, iron, black ice, and some kind of fuel for the furnace.

None of that is hard, but it’s a diverse range of activities just to get to the final, refined product.

Whereas for eldarium you just gotta go whack some AI :wink:

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Sigils are meh, nice to have but definitely not something I even think about. And they only have a limited application to the storm.

Recipes sure I can see that but since the kiln is effectively dead in this patch what other recipes are really that useful? I guess the tome creator but even that is pretty limited given that their drop rate is pretty significant around the world. Maybe oils after that but not really a needed recipe.

Eldarium for knockout is too costly, just use the club.

And yeah I can see the delving aspect sure but with the armor changes you’re only delving weapons since the new armor is useless, purely cosmetic(unless its a bug that the stat bonuses have been gutted). So you have a choice delv, or craft. In my eyes this hampers alot of the fun of eldarium. And makes thralls even easier to get. Which shortens the game significantly.

Decaying eldarium is also used as the fuel for convergence traps.

Also, you can burn them in those braziers at the leyshrines. Not sure why you do that though.

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But Black ice is not so easy on base game and seems many many people are still on base map or returning to it fast… On spitah every thing is easy to get, its sitting waiting for you to run by and grab it, no giants to fight though to get it , no cold weather to deal with , so depends on what map you are playing on and many are still on the old map.

Uh, I was asking why they changed it:

Both are repetitive and grindy. I prefer the eldarium grind for the following personal, subjective reasons:

  • It’s somewhat less boring, because I get to fight.
  • Running vaults on PVE-C server, during PVP hours, has an element of danger, because someone might decide to go in and fight you. That’s why I’m on a PVE-C server instead of PVE.
  • I get eldarium more easily than hardened steel.

I wouldn’t say this is objectively worse for everyone, but I am curious about the motivation for this change. That’s literally all that was behind my original comment on it.

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