Since the latest patch to the EQ Fippy Darkpaw progression server went live this week, I’ve been spending a bit of time attempting to finish up my Pine Druid newbie armor quests in Surefall Glade.
I had collected most of the materials when we first got going on the server, but once it was acknowledged the combines were broken, I banked them waiting for a patch or not. Apparently, I must have lost some interested in collecting some of the more difficult to obtain materials because when I went back to my bank, I was short a few items.
Not surprisingly they were the No Trade items– Giant Field Rat Whiskers. Of course these whiskers only drop off of Giant Field Rats which only spawn after Large Field Rats and Giant Rats have been exterminated. Even then, its not a guaranteed drop.The only zone in the game where they can be found is in Qeynos Hills which is convenient enough since my druid can port home to Surefall Glade.
After having little luck trying to force the appropriate rat spawn, I decided I needed to take a break. The final piece of the newbie armor quests is a separate quest which will yield a nice weapon.
At this point, I had all but the boots and one bracer which would require three Giant Field Rat Whiskers. I made the conscious decision to chuck that. I always hate it when a higher level character is patrolling a lowbie zone bopping field mice trying for that rare spawn and potentially disrupting the lowbie players advancement. Call me old fashioned, but I always thought that was bad form.
So with most of the armor items in hand, I thought it was time to move on. The weapon quest, however, would be fairly straight forward– collect a mob’s head, sharpen an item, add two more easily obtainable drops and voila. How long could it possibly take?
Fortunately, the mob, a Bloodsaber Defiler, is conveniently located in Surefall Glade. So convenient in fact, that its located mere steps away from the quest giver through a false wall in the Glade (no doubt a disturbing surprise to newbies exploring the boundaries of the zone)…
Quest obtained, Defiler located and defeated and… no head. Ok, well sources indicated that it was probably about a 50% drop, so just my bad luck. Unfortunately, she doesn’t quickly respawn, so off I went looking for more Giant Field Rats.
I returned a few more times with the same result. At least now I was certain that her respawn timer was 60 minutes like clockwork. I could log on, kill her and if no drop log off and go do something for an hour…
During one of those hours, I did some surfing of the forum thread that was originally tracking the newbie armor quest issues. Sure enough, one of the old posts (pre-patch) mentioned that the Bloodsaber Defiler appears to have no head to drop…
Sadly, I’ve come to the same conclusion. After six or seven successive kills, I’ve got to conclude that its probably still broken. Yes, I took statistics, but I can still smell a broken quest when I see (or smell) one.
So for now, its back to Runneye with our little group, much greener for the effort. The completionist in me bleeds a little, but I grow weary. Just goes to show you how hard it is to get a head in this world…
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