Are drop skills broken?

#1

Over the last couple of months (since december) my drops have decreased notably twice while performing the same activity in the same area.

I assumed that there were balancing adjustments in december, since they had just moved a resource to lower levels, and most people I spoke to reported the same experience within the same time frame. Clearing a specific area of tar spot fungus I was bringing in 120 - 140 lamella per trip prior to the adjustment. After the update which included the snowfall this dropped to 70 - 90 per trip. No change to my build.

To the point last week I respecced a couple of characters for more specialization and access to higher worlds. As part of this change I removed the 8/8 points I had in ā€˜Luckā€™ from my ranger/forager. He collects decor and harvests surface resources. He hunts only defensively and isnā€™t supposed to be looting many mobs or intentionally breaking ā€œblocksā€. The gathering epic should have his drop chances covered for plants and boulders as I understand both the description and what Iā€™ve read on the forums.

I have good days and bad days (Iā€™ll start another thread on this) but all week, it seems that my drops are cut in half again. Not exactly half but near enough in general, and specifically today I cleared the area and again, got 39 lamella. All week now, which lead me to think itā€™s not time or activity related. So I went and got my hunter.

Hunter has 10/10 luck and no gathering epic. I went to a nearby same biome and there he goes, getting nearly double the drops of the ranger. I mean at this point, swapping between characters, Iā€™m watching my guy with the gathering epic get 2-3 drops per plant (oortianā€™s staff, rosetta nox, and tar spot fungus in this biome) and then i can swap to my hunter with the luck skill and get 4-6 drops per plant consistently.

This is wrong, right?

#2

Both Luck AND the Gathering Epic effects droops from surface resourcesā€¦ with Max Luck having a greater effect than the Gathering Epic alone. (which makes since considering it takes 8/8 Luck and 5/5 Bonus Attributes or 13 skills points to max luck out vs only 5 points for the Gathering Epic)

Naturally having both with give the best results, however they donā€™t synergize together as was well as you might think. Adding the Gathering Epic to max Luck only bumps yields up a bit compared to the increase each one gives individually.

Edit: As far as the subjective drop in density or yield / effortā€¦ i donā€™t have much to offerā€¦ i donā€™t recall there being any listed changes around that timeā€¦ i might be able to run a few tests and compare them to my old data to see if thereā€™s a noticeable difference :thinking:

#3

OK

Iā€™m out of cleanse points on my main and havenā€™t tested for ā€˜synergyā€™. I was initially using both due to not having parsed the whole description of the gathering epic, and it was a forum thread that left me with the impression that the two stats each affected a different activity, as the descriptions state.

If I have to get 8 points back into luck on this guy Iā€™m not sure what Iā€™ll do. I donā€™t care to play him as a coward, and he needs the damage epic to harvest at higher levels. He only has one ā€œcomfortā€ skill and thatā€™s glowing. Nightstar will glow itā€™s not up for dicussion lol.

Putting gathering epic into my hunter build leaves me really no reason to play my main. Iā€™m trimming up some shots of my build to ask for advice.

#4

All right hereā€™s Nightstar, nearly level 50.

Goal is to have him able to move freely and relatively quickly around all worlds, harvesting and gathering surface resources, mapping and etcetera.

Heā€™s not a coward and this matches his need for max damage in order to quickly harvest higher level resources. He should be easily able to kill any strong mob and have good chances with a mighty. Epic of course is gear and buff dependent but a solo player running from an epic mob isnā€™t really cowardly IMO :wink:

He doesnā€™t harvest stone, but if I need level 4+ wood or soil heā€™s my guy. Axe mastery and epic is also for harvesting as well as any wood chopping required. A good shovel has never left me feeling the need for shovel mastery and I have a digger for bulk soils. These items are both secondary to his main goals and only come up if Iā€™m looking for colors from high levels.

To be clear I have a straight up miner and a straight up hunter as well. Iā€™d like to get him on the occasional hunt as a damage dealer but itā€™s not important.

Any good advice or random thoughts even are welcome here. Also obn the thread topic,if the skills are working as intended (I know thereā€™s no dev to confirm or deny this today) perhaps we can get someone on editing those descriptions?

OK, Nightstar:

build
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Heā€™s fast, heā€™s hitting hard (I have a 15k dmg fist lol) and heā€™s capable on all worlds and altitudes. But heā€™s geting half drops :frowning: help

EDIT: IRL Iā€™m getting advice to be patient and just throw the rest of my points at luck. I was going to top up armors and add back some slingbow mastery.

Thoughts?

#5

I suggest removing 6 points of resistance and 2 points of armor and putting it into luck. A gatherer that only fights defensively has no need for so much armor and resistance, in my opinion. You have 6 points more than my actual legit level 50 hunter spec does.

#6

I would drop the light epic and put into luck if nothing else, and find a loot stick that has light source.

#7

Interesting.

I tend to get focused and notice the mobs only after they attack me - so I lean on the armor a bit.

Iā€™m usually playing Cuttletrunk at higher level hunts now and Iā€™ve seen you out too. Iā€™m going to have to buy some cleanse points so maybe Iā€™ll make this move and try it out. I suppose paying more attention is a fair price to get back to the desired drop rates.

#9

Fair advice but as noted, this is my VERY LAST option.

Still a bit of an RPG guy and Nighstar needs to glow :wink:

#10

If this is only a gatherer & shovel/axe farmer, this is what i run.

Its a Stealth gatherer though. Not meant to fight.

Screenshot_62
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Screenshot_63
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#11

You have 8 points in control/stealth. You should be able to mostly depend on that to stay out of fights. Combined with your 8 points of agility, if you do aggro a creature, you should be able to slip out of range relatively easily, then snipe them when theyā€™re not expecting it.

#12

I do avoid shoveling and woodcutting with him, those activites are for deco (color) harvesting only.

Iā€™m building my digger for stealth though Iā€™ve been using my miner for an occasional trip to the yam farm since the digger is still mid-30s.

Thanks a lot for the screenshots Iā€™m still looking it over. Havenā€™t seen many build details for a build that favors shovel over axe.

#13

That build is a stealth gatherer, and my axe/shovel farmer. I use a different build for mining.
Axe/Shovels are same skills.

I use it for bean farms/brick mats/shim farming/adventuring and atlas discovery

edit: Mentioned this build because youre running the axe/shovel epic.
edit: That build will 1 shot lvl 5 planet trees. with a +dmg titanium or +20 gem axe :slight_smile:

#14

Yes so far this is doing well for me.

At level 6 I donā€™t have enough HP to survive an unexpected Hopper hit in any case. Itā€™s resist or die for those guys. Skill points are tight here but I didnā€™t realize there were regular t6 hunters running so little armor.

Iā€™m still sort of ā€œmovin up-levelā€ so my default posture is defensive on all characters. My plan for my hunter was to move him from protection epic to damage epic as he masters protections as well. MAybe Iā€™ll swap him now and try something like the rapid fire epic.

His current protections are 4/2/4/2, would you suggest still less armor for an offensively postured avatar?

#15

Yes Iā€™ve normally used axe/shovel epic with axe mastery since it seems a lot easier to find a one hit shovel for a non-master than a one hit axe for a non-master.

To level 5 or so I have spent very little time harvesting blocks at level 6.

#16

I run 4/0/4/0 armor & resistance on my hunter. 4/2/4/2 seems reasonable. Though personally I would probably prioritize armor over resistance, so perhaps 5/1/5/1. Armor is a guaranteed reduction in damage, and resistance is only a chance. (I believe it is a chance to cancel all damageā€¦ if it works like when creatures resist an attack).

This is my hunter build: https://boundlessskill.com/index?b=6IDZ6NI4QIS9HVKNJ3TU

If I were to increase armor to 5/0/5/0, I would take the points off of vitality. I was running less vitality for a long time, and Iā€™m trying out 8 points now, but Iā€™m not sure Iā€™ll keep it.

#17

Thanks Iā€™m checking out the build.

Yes that resistance is the only thing that saves this ~1650 HP build from a big hopper or unexpected cuttle/spitter bomb.

#18

Thatā€™s a lot of HP in that build.

My hunter is currently 4/2/4/2 with 6k HP and I love it every time I walk out of a cloud of bomb smoke and corpses.

I think Iā€™m learning that even though thereā€™s advice around regarding resistance, thereā€™s probably a lot of people favoring this HP/armor combo in the field.

#19

The first time I survived an elite wildstock charge, after going to 8 vitality, I was shocked. :crazy_face: :joy: Must have been a wimpy one, lol! :rofl:

Iā€™m pretty good at avoiding wildstock charges though, so Iā€™m not likely to keep so much vitality in that build long-term.

#20

Well, for now Iā€™d rather get my drops up and build back my armor than take the next 5 levels at what feels like half loot.

Based on this conversation Iā€™m going to use Nightstarā€™s last cleanse points and adjust him - Iā€™ll just have to be a little more alert when Iā€™m foraging at higher levels.

As my personal skills improve Iā€™m seeing a lot of possibility for very different hunting styles. But with regards to the gathering stuff it would probably be good to remove the focus on ā€œdrops from blocks and creaturesā€ from the description of the Luck skill.

A quick head to head(sample size in the tens lol) shows that Luck has a far greater impact on drops from plants and boulders than the Gathering Epic.

#21

So does the gathering epic do anything with Max luck? I seen to get two beans per plant with and without the epic (on t5 t6 worldā€™s). It definitely doesnā€™t ā€œdoubleā€ the drops like it says