Is pink drop rate in Shadow Caves really that bad?

[Fyrce]

Ok, all the talk about rarity has gotten me very curious.

I remember farming for weeks/months for Red Scarab bow, shock lance, Apep, desert talon, oh man lots of other pinks, swamp pinks. Some of those I still never dropped even with weeks/months of dedicated farming. I just saw my 1st Royal Staff drop. Don't remember ever even seeing one of these drop before.

Hell, I think it took me a few weeks of doing at least 5 Vyxnaars per day to see my 1st helm drop and it wasn't to me. To get my own probably took another month, Maybe more.

People are still farming the elusive low level pink!

I do understand that most drops are MUCH easier than that today. Hell, I think within a day of BS release, I saw lots of BS pinks.

Just because the general pink is easy to drop does not mean that the Shadow Caves pinks are impossible. So question: has anyone spent a dedicated month farming Shadow Caves and NOT seen a shadow pink drop at all? I'm not talking about one dropping to you. I'm talking about one dropping to anyone in group. And I want experiences ONLY from dedicated Shadow Cave farmer.

My impression from the few times I tried to group there is most people leave before they even start or leave after a death or two.

If I had done that for Swamps, I would not have characters who dedicated their lives to that place. That place was a death trap for a lot of people, but a great training ground once you figured it out.

Lately I've seen posts about looking for the L50 Vyxnaar helm, so maybe I actually will hear from dedicated farmers in a week or so...

Let the stats flow in! (Oh yeah, I'm not talking about today's easy pink drop rates. I think BS is about twice, maybe 3 times what those super rares used to be)

[Physiologic]

The drop rate is probably the same as Balefort Sewers or Alien Oasis.

The difference is that a BS run takes 3:30 minutes to complete while a SC run takes 10 minutes+, at the expense of pots as well.

So if you have 100 runs of BS, you'll have like 30 SC runs, with each SC run costing a ton of gold for each player that pots (for faster run/improved survivability).

But each Cave spawns multiple bosses so that increases your chance of getting drops as well.

[Ellyidol]

The drop rate is probably the same as Balefort Sewers or Alien Oasis.

The difference is that a BS run takes 3:30 minutes to complete while a SC run takes 10 minutes+, at the expense of pots as well.

So if you have 100 runs of BS, you'll have like 30 SC runs, with each SC run costing a ton of gold for each player that pots (for faster run/improved survivability).

But each Cave spawns multiple bosses so that increases your chance of getting drops as well.

Spot on.

Also, unless they fixed it, I remember Shadow Caves dropping Ao3 pinks (the non-premium ones), so it gets quite discouraging just grabbing an Ao3 pink after all that work.

I also like how in BS when you get a pink, its actually an accomplishment and a worthy drop.

[Fyrce]

I only want to know about shadow pinks, not any other pinks. The bosses for those super rares often dropped other pinks, generally also rarely though more common than those rare pinks. So like in a week of repeatedly farming a single boss, you'd maybe get like 20 pinks, but probably not that super rare, if you even saw a super rare drop. For a level with several bosses, you might get lots of pinks, but not the one(s) you want. In many areas, you'd be lucky to see any pink in a week.

[Luchta]

Inside the caves, mobs feel like mini bosses. Somewhat like AO1'ish bosses. Also, some bosses in the shadow caves do follow you till the end of the map like in the frozen elite. I am getting the impression that the pink drops in Frozen Elite is better. I am trying to finish my 1000 small pelts last night and I looted 5 pinks in just a couple of runs. Gave them away randomly to 28-30'ish players at BF who I think didn't leech their way up to that level. The rest of the party looted pinks as well.

So for the record, the amount of time I've spent inside the shadow caves since the nerf update, I have not looted a single pink. I visit that place 2-3 times a week for a full run. It's also evident in CS how rare these shadow pinks are at the moment.

[Keohike]

ah me too im doing snowball i have 933 left to go. Slow and steady wins the race. haha

[Ellyidol]

"Is pink drop rate in Shadow Caves really that bad?"

Your thread seemed to ask otherwise, which is why I answered with the other kind of pinks dropping as well.

[Keohike]

"Is pink drop rate in Shadow Caves really that bad?"

Your thread seemed to ask otherwise, which is why I answered with the other kind of pinks dropping as well.

Haha ya i think the wording is kinda off for this post.

[Tamino]

ah me too im doing snowball i have 933 left to go. Slow and steady wins the race. haha

Pelts and snowballs done a coup of week ago. But reward is not tradeable, regular pinks drops are really good for that level (mage "Brain Freeze" series can be used till lvl 45).

[Keohike]

Pelts and snowballs done a coup of week ago. But reward is not tradeable, regular pinks drops are really good for that level (mage "Brain Freeze" series can be used till lvl 45).

I dun really care bout drops i just want to get it done. While im typing i have 932 left. lol wait 931 yipeee.

[Luchta]

I love doing quests. If the shadow cave was an elite quest like frozen elite, it would have been a blockbuster up until now. I don't see any reason why it was not set that way. I am guessing they came up with cyber just too early in the game to introduce the shadow sets. But then again, it's the devs' call.

[Corpser]

ive been to the shadow caves but find its hard and to me PERSONALY its not worth it. also more then just hate death and shadow drop like for some reason the place gave me a plasma bttle axe of the rift and everyone looked at me and went omg lucky oh wait nvm thats bad anyway

[Fyrce]

Nightmares used to be harder and drops sort of rare. I would not call them super rares even back then. It's must easier now and drops are almost common.

[Lesrider]

Yes, people used to farm for days or weeks for a single shock lance. But the difference was that you could blow through those runs quickly, making gold with each run, not losing it. The shadow caves don't have enough payoff for the time invested.

[PLaCiD]

I dun really care bout drops i just want to get it done. While im typing i have 932 left. lol wait 931 yipeee.

I've just finished the pelt & snowballs ... I want to try shadow caves. What level should you be to go to shadow caves, I don't want to upset the elitists lol

[Luchta]

It says in the screen level 50. Even at level 50+ death by mob is still a common scenario so watch out for people just leaving the game frustrated after 1 or 2 attempts.

[PLaCiD]

It says in the screen level 50. Even at level 50+ death by mob is still a common scenario so watch out for people just leaving the game frustrated after 1 or 2 attempts.

Cool not long for me then :)

I hit level 45 today and I'm still going through the new Oasis town quests.

I can't wait until I get to 50 so people stop booting me out of Ao3 maps with abusive reasons. I hate getting booted out of a map where I can solo everything except the last boss (Crush the Keeper).

It's good to hear about tougher areas ... I wish there were more elite dungeons or elite quests etc.

[drewcapu]

We were talking about this a little bit in chat yesterday.

I basically said, "My impression is that nobody has gotten a cave pink to drop since the nerf."

I figured someone would've posted that they got a post-nerf cave pink. I don't think I've seen any such posts.

I remember running it quite a few times (mostly looking for Cave 3-5 spots) and never getting anything worthwhile. I did see a couple Sunblessed Bows drop though (oddly enough, to the same guy).

There were enough drops pre-nerf to have a pretty flooded market of cave gear. Nowadays, the supply has thinned out across the new players since Caves were introduced. If you ask me, cave gear has some of the best investment value of any of the pinks out there. Compare today's prices for them to two months from now. BS pinks will continue to drop while Cave pinks will continue to not ;)

[Fyrce]

I remember doing Boss Brawl runs lasting maybe 3 minutes repeatedly and feeling lucky if I saw one pink drop in a week. And of course, people were dying repeatedly, so if you could not take that, well, you'd be farming for the mil+ to purchase swamp pinks. As far as I can tell, all drop rates are much more common than they were at one time. I suppose except Shadow Caves.

[Riccits]

redfried got some pinks after the caves nerf, what i remember dropped 2 in 45 runs.

[StompArtist]

Sorry as far as I am concerned the drop rate vs time and difficulty is simply not worth it.

[Tengotengo]

I like the challenge of the caves a lot. It really separates the good teams from the bad. Unfortunately, when the players who shouldn't be there give up in defeat, they aren't replaced by players who can act their role; they're usually replaced by another noob or, better yet, a 35 or something.

The mummies really give you a false sense of security when you can blow through the relatively quickly at 50+, like a BS mob. THEN you hit the marauders. It's like that first T-junction in the first cave; sometimes there's a group wipe right there. Each of them is a variation on those minibosses from AO1-2, and it seems the red sword-wielders are like trying to fight Catspaw or Blanky.

If I'm on my mage or archer, I cannot pot fast enough to live if I get the full attention of a D'jiin. My warrior can't live through the full attention of a Prince, and forget about the witch. He's in full Guardian and it's like he's wearing paper.

Yea, Shadow Caves is hard. I can't see how people farmed it before the nerf without spending a LOT on elixirs.

[StompArtist]

I have managed to solo them before. Lots of fun but not worth farming.

[Luchta]

drew, I know what you mean. I liquidated around 10-15 shadow gears myself. They were even being sold in CS for like less than 15k. If anyone didn't know what the post-nerf scenario was. Well, imagine the overlord or the keeper dropping voids, rifts and cosmos gears for each one in the party "every kill".

[Pharcyde]

I think as new dungeons come out, they slightly lower the drop rates on the old dungeons. Its the only way to explain how months of farming for a shock lance can now be obtained in a couple hours of farming.