Guardian/Sentry armor in Skyshrine drop rates

[pallius]

Played around in skyshrine some today and it seems like the drop rates are too low.

In the months of velious, Guardian and Sentry armor dropped like candy. It was on par with bronze drops in MM. On live, I farmed several sets with my epic mage. I equipped a warrior, rogue, and ranger on a good Saturday. I seem to recall the BP, legs, and rogue were more rare than the rest. The drop rates did get nerfed later.

Checked the wiki and it says 2.2% drop rate. Not sure if the wiki is consistent with the beta server, but if it is, this suggests the drop rate needs to be raised significantly.

http://wiki.project1999.com/A_Gargoyle_Guardian

[Daldaen]

Beta buff a mage, and farm for a few hours on beta and report back.

Wiki is notreliable on anything especailly drop rates.

[heartbrand]

Best bet would be to check magelo drop rates

[wycca]

Skyshrine has been revamped at least once (possibly twice) since Velious. I bet they used magelo drop rates - which may not be accurate. If you believe they are wrong, then you're gonna hafta do some classic digging for proof.

[wycca]

I have a sickness.

There is evidence that the drop rate on these two armor sets was significantly higher at some point and got nerfed. Interestingly enough I found references to the same thing with PoG armor.

There were several tweaks to these armor sets hinted around. Sounded like some ac adjustments, some lore adjustments, possibly some race and/or no drop adjustments. Ie Feb/21/01 - bracers became non-lore.

My thoughts -
- I keep seeing 1/12 ratio popping up
- Looks like early on drop rate may have been much higher
- It's possible some mobs deeper may have had a higher drop rate

Evidence -
http://mboards.eqtraders.com/eq/showthread.php?7308-LoY-Zones-VERY-Nerfed
Gargazon - 5/22/03 - "I had friends who were going to skyshrine and getting full sets of armor (guardian and sentry) in 2-3 hours. Post nerf it was taking over a week in many cases I heard of. Post nerf I got the only sentry robe (on my necro) that anyone had heard of dropping in several weeks prior to that, I found out of one other later, but they were common as raindrops, and then nearly non existent. Guardian robes as well.

PoG was the same way, lots of drops, then next to none."

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=3827
Zelgad - 1/16/03 - "Its pretty rare to get armor, if your lucky and you clear the front of the zone up to the portal to SS you'll get one armor drop a cycle. and from my experance there it feels that all the armor has an equal chance to drop."

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=3968
Muuilea - 1/28/02 - "Any sentry will drop this. However, I have to kill about 20 to get a piece of armor to drop, and then there's no guarantee it will be the shoulders."

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=3936
Skeeza - 2/4/01 - "loot tables were changed a bit. all sentries drop this robe, it's just a matter of how deep you go. the furter in the less rare (but still rare, none the less) it gets."

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/npc.html?id=5518
Anonymous - 11/27/01 - "I can say for sure..absolutle NO ARMOR drops off the a gargoyle guards...none. All armor drops randomly off the NAMED gargoyles only as well as the ultra rare tiny coin purse and guardian weapons. Guards are there to basically just be a pain in the ****...they drop zero armor and weapons. I have been in Skyshrine getting a full suit of guardian armor, only need boots...but i can say for sure...that only named ones drop armor."

ROzzl - 9/16/02 - "Additional dropage... rather than submitting this to Illia or Allakhazam, I'll just be lazy and post a quick summary here:

Gargoyle Guards:
Don't drop armor (or if they do, extremely rarely).
Drop Low level Velious Spells (circa level 34)
Can rarely drop Tiny Coin Purse (capacity 2, holds small items, weight reduction 20%) which reduces weight of coins.

Named Sentries:
Randomly drop Sentry armor. Drop rate is approximately 1 in 12 off of the LARGE named Sentries. Large Sentry example: Sentry Emil. Small Sentry example: Sentry Dolsam. Drop rate for armor is significantly lower off the small Sentries.
Can rarely drop Tiny Coin Purse.
Might occasionally drop low level spells.

Named Guardians:
Randomly drop Guardian armor. Rates are same as Sentries.
Can rarely drop Tiny Coin Purse.
Might occasionally drop low level spells.

Hope this sums it up. "

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=4354
Syd - 4/24/01 - "We've seen these drop only off guardians. Seen two in the courtyard and one off Selbepp in the pantry with the baker and cook. All of the guardian armor is very rare except the bracers now as Verant nerfed the whole zone because people were camping twinks there to loot the nodrops. Been there in skysrhine a month now with over 1k confirmed kills :) and still looking for BP and Legs."

Anonymous - 5/21/01 - "if the loot was nerfed then it must have been every 3 kills you would get something then since we were only there for a few hours and came out with lots and lots of goodies :) "

Milesglorious - 1/1/02 - "A friend of mine was there for a month and a half, got full guardian, except arms, in about 2 1/2 weeks, spent about a month trying to get arms"

Nistik - 2/23/02 - "Me and my guild went there last night to camp the guardians,and after about 5hours we got 1 bracer,breast plate,boots,2 pairs of legs,and a guardian sword,also droped a necro spell.This stuff is all no drop.And it isnt as rare as it is made out to be.Either that or we got really lucky,we were working the pool area"

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=3943
TenabraeUltima - 11/18/01 - "some dropped while I was in SS last night and some pieces appear to be droppable, including the bp. "

Suitea - 10/18/01 - "Anyone wanting to get this Guardian Armor, here's some tips for you to get it:

I've hunted in SS awhile and now have even Yelinak faction maxed (or demaxed, as it can't get any worse), so this info is pretty reliable. Also, I have 2 characters with full suits of this stuff, and could've squeezed in a 3rd if I tried to.

First of all, you need to kill any of the guardians, and kill them alot. It says above that the common Gargoyle Guard can drop armor. I'm almost 99% sure this is not true, but there's always that 1% chance I could be wrong, but if you want guardian armor and nothing but guardian armor, it's best to avoid the Gargoyle Guards as much as possible. Easier said that done of course. Also, it's strange but I can 100% confirm that any of the sentry's can drop guardian armor too. It seems to be a rare occurence, but I've seen a Guardian Choker and another piece of guardian armor on a dead Sentry, so don't rule Sentry kills out. It's still best in all situations to just strictly hunt Guardians and nothing but Guardians.

As far as drop rate of armor is concerned, in my experience here, I'd say that any piece of the armor drops in about 1/12 kills. Out of those 1/12 chances, you will see a random drop from any piece of armor, and included in that loot table is the robe and the sword. (The robe is very nice as not only is it a great caster robe, but it's also a good robe to just have anyway, as it's all/all. Providing your race has a robe graphic, you could be, say, a warrior and wear this robe. If your race doesn't have a graphic, it will appear as a pink tunic. Not that it would benefit a warrior at all stat-wise, but it's a nifty fashion statement) I'm sure many people will say "this is rarer than that" and "no, this piece drops much less than this piece" etc etc. The fact is, no piece is any more rare than the other. It's just a random loading process and if it seems that something is dropping more, that's just the luck of the draw, like rolling dice. If you're searching for 1 specific piece, be ready to be camped at Skyshrine for awhile, unless of course you get lucky. There's 12 pieces of Guardian Armor, and if drop rate is 1/12, do the math: The chances of you getting 1 piece you need is about 1/144. If any piece is good looting for you, Skyshrine will make you a happy looter.

Now the Guardians themselves range in levels between mid/upper 30's all the way up to around lvl 50. Pretty much all the 40th lvl Guardians, Sentry's, Drakes and Guards hang out before the 2nd gate in the Courtyard (the couryard is where the statue to Cobalt Scar is located). After the courtyard, mid-40ish lvl mobs become more prevalent, and start hitting in the mid 100's. All the Guardians and Sentry's have decent MR, decent HP, and I think their CR is 100%, but don't quote me on this. A well balanced group in their 40's can do very well here, and a good group in their 50's can hunt nicely past the 2nd gate. "

sportvandora - 11/26/02 - "Myself (lvl 52 paladin) and a 57 epic mage cleaned out the entire statue area including Guardians at least 4 times in 2 hours and not one piece of this stuff dropped. Does it drop anymore? Because ATM I could use the legs and BP. Any info on current drop rates would be helpful. "

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=3917
LanfateV - 3-22-02 - "In one day of camping the 3rd floor i got insane lucky i got every piece except Robe both bracers and girdle, but i really want the bracers good resists match the outfit (^_^) and ac to boot , now i play on Rallos Zek so No drop is god there, can actually play and not fear zoning into a gank group and lossing a BP before you even have control of your avatar. Now all that said imagine what its going to be like looking for just bracers now , rot , rot , rot /swear , rot lose role and finally /quit "

Deadgrip - 4/15/02 - "spent a total of 10 hours over 2 days. Got the Guardian BP twice, Guardian Pauldrons, Guardian Boots, Guardian Guanlets, Guardian Robes, Sentry Boots twice, Sentry Belt and Sentry Helm. "

Kilor - 7/18/01 - "Last night in a span of 4 hrs we had 6 drops and 3 of them were legs. We camped in the pool room and pulled the surounding rooms. other drops we had were Gaunts, Bracer, and a Choker. If lookin for drops try the pool room we have had pretty good luck over the past few nights."

ganjamin responding to Kilor - 9/15/01 - "You got VERY lucky in my experience. I have spent countless hours fighting in skyshrine, and have only seen leggings drop once. Six drops in 4 hours is lucky, no matter what the armor is there. Drops may have been changed since july though."

bbumsted responding to ganjamin - 3/14/02 - "That sounds about right actually...we get about 6 in 4 every time. I have been there a few times so far (raising faction with kael) and that ratio is not far off. Last night we had 3 belts, a bracer, gloves, and a choker drop."

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=3912
Fel - 9/02/02 - "I have been hunting the pool room (Zone point from CS) for about 2 weeks now, 4 or 5 times a week, 3hrs at a go...I have practically a full suit of Guardian Armour for my Warrior

...- Bring any plate wearing Alt's along, if you spend time here you will end up letting bits of armour rot ,maybe also chain wearers too, the Sentry armour is pretty good (although it appears much rarer) some of this is dropable and also sells well.

- I have seen 2 Breast Plates (rare, apparently) and let rot untold girdles, shoulders and arms "

[pallius]

Thank you for doing all that research. I started and then lost enthusiasm when I remember how mediocre the gear is :p. Better off grinding to 46 for plane loot than spending that same time farming this stuff. Largely for decorative purposes other than a few choice pieces like the guardian pauldrons.

That said, here is my anecdotal 2 cents:

Named sentries seemed to drop everything.

Named guardians seemed to only drop guardian armor.

Unnamed Gargoyles didn't drop anything. I remember always sighing when I had to deal with a gargoyle add or kill a gargoyle to get to my goal because they were a pure waste of time - tough guys with no loot.

BP, legs, and robes were the rarest, especially robes it seemed. I wanted a robe and was farming for it, but had alts camped out for all the other drops. Seems I fully equipped 2 alts and partially equipped a 3rd alt before I got my robe. That said, I know others who got a robe quick. You know how it is.

[blondeattk]

these armour drop rates were flaged up over a year ago....guess what....they havent been fixed (

It annoys me, that we have to cope with developers that have no first hand exp of the expansion.

Ill bet the rygorr and sentient rates are broke too.