Wizard epic

[voni]

I finally got my little gnome wizard to 46 and figured I'd check out the epic quest to see if I can do some of the initial steps.

Is it me or does it seem a lot easier than most? Assuming you already had a CT skin and the VS staff, it seems like you could do it in about a day essentially. Just need to swim down to kedge for Phinny and then run around for a bit.

Am I missing something in the quest that's actually really time consuming and difficult or is the wizard epic easier than most in terms of effort?

[arsenalpow]

I finally got my little gnome wizard to 46 and figured I'd check out the epic quest to see if I can do some of the initial steps.

Is it me or does it seem a lot easier than most? Assuming you already had a CT skin and the VS staff, it seems like you could do it in about a day essentially. Just need to swim down to kedge for Phinny and then run around for a bit.

Am I missing something in the quest that's actually really time consuming and difficult or is the wizard epic easier than most in terms of effort?

Some of the drops are a pain in the ass. Phinny can be stingy but he's at least accessible, same for Tola and the powder. The VS stave and CT skin and massive absurd bottlenecks. Unless you're in one of the handful of upper tier raising guilds and a tenured member you aren't likely to see an epic for a good amount of time.

[maurilax]

Assuming you already had a CT skin and the VS staff

Yea its easy if you have access to those.

[Erati]

I finally got my little gnome wizard to 46 and figured I'd check out the epic quest to see if I can do some of the initial steps.

Is it me or does it seem a lot easier than most? Assuming you already had a CT skin and the VS staff, it seems like you could do it in about a day essentially. Just need to swim down to kedge for Phinny and then run around for a bit.

Am I missing something in the quest that's actually really time consuming and difficult or is the wizard epic easier than most in terms of effort?

You might start looking at the epic revamps for this quest as well as eyeing a guild to join bc these are raid targets

[Daldaen]

Wizard epic has 4 parts.

Cazic Skin - Rare drop from CT. However you can turn in multiple wizard epics with 1 Cazic Skin.

3 Staves:

Blue Crystal Staff - Not too bad, 12 hour respawn on Phinigel, uncommon drop. About 5-6 kills is typical to get one. Complete RNG based. Sometimes it takes 1 kill, sometimes 30. Plenty are floating around for MQ I'm sure.
Staff of Gabstik - Not too bad, 3 hour~ respawn on Jumpy, uncommon drop. About 3-4 kills is typical. Again, RNG. Again, people have them for MQ I'm sure.

Gnarled Staff - WORST THING IN THE WORLD. 7 day respawn, staff drops maybe 1/5 times. Venril Sathir dies <3 minutes after he spawns during his 16 hour window of Variance. MQs likely fetch 700k+. It's just awful.

Getting a Gnarled Staff and Cazic Skin you are extremely underestimating.

Once Velious revamps epics 3-4 months in:

Cazic Skin/Gabstik are rolled into 1 step in PoFear, just kill the broken golem. I forget respawn on this but it isn't too bad
Gnarled Staff drops 100% of the time and Venril Sathir is a 3 day spawn. Half the spawn rate, 5x more staff drops. My alt wizard has a chance!

Still it will be contested due to the backlog of players who want a wizard epic.

[Ele]

CT skin was so rare on live some servers didn't have wizard epics before Velious or even the revamps.

Plus the Blue Crystal Staff did not start dropping until epics came out. However, they were on Phinny's loot table since P99 opened. People had them banked years before epics came out.

[Daldaen]

CT skin was so rare on live some servers didn't have wizard epics before Velious or even the revamps.

Plus the Blue Crystal Staff did not start dropping until epics came out. However, they were on Phinny's loot table since P99 opened. People had them banked years before epics came out.

The Gnarled Staff drop rate seems low and the Cazic Skin drop rate somewhat high.

Regardless, by December this year we should have revamped planes and epics. Gnarled Staves should be coming 1 per 3 days at this point.

[Rararboker]

This was funny. Wizards epic easy?

Only way it is easy is if you rmt that VS staff or have a million plat sitting around. Otherwise join a raiding guild and get in line.

[Erati]

CT skin was so rare on live some servers didn't have wizard epics before Velious or even the revamps.

Plus the Blue Crystal Staff did not start dropping until epics came out. However, they were on Phinny's loot table since P99 opened. People had them banked years before epics came out.


On Bristlebane - one wiz had the one CT Skin on server and a DIF wiz had the servers first gnarled staff for what felt like forever

No Wiz epics on BB til well into Velious- Ventura :p

[dafier]

On Bristlebane - one wiz had the one CT Skin on server and a DIF wiz had the servers first gnarled staff for what felt like forever

No Wiz epics on BB til well into Velious- Ventura :p

This wasn't the case on Povar.

[TarukShmaruk]

Gnarled staff wasn't a 100% drop rate on live post-Velious.

When I did my epic in the Luclin days he died several times without it. Sometimes he had different staves - although I forget which they were.

Funny story about the broken golem - they patched something that changed the faction in PoFear which resulted in the golem being instagibbed as soon as he spawned.

I was bound inside of fear and would gate in and Eye of Zomm every day for over a month. I petitioned several times and the word finally got out that it was a bug introduced by a patch.

I asked a GM - since this was a known issue - if there was any way he could just spawn the golem for me. He said "a month is long enough" and handed me the golem oil and ported me to the turn-in guy. Then he ported me to Sol Ro to finish my epic.

This was on Rallos Zek

[thufir]

It was one of the easiest epics on Live after Velious came out and they nerfed the PoF and VS steps. Couple of hours of walkwork, three fights, and you're done. No special effort required, just a few groups of high 50s.

During the Kunark era it was ridiculous. My guy was wielding a Blue Crystal Staff for a long long time. VS and CT are bottlenecks here because everyone can kill them, but they were bottlenecks on my server because they were very, very difficult to kill.

There aren't really many "initial steps" though, one way or the other. It's not like a lot of other epics where you can pay attention while you're leveling up and get a lot of things done that would require effort and backtracking later. Best thing you can do to get a leg up on the process is find some friends in your 50s and ace Phin. The BCS is a fine 1h, anyway.

[Rararboker]

I was told triggerable VS only drops ranger/druid epic drops. Does it also work for wizard staff?

[Sadre Spinegnawer]

fuck the chanter ....

oh wait, this is about the wizard epic.

well, fuck that one too

[rpmcgonagle]

Been Bottlenecked on just cazic skin for 134 days now!

[jarshale]

It won't happen OP. Just give up now.

[Ele]

I was told triggerable VS only drops ranger/druid epic drops. Does it also work for wizard staff?

Gotta kill the regular VS spawn for gnarled staff, but around the time VSremains is added, regular VS is changed to a 3 day spawn.

[Ele]

The BCS is a fine 1h, anyway.

Should have been 2hb for most of the server's life, along with gnarled staff. Was changed to 1hb a few weeks before Velious released.

[Monty405]

It is as if different developers worked on different quests and never communicated properly to each other to ensure they are all on a relatively equal footing in terms of difficulty to acquire.

[webrunner5]

Been Bottlenecked on just cazic skin for 134 days now!

That might give you pause to reconsider going for the Epic lol. :eek::eek:

[Itap]

Been Bottlenecked on just cazic skin for 134 days now!

There are guilds that wait to turn in skins until they have a few wizards ready to go. You should contact some of them

[Daldaen]

Gnarled staff wasn't a 100% drop rate on live post-Velious.

When I did my epic in the Luclin days he died several times without it. Sometimes he had different staves - although I forget which they were.

Funny story about the broken golem - they patched something that changed the faction in PoFear which resulted in the golem being instagibbed as soon as he spawned.

I was bound inside of fear and would gate in and Eye of Zomm every day for over a month. I petitioned several times and the word finally got out that it was a bug introduced by a patch.

I asked a GM - since this was a known issue - if there was any way he could just spawn the golem for me. He said "a month is long enough" and handed me the golem oil and ported me to the turn-in guy. Then he ported me to Sol Ro to finish my epic.

This was on Rallos Zek

http://www.eqclerics.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5607&highlight=Venril+Staff&page=2

I dare say the wizard epic is one of the easiest too...

Just 3 mobs to kill, 2 of which drop every time..and Phinny is fast respawn and super easy with <1 group if you know your tactics.

Wizard, rogue, monk, shaman = easiest epics (not in any order)

Adon

Unless I missed something, Venril Sathir does NOT drop the Staff every time. It's common (in the neighborhood of 3 Staves per 4 kills) but you are NOT guaranteed to get it.

VS is one of the FEW mobs that is on a strict Rotation on my Server. Every 2 or 3 months, your turn comes up and you kill him.

Hmm, I've never been to a VS raid where he didn't drop the stick...I guess I must be lucky for wizards :/

Ad

It may not be 100% but it should be pretty damn close. In all the times I killed him on Mac server, I never got a kill where he didn't drop the wizard epic staff (10-15+).

Way better than its current 20% for sure.

[maurilax]

VS is one of the FEW mobs that is on a strict Rotation on my Server. Every 2 or 3 months, your turn comes up and you kill him.

made me smile

[Sorkail]

I got the Wiz epic on Live (Fennin Ro) roughly 2002-3, a few months into PoP release. Post-revamp, obviously. I got the VS staff by luck: I was sitting in Karnors LFG when a couple 65s zoned in, I chatted them up and turns out they were going for VS! No claim on the wiz staff, they said I could join, and it dropped that first time. So can't speak to rarity on that one.

Golem was up on the one Fear clear I ever did. Lucky there, but maybe he wasn't killed too often at that point?

Had to kill Phinny 20-some times for BCS. I leveled a Ranger to 5 and parked him at the entrance of Kedge, would log on daily if I didn't know where the spawn timer was at. If he was up I would look for a 65 player LFG (usually monk or war) and ask if they wanted to do Phinny with me...surprisingly got a lot of help that way! No idea what the odds were on the staff -- either terrible drop rate or very terrible luck.

So it was relatively easy for me a few years after the classic era, but looks ridiculous before revamp / more xpacs / everyone camping them all the time.

[thufir]

Should have been 2hb for most of the server's life, along with gnarled staff. Was changed to 1hb a few weeks before Velious released.
Huh, don't remember that part. I was wielding the BCS with an Eye of Innoruuk off-handed for quite some time (because I had been part of a hate raid with no necros).

I didn't get my epic until a few months into Velious, though. Just couldn't get a swing at VS for awhile even with the 3 day window. Musta got my BCS not too long before the Velious release.

FWIW I got Gnarled Staff on my first swing at VS, but it was during Velious, so.

[Ele]

Huh, don't remember that part. I was wielding the BCS with an Eye of Innoruuk off-handed for quite some time (because I had been part of a hate raid with no necros).

I didn't get my epic until a few months into Velious, though. Just couldn't get a swing at VS for awhile even with the 3 day window. Musta got my BCS not too long before the Velious release.

FWIW I got Gnarled Staff on my first swing at VS, but it was during Velious, so.

All the info is in this thread:
https://www.project1999.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77442

[thufir]

Right, wasn't doubting you, was just a long time ago. Interesting that it and the Gnarled were 2HBs once. Not really game breaking that they weren't here, of course, just one of the many slightly un-classic things about this server.

[sacman08]

I finally got my little gnome wizard to 46 and figured I'd check out the epic quest to see if I can do some of the initial steps.

Is it me or does it seem a lot easier than most? Assuming you already had a CT skin and the VS staff, it seems like you could do it in about a day essentially. Just need to swim down to kedge for Phinny and then run around for a bit.

Am I missing something in the quest that's actually really time consuming and difficult or is the wizard epic easier than most in terms of effort?

I was never able to get a Phinny drop on the live server for my wizard and he's level 85 now. Ventril is a hard one to get too because so many other classes need his drop for epic. Cazic was always hard to do because Fear raids could be difficult without the right amount of people and classes. Those three are the hold up for the wiz epic.