The Velium Focus Quest
 

The questline has you obtain faction for the Geonid in WL/CC to eventually get a pretty dank Secondary Item.
The problem inlays with the faction system or the quest itself. You never know if you're actually gaining faction or not unlike other factions. I've done this quest 15-25 times trying to raise my faction from Indif to Amiable, No I have not killed any Geonids on the character I am attempting this on. No one seems to know how many times you have to do it The game doesn't even tell you that you're gaining faction and you just gotta hope and believe you're just not wasting your time.

yeah pretty much just keep repeating the first part of that quest until faction is adequate

phenocryst will talk to you once you make it high enough

are you sure you're doing the right parts? should be positive Geonid Collective faction hits

are the other NPCs giving you quest dialogue?

Phenocryst will talk to you so long as you have Indif faction. To continue on to hunt the 3 giants, you need amiable. And, as far as I can tell even on EQzam - The quest has NEVER given notification of faction increase for the Geonids.
And, I am doing everything from talking to the dwarf, turning the pick into the other dwarf with the velium piece, back to the dwarf. Going to pheno, going to CC, and rinse and repeating.