Miscellaneous: Halas Guard Loot (Rusty)

[Ankou]

Halas guards are dropping rusty weapons (see image taken today). I recall finesteel being the case on live. I went looking for definitive proof - but unfortunately Ilias doesn't have any loot info for Halas guards until 2006. The evidence there suggests Fine Steel should be the case.

https://web.archive.org/web/20060617....shtml?id=1479

Argument: Earliest findable source points to fine steel being the only item on loot table. I have searched all patch notes from 2001 to 2006 (the time my evidence is from) and found no indication that loot in Halas was altered. Thus, I believe the loot table reported in 2006 was still true in 2001.

Request: please change Halas guard loot to be fine steel two hander.

[loramin]

Out of era (or maybe in-era?) evidence: https://eq.magelo.com/item/5351#dropped lists a variety of Halas guards as dropping the fine steel two-handed sword.

 Initial entry : 8/13/01 8:00 PM
 Last updated : 4/20/20 10:18 AM
Individual guards have later dates (eg. 1/11/07 for the first one)

[loramin]

Similarly (out of era) Allakhazam lists the FS2HS as dropping off several Halas guards: https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=3547

Interestingly however neither the short sword (https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=168), scimitar (https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=206) nor long sword (https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/item.html?item=235) are listed as dropping off any Halas mobs. Only the 2hs.

Magelo reports the same: if you click on any Barb guards (in Halas or Everfrost, eg. https://eq.magelo.com/npc/9202) it seems they all only drop the 2HS ... currently on live.

So either: A) Both Magelo and Allakhazam have weirdly incorrect data for FS weapons in Halas/Everfrost, or B) on live Barb guards in both zones drop FS 2HS (exclusively).

And since B) seems far more likely, it's just a question of "did they start dropping those two-handers after the classic era?", and unfortunately I can't yet answer that.

[loramin]

I searched through https://groups.google.com/g/alt.game...20fine%20steel and http://www.eqclassic.org/forums/sear...&submit=Search (and Google) but found no mention anywhere of Fine Steel 2HS being added to the Halas guards.

The closest I could find was:

Originally Posted by stupid (Dec 24 2000)

the guards have been uped to level 50 - and are almost 100% MR

[Ankou]

Hey Loramin, thanks for adding your research. I tried looking for the quote about level 50 with 100% MR on both google groups and eqclassic, but I couldn't find that quote. Would it be possible to get a direct link? I wonder if they meant the outside (everfrost) guards, since outside guards are often overly magic resistant.

Magello appears to not have added info on the Halas guards until 2007, but whats there matches what I saw in Ilias around the same time (2006).

[Telin]

Made adjustments to Halas area guards:

-only fine steel 2H swords will drop
-added research items
-increased coin drop
-increased MR
-increased max hit

Fixed, pending update.

-------
10/12/2001 - "His loot is 6 platinum and Fine Steel Two Hander."

https://web.archive.org/web/20020319...1735&mode=show

07/05/2001 - "Bandl drops the Fine Steel Two Handed Sword he always spawns with and 1-5pp in coin."

https://web.archive.org/web/20020712...id=661&start=0

[Ankou]

Late, but praise devs!