NPC Spawn Issue: High Shaman Phido and High Shaman Grisok in SK shouldn't spawn like they do

[Dolalin]

Right now, four mobs in SK all spawn on the same spot at -5600, 150:

High Shaman Grisok
High Shaman Phido
Shaman Lenrel
Shaman Ren'Rex

This is wrong.

Looking at their roaming locations on Magelo, the two High Shamans should be spawning and roaming in completely different parts of the zone:

https://eq.magelo.com/npc/412749
https://eq.magelo.com/npc/96418

I found this Angelfire page which goes into great detail about how the placeholders and roaming areas are supposed to work, also includes Ren`Rex, and Lenrel:

http://www.angelfire.com/blog/wicked21/rightframe.html

[Dolalin]

Thought I'd flesh this out a bit.

Here are the details for the spawn cycles of Ren`Rex and Lenrel:

...There are actually TWO seperate spawn cycles concerning Ren`Rex, and Lenrel...

List of Mobs confirmed in spawn cycle for "Shaman Ren`Rex":

(100% confirmed)
an escaped splitpaw gnoll
an Ishva Lteth Gnoll
The Ishva Mal
Kurrpok Splitpaw


List of Mobs confirmed in spawn cycle for "Shaman Lenrel":

(100% confirmed)
an elephant
an escaped splitpaw gnoll

Fact #1: ALL mobs next in succession will spawn IMMEDIATELY after one of the PH's or named are killed in the cycle they pertain to.

Fact #2: "Shaman Ren`Rex's" root PH is "The Ishva Mal" (not yet 100% confirmed, after righting this all down and going over it in my head, I came to the conclusion that it maaayy just be "an Ishva Lteth gnoll" rather than "The Ishva Mal", which would make more sense since "The Ishva Mal" is LB to me, and every other ph is green, so now that I've thought about it, my money is on Lteth, so kill that screw ball!)

Fact #3: "Shaman Lenrel's" root PH is "an elephant" (100% confirmed)

Fact #4: "an elephant" will NOT respawn if killed while Lenrel has spawned off of another PH(which would have to be "an escaped splitpaw gnoll", in his case. ONLY by killing "Shaman Lenrel" himself will the "an elephant" be allowed to respawn again. Basically meaning, in order to keep the chain death alive, you must kill "Shaman Lenrel" and "an elephant" as often as possible to progress in an orderly fashion, so "an elephant" is always your top priority aside form Lenrel himself.

Fact #5: "a cyclops" and "an undead cyclops" have ABSOLUTELY, nothing to do, with either spawn cycle.

Yes Lenrel DOES involve an elephant, however, it's unlike any of the ones he mentioned. It involves "an elephant", there is, and will only EVER be, one up in South Karana at any given time.

[Dolalin]

Secondly, Phido will have a chance to spawn when Lenrel is killed, and Grisok has a chance to spawn when Ren`rex is killed.

I have once and for all, figured out the exact method to spawn Lenrel/Phido, as well as Ren`rex/Grisok

[Dolalin]

Lastly, spawning areas for the various mobs. I would say the magelos are more accurate but I have attached/linked both anyways.

Shaman Ren`Rex:
https://eq.magelo.com/npc/11205
renrex.JPG

High Shaman Grisok:
https://eq.magelo.com/npc/96418
grisok.JPG

Shaman Lenrel:
https://eq.magelo.com/npc/11204
lenrel.JPG

High Shaman Phido:
https://eq.magelo.com/npc/412749
phido.JPG

[Telin]

I agree this needs to be looked at; however, I need in-era evidence from 1999-2001 suggesting this spawn cycle was not altered since then. At least some classic evidence would be useful, then we can go from there.

[Dolalin]

In-era evidence has been tough to track down.


Triggered Nature of High Shaman when a normal Shaman dies

Quest page:

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/quest.html?quest=518

So far I have some pretty good evidence that Ren`Rex is the trigger for Grisok, and Lenrel is likewise the trigger for Phido:

I've been trying to find Grisok for 4 days now with my druid. Ghanex spawned 5 minutes after I got there.. Lenrel spawned bout 30 minutes later. After I killed Lenrel, Phido spawned. Last night, I killed Lenrel, then phido.. Then Lenrel spawned after Phido died, which spawned Phido TWICE in a row. So I've been around the hermit and Aviak city, killing the escaped splitpaw gnolls and roaming Tesch Mal gnolls, but to no avail. Someone know if Renrex/Grisok has been fixed?

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/q...99518024850328

I have heard that High Shaman Grisok spawns at (-6587, -1452) and is triggered by Shaman Lenrel who spawns at (-6776, -1535) on a 17-18 minute timer.

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/q...99517745351335

t seems both High Shamen have name given Shamen as PH.

Me a druid 30 and a monk 34 friend ran close to the west wall due south. Close to Spires I got a named Shaman on radar, he went down fast. Then we ran towards Heremit. SW of his house we found the other named Shaman.

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/q...99518024850328

Been hunting for these gnolls in sk for two days now.
Shaman Ren'Rex seems to be trigger for high Shaman Grisok.
Shaman Lelren seems to be the trigger for High Shaman Phido.
Phido seems to pop west of the skelly ring and run along western side of zone and grisok seems to pop in southeast corner and run around down there. Both of them eventually get to the bird city if they arent killed soon.
A tracker is almost mandatory to find these guys with any consistency.

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/q...00985116191280

On the nature of the Spawn Cycles

This is very tricky to research because everyone back then had their own jboots/Ancient Cyclops theories on how this worked. [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Found this post from 2001:

Ok, I've killed Quillmane only twice, but I've been camping her recently for a mage guildmate of mine (I'm a ranger). So mages, my first suggestion is use your guildmates, mages.

My general strategy was to try and cover as much of the zone on track by doing a bit of a circuit...Krak to gnolls to Baenar to interrogator to hermit. I basically tracked those mobs to make sure I was getting around, as I can't see the whole zone even with 200 tracking skill.

Now, towards the end of my camp I started to get an idea of a possible spawn table. I've heard that the named gnolls and Quill are on the same table. I think this is true. I killed all of them when I saw them. I noticed that the spawn time on this table was nearly instantaneous (eg High Shaman Phido spawned a minute or so after Shaman Lenrel dropped sometimes).

Aside from the named gnolls, this table is tricky. I think possibly that the escaped split paw gnolls might be on it. Probably the undead cyclops, maybe the cyclops...just based on what changed on track after I killed suspected PHers. The Tesch Mas gnolls that range far from Split Paw might also be included, I killed them too. A split paw gnoll and Cracktusk are possible PHers.

I am not sure if the bull elephants are included on this table. I killed them and the named gnolls for a while with not really noticeable results. Before Quill finally popped I had stopped killing bull elephants for the last hour or so...

I do not think that the treants are on the spawn cycle, as I saw one person suggest. I have never killed treants. When Quill popped it was 3am CST, so I do not think it likely that many treants were getting killed by other people.

There were times when I was not quite sure what to kill next to advance the cycle. Either I wasn't in the right area to catch the obvious spawn, or more likely, I didn't have all the PHers.

Quillmane finally popped not too far north of the aviaks. I have heard of him popping here at least a few times...but when doing the possible PHers I couldn't really tell if they had very regular spawn points. I think the spawn choice for the cycle is probably random, but I wasn't looking for patterns.

I hope this helps.

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/n...00100792949407

Also from 2001:

I've done the quest 2xs now and an Escaped Splitpaw and Ren Rex are defintely PH's for Phido. Phido and the placeholders appear by and btw KFC and Spires. Grisok and his his PH's (escaped splitpaw and Shaman Lenrel) spawn over by the hermit. My suggestion is to get a druid friend to track these mobs down. It took my 1/2 hour the second time to get Phido and Grisok to spawn. Good Luck!

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/q...m9805355364033

They can be frustratingly inconsistent but they all point towards a spawn table that looks like the one on the Angelfire page.

[Zabbix]

Try the old Usenet which I think google groups now gives you access too. It was pretty popularly used back in everquest's prime 1999-2001 although it's use had started dropping off by the mid 90's.

[Dolalin]

Good call on Usenet. I've found the following little tidbit in that the high shamans were originally in Splitpaw itself before being moved out after the zone revamp. Relevant for a new server though a bit of a tangent for this thread:

Try Splitpaw for starters:
1) Phido in Splitpaw has Brother Dareb but Phido is a a rare spawn.

2) Ghanex Drah is one of the gnoll high shamans.

I dont know where Shem is, but I would expect his head/skull to be on
another of the Named gnolls.

Hope this helps,

Chynn on Bristlebane

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....8/zlDtA0jpuAYJ


And this guy mentions they were a rare spawn:

LOL. I spent all last night camping Ren`Rex waiting for Phido to spawn
in his place. Another group was camping the High Shaman waiting for
Shen's head. They'd been there six hours, killing him over and over
and over again, and never once got the head.

I killed Ren`Rex about 12 or 13 times last night to no avail.

Roleplaying is fun, isn't it? ``Yea, verily, we have smote the foul
beast, Ren`Rex, and soon he shall rise again to spread foul evil and
acrid odour across this great land! Then we shall kill him anew, and
gods be with us, the foul beast Phido should rise from his ashes
with the remains of poor lost Brother Dareb who hath been retrieved
from this horrid place many a time, only to be smote again by those
that we may smite again and again and again until we doth bug GMs
and bend them to our evil will.''

Archi Tuttle
Monk at Large (but probably in Paw for the next couple days at this rate)
Innoruuk

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....o/GHyg1hiPthkJ

[Dolalin]

I think some confusion around these spawns exists because they have changed, specifically when Splitpaw was revamped and Phido/Grisok/et al were moved out into SK. Things got switched around.

Check out this post from post-Paw revamp:

I've been wandering about South Karana near the Aviak city trying to
figure out where the two wandering named Shaman Gnolls are spawning without
any luck. I've heard conflicting reports from nearly everyone I've asked.
How did those of you who finished the quest successfully complete it? I've
killed Ren'Rex several times, but he's never spawned Phido, and I've never
even seen the other gnoll. Any suggestions?

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....E/_pm6oCxS0tgJ

I think in pre-revamp Splitpaw, Ren'Rex was Phido's placeholder, but that got switched around when they were moved out into SK, and things were changed to be like the Angelfire page (Lenrel instead). But everyone back then was still going off old spoiler sites saying "just kill Ren'Rex!", which were written during the Paw era.

[Dolalin]

Doing some more searching today I have refined my theory, and I think I have pinned down when Lenrel and Ren`Rex were swapped.

I now believe there are THREE distinct periods of these spawns:

1) The Splitpaw Era (up until Paw revamp) [Lenrel for Grisok, Ren`Rex for Phido] [static spawns]
2) The pre-broken Era (up until June-ish 2001) [Lenrel for Grisok, Ren`Rex for Phido] [spawn cycles]
3) The post-fix Era (post June/July 2001) [Ren`Rex for Grisok, Lenrel for Phido] [spawn cycles]

At some point in May/June 2001, the High Shamans in SK were broken (stopped spawning). This was fixed in or around June/July 2001 in a patch, referenced here:

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/n...99539267122599

Here are two posts from before the patch-fix describing the Old way of working (Ren`Rex for Phido, Lenrel for Grisok):

Pre-patch Era

12/06/01 (DD/MM/YY):

"Ron Hines" <support@itbroke.cc> wrote in message
news:7d812df1.0106121003.127fb34b@posting.google.c om...

> Anybody seen any of these Shaman in South Karana lately?
The High Shamen are *exceedingly* rare (well, not Targin or Raster rare, but
even so). I spent over a week camping SK for about 4 hours at a time,
killing the placeholders as soon as they spawned. You'll want a tracker to
help.

After killing Shaman Ren'Rex quite a few times, High Shaman Phido will spawn
in his place. Killing Shaman Lenrel enough times will cause High Shaman
Grisok to spawn as his replacement. The placeholders are on 19 minute
cycles, and both High Shamen always drop the quest items.

It's a long, boring camp. If you don't want to wait, occasionally you might
run into folks that have picked up the heads and are willing to give them
away (good!), or other times I've seen people selling the heads as much for
1Kpp a pop (which is mercenary, IMNSHO). The quest is hard enough without
other people farming the items. =(

https://groups.google.com/d/msg/alt....Q/3xESFh-gFQAJ


15/03/01 (DD/MM/YY) regarding Grisok:

Well here is what I have. I tried all the above things and none worked. I personally saw him spawn at two seperate locations. Popped right in front of me. So here is my theory...

1. He [Grisok] has several possible spawn points but all in the South East corner of the zone. (Under the Hermit hut) I had to kill Lenril about 8 times before he spawned. I killed nothing other than lenril and he finally popped. Over those 8 kills I plotted where I had seen Lenril spawn and chose a spot in between all 3. That location is at -6651 | -2264

2. [They seem to all pop in to tracking 18 - 20 min after the last kill.

3. When Grisok finally spawned, he came from a complete different location than the 8 lenril kills I had done. I picked him up on tracking and ran to him. I ran a little ways west towards the aviak village and he was running at me when we met.

Hope this helps a little.

Toshian Oakenshield
52nd Wanderer of the Rathe

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/n...98469080068873


Post-patch Era:

After the patch, the reports start of Lenrel being Phido's ph, and Ren`Rex being Grisok's ph (the order is reversed).

07/11/01 (DD/MM/YY):

Started hunting in this zone two weeks ago (druid). Saw Phido on track the first nite (while camping the hermit) and have not seen anything of him since. I've killed Ren' Rex several times and each time Grisox has spawned. Don't know if something has been changed, but most of the comments below don't match with my experience.

http://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/n...00516465960832


I think all the above is now pretty definitive.


Proposed Spawn Tables:

I suggest the cycles of the spawns should be the following per era:

Splitpaw Era:

Ren`Rex static spawn ph for Phido
Lenrel static spawn ph for Grisok

Pre-Patch Era (pre-June/July 2001):

Cycle 1:

an escaped splitpaw gnoll
an Ishva Lteth Gnoll
Kurrpok Splitpaw
///////
Shaman Ren`Rex
///////
High Shaman Phido

Cycle 2:

an elephant
an escaped splitpaw gnoll
///////
Shaman Lenrel
///////
High Shaman Grisok

Post-Patch Era (post-June/July 2001):

Cycle 1:

an escaped splitpaw gnoll
an Ishva Lteth Gnoll
Kurrpok Splitpaw
///////
Shaman Ren`Rex
///////
High Shaman Grisok

Cycle 2:

an elephant
an escaped splitpaw gnoll
///////
Shaman Lenrel
///////
High Shaman Phido