Energy-Bone Splinter?

[Nambroth]

I just need help getting some information confirmed.

My husband and I have dragon alts that are both on the Breath of Lightning quest. I rarely use this ability but I'll need to finish the quest to become ancient. Regardless, I have been having serious trouble getting a splinter of Energy-Bone to drop.

Now, I've done this quest with two of my alts already and have helped numerous others do this quest so I know it's a rare drop, and I am patient!

The past countless times I've done this, I've hunted mighty skeletons out in the Aughundell Battlefield. I do this because it's always dropped there for me (and others) and I find that I'm less likely to want to toss my keyboard through my screen in frustration at being utterly destroyed every time I attempt to engage a skeleton, the way I do in the Western Deadlands.

Sadly though, after what probably equals at least 12.. 15? Hours of killing the skeletons there (enough to bump me from adv 80 to 83 on skeletons alone), between the two of us, nothing dropped. Well, I seemed to recall that this was an issue that has been worked on since I did the quest last, and so I thought perhaps I'd try the Western Deadlands in case they only drop there now, as the quest indicates. Hours and hours and deathpoints later, nothing.

Then someone told me that the NEW best place to hunt them is the Northern Deadlands. Willing to give it a try, I hunted there for the last two evenings. No drops.

I don't mind being patient, but it's getting really ridiculous. I am hoping that someone can tell me where, for sure, the drop is at least supposed to happen? I'd be less disheartened if I at least know that it's possible to get the drop at one of the given locations.

Thank you for any help you can lend.

[Loc]

I believe it is the Northern Deadlands where they drop, but make sure the being who has the quest is doing the looting.

[Nambroth]

I have the quest and I'm definitely doing the looting. Thank you!

[LOVWYRM]

Nam- we`ve experienced the same, trying to help our friends with that quest.

Yes- it should be Northern Deadlands, and yes, its ridiculous

[Nambroth]

So it IS the Northern Deadlands? Thank you Lov. I wonder when it changed? I really wish the quest text was updated. The skellies at the ND aren't 'mighty' skeletons, does that matter?

I feel so stupid because I've done this so many times before. But it's just not dropping and I'm nearly fed up! I don't mind hunting a rare drop for a while, but it's been over a month now.

[Guaran]

I would recommend trying Western Deadlands.

These splinter drops keep getting changed every 6 months.. and it still isn't right, because they NEVER drop when not doing the quest, yet this is a needed tech comp for Vengeance tech. It needs to drop for ANYONE at ANYTIME. It's a tech comp in ADDITION to being a quest item.

[Nambroth]

Along those lines... I deleted and restarted the quest three nights back, just in case. I carefully read the quest text and it said Western Deadlands (and made mention of skeleton wizards). With my husband's help, we set out to kill them there, and also just in case, we concentrated mostly on wizards. He kept track and we've killed (and I have been the only one to loot) somewhere around 140 skeletons since I got the quest again, but no drop.

.... should I consider reporting this as a bug or is the bone splinter drop just that rare now? I never had so much trouble with this quest before.
(By the way if anyone needs any crystals from this tier, or any mighty skeleton skulls for comps, let me know.. haha!)

[Velea]

The item is given out via the quest, not normal loot drops. So only the person on the quest will ever see the item in the loot window.

Any Western Deadlands Skeleton (of any race/class) has an equal chance to drop the item, as they all have the same exact keyword.

The chance of getting the item is actually considerably higher than 1/140, so unfortunately you're just having a very long string of bad luck, I'm afraid. While it shouldn't change anything, maybe make sure that you're the getting the killing blow on the skeleton so that everything is 100% sure that you're the one doing the killing?

[Guaran]

The item is given out via the quest, not normal loot drops. So only the person on the quest will ever see the item in the loot window.

Any Western Deadlands Skeleton (of any race/class) has an equal chance to drop the item, as they all have the same exact keyword...

It's supposed to be available as a normal loot drop as well as this quest.

Same goes for the Splinter of Flame-Bone and the Splinter of Ice-Bone.

All 3 are tech comps that were supposed to be available via normal loot drop by the time Nadia was removed. Somehow it got overlooked or confused with the drops for these quests.

[Knossos]

Perhaps some background from a fairly recent thread would be of interest:

http://community.istaria.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=21640

Knossos

[Nambroth]

Thank you all kindly for your responses!
I'll admit that I'm a bit more confused than ever though.

Before I deleted and re-acquired the quest, I had been mostly hunting the skeletons alone, and I will guess that I killed and looted somewhere in the neighborhood of 200-250 of them by myself. That's quite a few to go through, which is why I deleted and restarted the quest just in case it was bugged somehow. The terrible irony is that the quest I did just before this one was the Breath of Fire III quest, where you need a flame bone splinter to drop. While on that quest I got an energy bone splinter drop. I kept hunting and got the flame bone less than an hour later and thus moved on with said quest, but my point is that the energy bone splinter did drop without the Breath of Lightning quest open.

Now I have the quest and I can't get it to drop, the irony!

And I read that others have had success in the Northern Deadlands. Ahhh! I don't know what's wrong. I'll keep trying.

[Veya]

I don't think the 'killing' part has anything to do with it. Vel.

I was killing them for a friend of mine and she still managed to loot one -- and it was like the third kill, so I dunno what's going on, Nam. :c

I could try coming out there and helping you, perhaps I'm a good luck charm. xD

[Nambroth]

With Veya/Shagreth's lovely help, I finally finished this, but not without discovering a bug. I'll report it in the appropriate place.

Also, Northern Deadlands is the place to be.

One other thing: in case someone runs into this in the future and searches the forums... make sure you do not have any bone-splinters in your inventory while doing this quest!

[Velea]

Nambroth, I apologize. From the delta 174 patch notes:
"Breath of Ice: Acquire a Splinder of Ice-Bone" and "Breath of Lighting: Acquire a Splinter of Energy-Bone" now properly use the skeletons in the Western Deadlands.

I had forgotten that this was a change made in a delta that is only on Blight, not yet released to live.

So the quest you had is still the old (bugged) one, and the quest I looked up in the database on Blight is the un-bugged one.