T5 comp collecting time?

[Rhyssa]

Bearing in mind that currently T5 is the pinnacle of success, how long does everyone feel it should take to collect the comps for a fully teched set of T5 armour? I see so many people saying it takes too long to collect comps, or too much time or too much effort, so let's try putting a number on it.
3 hours? 3 days? 3 weeks?

Obviously it's never going to take everyone exactly the same amount of time, but how long does everyone feel is a reasonable amount of time to take to collect a set of 120 T5 comps?

[Kulamata]

My feeling for the maximum; four weeks real time; so guessing at 15 hours/week, that would be 60 hours of hunting time.

That's about 3 months for techs for weapons, jewelry, cargo and armor; since there will be other activities as well, that means about 4-5 months elapsed time. Certainly no more than that....

[Rhyssa]

Apologies, I neglected to put my own thoughts in my original post.

Judging by comments both here and in game,I would guess that the average player puts in around 20-30 hours a week in game. Casual players less and power gamers more.

Based on those times I think 4 weeks is a fairly reasonable amount of time to put in to collect the comps for a set of T5 teched armour. Obviously the time will depend on a lot of variables - how many hours you're in game, how many of those ingame hours you dedicate to comp collecting and of course, Lady Luck.

I seem to recall that it took me at least that amount of time to collect the comps for my t2 and t3 armour, and while you would expect that the best in the game would take a lot longer, that was pre-merge and times and the player base have changed. I can't imagine any player these days spending that much time to collect the comps for a set of low to mid-level armour.

[Jayne]

Yep that sounds about right the way it is now. I agree.

Jayne

[Hiko]

6 hours a day x 7 days in a week = 42 hours (or 2520 mins). Say 10 items to tech and 3 techs each equals 30 techs x 2 comps per tech = 60 x 2 = a total of 120 comps. 2520 minutes / 120 comps = an average of 1 comp every 21 minutes. Sounds perfectly reasonable, even quick to me.

I just started working on a COMPLETELY new set.

18 items x 3 techs each x 4 comp parts total for each = 216 comp parts

I'm now about completely with my 2nd week of doing nothing but comp hunting for about 30 hours + per week and I am just finishing up all the "Easy" comps and will have many nights to spend at the satyr islands to get my 18 zombie warewolf skulls and 10 ogre toes and 10 abomination chest skulls. I've also recieved generous donations from people who want to help me get back into the form I was when I quit. Furthermore, I have been selling items I get while hunting to pay to buy other comps (so far spent about 300s on comps)

If not for those people, I would say it would be taking me about 4-5 weeks to get an entire set for my main class. Nevermind the fact that I'll need crafting gear, gear for other classes.

Now, I'd say 3-4 weeks is a pretty reasonable time I guess, but the problem is I've been ONLY collecting comps. I've had to decline invitations to go on group hunts to deadlands, go kill marrows for a few hours, trying to get valkor - etc. Now think that the average player will need at least 2, probably more sets of armor (craft, adventure x 2) - do you want them to feel the only thing they do in this game is collect comps?

[LaughingOtter]

I think one of the comps you require every 20 minutes would be workable, but that's a difficult pace when it's possible to be hunting on Elnath for several hours and see only one zombie ogre in that entire time.

[HratLi]

Well, It took me about 3 months to gather the components for my full suit. This was always hunting when I was on, and on about every evening. Most evenings just going after 1 or 2 of the types. The last month was spent entirely on the Islands hunting up the 8 Zombie toes and the like 10 Kwellen Energy Nodes that I needed for Unarmed V (hahaha). I bought 3 toes and 3 Wind golem because they were not worth hunting (got 1 after almost a week at the wind golems).

The key variable is that will define the hunt time is killing ability. Some folks can farm, which makes collecting beetles, golems, and wolves CAKE. Others can kill a constant stream of monsters every few seconds. Not all of us can be a Force 5 Hurricane blowing through the islands

Alternately not all of us can fly around spot a target, drop, Rage, Loot, Escape. So each type of hunter may have advantages or techniques that really affect the time.

Had I not took Guardian up to 100 I can guarantee you it would have taken about 2-3 MORE months to get my parts.

To talk about one of Vandy's points, is it reasonable to expect CASUAL players to put that much effort into their 'final' suit of armour?

-HratLi

[Jayne]

LOL, hummm Hurricane.

Casual players...that gave me an idea. Let make a button on character creation that you chose if your a casual player or hardcore.

Then Hardcore: Can stay logged in forever

Casual: Your character gets booted after 2hrs of play per day.

That will give us balance without changing the drops or spawn rates

How's that?

Of course I'm kidding. Sorry I truly have no idea on what a comfortable neutral ground would be. We all have different characters and our abilities are different based on that.

For instance I know its easier for me to be a Hurricane and run around the Satyr's pretty much at will. I still work hard to get my comps because I don't farm but kill one or two at a time.

Yet on my weaker side, I can NOT farm the beetles and such. But I am not complaining that I can't. I recognize my weakness in that reguard and it is my decision to not Uber myself to where I can switch classes and become a farmer at the hit of a button. I chose not to do that. I go to those mobs and hunt as I usually do and it takes a longtime to get comps there, just the same amount of time really that it does on the islands.

I was just at fire island a few nights ago and I stayed and killed lots of mobs one at a time. I got 1 comp off the beetles the whole time, yes that was pretty sad. But I am not upset at it. I just say ok that was a bad night and I move on.

I guess its easy for me to do that, where others find it frustrating. Thats just me. To tell the truth if they/TG changed the comp drop to say 20%, With my luck I would probably just be on the other 80% most of the time, its the way the ball blounces sometimes. When I killed 50 emeralds and got not one comp, yes I was pissed. But I went on and kept going.

So really for me I just go out and do what is fun for me. Everyones idea of fun is different. So make a deal with some idiot like me that likes to go to the satyrs in trade for something you like doing. I personally dont like standing around gathering ore, so I dont do it.

And please don't read into this as a blast at others , its just how I do things. These just to many varibles for me to sit and give a definitive answer on something that is different for every character in the game.

But I think that is why we all like HZ

Jayne

[Asteral]

I don't understand why you have to have -all- the armor at once. It took me forever to make my tier V set of scales. I'd do one scale once i got enough comps to make it. Then hunt for a while till i got enough comps for the next one and made it. Really cuts down on the tedium if you do it that way.

Also helps out a bit on gathering the rest of the components as you are a slight bit stronger with your bits and pieces of teched armor....everyone just wants everything now now now....

[Jayne]

Yes Asteral, I have mentioned that a dozen times. I 100% agree.

But right now I think I am going to be sick

Jayne

[Eni]

One piece after the other only works fine if you can craft everything yourself.
If you have to ask other crafters the overhead for customer and crafter is insan. Most typs of craft jibs cost me as crafter about an hour (with all resources on silo stock). Independend of amount of items.

I do craft singel item jobs. Yes. But i donnt like them. Makes me spend a lot of time traveling/waiting for nothing.

[Hiko]

I don't understand why you have to have -all- the armor at once. It took me forever to make my tier V set of scales. I'd do one scale once i got enough comps to make it. Then hunt for a while till i got enough comps for the next one and made it. Really cuts down on the tedium if you do it that way.

Also helps out a bit on gathering the rest of the components as you are a slight bit stronger with your bits and pieces of teched armor....everyone just wants everything now now now....

making a suit of armor is a lot like making a gormet dish. Each ingredient you throw in adds a bit to the flavor and balances out the extremes of the other ingredients. Leave an ingredient out and that balance is gone - you are left with food sure, but it will taste horrible. With armor, each piece balances out the weaknesses of your character. Leave out a term in that balance and you are liable to misjudge what you are capable of.

[Fratricide]

I dont see what the problem is getting a set of T5 armor with T4 techs on it... I mean honestly, the whole 4-5 point increase per piece (from T4 -T5) only adds up to about 40 or so more points with the exception of the armor tech and that can be put on everything. So.. for the time being.. I honestly have very few T5 techs on anything. I have T5 speed on my boots.. and Ya.. thats about it.. cept for the few spells I have had crafted for me with perhaps 1 or 2 T5 techs on it... I do put T5 parry on the Yew sticks I make, but those comps fit into the "easy" ones.
and Jayne... Make sure if ya toss the chunks.. that you direct it away from the PC and its components.

[Goriax]

Depending on assumptions about how much you play, how many body locations (dragon or biped) it seems like 20-40 minutes per comp is typical. This seems reasonable considering this is your ultimate "final" set. You can probably get comps faster then that on average.

Also remember that in most hunting spots you're probably going to get comps you weren't looking for. If you're in the Satyr islands looking for, say, blue vexator fringes, you'll probably end up with a few red vexator fringes, zombie ogre toes, abomination chest skulls, etc. Take those extras and put them on the consigner. They may not be what you were looking for but there's a good chance someone else WAS looking for them. Check the consigner before going off to hunt each day. Someone else may have been looking for stuff you weren't but got some things you wanted. This is a cooperative game what you don't want someone else may and vice versa.

If we pool what we find we may all be able to do it faster and easier.

[Rhyssa]

To talk about one of Vandy's points, is it reasonable to expect CASUAL players to put that much effort into their 'final' suit of armour?-HratLi

I'm not sure I get your point here. Are you saying that the speed of everything in the game should be geared towards casual players? Or are you saying that casual players should have some kind of "express" button to be able to get the things they want faster so they can "keep up" with average players?

If I spend 2 hours a week training for netball and I'm only able to score a goal in 1 attempt out of 10, while Fred spends 20 hours training and can score a goal at every second attempt, can I go to the coach and say "hey, can you make it easier for me to score as many goals as Fred, I don't have as much time to play as he does and it isn't fair".

The time I used for my guestimates were for the 'average' player, not the casual player and not the power player. If you put in less hours than an average player (whether by choice or inability) then of course it's going to take you longer to accomplish anything. Likewise if you put in more hours it will take you less time.

[AA0]

A casual player needs to realize they will never have the best and uberest gear. You can't design the high end game around them.

[Kwinn]

Setting a time is ridiculous.

Saturday I got a request for 2 blue vexator fringes. Off I go to Corvus. Saw many blue vex. Killed many blue vex. And again on Sunday. And Again on Monday. Finally got the 2 fringes after an easy 12 hours of beating my head against a wall.

Tuesday, after maintenance, I got 9 blue vex fringes in a little over 2 hours.

Still wanna try to apply a timeframe to collect a given number of comps?

[Jayne]

You cant, thats been my point exactly. Its like going to Las Vegas

Jayne

[Magnir]

A casual player needs to realize they will never have the best and uberest gear. You can't design the high end game around them.

Sounds like what I heard WoW raiders tell non-raiders.

But the truth of the matter is that I can get the best gear in this game if I put enough time into it. Casual players, like myself, have to accept that it will take us longer than non-casual types. (And I do, and it doesn't bug me because, eventually, I CAN do it.)

I think that comp drop rates should be based off of in-game hunting time only, without any consideration to playstyle. How much time to the devs want us to spend in-game getting these materials? hardcore players are rewarded for spending longer chunks in-game than casual players by getting their tech comps in a faster real life time schedule... and that's the way it should be. Casuals can STILL get the same equipment, they have the ability and aren't blocked from eventually gaining the wonderful stuff. It's just going to take them 2 to 3 times the amount of real life time to get it. That, also, is how it should be.

[Ulkesh]

we are looking at the "high end" game here, the techs should take time to gather. i dont have a problem with it even though i hate hunting for them.

but to be perfectly honest, i'd rather be hunting the satyr isles for ogre toes than raiding the same wow dungeon week after week after week waiting for a piece of armor to drop.