Problems with a few quests

[kreelor]

I'm having problems with a few quests in the Professions Cooking (1-600) guide.

I spend literally hours killing the npc's (more of them than I can count!), and yet I never received even one single drop of a required item. They simply do not drop anything according to the quest. Even if the drop rate is very low, I expect that they should drop at least one single item in an hours' time! It has happened to me on 3 separate quests, so far, and it has happened twice when killing the 'Hooligans' are the targets. Why

two-strange-quests.jpg

[cabby]

Ok, refer to my post about the vegetables and drop rates that I made when you had problems with the carrots. Witchberries and Red Blossom Leeks are vegetables. These are not quests but are farming steps so you can obtain what you need to create the recipes. The easy way to determine if it's a vegetable is to drop in on the seed vendor in the Halfhill market and see if there's a seed for the item you need to get. If there's a seed then it's a vegetable and you'll have to spend days of farming mobs to get a few of them.

[kreelor]

...If there's a seed then it's a vegetable and you'll have to spend days of farming mobs to get a few of them.

That is definitely not clear in the guide. As a matter of fact, it's so unusual, I thought it was broken! If that's how Blizzard designed it (and the only way it 'works'), then it'll take more than days (more like weeks!) to grow things in the garden plots. It shouldn't even be a Zygor option for a quest, if that's how it works. At least, there ought to be a clear warning.

EDITED: You said...

These are not quests but are farming steps so you can obtain what you need to create the recipes.

That's not quite true. The guide tells users where to go and what to kill to get the items.

Needing 250-to-500 or more of some of those things per quest, (and there are way too many quests to do in that area) would defeat the "fastest leveling possible" claim. And, it is too outrageous to buy thousands of vegetables at the AH.

Please, can you ask the team to find some way to let users know that "killing the mobs" (as the guide has that option in it now) is a total waste of time? The only thing I remember seeing was that killing the sprites could take a long time because their drop rate was low. I saw nothing mentioned about the impossible task of killing the primary npc's to kill to get the drops. Nowhere else in the game are quest drop rates that low for things that require gathering such a huge number of items! Planting and growing your own and waiting a full day to plant a few more should have been an optional method of gathering. Not the other way around. My opinion.

Thank you, Cabby, for telling me. I'm glad I asked when I did. I'm glad you answered me right away. I appreciate it very much.

[cabby]

Those are not quests. That's having you collect 250 of a vegetable to make 5 combines for the banquet recipe for your particular cooking way that you are working. Again, it's not a quest step but a step to help you gather the ingredients needed to create food. Also, the 250 that your gathering is what is needed to hit 600 in the cooking way that you are working. The only reason there are other vegetables that you need to gather a large quantity of is if you want to hit 600 in all ways of cooking. You should be happy your working on Wok and not Brew because Brew uses no meats so the equivalent of this step for Brew is to collect 250 of two different veggies for a total of 500.

Also, you get at least 5 quantity (can be 8 per seed if you get a bursting one) for each seed you plant. If you have done the Tillers rep to the end and unlocked all plots on your farm that gives you 16 plots at 5 each per day for vegetables. This is 80 vegetables per day or 4 days to grow the needed 250. Of course if you haven't worked the Tillers rep and you only have the starting 4 plots available then you can only grow 20 per day and that will of course take forever (13 days) to grow the 250.

As you say, planting and growing your own should be an option but unfortunately Blizzard wanted to push their little version of Farmville on everyone so planting and growing is the main method for getting the veggies. I'll talk to the team about changing the veggie farming aspect over to the token method where you'll farm up meat and convert that to tokens to buy the veggies with but personally I'd recommend just not wasting the time and purchase the 250 veggies off of the AH.

[kreelor]

Here's how I see it.

Those are not quests. That's having you collect 250 of a vegetable to make 5 combines for the banquet recipe for your particular cooking way that you are working. Again, it's not a quest step but a step to help you gather the ingredients needed to create food.

steps-versus-quests-semantics.jpg

...if you want to hit 600 in all ways of cooking...

I have already opted to develop each of the 'ways' because I thought my alt char's could benefit, but that doesn't mean that I can't abandon some of them. When I did it, I didn't realize what a mess this was.

If you have done the Tillers rep to the end and unlocked all plots on your farm that gives you 16 plots at 5 each per day for vegetables.

I've done some work on the Tiller's Rep, but doesn't it too offer users the choice of "farming/gathering" the items, as well? I've forgotten at this moment if it does or not.
The Tiller's Rep guide still takes a lot of time, if I recall. Maybe Blizzard has made this convoluted mess so that people will be forced into paying additional monthly fees!!! I just had a birthday this past September. If this doesn't kill me with a stroke or nervous breakdown, I'll have another one before I get back to leveling my characters and away from this damned garden full of pests, weeds, and "steps" that are meaningless! lol

I'd recommend just not wasting the time and purchase the 250 veggies off of the AH.over to the token method where you'll farm up meat and convert that to tokens to buy the veggies with.

I think that's a great idea especially since it was never mentioned as a suggested alternative to this time-consuming nightmare.

I'd recommend just not wasting the time and purchase the 250 veggies off of the AH.

I'll buy them at the AH, as you suggest. But, first you'll have to send me 5,000,000 Gold! The markup for such items on my realm is generally above 500% to 999%! No way in Hell I'm gonna' do that per item! That's exactly why I opted to go kill those little b******* so I could get the drops quickly! It doesn't work!

You are absolutely correct in saying this is Blizzard's version of Farmville! I looked at that thing one time, and cancelled immediately. What a mess it was, too.

Thanks Cabby. I think I'm done with this issue. It is what it is, even though I think the entire Profession Leveling Guide should be totally revamped! We can't even "fast-forward" the steps we've already completed because the guide stops at every darned comment (in red), and there are hundreds of them in each separate guide! It's like trying to drive down a 50 mile long expressway, but there are stop signs every 10 feet along the way!! It drives me nuts. A 20-minute drive takes over 3 hours due to all the stopping and starting.

[Cartman]

I agree with Kreelor that in addition to purchasing those materials for tokens or grinding mobs there should be a third option like "plant and harvest or buy off the auction house".

In general I find it easier to get stuff that can be harvested at the farm than getting fish or meat.
It takes me about 3-4 minutes to get an entire 16 slot farm done (if you know what to do, for example those weeds you need to pull out can be pulled while mounted and flying) and in that time I can get a lot of stuff needed for various professions.
16 slots give you about 5 Gold Lotus (on average) and lots of other flowers or 30 leather or 50 cloth or 16 Ghost Iron and 16 Trillium or 80 vegetables.

[cabby]

I will talk to the content guys. We do have an AH step in the guides already. It's the step directly after the one you learn the banquet recipe. That step gives 3 options, AH, tokens, and farming. For kreelor to have gotten to the step in question originally he would have to have picked the farming option. What we really need to do is look at the step that involves the veggie farming. Maybe change that into an option step where it gives info on the better methods to get the veggies and give options for user to click on to go to a step for that option.

[Cartman]

Ah, I missed the auction include.
Then a note in that step would be sufficient about which way is the easiest.

[cabby]

Well, having a note in the AH step might not be best since there is also meat that can be farmed a lot easier than the veggies so people might want to farm the meat and then do tokens for the veggies. We'll have to see what ideas the content team can come up with for possible ways to handle it.

[Cartman]

Just a side note for Kreelor, if you have more than one level 90 character you can do the cooking daily multiple times a day with different characters to quickly get a lot of tokens. I thnik the cooking quest only requires a cooking skill of 1.

[kreelor]

No "Stop Signs, please".

... We can't even "fast-forward" the steps we've already completed because the guide stops at every darned comment (in red), and there are hundreds of them in each separate guide! It's like trying to drive down a 50 mile long expressway, but there are stop signs every 10 feet along the way!! It drives me nuts. A 20-minute drive takes over 3 hours due to all the stopping and starting.

Why can't those 'red' comments become 'nullified' after users have read them and have completed the step(s) which the comments relate to? That way, <right-clicking> to fast-forward through the guide to find the next "incomplete" step would actually work. After all, those red comments are no longer valid stopping points.

Maybe this should have been posted in the "Suggestions" section?