anybody notice how

[victor]

now that i am 6 boxing i am able to obtain a lot more master spell and some nice loot drops. something strange i have noticed is that when master spells drop they are rarely from classes i have playing. i get a lot of berserker, templar, illusionist and mystic but never for the characters i need!

anybody who's been boxing longer than me notice this?

[asgradth]

anybody who's been boxing longer than me notice this?

Yup. that's a mixture of RNG, Luck and ... well, Luck. I read somewhere a few years ago, that if the dev's setup a dungeon using the same RNG Seed, two equally equipped players who kill the same mobs in the same order the same way, will have two totally different loot experiences.

Supposedly, code was put into the game during the Kunark or TSO upgrade to make it More Likely a spell will drop for a class in the group, but I don't think anyone's done the math yet.

One thing I like to do is ping high level guilds, or make a few friends with the higher level raiding guilds, and ask them if I can swap some of my unuseable masters for some of their guild bank masters. Everyonce in awhile, I score big... The rest are sold thru the Broker.

[Twiz]

Yup, sounds about right to me. To me, it's an excuse to start another team.

In one fight (darkclaw crabs in Antonica near SH library entrance) I got 3 treasure chests, all with Insidious Whisper III (Adept). Go figure, the one time smart loot kicks, it kicks in for my mentored SK who doesn't need the spell. Oh well!

[Noxxy]

One of the misconceptions with the term 'smart loot' is that it implies 100% of the time master chests will drop masters your team can use - whilst this may be true in the x4 raid dungeons (i.e., VP et al), it does not apply to the majority of the heroic dungeons (atm).

Normally, a standard heroic has about a 33% chance of a 'smart' (i.e., useable master) drop. I say 'normally' as the percentage can be a little blurry at times and IMHO does tend to change with different patches.

But - before you start jumping for joy at your 33% chance for a master - you then have to factor in the chance that the targetted mob will drop a master chest to begin with. TSO have a pretty good chance for master chests - but the probability drops quite significantly for other older zones such as RoK and below (assuming a none master bonus weekend and stuff like that).

Personally, I used the same tactic that Asgradth uses - just so long as you approach the raiding guilds in a friendly manner they tend to be pretty ok with swapping stuff - just don't be a stalker. Make sure you have a pile to trade to make it worth their time. Know your prices. Do not waste their time.

If that fails, try the trade channel when you have a bundle to sell. Before using this tactic, work out exactly what spells you need and the worth of both your required spells plus what you have to trade. Pricing knowledge is important!. Sell during peak times just don't spam the channels - every 10 mins place a single post with a listing of what you have and what you want - no need for prices until you start to one-on-one negotiate - suggest the willingness to swap if the prices are close enough. Don't plan on doing any dungeon runs or anything exciting during this time as you'll probably be either sitting on your @ss waiting for a bite or running around to collect the goodies.

Failing both those two - shove it on the broker at a premium to give you enough pps to buy what you need (which will also most likely be at a premium). Just a note on the broker: If you see a spell you need, and it's been sitting there a while, fire off a letter to the owner to see if they will nudge the price down a bit for you - most ppl are prepared to give a bit. Please note: don't use this tactic if it's a class defining / rare spell - just pay the price and be thankful you got it before someone else did.

For researching, Zam is pretty good resource for working out the prices of masters.

[Twiz]

Pricing knowledge is important!.

This is key! I did a lot of trading in EQ1 and found it beneficial to specialize in one class. For me, it was monk gear. I knew prices inside and out and could spot a deal as soon as it popped up in chat. I would even track what guilds were going where for there raids knowing if I had any gear that would come out of those raids, I needed to sell it quick before the market was flooded with more items.

After the intial learning curve of it, it was really profitable. Needed 50k for a new weapon? No problem, spend a couple of hours in the market and it was mine.

Now, EQ2 is a different beast and I don't have the time for playing trader, but knowledge of pricing is the only place to start!

[victor]

smart loot! i was unaware of this. i thought everything was just complete random until i started to see discrepancies. thanks for the percentages and so on. I guess they try to get people to interact more this way.

I used to buy and sell in the bazaar in eq1 too. I somehow managed to amass 400k before i left years ago. don't have time to play the virtual eq market these days but i will do as suggested and stockpile my 70+ spells and contact a raiding guild i'm familiar with when the bank reaches critical mass.