Is there any way to get shards/incarnate salvage solo?
By
Adeon Hawkwood,
Posted on: 2011-02-11 07:48 in Player Questions
Every lvl 50, or higher, enemy you defeat after unlocking your Alpha slot has a chance to drop a shard.
As for the special components, you can craft them from shards, or in the case of G'rai Matter, you can buy it for 150 Vanguard merits. The only thing you can't earn solo, or at least most people can't, is Notice of the Well, which you can only get by completing the WST TF/SF.
Teaming speeds things up greatly, but it's possible to build up to tier two boosts by soloing.
(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon
OH! Okay, I thought it was only level 50 enemies I fought during TF's and things like that. Good to know, thanks!
It's a VERY low chance, however, if you're soloing and doing regular content. Be prepared to consider yourself lucky if you get a shard a day soloing (I know I get more shards faster when on a team of three than I do running solo at /x3).
To update my earlier post, it looks like you can get a Notice of the Well solo (or will be able to), it'll just be very pricey and time-consuming according to this thread:
http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=252482
Also, one of the most efficient ways to earn shards IMO is Hamidon Raids. I usually come away with 3-4 per raid, plus once a day you can pick the 4 Shard reward at the end. If I do three raids in a row, I end up with 13-16 shards, 53 merits, and a Hami-O, all for about 2 hours work.
'Course, this involves teaming and being on a server that does regular and frequent raids.
(Sometimes, I wish there could be a Dev thumbs up button for quality posts, because you pretty much nailed it.) -- Ghost Falcon
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I earned 8 shards after soloing 17 missions, so the drop rates weren't too bad for me. Don't know if my experience is typical or not, though. According to Paragon Wiki, the drop rate is 1/1000 per minion, 1/150 per Lt. and 1/50 per boss. Based on that, if you play a 2-3 hours a day, I would think you could probably average more than 1 per day.
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Originally Posted by JD_Gumby
Be prepared to consider yourself lucky if you get a shard a day soloing.
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Actually for soloists, once they do Ramiel's arc, any foe defeat, whether at 50 or exemplared will drop Shards once I120 goes Live.
Although, I can see them limiting it such that Pet or Underling rank foes or foes at -1 or lesser level compared to you don't drop Shards to prevent silly farming tricks. It certainly won't be like Tips. 
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The low chance when soloing is a side effect of how shards drop.|
Originally Posted by JD_Gumby
It's a VERY low chance, however, if you're soloing and doing regular content. Be prepared to consider yourself lucky if you get a shard a day soloing (I know I get more shards faster when on a team of three than I do running solo at /x3).
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Unlike most other drops, each npc defeat gives each teammate a chance at a shard drop; not the standard chance for a drop, then have it randomly assigned to a teammate.
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One of the biggest limiting factors are for those who have bosses turned off. Bosses have a MUCH higher chance to drop shards than minions and lieutenants. Since you always fight bosses in teams this could be a significant factor.
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Originally Posted by JD_Gumby
It's a VERY low chance, however, if you're soloing and doing regular content. Be prepared to consider yourself lucky if you get a shard a day soloing (I know I get more shards faster when on a team of three than I do running solo at /x3).
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"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
Personally, I was a bit irritated with the fact that advancing past the T2 alpha is limited to people who want to group.
I have a couple characters with T2 that were done strictly solo. 15 months on my vet time and I've done exactly one TF/SF, ever. So that means I shouldn't be able to advance my character right?
Listened to an interview with Scott Hartsman (Worked on many online games starting in 1986, including Warcraft 2, everquest, EQ2, LOTRO and many others) earlier today, one line stood out to me. "Of every 100 people who come into your game, only 5 of them want to team almost all the time."
When 95% of your player base is primarily solo players, and the new core character advancement mechanic specifically excludes them, you have a problem. I will grant it's likely the number might be exaggerated, and will also grant that CoH tends to have a more team centric player base. That still leaves a large portion of the player base within that demographic. Making development choices that specifically alienate a significant portion of your player base seems like moving in the wrong direction. This is not an opinion about content or anything of the sort, this is a bottom line business statement.
Personally, I've canceled my account. There is another game coming out at the end of this month that I want to check out. Normally I don't play new MMOs until a couple couple months after launch because launch is often messy. The rare and very rare alpha being only available through weekly TF is a contributing factor in my decision to leave now instead of sticking with CoH for a few months. The company clearly said "You're a solo player, you're not important." So I listened and pulled my subscription.
I'm not saying CoX is garbage or anything of the sort, I think it's a great game with a lot of potential. I also think this direction of development is 110% absolutely the wrong way to go, and made my opinion known with my $$, because that's what makes a business listen and pay attention. It's been said that at some point in the future it will be open to solo players. I don't want nice things sometime in the future while many people get them now, I'm not interested in paying to be treated like a second class citizen. As long as development continues in this direction my two accounts will remain inactive. No, it's not going to break the company, no it's not going to change the world. What it will do is tell the company that as long as my ability to advance my character in the play style I wish is not a viable option, they won't have my money.
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This is very true ... over the Winter event my Ice/Ice tanker was running the Lady Winter mission at +3,x6 with bosses turned on and I was getting 3 to 8 shards per 30 minute run through. (not actually fighting Lady winter ... just clearing the mobs with bosses and multiple Lts)|
Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
One of the biggest limiting factors are for those who have bosses turned off. Bosses have a MUCH higher chance to drop shards than minions and lieutenants. Since you always fight bosses in teams this could be a significant factor.
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Running my Ice/Storm controller at +1,x2 with bosses on I was only getting at best 1 shard per run through.
The biggest difference between the two characters was the much greater number of bosses the tank fought vs the multiple Lts the controller faced.
(So more bosses worked well, for me at any rate.)
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Whoa, there's a big difference between not wanting to "team almost all the time" and being a "primarily solo player." There are also the players who like to team most of the time (just not "almost all the time") and players who like an even mix of soloing and teaming. |
Originally Posted by Humility
Listened to an interview with Scott Hartsman (Worked on many online games starting in 1986, including Warcraft 2, everquest, EQ2, LOTRO and many others) earlier today, one line stood out to me. "Of every 100 people who come into your game, only 5 of them want to team almost all the time."
When 95% of your player base is primarily solo players, and the new core character advancement mechanic specifically excludes them, you have a problem. |
I primarily solo myself, and I know there's quite a few of us, but I doubt anywhere even remotely near 95%.
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I like how this poster completely misunderstood what that Hartsman guy said. |
Originally Posted by Humility
Listened to an interview with Scott Hartsman (Worked on many online games starting in 1986, including Warcraft 2, everquest, EQ2, LOTRO and many others) earlier today, one line stood out to me. "Of every 100 people who come into your game, only 5 of them want to team almost all the time."
When 95% of your player base is primarily solo players, and the new core character advancement mechanic specifically excludes them, you have a problem. |
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"Of every 100 people who come into your game, only 5 of them want to team almost all the time." does NOT mean that 95% of the players want to solo most of the time. It means that 5% of the people want to play "almost all of the time" on teams, while the other 95% want to solo to some degree.|
Originally Posted by Humility
Personally, I was a bit irritated with the fact that advancing past the T2 alpha is limited to people who want to group.
I have a couple characters with T2 that were done strictly solo. 15 months on my vet time and I've done exactly one TF/SF, ever. So that means I shouldn't be able to advance my character right? Listened to an interview with Scott Hartsman (Worked on many online games starting in 1986, including Warcraft 2, everquest, EQ2, LOTRO and many others) earlier today, one line stood out to me. "Of every 100 people who come into your game, only 5 of them want to team almost all the time." When 95% of your player base is primarily solo players, and the new core character advancement mechanic specifically excludes them, you have a problem. I will grant it's likely the number might be exaggerated, and will also grant that CoH tends to have a more team centric player base. That still leaves a large portion of the player base within that demographic. Making development choices that specifically alienate a significant portion of your player base seems like moving in the wrong direction. This is not an opinion about content or anything of the sort, this is a bottom line business statement. Personally, I've canceled my account. There is another game coming out at the end of this month that I want to check out. Normally I don't play new MMOs until a couple couple months after launch because launch is often messy. The rare and very rare alpha being only available through weekly TF is a contributing factor in my decision to leave now instead of sticking with CoH for a few months. The company clearly said "You're a solo player, you're not important." So I listened and pulled my subscription. I'm not saying CoX is garbage or anything of the sort, I think it's a great game with a lot of potential. I also think this direction of development is 110% absolutely the wrong way to go, and made my opinion known with my $$, because that's what makes a business listen and pay attention. It's been said that at some point in the future it will be open to solo players. I don't want nice things sometime in the future while many people get them now, I'm not interested in paying to be treated like a second class citizen. As long as development continues in this direction my two accounts will remain inactive. No, it's not going to break the company, no it's not going to change the world. What it will do is tell the company that as long as my ability to advance my character in the play style I wish is not a viable option, they won't have my money. |
One of the main appeals of a MMO is the ability to team with other players. However, many people do like to solo some of the time, and many people like to solo a lot. The devs in this game are very aware that some people like to solo, and have implemented systems to encourage solo play. The main one is the ability to set your difficulty level and team size . . . in the "old days," a common complaint was the number of people constantly begging for others to "fill" their teams to get an increase in the number of foes. No need for begging for "fillers" anymore.
The developers are including a solo-only way to obtain the Notice of the Well. The single best part of this game to many players is the community. The devs spend their limited time and resources to make changes that provide the most benefit for the least investment -- a good business decision. It may take longer to implement systems that will benefit a smaller part of the game population (the ones who don't want to team to get the new goodies), but our Devs will get there eventually.
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Originally Posted by Humility
Personally, I've canceled my account. |
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It seems that you didn't read the announcement of the rare and ultra rare patch then.|
Originally Posted by Humility
Personally, I was a bit irritated with the fact that advancing past the T2 alpha is limited to people who want to group.
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In that patch it specifically mentioned that the taskforces were the first method to get notice of the well but missions for soloists would be coming out soon.
And I'd do the obligatory "I can haz yer stuff" but 23x beat me.
"Hmm, I guess I'm not as omniscient as I thought" -Gavin Runeblade.
I can be found, outside of paragon city here.
Thank you everyone at Paragon and on Virtue. When the lights go out in November, you'll find me on Razor Bunny.
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Team? No. Socialize? Yes.
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Originally Posted by Local_Man
One of the main appeals of a MMO is the ability to team with other players.
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In most MMOs socializing takes the form of teaming.|
Originally Posted by JD_Gumby
Team? No. Socialize? Yes.
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Unless you're coming from Second Life I guess.
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Sometimes, I solo with my brute and I can get shard drops in the following, listed by order of drop rate: (Diff is +1x8)|
Originally Posted by Really_Big_Bang
It seems like all the methods involve team-based activities. Am I wrong about that?
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- Liberate TV mission - 1 every other mob
- Sis Arlia's or the General's missions in Cimerora - 1 every 2 mobs. Note: if you want to farm Sis Arlia's don't complete her missions.
- Tips - 1 or 2 per mission, kill most
- Papers - 1 or 2 per mission, kill most
Anything above +1 doesn't really increase drop rate. It is more related to how fast you can kill lv 50 Lts and bosses. A higher difficulty means you will take longer to kill.
But IMHO, speed ITF is the best shard rate per 30 mins of play. You get shards + 1 nictus component at the end.
Hope this helps!
PS: I signed up for this game because I like teams. I didn't sign up for that other superhero game because I could solo its content myself and I'd rather play with my friends.
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Well, maybe they can have my money sometime soon. When features that are available for me are in the game I might consider checking it out. When they put out content that specifically excludes my playstyle, I make my displeasure known in the only way that matters, with my money. |
Originally Posted by GavinRuneblade
In that patch it specifically mentioned that the taskforces were the first method to get notice of the well but missions for soloists would be coming out soon.
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Originally Posted by Atomic_Woman
I like how this poster completely misunderstood what that Hartsman guy said.
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Originally Posted by Local_Man
Your logical analysis skills need some updating. "Of every 100 people who come into your game, only 5 of them want to team almost all the time." does NOT mean that 95% of the players want to solo most of the time. It means that 5% of the people want to play "almost all of the time" on teams, while the other 95% want to solo to some degree.
One of the main appeals of a MMO is the ability to team with other players. If you only want to solo, you might as well get a console game. However, many people do like to solo some of the time, and many people like to solo a lot. The devs in this game are very aware that some people like to solo, and have implemented systems to encourage solo play. The main one is the ability to set your difficulty level and team size . . . in the "old days," a common complaint was the number of people constantly begging for others to "fill" their teams to get an increase in the number of foes. No need for begging for "fillers" anymore. If you would be a little more patient and look around, the developers are including a solo-only way to obtain the Notice of the Well . . . but if you want to quit in a nerd-rage now, have fun. The single best part of this game to many players is the community. The devs spend their limited time and resources to make changes that provide the most benefit for the least investment -- a good business decision. It may take longer to implement systems that will benefit a smaller part of the game population (the ones who don't want to team to get the new goodies), but our Devs will get there eventually. |
Welcome to the CoH forums, where having an opinion contrary to the established masses means you get flamed.
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If it's the game I think it is then from what I've seen you'll find it considerably more team centric than even the CoX incarnate system.
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Originally Posted by Humility
Personally, I've canceled my account. There is another game coming out at the end of this month that I want to check out.
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I've played the beta events, and disagree. Even should the end game turn out that way, there's still a long road to the level cap in which to enjoy the game. Above and beyond that I have a number of friends who are going to try it out that wouldn't touch CoH with a borrowed 10 foot pole, so that's a plus going for it.
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Originally Posted by Adeon Hawkwood
If it's the game I think it is then from what I've seen you'll find it considerably more team centric than even the CoX incarnate system.
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Didn't you read his post?|
Originally Posted by _23X_
Can I have your stuff?
... had to be asked |
He's a soloist, and the Dev's won't let soloists haz any uber leet gear...no stuff to be had.
;P
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I've noticed since the last update, (the day of the emergency server update,) I haven't gotten any shards when soloing missions, but when on a team or a TF/SF I get shards. I have even increased the number of enemies I fight to get shards, and still no shards. Anyone else noticed this?
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Originally Posted by Really_Big_Bang
It seems like all the methods involve team-based activities. Am I wrong about that?
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No -- I continue to get Shard drops when solo, just at a slightly slower pace then while teamed (due to the mechanic that's used to check for Shard drops).
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Originally Posted by Sukothai
I've noticed since the last update, (the day of the emergency server update,) I haven't gotten any shards when soloing missions, but when on a team or a TF/SF I get shards. I have even increased the number of enemies I fight to get shards, and still no shards. Anyone else noticed this?
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It seems like all the methods involve team-based activities. Am I wrong about that?