Tower > Salvaging > Mining

Due to the exaggerated time it takes to mine a single ore node, I've found I can be more productive by only mining 10 or so of a given type of ore, then gathering rusty weapons from elves in greymark forest to supplement the metal to craft ingots.

This shouldn't be easier than mining the equivalent amount of ore to make the ingots the old fashioned way. The player outreach for smelting items was to help us increase the availability of ore and save us time, not to replace the original process and certainly not to provide a reason to extend the duration of mining each node, which is now (or at least feels like) anywhere between a painful full minute up to 2 depending on skill level. On the optimistic side, I can sleep in between harvest attempts.

Is anyone else experiencing significantly longer harvest durations for ore and is anyone else experiencing a serious lack of iron ore?

 

Just for my own personal information : The "Tower" here is referring to the "Tower of the Shuttered Eye", and its quest reward loot ?

I never participated in that particular free-for-all, so just wanted to double-check I understand what you are saying.

 

I edited my original post because the shuttered eye tower isn't really pertinent in my post and things like that tend to make the ADD crowd (not specific to you) lose focus, but yes, I sure was.

 

Mining in it's current state is definitely a painful experience. As of the skill wipe (R21) the animation time is extremely long compared to say skinning an animal or harvesting garlic, or chopping a tree. Trees are almost as bad, but mining is clearly longer. Ore is obviously more valuable and so I would expect a bit more difficulty getting it though.

After R21, it takes some time and effort with some mining grinding to level the mining skills to help, but it does get slightly better after a while if you work at it.

Finding ore nodes is not necessarily a major factor or problem with skilling up mining to a reasonable level.

The issue is that the system seems to be broken right now and the skills don't really do what they are supposed to. For instance, you need to skill up "Survey - Mining" and "Swift Gathering - Mining" both to level 10 to get to "Meticulous Collection - Mining". So, after doing that, I turned off Survey (thinking I don't need this really since I can already see the nodes anyway). So I hammered away with Mining Proficiency, Swift Gathering, and Meticulous all on... for hours... for several gaming sessions. I managed to get these other 3 up to level 21 each.

During that time, I noticed that the % chance never improved. You would think that the increases in Mining Proficiency and/or Meticulous would improve the % chance on the node, but taking both of them up 11 more levels did nothing! Also, the mining time seemed to get slightly faster, but not that much faster I'm not sure if it really did or not honestly. So, I mentioned this issue to some other players and they informed me that you need to have all 4 of the skills equally leveled up to notice the increases.

So I turned those 3 off and turned on just the Survey. Sure enough, the % chance on the nodes went up on the first level increase of Survey (???) I kept it this way for a few more hours over a couple sessions and I managed to bump my % chance up to 64%. I think my mining % chance rose around 10 points as I leveled Survey up to 21. During this time, the animation time also seemed to speed up a bit.

Now my question is: why does my Survey skill have anything to do with mining the node once I already found it? Is there some hidden formula that makes up level up the unnecessary Survey skill? Honestly, I'm not even sure why that skill is even available when anyone who is looking for an ore node can spot one without ever initiating that skill.

But besides all of that brokenness, I can say that mining does get easier once you put the time in. I can now harvest about 40-50 ores in an hour in a mine where the nodes are constantly available. Could be more if I don't have any distractions, but that rarely ever happens. While this isn't great, I suspect that further skill increases in the 4 skills will improve my yield and mining time. At least I hope so.

 

Please remember that the skills are not adjusted for Skill based system yet..

Im sure we will see a big improvement once that balance is done

 

So far i can't confirm this.
I'm mining currently in Owl's Nest.

I started with:
Mining Prof.: 32
Swift Gathering: 31
Survey: 13
Meticulous Collection: 12
Ore Nodes: 54%
Crystals: 97%
Mining time: slow as always (on Ore nodes)

a few hours later:
Mining Prof.: 32
Swift Gathering: 32
Survey: 21
Meticulous Collection: 21
Ore Nodes still at: 54%
Crystals still at: 97%
Mining time: slow as always (seems nothing has changed)


Guess i will try to level everything equally.

 

I agree, something has to give. Speed up mining, give us a higher success rate, or at least up the price of blacksmithing goods. I haven't done any written analysis but with my mining at 44% I still regularly fail 3-4 times per node.

I don't mind being able to supplement the ore with rusty weapons...but we have to salvage one at a time and you can't easily dump the weapons in the bank before they are scrapped.

It just seems like the mining/scraping/smelting process is too restrictive. It'd be nice if one or two of the issues were lightened up.

 

Yea, it seems that having everything equal is the key, but it may just rely on the lowest level skill of the set being the deciding factor. I'm surprised you didn't see any % chance increase by raising Survey to 21.

After a bit of mining again last night, I raised all 4 skills in the tree to 24, and I now have 65% chance on iron/copper/gold in Etceter Crag Mines (same place / same nodes I was at before).

So not only does everything seem to have to be equal, but I'm also realizing that not every level gives you a full % chance increase either. The description of the Mining Proficiency skill does indicate that each level increases +.5 so I would expect to get a 1% increase every 2 skill levels... but it took me 3 skill levels (across all 4 skills in the tree) to see a 1% mining chance increase. It's all very puzzling, but at least it does seem we can improve it with time and work.

On a good note though, the mining speed per try does seem to be improving steadily and getting faster every few levels too. I haven't timed it to verify exactly how fast it is, but it does feel faster to me now. Also, more often I'm getting almost instant results (crit?) that gives me a success after like 1 or 2 swings of the pickaxe. I think it happened 3 or 4 times last night and only recall it happening like once or twice ever prior to last night. So maybe that's an added benefit of raising the Swift Gathering skill?

Guess I'll just keep picking away and see what else I can find.

 

Something clearly is then not working correctly.

You say you have 24 in each mining skill?

I went to Etceter Crag Mines now as well and i only have 55% chance there on all nodes.

My Mining skills are currently:
Mining Prof.: 32
Swift Gathering: 32
Survey: 29
Meticulous Collection: 29

 

Keep in mind that different areas appear to have different difficulties. My mining chance in say, East Perrenial trail is about 87%, in West Perrenial trail about 55% and in Owl's Nest about 21%. Takes a long time to see failure in Owl's Nest.

 

Yeah, we know that

But the question is, why is Daxxe Diggler's chance by far higher with an skill lvl of 24 (at 65%) than mine with an skill lvl of 32 (at 55%) in the same area?!

And now i even do have all four skills at 32 and i am still sitting at 55% in the same area Daxxe is digging.

 

Prior to the use-based switchover, a large component of the chance was dictated by the "Producer Level", something which may not yet have been removed from the calculation. We cannot see that "Level" any longer, so it is difficult to compare.

You also gain a boost if you are using the "Prosperity" or "Artisan" tools. They are very handy because of that.

 

What exactly was the Producer Level? I never played before Release 21, even thought i am an Royal Founder.

I am currently using the Artisan Pickaxe btw.

 

There are two pools of experience in the game : One is the "Adventurer Experience Pool", where combat experience from new kills goes, and the other is the "Producer Experience Pool" where experience from harvesting/crafting goes.

The "Adventurer Level" and "Producer Level" were determined by how much experience was added to those pools, much like more traditional roleplaying games.

They were used in the back calculations to increase your character's ability ("Adventurer Level" increases hitpoint for instance).​

Under the use-based system, those pools still exist : They store the unused experience awaiting allocation to a specific skill upon its use.

The "Producer Level" also still exists in the background, it is simply not exposed by the User Interface any longer (the "Adventurer Level" can still be see on the Character Stats "V" window).

 

Ok i think i understood, thanks.

I knew about the Adventure Level/XP Pool already and about how it works. But the Producer Level was new to me.
Would atleast explain as to why we are seeing different % at digging (if the Producer Level is still in some mining calculations).

 

For additional reference :

• I am using a "Pickaxe of Prosperity"
• My mining skill is "12", "6", "6", and "0"
• I have a 61% chance on the Etceter Crag Mines ore nodes.

I do however most likely have a high producer level, from a large amount of "Field Dressing", "Forestry", and "Foraging" harvesting over this release.

 

Well, now i am officially depressed.

That's just not right, lol

 

I wonder if the Strength value is part of the equation as well?

 

Hmm, I probably should have mentioned that piece of info in my previous posts. Yes, I am using the "Pickaxe of Prosperity" which may be giving me a boost.

I also had a fairly decent Producer level at the end of R20 and have done a decent amount of mining, gathering, and skinning... as well as weapon/armor crafting this release too. So all of that may be giving me a higher Producer level than some.

I'll try to go pick up a standard pickaxe and leave my prosperity one in the bank and see what % I get with that. Been meaning to do that anyway just to see if there is a difference with them. In fact, I have the "Artisan Pickaxe" also so I'll go test both of them and report back the differences at my current skill level.

 

OK, here's the run down on the mining picks.

At all 4 mining skills just hitting level 27:

Mining Pick (standard merchant purchased) - 44% Chance
Artisan Mining Pick (available with Pledge Level "Royal Artisan" or above) - 56% (so 12% bonus)
Pickaxe of Prosperity (Add-on store purchase) - 65% (so 21% bonus)

I would expect a more rounded bonus stepping, like perhaps 10% and 20%, so these findings are a bit strange. But nonetheless, this proves that the different tools do indeed give different mining chances now. There is no tool tip description of any bonus for any of them so I wasn't sure if that feature was in-game yet. To be honest, I was using mine just because of the "indestructible" feature but happy to see that I'm getting the bonus now as well.