MC Core Farming

genjuro · 09/15/05, 10:10 AM

My guild has recently put Ragnaros on farm status. Previous to this, we underwent a massive FR gearing effort that involved multiple core farming runs per week to gather Thorium Brotherhood crafting material. That, along with lots of time in 5 man instances gathering quality blue FR gear, librams, and whatnot, has given us a strong FR base, with all of our main tanks at 315 buffed and all of our rogues and DPS warriors at least 200 unbuffed. Our other classes range from 100 to 175 unbuffed.

Now that Rag is on farm status, the motivation to come to these voluntary core farming nights is greatly reduced, and I'm wondering if we should just drop them altogether in favor of ZG or additional BWL attempts. My question: will these FR levels be sufficient for Vaelastrasz and the BWL drakes, or should we continue core farming for TB gear? Does EJ still do core farming runs? How does your Thorium Brotherhood crafting system and distribution work? With only the cores from a single MC run, we can make perhaps 1-2 TB epics per week, compared to the 4-5 we were making with the farming runs. How necessary is high FR for the fire-based BWL encounters?

Kaubel · 09/15/05, 10:40 AM

I think since MC opened we've maybe done 2 runs total that would be considered core runs. Most of our cores have come from clearing MC twice a week with two, separate raid groups.

But to answer your question, you are going to want more FR gear for BWL. Granted, not all the encounters in BWL require fire resistance but there are enough to justify at least everyone getting above 200. Vael for example will eat your raid alive if you have to worry too much about residual fire damage. The same goes for clearing up to the Broodlord. Also, be sure that every person attending your BWL raids has an Onyxia Scale Cloak.

We really don't have a black and white method of distributing crafted FR gear. Basically, it goes to the people who can justify the piece(s) with their earned JP. Obviously someone who has been raiding for months and has several set pieces is going to have priority over someone who just hit 60 and hasn't been on more than a few raids.

Elfan · 09/15/05, 11:12 AM

Out of curiosity were you guys able to get enough to farm the lava packs for cores or were you just chillin and doing core hounds with 20-30?

♦ Praetorian · 09/15/05, 11:20 AM

Originally Posted by Elfan,September 15th, 2005 @ 11:12AM

Out of curiosity were you guys able to get enough to farm the lava packs for cores or were you just chillin and doing core hounds with 20-30?

When we did do farming runs, it was lava packs. There's no point to farming anything else if you actually want cores.

Anyway, yeah, we did some farming runs back in March and April when we had lots of free time, and then a couple more in June or so when we were trying to get a second raid group geared up to take down Ragnaros each week. But it's never something we've done very much.

As for allocation, it's always been based on the current needs of the guild, with an expectation that people work on their own to get the instance FR gear for several slots before we give them the good stuff. A Flarecore Mantle shouldn't be the first piece of your FR set -- it should be the fifth.

Elfan · 09/15/05, 11:56 AM

I didn't know if he was referring to "cores" in a more general sense to include leather, as that is the easiest mat to farm.

♦ Praetorian · 09/15/05, 12:19 PM

Originally Posted by Elfan,September 15th, 2005 @ 11:56AM

I didn't know if he was referring to "cores" in a more general sense to include leather, as that is the easiest mat to farm.

Oh. True, but also the least useful. I have 220 of it in my bank at the moment.

I don't think we've ever found ourselves saying "damn, got tons of Lava Cores, but we need to get some more leather to make these items!"

genjuro · 09/15/05, 1:17 PM

I was referring to lava and fiery cores, since they are the bottleneck for us. We've distributed corehound boots to every rogue and dark iron gauntlets to every warrior in the guild and now the core leather is starting to pile up in the bank.

Kaubel, when you said 200 FR for everyone, was that buffed of unbuffed?

♦ Praetorian · 09/15/05, 2:02 PM

Originally Posted by genjuro,September 15th, 2005 @ 1:17PM

I was referring to lava and fiery cores, since they are the bottleneck for us. We've distributed corehound boots to every rogue and dark iron gauntlets to every warrior in the guild and now the core leather is starting to pile up in the bank.

Kaubel, when you said 200 FR for everyone, was that buffed of unbuffed?

Buffed, I'd say. Also, focus on making the most materials-efficient pieces. Every leather-wearer should have a Lava Belt. Every tank should have a Dark Iron Helm. Then work from there. Those two pieces offer by far the best return on your cores.

hellsoap · 09/15/05, 2:17 PM

Originally Posted by Praetorian,September 15th, 2005 @ 2:02PM

Originally Posted by genjuro,September 15th, 2005 @ 1:17PM

I was referring to lava and fiery cores, since they are the bottleneck for us. We've distributed corehound boots to every rogue and dark iron gauntlets to every warrior in the guild and now the core leather is starting to pile up in the bank.

Kaubel, when you said 200 FR for everyone, was that buffed of unbuffed?

Buffed, I'd say. Also, focus on making the most materials-efficient pieces. Every leather-wearer should have a Lava Belt. Every tank should have a Dark Iron Helm. Then work from there. Those two pieces offer by far the best return on your cores.

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• moz · 09/15/05, 2:20 PM

I'd just like to add that seeing your raw FR numbers may be a little misleading. What you want to work on now for BWL is to swap out pieces of your FR sets that are greens or force you to sacrifice significant other stats in order to obtain your resists. For example, warriors should not be lingering at very poor levels of defense or stamina in hitting their 315 cap. So working on updating various slots to contain higher quality items with resists is a good goal.

Lord BEEF · 09/15/05, 3:54 PM

People are reporting that the core drop rate is increased since the patch, and that some of the bosses even drop cores now. Weekly clears will probably be sufficient for getting cores. That said, the BOE bracer and belt drop rate is also increased, so farming runs would be more worthwhile

genjuro · 09/15/05, 3:59 PM

Fortunately we enforced at the very beginning that high quality FR gear was a must. No garbage greens, no massive stats sacrifice, etc. We made specific lists of pieces of gear for people to get, rather than just set a base FR number. In fact the only greens allowed are dark iron shoulders and possibly ward of the elements. I've been a firm believer in the philosophy that garbage FR gear is worse than no FR at all.

If 200 buffed is a good goal to shoot for then I feel much more confident in removing the MC core farming from the schedule.

Fjord · 09/15/05, 4:07 PM

Just make sure you have a couple tanks as decked out as you can.

Kaubel · 09/15/05, 4:12 PM

Yes, buffed with mark. I think my own buffed FR has been 238 for awhile. It'd be a tad higher but I'm too lazy to raise my AD faction.

Also take into consideration when we say 200 buffed, that usually excludes greens. Getting to 200+ doesn't do a ton of good if you run out of mana during the first 60 seconds of the fight or have so few hit points that you die in one cleave/breath/etc.

• Bad Luck · 09/15/05, 5:18 PM

I wish Corehound Belts didn't require Revered. :(