Farming techniques

[hongman]

I wanted to see what others are doing for farming techniques, and other variables becuase I am not totally sure I understand all the elements involved.

Yesterday, I went farming crawlers for Silk Thread. One of my LS members had just finished there, and when I asked him about his results he apparently got 6 stacks +5 in 3 hours.

I then started to farm. 4 hours later, I had 1 stack +3. Quite a difference eh!

So what I want to know is, does technique/lvl come into how often these Threads drop?

He was a 23BLM, pulling multiple crawlers and killing them all by either using Blaze Spikes or an AOE spell.

I was a 22RDM, mostly killing them off one by one (used blaze spikes as well sometimes) but I dont have any AOE spells.

I was under the impression that the harder the mob checks the more chance of a drop you get, so I even swapped to my 11BLM for a while, but drops were no different.

So what is the average drop rate? Does things like day/time/technique/lvl/Moghancement come into it?

Thanks

[Rai]

Re: Farming techniques

leveling THF to 15 helps a great deal on drop rates. I sometimes feel moon phase effects it too, better drops at Full or New moon.

It's a numbers game killing fast gives you more kills in the same amount of time, more kills equals more drops.

Silks are not the greatest item to farm they do have a poor drop rate, beehive chips drop more frequently.

When I was sub 20, I lvled leather to 3 and killed Sheep and Fungars in La Thaine, and sold the sheep leather stacks, way back then Leather was 12k a stack and dark crystals were only 2k so I didn't feel using the crystals I farmed off fungars was a loss. I also switched jobs to keep the crystals coming and when I was a 20 WAR I have MNK, THF, RDM all to 10.

[Mog]

Re: Farming techniques

I use my 71 blm for farming. And I never use AoE spells. The drop rate sucks if I use AoE, so I just pick them off one by one with my scythe.

[Jarre]

Re: Farming techniques

The simple reason AOE over a bunch of mobs = less drops than 1 on 1 with theif subbed.

[Haggai]

Re: Farming techniques

I use my 71 blm for farming. And I never use AoE spells. The drop rate sucks if I use AoE, so I just pick them off one by one with my scythe.

Ditto, but my BLM is only 65.

[KoukiRyu]

Re: Farming techniques

Another thing you can do is farm with a good friend...it works realy well and can end up being a lot of fun. Me and a friend did it for like 2~ hours and both ended up with about 70k~ not really much, but we had a good time and made some money, so it was cool. :D We were both higher level and just killed everything we saw in Rolanberry fields...good times. XD

[Rai]

Re: Farming techniques

Yes that is true that drop rates increas with more party members to a degree. Just adding 1 friend can boost the drop rate.

[raidenn]

Re: Farming techniques

Subbing THF with treasure hunter helps. Sometimes when farming slime oils, I even get 3 slime oils with 1 mob. Unusual eh?

[Celeal]

Re: Farming techniques

Another thing has to consider is how fast you can kill the mob, how many kills over time? And also how fast the mob re-spawned.

For example, if you can kill 5 mobs in 5 minutes, you can "potentially" get drops from 5 mob. If you can kill 10 mobs in 5 minutes, the amount of drops "potentially" doubles. If there is no mob to kill, no drops.

THF's treasure hunter can increase the chance of drops. If the area has other farmers, it may affect the number of mobs you can kill over time.

For farming in general, you want THF's treasure hunter, avoid other farmers in the same area, or claim/kill mob faster than other farmers in the same area (not recommended, it may create conflicts and unhappy experience), and get the most kill over time.

If you are using MP while farming, try to kill most mobs over time using least MP over time. Downtime is not a good thing for farming.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

Re: Farming techniques

People with effective AoEs at their disposal might try to provide arguments as to why it is more efficient for them to train farm, the real reason people train mobs when farming comes down to this: they're trying to scoop the competition and hog the mobs.

For some odd reason, many players think that just because they got a mob to run around behind them, that they now have some legitimate claim to it. It's ridiculous to see a player which, by the nature of their job and weapon choice, has absolutely no AoE capabilities, and yet still chooses to train mobs. And if you happen to engage one of those mobs, they start accusing you of somehow "stealing" their "claims".

Consider the following. If you create a large train of mobs before you start killing any of them, this results in most of those mobs living longer than if you had simply started killing them 1 by 1 as you came across them. When mobs live longer, spawns occur slower (when averaged out over a farming session). Fewer spawns means fewer kills. And fewer kills means you are actually decreasing the efficiency of your farming session.

[Haggai]

Re: Farming techniques

If you are using MP while farming, try to kill most mobs over time using least MP over time. Downtime is not a good thing for farming.

And to add to this, having a thrall is good fun. Drag around a crab/beetle/elemental to use as an Aspir-bitch. And there's always the ever-fun Aspir and go on worms, too. (good for places like Korroloka)

[Vyuru]

Re: Farming techniques

Another thing to take into consideration, different mobs in different zones will have different drop rates.

So like maybe Soldier crawlers in the nest would have a higher silk drop rate than worker crawlers, but the soldier/worker crawlers in the jungles may have a higher drop rate than the ones in the nest.

I'm not sure, but if I go out and farm in an area that people normally don't kill the mobs in, then I get a higher drop rate sometimes. I've never tested it though, and maybe I'm just getting lucky.

[Theyaden]

Re: Farming techniques

Another thing to take into consideration, different mobs in different zones will have different drop rates.

So like maybe Soldier crawlers in the nest would have a higher silk drop rate than worker crawlers, but the soldier/worker crawlers in the jungles may have a higher drop rate than the ones in the nest.

I'm not sure, but if I go out and farm in an area that people normally don't kill the mobs in, then I get a higher drop rate sometimes. I've never tested it though, and maybe I'm just getting lucky.

I think your right regarding different drops in different area.

I've found outside of Windy if I'm hunting the mist silk cape the bee's have always given me a lower chip rate on the side Spiny spawns than the opposite side with the same bee's allthough the silkthread droprate was the same.

Maze of Shakromie seemed to be the same although you need to be higher level to kill those crawlers with no downtime than outside windy. (I used to go there so I wouldn't step on people trying to level to 10 before I stoped hunting silkthreads after the price drop).

Regarding AOE farming

I've testing auga farming just to see the difference in drops.

With a 45 thf training up sheep for sheepskin, Yagado for necklaces, beastmen for fun then using cyclone blade to kill the group my return rate on what I was getting was noticably lower than if I killed each one individually except the beastmen. It was even more fun to see the clump of them die than individually killing orces goblins exc and the gil recieved /chuckle while small was the same amount as killing them individually. You will sometimes get lucky and get the same amount from AOE per kill for a clump or two, but the average you will garner is lower than quickkill step step quickkill. Also usually you don't have to rest on the individual mob farming since a good weapon skill rating and decient armor prevent downtime.

Also I consider it discourtious to AOE farm around other farmers it's more a method to drive out competion and if your alone to blow off steam when you feel like a huge body pileup. I usually keep my tp up and have had train farmers run right by me while I'm standing and picking off the same mobs. The train grabbs all of them near me. I cyclone blade killing most of the train which ends the attempt to drive me out.

[Eauijhkuu]

Re: Farming techniques

With TH2, ho!!

There's no better way to farm

[Jei]

Re: Farming techniques

I like to just kill 1 at a time. no downtime, easier.