Loot Running

[metaquad4]

As a very frustrated looter, I call upon all you looting experts to offer input for us poor scrubs! I've been "looting" for several years on this server, and usually, I end up in taking an epic item about once every 2 years and around 50-100k every month or so. Though, I usually do loot-runs once a week too, maybe twice if the mood strikes. I'm just not very efficient at it and it frustrates me sometimes.

How do you make money! How do you loot good items? Is there a specific kind of build for efficient looting on BGTSCC? Are there any especially good routes to take along the server?

Any advice is good advice! Be cold and harsh, be kind and warm! I've tried looting, but typically it takes me several hours (even in a druid) to loot as much of the server as I can. Am I just not cut out for it, or is there something I can do to cut out my looting time?

My build can solo the frost king, the naga queen, the serpent hills dragon, and chaos. As well as most trash mobs on the server (I struggle with the serpent temple sometimes).

I am just looking for any advice all you veteran looters can throw at me. I can make a decent amount of money over a period of time, but typically I don't have enough time to do dedicated loot runs (or I do have enough time, but I'll end up not being to RP much as a result).

Any advice is welcome! If none can be offered, I'll keep surviving. But, I'd like to -thrive- and not just survive. With any luck, any information offered will also benefit anyone else who reads and not just me as well.

(Yes, I require riches! As I RP, I tend to lose a lot of money. Tipping bartenders, teleporting, bribing the odd person, buying RP wares from people. I tend to give out money in my RP, but that requires taking in money to be sustainable!)

Thank you all in advance, and have a lovely (insert time of day here).

[AC81]

Trade.

You've been around long enough to have acquired some good gear. If you want to get more, and quickly, you may need to bite the bullet and put some of your much loved epic gear up for trade. The main problem that I see when people trade is that they want something for nothing. It usually goes like this:

"Hey, I'll trade you your [insert item of awesomeness] for my shortsword+3, 10k gold and this mid range shop item."

"No."

"But why, you get two of my things and some gold. I only get one of your things. You're a jerk."

They have no understanding of trade on BGTSCC, but at least they walk away knowing I'm a jerk.

Anyway, long story short - trade, there is no better or quicker way to awesome gear. Think red paper clip type trades. Or use Karond's guide, it works.

[Kiran]

Howdy!

I used to be a loot runner like you.

Now i make my in game gold from simply roleplaying. Usually able to make around 500k monthly while I do my roleplay business. (Pm me for my secret sauce on this)

I spend it all mind you as well in turn on bribes, protection, security and paying off bigger sharks.

As for loot runs, to save yourself a lot of time... I made a great smiter who does chaos when I can be bothered. Full run takes 2-3 minutes (Whilst you can be on the phone or whatever) Lots of chests, 1 boss, found over my time on BG many fine epics simply from this.

[Sun Wukong]

Make a Barbarian 20/Something 10 build, either pick Improved Power Attack or Northlander Hewing. Go high strength. Extend Rage feats help with Ice-Troll Berserker on the side. Then you can just level it up from 1 to 30. Log in every day, run through a cave or two. You are bound to find something eventually. There are more chests than bosses, and you can open chests faster than bosses.

[Lockonnow]

well it is all about how greed youre

[Calodan]

Honestly? There are two ways here. You can do the trade shtick like AC81. I do a bit of it but I have yet to put real time by looking for trades I can do.

Then there is the Calodan Epic Loot run! Yeah I said it! Okay so You do the VOD>Serpent Hills>Amn Cloud Peaks. Do it once daily rinse and repeat. You can also just do the VOD multiple times daily as well and start gathering loots that way too until you get some trade stuff and then do the Karond gold ways.

[JCVD1]

My trick is simple.

Make 1 character.

Stick to it. No alts.

Stop RcRing

Stop changing your gear.

Get always richer and better equiped.

[Akroma666]

Make a Barbarian 20/Something 10 build,

I cannot stress this enough.. this build is stupid good. Bear warrior can solo some of the bosses pretty easy, but the DR just kills your ability to kill bosses quickly, and when you rely on rage to be your Burt's, it's counter productive. Get the standard barbarian with epic rage and Northlander Hewing.. it will make all the difference in the world.

Also, another suggestion for a safer solo machine would be a pure druid. Get dragon shape and self buff.. it's a much slower build and a lot less fun to level, but once you get dragon form, it's all EZ mode.

[mrm3ntalist]

Make a Barbarian 20/Something 10 build,

I cannot stress this enough.. this build is stupid good. Bear warrior can solo some of the bosses pretty easy, but the DR just kills your ability to kill bosses quickly, and when you rely on rage to be your Burt's, it's counter productive. Get the standard barbarian with epic rage and Northlander Hewing.. it will make all the difference in the world.

Also, another suggestion for a safer solo machine would be a pure druid. Get dragon shape and self buff.. it's a much slower build and a lot less fun to level, but once you get dragon form, it's all EZ mode.

You try to use every possible thread to ask for more bear warrior buffs. Especially when concerning the barbarian class - which you characterize stupid good, not realizing what you comparing ( a PRC VS a Base class ).

Let me fix it for you. Barbarian20/BearWarrior10. Here is a stupid good bear warrior build for you.

[Akroma666]

You try to use every possible thread to ask for more bear warrior buffs. Especially when concerning the barbarian class - which you characterize stupid good, not realizing what you comparing ( a PRC VS a Base class ).

Let me fix it for you. Barbarian20/BearWarrior10. Here is a stupid good bear warrior build for you.

First off, excuse you, that was not my intention mrm3ntalist. I've said my peace and so have other bear warrior players. I was just giving him suggestions for proper builds to as OP asked.

I would highly advise against BWarrior 10 with Barb. I'd stick to a martial class that does not polymorph. Again, I've stated why above. You will have plenty of tank and the DR will kill you. Shadow dragon takes about 3-4 rages with extended rage IV and over 200+ seconds of bear rage. You probably won't die.. but it will be a very long boring fight.

If you can get say weapon master or a fighter for more DR in epic levels I would suggest that. Get some expose weakness in epics.

[aaron22]

What is your desire for good loot?

If you want alts and the ability to dress them. Do you just want your main yo be decked out? You want the security that comes with millions of coin on your main and only toon.. Do you want a huge stockpile of gold and items?

I would say there are different ways to get to where you want.

I Have a method that works for me. It supplies good items to my many alts and keeps me entertained.

[Lanzlo]

Howdy!

I used to be a loot runner like you.

Then you took an arrow to the knee?

Sorry, been playing a bunch of Skyrim lately.

OK, not that sorry.

[electric mayhem]

Mathematically speaking.

Chests/Hr > BossDrops/Hr

Traits that would suit this style.
Fast Movement, High Str, Decent AB, Decent AC, High DMG, Heal Kit user.

Be courteous and check for activity in lower level dungeons prior to looting. And loot quickly if you can to avoid having someone else step into the dungeon.

[XyrisMourn]

Hey Metaquad, it's been a while since I played actively, but you may recall that my brother and I acquired quite the stash pretty quickly, and perhaps through lucky RND some nice epic items.

The best loot runners we created were STR focused Bards. You get high strength to carry all you find, including store sold items which do add up in terms of currency. You have fast movement with Haste up almost permanently. You can ID everything immediately, so no carrying rubbish if your carry limit is close, and can prioritise after breaching carry limit (tough with 30 STR). The Requiem heal/dam combo is great against bosses, and you do great damage on top. Plus you are highly defensively survivable.

Lastly, and critically important, a bard lends itself to such a wide variety of RP that you can easily find some RP fun on your travels and never really face tricky group RP if you stumble on another looter. Everyone loves the bard buffs!!

To make good coin, just sell everything you find (high STR) using Karonds guide for store vs. auction. Personally, I tended to store sell most everything under rare +3 or +4 stuff.

As noted above, a loot run is really a chest run, not a boss run. Open locks 60 will suffice for most all, including the Pirate lair and the wizards tower. Our run took 2-3 hours and included Frost King and Serpent Queen, and most all major lairs in between.

There are lots of good solo classes, but the key is high STR, fast movement, high Lore to prioritise, and patience to see you through a repetitive 2-3 hour loot run

[Ithilan]

Hey Metaquad, it's been a while since I played actively, but you may recall that my brother and I acquired quite the stash pretty quickly, and perhaps through lucky RND some nice epic items.

The best loot runners we created were STR focused Bards. You get high strength to carry all you find, including store sold items which do add up in terms of currency. You have fast movement with Haste up almost permanently. You can ID everything immediately, so no carrying rubbish if your carry limit is close, and can prioritise after breaching carry limit (tough with 30 STR). The Requiem heal/dam combo is great against bosses, and you do great damage on top. Plus you are highly defensively survivable.

Lastly, and critically important, a bard lends itself to such a wide variety of RP that you can easily find some RP fun on your travels and never really face tricky group RP if you stumble on another looter. Everyone loves the bard buffs!!

To make good coin, just sell everything you find (high STR) using Karonds guide for store vs. auction. Personally, I tended to store sell most everything under rare +3 or +4 stuff.

As noted above, a loot run is really a chest run, not a boss run. Open locks 60 will suffice for most all, including the Pirate lair and the wizards tower. Our run took 2-3 hours and included Frost King and Serpent Queen, and most all major lairs in between.

There are lots of good solo classes, but the key is high STR, fast movement, high Lore to prioritise, and patience to see you through a repetitive 2-3 hour loot run

This...

Bard.

Quantity of chests.

High strength.

Sell trash in Beregost.

Win win.

From personal experience over 10 years of loot running here nearly, Durlags tower has the most lootable points of interest in the module. In my setup I have 8 extended hastes per rest and can run through this place in a matter of 20 minutes roughly, not ignoring trash mind you. The reason for the extensive amount of level 4 spells is Dimension Door, this will allow you to optimize the run a bit, poke me if you want tips.

Nashkel mines is probably a good shout out too, since you have two bosses in very close proximity and probably the two easiest in the module as well. But the real key word is quantity, not quality. So one of the best things you can do besides hugging as many chests as possible, is killing as much stuff as possible, namely yellow tagged mobs as well.

The best items ive found on the server were not tagged as "Epic" items from the loot table, but random generated stuff with Tymora's love. In a few days I hauled back 4 pair of +4 boots, a bunch of interesting Cold Iron weapons, staves and rings from the cave in the troll claws. To my knowledge it is the only place with a regular yellow spawn (besides lower serpent hills) and has a very favorable layout for doing rounds too. This is an undervalued gold mine right now, since you have the random bonus spawns of yellow and eventually the purple spawn as well. You can fill up two inventory pages in no time there, granted a lot of it is candelsticks and bullets, but there is an odd artifact in the mix too.

Looting will never ever get you as good stuff as trading though. Or attending the right DM events apparently.

Peace