Why'd ZOS radically reduce drop rate for Cold Fire Ballista's?

UnabashedlyHonest · May 2023

Anyone else notice that the drop rate for cold fire ballistas has been radically reduced? I've opened almost 300 pelinial reward boxes now, and only 2 cold fire ballistas dropped.

What's going on with this super low drop rate? I don't see them dropping on dolmens anymore either, but I don't do dolmens all that much anymore either.

Jusey1 · May 2023

Probably because most players consider it to be junk and annoying to get.

UnabashedlyHonest · May 2023

Jusey1 wrote: »

Probably because most players consider it to be junk and annoying to get.

You must not PvP much if at all.

Cold fire ballistas are the strongest siege in game right now. If you look at trade stores now days it's hard to find one selling for less than 50k when two years ago they were only 2-5k and readily available.

ArchMikem · May 2023

Cold Fire are the best siege weapons in PvP next to Lancers. The damage dealt is huge. Players have to panic heal from the Ballista and it's usually a death sentence for me if I get caught in a Trebuchet hit.

Quackery · May 2023

Jusey1 wrote: »

Probably because most players consider it to be junk and annoying to get.

Oh, the amount of people I've slaughtered with my Cold Fire siege...

Dr_Con · May 2023

UnabashedlyHonest wrote: »

Jusey1 wrote: »

Probably because most players consider it to be junk and annoying to get.

You must not PvP much if at all.

Cold fire ballistas are the strongest siege in game right now. If you look at trade stores now days it's hard to find one selling for less than 50k when two years ago they were only 2-5k and readily available.

and I thought selling all my coldfire off before the event for 25k was a smart move.

Thecompton73 · May 2023

UnabashedlyHonest wrote: »

Jusey1 wrote: »

Probably because most players consider it to be junk and annoying to get.

You must not PvP much if at all.

Cold fire ballistas are the strongest siege in game right now. If you look at trade stores now days it's hard to find one selling for less than 50k when two years ago they were only 2-5k and readily available.

I'm on PCNA and shortly before the event I made a new setup wearing Elf Bane so I wanted to get some coldfire trebs/ballista's but much to my surprise after looking at every single major trade location I couldn't find a single AD faction CF siege for sale. There were a few EP and a somewhat decent amount of DC CF's for sale but as stated they used to be cheap and plentiful no matter the faction.

markulrich1966 · May 2023

I'm glad they drop rarely now.
Gameplay is far more dynamic, as groups actually take keeps at first or second try, unlike in the years before, where they were melted by coldfire.

The map this times looks quite different (xbox NA) every half hours, in contrast to last time, where it looked almost the same even after 1 hour.

CGPsaint · May 2023

I've gotten plenty of Cold Fire Ballista and Trebuchet from this event. I've gotten so much siege in fact that I've had to stop opening my mail because I don't know what to do with them now.

SaffronCitrusflower · May 2023

CGPsaint wrote: »

I've gotten plenty of Cold Fire Ballista and Trebuchet from this event. I've gotten so much siege in fact that I've had to stop opening my mail because I don't know what to do with them now.

As pointed out above, you can sell those ballistas in guild stores for 50k+ gold, so you do know what to do with them now. It seems you have the benefit of a drop rate that is not reflective of anyone elses.

katanagirl1 · May 2023

Last year I got significantly fewer Cold Fire siege than previous years, same this year.

chessalavakia_ESO · May 2023

SaffronCitrusflower wrote: »

CGPsaint wrote: »

I've gotten plenty of Cold Fire Ballista and Trebuchet from this event. I've gotten so much siege in fact that I've had to stop opening my mail because I don't know what to do with them now.

As pointed out above, you can sell those ballistas in guild stores for 50k+ gold, so you do know what to do with them now. It seems you have the benefit of a drop rate that is not reflective of anyone elses.

Well, I listed the 13 ballistas I got so far a hour or two ago for around 20k each so we'll see how fast/if they sell. I didn't bother listing the Trebs because the price people were selling them for was low enough it's not worth the slots.

ZOS_Hadeostry · May 2023

Greetings,

After further review we have decided to move this thread to a category we think is more appropriate for this topic, as it deals with Cold Fire Ballistas.

Thank you for your understanding

Jamie_Aubrey · May 2023

I have 20 of each, so I'm set for the next few months, just got to be lucky

geonsocal · May 2023

also, with the crazy nerf to dolmens - not much opportunity to get one from there...

Necrotech_Master · May 2023

i probably got close to a dozen coldfire ballista, ended up using them all

also got a bunch of coldstone and coldfire trebs (ran through all of the coldfire trebs, but still have some coldstone trebs left because they are the least useful coldharbour siege)

my biggest inventory clogger right now is all of those uncracked transmute geodes (i have almost 50 of them after the event, couldnt open them cause i was already capped on transmutes lol)

acastanza_ESO · May 2023

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

i probably got close to a dozen coldfire ballista, ended up using them all

also got a bunch of coldstone and coldfire trebs (ran through all of the coldfire trebs, but still have some coldstone trebs left because they are the least useful coldharbour siege)

my biggest inventory clogger right now is all of those uncracked transmute geodes (i have almost 50 of them after the event, couldnt open them cause i was already capped on transmutes lol)

Reconstruct something that only costs you 25 transmutes to make (NOT a mythic), and then you can bank them. When you need the transmutes back just deconstruct the thing you made and you get them back! (Anything that cost more than 25 to make will only give 25 back, and mythics can't be deconstructed). But since the geodes typically give 5ish, you can easily compact them that way!

Necrotech_Master · May 2023

acastanza_ESO wrote: »

Necrotech_Master wrote: »

i probably got close to a dozen coldfire ballista, ended up using them all

also got a bunch of coldstone and coldfire trebs (ran through all of the coldfire trebs, but still have some coldstone trebs left because they are the least useful coldharbour siege)

my biggest inventory clogger right now is all of those uncracked transmute geodes (i have almost 50 of them after the event, couldnt open them cause i was already capped on transmutes lol)

Reconstruct something that only costs you 25 transmutes to make (NOT a mythic), and then you can bank them. When you need the transmutes back just deconstruct the thing you made and you get them back! (Anything that cost more than 25 to make will only give 25 back, and mythics can't be deconstructed). But since the geodes typically give 5ish, you can easily compact them that way!

yeah i know, i just didnt have time during the event cause i spent all of my game time in cyro (managed to push from rank 45 to 438k left to hit rank 49 lol)

i have some toons that i need to update gear on (and future gear for the arcanist lol)

YandereGirlfriend · May 2023

Siege is currently radically over-tuned so it is no surprise that the apex siege weapons are currently in short supply. However, we have another MYM in just under a month so you haven't missed your chance completely on snagging some. The best way is definitely to just PvP a lot during the event and max-out your Pelinal's boxes.

Thecompton73 wrote: »

UnabashedlyHonest wrote: »

Jusey1 wrote: »

Probably because most players consider it to be junk and annoying to get.

You must not PvP much if at all.

Cold fire ballistas are the strongest siege in game right now. If you look at trade stores now days it's hard to find one selling for less than 50k when two years ago they were only 2-5k and readily available.

I'm on PCNA and shortly before the event I made a new setup wearing Elf Bane so I wanted to get some coldfire trebs/ballista's but much to my surprise after looking at every single major trade location I couldn't find a single AD faction CF siege for sale. There were a few EP and a somewhat decent amount of DC CF's for sale but as stated they used to be cheap and plentiful no matter the faction.

I had to chuckle when I read this because it is an awesome little anecdote for at least what my own subjective experience is like playing in PC-NA Blackreach: EP likes siege, AD LOVES siege, and DC just can't be bothered to siege at all (and I play on DC).

Necrotech_Master · May 2023

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

Siege is currently radically over-tuned so it is no surprise that the apex siege weapons are currently in short supply. However, we have another MYM in just under a month so you haven't missed your chance completely on snagging some. The best way is definitely to just PvP a lot during the event and max-out your Pelinal's boxes.

Thecompton73 wrote: »

UnabashedlyHonest wrote: »

Jusey1 wrote: »

Probably because most players consider it to be junk and annoying to get.

You must not PvP much if at all.

Cold fire ballistas are the strongest siege in game right now. If you look at trade stores now days it's hard to find one selling for less than 50k when two years ago they were only 2-5k and readily available.

I'm on PCNA and shortly before the event I made a new setup wearing Elf Bane so I wanted to get some coldfire trebs/ballista's but much to my surprise after looking at every single major trade location I couldn't find a single AD faction CF siege for sale. There were a few EP and a somewhat decent amount of DC CF's for sale but as stated they used to be cheap and plentiful no matter the faction.

I had to chuckle when I read this because it is an awesome little anecdote for at least what my own subjective experience is like playing in PC-NA Blackreach: EP likes siege, AD LOVES siege, and DC just can't be bothered to siege at all (and I play on DC).

when im actually in cyro, i actually see a lot of people complaining that AD doesnt siege (and i only have AD characters lol)

theres always those loud people in zone chat sometimes, as well as different people playing different times of the day lol

CGPsaint · May 2023

SaffronCitrusflower wrote: »

CGPsaint wrote: »

I've gotten plenty of Cold Fire Ballista and Trebuchet from this event. I've gotten so much siege in fact that I've had to stop opening my mail because I don't know what to do with them now.

As pointed out above, you can sell those ballistas in guild stores for 50k+ gold, so you do know what to do with them now. It seems you have the benefit of a drop rate that is not reflective of anyone elses.

I'm on Xbox/NA so 50K per isn't going to fly here. I'm seeing Cold Fire Ballistas selling for 5K-10K tops, and have even managed to snag quite a few around 1K each. As far as drop rate is concerned, how many event coffers did you open? I opened somewhere north of 1900 coffers and made out like a bandit!

SaffronCitrusflower · May 2023

CGPsaint wrote: »

SaffronCitrusflower wrote: »

CGPsaint wrote: »

I've gotten plenty of Cold Fire Ballista and Trebuchet from this event. I've gotten so much siege in fact that I've had to stop opening my mail because I don't know what to do with them now.

As pointed out above, you can sell those ballistas in guild stores for 50k+ gold, so you do know what to do with them now. It seems you have the benefit of a drop rate that is not reflective of anyone elses.

I'm on Xbox/NA so 50K per isn't going to fly here. I'm seeing Cold Fire Ballistas selling for 5K-10K tops, and have even managed to snag quite a few around 1K each. As far as drop rate is concerned, how many event coffers did you open? I opened somewhere north of 1900 coffers and made out like a bandit!

You're claiming you generated over 38 million AP in 12 days. That is more than triple what anyone managed to generate in the same time frame on PC NA.

RealLoveBVB · May 2023

SaffronCitrusflower wrote: »

CGPsaint wrote: »

SaffronCitrusflower wrote: »

CGPsaint wrote: »

I've gotten plenty of Cold Fire Ballista and Trebuchet from this event. I've gotten so much siege in fact that I've had to stop opening my mail because I don't know what to do with them now.

As pointed out above, you can sell those ballistas in guild stores for 50k+ gold, so you do know what to do with them now. It seems you have the benefit of a drop rate that is not reflective of anyone elses.

I'm on Xbox/NA so 50K per isn't going to fly here. I'm seeing Cold Fire Ballistas selling for 5K-10K tops, and have even managed to snag quite a few around 1K each. As far as drop rate is concerned, how many event coffers did you open? I opened somewhere north of 1900 coffers and made out like a bandit!

You're claiming you generated over 38 million AP in 12 days. That is more than triple what anyone managed to generate in the same time frame on PC NA.

30 mio+ is simple, if you catch lowpop/lowscore on the event.

SaffronCitrusflower · May 2023

RealLoveBVB wrote: »

SaffronCitrusflower wrote: »

CGPsaint wrote: »

SaffronCitrusflower wrote: »

CGPsaint wrote: »

I've gotten plenty of Cold Fire Ballista and Trebuchet from this event. I've gotten so much siege in fact that I've had to stop opening my mail because I don't know what to do with them now.

As pointed out above, you can sell those ballistas in guild stores for 50k+ gold, so you do know what to do with them now. It seems you have the benefit of a drop rate that is not reflective of anyone elses.

I'm on Xbox/NA so 50K per isn't going to fly here. I'm seeing Cold Fire Ballistas selling for 5K-10K tops, and have even managed to snag quite a few around 1K each. As far as drop rate is concerned, how many event coffers did you open? I opened somewhere north of 1900 coffers and made out like a bandit!

You're claiming you generated over 38 million AP in 12 days. That is more than triple what anyone managed to generate in the same time frame on PC NA.

30 mio+ is simple, if you catch lowpop/lowscore on the event.

So you're saying his faction had low pop bonus the entire 12 days of the event, or at least nearly the entire time? On PC NA all three factions were pop locked the entire MYM event, or at least very nearly so. No faction got low pop bonus during the event as far as I know on PC NA.

Things can't be that much different on Xbox and PC servers.

TybaltKaine · May 2023

Tell me you've never played Xbox PVP without telling me you've never played Xbox PVP. Even during events it's a dead zone. So yeah, low pop bonuses for all 12 days is entirely possible.

Also, there were many days when I was gettin low pop bonuses on PC NA. Saying they were all pop locked all the time is just false.

SaffronCitrusflower · May 2023

TybaltKaine wrote: »

Tell me you've never played Xbox PVP without telling me you've never played Xbox PVP. Even during events it's a dead zone. So yeah, low pop bonuses for all 12 days is entirely possible.

Also, there were many days when I was gettin low pop bonuses on PC NA. Saying they were all pop locked all the time is just false.

Not if you were playing in Greyhost you were not getting low pop bonus on PC NA for more than a few hours over the entire event.

CGPsaint · May 2023

SaffronCitrusflower wrote: »

CGPsaint wrote: »

SaffronCitrusflower wrote: »

CGPsaint wrote: »

I've gotten plenty of Cold Fire Ballista and Trebuchet from this event. I've gotten so much siege in fact that I've had to stop opening my mail because I don't know what to do with them now.

As pointed out above, you can sell those ballistas in guild stores for 50k+ gold, so you do know what to do with them now. It seems you have the benefit of a drop rate that is not reflective of anyone elses.

I'm on Xbox/NA so 50K per isn't going to fly here. I'm seeing Cold Fire Ballistas selling for 5K-10K tops, and have even managed to snag quite a few around 1K each. As far as drop rate is concerned, how many event coffers did you open? I opened somewhere north of 1900 coffers and made out like a bandit!

You're claiming you generated over 38 million AP in 12 days. That is more than triple what anyone managed to generate in the same time frame on PC NA.

Yellow got pounded for the entire event, so the "you suck" bonus gave 4x AP. I pretty much fought red/blue ball groups non-stop for the entire event, perfecting my timing for negating bombing runs! I was part of several attempts to Emp yellow that got crushed over and over again by red Emp. Good times.

pedrogonzalez · May 2023

Short story of cold fire trebuchet.
50 Ad sieging outer door of the keep. 20dc inside. I placed 2 cold fire trebuchets and we just fired it safely about 6 minutes straight to gates, where ad tries to get in, melted down 150-170 ppl, because every trebuchet hit for ~25k. If 2 hits same second it’s instant death.
Things like this shouldn’t be so strong.

geonsocal · May 2023

great story...good example of why if you siege a well defended keep it's important to have multiple entries in to the keep...

YandereGirlfriend · June 2023

geonsocal wrote: »

great story...good example of why if you siege a well defended keep it's important to have multiple entries in to the keep...

It's a good example of why they need to nerf siege.

Necrotech_Master · June 2023

YandereGirlfriend wrote: »

geonsocal wrote: »

great story...good example of why if you siege a well defended keep it's important to have multiple entries in to the keep...

It's a good example of why they need to nerf siege.

most siege generally needs a buff, the only siege i would even consider powerful enough to even have an impact would be coldfire ballista and trebs

oils are good but are more situational where they can be used, meatbags or scattershots by themselves? fairly ignorable, they are only good when paired with other siege or stacked like 4-5 times

edit: it also doesnt help either that most players are so freaking tanky that you need siege to help take them down, in my opinion if you need 2-4 players + siege hitting a group of people to even have a chance of killing them, in most cases i found it more effective to set up any siege and provide support to allies fighting than to actually go into the fray myself (unless it moved too far from a keep)