NIrncrux...Can't seem to get drops

Dzadzey

So, for the first time in a while, I had some vacation (actually staycation) time. SO, I decided to get me some nirncrux and scoured Craglorn. Three separate toons...ALL researched nirncrux...ALL 900+ champion points with high harvesting capabilities in crafting...ALL harvesting metal/fiber nodes and killing every welwa I saw...over multiple hours on multiple days. What I got was bupkis...zero...zip...zillch...NADA. So, what is up with this? I've search the web and found several guides and tutorials on finding nirncrux, and done everything I can think of to optimize my toons for harvesting. What am I doing wrong?

trackdemon5512

Nothing. Just RNG

Djennku

Did you find any fortified nirncrux? Are you wondering about both or just potent nirncrux? Fortified can be found any time, and I've seen it drop more from ore, wood, and jewelry nodes. If you're just asking about potent, it only drops after you've completed the main story of craglorn past the quest where you need to get into the nirncrux mine.

It's also not a super common drop, and you can go hours and not find any or happen across some unintentionally on the first node you pick up, as with any chance-based thing in the game.

Hopefully that clears things up for you, and good luck in your crux hunting!

Dzadzey

Thanks for the feed back it's much appreciated...but arbitrary mechanics like this are what frustrate me about this game. I really don't have the time, working 12 hour shifts, to spend endlessly cycling through Craglorn, or the gold to buy the ninrncrux I need to craft items for my toons.

dem0n1k

If you have transmute crystals, just transmute the weapons to nirnhoned.

Fennwitty

Seems like they lowered the rate? Normally I'd have gotten a few by now but also nothing.

Arunei

Djennku wrote: »

If you're just asking about potent, it only drops after you've completed the main story of craglorn past the quest where you need to get into the nirncrux mine.

O_o Is this a new thing? I've gotten plenty of Potents in the past and I'm 100% certain I haven't gotten anywhere near that far in Craglorn's MQ stuff, mostly because I rarely quest (haven't been big on questing for years).

To OP, yes, it's completely RNG based on whether you get a Nirncrux drop or not. It used to be only "Upper" Craglorn would drop them, but they changed it a while back so you can get them to drop from any Craglorn node. But like someone else mentioned, it also feels like they've lowered the drop rate on them. Then again, I also don't spend hours farming in Craglorn like I did a few years back, so take that with a grain of salt. They're still rare drops (with Potent being MUCH more rare than Fortified) though, and if you're unlucky with the RNG you could farm for hours without seeing a hint of either.

The nice thing is they can be doubled by Plentiful Harvest, or at least, they could be before the rework. I'm not sure if they still get doubled by it, but I don't see why they wouldn't be.

VaranisArano

Hey, it's not true that potent nirncrux only drops after you've completed the main quest. I've been getting potent nirncrux since I first went to Craglorn as a Vet 4 player back when it was a Vet 11 zone.

If I have time in the next couple of days, I'll try to farm in Craglorn to check, but I don't expect to find any problems.

Nirncrux has a chance to drop from any blacksmithing, clothing or woodworking node in Craglorn, with a 1 in 4 chance that it's potent nirncrux. This includes welwas and the Daggerback pigs. My recommendation, however, is simply volume of harvesting. The number I recall is a 1 in 200 chance, so your best bet to get lucky is simply to farm a lot. I find it easier to skip the mobs and just grab all the other mats I see.

If you do think something is wrong, it'll help a lot to track how many nodes you harvested. That way we have data, as opposed to just a feeling like you are unlucky or should have gotten one by now.

EvilAutoTech

The easiest way to build your nirncrux stash is to PVP. I get nirncrux at a 75% or better rate when I decon transmuted items. I'm currently at 968 banked crystals with 21 of the 50 crystal geodes stored on various characters. I have 43 potent and 26 fortified nirncrux.

oterWitz

Djennku wrote: »

If you're just asking about potent, it only drops after you've completed the main story of craglorn past the quest where you need to get into the nirncrux mine.

Also confirming that this is not true about potent drops. I'm guessing they got it mixed up with the fact that you receive an item with nirnhoned trait after doing the Craglorn quests.

As for advice to the OP, I would recommend doing daily crafting writs on all your characters in order to get a steady stream of gold with your limited play time. Depending how many characters you have, you can get enough gold for 1 potent nirncrux in about 30 minutes, but even if you only have one character it's just a matter of doing a few simple tasks whenever you log on. And in the meantime--don't sweat not having a nirnhoned item for your build too much, it's not going to be a massive dps loss while you save up for it.

rpa

RNG. I get potent nirncrux with any char, and I've done the zone quest with one or so. Very roughly 1 Potent for 4 Fortified. Some time I get no nirncrux of any flavor, other a fortified and another time potent and several fortified. I do relatively short runs and not reguarily but I've got enough for my nirncruxing needs.

Edit: Just did a ~15min run unlocking rest of Craglorn wayshrines and harvesting nodes in way with a char who has not done any questing on Craglorn, only a treasure chest or two. Got 1 potent, no fortified. Green CP in harvesting & tresure like on all of my chars. This char also has only clothing at 50 and writ ready, rest of are < 45 with no skill points in other than research and decon.

Alucardo

I just buy it now, or transmute. Before we had transmutation I spent 2 full days in Craglorn just to find one potent nirncrux. The most disheartening thing in the world is seeing "Nirncrux" in the loot log, then at further inspection it's "Fortified".

Old_Foggy

I mostly do ok at finding both fortified and potent .. some days are better than others though. I farm everything including the beasts (camels and daggerbacks) and although it's only happened maybe twice I have got potent from daggerbacks but that is super super rare compared to finding them in other nodes. The only nodes I have never got a Nirncrux from is the shroom type nodes like white cap etc. Also not often but had them drop from runestones.. but again they are far and few between.

VaranisArano

Because I couldn't sleep, I popped into Craglorn to double check.

Not even joking, my first node had fortified nirncrux in it.

I ran the rest of my loop and had 2 more nodes drop nirncrux. A loop takes me about an hour/hour 15 minutes for about 1000 ore, dust, wood, and silk mats. Since two of the nodes doubled with Plentiful Harvest, I ended with 5 fortified nirncrux.


Conclusion: looking back at my notes from the last time I tracked my Craglorn loop results, 3 nodes/5 fortified nirncrux looks pretty normal for me. In short, I'm sorry that the OP is unlucky, but I don't see any reason to think that ZOS altered the drop rate of nirncrux based on my results.

Sephyr

VaranisArano wrote: »

Because I couldn't sleep, I popped into Craglorn to double check.

Not even joking, my first node had fortified nirncrux in it.

I ran the rest of my loop and had 2 more nodes drop nirncrux. A loop takes me about an hour/hour 15 minutes for about 1000 ore, dust, wood, and silk mats. Since two of the nodes doubled with Plentiful Harvest, I ended with 5 fortified nirncrux.


Conclusion: looking back at my notes from the last time I tracked my Craglorn loop results, 3 nodes/5 fortified nirncrux looks pretty normal for me. In short, I'm sorry that the OP is unlucky, but I don't see any reason to think that ZOS altered the drop rate of nirncrux based on my results.

I've had similar results over the last year as well. But I also include fighting Welwa, Jackals, and anything else that'll drop leather as it'll rarely drop from them as well (probably more rare than finding it in the actual nodes). I really haven't seen any significant drop rate changes since before it was only found in Upper Craglorn. When they changed it zone wide, for a while it felt like the drop rate was a little higher at the time — but again, luck could've been on my side.

AgentZenish

Honestly, just easier to farm gold (by whatever means you like) and buy the nirn. You probably made enough just farming mats to buy the nirn.

DinoZavr

in my statistics you get armor Nirncrux once in 150..250 nodes farmed.
weapon Nincrux is 4x more rare than an armor one.
These figures had not varied much with updates, imho.

Diminish

Djennku wrote: »

If you're just asking about potent, it only drops after you've completed the main story of craglorn past the quest where you need to get into the nirncrux mine.!

This is false information. I recently switched from console to PC, and therefor have to regrind literally everything in the game, even trait researching. I planned to grind Spellscar so getting to Craglorn was my first objective right out of the gate. I got to Craglorn via a zone chat taxi to Wayrest followed by a wagon ride to Belkarth. To break up the tedious grind, I would take breaks and go unlock various wayshrines. I happened to grab a few potent nirncrux along the way. I have done absolutely 0 quests in Craglogn, and haven't even started the main storyline quest beyond the intro yet. Best bet to farm nirncrux is to harvest clothier, blacksmithing, and woodworking nodes. Crafting surveys in Craglorn will also help.

VaranisArano

Sephyr wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

Because I couldn't sleep, I popped into Craglorn to double check.

Not even joking, my first node had fortified nirncrux in it.

I ran the rest of my loop and had 2 more nodes drop nirncrux. A loop takes me about an hour/hour 15 minutes for about 1000 ore, dust, wood, and silk mats. Since two of the nodes doubled with Plentiful Harvest, I ended with 5 fortified nirncrux.


Conclusion: looking back at my notes from the last time I tracked my Craglorn loop results, 3 nodes/5 fortified nirncrux looks pretty normal for me. In short, I'm sorry that the OP is unlucky, but I don't see any reason to think that ZOS altered the drop rate of nirncrux based on my results.

I've had similar results over the last year as well. But I also include fighting Welwa, Jackals, and anything else that'll drop leather as it'll rarely drop from them as well (probably more rare than finding it in the actual nodes). I really haven't seen any significant drop rate changes since before it was only found in Upper Craglorn. When they changed it zone wide, for a while it felt like the drop rate was a little higher at the time — but again, luck could've been on my side.

I think leather-dropping animals have the same drop rate, but they are rarer than the other nodes so it feels rarer. Back when I regularly killed the Daggerbacks on my loop, I would occasionally get nirncrux from them.

Sephyr

VaranisArano wrote: »

Sephyr wrote: »

VaranisArano wrote: »

Because I couldn't sleep, I popped into Craglorn to double check.

Not even joking, my first node had fortified nirncrux in it.

I ran the rest of my loop and had 2 more nodes drop nirncrux. A loop takes me about an hour/hour 15 minutes for about 1000 ore, dust, wood, and silk mats. Since two of the nodes doubled with Plentiful Harvest, I ended with 5 fortified nirncrux.


Conclusion: looking back at my notes from the last time I tracked my Craglorn loop results, 3 nodes/5 fortified nirncrux looks pretty normal for me. In short, I'm sorry that the OP is unlucky, but I don't see any reason to think that ZOS altered the drop rate of nirncrux based on my results.

I've had similar results over the last year as well. But I also include fighting Welwa, Jackals, and anything else that'll drop leather as it'll rarely drop from them as well (probably more rare than finding it in the actual nodes). I really haven't seen any significant drop rate changes since before it was only found in Upper Craglorn. When they changed it zone wide, for a while it felt like the drop rate was a little higher at the time — but again, luck could've been on my side.

I think leather-dropping animals have the same drop rate, but they are rarer than the other nodes so it feels rarer. Back when I regularly killed the Daggerbacks on my loop, I would occasionally get nirncrux from them.

Yeah, that's a good point as well, considering node to mob density. I think the first time I realized I got one from a mob I nearly had a stroke because people told me it just wasn't possible. I'm sure I have the screenshot somewhere still, since I had to prove to a former GM that it was possible.