Why don't animals drop Rawhide/Hide/Leather... more often.

Kingcroft

I have found that the materials for crafting medium armor is by far the most difficult. I now save all my improving materials to improve my armor because you can't actually find enough of the stuff to keep your armor up to date. Every once and a while I will get lucky and get 3 drops in a row, but I can go out hunting and get very little in return, mean while I can make some good money just by getting selling sanded wood of one kind or another.

Natjur

I found it faster just to kill mobs in dungeons that drop leather armor and break that down. It levels up your trade skill and gives tons of parts. I never bothered farming leather. I still end up with stacks of it I have to sell just from 'recycling' medium armor drops.

Sihnfahl

Or go after mudcrabs. They seem to drop a slightly higher %.

Mortelus

Yep mudcrabs drop hides for me 80% of the time.

Jessabella

You used to be able to kill and then Harvest animals for leather, but that was way back in early beta. I guess they took that out when they changed crafting, but since med crafting mats are so much harder to find then heavy and light, maybe they should add the harvesting from dead mobs back in just for med mats.

Sihnfahl

Well, it was pointed out it would be easy to farm leather - exceedingly easy - from certain mob groups.

Kingcroft

On second though, after playing a little more in these other zones, I have been able to get enough materials for my crafting needs, it just takes a little longer than I would like, but that is ok really.

TicToc

I find that certain animals drop hides, or whatever, quite frequently. Occasionally they don't, but often.

Not always, of course, because sometimes you mangle the corpse too badly to get a workable piece to work with.

Mortelus

I famred for a number of hours the other night on a starter island, I collected 300+ jute, 300+ iron and only 100+ rawhide and even less enchanting stones.

Thing is, wolves need to drop rawhide 100% of the time I think. Or give us a skinning skill that allows us to skin any dead animal. The higher the level mob, the higher your skinning needs to be.

sociald100ub17_ESO

TicToc wrote: »

I find that certain animals drop hides, or whatever, quite frequently. Occasionally they don't, but often.

Not always, of course, because sometimes you mangle the corpse too badly to get a workable piece to work with.

I agree, wolves, mudcrabs, alligators, all drop quite frequently, alit, kagouti, sabertooths have a decent drop rate. those are the ones I can think of at the moment

Sarenia

I do feel the current medium armor material loot is not intuitive. By this, I mean that hide does not drop (often enough, if ever) from animals that have hide.

Mudcrabs dropping hide isn't even remotely sensible. They don't have hide. That's almost as weird as the greatsword I found on a mudcrab during beta - did it have a Bag of Holding hidden in it's mouth?

I guess there are supposedly patches of animals that drop hide regularly, but I haven't found any, and I've been slaughtering every Bambi, wolf, rabbit, and everything in between. There's always the option to farm mudcrabs for several hours, but personally I would rather watch paint dry.

Obviously it's entirely possible to stockpile hide, since people are doing it, but the trick seems to be finding a spawn with a high drop ratio. Because it's definitely not 'all' wolves, 'all' alligators, etc.

sociald100ub17_ESO

Sarenia wrote: »

Obviously it's entirely possible to stockpile hide, since people are doing it, but the trick seems to be finding a spawn with a high drop ratio. Because it's definitely not 'all' wolves, 'all' alligators, etc.

No its not all but those have high drop rates. I agree the hide thing for mudcrabs doesn't make much sense but they do drop them and quite often.

One thing I don't get is bears, you would think you would have pretty good odds of getting a hide from a bear but their drop rate is one of the lower ones I think.

nudel

Jessabella wrote: »

You used to be able to kill and then Harvest animals for leather, but that was way back in early beta. I guess they took that out when they changed crafting, but since med crafting mats are so much harder to find then heavy and light, maybe they should add the harvesting from dead mobs back in just for med mats.

Part of the problem with that system Jessabella was that it turned your 'drop' into a harvestable 'node'. And I think we all know the frustration of having a node taken from you at the last possible moment or when fighting the mobs positioned atop it. Under that system, anyone could harvest the animals you killed, leaving you with no raw mats for your kill as opposed to the current % chance to get them. As much as I liked the animation and immersion of harvesting it, I like the current system better for simplicity's sake.

SirLee

I want to be able to harvest "hide" off of any fleshy mob. So I can make a set of elf hide boots for my Argonian. Or, a Human hide coat for my Orc.

nudel

@SirLee‌ Yea....

There's already a lorebook detailing one character's similar pursuits.
Confessions of a Khajiiti Fur Trader
You'll have to live out your fantasies vicariously through him. There would be uproar in the community if that ability was actually added to the game.

Mortelus

nudel wrote: »

Jessabella wrote: »

You used to be able to kill and then Harvest animals for leather, but that was way back in early beta. I guess they took that out when they changed crafting, but since med crafting mats are so much harder to find then heavy and light, maybe they should add the harvesting from dead mobs back in just for med mats.

Part of the problem with that system Jessabella was that it turned your 'drop' into a harvestable 'node'. And I think we all know the frustration of having a node taken from you at the last possible moment or when fighting the mobs positioned atop it. Under that system, anyone could harvest the animals you killed, leaving you with no raw mats for your kill as opposed to the current % chance to get them. As much as I liked the animation and immersion of harvesting it, I like the current system better for simplicity's sake.

I would prefer they put this system back in, but made it so first player who tagged mob gets to skin it.

If the player leaves it and doesn't skin it, after a few minutes it becomes free game to anyone.

nudel

No I don't like the idea of tagging calling dibs on loot. That's one thing ESO does very well. People jump in on fights rather than watching someone die because there is no downside to it. You can't kill steal and you do get drops and xp from helping even if it wasn't your kill. Adding a 'first tag gets loot only' system would inhibit much of this. People will just watch you die so that they can tag the mob afterward. Not that many people die to mudcrabs or wolves...but you get the point.

The current system works. If that other system or the system you suggest were in place, there would have been dozens of threads on launch day bemoaning the kill stealing, leather harvester griefing players in the game. The way it is now just takes a bit of knowledge to figure out what mobs drop your mats.

Could be worse. At least you don't find only 'Crawlers' or 'Worms' as your Wolf drops

Mortelus

nudel wrote: »

No I don't like the idea of tagging calling dibs on loot. That's one thing ESO does very well. People jump in on fights rather than watching someone die because there is no downside to it. You can't kill steal and you do get drops and xp from helping even if it wasn't your kill. Adding a 'first tag gets loot only' system would inhibit much of this. People will just watch you die so that they can tag the mob afterward. Not that many people die to mudcrabs or wolves...but you get the point.

The current system works. If that other system or the system you suggest were in place, there would have been dozens of threads on launch day bemoaning the kill stealing, leather harvester griefing players in the game. The way it is now just takes a bit of knowledge to figure out what mobs drop your mats.

Could be worse. At least you don't find only 'Crawlers' or 'Worms' as your Wolf drops

Valid point, didn't think about it from that angle. Then they need to up the drop rates, because to spend hours farming, and get 3 times as many mats for other professions than you do for hide is silly.

Moreover Blacksmiths and heavy armour users have it easy because they only need to level 1 profession. As a bow wielding leather wearer I need to level two different ones' and three if I want to use a 2nd weapon DW at level 15.

nudel

I wouldn't mind them increasing drop rates.

Blacksmiths and heavy armor users only have it easy with a tiny amount of possible builds. If they plan to tank, they will probably be in need of a Woodworker's services since Sword and Shield has the only taunt in the game. Most people who DW will probably wear medium or light armor and so will need both professions. Most people who use a one-handed weapon and aren't dual-wielding will want a shield. So really the only heavy armor users you're left with who could possibly not need another profession are those who use two-handers. And even those are likely to have a bow or destro/resto staff as their weapon swap. I think ZOS did a good job making sure the professions need eachother across all builds.

eNumbra

sociald100ub17_ESO wrote: »

I agree, wolves, mudcrabs, alligators, all drop quite frequently, alit, kagouti, sabertooths have a decent drop rate. those are the ones I can think of at the moment

I've found wolves to be pretty hit or miss(the nature of RNG I suppose) and have gone streaks of killing as many as 10 in a row without them dropping anything.


Mudcrabs seem to drop more often than not and are absurdly numerous in the zones they're found in so they seem to be the easiest to farm.

My real concern on the leather drops issue is that there's no sense to be made of it in a couple of cases. I've killed V1 mudcrabs and gotten 2x Fell/Iron Hide scraps from them.

In Cyrodiil, I tracked down and killed 3 Mammoths
2 Foul Hides
1 Fell hide scrap
2 Elixers of Magicka.


You're telling me, Zenimax, that I pulled more usable leather material from 2 mudcrabs, than I did from 3 mammoths?