Farm those Plunder Skulls!

andryuhav · October 2016

This may be known, but i would like tho share this information once again for those poor souls who camp delves for hours.
Hear me out, the good\bad\cute\spooky creatures of Tamriel - use normal Maelstrom Arena to farm your plunder skulls!
It takes 20+ minutes to run all 9 stages on a low level character, granting you a few levels and 9 (NINE!) plunder skulls.

bedlom · October 2016

Yep and group dungeons are also a good way to farm those skulls.

Coatmagic · October 2016

Got all the stuffs on my main yesterday, nps. Now I've got 3 vet alts, and 6 bebbies that actually need the delve and dolmen disco/completion. So going to have some fun today with the extra folks around

forgottengd · October 2016

andryuhav wrote: »

It takes 20+ minutes to run all 9 stages on a low level character, granting you a few levels and 9 (NINE!) plunder skulls.

Some info for you (and others): Skull drops every 3 min. So full run Maelstrom arena must takes about 33 min.
And yes, it's better way to get Skulls

Vipstaakki · October 2016

I prefer farming Garlas Agea in Gold coast over Maelstrom.

andryuhav · October 2016

forgottengd wrote: »

andryuhav wrote: »

It takes 20+ minutes to run all 9 stages on a low level character, granting you a few levels and 9 (NINE!) plunder skulls.

Some info for you (and others): Skull drops every 3 min. So full run Maelstrom arena must takes about 33 min.
And yes, it's better way to get Skulls

I am not sure that there is a time limitation on skull drops in MA. You get a 100% drop from the chest, and chest spawns as soon as you finish the stage.

altemriel · October 2016

bedlom wrote: »

Yep and group dungeons are also a good way to farm those skulls.

I suppose also skyshard delves are ok for that

forgottengd · October 2016

andryuhav wrote: »

I am not sure that there is a time limitation on skull drops in MA. You get a 100% drop from the chest, and chest spawns as soon as you finish the stage.

Tested it yestarday. It's obviously. When you join in normal wayrest and just got down 3 bosses in 2 min, you get 1 Skull only, from first. But 3 min after kill first, and you get Skull again. Same tested in MA. Just try to beat round less than 3 min.

BigBragg · October 2016

Farming in zone for them is nice when you are also looking for set pieces.

Wolfhammer · October 2016

Do skulls go in your bags?

Camped a Dolmen in skelly form last night for 10 or 12 spawns and got no skulls as far as I could tell..

Got a sack load of *** green Skalc rings though lol

ValkynSketha · October 2016

There is 3min cooldown on skull loot you shouldn't do it in only 20min if you want full benefits, for me faster way is solo nCOH I then nGrotto I and so on, also i put 3min timer after each boss.

Suter1972 · October 2016

Wolfhammer wrote: »

Do skulls go in your bags?

Camped a Dolmen in skelly form last night for 10 or 12 spawns and got no skulls as far as I could tell..

Got a sack load of *** green Skalc rings though lol

They work pretty much like craft writ crates in your supplies/consumables.

The skull will be listed as a purple item on the boss loot.

You then open it and take the goodies. You could stack them I suppose to open later

Mojmir · October 2016

I'd rather do group dungeons,I also get sets pc I need

Ghettokid · October 2016

If I start normal maelstrom it wont reset my veteran progress, right? Cause if not then i will start farming there

RoyalPink06 · October 2016

Ghettokid wrote: »

If I start normal maelstrom it wont reset my veteran progress, right? Cause if not then i will start farming there

@Ghettokid I had the same concern, but if you change your group difficulty setting to normal before you port into the arena, there should be another quest marker to pick up there. You should be able to have the vet and normal quests in progress at the same time. At least it worked for me.

Ghettokid · October 2016

RoyalPink06 wrote: »

Ghettokid wrote: »

If I start normal maelstrom it wont reset my veteran progress, right? Cause if not then i will start farming there

@Ghettokid I had the same concern, but if you change your group difficulty setting to normal before you port into the arena, there should be another quest marker to pick up there. You should be able to have the vet and normal quests in progress at the same time. At least it worked for me.

@RoyalPink06 ok thanks for answer!

Threemoons · October 2016

Good hints all, please keep em coming...

GDOFWR420 · October 2016

Yea maelstrom is by far the best place for skulls not to mention the xp you will get in the process.

Mettaricana · October 2016

andryuhav wrote: »

forgottengd wrote: »

andryuhav wrote: »

It takes 20+ minutes to run all 9 stages on a low level character, granting you a few levels and 9 (NINE!) plunder skulls.

Some info for you (and others): Skull drops every 3 min. So full run Maelstrom arena must takes about 33 min.
And yes, it's better way to get Skulls

I am not sure that there is a time limitation on skull drops in MA. You get a 100% drop from the chest, and chest spawns as soon as you finish the stage.

It takes about 3 mins a round anyway even if doing good them portals have a bit of a delay

Rohaus · October 2016

What do you get from these skulls??

Asardes · October 2016

Skulls contain style material for the Hollowjack style called amber marbles, and either a recipe or a Hollowjack motif page. Rarely they contain one of the 2 masks, a skeleton one and a pumpkin scarecrow one.

Rohaus · October 2016

What about the new recipes for food and drink? Do you get those from the skulls as well?

Junipus · October 2016

Normal Maelstrom means you get it faster if you're familar with the vet version or can nuke the normal version.
Group dungeons mean you get the other set items in game and a mask if you're doing any variation that gives you one, but requires you to have 3 other willing participants.
Group delves allow you to gain one every 5 minutes or so from the group/end boss but can be trickier for some.
Dolmens allow you to gain one every 5 minutes but can get repetitive and boring since they tend to be done in 60 seconds and you don't always get chance to do damage if there's too many players.
Solo delves allow you to gain one every 5 minutes from the delve boss but can be even more repetitive and difficult if they're busy.

However, given that the event is going on for another 3 weeks or so there's plenty of time to gather them at the rate they're currently dropping, or to buy them from vendors at cheap prices once the market becomes saturated with them. This also includes the masks which can be traded or sold.

Iselin · October 2016

forgottengd wrote: »

andryuhav wrote: »

It takes 20+ minutes to run all 9 stages on a low level character, granting you a few levels and 9 (NINE!) plunder skulls.

Some info for you (and others): Skull drops every 3 min. So full run Maelstrom arena must takes about 33 min.
And yes, it's better way to get Skulls

Someone quick make a skull timer addon

Uriel_Nocturne · October 2016

I've just been farming the Delves. That's been paying off pretty well for me.

In Garlas Agea (Gold Coast Delve) and Shark's Tooth Grotto (Hew's Bane Delve), I was getting a skull every other Boss kill. I received four pages for the Hollowjack Motif in the two hours I farmed those two Delves last night, a Green Witch-themed Recipe, two or three Blue Withc-themed recipies, the Purple Witch-themed recipe, and the Gold Witch-themed recipe. I also got a "package" that had the Gold Scarecrow Mask in it (which was pretty damn cool... lol).

I've got over twenty Amber Marble in those two hours, so by some simple math, I will have more than enough Style Mats by the time the festival is done.

Weird thing though; when I first started after finishing the Festival Quest, I went and was farming the Bosses in the Public Dungeon in Deshaan. I had a good circuit going, and was killing the Dungeon Bosses and the Group Boss (that's in every Public Dungeon), but got zero Plunder Skulls.

I must have killed all of these Bosses eight or ten times each, but still got no Plunder Skulls... Now, my Main character is vastly overleveled for that area/Dungeon (it's the second area in the Pact zones, thus since I've completed Cadwell's Gold quite a while ago, my level and CP total is vastly overpowered for this area). This makes me wonder if the chance at a Skull increases/decreases depending on your level and the area that you're in? I even farmed some Dolmen in Deshaan, no Skulls. Same thing with the World Bosses.

So far, the only places I've reliably received Plunder Skulls is in Delves, and specifically in Delves that are close to or at my characters "level/CP total" (though at 478 CP, nothing is really "at" my level, but you know, the areas are more "challenging" in the DLC areas and Cadwell's Gold areas than my home Alliance areas).

So, for the next three weeks, I'll be farming various Delves, as that seems to be the only areas with a reliable shot at regular Plunder Skull drops.

Asardes · October 2016

@Uriel_Nocturne

If you are more than 5 levels above the mobs you are killing, you won't receive any XP or drops from them. You could be farming that for another week and still get 0 skulls. At first it seemed odd to hear you are over the level of the zone, then looked at the signature and saw you were on Xbox which has not been updated yet. If you want to get drops, go to Cadwell's Silver and Gold areas, DC and AD respectively. Bad Man's Hollow in Daggerfall is a pretty short one and you can farm there. Mobs are CP40 so they should die straight away.

Tonnopesce · October 2016

I probably farm like there is no tomorrow and leave all the extra motif Brooks in the bank, then in tree months sell them at 100k each page.

Tonnopesce · October 2016

Asardes wrote: »

@Uriel_Nocturne

If you are more than 5 levels above the mobs you are killing, you won't receive any XP or drops from them. You could be farming that for another week and still get 0 skulls. At first it seemed odd to hear you are over the level of the zone, then looked at the signature and saw you were on Xbox which has not been updated yet. If you want to get drops, go to Cadwell's Silver and Gold areas, DC and AD respectively. Bad Man's Hollow in Daggerfall is a pretty short one and you can farm there. Mobs are CP40 so they should die straight away.

One tamriel, mobs have no level.

Ilsabet · October 2016

Tonnopesce wrote: »

Asardes wrote: »

@Uriel_Nocturne

If you are more than 5 levels above the mobs you are killing, you won't receive any XP or drops from them. You could be farming that for another week and still get 0 skulls. At first it seemed odd to hear you are over the level of the zone, then looked at the signature and saw you were on Xbox which has not been updated yet. If you want to get drops, go to Cadwell's Silver and Gold areas, DC and AD respectively. Bad Man's Hollow in Daggerfall is a pretty short one and you can farm there. Mobs are CP40 so they should die straight away.

One tamriel, mobs have no level.

Console doesn't have One Tamriel yet.

Junipus · October 2016

Ilsabet wrote: »

Tonnopesce wrote: »

Asardes wrote: »

@Uriel_Nocturne

If you are more than 5 levels above the mobs you are killing, you won't receive any XP or drops from them. You could be farming that for another week and still get 0 skulls. At first it seemed odd to hear you are over the level of the zone, then looked at the signature and saw you were on Xbox which has not been updated yet. If you want to get drops, go to Cadwell's Silver and Gold areas, DC and AD respectively. Bad Man's Hollow in Daggerfall is a pretty short one and you can farm there. Mobs are CP40 so they should die straight away.

One tamriel, mobs have no level.

Console doesn't have One Tamriel yet.

Oooh so close....

Tonnopesce · October 2016

Ilsabet wrote: »

Tonnopesce wrote: »

Asardes wrote: »

@Uriel_Nocturne

If you are more than 5 levels above the mobs you are killing, you won't receive any XP or drops from them. You could be farming that for another week and still get 0 skulls. At first it seemed odd to hear you are over the level of the zone, then looked at the signature and saw you were on Xbox which has not been updated yet. If you want to get drops, go to Cadwell's Silver and Gold areas, DC and AD respectively. Bad Man's Hollow in Daggerfall is a pretty short one and you can farm there. Mobs are CP40 so they should die straight away.

One tamriel, mobs have no level.

Console doesn't have One Tamriel yet.

Really?

Poor paesants....