couriersix wrote: »

I have run normal Arx Corinium over 100 times in hopes of an inferno staff with absolutely no luck. With that said, I have a proposal to ease the pain and potentially increase the drop rate of the most sought after item from Arx- add a named set piece of the inferno staff to the final boss. Medusa can be essential in a number of end game PVE progression runs, so having it be more obtainable to reflect this would be fitting and a huge time saver on the community.

There is absolutely no conceivable reason that I can think of for the drop rate to be as brutal as it is. It's not even difficult to farm, just incredibly annoying and a much larger sink of time than I'm willing to do.

The problem with this is that meta weapons come and go all the time. ZOS would constantly need to be adding and removing named meta weapons for different bosses. I think veteran hardmode should drop a guaranteed weapon and a guaranteed jewel. Now it is like jewelry 50% of the time, so it essentially doubles the time it takes to get a weapon because half the time, final boss does not drop a weapon.

Also, some people are running non-meta builds, and they will still be in bad shape if only meta weapons have an increased drop chance. Especially since it is hard to even get a group for a dungeon with no meta weapons.

Making advanced and master chests have a guaranteed weapon would be nice, too.

goldenarcher1 wrote: »

Just wondering if all you Medusa inferno staff farmers know that there are 4 chests active in Arx Corinium every time you run it,instead of the usual 2 for some reason.

Thats 5 chances to get the staff with boss drop included.

Is this always the case? Because I just ran it, looking for the 4 chests and only found one. Pretty sure I checked out every corner...

I know its not meta, but you can still run the old 2 pieces of Medusa heavy armor with 3 jewelry and 3 pieces of Mother's Sorrow with the MS staff. Your damage will go down slightly, but its still a viable DPS build and it removes the Medusa "problem" of trying to get the inferno staff. And your become a little tankier against melee attacks.

Merforum wrote: »

WrathOfInnos wrote: »

I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Medusa on front bar staff always loses a lot of damage from back bar skills, and bar swapped projectiles. That being said, Medusa on armor jewelry is also in a pretty bad spot, and about to get worse with the upcoming Piercing nerf (1400 to 700, meaning you need to wear more Light Armor). I’d just skip the set entirely and replace it with the new mythic, Harpooner’s Wading Kilt (which also gives 10% crit damage, as a unique buff, and 5.7% crit chance) in a few weeks.

People will be wearing MS/medusa AND HW KILT, all 3 so will still have to get medusa weapon, since KILT is medium. Because crit is so overtuned that stacking it as much as possible is no-brainer.

If that build becomes meta then it would definitely use daggers, so OP still doesn’t need the inferno staff. I don’t think it’s a very good combination though, neither set works well on front bar (carries over to back, like Siroria, BSW, Spell Strat, Acuity, Architect, etc.). Crits still need damage behind them, and that build lacks Spell Damage and Minor Slayer. Minor Force is weaker than it has ever been, and even if you want it there are easier ways to get the buff. The death of Simmering Frenzy means everyone has bar space for Barbed Trap again (maybe even Guard on fights that don’t require cleave damage from the nerfed Orb), and the changes to synergies make Twilight Remedy a real option for groupwide Minor Force.

There are a lot of possibilities to play with, but I don’t see any of them pointing to Medusa Inferno being mandatory. It’s not terrible if you want to use it, but don’t kill yourself farming something that doesn’t even look great.

goldenarcher1 wrote: »

Just wondering if all you Medusa inferno staff farmers know that there are 4 chests active in Arx Corinium every time you run it,instead of the usual 2 for some reason.

Thats 5 chances to get the staff with boss drop included.

Yes, I gather from all chests. Still no luck.

As for the set not being 'required' - it can depend on the guild. I've seen required builds for certain trials and groups, especially in the end game PVE scene and a number of times, Medusa is a necessary set. The problem with using daggers over the inferno staff is also situational. For example, in vAS+2 you want to have all ranged characters- so a dagger wouldn't work, especially if you're stacking it with Mother's Sorrow.

On a second note, another thing ZOS could add that would affect all dungeons and farming efficiency is for each dungeon run to guarantee a new set drop on the final boss which you don't have in your sticker book yet. This would help with it's completion all together given the sheer amount of sets, and would help encourage items with low drop rates to eventually show up on top make farming significantly less tedious.

Amottica wrote: »

couriersix wrote: »

I have a proposal to ease the pain and potentially increase the drop rate of the most sought after item from Arx- add a named set piece of the inferno staff to the final boss.

As someone who is farming the same weapon, I am interested in what the proposal is. It seems to have been left out of the OP.

My suggestion was to add a named set piece of the inferno staff to the final boss, though I realize I may have misused the word proposal. Named set pieces tend to have a higher drop rate which would help alleviate grinding to an extent. My other suggestion in a separate reply would be for ZOS to guarantee a new stickerbook piece with each separate dungeon run on the final boss, which I believe would also help.

I've just got my Medusa inferno staff after some 30 runs While the RND is indeed infavourable for this one, I don't think it's the single rarest drop in Arx Corinium. Ok, I've got maybe 10 resto staves as well as 5 ice and lightning ones each, but I still haven't completely filled out my sticker books for the Medusa, Lamia and Undaunted Infiltrator sets. I still have 2 Medusa weapons missing in the collection.

Here are some tips I think can help everyone to make their farming efficient:

• Do it on veteran because on normal most chests are simple, which means that even with Treasure Hunter you may not get any set piece from them.
• You can do the dungeon solo, but ideally, try to run with people looking for other items than you (e.g. jewelry). Obviously, they are not easy to find but I myself ran several times with guildmates looking for the Medusa necklace which is also rare. Having a group also makes resetting the dungeon quicker.
• Focus on finding all chests - there is always 4 of them and soon you will learn all their possible spawn locations.
• Remember to have your Treasure Hunter perk slotted in the Craft CP tree. The Keen Eye: Treasure Chests passive from the Excavation skill line helps to spot the chests.
• Having the Locksmith passive from the Legerdemain skill line allows you to force loks quickly without playing the locpicking minigame every time.
• Avoid trash mob and optional boss fights which on solo vet can take a while - don't hesitate to just die strategically to make them stop following you. There are 2 bosses that can't be skipped: the big lizard and the lamia with a pet snake.
• When soloing on vet, you can skip the last boss because killing her takes a lot of time, almost as much as running the whole dungeon again and finding your 4 chests.
  

Good luck!

Reeb wrote: »

I've just got my Medusa inferno staff after some 30 runs While the RND is indeed infavourable for this one, I don't think it's the single rarest drop in Arx Corinium. Ok, I've got maybe 10 resto staves as well as 5 ice and lightning ones each, but I still haven't completely filled out my sticker books for the Medusa, Lamia and Undaunted Infiltrator sets. I still have 2 Medusa weapons missing in the collection.

Here are some tips I think can help everyone to make their farming efficient:

• Do it on veteran because on normal most chests are simple, which means that even with Treasure Hunter you may not get any set piece from them.
• You can do the dungeon solo, but ideally, try to run with people looking for other items than you (e.g. jewelry). Obviously, they are not easy to find but I myself ran several times with guildmates looking for the Medusa necklace which is also rare. Having a group also makes resetting the dungeon quicker.
• Focus on finding all chests - there is always 4 of them and soon you will learn all their possible spawn locations.
• Remember to have your Treasure Hunter perk slotted in the Craft CP tree. The Keen Eye: Treasure Chests passive from the Excavation skill line helps to spot the chests.
• Having the Locksmith passive from the Legerdemain skill line allows you to force loks quickly without playing the locpicking minigame every time.
• Avoid trash mob and optional boss fights which on solo vet can take a while - don't hesitate to just die strategically to make them stop following you. There are 2 bosses that can't be skipped: the big lizard and the lamia with a pet snake.
• When soloing on vet, you can skip the last boss because killing her takes a lot of time, almost as much as running the whole dungeon again and finding your 4 chests.
  

Good luck!

Thank you for this information. I do not know all the ins and outs of ESO since I am new.

Though I will point out someone noted trash can drop set gear and I have seen that. But the other points make sense.

Reeb wrote: »

Here are some tips I think can help everyone to make their farming efficient:

• Do it on veteran because on normal most chests are simple, which means that even with Treasure Hunter you may not get any set piece from them.
• You can do the dungeon solo, but ideally, try to run with people looking for other items than you (e.g. jewelry). Obviously, they are not easy to find but I myself ran several times with guildmates looking for the Medusa necklace which is also rare. Having a group also makes resetting the dungeon quicker.
• Focus on finding all chests - there is always 4 of them and soon you will learn all their possible spawn locations.
• Remember to have your Treasure Hunter perk slotted in the Craft CP tree. The Keen Eye: Treasure Chests passive from the Excavation skill line helps to spot the chests.
• Having the Locksmith passive from the Legerdemain skill line allows you to force loks quickly without playing the locpicking minigame every time.
• Avoid trash mob and optional boss fights which on solo vet can take a while - don't hesitate to just die strategically to make them stop following you. There are 2 bosses that can't be skipped: the big lizard and the lamia with a pet snake.
• When soloing on vet, you can skip the last boss because killing her takes a lot of time, almost as much as running the whole dungeon again and finding your 4 chests.

This post is worth like a hundred insightfuls. Is the rule of four chests applicable in every dungeon? If so, I can't believe I've gone years farming sets without realizing it or seeing it mentioned.

And for those talking about killing every mob because they have a chance to drop a set piece, I think the suggestion to skip them comes from a time/ease perspective. If you only chase chests, you are guaranteed four chances at the staff. If you take the time to kill the boss that's a fifth chance, but it's faster to skip when soloing on vet and just stick to runs that are twice as fast for four chances only. Killing all mobs also takes a longer time on vet, and comes with <1% chance per mob that you'll even get a chance at the staff. Unless I'm missing/forgetting something, it's far more efficient to farm by killing only necessary mobs to reach chests.