Brandstone crash sites need a HUGE overhaul, here's why

[Cragga the Eighty Third.60]

> @Kalix.1406 said:

 

> I'm currently playing on a macbook because my desktop is out of commission for god knows what reason (I need to start swapping parts out once I have the resources, everything works individually.) For whatever reason, when the game is too much for the computer to handle my framerate doesn't tank but rather things just take VERY long to eventually render. Maybe it's the mac client, or its what gw2 just does for potato computers, but this is where the problems come in.

 

It's the Mac client. Slowness is a huge issue for the 64-bit client. It helps if you have a solid state drive you can install it on. I've done that, but even so I get a lot of short freezes and slow, jerky movement, especially in environments where there are a lot of other players--like brandstone harvesting squads or metas.

 

Not to derail the thread, though. I finally learned how to harvest by googling, and then spent over an hour trying to get to a brandstone in time to harvest anything. Then I discovered I couldn't even sell the three rose quartzes I ended up with because Anet is trying to clamp down on the insane gold farm they created.

 

It would be much less frustrating if the amount you could mine was limited, instead of the tiny time limit.

 

[Zoltar MacRoth.7146]

Sounds like the scanner should tell you when one comes down, like the Ley Line stone tells you when an anomaly appears, if you have it in your inventory.

[Embered.5089]

I'm confused. I've had no problems finding a fallen brandstone. Usually it actually is marked on my map and minimap with a pink circle with a purple X in it. I didn't upgrade my scanner until yesterday, and only for the cheapest upgrade. I haven't had any problems excavating, although it has a few times disappeared before I could harvest it because I wasn't aware of it when it first fell. That doesn't bother me though, since it falls every 15-20 minutes and there are now LFG groups that are for brandstone multimaps. I don't use the multimaps but I feel like we could all easily harvest as many meteors as we wanted.

[Khisanth.2948]

> @Embered.5089 said:

> I'm confused. I've had no problems finding a fallen brandstone. Usually it actually is marked on my map and minimap with a pink circle with a purple X in it. I didn't upgrade my scanner until yesterday, and only for the cheapest upgrade. I haven't had any problems excavating, although it has a few times disappeared before I could harvest it because I wasn't aware of it when it first fell. That doesn't bother me though, since it falls every 15-20 minutes and there are now LFG groups that are for brandstone multimaps. I don't use the multimaps but I feel like we could all easily harvest as many meteors as we wanted.

 

That mark only shows up if someone else arrives there and place the mark on it.

[Pifil.5193]

> @Galeskyring.9617 said:

> > @"That Guy.5704" said:

> > 1) no not only during night. should happen throughout the day.

>

>

> I suggested night only for 2 reasons, the 1st is that Istan holds a sizable meta which eats up a lot of time between 2 locations which can carry throughout the day and night cycles. So expecting brandstones only during day or night would allow people to prepare for them like they do in every other map which has day/night or weather based phases. The 2nd reason is because the fog around Istan is less troublesome at night allowing you to more easily spot a glowing object either in the sky or on the ground.

 

I think it's good that they fall throughout both night and day as it allows people to decide what to do with their time. There were a lot of complaints about the HoT metas shutting down parts of the maps or content as it could put a hard stop on what people are doing and how they're playing. That's not fun.

 

As for the rest, as others have pointed out waiting at the Astralarium watching for meteors is the best way to do it but after falling they stick around for 5 minutes and it takes about 1 minute to get to the impact sites so I don't see much of a problem. I wouldn't complain if they increased the life time to say 7 minutes, of course. :)

[Dashiva.6149]

Tried it for a while and immediatly was bored with it, and went did other stuff instead. Ain't nobody got time for that!

[Ghanto.9784]

And STILL needs an overhaul. Need 500 powdered rose quarts and k. ore to craft any of the astral weapons, which is one giant tedious task when you mostly have to farm the brandstone yourself. Because how often are you gonna get groups to stick around for long to wait 15 minutes, run out to a crater to mine for a few minutes, then run back and wait another 15 minutes....Doing it yourself, it takes most of your time just to clear the critters from the area, and that's even if you can - which you can't with half the impact sites, especially while being simultaneously targeted by artillery.

[Odinens.5920]

@OP - you forgot to mention the main problem.....the time you HAVE to waste clearing out the mobs that spawn with the node, otherwise you really can't mine anything, since you'll be pulled/knockbacked/stunned into oblivion.

[Rawr.9467]

This is one of the most disheartening achievements I've ever done in this game

[Ayakaru.6583]

My issue is more..

You have to afk next to the NPC _all_ day waiting for her to comment on impact sites.

Because there's no known timer or cooldown on the 'event' you can't do anything else.

You are almost forced to afk there

[Gudy.3607]

> @"Ayakaru.6583" said:

> My issue is more..

> You have to afk next to the NPC _all_ day waiting for her to comment on impact sites.

Indeed. Give the lady a megaphone and have her make a map-wide announcement instead. I expect that if more people are aware that this is happening, more people will try to find the spot, mark it and kill the mobs, so everyone gains. The brandstones have a nicely cooperative design, which is foiled by the near-complete lack of awareness when these events happen.

[Sithis.3564]

Well each time I try to farm those I put on Mentor tag announce the crash site. Everyone can do it.

[Zaxares.5419]

I do agree that the duration of the Brandstone craters is a bit too short. I think ANet should change it so that for every mark placed on the site, it extends the duration of the Brandstone by 2 mins (making it so that a fully marked site will last exactly as long as it takes for the next Brandstone to fall).

[Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.294]

> @"Zaxares.5419" said:

> I do agree that the duration of the Brandstone craters is a bit too short. I think ANet should change it so that for every mark placed on the site, it extends the duration of the Brandstone by 2 mins (making it so that a fully marked site will last exactly as long as it takes for the next Brandstone to fall).

 

I like this idea! There have been a couple of times that I've run around the map and by the time I've found the crash site, it disappears right after I ran up. As soon as I could afford to upgrade my tool, I upgraded to place the mark and do that as soon as I get to a site. I also always call it out in chat and pop one of my tags. But not everyone does that. Nor do people understand, I think, that marking the site with the tool means more ore for everyone.

[Warkind.6745]

You won't believe these top 3 problems with Brandstone Crash Sites.

[Khisanth.2948]

> @"Ghanto.9784" said:

> And STILL needs an overhaul. Need 500 powdered rose quarts and k. ore to craft any of the astral weapons, which is one giant tedious task when you mostly have to farm the brandstone yourself. Because how often are you gonna get groups to stick around for long to wait 15 minutes, run out to a crater to mine for a few minutes, then run back and wait another 15 minutes....Doing it yourself, it takes most of your time just to clear the critters from the area, and that's even if you can - which you can't with half the impact sites, especially while being simultaneously targeted by artillery.

 

Quartz can be bought which frees up your ability to acquire them. There is no need to stand in any particular location to wait. The meteor falls every 15 minutes. You can check the location by activating the multitool then mount up and use the special action skill. The falling meteor can also be heard but that is unreliable if you are in combat at the time. Worse case scenario you have a stop watch sitting around or one use of the many online ones. As for clearing the mobs ... they are fairly easy to fight, just don't rely on projectile attacks since they have reflect up some of the time.

 

> @"Ayakaru.6583" said:

> My issue is more..

> You have to afk next to the NPC _all_ day waiting for her to comment on impact sites.

> Because there's no known timer or cooldown on the 'event' you can't do anything else.

> You are almost forced to afk there

 

eh? It's 15 minutes. Haven't checked if that is from impact to impact or from despawn to impact but that is easy enough to test. That comes up in Istan map chat pretty often. Surprised you haven't seen it mentioned.

 

> @"Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.2946" said:

> > @"Zaxares.5419" said:

> > I do agree that the duration of the Brandstone craters is a bit too short. I think ANet should change it so that for every mark placed on the site, it extends the duration of the Brandstone by 2 mins (making it so that a fully marked site will last exactly as long as it takes for the next Brandstone to fall).

>

> I like this idea! There have been a couple of times that I've run around the map and by the time I've found the crash site, it disappears right after I ran up. As soon as I could afford to upgrade my tool, I upgraded to place the mark and do that as soon as I get to a site. I also always call it out in chat and pop one of my tags. But not everyone does that. Nor do people understand, I think, that marking the site with the tool means more ore for everyone.

 

Marking is supposed to improve things and it does feel like it does but I haven't actually done any proper research on it nor have I see any research done by other people.

[Gudy.3607]

> @"Khisanth.2948" said:

> > @"Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.2946" said:

> > > @"Zaxares.5419" said:

> > > I do agree that the duration of the Brandstone craters is a bit too short. I think ANet should change it so that for every mark placed on the site, it extends the duration of the Brandstone by 2 mins (making it so that a fully marked site will last exactly as long as it takes for the next Brandstone to fall).

> >

> > I like this idea! There have been a couple of times that I've run around the map and by the time I've found the crash site, it disappears right after I ran up. As soon as I could afford to upgrade my tool, I upgraded to place the mark and do that as soon as I get to a site. I also always call it out in chat and pop one of my tags. But not everyone does that. Nor do people understand, I think, that marking the site with the tool means more ore for everyone.

>

> Marking is supposed to improve things and it does feel like it does but I haven't actually done any proper research on it nor have I see any research done by other people.

 

In my admittedly limited experience, a fully marked Brandstone site (5 stacks) has drastically improved drops compared to an unmarked site in both quantity and quality: no more dragonite ore, solid amounts of powdered rose quartz and a good chance to get some pieces of rose quartz as well, compared to an unmarked site largely giving dragonite ore and kralkatite ore. I like the idea of marking extending the duration of the Brandstone sites, but I think 1 minute or maybe even 30 seconds per stack would be enough.

[Khisanth.2948]

> @"Gudy.3607" said:

> > @"Khisanth.2948" said:

> > > @"Kaltyn of Torbins Deep.2946" said:

> > > > @"Zaxares.5419" said:

> > > > I do agree that the duration of the Brandstone craters is a bit too short. I think ANet should change it so that for every mark placed on the site, it extends the duration of the Brandstone by 2 mins (making it so that a fully marked site will last exactly as long as it takes for the next Brandstone to fall).

> > >

> > > I like this idea! There have been a couple of times that I've run around the map and by the time I've found the crash site, it disappears right after I ran up. As soon as I could afford to upgrade my tool, I upgraded to place the mark and do that as soon as I get to a site. I also always call it out in chat and pop one of my tags. But not everyone does that. Nor do people understand, I think, that marking the site with the tool means more ore for everyone.

> >

> > Marking is supposed to improve things and it does feel like it does but I haven't actually done any proper research on it nor have I see any research done by other people.

>

> In my admittedly limited experience, a fully marked Brandstone site (5 stacks) has drastically improved drops compared to an unmarked site in both quantity and quality: no more dragonite ore, solid amounts of powdered rose quartz and a good chance to get some pieces of rose quartz as well, compared to an unmarked site largely giving dragonite ore and kralkatite ore. I like the idea of marking extending the duration of the Brandstone sites, but I think 1 minute or maybe even 30 seconds per stack would be enough.

 

Is it actually better or just more chances? I feel like I run out of chances to dig quicker on an unmark/lv1 site.

[Ghanto.9784]

> Quartz can be bought which frees up your ability to acquire them. There is no need to stand in any particular location to wait. The meteor falls every 15 minutes. You can check the location by activating the multitool then mount up and use the special action skill. The falling meteor can also be heard but that is unreliable if you are in combat at the time. Worse case scenario you have a stop watch sitting around or one use of the many online ones. As for clearing the mobs ... they are fairly easy to fight, just don't rely on projectile attacks since they have reflect up some of the time.

 

Yeah, you can check using the multitool if you want to sit there constantly clicking it, because you don't want to find out a minute _after_ the fact that the meteor's fallen, since your time is already so limited. And if you stay around wherever the last meteor fell waiting for the next one, chances are good you'll have further to travel to get to the next one than you would if you just ported back to the Astralarium to wait, which is maybe a little more equidistant to all of them. And yes, you can _usually_ clear out the aggro by yourself, but how much time are you gonna have left to mine after that is the big question, even after throwing down a site marker. Whatever. I'm pretty much resigned to it being what it is. Like so much of the game, it's just a bunch of busy-work to keep you mindlessly grinding for long periods of time - and in this case to acquire yet more account bound items that you can't even make a little gold on. So the good news is you'll probably only be motivated to go through the whole experience once or twice to unlock a skin or two you really want, then you can be done with it. ;)

 

[Zaxares.5419]

> @"Khisanth.2948" said:

>

> Is it actually better or just more chances? I feel like I run out of chances to dig quicker on an unmark/lv1 site.

 

It's definitely better. An unmarked site will barely (if ever) give out Powdered Quartz. At about T3+ is when intact Rose Quartz will start dropping. (I have never seen intact Rose Quartz drop from T1 or T2 sites.) T5 sites almost always give out a Rose Quartz per brandstone, in addition to Kralkatite Ore and Powdered Quartz. I do have 300% native MF as well, but I don't think that applies to brandstone mining. The guild hall buff for increased rare loot while mining could affect it though.

[Angelweave.1856]

Necro... this thread is still legit trying to tidy up achievements... KITTEN ME!! this is so annoying

[Rhyse.8179]

I threw away my scanner months ago. Never even seen a crash.

[Voltekka.2375]

Istan is a one year old map. When it first came out, 50man squads did meteor farming, on multiple instances. Now, with quartz not being very sought after, fewer ppl do the farm. So, I believe OP is late in quartz farming

Secondly, a lot of people to this day still dont know how to properly farm crash sites. Hell, people still dont know there ARE crash sites. OP, make a 5+man squad. When a meteor comes, and you get to the impact site, make sure at least 5 people USE SKILL 5 of the brandstone tool BEFORE you start mining. That way, you will get maximum stacks of a buff that will yield better loot (aka quartz).

Personally, I would strongly recommend you just buy the quartz. Because nowadays, too few people farm meteors/know how to farm them well. It is just not worth it.

Edit: aaaaand i just realise, it is an old thread. Thats what happens when you post without having had your Coffee yet...

[Warlord.9082]

TL;DR and don't really care whether or not you have good points or not: simply going to disagree with you based on the title

[Dante.1763]

> @"Warlord.9082" said:

> TL;DR and don't really care whether or not you have good points or not: simply going to disagree with you based on the title

If you are going to do that, dont bother posting, its completely useless to the topic, and kinda insulting to the OP even if its nearly a year old at this point.