Salvage Part 1: Satisfaction

Salvage is one of the many things in this type of game that can significantly contribute to one's satisfaction with the game or significantly decrease one's satisfaction. Salvage imposes a test of will and teamwork on a group of players, and will crush those interested in immediate gratification. It is indeed a marathon and not a sprint towards one's goals. However, the determined and dedicated will win in the end.



I had started Salvage around last year at this time with a group of friends who had previous experience running Salvage and were interested in finishing up some set pieces. We did reasonably well and killed many of the Nm's and chariots, however dissention emerged eventually when some members finished 2-3 pieces when others still had none. The arrangement was inefficient and people came to resent the group, so it eventually dissolved.

After Gaidon and I joined with our new linkshell we found others who wanted to return to Salvage and so we formed a new group that worked well with our timeframe and was flexible. Our focus was getting the 35's out of the way first, and attempting to get everyone a piece before moving on. So far it has worked very well and recently our luck has turned around on the ramparts in Bhaflau Remnants. So far our groups efforts netted us several finished pieces, and several partially finished pieces.

Finished:
Usukane legs x2
Morrigan Robe
Morrigan slops
Usukane feet
Marduk Tiara
Marduk shalwar

Partially finished:
Usukane feet x2
Marduk feet
Morrigan cuffs

I have the Marduk set because thats my only option. Works great for me though! I finished my first piece with some luck in Zhaylom and got the 35 head, I already had the 25 and the 15 from the previous group. The hardest thing about finishing was the 12 orichalum ingots needed. A month or so later though I received them as a gift from people in my group as a wedding gift! yay! I wear it full time now for my Bard.


My first piece of gear I picked as my choice in both groups was the Marduk Shalwar. Of course Mad Bomber was always a 50-50% chance until the recent patch though. Since we were farming Bhaflau for the usukane feet (several peoples choice), we would check to see if Mad Bomber was up. When he was we got really lucky a couple months ago and got double drops off the last NM pop.


Of course the chariot in Silver Sea was being gay and not dropping the 25 for awhile, but finally it came. Some wamoura cloth and imperial gold pieces later and I finally had my new pants!!! I also use these full time on BRD now.


At this point it is time to catch the other up on their gear too so at least everyone has 1 piece. So begins the long Bhaflau remnants farming runs alternated with some more Silver Sea for some Are's legs. Rampart after Rampart produces nothing, rarely is one even spawning Nm bee's anymore. This of course is the low point in Salvage in which many groups become depressed. But we keep trying and messing around with stuff. Finally a chance theory pays off and we get some Bee's to start popping. About the 4th Bee we finally see some usukane feet!!!! So 1 down and 2 to go! The next week I am feeling superstitious and want us to repeat what we did the previous time. About 80% the first NM popped, by the third we had another pair of Usukane feet!!! The last Bee popped at 6%, and guess what? He dropped another pair of feet!! So now we are working toward the 25 feet off the Silver Sea chariot.


Thats all the news for now, I will update more Salvage success soon.