how to get 150-250 clusters per ephemeral node. Money!

Good, shards/crystals/clusters are the most basic crafting component, needed in large quantities for all synths. They should be much easier to collect in bulk.

what i wouldn't sell those clusters i would use them and never have to worry about gathering them again lol.

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Originally Posted by Underdog2204

Wow... Are people here actually trying to defend an expliot that gives players an advantage and can easily ruin the economy in a MMO!?

Really!?!?

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What exploit? That is literally what that combination of skills should do and is doing.

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Originally Posted by ParanoidHobo

What exploit? That is literally what that combination of skills should do and is doing.

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Doubt it. Its probably supposed to give like 3-5 clusters not 30-50. Thats way too many. We'll have to wait and see what the maintenance is for but i wont be suprised if its for this.

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Originally Posted by ParanoidHobo

What exploit? That is literally what that combination of skills should do and is doing.

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Ghh...

It is obviously unintended and that is obviously what the maintenance has been called the fix.

It's easy to see that amount given is far to high for it to be normal.

It is an exploit in that it is unintended... The fact you feel comfortable using it because it comes from a combination of skills that arn't working like they should doesn't make it any less of one.

Why do you think that? The window for any ephemeral node is four Eorzean hours per Eorzean day. To get one to spawn, you have to clear out two patches of nodes which eats into the window. The material that can be reduced into this amount of clusters appears uncommonly: like, 1 in 5. If they were going to fix something related to this, it would be the trick that allows you to save time on the node respawn which would be deserved, but there's zero reason for them to fix the reduction yield itself.

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Originally Posted by Underdog2204

Ghh...

It is obviously unintended and that is obviously what the maintenance has been called the fix.

It's easy to see that amount given is far to high for it to be normal.

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Except I've heard people are saying that A4 is bugged and you can cheat on it.
I've heard someone saying you can resell things you buy from NPCs for more than they sell it for, thus making it a profit.

Let's not just immediately assume things based purely on our own biases.

Honestly didn't think this was a secret...

Those nodes pop about once per realtime hour, and the item that can be converted doesn't always appear every time the node does...

this may explain the emergency maintenance today...

Do people here REALLY think this is an exploit and that this deserves an emergency maintenance?

REALLY??

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Originally Posted by XLauncher

Why do you think that? The window for any ephemeral node is four Eorzean hours per Eorzean day. To get one to spawn, you have to clear out two patches of nodes which eats into the window. The material that can be reduced into this amount of clusters appears uncommonly: like, 1 in 5. If they were going to fix something related to this, it would be the trick that allows you to save time on the node respawn which would be deserved, but there's zero reason for them to fix the reduction yield itself.

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Let me ask you, what else could it be for?

Nothing else I've seen could possibly require an "emergency maintanance".

I think the community would've noticed if there was something else, don't you?

Why did you ask for this to be kept on the quiet...? If it's perfectly legitimate ofc...

Crafting is shifting toward harder to obtain materials, NOT harder to obtain shards. In 3.0 we are spending more time farming enemies and unspoiled nodes, INSTEAD of smacking nodes in a circular pattern for 4 hours just to farm color crystals.

I think this is an intentional shift, to makes us focus more on what we are making rather than on generic one-size fits all crystals. The hardest part of 2.0 crafting was getting enough crystals, it was the same grind on every class, and it presented no challenge or leveling experience for gatherers. I'm glad this isn't continuing forward.

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Originally Posted by XLauncher

Why do you think that? The window for any ephemeral node is four Eorzean hours per Eorzean day. To get one to spawn, you have to clear out two patches of nodes which eats into the window. The material that can be reduced into this amount of clusters appears uncommonly: like, 1 in 5. If they were going to fix something related to this, it would be the trick that allows you to save time on the node respawn which would be deserved, but there's zero reason for them to fix the reduction yield itself.

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You mean the "trick" to refresh nodes lol, so much secrecy for something many people consider common knowledge by now, it has made farming maps and hidden items much faster for everybody since forever. OMG Secret reveladed please fix exploit.

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Originally Posted by Underdog2204

Let me ask you, what else could it be for?

Nothing else I've seen could possibly require an "emergency maintanance".

I think the community would've noticed if there was something else, don't you?

Why did you ask for this to be kept on the quiet...? If it's perfectly legitimate ofc...

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I refer you to your previous post and the reply to it

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Originally Posted by Underdog2204

Let me ask you, what else could it be for?

Nothing else I've seen could possibly require an "emergency maintanance".

I think the community would've noticed if there was something else, don't you?

Why did you ask for this to be kept on the quiet...? If it's perfectly legitimate ofc...

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Originally Posted by Oscura

Except I've heard people are saying that A4 is bugged and you can cheat on it.
I've heard someone saying you can resell things you buy from NPCs for more than they sell it for, thus making it a profit.

Let's not just immediately assume things based purely on our own biases.

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Originally Posted by Wings

Those nodes pop about once per realtime hour, and the item that can be converted doesn't always appear every time the node does...

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Not exactly. The nodes come in this manner.
Botanist:
4am-8am=Hinterlands(Earth) The Answering Quarter
8am-12pm=Forelands(Earth)Avalonia Fallen
12pm-4pm=?
4pm-8pm=Churning Mist(Earth) Four Arms
8pm-12am=Sea of Clouds(Wind) Voor Sian Siran
12am-4am=Western Highlands (Wind) Twinpools


and
Miner:
4am-8am=Forelands(Fire) Avalonia Fallen
8am-12pm=Hinterlands(Fire) The Makers' Quarters
12pm-4pm=Churning Mist(Fire) The Landlord Colony
4pm-8pm=Sea of Cloud(Lightning) Voor Sian Siran
8pm-12am=Western Highlands(Lightning) Red Rim
12am-4am=?

So if one has both Miner and Botanist it's easily viable for them to rotate constantly in an hourly period without stop which is why if this is the exploit causing the issue you could see from above how it would easily inflate the market if it's not intended to work that way.

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Originally Posted by hagare

I refer you to your previous post and the reply to it

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Yeah, yeah, that was posted when I was typing.

If it is the case then I can accept it no problem.

Would be nice to see exactly where this has been said though...

Crystals seem very shady to me.

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Originally Posted by aerolol

Do people here REALLY think this is an exploit and that this deserves an emergency maintenance?

REALLY??

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I do not think it deserves an emergency maintenance and would really really not like for it to be an exploit but let's face facts, Clusters being easier to obtain than ANY other Crystal is most likely totally not their intended design. I hope it is intended but it really is most likely a big exploit that is completely not the way they planned. If the other Crystals were easier to gain in such huge amounts then maybe I would think it was by design.

Either way, this is absolutely not worthy of an emergency prime time maintenance if that is what this is for.

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Originally Posted by Wings

Those nodes pop about once per realtime hour, and the item that can be converted doesn't always appear every time the node does...

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That's odd. Just before this maintenance I was mining and saw one keep repopping every five minutes or so. I hadn't seen that before and had assumed it was once every hour. I didn't know about this exploit, but I'm guessing that someone around me did considering the motions they were making.

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Originally Posted by Airget

Not exactly. The nodes come in this manner.
Botanist:
4am-8am=Hinterlands(Earth) The Answering Quarter
8am-12pm=Forelands(Earth)Avalonia Fallen
12pm-4pm=?
4pm-8pm=Churning Mist(Earth) Four Arms
8pm-12am=Sea of Clouds(Wind) Voor Sian Siran
12am-4am=Western Highlands (Wind) Twinpools


and
Miner:
4am-8am=Forelands(Fire) Avalonia Fallen
8am-12pm=Hinterlands(Fire) The Makers' Quarters
12pm-4pm=Churning Mist(Fire) The Landlord Colony
4pm-8pm=Sea of Cloud(Lightning) Voor Sian Siran
8pm-12am=Western Highlands(Lightning) Red Rim
12am-4am=?

So if one has both Miner and Botanist it's easily viable for them to rotate constantly in an hourly period without stop which is why if this is the exploit causing the issue you could see from above how it would easily inflate the market if it's not intended to work that way.

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I wouldn't call that an exploit.
unless you call gathering from different unspoiled nodes in a row is an exploit.

PS: thanks for the schedule btw ;p

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Originally Posted by Dsync

That's odd. Just before this maintenance I was mining and saw one keep repopping every five minutes or so. I hadn't seen that before and had assumed it was once every hour. I didn't know about this exploit, but I'm guessing that someone around me did considering the motions they were making.

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I think the way it works is that it acts as a normal node during the time frame where it can spawn.
so basically: ephemeral > normal node > normal node > ephemeral > normal node > normal node > you know the rest

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Originally Posted by Underdog2204

Let me ask you, what else could it be for?

Nothing else I've seen could possibly require an "emergency maintanance".

I think the community would've noticed if there was something else, don't you?

Why did you ask for this to be kept on the quiet...? If it's perfectly legitimate ofc...

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Your arguments are poor. What else could the maintenance be for? Beats me; that's the point of emergency maintenance. To patch things before they become mainstream knowledge. Back during 2.0, they did an emergency patch and it wasn't until after the fact that pretty much anyone found out about being able to use miners to bug Titan. As for why I would have preferred that this remain uncommon knowledge, that's a silly point. Something doesn't have to be illegitimate for people to want it to be uncommon knowledge. Coke isn't doing any illegal, but they don't go giving out the formula for Coca cola to anyone who asks.

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Originally Posted by monterrey4ever

You mean the "trick" to refresh nodes lol, so much secrecy for something many people consider common knowledge by now, it has made farming maps and hidden items much faster for everybody since forever. OMG Secret reveladed please fix exploit.

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Is this really why the boards have seen a huge influx of Archeoskin and up? Well, guess I won't be able to do these as often now... I just thought there were a ton of people on my server putting them up daily :<

I'd just like to point out that you can Aetherial Reduce certain collectable fish with absolutely no "skills"
You just fish them up and reduce them.
You literally reel in the fish, then click reduction and instant clusters.

They give between 45-60 Clusters.

There's no skill exploit or unintended effect happening here.
This is exactly what Aetherial Reduction is for and working exactly as they intended it to work.

People complaining about this post and people telling everyone about it.... just means you people using it have a high chance of a ban hammer since the Terms of Usage explicitly state that if you find an exploit you need to report it and not abuse it.

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Originally Posted by Laerad3993

Is this really why the boards have seen a huge influx of Archeoskin and up? Well, guess I won't be able to do these as often now... I just thought there were a ton of people on my server putting them up daily :<

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Eh? People have been using that trick since ARR. It wouldn't make it so there'd be a huge influx of maps or anything. You can still only get one map every 18 hours. It just cuts the time that you might spend getting any single map.

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Originally Posted by Frysia

People complaining about this post and people telling everyone about it.... just means you people using it have a high chance of a ban hammer since the Terms of Usage explicitly state that if you find an exploit you need to report it and not abuse it.

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People keep using this word. I do not think it means what they think it means.

http://image1.frequency.com/uri/w234..._thumbnail.jpg

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Originally Posted by Ashkendor

Eh? People have been using that trick since ARR. It wouldn't make it so there'd be a huge influx of maps or anything. You can still only get one map every 18 hours. It just cuts the time that you might spend getting any single map.

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Oh? I didn't know that. Well, thanks for the information. I guess I have nothing to worry about then. :P

I think the people who are screaming exploit are just upset that they personally weren't smart enough to figure this out on their own. It's not an exploit, people have been doing this since the day people had gear to do so- all you had to do was basic math, use the skills GIVEN to us- and aetherial reduction.

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Originally Posted by Ashkendor

You can still only get one map every 18 hours. It just cuts the time that you might spend getting any single map.

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wait what? only one map every 18 hours?
but I've gotten multiple maps in an hour from gathering :eek:

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Originally Posted by Frysia

People complaining about this post and people telling everyone about it.... just means you people using it have a high chance of a ban hammer since the Terms of Usage explicitly state that if you find an exploit you need to report it and not abuse it.

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I've been telling people about aetherial reduction for two weeks now, because it isn't an exploit. It's a mechanic that enables SKILLED gatherers to farm crystals better than lv 25 RMT bots. It's a positive design shift in gathering and crafting.

You might as well file a report because you've found an ilevel 190 weapon that does more damage than your ilevel 135 relic.

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Originally Posted by Laerad3993

Is this really why the boards have seen a huge influx of Archeoskin and up? Well, guess I won't be able to do these as often now... I just thought there were a ton of people on my server putting them up daily :<

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No, it just saves you time on the gathering phase, you just open the gathering window, see contents, if the map / hidden item you want is not listed, just close the gathering window and move to the next node. You dont need to actually gather the nodes to make them refresh. Just try it on a small zone and you will learn easily how the node spawn works.

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Originally Posted by Laerad3993

Is this really why the boards have seen a huge influx of Archeoskin and up? Well, guess I won't be able to do these as often now... I just thought there were a ton of people on my server putting them up daily :<

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No, you can still only get one per 18 hours. People are selling them for less because they probably don't drop anything particularly great, and there will be a lot of people who focused on the MSQ and leveling a combat job to 60 over gathering which might just now be starting to poke around for maps and the like. In this case "faster" means checking nodes as they respawn to save yourself time getting your one map.

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Originally Posted by monterrey4ever

No, it just saves you time on the gathering phase, you just open the gathering window, see contents, if the map / hidden item you want is not listed, just close the gathering window and move to the next node. You dont need to actually gather the nodes to make them refresh. Just try it on a small zone and you will learn easily how the node spawn works.

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^ exactly this. Personally, I haven't been doing it; I go to search for my maps at nodes that have something that's of use to me. I have a lot of crafters to level up, and hunting for maps helps grind mats and gatherer exp. ^^

I only got around to experimenting with it a little bit (Got about 100 earth crystals between 3 conversions) before I went to sleep last night. I was thinking to myself "Oh good no need to send my retainers out compuslively on crystal gathers" I was going to play around with it some more after I turned in my GC items when I woke up but... /lesigh.... maintenance (and not done turning in GC items)

Hope this is working as intended (for the most part - the clusters... could use a bit of a nerf... ^^;)

Do any of the people saying this is an exploit even have a 60 gathering class? To do you the rotation he showed takes 600 gp and to get 300+ rating you need fairly high perception (hq main hand id suppose). Even with cordials (every 3 mins) it takes forever to restore 600 gp, even doing the thing where you ping 3 diff nodes to refresh it. Am I missing something here? SO yes it makes it a LOT faster but I HIGHLY doubt the emergency maint was for this. I mean square completely ignores the rmt bots that collect more crystals then this since forever.

Im glad crystals will be cheaper/easier for legit people to gather , the rmts will have to go bot something else maybe.

To be honest, its actually good we get several clusters and crystals from the moraines.
The prices on some of the servers I have seen is downright ridiculous. The pricing needs to come down. Its shouldnt cost 3-4k in crystals (not including the cost of materials) just to make a level 51 piece of armor etc...

Likely this has nothing to do with the maintenance. Aether took an additional 40 mins on their maintenance to bring the servers up after the scheduled maintenance, and shortly after Mana and Gaia data centers started having issues. If anything the emergency maint, is in regards to that.

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Originally Posted by Jinglybell

Do any of the people saying this is an exploit even have a 60 gathering class? To do you the rotation he showed takes 600 gp and to get 300+ rating you need fairly high perception (hq main hand id suppose).

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... or as I said, you could just fish up a fish and try it yourself. ^^
No GP necessary!

It's working as intended. The fish are regulated by fishing RNG - you got to get it to bite, you got to reel it in, its randomly generated size effects the quality of the reduction, etc - but still a 8/8 fish literally exploded with clusters. I was quite pleased.

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Originally Posted by Leknaat

I only got around to experimenting with it a little bit (Got about 100 earth crystals between 3 conversions) before I went to sleep last night. I was thinking to myself "Oh good no need to send my retainers out compuslively on crystal gathers" I was going to play around with it some more after I turned in my GC items when I woke up but... /lesigh.... maintenance (and not done turning in GC items)

Hope this is working as intended (for the most part - the clusters... could use a bit of a nerf... ^^;)

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I sincerely believe the amount of crystal is intended, but the amount of clusters is wrong, plus they didnt consider, or completely forgot how easily you can refresh nodes making the ephemeral node spawn trivial.

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Originally Posted by Vespar

To be honest, its actually good we get several clusters and crystals from the moraines.
The prices on some of the servers I have seen is downright ridiculous. The pricing needs to come down. Its shouldnt cost 3-4k in crystals (not including the cost of materials) just to make a level 51 piece of armor etc...

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Especially when the armor requires multiple archaeoleather, each one requiring 3 archaeoskins (low droprate) + 1 coethan tea leaf (unspoiled node item).
The difficult to obtain mats were a shock to me at first, but I like the idea that crafting is more about materials now than collecting RMT Skittles.

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Originally Posted by monterrey4ever

I sincerely believe the amount of crystal is intended, but the amount of clusters is wrong, plus they didnt consider, or completely forgot how easily you can refresh nodes making the ephemeral node spawn trivial.

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But it's not trivial... no matter if you use the refresh trick or not, getting back 600 GP is no joke. You can't get back 600 GP in the time it takes you to go tag two nodes and walk back to the Ephemeral unless maybe you have a hi-cordial. Those have a cooldown of several minutes on them, so this isn't really spammable per se and the fact that you can make the Ephemeral node repop almost instantly is pretty much a moot point.

With fishing you cant refresh the node though, so youre getting about the same because its slower to mooch them up. Using that one new skill that increases hq (helps with mooching) takes 470 gp. So yes I agree completely with you. I have reduced some of the tupuxuaras and pteranodons.

(edit also I meant to quote Shai oh well ^^; )