So this is the fix to hunts?

[auronrenouille]

So B's exist only for weekly marks now, and we can only get 32 mark seals a day (39 if we amortize the weekly mark bill's 50 points). That's two A rank hunts. Sands and oils are still available from hunts, and sands appear to still not be available from Syrcus Tower. For people who aren't clearing T8, hunts remain the only access to sands of time.

To me, it looks like we've just put lipstick on a pig. People will still zerg hunts for insane amounts of seals and tomes - after all, most hunt parties were ignoring B rank hunts to start with! And hunts still exist in their current form, continuing to reward radars users and players with high-end PCs the most.

Nice for a bandaid, but I'm anxiously awaiting the fix that we've been promised.

[Tatl]

Both sand and oil are available from Syrcus Tower. In fact they can drop together at the same time. Thats still an unreliable way to get them compared to hunts, which can give you several oils and sands through abusive farming.

[auronrenouille]

Off-topic, but this isn't the first time I've heard this, but even the Lodestone says no sands in ST. My girlfriend and I have run it probably 50-100 times each and neither of us have seen sands. We're quite confused on the matter.

[Grayve]

To my knowledge, Xanth can drop five items: Tomestone, Oil, Minion, Furniture Mat, and an i100 gear piece. Not a Sand of Time.

[Thela]

To my knowledge, Xanth can drop five items: Tomestone, Oil, Minion, Furniture Mat, and an i100 gear piece. Not a Sand of Time.

First week of 2.3 i saw him drop a Sand of Time, have not seen one drop since so either it was a mistake that got fixed or he does drop it but at a very low rate.

[Fornix]

Sands do not drop in ST.

From Live Letter XV

Q: What's the drop rate for the unidentified Allagan tomestone, the sands of time, and oil of time?
A: As I mentioned during the previous Letter from the Producer LIVE, they will not all be dropping at the same time. We'll add them gradually as we progress through patches. We're planning to have unidentified Allagan tomestones drop first, and the drop rate will be about 30%. We'll be making adjustments based on the clear rate of the Second Coil of Bahamut and everyone's average item level.



They'll be added in the future, but should not be there yet. I'm also not sure on as to how they'll introduce them based on second coil of bahamut progression. As whilst on some servers there are dozens of groups which have SCoB on farm mode. There's other servers on which T8 is barely downed.

[Thela]

Sands do not drop in ST.

From Live Letter XV

Q: What's the drop rate for the unidentified Allagan tomestone, the sands of time, and oil of time?
A: As I mentioned during the previous Letter from the Producer LIVE, they will not all be dropping at the same time. We'll add them gradually as we progress through patches. We're planning to have unidentified Allagan tomestones drop first, and the drop rate will be about 30%. We'll be making adjustments based on the clear rate of the Second Coil of Bahamut and everyone's average item level.

Yet this is obviously not the case as he has been dropping BOTH the Unidentified Allagan Tomestone and the Oils of Time simultaneously since 2.3 release. As i mentioned above i also saw him drop Sands of Time the first week of 2.3 but have not seen one since so it could be they hotfixed that one to no longer drop who knows.

Another thing to keep in mind in regards to Oils/Sands acquisition from the hunt come patch 2.4 they will add the final part of coil and the 2nd coil will be queue-able via DF like binding coil is now making ilvl 110 gear more common while adding another tier on top of it for final part of coil. So while at the moment the hunt effectively gives access to top-end gear it will be a stepping stone come 2.4 for the next tier of gear.

[Orson_Dara]

It's too late to fix at this point you're better throwing the baby out with the bathwater next patch just like relics.

[Nicobo]

...Nice for a bandaid, but I'm anxiously awaiting the fix that we've been promised.

I don't know who has promised to fix what....^^;?

If you meant "poeple will still zerg hunts for insane amounts of seals and tomes" need to be fixed,
I think it was the result of people kept complaining "SR needs stop" "we need sociable NM" etc,
and obviously now no one complains about SR and asks for NM.

In short, the "problem" itself was what ppl asking previously ^^;