Frost Wood and Valorite Ore Question?

[Nem]

Is it me or is it extremely hard to find either of these two resources Ive been mining and hacking trees for the last week with no luck.

I have 100 lumber jacking and 105 mining

 

[Llwyd]

It's a rare occasion when I find either.

 

[Storm]

With mining what i do is this! first I have books with most every cave I usually use malas because the caves are big!
I keep 3 books with blank runes in them one is labeled val,one is ver, and the other agapite!
I then start at the cave mouth and mine every resourse spot in cave i can find when I come across a val spot I mark the rune drop in my book label val and I go through every cave until i have atleast 9 or 10 val spots! then i just start recalling back through the book and if I get done before they respawn again i start with verite book thenback to val etec etc when i go to a spot that changes to a lesser material i label it blank and put it back in the book and when i am almost out again i start over! i never run out of val !
trees you can basically do the same thing!
i have had spots be good for days and then I have had them only good for one dig and then change its a lot to do with the rng

 

[Gelf]

With mining what i do is this! first I have books with most every cave I usually use malas because the caves are big!
I keep 3 books with blank runes in them one is labeled val,one is ver, and the other agapite!
I then start at the cave mouth and mine every resourse spot in cave i can find when I come across a val spot I mark the rune drop in my book label val and I go through every cave until i have atleast 9 or 10 val spots! then i just start recalling back through the book and if I get done before they respawn again i start with verite book thenback to val etec etc when i go to a spot that changes to a lesser material i label it blank and put it back in the book and when i am almost out again i start over! i never run out of val !
trees you can basically do the same thing!
i have had spots be good for days and then I have had them only good for one dig and then change its a lot to do with the rng

i know many who do this to agapite through val, but when they go back its with a gargoyle pick axe. tried this a couple times myself , dug up 3 valorite eles in one spot once and ended up with almost 100 valorite ore frrom that spot

 

[bioras]

I haven't seen frostwood since they made it random. I'll go out for 2 hours at a time and still have yet to find any. You really want to know how hard it is to find...go to the museum. On many shards it's at it's lowest levels.
I was okay with making it all random...but could they give it a little bump??? Right now you have a better shot at getting hit by a bus, struck by lightning and winning the lottery all in the same second.
Sorry. Maybe better odds with the stump?

 

[Percivalgoh]

I have a couple stumps and the stumps work well for getting all the colors with no work. I also have the mining carts and they aren't quite as useful because with the stumps the conversion rate to wood is 100% but with the cart you have to smelt the ore and it fails often with valorite. I chop wood mostly for the other by products but with 4 packies I will usually get some of all the colors of wood (3 out of 4 times). When I mine it's hit or miss but I often can find valorite or verite and upgrade it to valorite with regularity and again you loose stuff in the smelting.

 

[Kas Althume]

I havnt gotten any frostwood since the changes either. Valorite is easy to get with the pros tool and the garg picky.

 

[Myna]

you can work always the same trees, sooner or later they switch to frost ... this is the way scripters get their colored wood, they chop the same trees over and over.

you can find a few val spots in a few minutes up to maybe 20 or 30 min mining along a mountain side, and even easier with a prosp tool and gargs pickaxe.

and with max str and 50 or 60 weapon skill you can kill the val elems easily which gives 25 val extra, with a bit tactics you are faster, they are not harder to hit than an earth elem, they do just more damage and relect damage, but you have enough time to step back to heal

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

Valorite is ASTOUNDINGLY faaaaaar easier to get than Frostwood, especially with the use of Prosp Tools and Garg Picks... even then and in guard zones they are not all that uncommon.

 

[Basara]

Yep - if you can't handle the valorite elementals (Which can destroy uninsured/unblessed equipment), mine in places like Delucia, Cove and Umbra (the latter, both along the hillside behind the tailor AND you can mine the edge of the moat all the way around on the inside), and call the guards on the eles - you won't get the ele's ore that way, though.

When I was training up to 120 smith, originally, I never had to mine anywhere other than Umbra, for all my metals, and there was a REALLY sweet copper (bronze or gold with tools & picks) spot across from the inn, behind the tailor, next to a valorite spot, back then on LA (and while they are now random, they still have good payouts).

Having a guard zone to mine in allowed me to perfect my elemental fighting skills, as if I ever chickened out, I just had to yell for the guards, allowing me to try all kinds of non-conventional stuff.

 

[Percivalgoh]

I went out and did not find any frostwood in the last 2 times logging with 4 packies. I did find 2 brilliant ambers both times which is an improvement from almost never finding any. It's all rng I guess. Maybe I was just lucky before.
Just a question for you elemental slayers. How do you keep your packies alive when you mine for elementals?

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

I use a Fire Beetle when I mine and it can handle every elem (as long as I'm there) except Valorite... for Val Elems, I'll get back on the beetle before doing anything else.

Also, for Ore elem mining I've found West Britain mountains to work VERY well. Lots of room, still in guard zone, but NOT around many NPCs so you can fight the elems you can handle and guard-call the Val elems if needs be.

 

[Basara]

yeah: I can't remember the last time I took a pack animal mining.

The Fire Beetle acts as a forge for you, and going around with my fire beetle and a tool assortment (usually 2 200-use sturdy shovels, 2 Prospector's tools and 6-8 Gargoyle Pickaxes), I end up with 3000 to 4000 total ingots before returning home (though generally that number includes the iron ingots that I send to the bank with a Bag of Sending every time the total hits around 1000, to keep weight down). I use a human miner with STR over 120, so my carrying capacity is in the 530s, of which 80 is my base weight, armor and other gear (chiv book, runebooks, etc.) and the rest is dedicated to harvested ingots, ore (prior to smelting), and my tools (which slowly diminish in weight as they break from being used up). I also keep one Greater Strength potion handy so that, if neccessary (say, retrieving the iron ore from the bank without using a deed, or I get a paragon ore elemental chest in Ilshenar, my favorite ele hunting area) I can carry my full 550 pack capacity back home.

10 ore = 120 stones
20 ingots (what you get from 10 ore) = 2 stone.
Therefore: using a firebeetle reduces ore/ingot weight at least by a factor of 60 (more, counting in failures)

your backpack = roughly 1/3 of a packy's capacity.

1/3 * 60 = 20

Using a Fire Beetle, with no packies, is equivalent of mining only ore, and having TWENTY packies to load ( or, 4 times as many pack horses/llamas than you can actually have).

So, you can stay out mining (especially if you're a tinker crafting your own shovels) 4 times longer without reloading, than someone using 5 pack animals.

 

[Percivalgoh]

I guess I need to go buy a fire beetle and try it out. I hate having my blue beetle or packy die so I sometimes keep them in my house while I mine outside of it or stable them till I am done and go back pick up the ore. It makes for a much longer process. Fire beetle would be good if I can keep it alive.