[Treasure Hunting] Treasure Hunting: Tips 'n' Tricks from my Experiences and Observations

[WiggyJiggyJed]

Hi all,

I started writing this as a simple post to share my experiences with Treasure Hunting, but it sort of grew into a post on "how to optimize/maximize Treasure Hunting". So, in contrast to the FAQ at the top of the Forum, this is more of a Tips 'n' Tricks post. My hope is to have other T-Hunters in the community share their experiences, especially in areas that I haven't covered here (e.g. group T-Hunting, other T-Hunter templates).

I started my T-Hunter just before Publish 105 went live, so I don't have a very good point-of-reference as to how things worked before. But here are things that I have found to make T-Hunting fun for me.

Template
My T-Hunter is a Mystic-Mage, which I find works fairly well.
100 Cartography
100 Remove Trap
100 Lockpicking
120 Mysticism
105 Focus
110 Magery
100 Resist Spells

I'm debating dumping Resist for something else (maybe Spellweaving).

Other popular builds that I know of for soloing are Mystic-Spellweaver and Tamer-Mage.


Getting T-Maps
Obviously you can get maps the old fashioned way by killing mobs, but with a 1% drop rate you spend a lot more time hunting mobs, than hunting treasure. I have found a couple ways to accelerate the process of getting of maps.

• Trammel/Felucca - I have found that the easiest way to get T-Maps for Trammel/Felucca is from Grizelda the Hag (The Hag's Assistant quest). She gives a random Level 1-4 Map (Stash - Hoard) each time you complete the quest, and the distribution seems to be fairly even...level-wise anyhow; type seems to be a bit heavy on Artisan and Assassin. But at 50% Cache or Hoard, I find it worth the 10 Minutes to do the quest*. Plus the junk items she gives (Cauldron, Hangover Cure, Moonfire Brew) are worth 200 CUB points each.
• Malas - In Malas there is the Dark Fathers Room in Doom. Dark Fathers always drop a Stash or Supply map (about 1x Stash to 2x Supply). For the most part I don't care much about non-Felucca maps, but Artisan Supply maps in Malas have Peerless Ingredients, so it's not a complete waste.
• Ilshenar - Ilshenar maps are also of little interest to me, so I tend to throw any I get on a vendor. I don't know of any quick way of gathering maps in Ilshenar.
• Tokuno Islands - with as tough as many mobs in Tokuno can be, T-Maps there interest me even less that other facets. The only maps I have done there came out of Paragon Chests (since Paragon chests spawn maps for all facets, except maybe Eodon), and that was back when I was still training. Haven't done one in ages.
• Ter Mur - I struggle getting Ter Mur maps. Up to now, the only ones I have had also came from Paragon Chests. Artisan Supply maps in Ter Mur spawn Essences, which is simpler than grinding in the Abyss. Any suggestions for good places to farm Supply maps in Ter Mur would be greatly appreciated.
• Eodon - I have not done any Eodon maps, but since they don't drop Power Scrolls, I don't much care.

* Hag Quest Details - I've done the quest enough times to mark (a) locations where Zeefzorpul spawns for you to go reclaim the "shopping list", and (b) ideal locations for collecting the various ingredients. By doing this, I can easily finish the quest in 5-10 minutes. The exception being if I get the Star Chart and have to wait until 17:00 (in-game time) to make it. Definitely worth the 5-10 minutes.


Map Types
As stated above, I generally only do Felucca maps, Cache and above. But there are exceptions:

• Stash - usually not worth the time, once you've trained to where you can decode Supply maps. They can spawn SoTs, but not very often or with any significant values. Now they get thrown on a vendor.
• Supply - Supply maps are where all the special items spawn, so I do save some of these. I especially save Assassin (any facet), Artisan (Malas & Ter Mur) and Mage (Malas). Assassin Supply maps spawn Skeleton Keys and Forged Pardons, both of which sell exceptionally well (perhaps I sell them too cheaply - what do they go for on your shard?). Artisan maps, as explained above, are for the Peerless Ingredients and Essences. Most other facets I don't bother with. Mage Supply maps in Malas spawn "coffin pieces". Once I have the full set, I'll probably stop doing them.
• Cache - here is where I focus on Felucca maps. Power Scrolls, SoT's and SoA's sell really well. Plus, with Binder Scrolls, I collect the really popular ones and combine them. Perhaps not the fastest way to 120, but certainly cheaper. My biggest gripe is Felucca Artisan Cache maps - they don't spawn Power Scrolls, and don't seem to have any alternative to compensate for this. Supposedly (according to Treasure Map Search | uo-cah.com) they should spawn SoA's, but I have never gotten one, even after doing literally dozens of them. So, I don't even bother with them anymore. They go on a vendor.
• Hoard - since I started doing the Hag quest, I do these fairy regularly (Felucca only). Getting rusty chests is always annoying, but I suppose that's just part of the game. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• Trove - same as Hoard, but since they only spawn in Hoard Chests fairly rarely, I haven't done many.

Digging them up
Obviously, this is where the fun starts. I'm fairly sure that T-Hunting was never intended to be a solo endeavor, especially on the high-level maps. But with the way the game has evolved, it is obviously very possible. Hoard and Trove take a while, but that's to be expected.

My biggest complaint/annoyance is the frequency of rusty chests on Cache+ chests. On Hoard/Trove I understand it, but for Cache it happens far more frequently than I would expect. At GM Cartography with +3 Mapmaker's Glasses I would expect them to be almost nonexistent, but I still see probably 5-10% come up rusty.

My understanding is that chest quality/grade (i.e. rusty/normal/golden) is based purely on Cartography. Luck can improve the loot quality within each chest grade (much like loot on a corpse), but the chest quality/grade is determined only by Cartography. Anyone with any better information, please advise.

Here is also where your timing with hiding/invis comes into play. It is possible to time running away and then hiding/invising, but if you can hide/invis, there's not much need to run away first. I don't have a T-Hunter with hiding, but hiding is instantaneous, so you should hide at the 15th (last) dig stroke. With invis, depending on your casting speed, you'll need to cast somewhere around the 13th dig stroke. Since a dig stroke will unhide you, you need to time it just right so that you hide/invis just before/as the Guardians spawn. Use Stash maps for practice. It doesn't take long to figure out the timing.

Spawn
Obviously the initial spawn has to be dealt with, before you can open the chest. I have found a summoned Fire Elemental to be a very handy companion when soloing T-Maps for a few reasons:

1. The Guardians will auto-target your toon when they spawn, even if you have a pet/summon, unless you time your hiding/invis spell just right. If you time your hiding/invis right, the spawn will target the Fire Elemental instead, since she's blue. Red summons (Rising Colossus, Energy Vortex) attack instantly when in range, but they aren't targeted by the spawn, unless targeted first by the red summon. So I find a blue summon much more helpful here. Once everything has targeted her, simply walk away.
2. You can heal blue summons, gaining spirituality in the process.
3. Blue summons can be commanded like pets. A Fire Elemental is quite fast and can easily chase down a Grubber, should one appear and steal some loot.
4. A summoned Fire Elemental can handle quite a bit without assistance. I have had them take down Titans, Daemons, Blood Elementals and Poison Elementals one-on-one, without assistance. With healing assistance, they can clear small Cache spawns (i.e. 4 Guardians), so long as they don't get dispelled, or there aren't multiple Ogre Lords (I simply can't cast heal fast enough).
5. She only takes 4 slots. You can remain mounted on an ethereal mount for a quick getaway, should the need arise. Once/if she dies, I dismount and start casting Rising Colossus to clear the rest.

There are a couple unique creatures in some spawns, which may be of interest to Tamers: Dragon Wolf, Frost Drakes and Frost Dragons. These are tamable and only spawn on Hoard and Trove chests in Trammel/Felucca (plus Malas & Ter Mur for the Dragon Wolf). There are no "natural" spawns for these mobs. However, they aren't particularly popular from a training perspective. Mostly just for bragging rights. They do not have the "Guardian" tag, so it is not required to kill them in order to open the chest. If you want to tame one, simply drag it away from the rest of the spawn. After you have finished the Chest, come back and tame it.


Opening the Chests
I have opted to GM Remove Trap. My thinking is, why waste time with mobs that give no loot (i.e. Ancient Guardians). I know that there is a way to do it with 0 Remove Trap, but seems a bit fiddly to me and requires a lot of running, hiding/invising and healing, since the Remove Trap process causes explosions every 10 seconds, revealing you and can do notable damage in the process. That seems like a lot of hassle to me, but I can understand why someone would want to use the 100 skill points elsewhere. At 100 Remove Trap, it usually takes longer than the "safety valve" timer to clear the initial spawn solo, so I rarely have to waste time killing Ancient Guardians.


Loot
I have read various posts, and it seems to me, that many (most??) people check the loot and only take things of real value (gold, specials/artis, scrolls, maps), but most of the armor/weapons they leave unless it has really nice stats. I usually loot everything, then take it home and sort thru it. The majority of the armor/weapons goes in the trash for CUB points. Between T-Hunting and Fishing I've racked up >250K CUB points, mainly by tossing the junk.


So there are my Tips 'n' Tricks which help me maximize my Treasure Hunting.

I look forward to Tips 'n' Tricks from others.

Happy Hunting!

 

[Groo]

For Ter Mur Supply Maps you can hunt Raptor's. Fairly good drop rate (but i kill a lot for the teeth)
For Hoard (any facet) i farm Myasma

 

[Basara]

For Malas maps, strangely, the quick way to get supply and cache maps is in TOKUNO. Down in the bottom of the Fan Dancer's Dojo, there's a level with demons, succubi and Balrons. For some odd reason, most of the maps down there (and on other levels from those spawns), you get Malas maps, not Tokuno. I think the only Tokuno maps I got on that level in that event last year, were from the Dancers. Everything else was Malas.

 

[Specialist]

trove lvl maps usually have a monster that can spawn on them thats unique for the facet hoards can also spawn them but much lower rate.... trammal/fel- frost dragons, tokuno- yamadons, ter mur- enraged colossus, malas-minotaur general, ilsh- renegade changeling. These spawn hoard and trove just less common on hoard.

 

[Thunderman]

Do you have to eye ball the locations a special way to find the locations? I am having trouble.

 

[DreadLord Lestat]

I eyeball them, I look at the land features around the treasure spot and then enlarge my map to make sure I can get in the right area. I have a macro to dig which basically uses the shovel to target the map and then leaves the targeting cursor up so I can click the ground and I go in circles and work my way from close to me outwards. I can usually find the spot within the first minute.