Vik's Collector Tips

This is a page with several random tricks and tips about playing the collector class.

General info

In my opinion, the most important thing for a collector is going to quests at exactly the right times and places instead of simply farming only swamp quests for more pelt or just randomly picking quests. A collector with a great stamina management and useful quest time execution is an invaluable player in a guild. But don't worry, there are very comfortable tools to help with that. In general, you can check out Drop Time Overviews for an overview of tools that GeckoBot provides to help with that task.

About drop tables

I can imagine that remembering drop times for all tiers of gear quickly becomes too much. I can also imagine that some players simply have time to quest at one random point in their real life, but still want to get the most valuable drops for that timeframe. That's why GeckoBot offers overviews about "which items drop now". If you want to go questing now, you can check this reference to get the most out of your stamina. I advise you to check out Drop Time Overviews for detailed info about these tools and how to use them. The two relevant commands are /drops (/drops guide) and /current_drops (/current_drops guide). They are made to help figuring out where to quest if you have time to quest just right now.

Personal advice about questing preferences

In general, I'd advice you to study the drop time tables per tier to fill missing parts and recipes for your guild alongside that I have some tips for an optimal strategy per tier:

Player level range	Perception level	Explanation	Link to overview
L20-L21	n/a	no parts and recipes can drop, just go forest for more thread or swamp for pelt	n/a
L22-L31	Perception 1	📗T2 drops are here. Maybe focus on getting your own hunter gear. Night quests give more valuable parts and recipes. Go swamp and valley for parts and recipes, ignore forest quests	📗List of T2 drop times
L32-L39	Perception 2	Now you can find the 📘T3 cloak parts and recipes (Storm Cloak, Durable Cloak and Blessed Cloak) and as well the simple 📘T3 weapons (Thundersoul Sword, Guard's Spear, Composite Bow, Imperial Axe). The cloak items are more valuable, but drop at any time in swamp and valley. So no need to concentrate on anything. Just ignore forest questing again. Sadly 📗T2 items still drop and reduce the 📘T3 output.	📘List of T3 drop times
L40-L45	Perception 3	The cloak items stop dropping and no 📗T2 drops anymore, too. The most valuable items for you are the lion items. Lion helmet is a day drop, Lion boots, armor and gloves are an evening drop. I suggest you to focus on swamp and valley during day and evening. If you are pushing for one of the advanced 📘T3 weapons, check the drop times table to find out where and when you have to quest.	📘List of T3 drop times
L46-L59	Percpetion 4	All 📘T3 items stop dropping and instead you find 📙T4 items. The drop times are more random now, you can't rely on parts dropping in swamp and recipes in valley like all the previous tiers. For specific crafts you really need to check the drop times table and focus at the correct times. Personally, I consider questing in valley most useful most of the time, because the Assault Cape parts drop there and the parts for Nightfall Bow too.	📙List of T4 drop times
L60+	Perception 5	📙T4 items stop dropping, instead you only find 📒T5 items. My experience is, that Manticore Helmet and Manticore Armor stuff drops in generous amounts and you don't really have to farm for that. As of today (2021-06-01), the 📒T5 cloaks were released just recently and the parts are very valuable. Onslaught Cape parts drop at forest morning, which I consider the best time to quest right now. At other in-game times, I can suggest questing at forest evening for Windstalker Bow parts, which are also very valuable. At night time, again in forest, the very rare Manticore Gloves recipe drop. But in the end, you need to find out yourself what you need and where you have to quest for your needs.	📒List of T5 drop times

Which /mem class?

A very important thing in the game is the choice of the /mem or /mes class, in other words which class you want to combine with a collector. I'll discuss each class below. As of now (2021-06-01), I think the best choice is picking ranger, due to incredible synergies with the skills. I'll explain in detail below.

Esqirues

All esquire classes add a lot of potential in terms of attack or defense values to the Collector, if combined. This makes the character more valuable in all battle types.

Ranger

Combining Ranger with Collector creates a very OP character, due to very useful skill synergies. Being a ranger provides the skill Power Napping, which reduces the time to regenerate stamina, when the character is at "🛌Rest". But a reduced stamina regeneration time means that the player can do more quests in the same time. And doing more quests for a collector means that "Gifted Pathfinder" can trigger more often. In other words: Power Napping increases the output of "Gifted Pathfinder", making it even stronger, giving the possibility to quest very often.

Note: On higher levels with a high GP and a high PN skill, this can start to be really challenging, to quest down all stamina and not let it overflow..

But if you're willing to be very active and take the challenge of managing an insane amount of stamina, then this class combination discloses its full potential. FYI: Power Napping on high levels means stamina regeneration every 45 minutes. This is 25% faster than normally. This means 25% more quests that can trigger Gifted Pathfinder. So in total, you will get even more than 25% more quests than other players. I estimate around 30% more. This also means 30% more loot, parts, recipes... everything.

Yes, it is challenging. But it's worth it. Another aspect of Ranger/Collector is the possibility to use a bow and aim. At higher levels, the full aim time is 40min. If you optimize for XP gain, you can try to aim just after your stamina regenerated, if you prefer helping with lots of stats in battles, you can go for the full aim time. Example: As a first /mem cycle player with class Ranger/Collector at only L64, I reached up to 1400⚔️. These numbers can be very relevant in castle or alliance battles, both.

Knight

Being a Knight/Collector does not provide as many synergies as with a Ranger, but if you go for Knight/Collector instead of Collector/Knight, you are effectively an improved normal knight with the ability to find the most relevant items in the game, while providing very decent attack stats in battles. You'll play with Sword/Dagger, which offers the best potential to actually win the weekly arena title, due to the stat bonus in arena when having equipped a dagger or a shield. But most players combine Ranger or Alchemist as secondary class and don't use dagger and shield. Still being a bit "old school" and using a dagger pays off there. Also, being a Collector gives access to Off-Hand Mastery, giving +3⚔️ per skill point if having equipped a dagger or +3🛡 if having equipped a shield. For players with arrows or potions in off hand, this skill is completely useless. So Off-Hand Mastery adds up a decent amount of stats for Knight/Collectors.

A disadvantage of this class combination is, that Knights gain a lot of their XP from pledges. But for pledges, you need to foray. And foraying does not trigger GP. So every foray wastes a bit of the strong collector potential. As of now (2021-06-01), getting pledges is supposed to be much easier. So it could be worth it to do only a couple of forays to stack up the first three (most valuable) pledges and then hurry up to do real quests again for GP and valuable loot.

Sentinel

Being a Sentinel/Collector or Collector/Sentinel adds the "Trader" game mechanic to the game play, in other words the trader appears after a caught foray and offers to trade a decent amount of a resources for 2💰 per resource. This is a very nice way to deal with overflowing stock and inventory. Just trade your silver ore or sticks for some gold. The trader gives more gold per resource than selling it for 1💰 in exchange, so it's always worth it to take his offer to trade. Make sure you always have a few hundred of a single resource type ready.

Advanced Skills

Picky Eater

Picky Eater is typically considered to be a useless skill, but I disagree with this. Using Picky Eater lets you select resources to reject. Rejecting a resource means you will not get this resource in quests anymore and any potential drop could be rerolled instead. This means that instead of a rejected resource, you obtain a different resource. By selecting common resources on Picky Eater you get a lot of rerolls that can get you more valuable resources, or even parts and recipes.

Level	Number of rejectable resources	Player level unlock
1	2	50
2	2	55
3	3	60
4	3	65
5	4	70
6	4	75

Leveling up Picky Eater allows you to reject more types of resources and also increases the chance to reroll. Using Picky Eater to obtain more expensive loot pays itself back quickly!

It's a trap (For Collector/Ranger players)

Trapping players with regular traps is not worth the gold investment to buy the traps. But skilling "It's a Trap" higher -- at least to L3 -- gives access to buy other items. And one of them is very interesting:

/use_trp_tow

Crafted: Observer ward x1

Equipping an Observer Ward in you Off Hand slot, works basically like regular traps. Going to quest with it can set up the Observer Ward. But instead of players from enemy castles triggering it, the Observer Ward will be triggered by a questing player of the same castle. If the Ward is triggered, the player who set it up gets a buff for 30min which increases the chance for encounters after quests. AKA: Go questing with the buff again, finish all encounters and enjoy all the bonus XP you get from it. Investing the gold to buy the Observer Ward in the first place pays off once you gain decently more XP in the following quests. Also: you don_'t need to equip an Observer Ward in every quest. Equip it once, wait for it to trigger, then go questing like you'd normally do. The buff will stay and there is no need to refrest the buff by setting up another ward directly after the first one.