I would like to ask for clarification about the current spawn mechanic of 102355 [Stealthy Guardian], which is related to the [30,000 cards!] (530378) title.
According to the old known information, 102355 [Stealthy Guardian] used to spawn directly at known locations. The respawn time shown for this mob was:
Minimum: 4 minutes 12 seconds
Average: 6 minutes
Maximum: 7 minutes 47 seconds
The old known 102355 [Stealthy Guardian] locations were:
16.1 / 24.2
18.5 / 58.5
19.9 / 51.9
21.0 / 79.4
26.4 / 27.5
28.6 / 55.6
34.0 / 51.9
51.2 / 47.6
So, based on the old information, there were 8 known direct spawn locations for 102355 [Stealthy Guardian]. With an average respawn time of around 6 minutes, this meant that players could theoretically check around 80 102355 [Stealthy Guardian] spawns per hour.
However, the current situation seems to be different.
According to the current ItemPreview data, 102163 [Corpse Guardian] shows the following respawn information:
Respawn:
102355 [Stealthy Guardian] 5%
I also tested this in the zone. During my first full clear, I found the following mobs:
1x 102355 [Stealthy Guardian]
12x 102163 [Corpse Guardian]
12x 102159 [Stone Guardian]
8x 102160 [Cold Steel Guardian]
13x 102161 [Horned Guardian]
6x 102162 [Chaos Bringer]
10x 102164 [Evil Bone Guardian]
During my second clear, I found 2x 102355 [Stealthy Guardian].
This seems to support the current ItemPreview data. It looks like 102355 [Stealthy Guardian] is no longer a direct/static spawn in the old way. Instead, it seems to appear as a 5% respawn variant from the 102163 [Corpse Guardian] spawn family.
If this is correct, the current mechanic seems to work like this:
102163 [Corpse Guardian] is killed.
On respawn, it has a 95% chance to return as 102163 [Corpse Guardian].
On respawn, it has a 5% chance to appear as 102355 [Stealthy Guardian].
102355 [Stealthy Guardian] can then be killed to obtain 205631 [Unprocessed Rune Energy Fragment].
205631 [Unprocessed Rune Energy Fragment] is processed into 205644 [Rune Energy Splinter Bag].
[30,000 cards!] (530378) is then obtained as a rare result from 205644 [Rune Energy Splinter Bag].
The problem is the overall difficulty increase.
The [30,000 cards!] (530378) title is already a very rare result from 205644 [Rune Energy Splinter Bag]. Based on the known bag mechanic, the estimated chance is approximately:
1 / 4005
About 0.0249%
This means approximately:
100 bags: about 2.47% chance
500 bags: about 11.74% chance
1000 bags: about 22.10% chance
2000 bags: about 39.31% chance
4005 bags: about 63.22% chance
5000 bags: about 71.31% chance
8000 bags: about 86.44% chance
12000 bags: about 95.00% chance
So even 4005 bags are not a guaranteed title. It is only around a 63% success chance.
With the old system, if players could check 8 direct 102355 [Stealthy Guardian] locations every 6 minutes, that was theoretically around:
80x 102355 [Stealthy Guardian] checks per hour
With the current system, if there are around 13 relevant 102163 [Corpse Guardian] family spawn points and only 5% of them can become 102355 [Stealthy Guardian], the expected number is:
13 x 0.05 = 0.65 102355 per 6-minute cycle
That means approximately:
6.5x 102355 [Stealthy Guardian] checks per hour
So the comparison is roughly:
Old system: about 80x 102355 [Stealthy Guardian] checks per hour
Current system: about 6.5x 102355 [Stealthy Guardian] checks per hour
This is around a 12x difficulty increase for farming the source mob.
And this is still the optimistic calculation, assuming that every 102355 [Stealthy Guardian] gives 205631 [Unprocessed Rune Energy Fragment]. If the drop rate is not 100%, the real time required becomes even longer.
For example, only counting the amount of 102355 [Stealthy Guardian] checks needed for bag attempts:
4005 bag attempts:
Old system:
4005 / 80 = about 50 hours
Current system:
4005 / 6.5 = about 616 hours
5000 bag attempts:
Old system:
about 62.5 hours
Current system:
about 769 hours
8000 bag attempts:
Old system:
about 100 hours
Current system:
about 1231 hours
12000 bag attempts:
Old system:
about 150 hours
Current system:
about 1846 hours
Because of this, if this change was intentional, the [30,000 cards!] (530378) title has become much harder than before.
My main questions are:
Was the 102355 [Stealthy Guardian] spawn mechanic intentionally changed?
Did 102355 [Stealthy Guardian] intentionally move from direct known spawns to a 5% respawn variant of 102163 [Corpse Guardian]?
If this was intentional, in which patch was this change made?
I could not find this change mentioned in the patch notes. If it was mentioned somewhere, could you please point me to the relevant patch note?
If this was not intentional, could this be a spawn/script issue or an unintended side effect of another update?
The main concern is this:
[30,000 cards!] (530378) already requires a very rare result from 205644 [Rune Energy Splinter Bag].
Now the source mob for 205631 [Unprocessed Rune Energy Fragment] also seems to be locked behind a 5% respawn variant.
This makes the title much harder than before, possibly to an unreasonable level in terms of player time.
Could you please clarify whether this is the intended current mechanic?
Thank you.