Shft
Legend
Preface
Hello,
my name is Neil and I have been going by Shft in the Free to Play (F2P, 20-24) bracket since almost the very beginning of unlimited F2P. While I have since moved on from playing my 20s, I spent a lot of time searching for BiS BoE blues. Since F2P accounts cannot trade or use mail and the auction house, the only real way to acquire these world drop BoEs is from chests that spawn in appropriate level zones.
This thread is inspired by Kale's and Trialcasual's previous threads about chest farming. (Kale seems to have deleted all of the original posts out of his started threads for some unknown reason, you can find a screenshot of the OP on page 17) While I took the majority of the screenshots provided here were taken by myself many of the screenshots were taken by Harleybow, without whom this thread would not be possible. Using Harley's info I myself often found the locations of the chests and took my own screenshots for consistency. I'd also like to thank Bieberfeverrr, Rhaellia, Decem, and Sabekith for their contributions to the guide in one way or another.
The point of this guide is to provide direction to any F2P, 19, or even 24 looking to find BoE blue items that they could not otherwise obtain due to a trial account or possibly gold constraints. If you've just finished leveling your 20 Priest, 19 Warrior, or 24 Druid and are looking for items such as a Magician's Mantle, Thorbia's Gauntlets, or a Silver-Lined Belt this is the guide for you.
There are basically 7 viable zones to farm chests in for BoEs. The level of the zone is directly related to the level of the BoEs the chests contain. A 20-25 zone will contain the lowest level BoEs. If you look for chests in lower level zones you will find that there are no blues in the chests, only greens. Of course, the greens aren't really worth anything. If you search for chests in higher level zones such a 25-30 zones you will find higher level BoEs such as Silver-Lined Belt (you can also find this particular item in the 20-25 zones) as well as a smaller amount of lower level BoEs.
With that said, the 7 zones are Stonetalon Mountains, Ashenvale, Hillsbrad Foothills, Wetlands, Arathi Highlands, and Stranglethorn Vale. Stonetalon, Ashenvale, Hillsbrad, and Wetlands are of the appropriate level for the BoEs F2Ps will want most. Arathi Highlands and Stranglethorn vale are higher level zones and are generally a waste of time for F2Ps to search for chests in. That being said, Arathi Highlands has a few chest spawns which are barely out of the way when moving from Hillsbrad Foothills to Wetlands and thus I think it is worth it for F2Ps and especially higher level P2Ps to check some if not all of the locations. Bear in mind that since it is a higher level zone F2Ps might very well have trouble with some of the mobs and thus some classes might need help or might just have to skip Arathi and even some locations in other zones.
My personal experience has been that Stonetalon Mountains is the best location to farm because of the low amount of players who quest in that zone. I have also found that Duskwood is by far the worst zone search for chests in because of the extremely high amount of players. This is because of the extreme popularity of humans at this point in the game an also because the human starting zone is one of the quickest zones to quest in. Another thing to mention, most if not all of the chests in Duskwood are very near to quest objectives, causing them to be easily found by questers and thus found less by those of us searching for BoEs. Since for me Duskwood has given very poor turnouts for chests I have chosen to not visit Duskwood at all and thus Stranglethorn Vale has been excluded from the guide because it is both out of the way from my normal route and also higher level.
Another thing to keep in mind is that even though I have had the most success in Stonetalon and the least in Duskwood doesn't mean that your experience will be the same. I suggest to make a route of all the zones if you are seriously dedicating yourself to finding that precious BoE.
The last thing I have to say to preface the guide is something obvious but most likely overlooked: what times to search for chests? If you're a P2P you can check chests really fast with 280+ flying and even 150% flying but if you're a F2P checking chests is going to take you a lot longer, You aren't one-shotting the mobs around, you aren't shooting across the continent very fast, so what is the best way to spend your time? Well, as indicated in one of the original chest threads, chests seem to have a spawn time of somewhere around 8 hours. Blizzard doesn't give out data like this so we can really only guess. I wouldn't expect a chest to respawn exactly 8 hours from when you last looted it. With this 8 hour time frame in mind though we can pick apart times and find a good time to farm chests. Obviously not everyone will be able to farm at the optimal time due to school or work or because they are from the EU. My best luck with chests has been anywhere from ~8 hours after the start of prime time on your server until the morning. From morning to mid-day when lots of players get off work, get out of school, or finish classes is also a solid time to search for chests.
Hello,
my name is Neil and I have been going by Shft in the Free to Play (F2P, 20-24) bracket since almost the very beginning of unlimited F2P. While I have since moved on from playing my 20s, I spent a lot of time searching for BiS BoE blues. Since F2P accounts cannot trade or use mail and the auction house, the only real way to acquire these world drop BoEs is from chests that spawn in appropriate level zones.
This thread is inspired by Kale's and Trialcasual's previous threads about chest farming. (Kale seems to have deleted all of the original posts out of his started threads for some unknown reason, you can find a screenshot of the OP on page 17) While I took the majority of the screenshots provided here were taken by myself many of the screenshots were taken by Harleybow, without whom this thread would not be possible. Using Harley's info I myself often found the locations of the chests and took my own screenshots for consistency. I'd also like to thank Bieberfeverrr, Rhaellia, Decem, and Sabekith for their contributions to the guide in one way or another.
The point of this guide is to provide direction to any F2P, 19, or even 24 looking to find BoE blue items that they could not otherwise obtain due to a trial account or possibly gold constraints. If you've just finished leveling your 20 Priest, 19 Warrior, or 24 Druid and are looking for items such as a Magician's Mantle, Thorbia's Gauntlets, or a Silver-Lined Belt this is the guide for you.
There are basically 7 viable zones to farm chests in for BoEs. The level of the zone is directly related to the level of the BoEs the chests contain. A 20-25 zone will contain the lowest level BoEs. If you look for chests in lower level zones you will find that there are no blues in the chests, only greens. Of course, the greens aren't really worth anything. If you search for chests in higher level zones such a 25-30 zones you will find higher level BoEs such as Silver-Lined Belt (you can also find this particular item in the 20-25 zones) as well as a smaller amount of lower level BoEs.
With that said, the 7 zones are Stonetalon Mountains, Ashenvale, Hillsbrad Foothills, Wetlands, Arathi Highlands, and Stranglethorn Vale. Stonetalon, Ashenvale, Hillsbrad, and Wetlands are of the appropriate level for the BoEs F2Ps will want most. Arathi Highlands and Stranglethorn vale are higher level zones and are generally a waste of time for F2Ps to search for chests in. That being said, Arathi Highlands has a few chest spawns which are barely out of the way when moving from Hillsbrad Foothills to Wetlands and thus I think it is worth it for F2Ps and especially higher level P2Ps to check some if not all of the locations. Bear in mind that since it is a higher level zone F2Ps might very well have trouble with some of the mobs and thus some classes might need help or might just have to skip Arathi and even some locations in other zones.
My personal experience has been that Stonetalon Mountains is the best location to farm because of the low amount of players who quest in that zone. I have also found that Duskwood is by far the worst zone search for chests in because of the extremely high amount of players. This is because of the extreme popularity of humans at this point in the game an also because the human starting zone is one of the quickest zones to quest in. Another thing to mention, most if not all of the chests in Duskwood are very near to quest objectives, causing them to be easily found by questers and thus found less by those of us searching for BoEs. Since for me Duskwood has given very poor turnouts for chests I have chosen to not visit Duskwood at all and thus Stranglethorn Vale has been excluded from the guide because it is both out of the way from my normal route and also higher level.
Another thing to keep in mind is that even though I have had the most success in Stonetalon and the least in Duskwood doesn't mean that your experience will be the same. I suggest to make a route of all the zones if you are seriously dedicating yourself to finding that precious BoE.
The last thing I have to say to preface the guide is something obvious but most likely overlooked: what times to search for chests? If you're a P2P you can check chests really fast with 280+ flying and even 150% flying but if you're a F2P checking chests is going to take you a lot longer, You aren't one-shotting the mobs around, you aren't shooting across the continent very fast, so what is the best way to spend your time? Well, as indicated in one of the original chest threads, chests seem to have a spawn time of somewhere around 8 hours. Blizzard doesn't give out data like this so we can really only guess. I wouldn't expect a chest to respawn exactly 8 hours from when you last looted it. With this 8 hour time frame in mind though we can pick apart times and find a good time to farm chests. Obviously not everyone will be able to farm at the optimal time due to school or work or because they are from the EU. My best luck with chests has been anywhere from ~8 hours after the start of prime time on your server until the morning. From morning to mid-day when lots of players get off work, get out of school, or finish classes is also a solid time to search for chests.
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