General Shar Vahl Quest Advice by Arou

First, if you are looking for a creature and dont see it, your best option for getting it to spawn is a scorched earth policy. That is, kill everything in the area... I mean everything. Many creatures seem to have place holders or be semi-random spawns. Killing everything makes sure that the area has the maximum chance of respawning the things you are looking for. This is a good policy if you are looking for a particular creature or a particular kind of drop off a type of creature.

This policy works especially well in places like the Shar Vahl pit. Don't wait for young rockhoppers to show up on their own. Kill everything and very quickly you will see them start showing up more and more.

Second, if you kill everything and still dont see what you want within a couple of hours, you are probably looking in the wrong place. I have not seen very much that has a longer spawn time or more difficult place holder. Certianly not for something that characters below level 30 would attempt. Verant has seemed to realize with the newer expansions that excessively long spawn times are not the way to limit access to items; people simply camp until it comes up or learn the exact time and pop in just at the right moment. They seem more interested in triggered spawns in recent expansions. So, if you dont see at least some progress in the given time, begin looking for alternate sources or more information, maybe even in another zone.

Again, in the pit around Shar Vahl, there are "areas" where certain creatures are more common. If you are looking for xakra larva, try under the south bridge for example.

Third, take some notes and ask some questions. Its really easy to have a pad of paper and a pencil next to you when you are playing. When you talk to an NPC, write down his name and location and maybe a few of his keywords or quest details. Hunting up some of the components for these quests or working your trade skill up to an acceptable level may take a long time and you could easily forget who it was gave you the quest or what that person wanted. This practice is also very helpful for coming back to these boards and sharing what you know with everyone... they will think very highly of you if you can give good information! Remember too that someone in that zone is probably working or has worked on the same quest, so asking questions in /ooc is a good bet too.

An example of this is the Rogue vah shir quest for boiled rockhopper eggs. You will have to spend a goodly amount of time killing hoppers until you get the eggs, then find a merchant who sells spices, skill up in baking, make the product, go to another zone to find an NPC, and return. This can easily take a few hours, but asking for locations of the NPCs (and being able to share the ones you know) helps a lot.

Fourth, if you find something and it is "No Drop", you can bet it is used by someone for some quest somewhere. Since these things arent going to earn you any cash, you probably want to think twice about looting them. Instead, asking what they are for and offering them to those that can use them helps everyone involved.

Young rockhoppers in the Shar Vahl pit drop gravel tea leaves, claws, eggs, and other things useful to several different classes. You will get more claws for yourself if you offer the rest to the people looking for those items.

Hope some of this basic information helps you get your beginning quests done more smoothly!

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