Samatman wrote:
I'm gonna take a weird position on the whole camp / placeholder / rare spawn thing. To me it can be a love hate kinda thing. If you just walked in, killed the mob, looted, and went off to the next thing, would there be any sense of relief/accomplishment when you finished?
Yes, I would. If only because I dodged the bullet that other people had to take in the gut. I also don't think 'time spent' equates to difficulty so rare drops are, to me, a timesink designed by unimaginative people who don't have the time, resources, or creativity to create difficult tasks without just making it take more time sitting around doing little. It's like what SOE did in early Kunark when they moved "uber" loot like the Necklace of Superiority (which used to drop in Dalnir) and Blade of the Black Dragon Eye (Sebilis) from "easy" zones and mobs to HS and VP. That was an example of adding difficulty to an item's acquisition, rather than just making it more rare (and thus, take more time to get it).
I've never had a particularly bad epic camp. Between 7 2.0'd clerics, two SKs, and most other classes, I've done pretty much all of them. I believe 6 hours was the longest static (i.e. me sitting at the camp, actively at the keyboard) camp I've done. I always used Gimblox and human Rage as PLing opportunities for my littler characters (or alts of friends) so it was never particularly onerous. Heck, I have to do Raster again for my little monk and even if I don't do it with a crew supporting her, I don't see it being difficult or time consuming (given the mudflation of the game).
Worst camp I've done is Jed Sticklebush for the half elf mask. I think I've averaged 27 hours per mask so far (and still have 4 more to get).