Thread: Unyielding Drake-Scales, where to get them?

I've check LOTROwiki and teh locations don't seem to be percise enough, I've wondered all over the areas listed, killed a number of drakes at each area I found, but no drops, are they just Very VERY rare or am I having bad luck?

if memory recalls i have seem the drop in Urugarth and the elite drakes on the way to the rift. i think they used to drop outside of aughaire where that series of drake quests take you (ie bloodwing). but i have not seen the drop there in awhile. btw hunters need to kiil drakes for a racial trait so you should be able to find some help if you dont want to solo theam all the time. Good Luck.

Big drake nest in the very SE of Angmar that drop them about 1 for every 2 drakes. Good hunting there.

You can also Skirmish for them, I've noticed. Check the Curiosities trader.

http://mehq.net/dynmap/index.php?mapId=13&lang=en

The drake nest Sylvan1 has mentioned is in Maethad, southeast corner of Angmar.
On the map I've linked you'll see a white circle labelled Skybreaker (a dragon boss) in that area, that's where you need to go to to get to the nest. There are pleanty of regular drakes in the same area that respawn fairly quickly and they drop the scales you're after. You don't have to fight the boss (and you'd have to fight through a fair number of regular drakes to get to the boss anyway).

Apologies for the thread necromancy, but I want to be certain I understand this.

I found the drakes in SE Angmar, but they seem to have a drop rate much less than 0.5, more like 0.2-0.3. I killed 13 for three scales - no way I'm going to kill ~100 of those 9000 morale Elites to get my stupid scales. (And even a drop rate of 0.5 is ridiculous considering how long it takes a Guardian to kill an Elite and how many scales we need - I optimistically hoped the drop rate would be 2-3 per drake when I went in). Since this thread mentioned drakes on the way to the Rift and inside Urugarth, I checked those too. No clue about drop rates though since I simply can't kill a 23000 morale Elite Master or a 50000+ morale Nemesis...

Skirmish cost is 900+ marks per five scales. My five characters who have passed level 20 have earned about that many marks combined, so this doesn't seem very practical either (especially considering I have a level 50 guardian with a soldier he last used around level 23 - lots of upgrades needed there if I ever do start skirmishing!).

The last option I know of is the AH, which seems entirely possible but extremely expensive (around 6g based on the prices I saw earlier today - no clue how supply or pricing fluctuates).

Honestly, I'd just say forget it and drop my class quests, but To The King is one of the few Guardian Legendaries that looks worth slotting. Am I missing any other options for getting these scales?

1. Get into a fellowship to do the drakescales. Yes, the drop rate is closer to 1 in 4. Killing Elite masters or Nemeses isn't the way to go.

OR

2. Slog it out solo.

OR

3. Wait until you're bigger. These guys go grey after awhile and you'll be able to farm them easily. Know a friendly level 65? get them to come help you now.

On my server, most people get a friendly person or three to come help them out. Also no one does Urugarth on level. I have soloed 90% of Urugarth at 65, and with 3 65s we just blow through. And there's always these class drops we can't use and don't need.

Lastly, you are never going to stop needing to do skirmishing for stuff. I personally think spending my skirmish marks should be saved for stuff other than class items. But you should start doing each skirmish that is available to you once daily (if you play that much). Skirmishes make a nice solo addition to the level 65 classic instances you'll need to be running later for superior 3rd marks, Helegrod marks, etc. At the very least you can be turning in skirmish marks for fused bronze relics to combine (something you should already be doing since you're level 50 and probably have your first LIs already -- if you don't, stop and go to eregion and get them).

I disagree on most people not doing it on level. Every weekend I see advertisements for Urugarth, and would wager you see a mixed group about 1/2 65ish and the other 1/2 45 - 58.

In fact, I just did this last weekend for my guardian class quest @45. Unfortunately, I didn't know that the drop rate was so bad in Angmar...otherwise I would have rolled more when I was in Uru. The drop rate used to be a lot higher...I killed 4 of those swamp drakes, and nothing. I also tried the ones near Aughaire, but no dice...gave up after 3. Fortunately, I only need 9 or 11 more, so I'll either kill a few more in Angmar to see if I get anything or go back to Uru on 65 champ and try solo the little drakes....if all else fails, I'll skirm for 'em (but I find it ironic they're as expensive as the Crimson Gothorog Horn). Sadly, I used to run Uru and CD alot back in the day... probably gave a bunch of these class quest items away (rolled the guard last year sometime)...seems a bit cheap to just buy the quest items w/ skirm marks.

Sorry to make this the thread that wouldn't die...

I think something must be amiss. I naively thought the worms in Western Malenhad would drop these scales and was hoping at a 1:3 to 1:4 drop rate, but these drop the clouded worm eyes instead. I got 7 of these eyes in about 15 minutes, so surely there is someplace that drops these scales at a similar rate. There's got to be.

Not to mention I tried three different routes to get over to Maethad from Malenhad, only to succumb to dread each time... Nasty section of Angmar, that is!!

Originally Posted by Gamer2

Sorry to make this the thread that wouldn't die...

I think something must be amiss. I naively thought the worms in Western Malenhad would drop these scales and was hoping at a 1:3 to 1:4 drop rate, but these drop the clouded worm eyes instead. I got 7 of these eyes in about 15 minutes, so surely there is someplace that drops these scales at a similar rate. There's got to be.

Not in the open world, no there isn't I'm afraid, you'll have to run the drakes in the Urugarth instance for drop rates like that.

As someone else said, like the other 2nd and 3rd level 45 class quest items, the easiest way to get them is using Skirmish marks for those that need group instances to get. Turbine made them barterable like that primarily to provide an alternative to having to do group instances when few players are interested in doing them any more and getting groups can take forever.

If it's your first character, it's a real pain, to be sure. When you get to the final tier of the quest, it gets even more fun REQUIRING items from uru/cd. However, a level 65 should have no problem at all with the 23k drakes under old BG in western angmar.

If you have a strong 65 guard you can solo most of Urugarth. I went through half of it including Lhugrien itself, but I had no time to continue. It's a nice place that you should visit, and will give tons of these class specific drops that you can sell in AH or keep for your alts. If soloing is too hard, bring a friend and share the plunder, there are probably many healers on your server who would be interested in some class loots.

It is a nice break from skirmish farming, and (not to repeat myself) a place well worth a visit.

I killed the elite drakes in SE Angmar over by teh dwarven stronghold. I had help, thankfully, but they dropped 1 scale in every 2 or 3 kills. Since my friends were so generous to help, we cleared the area rather quickly and got all the drops I needed in under an hour. It *would* have taken much less time, but another group of people came in and we had leap frog mobs, so the rotation kills slowed down some. But otherwise, it went fast enough.

Originally Posted by Gamer2

Sorry to make this the thread that wouldn't die...

I think something must be amiss. I naively thought the worms in Western Malenhad would drop these scales and was hoping at a 1:3 to 1:4 drop rate, but these drop the clouded worm eyes instead. I got 7 of these eyes in about 15 minutes, so surely there is someplace that drops these scales at a similar rate. There's got to be.

Not to mention I tried three different routes to get over to Maethad from Malenhad, only to succumb to dread each time... Nasty section of Angmar, that is!!

Yes if you haven't done it you have to complete the book quest line there in Aughaire (it doesn't take long) before you can get past the statues there in the swamp to the otherside. The Line of Death will get you everytime. That questline is a must for questing in Angmar. It's independent of the rest of the volume I so you can do it without having done the rest of the Volume I if you haven't done it.

I visited the drakes nest in SE Angmar today.. drop rate was now much better, 8-9 out of 10.

Originally Posted by Naram-Suen

I visited the drakes nest in SE Angmar today.. drop rate was now much better, 8-9 out of 10.

Really? Me an a 75 hunter went back there and only pulled Pristine hides! They seem to drop much better back in the Rift for me.

Originally Posted by Winnower

1. Get into a fellowship to do the drakescales. Yes, the drop rate is closer to 1 in 4. Killing Elite masters or Nemeses isn't the way to go.

OR

2. Slog it out solo.

OR

3. Wait until you're bigger. These guys go grey after awhile and you'll be able to farm them easily. Know a friendly level 65? get them to come help you now.

On my server, most people get a friendly person or three to come help them out. Also no one does Urugarth on level. I have soloed 90% of Urugarth at 65, and with 3 65s we just blow through. And there's always these class drops we can't use and don't need.

Lastly, you are never going to stop needing to do skirmishing for stuff. I personally think spending my skirmish marks should be saved for stuff other than class items. But you should start doing each skirmish that is available to you once daily (if you play that much). Skirmishes make a nice solo addition to the level 65 classic instances you'll need to be running later for superior 3rd marks, Helegrod marks, etc. At the very least you can be turning in skirmish marks for fused bronze relics to combine (something you should already be doing since you're level 50 and probably have your first LIs already -- if you don't, stop and go to eregion and get them).

A bit late on the reply here, but I've had a bit of trouble harvesting these myself (solo @ lvl 56 I can barely beat these dragons). As an alternative, the drake scales also drop from regular, non-elite dragonets in Moria. No idea about drop rate etc though.

Originally Posted by Parogar

A bit late on the reply here, but I've had a bit of trouble harvesting these myself (solo @ lvl 56 I can barely beat these dragons). As an alternative, the drake scales also drop from regular, non-elite dragonets in Moria. No idea about drop rate etc though.

I'm currently bashing Dragonets in the Silvertine Lodes area of Moria, and I'm pleased to find that they are dropping 'unyielding drake-scales'. I can't comment much about drop rates yet, but at 2,479 morale they are alot more pleasant than those beasts up in SE Angmar. Happy hunting!

Geldareg of Lorien (Arkenstone)
lvl 49 Guardian

Dragonets have another perk to them as well:
http://lotro-wiki.com/index.php/Drag...yer_(Advanced)

You can grind out the deed, get your +virtue and TP.