Thread: Starlight Crystals Drop Rate?

Just trying to get an idea of drop rate for these.

Ran 30 skirmishes all tier 1 level 75, mix of solo, duo and 3 man.

no crystals.

looked for another thread with this info but did not see one.

post your results let us see if we can figure out a drop rate

Does it drop? Kinda figured it was store bought only.


Oh well, not that I know anything

I've seen them drop a couple times in skirm raids. Every time in 6man instances T2. A few times in T1

A lot in Moria + up 6-man instances. I have two of them myself, so at this point it's not like the elusive stat tomes. They are level-gated though - the ones you get in Moria can only be used on items up to level 65. But they seem to have a pretty healthy drop rate at this point, or I've just been supernaturally lucky.

Then again I seem to find a lootbox key almost every day too, and I don't grind for them or for boxes. Ever. So take it for what it's worth.

Originally Posted by Belegval

Just trying to get an idea of drop rate for these.

Ran 30 skirmishes all tier 1 level 75, mix of solo, duo and 3 man.

no crystals.

looked for another thread with this info but did not see one.

post your results let us see if we can figure out a drop rate

so far my drop rate...

1/8 T1 fangorn's Egde
2/4 T2 Foundry
1/1 Turtle Raid

and the dev notes do say that it is an extremely rare drop from solo skirm. drop rates increase with more people or higher tier.

Does anyone know offhand if there is an increased drop-rate when running a skirmish solo that is set to 3-man?

Originally Posted by Ranilin

Does anyone know offhand if there is an increased drop-rate when running a skirmish solo that is set to 3-man?

It's probably just the same as if you were running a 3 man with 3 people. No reason why it should be any different, IMO.

Folks have been putting drop rates in here: http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.p...drop-locations



"Sometimes survival comes down to not being hit. Actually, most times." -the chicken skill, Bob and Weave

LoTRO Store 2/2

Just another rare item they obviously added so that you head to their store to buy it. I never have liked the LI weapon system in this game in the first place. I see now why they made it the way it is, as they planned all along to make money off this in their store.

I picked one up in Angmar last night back with the drakes and giants, was suprised to see it on a landscape mob.

I had one drop in a 6 man t1 storm of methedras on the drake boss.

Done a few solo skirms in the past few days and had not had any drop.

I saw a whole bunch (L65 variety) drop whilst doing DN earlier today.

Last night a kin member and I did about 6 to 7 skirmishes for funsies. They were all level 75, a few were tier2 and a few were tier1. We never saw a crystal; however, we weren't trying to grind for one, so we weren't disappointed.

Got 2 on Friday in a Draigoch run - seemed to replace the symbols. We got 5 scales, 2 helm, 2 shoulder tokens, 2 crystals, but no symbols. Which seems good to me; most people would rather have crystals than symbols at this point.

Yet another reason to farm Draigoch

I've got one from a lv75 skirmish, Duo, Tier 3. Dropped from a random lieutenant along the way. I haven't exactly done any excessive research on the drop rate though, as I've only done a few skirms since U7.

Originally Posted by sensyi

LoTRO Store 2/2

Lol, + rep

I've found one today, in a solo lv75 skirmish (attack at dawn) dropped from a lieutenant. Haven't done many skirmishes, though, this must've been the 8th or 9th since U7

0/9 T1 skraids
0/8 Foundry T2
0/7 RoF T2
0/2 Dragon
1/1 Sarumon T1

I have seen one drop since the patch and have grouped and raided every night. But you can have nearly a FA for $15 so there's that.

0/2 Level 66 skirms
1/1 T2C Lightning Wing
0/1 Foundry T2

I haven't been keeping track of the exact numbers but we saw a decent amount drops in the first few days, 12 mans down to solos. This was over 50+ runs.

The rate has seemed to drop sharply as of late. I wonder if turbine pulled the old make the drop rate decent as first then stealth nerf it and force people to the store trick.

Originally Posted by Webby189

The rate has seemed to drop sharply as of late. I wonder if turbine pulled the old make the drop rate decent as first then stealth nerf it and force people to the store trick.

That trick won't work for me.

There's also a common reason for why people think such "stealth nerfs" happen - it's part of human nature. Think of the drop rate being set to 1% per instance. You do 10 instances, get 1 crystal, and the thoughts are "wow, that's 10% drop rate" and so on. You do another 10 instance, get another crystal, and think "wow, it's still 10% drop rate".

After finding these two crystals within a short period of time, your extraordinary luck takes a turn and things start to balance out; you do 30 more instances and get no crystals, and think that it's been nerfed. 2 crystals total out of 50 instances is "only" 4% drop rate, a significant change to your previous 10%. It will feel like a huge nerf, even though in such example you have had four times bigger drop rate than the intended average of 1%.

If you want to trust the numbers, you will have to combine stats from preferably several thousands of runs, if not tens of thousands. At that point, we can make "an educated guess" of what the real chances for crystals to drop are. With any numbers represented in this thread, luck has a huge role.

Originally Posted by Elaida

That trick won't work for me.

There's also a common reason for why people think such "stealth nerfs" happen - it's part of human nature. Think of the drop rate being set to 1% per instance. You do 10 instances, get 1 crystal, and the thoughts are "wow, that's 10% drop rate" and so on. You do another 10 instance, get another crystal, and think "wow, it's still 10% drop rate".

After finding these two crystals within a short period of time, your extraordinary luck takes a turn and things start to balance out; you do 30 more instances and get no crystals, and think that it's been nerfed. 2 crystals total out of 50 instances is "only" 4% drop rate, a significant change to your previous 10%. It will feel like a huge nerf, even though in such example you have had four times bigger drop rate than the intended average of 1%.

If you want to trust the numbers, you will have to combine stats from preferably several thousands of runs, if not tens of thousands. At that point, we can make "an educated guess" of what the real chances for crystals to drop are. With any numbers represented in this thread, luck has a huge role.

There's a another reason people think stealth nerfs happen:

They sometimes do.

Take, for instance, Halls of Crafting. For over a month, the Miniature Brass Anvil dropped like candy. It got to the point where we gave them to Minis and Hunters just for kicks. And then, *poof*! Update 8.1 came along, and people farmed HoC 50, 60, 70 times never to see it. The old bait-and-switch by Turbine. Maybe premeditated, maybe not. But they're certainly going to raise eyebrows now that the store is involved. We've already seen them adjust the price of empowerment scrolls when the store business dropped. It's not out of the realm of possibility that they'd do something similar to the drop rate of SlCs if they become too convenient to get in-game.

Originally Posted by Elaida

That trick won't work for me.

There's also a common reason for why people think such "stealth nerfs" happen - it's part of human nature. Think of the drop rate being set to 1% per instance. You do 10 instances, get 1 crystal, and the thoughts are "wow, that's 10% drop rate" and so on. You do another 10 instance, get another crystal, and think "wow, it's still 10% drop rate".

After finding these two crystals within a short period of time, your extraordinary luck takes a turn and things start to balance out; you do 30 more instances and get no crystals, and think that it's been nerfed. 2 crystals total out of 50 instances is "only" 4% drop rate, a significant change to your previous 10%. It will feel like a huge nerf, even though in such example you have had four times bigger drop rate than the intended average of 1%.

If you want to trust the numbers, you will have to combine stats from preferably several thousands of runs, if not tens of thousands. At that point, we can make "an educated guess" of what the real chances for crystals to drop are. With any numbers represented in this thread, luck has a huge role.

Normally I would agree with this, but when it goes from dropping everytime in ToO wings (about 7 wings on different toons) one week to no times in ToO (5 wings on different toons) the following week it sets bells off in my head. I don't feel like doing the math but I can assure you that the probability of that happening with the same drop rate is very low.

I will agree that the numbers are not statisically significent enough to draw a rock solid conclusion, but if I'm seeing a trend and post about it possibly others are seeing the same trend and can verify I'm just not having bad RNG luck. Or, conversly can post they are seeing oppisite results which even though goes against my numbers with help me gauge the time/reward of grinding star-lits.

do a tier 2 lvl 66 skirmish. High chance to get a crystal , i got 2 from 30 runs with that setup.

If you want to try to farm them, u want to use the Rift Skirmishes and NEVER hit fumaroles. That keeps lieutenants spawning and you can kill a lot of lieutenants.

2/30 skirmishes lvl 66 tier 2.
1/1 ToO lightning
0/1 ToO Acid
1/1 Draigoch
1/3 Barad guldur (1 dropped at durchest, lvl 65 crystal)

Originally Posted by Webby189

Normally I would agree with this, but when it goes from dropping everytime in ToO wings (about 7 wings on different toons) one week to no times in ToO (5 wings on different toons) the following week it sets bells off in my head. I don't feel like doing the math but I can assure you that the probability of that happening with the same drop rate is very low.

I will agree that the numbers are not statisically significent enough to draw a rock solid conclusion, but if I'm seeing a trend and post about it possibly others are seeing the same trend and can verify I'm just not having bad RNG luck. Or, conversly can post they are seeing oppisite results which even though goes against my numbers with help me gauge the time/reward of grinding star-lits.

That's percentage-based drop rates for you. We haven't made any "stealth nerfs" to the drop-rates, unless the nerfs were so stealthy we didn't know about them!

*pulls out his tinfoil hat*

I killed a rare elite today and it dropped 10,000 starlight crystals. Must be a crazy bug.

Originally Posted by RockX

That's percentage-based drop rates for you. We haven't made any "stealth nerfs" to the drop-rates, unless the nerfs were so stealthy we didn't know about them*

And we all know nothing ever gets bugged on accident

foundry t2 (Monday 21st may) 2/1 ( we saw 2 in one run)
Roots of Fangorn (Monday 21st May) 1/1
But curse my luck, as usual I didn't roll higher than 28 on any of them

I'll chip in that over the weekend a Kinmate and I ran 12 various skirms as a duo (Inc methodros 2x) on T3 and did not get a drop.

The level 65 ones seem to drop quite a bit. I have only run 3 instances since the update, no crystals so far. One of my kinmates got a crystal from the last boss in a T1 solo skirmish.(level 75)

Did about 35 t2 random solo skirmishes, on level as I progressed from 74- 75.

One SLC drop off a Dourhand Storm-keeper at level 74 in Siege of Gondamon.

One off Ruingalad at level 75 in Strike Against Dannenglor.

Almost didn't get the 2nd one, as I left Ruingalad till after I had finished the rest of the skirmish before lighting the torches to spawn him, he was a pita to do on a Champ that had just hit 75 and only had a couple of level 75 pieces of equipment ~33khp mob v 6.2k Champ, reflecting damage and aura damage - killed with a crit that reflected a decent chunk of damage and then his Final Flare hit he does on dying did 4,251 damage, killing me. Ran back from respawn to loot and got crystal, instance shut down less than a second later. I thought I had to click the NPC to port out and shut down, but with no mobs left, the instance finished and the death, it appears it auto closes.

Instance shut down that close to me looting, and with the crystals being only white loot currently, didn't even realise I had looted it until I opened my bags after skirmish was finished - a pleasant surprise

I'm soloing t3 duo skirmishes... 0/12 so far.

Casual, at a glance, evidence I'm seeing via the forum threads and glff on E. Are that starlit crystals drop quite consistantly (A bit like loot-boxes) in anything T6 (lvl51-65) all the way to T1.

However. T7 (Lvl66-75), Has markedly lower drops. At least from the casual evidence I'm seeing.

It does make good commercial sense to get your customers hungry for something that seems easy enough to get at lower levels. If only you could get them for you end game toons.... Oh well at least the store has a 100% drop rate.

1/2 6man t2 Skirm (final chest)
1/5 2man t2 Skirm (final chest)
1/12 solo t2 Skirm (Liuetenant drop (very first grinding run, first CA.....))
0/3 t2 Foundry

Introducing crystals into the game serves to purposes, it keeps cash flowing through the store since most players will have bought all the legacy updates / removal scrolls they need at lvl75. It also keeps players grinding until the next expansion is released. Between now and RoR expansion there are a fair few MMO lanches / MMO major updates due.

You may see I don't post much in the forums, although I do read them very often. But it has come to the point where I must add me lack of luck trying to get a SLC as a reward. I have now done more than 100 instances on my RK and yet to see a Crystal even drop. Mostly solo Skirms but also 2 Wings of ToO T1 and 4 12 Man Skirmish's and a Dragoch. Also add say 25 Instances on other toons. Maybe I made the mistake of buying 1 SLC from the store and now turbine thinks ill pay for more instead of grinding for them.

Originally Posted by LetsDance

Introducing crystals into the game serves to purposes, it keeps cash flowing through the store since most players will have bought all the legacy updates / removal scrolls they need at lvl75. It also keeps players grinding until the next expansion is released. Between now and RoR expansion there are a fair few MMO lanches / MMO major updates due.

Well, it will be nice if we do not know that in the next update, we will have to destroy our "legendary weapon" , SLC include... unless if the store offers some SLC removal ? (more store, less game).

Originally Posted by Saelyth

If you want to try to farm them, u want to use the Rift Skirmishes and NEVER hit fumaroles. That keeps lieutenants spawning and you can kill a lot of lieutenants.

With lv75 character, I'd recommend a slightly higher level for additional benefits. Within a level 66 skirmish, you will only see grey mobs. As they're grey, lieutenant deeds won't advance. Increase the level just enough to make them green (afaik, lv68 is the minimum for this), and you'll get the deeds up very easily as well.

Those 500 marks rewards for completing the second phase aren't too bad.

Originally Posted by Elaida

With lv75 character, I'd recommend a slightly higher level for additional benefits. Within a level 66 skirmish, you will only see grey mobs. As they're grey, lieutenant deeds won't advance. Increase the level just enough to make them green (afaik, lv68 is the minimum for this), and you'll get the deeds up very easily as well.

Those 500 marks rewards for completing the second phase aren't too bad.

L67 works for this