Trying to understand loot scaling.

[Slimills]

I have honestly spent hours now scouring the web, this forum & the WoW forums primarily, searching for answers regarding the way loot tables work within low level dungeons on a level 110.

Like many, I'm interested in farming the level 19 Shadowfang and other blue BoE's from SFK. I've seen many posts suggest (but unable to confirm) that it's no longer farmable due to SFK now being scaled up to level 60 (with the rest of Silverpine Forest) when entered in on a level 60+. Of course to support that claim a level 60 version of the sword has also been popping up on the AH.

HOWEVER. I have been running SFK for 2 days now on my rogue, including looting the chests if only to get a better understanding of what loot tables I'm accessing EXACTLY by killing those pesky mobs and looting those chests.

As you would imagine, I am getting Level 60 requirement iLvl 58 blues from the bosses. BUT BoE wise, the trash and chests all are still dropping frequent level 11 - 20 AND level 51 - 60 greens and blues. This leads me to believe that it has to be possible for them to drop our sought after twink items, allbeit at a lower drop chance. I can confirm that Searing Blade (lvl 18) drops from chests still.

I asked a GM and of course they refused to comment on the loot tables but after doing my own research it seems pretty clear that by running this dungeon you're in fact accessing two loot tables; the original one and the one thats scaled to your level. Whether or not this is intentional on Blizzards part is yet to be seen.

I'm going to continue to farm the dungeon, and hopefully confirm that it still drops.

Images below just to show that I'm getting low level greens from trash, the level of the mobs and the BoP's that drop from bosses.

 

[Tonkks]

Already so I am not going to say anything with 100% certainty, because frankly I don’t think anyone has a full grasp on this (I’ll elaborate). In my opinion though, the best way to farm SFK is either with a 110 and a 19, or with 5 level 19s. Here is my reasoning:

When you ever SFK as a 110, the dungeon is now scaled to level 60 due to the recent changes. This means that a boss drop for your 110 will yield AFAIK level 60 loot. This really means nothing though, as none of us are farming boss BoPs...

In the past, we thought we had all the answers to this. Level 15 blue armor items (or 25 or 35- depending on your level) would be item level 23. Dungeon specific drops (Shadowfang is one of them) will scale to level. This means that a level 19 would get a scaled level 19 shadow fang to drop, or could get a level 15 item level 23 magefist gloves (for example) to drop. Any greens that dropped would scale to level as well, but also with item level. Scouting legs would be req level 19, item level 19. This all means that if you run the dungeon on a higher level toon- the gear drops become effectively useless. Level 60 magefist gloves (IMO) are useless.

This all changed when random greens would drop for high levels. Sometimes they scale, sometimes they don’t. Chest loot does not scale AFAIK and can even yield Pre patch loot (greens with higher ilvl than required level)

People have been testing this a bunch.. but what it comes down to is this. If you run it on a 110... you may get a shadowdang after 250 runs. That’s not a huge deal, because the runs are quick. But here’s the kicker. It could be level 60 (and as far as I know, it WILL be level 60). BUT- if you run the dungeon on a 19 Druid for example, which WILL yield a lvl 19 shadowfang upon dropping, the runs are extremely slow.

This is why I suggest running dungeons- 100% with a level 19. Up to you if you want to have a 110 carry. A friend and I the other day took turns.. I ran 10 runs with my 110 (and his 19) and then we swapped. I actually got a level 15 item level 23 magefist gloves from this (while I was on my 19). It is just too high a risk to run the instance on your 110 expecting a level 19 shadow fang- if that is even possible I am unaware of it (except chests). You would be much better off getting a group of 5 19s and spamming the dungeon over and over. Im sure lots of people would be interested in doing this, as there are multiple BiS scaled items that drop in there.

 

[Slimills]

I think you're right. Both blues that have dropped so far have been scaled to level 60. I actually got a Prospectors Axe right after making this thread, yet 90% of the greens are low iLvl still. I must say it's not the easiest system to understand, even for something that's been playing for 12 years now... I feel sorry for new players lol. I can try running SFK on my hunter twink but something tells me I wont get past the first boss.

Cheers!

 

[Concluded]

Great post first of all.

I have some insight on this subject too.

I have been running Gnomeregan on my level 29 twink both solo but also together with a level 120. These are the things I have noticed:

Level 29 Twink loot

• Greens are usually between level 21-24. So far out of 100 greens, I have gotten 1 level 28 green and 2 level 27 greens, all the other ones are level 21-24. This makes me speculate that it might be a great idea to farm level 29 greens using a level 32-33 character instead.
• I have looted 4 blues, 3 from mobs and 1 from a chest. The 3 blues from mobs all scaled to level 29, but the blue item I got from the chest was level 22. (Not exactly sure why the chest blue would be level 22, perhaps it doesn't have a proper scale function on chests?)

Level 120 character loot

• Greens are between level 56 and 60, I have yet to receive a green that's low level on my 120 characters.
• Blues scale to level 60, both the BoE ones (looted 2) but also the boss drops, exactly like you stated.
• From farming I concluded that it's impossible to pick up twink items from your main char, meaning you will always need a level 19, 29, 39 etc to obtain the blue BoE items with the right level.

I hope this provides to the pool of evidence, and clear up something for confused players who no longer can farm these twinks items using a main. In the future, I want to make a level 32-33 character to see if I can get level 29 BoE greens to drop frequently. If anybody wants to try this, could work with level 21-22 or 23 for level 19 too, please continue the discussion of the thread so we can get a closer understanding of this.

Sincerely Averlý

 

[Zerofoxtrot]

I’m considering making a level 20, just to see if the drops are closer to 19 (above level 16 and 17 greens). then level to 21, then to 22 (that may be a magic number) to see if the scaling prediction is accurate. Making an allied toon (probably a tank to speed ques up) should take no time at all.

 

[necroaqua]

Great post first of all.

I have some insight on this subject too.

I have been running Gnomeregan on my level 29 twink both solo but also together with a level 120. These are the things I have noticed:

Level 29 Twink loot

• Greens are usually between level 21-24. So far out of 100 greens, I have gotten 1 level 28 green and 2 level 27 greens, all the other ones are level 21-24. This makes me speculate that it might be a great idea to farm level 29 greens using a level 32-33 character instead.
• I have looted 4 blues, 3 from mobs and 1 from a chest. The 3 blues from mobs all scaled to level 29, but the blue item I got from the chest was level 22. (Not exactly sure why the chest blue would be level 22, perhaps it doesn't have a proper scale function on chests?)

Level 120 character loot

• Greens are between level 56 and 60, I have yet to receive a green that's low level on my 120 characters.
• Blues scale to level 60, both the BoE ones (looted 2) but also the boss drops, exactly like you stated.
• From farming I concluded that it's impossible to pick up twink items from your main char, meaning you will always need a level 19, 29, 39 etc to obtain the blue BoE items with the right level.

I hope this provides to the pool of evidence, and clear up something for confused players who no longer can farm these twinks items using a main. In the future, I want to make a level 32-33 character to see if I can get level 29 BoE greens to drop frequently. If anybody wants to try this, could work with level 21-22 or 23 for level 19 too, please continue the discussion of the thread so we can get a closer understanding of this.

Sincerely Averlý

There were talks when scaling was first implemented about making level 23-24 farmers to get 19 gear. I don't know what became of that, if people ended up doing that or figuring out what works. If anyone figures out a sweet spot, def report back.

Items from chests do NOT scale. This is known behavior and can be sometimes useful if the "default" ilvl/level req are good. For example, shadowfang is ilvl 24 at level 19 by default, so a high level can actually spam chest runs of SFK and still have a shot at getting a useful shadowfang (instead of a lvl 60 one).

 

[Puempeekstoh]

Items from chests do NOT scale. This is known behavior and can be sometimes useful if the "default" ilvl/level req are good. For example, shadowfang is ilvl 24 at level 19 by default, so a high level can actually spam chest runs of SFK and still have a shot at getting a useful shadowfang (instead of a lvl 60 one).

Pretty sure there's 0% chance sfk rares can drop from chests inside sfk. Only world drops, unless you or someone else has evidence of this happening, I don't think its possible.

 

[necroaqua]

Pretty sure there's 0% chance sfk rares can drop from chests inside sfk. Only world drops, unless you or someone else has evidence of this happening, I don't think its possible.

You're probably right. I haven't personally farmed for shadowfang for a looooooong time (BC? Wrath?). So bad example - but world drops can still drop unscaled from chests.

 

[DAXinko]

I have (maybe) an interesting idea.
1. Make 4x F2P accounts
2. Multibox with them up to lvl 19 and stop exp gain
3. Your paid main account can make a party with them
4. Farm Shadowfang with your own group of 5x 19 pve twinks
5. ???
6. Profit

Maybe it is not possible at all. It just came to my mind

 

[DoByG]

Pretty sure there's 0% chance sfk rares can drop from chests inside sfk. Only world drops, unless you or someone else has evidence of this happening, I don't think its possible.

You are wrong tho, I have seen mtb drop from chest, one of the blue useless weapons as well.

 

[Hennelorix]

You are wrong tho, I have seen mtb drop from chest, one of the blue useless weapons as well.

Idk about right now, but when i was farming gloomshroud ~2 years ago i also looted sfk blue BoE's t from chests (only mtb, magefist gloves and some trash weps).