User:Dewin/Soul Plate Acquisition Guide by Dewin

About this guide
This guide reflects my personal observations about the most effective techniques about acquiring soul plates for Pankration.

It is not intended as a guide of where to obtain what Feral Skills, nor is it intended as a guide to creating the best monster. The intended audience is people who already have a general idea of where to go for whatever it is that they want and simply wish to increase their success rate.

Factors affecting Feral Drain success rate
The following factors appear to affect the success rate of Feral Drain.

Distance from Monster
I have noticed a higher success rate when standing close to the monster being drained.

Note, however, that you cannot stand too close to mobs that aggro sound (unless of course you have the means to handle them). You can successfully take pictures from the maximum range (about |10') without being detected by mobs that detect by sound.

5000-Jetton Items
The 5000-jetton items sold by Zandjarl increase Feral Drain success rate versus one particular monster family:


 * Zoraal Ja's Helm versus lizards
 * Dartorgor's Coif versus vermin
 * No.3's Garland versus undead
 * Cacaroon's Hood versus beasts

I have not yet personally tried any of these items, so I cannot say how much they improve the success rate.

Monster's level and HP
Lower level monsters are more susceptible to being drained. Monsters low on HP are also more susceptible to being drained.

It is worthwhile to weaken a monster before attempting to acquire soul plates if you can feasibly do so.

Monster claim status
While you can feral drain monsters claimed by other parties, I've had a dramatically lowered success rate while doing so. On another party's Sea Puks, I only had 1 in 12 drains successful versus another party's monsters even when I waited for the monsters to be low on HP before using the Soultrapper. (Note that I only attempted 12 plates in this fashion, so it is possible that my results were simply bad luck.)

I do not know if unclaimed monsters are any harder to trap than a monster claimed by yourself or your own party, but it would seem logical.

Alternating Soultrapper and Soultrapper 2000
The cooldown on Soultrapper is 60 seconds. The Soultrapper 2000 only has a 30-second cooldown, and holds 48 charges instead of 12.

The equip delay of both items is only 10 seconds, so by alternating which one is equipped you can take about three pictures per minute. (HQ -> NQ -> HQ, wait 30 seconds, repeat.)

Holding monsters
My preferred tactic is to weaken a target monster to about 5% of its total HP and then hold it while I take pictures. With this, you get favorable conditions (close to monster, low HP, claimed by you), and you can potentially hold a monster somewhere where links and additional aggro is not problem.

This is best if you can handle being hit by the monster for a long time or have a way of sleeping it. Bards can Lullaby a monster which allows them time for two pictures (one using Soultrapper and one using Soultrapper 2000) before the Lullaby duration expires, but they should be warned that they may not be able to sing again right away. (There's a delay between using an item and being able to cast a spell.) Being able to reliably cast Sleep or [[Sleep II] also helps, and will allow 3 (usually 4 in the case of Sleep II) pictures to be taken before the spell expires assuming no resists.

You can also forgo weakening the monster and just hold it slept -- ideal if the monster is too strong to safely fight.

Shoot and Run
Sometimes holding a monster isn't possible. Perhaps it can't be slept or fought safely (especially if you're taking pictures solo.)

If the mob does not aggro, this is not a problem. Just stand as close as possible and take pictures. Otherwise, there are two possible tactics:

Sound aggro (or Sight+Sound) monsters
Wait for the monster to move, and then move to about 10' away (the maximum usable range for the Soultrappers, so if you aren't sure take a few steps forward and try it, if it doesn't work take a few more steps.). It is possible to get close enough to take pictures without sound agro if you are careful. If you're fast and don't mind taking a risk, you can usually get two pictures (one with Soultrapper the other with Soultrapper 2000) and run away before the monster paths again.

Note that you can't take pictures with Sneak or Invisible up, and there is a small amount of lag between cancelling these effects and when you are allowed to take pictures again.

Sight/Truesight monsters
Same as above, only you can stand as close to the monster as you want provided it does not see you.