Talk:Nicholas the Traveler

Nov 9 - Guardian Moss
What's the drop rate on the moss? I've killed about 20 solo with spirit spammer and nada75.77.22.66 19:32, November 9, 2009 (UTC)
 * the farming page hosted at the pvx wiki suggests you're going to have to make multiple runs, even when soloing. Mauirixxx 19:33, November 9, 2009 (UTC)
 * I've decided to save every moss I got when vanquishing for faction and.... saved 4 in the last half year or so. O_o Took me 5 solo runs in NM with spirit spam to get the 5th, along with a dozen wallow tusks. As with all things, this is dependent on luck, but it's quite rare. It feels even rarer because you usually kill scores of wallows in the process, so it feels like you should be getting more than you are. RoseOfKali [[Image:RoseOfKaliSIG.png]] 20:04, November 9, 2009 (UTC)
 * Rose, you're not being very inspiring :P I can see skyhigh prices for this from farmers ... Mauirixxx 20:07, November 9, 2009 (UTC)
 * Lol, sorry. :P In Eredon Terrace people are trying to sell for 3k/ea, trying to buy for 2k/ea. RoseOfKali [[Image:RoseOfKaliSIG.png]] 20:09, November 9, 2009 (UTC)
 * Might as well stick to buying the gifts at 5k each then this week :( Mauirixxx 20:44, November 9, 2009 (UTC)


 * I saw one person trying to sell at 6k! (It wouldn't surprise me if they succeeded; lots of WTB and almost no WTS early on.) My memory is that the mossy conversion rates are better outside of Maishang, but I don't have a good farm picked out. Fortunately, this is the first time something I've been hording has turned out to be the request item; unfortunately, I only had 3 of 'em.  &mdash; Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 23:58, November 9, 2009 (UTC)


 * I seem to remember last time he was in the Jade Sea area asking for Rot Wallow Tusks, the drop rate (at least for me) was also low. 193.215.199.34 13:49, November 10, 2009 (UTC)
 * Lol... Some guy bought mine for 4k each and then tried selling sets for 25k... I laughed at him. ^_^ People never cease to amuse. RoseOfKali [[Image:RoseOfKaliSIG.png]] 14:52, November 10, 2009 (UTC)


 * I think luck has a lot to do with it. I had one in storage and got seven more in 5 runs. A guild mate lost count how many runs he took to get five. It is a sellers market at the moment. I sold my extra for 3k, 3.5k, and 4k. I just sold to someone who wanted to buy them at that price.Bikeboy854 01:55, November 11, 2009 (UTC)


 * Upon killing Xiriss Stickleback in the quest Night Raiders the quest location marker points to Tahwaj Zing, who is in the same location as Nic this week, in case someone just can't seem to locate him :P Mauirixxx 21:14, November 13, 2009 (UTC)

Playing Favorites?
It seems to me that Nicholas prefers the Luxoms to the Kurzics. Last week the only way wiki described to get to Nick was from a Luxom outpost but now the ONLY way to get to Nick is from a Luxom outpost and not only that but it is almost impossible to farm the items Nick wants and get Kurzic faction or even use a rez shrine that isn't Luxom. I always end up killing half the zone because I have to run from the other side if I get a rez. Why because I have to either bribe the Luxoms and farm Luxom faction or kill them. Fortunatly the Luxom priests are easy to solo, but I still have to run across the zone when I get a rez. They are sure making it hard on the Kurzics. No wonder the Luxoms are moving in to the Echovald Forest, Nick is making it easy for them. You's almost think that the game designers are playing favorites. &mdash;The preceding unsigned comment was added by Woedin (contribs) 12 Nov 2009 4:38 UTC.


 * Nick has been in Factions 8 times since he arrived on the scene. Of those, only 4 are likely to involve Kurz or Luxon: Stone Carvings (Nick was in Kurz territory), Rot Wallow Tusks (Nick's zone almost always Lux), Tempered Glass (60% Kurz/40% Lux), and Moss (mostly Lux); in a worst case, that's 1 Kurz/3 Lux. If we flipped a coin 4 times, we would not be shocked to see Heads/Tails/Tails/Tails. So, I don't think the game is (as yet) showing favoritism towards one side or the other.  &mdash; Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 09:57, November 12, 2009 (UTC)

You are right about the Stone Carvings I had forgot about those, but I dont feel that Tempered Glass was 60% Kurzic just because it was in the Echovald Forest when the nearest outpost was Kurzic owned and there was literally nothing to farm. The only way you could consider it that way is to say that all the people who never did the Kurzic Missions were now forced to do them or forfeit their Gifts of the Traveller. I suppose 3 out of 4 isn't exactly 'cursed by fate', if you put it that way.

Woedin Woebringer


 * I described Tempered Glass as 60% Kurz because you wrote, "the only way wiki described to get to Nick was from a Luxom [sic] outpost;" last week's nearest outpost was slightly more likely to be in Kurz hands than Luxon. If you want to consider farming instead of simply getting to Nick's location, then Luxon holds only a 2:1 advantage (since, as you say, Glass doesn't require farming in Lux or Kurz territory). Perhaps I'm not clear on what you mean by playing favorites. My point: there's no evidence of bias towards Luxon at this point.

The outpost Durheim Archives was Luxom controlled for all the time that Nicholas was in Mourning Veil Falls or at least it was the times I checked which was regularly. It just seems odd that Nick's farm or nearest outpost to Nick's location facilitates Luxom Faction farming. And that Nick creates a large migration of players to his location and the items farming location, I know I have made a lot of plat off Nick's collectables. I know how much time people spend in the farming locations and his physical location. Many people log on once a week and do a turn in then never play until the next turn in having friends farm for them or spending their savings on farmers like me. Nick is very powerful and can be very influential at least in game terms. I agree though that there is no evindence of bias at this point but it is obvious how much devastation Nick can wreak. If you can't see that either you don't view it as a problem or you aren't paying attention. Perhaps it isn't a problem, the Kurzics arent going away, it just is a problem if you are working on maxing Kurzic Faction for you skills while you are vanquishing places or farming in the Echovald forest and would prefer to get Kurzic faction for your guild while doing so because the Luxoms are sure benifitting from all this. For a long time Kurzics were on the Jade Sea so I guess just like the Luxoms did then, I will just have to get used to it.

Woedin Woebringer ~ [4 tildes]


 * On the other hand, you might want to review his past collections; Nick has visited Prophecies 12 times, but graced EotN with only 3 weeks of his presence. (On the other hand, Proph has a lot more zones than EotN, so perhaps he's just mathematically predisposed to end up more frequently in the original campaign.)


 * By the way: please use ~ [4 tildes] to sign your posts; it adds your UserID and places a time stamp. Many thanks!  &mdash; Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 18:11, November 12, 2009 (UTC)

Woedin: I'm not saying discrimination wouldn't be a problem. I'm saying that there's no evidence that the game is playing favorites.
 * Nick has visited 29 times, only four of which could have had any possible impact on Kurz or Lux faction. That precious little influence to offer either way.
 * For the sake of argument, let's grant that 3 of the visits favored Luxon (even though ownership of the outposts can...and did change during Nick's visits). Let's say we flip a coin to determine the ownership (Heads: Lux; Tails: Kurz). Then there's a 50% chance in 4 visits that our coin flip will turn up 3 Heads or 3 Tails.

Consequently, I don't see there's anything at all to write about at this point; there's nothing odd about Nick visiting Lux (arguably) 3 times and Kurz only once. &mdash; Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 08:14, November 13, 2009 (UTC)

Nov 16
I heared that he is in the waijun bazaar colleting plague idols 85.146.249.89 16:39, November 16, 2009 (UTC)

Move Time
On Monday 11/23 I started into Wajjun Bazaar before 9am CST. Sometime after 9 I disconnected and then reconnected (note: I did not leave the map). After reconnecting I ran the rest of the way to Nick, but couldnt start a dialogue. I then reloaded the map, ran all the way back, and found Nick had moved. This would suggest Nick either leaves his old location at 7am PST and arrives at his new location 8am PST (according to the article), or moves at 7am PST and not 8am PST. --Ascalon Destroyer 15:29, November 23, 2009 (UTC)
 * With the first time change since z-challenges and the Nicks arrived on the scene, we learned that ANet server clocks follow UTC, not PST/PDT or even GMT. Thanks for the correction! (Dr Ishmael has made the appropriate changes to the article.)  &mdash; Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 17:56, November 23, 2009 (UTC)

Nick's real diabolical plan
Other rumors notwithinstanding, Nick's truly diabolical plan is to expose as many possible gaps in wiki articles as possible. With each of his visits and requests, we seem to correct another handful of misapprehensions and fill another dozen holes in our knowledge base. &mdash; Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 20:58, November 23, 2009 (UTC)

new location in snake dance
collecting 2 Frosted Griffon Wings &mdash;The preceding unsigned comment was added by Naraphim (contribs).

Shiverpeak Manes
Best collection ever, just did a full circle from beacons and back,then walked back to nick and had a total of 21 manes.Great drop rate,at first I thought he wanted 5 per gift, which would have been reasonable,3 per is a little on the low side,but I wont complain.Durga Dido 23:21, December 8, 2009 (UTC)

Is Nicholas a collector?
I thought about categorizing Nicholas as a collector a while back and decided, on balance, he isn't enough like one.

In short, Nick the Traveler doesn't really have anything important in common with other collectors. However: there's not really a better category for him, is there? &mdash; Tennessee Ernie Ford ( TEF ) 22:42, December 14, 2009 (UTC)
 * He's an oddball, like the Moss Spider Egg. Just an NPC I think, but he does collect, and the other "requirements" for a collector aren't exactly required, so it would be intuitive to put him there. RoseOfKali [[Image:RoseOfKaliSIG.png]] 23:47, December 14, 2009 (UTC)
 * Where does Professor Yakkington fit into all this?64.20.17.245 17:47, December 21, 2009 (UTC)
 * Nicholas's only hero, obviously. :p  Nwash  [[Image:User-Nwash-Eyes.png]] 17:58, December 21, 2009 (UTC)

Jan 4 2010 torture
Anyone else as P-O'd as I am about this treck for goddamn Roaring Ether hearts? I've been at it for over 5 hours, using a 4-man team, and getting everything but the damn hearts (getting claws, lodestones, etc); man, this is a bit ridiculous. Yeah, I know it's not supposed to be a piece o' cake, but Dayaamn! GW-Susan 02:58, January 6, 2010 (UTC)
 * I gave up after about 4 hours and 3 hearts. <_< RoseOfKali [[Image:RoseOfKaliSIG.png]] 13:30, January 6, 2010 (UTC)
 * Rose, you were damn lucky to get 3 hearts in just 4 hours! I'done at least 15 runs 600/smite (thank GOD they didn't nix that this thursday) and a couple NM spiritspamming, aswell as a couple of runs through Forum Highlands (the elemental bosses there) and Hidden City, and I managed 7! Mind you, there were never a single hero along, this was for our two accounts combined :( For next week I'm requesting right outside ToA, asking for Phantom Residues! Mr J 00:05, January 9, 2010 (UTC)
 * Lol, call me even luckier. I got 2 hearts my first run through the zone, another one in the next run, and was like whoo! easy! And then I got NONE for the next 20 or so clears with only 2 heroes and myself... I switched characters, switched through 3 different zones (Lyssa, Forum, City), cut it to 2-man and a summon stone, tried offering a stack of dust for a heart... And then gave up with 3/5, first time I didn't complete a Nick week while having internet access... <_< RoseOfKali [[Image:RoseOfKaliSIG.png]] 01:03, January 9, 2010 (UTC)
 * Coincidentally, I was doing Dasha Vestibule (mission) and got 2 ether hearts :P &mdash; Balistic 02:29, January 9, 2010 (UTC)
 * Well, I stuck it out to the bitter end, taking at least another 5 hours (and I too had tried different characters, changing locations, and such). At one point, woot 2 dropped!  Oh wait, no, the second one was a roaring ether CLAW, damn it all (I got about 15 of those, of course).  What really pisses me off is that before long the anti-farming rules of the game come into play--they should turn that off, at least, for these Nicholas collectables.   GW-Susan 23:41, January 9, 2010 (UTC)
 * It better be something easy next time, like mountain roots or charr hides. GW-Susan 23:42, January 9, 2010 (UTC)
 * The sad thing is, I don't think these are subject to anti-farming reduction... RoseOfKali [[Image:RoseOfKaliSIG.png]] 00:29, January 10, 2010 (UTC)
 * Aha... you thought Roaring Ether Hearts were torture? Now he wants Ruby Djinn Essences. Nick is such an asshole >_< --Macros 19:27, January 11, 2010 (UTC) Actually, we can blame Zinn, it seems.  Maybe next time, he (Zinn) can give us a Golem not subject to condition degens.  GW-Susan 03:19, January 12, 2010 (UTC)
 * But, I've actually seen these drop much more often, even though Ruby Djinns are relatively less common than the Roaring Ethers (at least, I think so). Fortunately (for me), I had 15 in a storage character, too!   GW-Susan 19:31, January 11, 2010 (UTC)
 * I find these to be much easier (so far). RoseOfKali [[Image:RoseOfKaliSIG.png]] 19:56, January 11, 2010 (UTC)
 * And as this isn't the first time he's asked for something that was a byproduct of previous weeks farm (you've probably killed a bunch of Ruby Djinns along with the Ethers, just like we got a bunch of Mandragor Roots while feeding Toma for Juniberries), so I hope people have learnt to save stuff they get ;) Mr J 01:51, January 12, 2010 (UTC)


 * Following up on the comment immediately above, the Jan 18th collection is for Decayed Orr Emblems, which were dropping like mad when I was doing the Gates of Kryta ZM with multiple chars. True Joy!  Almost funny and almost (note:  almost) makes up for the Jan 4 torture.  GW-Susan 17:55, January 18, 2010 (UTC)

Jan 25 - Thorny Carapaces
Anyone get any luck with these? &mdash;The preceding unsigned comment was added by 89.101.38.133 (contribs).


 * Yep, got 30 in under an hour. Spirit spam is easiest, just run around in any of the "dry" sections of the Maguuma - Sage Lands, Ettin's Back, west half of Majesty's Rest, beginning of Bloodstone Fen (mission)... they're all over the place.  &mdash;Dr Ishmael Diablo_the_chicken.gif 17:21, January 26, 2010 (UTC)

I'm using a warrior build got about 15 of em in 30 mins prity easy :D

Feb 1 - Maguuma Spider Web
Confirmed in Reed Bog, edited article to match and I'll upload a map. It'll need changing to a better one, but this one at least shows where in the area he stands. Mr J 18:38, February 1, 2010 (UTC)

Feb 8 - Bone Charms
these things are going for up to 1k a pop whats happening?? i vanquished rhea's creater and gyala hatchery and only got 2 bone charms?!?! this is a mess
 * Wasn't too bad for me. I went NM SoS N/Rt with 3 Discord-ish N/Rt heroes (no hench), and got my 15 in two clears of rhea's crater. RoseOfKali [[Image:RoseOfKaliSIG.png]] 23:38, February 17, 2010 (UTC)
 * I've been turning a sweet profit this week! Spiritfarming outcasts (NM, solo) starting from Aurios Mines and looping via Milthuran, Talous and clearing the northern area of outcasts, gives 10-15 bone charms per round and takes an hour at a leisurly pace :p Probably made 40-45k selling bone charms :D Oh, as a bonus, salvaging just the white Outcast Wrappings gives around a stack of cloth each round ;) I can't understand why people are getting so few in drops, I always go solo or duo (with a human) in NM for collectables... Mr J 02:15, February 22, 2010 (UTC)

Predict nick?
come on guys we must be able to predict where nick will be next


 * After the Arboy Bay mishap (Nick appeared there with blank text), Linsey said something along the lines of "Nick wasn't supposed to be there for at least another year, thus he still had no text for this location, and his appearance here was a mistake" (don't remember the exact wording, but that's the general content of it.) This implies that if he has a cycle, it's more than a year long at the least, and supposedly much longer, thus we won't see a repeat and won't be able to predict anything for a while. But there's nothing keeping people from trying to guess. :P RoseOfKali [[Image:RoseOfKaliSIG.png]] 18:30, February 28, 2010 (UTC)


 * "... we obviously needed to give him a lot of locations, and so we did. His list of possible haunts at launch was 137, and given 1 a week, that's 137 weeks (or ~2.6 years) of Nicholas' travels before he even considers going to the same place twice. ~ John Hargrove"


 * - this quote was posted on the official wiki on John's feedback page. I think this is material for the article. When does that put the earliest possible loop week? It also opens up for some research. How many different collectables/artisan-craftable materials/weird quest rewards are there in the game? We can figure out the likelihood of any one of them being wanted. XD RoseOfKali [[Image:RoseOfKaliSIG.png]] 13:20, March 1, 2010 (UTC)


 * Well, there are 244 trophies, not counting the 12 from Pre-Searing, so he'd barely even get through half of those. There are 40 salvage items (that aren't salvage armors) and 26 rare crafting materials (you said "artisan-craftable materials, but Amber can't be crafted by artisans, so they're all fair game).  They could easily triple his appearances without running out of things to collect.
 * On the other hand, there are 137 explorable areas he can appear in (with a few assumptions made based on where he has or has not appeared so far). That's exactly the number John quoted, which makes me think that they intended for him to visit every "major" explorable area outside the Realm of Torment exactly once.  Repeating explorable areas seems like a silly idea, as it would become much more time-consuming to find him in the first place (especially with the number of interested players diminishing).  He hasn't repeated any so far, but we're barely a third of the way through his initial rotation, so that may not mean anything.
 * I'm thinking that as time goes on, it will become easier to predict where he will be as the number of unvisited areas dwindles, but what he will collect will remain wide open. &mdash;Dr Ishmael Diablo_the_chicken.gif 15:55, March 1, 2010 (UTC)
 * I still don't think that all rare materials are fair game, since amber (and jade) can be reliably farmed via faction, thus they are closely related to the "craftable" category. Fur should also be fair game due to Mrs. Sedgwick in Ascalon. But I am not convinced that all rare mats are fair game until he collects any Monstrous parts, ecto, shards, onyx or diamonds. Not sure about rubies and sapphires, as they are technically available from a collector, but there is no source of trade contracts once you complete the quests once, so I'd put them in the no-no category.
 * On a related note, I think it would be hilarious if he collected feathers this week. XD
 * The 137 explorable areas is indeed an interesting bit of information and validates the quoted number. I guess with the number of items out there, they could very well make a second list, so that he appears in each area exactly twice (I think we have enough "stuff" for that?), but that would totally be up to John's inspiration, and after 2.6 years of Nick, he might have had enough. :P RoseOfKali [[Image:RoseOfKaliSIG.png]] 17:45, March 1, 2010 (UTC)


 * Eh, I guess I'll concede that point on the rareest crafting materials. I made that comment just to point out that he's already collected a mat that couldn't be crafted at artisans, which was a minor point anyway.
 * Still, that doesn't really change the fact that there are about twice as many collectable items as there are visitable areas. They could decide to have him visit every area twice, but like you said, I doubt John would feel up to writing another 137 dialogues for Nick.  Or they could decide to have him do a quick run through the Realm of Torment, maybe as the "final challenge" of his travels or something.  &mdash;Dr Ishmael Diablo_the_chicken.gif 19:03, March 1, 2010 (UTC)

(Reset indent) Feel free to continue the other conversation, I'm just moving this out so it can be seen. Getting back to the original point, whether or not we can predict Nick's location, basically the answer is not yet. There are no recognizable patterns to his visits, other than that he usually stays in one continent for a few weeks at a time before moving on. We can't even say for certain what continent he'll be in: he's been in Cantha for 2 weeks now, but he's stayed there for up to 4 weeks before, so there's no way to say if he'll move on this week or not. The order of continents isn't even predictable, as he used to go Tyria - Elona - Cantha, but he changed that up back in December and started going Tyria - Cantha - Elona. Unless anyone else can see a pattern that I missed, there's not much we can do to predict Nick's movements. &mdash;Dr Ishmael 19:03, March 1, 2010 (UTC)

1st March 2010
Official wiki is down, any idea of the new location ? 81.246.170.227 19:00, March 1, 2010 (UTC)


 * If we knew, it would be on the article. &mdash;Dr Ishmael Diablo_the_chicken.gif 19:04, March 1, 2010 (UTC)

There has been a picture uploaded but it has been unavailable for over 2 hrs now. But i guess the system will update eventually

Update times?
"His location and requested items change on Mondays at approximately 15:00 UTC (7 AM PST). "

Any chance the change could be posted closer to the times specified or change the above to read "or thereabouts"? It is usually around 3PM EST before some changes are posted instead of 7AM PST.

On another subject, spent 6 hours a day last week farming for amber chunks and never got one or anything that could salvaged for a chunk. Probably a good thing because when I found out what they are worth and what the value of most gifts has been it didn't make sense to give them to Nicholas. Got plenty of experience killing stuff though. &mdash;The preceding unsigned comment was added by 71.62.66.42 (contribs).


 * But a gift is more expensive than 3 amber chunks. Unless you are referring to some other worth. &mdash;The preceding unsigned comment was added by 85.19.140.9 (contribs).


 * Nick moves at 1500 UTC, we have no control over that. And we don't magically know where he is as soon as he moves - someone has to go out and find him, which usually takes a few hours.
 * If you were farming amber by killing things, then you were doing it wrong. &mdash;Dr Ishmael Diablo_the_chicken.gif 19:21, March 1, 2010 (UTC)

Yet again, torture (March 3rd 2010)
In the time (4 or 5 hours) it has so far taken me to get one of the goddamn Pillaged Goods, I have gotten: 2 green drops (crappy, but green) Shak-Jarin the Justicebringer's sword and Pehnsed the Loudmouth's spear; 5 behemouth hides (as I go back and forth between the Mines and the Holdings) and which I don't want; over 20 Minotaur horn's; and even five of the damn giant's jaws--in other words, everything except (almost) the item needed. Just like the Jan 4 2010 torture, I've now tried different chars, different areas, gone away a couple of days, and always a four-man team. Why can't they check out the drop rate and choose something more reasonable. Again, I am not asking for something where 1 trip does it, but 4 or 5 hours for just ONE?!?! Really, Anet--this is a bit ridiculous, considering your claims that this game is not about grinding (which, of course, it is). GW-Susan 03:38, March 4, 2010 (UTC)