Questions regarding several mobs

LeBaiton

I'm a sucker for paragon chests you don't see every day, so every now and then I do Ilshenar runs to places with mobs of which I would love to obtain a chest from. Meer Mages, Meer Eternals and Juka Mages are listed as dropping level 3 supply and level 4 cache maps on UO Guide and Stratics. Yet I've killed plenty, but never seem to get a chest out of them. Do they still drop maps or have their loot tables been altered these last few years?

Furthermore, lately there seems to be a complete lack of paragons in the Lakeshire Village. Was this a deliberate change or stealthnerf? 

Also, while I'm at it, could we ever see the Meer Catacombs opened up again? Lakeshire Village only has one Meer Eternal at a time. I believe there are far more interesting mobs around these days to farm for gold, I don't suppose opening them up again would cause an influx of white wyrm dragging tamers again. Maybe make it so you can enter the catacombs using a hole in the ground from a green thorn or something. It was a fun place to hunt.

I started playing UO in '99, and I somehow remember Bone Magi and Skeleton Mages dropped old level 1 or level 2 t-maps (i think it was level 1). They don't appear to drop any maps these days. Was this simply a change of loot tables, or could this be a bug? I don't see them listed as t-map drop mobs, but maybe my memory is faulty after all these years.

And I would really love it if you guys would fix the Khaldun Summoners and Khaldun Knights. They transform into a Bone Magi / Skeleton Mage and Skeleton Knight respectively when they are near death, but instead of their old Zealot loot tables they just drop crappy Bone Magi / Skeleton Mage and Skeleton Knight loot upon death. Fortunately this has only been broken for like, ages...

Finally, I had the strangest thing happening to me today. I killed a lizardman in a Fel swamp today. It had a level 1 t-map on it (ranger, stash). I was shocked, as this would potentially open up a world of paragon chests with fun lizardmen namesssssh... 

It did walk up to me from slightly offscreen, so maybe it looted a greater mongbat while it walked up to me? Can anyone confirm or debunk if they drop t-maps?

Enough ramblings from me. Cheers!

Kind regards,

LeBaiton

Cookie

Nice post.
I do not even remember the Meer Catacombs, as I never even visited Trammel in those days, sounds a cool place, yes, so many places they can re-open, and revamp, and fix, all good suggestions, great detail and eye for things you have.

Arnold7

Been doing Jukas lately to build up fame and karma.  Got a map off one the other night so they do drop them.  But not very often.  At events involving paragons, chests seem to drop more often, or maybe there are just a lot more paras.  Greater mongbat is included in the list of things that drop maps.  Don’t recall ever getting a map from one but know they are worth checking, at least in Tel Mur, as they occasionally drop something good.  Sewer rats as well.

Thought I might have gotten maps from bone and skeleton mages, and knights in the past but did not see them in the list of things that drop things.  Has been a long time since I looted those so could not say for sure that they drop maps.

The treasure map wiki has a list of things that drop maps.

PlayerSkillFTW

I remember the Meer Catacombs. I used to hunt there with a pair of Fire Steeds for gold, magic items, and white Daemon Bone Armor. Then when AoS first launched, it turns out one of the only creatures in the game that dropped Vampiric Embrace scrolls, was the Meer Eternals, so i made a killing selling those as well since i was one of the only people on my shard that knew what dropped the scroll.

Reason i used a pair of Fire Steeds, wasn't just because they dished out the most damage (dat Pack Instinct), but also because the Meer Eternals had a "Spirit Lash" ability that would deal 100% Health damage, split between all targets hit. If you used just a single WW against the Meer Eternal, and he used Spirit Lash, it would insta kill your WW. Two Firesteeds though, and both would take 50% of their health in damage, so would survive.

Fun Fact: When ML first came out with Spellweaving and the "Dryad Allure" ability, you could charm a Meer Eternal, and use him to insta kill even Peerlesses with his Spirit Lash ability.