Anchor runes drop rate

[meatwahd]

AH at 63 and using unnatural rage consistently is impossible due to the nature and rarity of anchor runes. Really frustrating to have and ability and not even be able to use it because of abysmal drop rates. Any opinions?

[Erthiel]

AH is my main secondary skill since I started playing and yet I am not sure if I ever used that ability :P Do you actually feel like it's useful? To me it never felt like it's worth sacrificing pet's life for a bit of dmg. But I may give it a try since they have a bit more now.

[meatwahd]

With the correct modifiers on monstrous rage and unnatural wrath you can get disgusting single target burst from your pet. Also there is a flat damage reduction modifier for unnatural wrath. Couple that with plus health plus armor modifiers and thick skin modifier your pet has very high survivability. Nimble limbs and wild endurance just further that resistance along with feed pet with extra heal modifiers. The only thing missing from pets in general is aoe which you should be running in your second class anyways. Forgot to say that unnatural wratch extra damage with both extra damage modifiers don't add the damage after monstrous rage extra damage% calculation, it adds the damage before calculation making the damage literally monstrously higher due to how monstrous rage and %damage modifiers work in general.

[HardRock]

The only place I can recall seeing them with any frequency is serb crypt. Drop rate is terrible, but that's where I found it to be best.

[meatwahd]

Honestly I got 1 in 2 hours of grinding mind you that was at the end of the grind. Went there with the sole reason to be getting anchor runes and came out basically empty handed.

[Erthiel]

With the correct modifiers on monstrous rage and unnatural wrath you can get disgusting single target burst from your pet. Also there is a flat damage reduction modifier for unnatural wrath. Couple that with plus health plus armor modifiers and thick skin modifier your pet has very high survivability. Nimble limbs and wild endurance just further that resistance along with feed pet with extra heal modifiers. The only thing missing from pets in general is aoe which you should be running in your second class anyways. Forgot to say that unnatural wratch extra damage with both extra damage modifiers don't add the damage after monstrous rage extra damage% calculation, it adds the damage before calculation making the damage literally monstrously higher due to how monstrous rage and %damage modifiers work in general.

I think you may have given answer to yourself. You said how great the ability is so it would make sense for it, to be not easily used or be cheap. But as always I would say Animal Handling as a skill is not yet finished and there are few things which need more work or do not make much sense in my opinion.

[meatwahd]

Yeah it makes sense for every other class in the entire game to be able to use their abilities but animal handling gets a gimped single target damage burst which requires an obscure item that has really low droprates. don't use my explanation of the ability as an arguement. Even if I farmed crypts the entire day and hogged the area before rhino I'm only getting 1-2 runes on average which makes for 10-20 uses of the ability on average per hour. makes alot of sense.

[alleryn]

do any of the abilites that use a consumable see large use? I don't think it's particular to animal handling. Teleportation, fish gut, stake the heart. There are many "special use case" skills like this, right? I'm not that familirar with the particular skill, is it really that core to AH?

[meatwahd]

Its basically what allows your pet to actually do damage 60+. Imagine lycan bite with seeing red mods but no skulk ability, just plain weak without it.

[INXS]

Ciervos drops one, maybe if you can finds out bosses loot cool down timer you're guaranteed one every kill.

[Aionlasting]

I've been leveling animal handling with archery for the hell of it because I'm bored and this is one skill I will not use because of the abysmal drop rate on anchor runes. Its just not worth it to me. I also think the anchor runes are consumed when you use the ability once which means you'd literally need to farm hundreds of hours for a decent stack size to make it worth using on any given foray.

This ability and these drop rates need to be re-visited in my opinion. I'm surprised as to how rare the drop is. Its almost like hunting for magic sand or explosive rune stones or enchanted mistletoes but instead of unlocking new abilities permanently upon usage, with anchor runes you use an ability one time in one instance of combat and consume that stone forever never to be of use again.

[Tagamogi]

do any of the abilites that use a consumable see large use? I don't think it's particular to animal handling. Teleportation, fish gut, stake the heart. There are many "special use case" skills like this, right? I'm not that familirar with the particular skill, is it really that core to AH?

Stake the Heart and possibly Fish Gut can be situationally useful if you are looking for a specific damage type. E.g. I spent quite a bit of time in the Animal Nexus as cow/psych and carried a stack of wood for Stake the Heart, so that I could kill those pesky portals that I could otherwise not damage at all. Stake the Heart is a bit easier to use though since wood is relatively easy to get. I might have used Fish Gut once or twice in the entire time I've spent playing, but I'm too attached to my fish scales to really make heavy use of it. Same with the special teleportation skills.

I don't think I've ever used unnatural wrath with ah - carrying a consumable and having my pet take more damage just didn't sound appealing to me.

[meatwahd]

try out the ability coupled with monstrous rage and proper modifiers then tell me unnatural wrath isn't appealing. What isn't appealing is the terrible drop rates tied to a consumable item that are dropped by low level mobs or a boss that respawns every 60-90 minutes.