Where to farm non-humanoid grand souls en masse? : V

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 9:19 pm

I have 146 unfilled grand soul gems...yeah..it bites. I used up all my black soul gems and filled grand soul gems enchanting, so now I'm stuck as to find the tiny, tiny, tiny list of creatures with grand souls who aren't humanoids.

I'm level 61 and only know of mammoths, shadow masters, dragons, and draugr death overlords as the primary non-humans to farm for grand souls. Problem is it's hard to farm them, since I rarely come across shadow masters/death overlords, and mammoths only come in about 2-4 per area, and of course there's the giant body guards who only have greater souls.

Anywhere I could go to get like a dozen+ grand souls a dungeon or a trip?

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 6:16 pm

Why do you need that many grand souls? There's only so many things you can wear.... and once enchanting is maxed, there's not much point....

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 2:51 pm

that is very true, you can potentially go through the game using perhaps only 20 soul gems (8 for fortify alchemy/armor and 12 for items for yourself and your follower)

on my oldest save file i had about 340 grand soul gems.

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 8:54 am

I have 146 unfilled grand soul gems...yeah..it bites. I used up all my black soul gems and filled grand soul gems enchanting, so now I'm stuck as to find the tiny, tiny, tiny list of creatures with grand souls who aren't humanoids.

I'm level 61 and only know of mammoths, shadow masters, dragons, and draugr death overlords as the primary non-humans to farm for grand souls. Problem is it's hard to farm them, since I rarely come across shadow masters/death overlords, and mammoths only come in about 2-4 per area, and of course there's the giant body guards who only have greater souls.

Anywhere I could go to get like a dozen+ grand souls a dungeon or a trip?

Harvest them from the Corrupted Shades at Kilkreath Ruins, right below Meridia's Shrine, which is located west of Solitude. You have to start the Break of Dawn quest by talking to Meridia at the shrine before you can enter the ruins.

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 8:30 am

Gator, is the access to the temple still there after you complete the quest, and do the shades respawn after time? I don't know, never bothered to go back. But if not.... it's dollars to doughnuts a level 61 has already cleared the place....

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 10:40 am

I'm still training enchanting. I got to 91 so master trainers don't help anymore, and I have dozens and dozens of random ebony/glass/daedric/elvish weapons I could enchant to gain levels. I also don't have many enchanting perks yet so I constantly have to destroy and remake my own gear when I get new enchant perks in order to give it a better enchantment effect.

And yeah I did the quest for dawnbreaker. I doubt they respawn because every now and then I go to that temple to loot the corpses for coins since you get about 100 coins per body usually, 2-3 grand per trip easily+gems/trinkets, and I never see shades.

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 4:54 pm

I've just never had any issue leveling enchanting.... it's the only perk I get to 100, and while it takes a bunch of weapons and petty soul gems, those are ALL I use. Petty soul gems + whatever you have for weapons + Turn Undead four times == a level.

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 7:45 pm

I power leveled it using grand soul/black soul gems, iron daggers that I got from smithing, and the paralysis enchantment (later banishment).

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 5:26 pm

I.... think that's the "expensive" way to do it.... yeah, the daggers are cheap....

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 6:13 pm

I gained the same amount of money no matter what I enchanted. 300 coin profit from an ebony war axe, iron dagger, daedric warhammer.....none of it made a difference, but the iron daggers were easier to sell off once enchanted. Money is the least of my concern, I'd gladly pay a huge premium if there was a shop that sold a decent amount of grand soul gems filled or empty/filled black soul gems.

Are there any dungeons with a lot of Draugr death lords or anything?

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 7:08 am

Gator, is the access to the temple still there after you complete the quest, and do the shades respawn after time? I don't know, never bothered to go back. But if not.... it's dollars to doughnuts a level 61 has already cleared the place....

You can still enter the temple after you finish the quest, but I don't know if the Corrupted Shades respawn. I'll go back and check again when I'm sure the reset clock has run its course. I only mentioned it because the OP didn't in his post, and there was another fellow here who hadn't visited the temple yet, and he was in the mid-to-upper 50's, IIRC.

I stumbled into it in the high 30's and was woefully unprepared - had only 5 or 6 empty grand soul gems. No biggie - that character still has a fair number of filled gems, and has plenty of gold.

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 5:34 pm

There is an invisible chest in Dawnstar next to some rocks by the mine and tied to the Khajitt caravan.

You can loot everything for free, it normally carries 3 - 5 full grand gems and 5 or more empty. Its basically the Khajitt's inventory chest, and it refills every 48 game hours after you talk to the Khajitt.

Probably your easiest bet, though its not exactly legit I admit.

There's always the console as well...

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 9:17 pm

I gained the same amount of money no matter what I enchanted. 300 coin profit from an ebony war axe, iron dagger, daedric warhammer.....none of it made a difference, but the iron daggers were easier to sell off once enchanted. Money is the least of my concern, I'd gladly pay a huge premium if there was a shop that sold a decent amount of grand soul gems filled or empty/filled black soul gems.

Are there any dungeons with a lot of Draugr death lords or anything?

I meant expensive as in using black/grand soul gems. Thing is, NOTHNG you enchant sells for more money just because you used a grand soul to do it.... Nor do you get more skillups using a higher level soul. The only benefit to high level souls is when you enchant your own stuff.

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 9:41 pm

Ah seriously? The official prima guide I have said that better soul gems provide a better enchantment effect and therefore more xps.

:stare:

Guess I'll have to go and use up those petty/greater soul gems I have then.

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 3:20 pm

There is an invisible chest in Dawnstar next to some rocks by the mine and tied to the Khajitt caravan.

You can loot everything for free, it normally carries 3 - 5 full grand gems and 5 or more empty. Its basically the Khajitt's inventory chest, and it refills every 48 game hours after you talk to the Khajitt.

Probably your easiest bet, though its not exactly legit I admit.

There's always the console as well...

I'd heard of that chest, never heard about the grand soul gems though. I might use that then. Can't use console commands on my PS3 either (seriously regret not upgrading my PC earlier).

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 10:45 pm

Falmer Lurkers and Shadowmasters if you're high enough LVL (40-ish, I think). Mammoths if you don't have issues killing non-hostiles.

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 8:38 pm

Ah seriously? The official prima guide I have said that better soul gems provide a better enchantment effect and therefore more xps.

:stare:

Guess I'll have to go and use up those petty/greater soul gems I have then.

In my experience (16 toons, ALL of them at 100 Enchanting) your best bet is to use petty soul gems and all the crud you drag home from dungeoneering. The only things you need high-level soul gems for are your own armor/weapons (and even then, if what you put on your axe/sword/whatever is soul trap/fiery soul trap, petty gems give you the SAME as grand ones do....)

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 3:38 pm

Falmer count as non-humanoid so you can capture their souls in normal soul gems.

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 2:14 pm

Use petty gems to level enchant. Better still, use the Black Star to recharge your weapons every kill, you will level it much faster.

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 9:52 am

...if what you put on your axe/sword/whatever is soul trap/fiery soul trap, petty gems give you the SAME as grand ones do....)

Mine don't - unless it's a graphical bug. When I'm setting up the Enchant I get a waayyy higher number when I select Grand/Black over a lower grade gem.

I don't have any lower grade numbers in front of me because I'm not currently enchanting, but I got 46% Fire and Shock resists with Grand Soul gems and much lower when I previewed with lower grade soul gems. If I had gone through with the Enchant would the lower ones have produced a 46% Resist? :confused:

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 7:31 pm

My experience is that whatever the "big" soul gem shows as far as percentages, the lower ones also show. I must say however that I do NOT know how that translates in the game world, since if stuff dies and I see fire effects plus get the soul, I simply don't care what the percentages are. As in, y'know.... if it works, where's the beef.... and.... if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I haven't had any issues at all - whether killing things, collecting souls, etc.

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 6:51 am

Grand enchanted items do sell for more, but the difference is minimal, and since most merchants don't have enough gold to buy a single banish dagger enchanted petty, it's useless to use big souls for leveling.

I think wispmothers are also grand. Wisps may be too, depending on your level - all I know is I had a boxload of grand souls after fighting wisps and I can't think of anything else big that I fought then.

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 3:05 pm

My experience is that whatever the "big" soul gem shows as far as percentages, the lower ones also show. I must say however that I do NOT know how that translates in the game world, since if stuff dies and I see fire effects plus get the soul, I simply don't care what the percentages are. As in, y'know.... if it works, where's the beef.... and.... if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I haven't had any issues at all - whether killing things, collecting souls, etc.

Grand gives your weapon many more charges if it's a charged item. If it's a non-charged item grand will give you a higher percentage.

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 10:35 am

Grand gives your weapon many more charges if it's a charged item. If it's a non-charged item grand will give you a higher percentage.

That's true, but I've never really been "short" on gems to recharge. My bad, didn't think that others might have that issue. (Besides which, I need to head for bed, and I've had more than a sufficiency of good burgundy tonight....)

» Sun Jun 03, 2012 9:07 am

Power leveling is for wackbros.