Groble Effigy farm guide

[Bloodsword]

Hello!

Ive made this short guide for Effigy hunters and farmers.

1.0 Effigy (Monster Infrequent item)
Grobles are small goblin-like creatures found in Cairn here and there. They are divided into different clans, each clan specialising in a different damage type. They are famous for dropping an MI (Monster Infrequent) off hand item called “Effigy”. The Effigys are dropped by Witch Doctors of the different clans (Death, Sky etc). Grobles are Beastkins and belong to Beasts.

Rare Effigy MI`s are used mostly on specific elemental casters as off hands.
The stat values vary between different item lvls (starting from lvl 12, 20, 35, 55, 70, 84 and ending at 94) of course and the general differences can be found from the following link below:
https://gracefuldusk.appspot.com/items/Focus/

Below is a screenshot of a random Effigy found on Ultimate, its not anything near a Trophy, but shows just that with proper stats one of these can be useful.

2.0 Different Clans

Enemy types per Clan, they are the same for each clan.
Scavenger: The most common in the Groble ranks. Uses melee attacks. Cannonfodder.
Tracker: The tracker uses ranged attacks. Can wield firearms and crossbows.
Warrior (Champion): The Warrior is a stronger version of the Scavenger. Uses melee attacks.
Witch Doctor (Champion): Uses projectile magic attacks. All witchdoctors can heal friendly grobles, they have two heal types: a normal single target heal and a chained heal.

There are 5 different clans, and their differences are listed below.

2.1 Death Clan
The members of this clan have a deep red tint to their skin. Shamans have the ability to fire a ranged “deathbolt” which deals both vitality and % life. Shamans also have a “phantom blade” skill, where they throw daggers that deal piercing damage and leave a bleed DoT effect. The Warriors have a bloodlust buff that increases their physical damage, attack speed, cast speed, movement speed, and offensive ability.

Death Clan MI - Death Effigy
This is a sought after item specifically for Phantasmal Blade vitality damage dealing nightblade. Also a nice addition are skill cooldown and energy regen, as in all Effigys. Higher lvl items have prefix +2 to Heart Seeker.
As an example of the prefixes I took a lvl 12 item:

Location:
This Death Effigy can be found in Craigs Crags (East Marsh of Act 1)
Here is a crude map of where the Witch Doctors roam around:

2.2 Sky Clan
The members of this clan have a blue tint to the skin. Shamans have the ability to throw frost orbs, summon lightning, and shoot ice projectiles. Warriors have an attack that deals lightning damage and they can deal cold damage in an area of effect near them.

Sky Clan MI - Sky Effigy
This is a sought after item for Shamans dealing lightning damage. Higher lvl items have prefix +2 to Stormcallers Pact.

Location:
Act 4 Asterkarn Valley, some were on the way to Fort Ikon:

Act 1 Burrwitch Outskirts, for “Narbalgal” monster, marked below:

The Sky Effigy is a guaranteed drop from a monster called “Narbalgal, The Stormseeker”

2.3 Snake Clan
The members of this clan have a green tint to their skin. Shamans have an ability to throw poison, and summon a poison cloud. ranged will have poison damage tied to their attacks.

Snake Clan MI - Toxic Effigy
This effigy is ideal for occultists dealing poison dmg via DEE. Higher lvl items have prefix +2 to Vile Eruption.

Location:
Act 1 Burrwitch Outskirts, they are pretty much spread all over the map

**

Guide Continues in Post # 2…

Attachment: EffigyModelM1.jpg

[Bloodsword]

Continued from the first post…

2.4 Stone Clan:
The members of this clan have a grey tint to their skin. Shamans have the ability to fire waves which deal physical damage, warriors have a buff that activates passively when they are at 50% HP that grants 40% damage absorption for a few seconds.

Stone Clan MI - Stone Effigy
Good for PRM sorceress. Higher lvl items have prefix +2 to Proliferation.

Location:
Act 3 Pine Barrens (mixed with Ember clan sometimes), after the waypoint and onwards to Tyrants Hold

Act3 Tyrants Hold area + inside of Tyrants Hold

2.5 Ember Clan
The members of this clan have a yellow/orange tint to the skin. Shamans have the ability to throw fireballs and summon firestorms. Warriors can activate a temporary melee aura which deals fire damage over time.

Ember Clan MI - Ember Effigy
A good item for Pyromancers. Higher lvl items have prefix +2 to Hellfire Mines.

Location:
Act 3 Pine Barrens (mixed with Stone clan), after the waypoint and onward to Tyrants hold

Act3 Tyrants Hold area + inside of Tyrants Hold:

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Good luck with the groble hunt!
Thanks!

Sources:
https://gracefuldusk.appspot.com/items/Focus/

Groble

Off-Hands

[Troll_from_behind]

It’s a pity we don’t have Chaos or Aether grobbles, if even for areas themed around those.
But makes sense, since neither of em aren’t natural for Cairn.

[Strigvir]

Tbh, farming crucible yields better chance of getting a useful effigy than clearing the campaign.

[Boromonokli]

Even when you get a guaranteed storm effigy in burrwich?/ultimate

[sir_spanksalot]

GOD BLESS YOUR SOUL!

I followed this guide, and landed a BiS death effigy for my PB demonslayer reaper.

P.S. To parapharse ptiarodaktill - it’s easier to farm greens in elite. Should probably put that in the OP.

[Bloodsword]

Made some slight updates to the guide to make it easier to read.

[Farquarto]

nice work thanks

[Pareto]

Have there been reports of low rates of rare affixes on Groble effigies?

I have done some 15-20 runs for Stone effigies through the Pine Barrens and Tyrant’s Hold (at level 100, on Ultimate), and never saw a rare affix; neither in Stone effigies nor, I think, on Ember ones. Are the rates just that low, or could there be a problem with the loot tables?

[Strigvir]

All “common” (aka not tied to a single boss) MI’s have a very low chance of rolling a rare affix.
I’ve seen a ton of fleshwarped carbines and incinerators, but essense drinker of frostbite carbine is the best drop. Not even sure if it’s not from crucible either.

[Vastator]

Have there been reports of low rates of rare affixes on Groble effigies?

I have done some 15-20 runs for Stone effigies through the Pine Barrens and Tyrant’s Hold (at level 100, on Ultimate), and never saw a rare affix; neither in Stone effigies nor, I think, on Ember ones. Are the rates just that low, or could there be a problem with the loot tables?

I have exactly the same problem. Almost 30 runs, and I’ve never seen a amber or stone rare. Are chances to drop a rare THAT low or maybe is it bugged?

[USER_NAME_01]

Rare affixes are not called “rare” for no reason. I sometimes need 250 runs for one single rare, and sometimes 5 times and get a double rare.

[Vastator]

Rare affixes are not called “rare” for no reason. I sometimes need 250 runs for one single rare, and sometimes 5 times and get a double rare.

250? Isn’t that too much? If you can drop 4 MI during a run, does that mean you have 0.1% chance of getting a rare MI? Numbers don’t seem right.

I have farmed several MI (including Alkamos “set”) in the past, and I hadn’t so many problems getting any green MI rare (getting a rare that you may like may take a lot of time, and that’s fine). The last MI i farmed was a Leafmane Horn for my Cabalist. It took many runs getting a rare that i liked but i think it was fine, since other rare suffixes/affixes were dropping at a reasonable rate. Now i’m farming a stone effigy for my Spellbinder, and i have yet to see a rare (even the ember effigies dropping are yellows!). I wonder if i have more chances getting a rare from crucible.

[malawiglenn]

250? Isn’t that too much? If you can drop 4 MI during a run, does that mean you have 0.1% chance of getting a rare MI? Numbers don’t seem right.

I have farmed several MI (including Alkamos “set”) in the past, and I hadn’t so many problems getting any green MI rare (getting a rare that you may like may take a lot of time, and that’s fine). The last MI i farmed was a Leafmane Horn for my Cabalist. It took many runs getting a rare that i liked but i think it was fine, since other rare suffixes/affixes were dropping at a reasonable rate. Now i’m farming a stone effigy for my Spellbinder, and i have yet to see a rare (even the ember effigies dropping are yellows!). I wonder if i have more chances getting a rare from crucible.

Leafmane Horn’s can be shopped in AG

How many runs “needed” depends, there is a statistical variance of course.

[USER_NAME_01]

250? Isn’t that too much? If you can drop 4 MI during a run, does that mean you have 0.1% chance of getting a rare MI? Numbers don’t seem right.

I have farmed several MI (including Alkamos “set”) in the past, and I hadn’t so many problems getting any green MI rare (getting a rare that you may like may take a lot of time, and that’s fine). The last MI i farmed was a Leafmane Horn for my Cabalist. It took many runs getting a rare that i liked but i think it was fine, since other rare suffixes/affixes were dropping at a reasonable rate. Now i’m farming a stone effigy for my Spellbinder, and i have yet to see a rare (even the ember effigies dropping are yellows!). I wonder if i have more chances getting a rare from crucible.

I only wish they had 0.1% chance of dropping. I’d be actually rich as fuck at this point.
I bet the chances for a rare MI is around 0.001, double rare would be 0.0001 at best.
But it’s still RNG, so you might be a lucky motherfucker and get double rare three times in a row, like I did when Ancient Grove came out.

Just don’t lose hope. Try to like farming, or, if you don’t have time for that, either trade it or GDStash it. Both are practically cheating, so I’d recommend using GDStash instead.

[malawiglenn]

I bet the chances for a rare MI is around 0.001, double rare would be 0.0001 at best.

That doesn’t make sense. I would assume that affix and suffix rolls are more or less independent.

So of chance if rolling rare pre- or suffix is x them chance of rolling both pre- and suffix rare should be of the order x^2

Thus if chance rare MI is around 0.1% (1:1000), chance of double rare is around 0.0001% or 1:1000000

[holystar88]

That doesn’t make sense. I would assume that affix and suffix rolls are more or less independent.

So of chance if rolling rare pre- or suffix is x them chance of rolling both pre- and suffix rare should be of the order x^2

Thus if chance rare MI is around 0.1% (1:1000), chance of double rare is around 0.0001% or 1:1000000

I have a sandstorm groble effigy and a thunderstruck one, but I never bother to farm them as they always have terrible affixes drop in MC. So, crucible is your (not) friend, even it boring as f***.:mad:

[Vastator]

After several more runs, i was finally able to see a Stone Effigy dropping with a rare affix, the Sandstorm one, which has a 8% phys res so, despite some other stats are not so good for my build, i think it’s a good time to stop “farming”.
It seems rare affixes are really rare if they drop from trash mobs, and not from heroes (stone effigies drop only from witchdoctor and geomancers), while MI dropping from heroes/bosses seem to have a way higher chance to drop a rare affix.
I kept seeing yellow/magic affixes everywhere, there was even a time when the game trolled me dropping 2 effigies with the exact same yellow prefix/suffix few meters away :rolleyes:

[holystar88]

I agree, its not worth hunting these common monsters as they mostly drop trashes. I gave up on hunting a death groble as 99% drops are bad affixes.