I personally thought the resource requirements needed to do the event were just a little off. We are almost a month into it and the scarcity of explosives and ammunitions is much lower.. So, it is getting better. Early on I did have some long wait times for someone to have explosives to get through the gates only to be stuck at the catapults. We ended up using explosives on the catapult gates but that was slow and we barely put a dent in it. I have an alchemist and smith but the blackrock and orbs were not in large supply. The economics of my shard are just wonky. Like 5 orbs was going for 5 mil. The explosives at least only take 1 orb but ammunitions takes 3 and some small blackrock which is an uncommon drop on mining. I think I needed a minimum of 2000 swings with the shovel to get 3 pieces of blackrock to make 1 ammunitions kit. (about 20 shovels) The crystalline blackrocks were not too hard to get from just killing dull copper elementals at compassion shrine. If you expect to get the resources from the final boss satchel drop then you have a minimum of 3 events you have to do. So, let's say you get a drop of orbs, crystalline blackrock, and small piece blackrock. You can make 1 ammunitions kit and 2 explosives. I guess that would be fine if everyone at the event was contributing but then again it seems like on my shard crafters have all disappeared because there are pretty much no resources on vendors. Like try to get some peerless reagents. Nope. You better suit up and try to find a hunting party. Luckily, we have had a guy organizing hunts every MWF.
Still, you're asking every account to have tradesmen and mules and start mining saltpeter. I also bombed a few walls and was not impressed by the artifact drops. So, these explosives were quite expensive and I'd be lucky to get 1 turn-in arty. So, I just stopped making them. I think a big guild has started pooling their members satchel resources and I think have a good supply to get through the first phases as long as they attend. The event pretty much occurs everday at nearly 6:30am, 12pm, 6pm, 12am. So, the 6am and the 12am are pretty rough sometimes. The 6pm is usually the quickest.
The event is actually really cool when it works out the way I think broadsword intended. I joined the fight on a larger shard and it was kinda cool laying siege. There were tons of catapults and a big fight. The only downside was actually once in Mistas the lag was awful due to so many folks. The commanders that used area lightning seemed to be the worst. All the others were not too bad. I think the one that spawns the draalyrms bogged down pretty good too.
Just make a GM miner toggle the shovel to blackrock and then I can at least plan out supply instead of just luck of the drop of the fight or mining. Not sure what to do about void orbs. I guess for most void items... orbs, cores, etc.... you have to just go fight tons of monsters in Ter Mur. It is all a bit of a pain. I have another post where I'm asking if anyone has tested the voidbane elixir on those creatures cause then that make obtaining void orbs a bit easier. However, they do seem to be more common item in my satchel drops than the blackrock and especially more common than the void fragments which appears to be super rare.
You can also get Small blackrock, Crystalline blackrock, void orbs and cores from the hidden chests (in "some" of the gem bags). The Unbound Energy Vortex in Shame level 3 is an excellent source of Void Cores & Orbs - Samps with Poison Damage Elemental Slayers take about 5 minutes or so to kill them and there are 3 of them on one of the islands and the respawn rate is pretty good. I advise separating them though.
Right now, for me the cores are a little tough. My characters are struggling with the unbound EVs. A little too dangerous. I found some on level 5 but will check lvl 3. They still just hit a bit too hard and they have too much health. I'm doing hidden chests and I did get a void fragment in my final boss satchel and a buddy helped me with some cores and I was able to make some Eldritch vambraces.
I guess if the unbounds drop rate is good then I'll try them again. I have to kill at least 10 Anlorvaglems (?) to get 1 core. That is with about 1300 luck.