I just had a Pile of Gravel drop from a baleful stoneworker in Ruined City of Dranik today (3 Feb 07). They sell easily at 800pp each in the bazaar on The Rathe, although now that I'm doing tradeskills myself, I'll probably start to keep them :)
After many hours of killing the 2 gargoyles that pop every 3 minutes plus all the gargoyles along the path down to them i only found (1). But, in the bazaar, there's lots for sale between 1k and 2k each so it might be easier to just buy them.
Just spent 4 days, total of about 14 hours in the Hole. Not one of these dropped. Took on the gargoyles upstairs and downstairs. Dropped approx 150+ gargoyles during that time. These are definitely not a common drop. More like ultra-rare from my experience. And I too have no clue why these should be so hard to get. The Grandmaster's gear components are easier to get, check in bazaar to see how many are for sale everyday gives you a clue as to how often they drop, plus the amount of grandmaster's gear available for sale. I have to go with what a eq friend told me and just skip Master's gear and level up for grandmasters.
Pretarius Dragontank 62nd Paladin Cazic Thule (brell serilis) Platinum Knights of Power
the pile of gravel are not common , i have hunted in hole killed over 100 gargoyles of varies types and none of them dropped, went to plane of nightmare and killed over 100 again and none dropped, but hearing the stuff drops in ruined city of dranik ( rcod ), but my complaint to soe is why is this stuff so rare for master grade don cultural armor for orge's and the stuff gnomes need for master grade don cultural armor so easy ( small bricks of ytrium ore ), i get on ave 1 of them every 3 kills and for pile of gravel 0 in 200+ mobs
Either Sony intended this to be a common drop, and the loot tables are FUBAR'd, or someone lied to this resource. 5+ hours in Old Paineel, ~70 someodd kills. Not one gravel yet.
A friend farming P o Nightmare (He can, I can't) is getting a somewhat better rate, about 3 in 4 hours.
As far as I'm concerned, you can take the word "common" off this entry. I've killed about 50 gargoyles in the last 2+ hours and haven't had one pile of gravel drop. Stuff's about as common as a three eyed frog.
I had about 3 or 4 of em drop from the broken gargoyles in the Hole in about 8 hours of camping down by the temple where the Ghost of glohnor spawns for sk epic 1.0 hope this helps.
I just don't get these postings. Western Union used to charge by the word in 1900 so people made up all kinds of acronyms to keep costs down. Far as I know, most ISPs charge flat rates now. Not everyone is uber and lives in these zones all the time (or even been to them yet, forthat matter). Where is "GotS"?
.... you dont need to be uber to go to the hole, it can easily be solo'ed by a lvl 35 - 40 with a fungi... or duo'ed by tank and healer in the same range
Dropped in the Ruined City of Dranik, from one of the stone golem fellas. Sorry I don't know the exact mob's name. It was dropped by one in the area near Filligno the Slayer.