There are 2 places to farm the Quetzal Crests
and both are actually decent (for once).
However, it is easier (and by easier I mean you don't have to bother with non-Quetzals) to farm Verdant Cascades than Alcazia Tangle. It's quicker too.
So I am just going to do this write-up detailing farming Quetzal Crests in the Verdant Cascades
But first, here's a few notes about Quetzals...
>they all have a skill called Tengu's Mimicry, its a monster skill, and it allows them to copy any shout they hear (the Stark Quetzal have 2 shouts: Watch Yourself and None Shall Pass)
>they move fast, faster than u do anyway, so be careful not to get overrun by them
>Stark Quetzals have a KD skill that affects moving foes and its a shout (None Shall Pass), meaning the other Quetzal can copy it, so watch this. If it gives u too many problems just swap out a skill of ur choice for an anti-KD skill
>Keen Quetzals are rangers and have an interrupt skill (Savage Shot)
>Sly Quetzals use Ether Feast (alot) so they will likely be the last to die in the groups they are in
>Dark Quetzals use Well Of Suffering (a massive degen)
>Quetzal are NOT specifically vulnerable to lightning damage like Prophecies' Avicara and Caromi Tengu are (this is also true of Factions' Sensali and Angchu Tengu).
On the up side, even though i generally wouldnt recommend using a SoS solo to farm mix groups (as in mixed classes of the same creature type) its simple here since they dont have healers in the groups or anything complicated to defeat.
The SoS solo build i used was:
>Painful Bond
>Vampirism
>Blood Song (always use this if its a choice between it and Pain, since it is a self-heal spirit)
>Signet of Spirits
>Shadow Song (after all, a Stark or Keen cant hit what they cant see)
>Armor of Unfeeling (as with any SoS solo farm vs anything above level 10)
>Spirit Light (none of them use conditions on u so its a better choice over Mend Body and Soul)
>Summon Spirits
The SoS solo tactics here are like the more complicated ones u use against more complex mixed groups, though its no where near as difficult to do, that being... cast>bring up>move back>move back, etc. pulling ur spirits back is more to heal them than reposition them.
Also, Stark like to ball up around spirits making it easy to catch them all in Painful Bond at once
Keep ur spirits out of the Well spell by pulling them back also
The Verdant Cascades farm is simple, well, simple in its course anyway.
Go south.
Leave Umbral Grotto, get the bounty and head south.
The trick with farming this area is watching your agro.
If you don't u will be fighting 2 groups (or more) and they will FUCK YOU UP....bad.
Real, real bad.
There is even a tiny little Quetzal village here (how cute) that you are free to just spirit spam kill away in.
Just watch your agro.
Speaking of which, there is a boss in that village.
His group is special, you can fight them generally 1v1(+your spirits, lol), just pull them. Some of them don't really pull per se,
but u can "activate" their aggro one or two at a time.
This includes the boss who is a ranger (as most of the Quetzal in the group are).
After that head east and just go north and look around making an imperfect rectangle staying inside the "Notice to Trespassers"
signs which mark the big, bad Quetzal turf.
Btw, in the far south there is also a small semi-circle path that has a group of Quetzal "in" it that is easy to miss.
The Questzal and the Skelk are hostile to each other, which helps, they target them 1st while you just stroll up with your spirits and Painful Bond the lot of them
Keep any Skelk Claws you get as drops, Nick will ask for them later.
A full farm of this area takes less than 30 minutes, and has almost 90 Quetzal for you to kill and yields around 15 Crests.
Basically 1 Crest for every 6 Quetzal.
You need only 10 for the Traveler so if you stop at 10 you can likely do the farm in 20 minutes or less
Good luck and have fun,
Atty