me too. But the game gave them to me both times, long after I had given up, in Bayjin on the beach. It's the wood spirit staff that bugs me - still haven't got it in one game, and won't.

For wood spirit staff, camp in Trynton, up the branch from the zoo... sooner or later oak or willow saplings will appear. Once you know they are in the neighborhood, save before combat. If they don't drop one, reload and fight 'em again... a little time consuming, but it works.

Oru

An even easier method is to save before going into the vault area after the antimagic zone. Fight the tree people and if they do not drop a staff just reload. The same can be done with the fixed Giant Spiders for Spider Silk.

Venom crab shells are pretty easy to get if you go back into the Monastery; then rest to get it to a point where when you step outside some new variety of crab will spawn. Just save before leaving the monastery and keep going out until it spawns venom crabs, shouldn't take too many tries.