User blog comment:JusTSeaN/Rathian Plate/@comment-969093-20100519210020

Well to get the plate you need to break the head and hope for it in the rewards OR cut tail tail and carve it while hoping for a plate. With HIGH RANK people mean the online quests that are HR31+. These quests yield rarer items and the rare items like plates are slightly more common there.

Also are you in EU or US? I could help perhaps if you're EU but keep in mind I farm the upper level monsters so I might not be available for help much.