Guild Wars 2

So it’s my understanding for them there new-ish Aetherized Weapons, they cost 1 Claim Ticket, which is only obtainable by trading 10 Scraps dropped from Black Lion Chests. They can also be rarely found by doing Trials and can be purchased on the TP for about 55g.

Now I barely make 2g per day or less, so buying it is kinda never going to happen unless I go full gold-farm mode. If that doesn’t happen, that leaves Black Lion Keys as the only other option.
CoF honestly doesn’t look appetizing enough to run 110+ times (assuming 50s per run, accounting for any DR you hit).
But Keys… they drop rarer than Exotics off mobs, so farming those that way would just make you look dumb. However, I’ve found a nice way to solo farm 2 Keys in an hour without fail. At this rate I can keep that average of 2 Key/hour without spending any currency (unless you count Time as a currency).

So far it seems like it’s maybe a 75% chance, possibly a 50% chance to get a Scrap from a Chest. That would be 15 Keys if that’s a close estimate; So 7.5 hours on my end.

Now my question/discussion is if this is worth it to farm 2 Keys an hour instead of farming gold for an Aetherized skin. Like… is 2 Keys/hour too few, or are Keys just the wrong way to go towards these in general?
I asked around my server’s LA for a bit, and the overall theme was nobody would farm 2 Keys/hour… but why would that be? Any insight and opinions on this would be much appreciated.

If you’re talking about the Commoner Human, that’s a widely known Key farm method.

At current Gold → Gems conversion (3G50S/100Gems), it will cost 15.75G for 450 Gems (5 Keys) or 3,15G per Key.

At CoF, with a rate of 80s per 8 minutes, it will take ~ 4 runs to get the gold to get 1 Key. 4 runs is about 30 minutes.

Getting a Key takes about 30 minutes through the Commoner Human method.

Keys are not worth it. They more often than not produce a result that does not progress your chances towards a goal. And when they do, it takes more chances.

Or think of it this way. Farming for keys and then opening it can result in two things. One, remaining in status quo (you don’t get a scrap or a token). Or two, getting a scrap/token (rare chance)

Meanwhile, farming gold results in one thing, and that’s an increase in wealth.

I would very much prefer the guaranteed increase in wealth as opposed to the option to gamble for very rare chance.

But personally, I would not gamble on these skins. I don’t find them attractive. I would rather save the scraps and hope for the next set of weapons that look awesome.

Esplen.3940:

If you’re talking about the Commoner Human, that’s a widely known Key farm method.

At current Gold -> Gems conversion (3G50S/100Gems), it will cost 15.75G for 450 Gems (5 Keys) or 3,15G per Key.

At CoF, with a rate of 80s per 8 minutes, it will take ~ 4 runs to get the gold to get 1 Key. 4 runs is about 30 minutes.

Getting a Key takes about 30 minutes through the Commoner Human method.

I’ve actually been going White Stag Sylvari (Thief), evade spam together with Infiltrator’s Arrow and AoE conditions on a ranged weapon pretty much breaks everything you encounter. Haven’t tried/heard about Commoner Human though.

Also doesn’t DR kick down your CoF runs to start making like 12s at some point?

Xalugami.2096:

Esplen.3940:

If you’re talking about the Commoner Human, that’s a widely known Key farm method.

At current Gold -> Gems conversion (3G50S/100Gems), it will cost 15.75G for 450 Gems (5 Keys) or 3,15G per Key.

At CoF, with a rate of 80s per 8 minutes, it will take ~ 4 runs to get the gold to get 1 Key. 4 runs is about 30 minutes.

Getting a Key takes about 30 minutes through the Commoner Human method.

I’ve actually been going White Stag Sylvari (Thief), evade spam together with Infiltrator’s Arrow and AoE conditions on a ranged weapon pretty much breaks everything you encounter. Haven’t tried/heard about Commoner Human though.

Also doesn’t DR kick down your CoF runs to start making like 12s at some point?

DR in CoF is a non-factor. CoF1 is profitable because of gold drops from mobs, and DR has no influence on gold drops.

But that whole consideration is pointless since dungeons are changing this Tuesday.

Vol.5241:

Xalugami.2096:

Esplen.3940:

If you’re talking about the Commoner Human, that’s a widely known Key farm method.

At current Gold -> Gems conversion (3G50S/100Gems), it will cost 15.75G for 450 Gems (5 Keys) or 3,15G per Key.

At CoF, with a rate of 80s per 8 minutes, it will take ~ 4 runs to get the gold to get 1 Key. 4 runs is about 30 minutes.

Getting a Key takes about 30 minutes through the Commoner Human method.

I’ve actually been going White Stag Sylvari (Thief), evade spam together with Infiltrator’s Arrow and AoE conditions on a ranged weapon pretty much breaks everything you encounter. Haven’t tried/heard about Commoner Human though.

Also doesn’t DR kick down your CoF runs to start making like 12s at some point?

DR in CoF is a non-factor. CoF1 is profitable because of gold drops from mobs, and DR has no influence on gold drops.

But that whole consideration is pointless since dungeons are changing this Tuesday.

Ah, I didn’t realize the mobs dropped so much coin (I don’t do CoF too often to begin with lol).

Though I did know that dungeons are changing soon, and so are the pricetags on Aetherized weapons, thus is the reason I’m trying to rapidly obtain my revolver before that happens.

Xalugami.2096:

Vol.5241:

Xalugami.2096:

Esplen.3940:

If you’re talking about the Commoner Human, that’s a widely known Key farm method.

At current Gold -> Gems conversion (3G50S/100Gems), it will cost 15.75G for 450 Gems (5 Keys) or 3,15G per Key.

At CoF, with a rate of 80s per 8 minutes, it will take ~ 4 runs to get the gold to get 1 Key. 4 runs is about 30 minutes.

Getting a Key takes about 30 minutes through the Commoner Human method.

I’ve actually been going White Stag Sylvari (Thief), evade spam together with Infiltrator’s Arrow and AoE conditions on a ranged weapon pretty much breaks everything you encounter. Haven’t tried/heard about Commoner Human though.

Also doesn’t DR kick down your CoF runs to start making like 12s at some point?

DR in CoF is a non-factor. CoF1 is profitable because of gold drops from mobs, and DR has no influence on gold drops.

But that whole consideration is pointless since dungeons are changing this Tuesday.

Ah, I didn’t realize the mobs dropped so much coin (I don’t do CoF too often to begin with lol).

Though I did know that dungeons are changing soon, and so are the pricetags on Aetherized weapons, thus is the reason I’m trying to rapidly obtain my revolver before that happens.

If you really truly desperate and up against the wall in time, I suggest buying gems and selling them and getting your revolver.

And even if you do end up getting 1 token to use on weapons, keep an eye on prices (especially buy orders). It may be profitable to buy one weapon, sell it for gold and still have enough to buy a revolver + profit.

The gold/hour is First hour: 6g81s90c.
Subsequent hours: 6g26s.

Click link for math (ignore half of it since it applies to the Facebook buff that never got released).

Vol.5241:

If you really truly desperate and up against the wall in time, I suggest buying gems and selling them and getting your revolver.

And even if you do end up getting 1 token to use on weapons, keep an eye on prices (especially buy orders). It may be profitable to buy one weapon, sell it for gold and still have enough to buy a revolver + profit.

Unlikely if he wants the revolver. It is one of the highest priced skins of this batch. Love that skin, but it is a bit expensive compared to my current supply and the rest of my alts that need leveling.

There is a reason why financial advisors do not recommend buying more lottery tickets as a means of generating wealth. Buying keys is analogous with buying lottery tickets. There will be daily winners, but the chances are it won’t be you. There is no rational reason to buy keys.

Raine.1394:

There is a reason why financial advisors do not recommend buying more lottery tickets as a means of generating wealth. Buying keys is analogous with buying lottery tickets. There will be daily winners, but the chances are it won’t be you. There is no rational reason to buy keys.

That’s why my choice is between farming the gold to either turn into gems into keys, or just buy the skin on the TP directly (depends on the cheapest way as the Revolver is so awesome the price is reflecting that); or if it would be quicker to put faith in some blind luck and farm keys directly.
If the latter goes remarkably well then I’ll have to farm for less time (I think); but that’s why I made the topic. If the chance of bad luck is worth going against to grind out the free keys -vs- spending a tremendous amount of time with my brain turned off doing 8minute dungeon runs. I’m just terrible at paying attention to CoF so reading opinions on the alternate ways is very nice to see.

I’ll still never spend a cent on RNG no matter the chances (because it’s just a skin in a video game, honestly no reason to gate that between all of the above – Cashmoney, RNG, and availability), but my time & pixelated thingamajigs are all fair game.

Also inb4 “The weapon skins will be here forever, they’ll just be 5x more expensive” because that sounds totally fair & logical to work towards (given an opportunity to get cheaper anyhow).

Xalugami.2096:

So far it seems like it’s maybe a 75% chance, possibly a 50% chance to get a Scrap from a Chest. That would be 15 Keys if that’s a close estimate; So 7.5 hours on my end.

I’m not sure where you got those stats from, I thought it was more like 10-25% drop rate. See all the other threads about it.
Even though the scraps might be a “common drop”, they have to compete with lots of other common drops from the BLC.
Of course you might get veryvery lucky and get a (whole) claim ticket. Goodluck!

Your keyfarm sounds cool but only if it’s more fun than say, CoF; otherwise you are grinding for $3 an hour at best. I suppose you can make it interesting with different characters, and switching to other storylines.

Keep in mind that the Queen’s Jubilee is around the corner, along with fresh shinies. A few more of these temp contents and Aether items will be yesterday’s news.
Anyone still pining for a Sclerite drop nowadays?

Alacrity.4312:

Xalugami.2096:

So far it seems like it’s maybe a 75% chance, possibly a 50% chance to get a Scrap from a Chest. That would be 15 Keys if that’s a close estimate; So 7.5 hours on my end.

I’m not sure where you got those stats from, I thought it was more like 10-25% drop rate. See all the other threads about it.
Even though the scraps might be a “common drop”, they have to compete with lots of other common drops from the BLC.
Of course you might get veryvery lucky and get a (whole) claim ticket. Goodluck!

Your keyfarm sounds cool but only if it’s more fun than say, CoF; otherwise you are grinding for $3 an hour at best. I suppose you can make it interesting with different characters, and switching to other storylines.

Keep in mind that the Queen’s Jubilee is around the corner, along with fresh shinies. A few more of these temp contents and Aether items will be yesterday’s news.
Anyone still pining for a Sclerite drop nowadays?

No one was pining for Sclerite weapons. Most agree they were some of the ugliest weapons and disapointing new skins yet.

However the pistol for example is one of those “perfect” skins. It’s simple enough to have a classy look, but not so simple as to not have something that makes you look at go at the very least “cool”. That being said, I don’t see most of the other weapons retaining the same value as the pistol.