Guild Wars 2

My character(s) are up finally up in the higher areas, and I am getting Black Lion Chests at a crazy rate, but I have not seen one single key drop since before the Halloween event. I might consider buying some, but the price is ridiculous considering almost everything in them is just bank filler.

I would like some transmutation stones (now I need the blue ones) and the precious few I have are running out.

Have they nerfed the drop rates to prop up sales?

I doubt they have even touched the drop rates. Keys is a rare drop and the easiest way to get some is to complete an area and get one as a reward or as a reward for personal story.

besides your better off buying blue transmutation stones directly as there is only a tiny chance to get them and the salvage kit.

I’ve only gotten three key drops in the entire time I’ve been playing the game (including the BWEs). I recently got one on a low-level character, but like Black Wolf said, the best way to get them is by completing areas or the personal story. They’ve always been a pretty rare drop, and I think if you were getting more before, you’re probably just blessed by Lady Luck!

yeah, I feel like the black lion chests drop rate have been increased, but the keys have not.

Incidentally, my friend got 3 keys today: 1 from story, 1 from chest, and 1 as a drop. Tsk.

I considered buying some transformation stones directly as well, but again the cost was just to high. Storage slots are worth the cost, but it takes so many stones to keep the skins you like on armor and weapons, I don’t think it’s worth it. I just wish there was some way to learn to craft the skins you acquire, but that’s for a different forum I guess.

i think u get one for lvl 10 mission on new chars, so ive heard if u just do that over and over…

I have never gotten one as a drop.

The rate of drop has always been abysmal. They keep it like that to encourage sales so that you buy the BL chests. If they made the drops less abysmal people wouldn’t buy keys as often.

The also introduced real money gambling into the chests during the halloween event to increase demand for the keys.

I agree, there are way too many BLC s around to make them worth anything, there has to be millions of BLC floating around, just this morning there were 300+ thousand chest at 5 copper posted.
did you guys increase the rate drop after the holidays? I seem to have gathered about 16 BLCs in one or two evenings. I do not farm much at all really.. i am just leveling my lvl 31 guardian.
anyway at this point i rather trash them, when i find myself with low in inventory space since virtually any other drop is worth 3 times more.
FYI I do buy keys ( no luck at the skins,but that is ok) and open them once a while but at this rate even if i spend $20 a month for BL keys alone i would still have extra chests.
even if i use my gold for gems, i feel like the real cost of a chest is 1 gold + 3-4 copper the chest current value.
Please consider a balancing drop rate on chests to match purchased keys or add more keys to the loot lottery. A huge BL key sale? BL keys in dailies?

It would be really nice if there were random unlocked BLC’s, to offset the fact that out of five characters all leveled to at least 30 since launch, I have only ever looted one single key and if I remember correctly it was at the start of the Halloween event. None from personal story lines or anywhere else and I certainly can’t afford to buy more than a hundred keys to unlock all the chests that have dropped in the same time.

I get about 1 every 2+ weeks as a drop but have gotten over 250 chests but I guess that’s why their for sale for gems .I don’t know what the cost of gem per gold is but you diffidently can earn enough to get 5 plus keys per week and now that I’m done up grading that’s good option . Wish what was in them was sellable . I got a full bank of tonics and booster .

I got my first black lion key drop yesterday, after playing every day since launch. Several of my guildies also just got their first black lion key drops in the past week. If anything, key drop rates seem to have gone up after Halloween.

now there are 750 ,000 posted at 5 copper. around 450 thousand more chest in less than 30 hours.

I personally would like these to not be account bound. You want to make supply and demand, open them up on the trading post like everything else. I have a key sitting in my bag right now. I would love to sell the darn thing for 250 gems or trade for the in game cash.

I almost fell out of my chair yesterday. I got KEY…oh my word. Seems forever since I saw one of those drop. Anyway I decided to see if I would get anything worth while so I opened one of my chests.

I should have known better..what a disappointment. This is what I got:

Revive Orb
3 Mystery Tonics
Armor booster – buff that reduces incoming damage by 5% for 1 hour
Black Lion Chest…such poor rewards

You do realize a Revive Orb is 180 gems (5/900).

On average, the items you receive will be worth more gems than the keys you use. They just happen to be random rewards. Some boosters also can’t be purchased directly.

The keys are just waiting at the store for us to stupidly buy them at a ridiculous price. Have you read the horrid stories of players spending hundred of dollars in keys looking to get permanent items or rare skins? What they got was a lot of “junk” that’s not even account bound, occupying space at the bank.

I detested the concept from the get go. I came to the point of deleting a BLC every time I get one. It’s a ridiculous cash grab and I want nothing to do with it.

nah, the transmute stone has just about the same drop rate as anything else from BLC, around 1/10, and each time you get a ton, 10 or w/e number. I have 200 some transmute stones they are absolutely useless.

holloween skin drop rate around 1/100, little higher for the shoulder and rifle skins but they don’t worth anything (i want to say 1:20 or so odd).

MF and karma booster about 1/5, other boosters might be bit higher rate.

repair canister has much higher drop rate than other accessories. Lowest being merchant, probably 1/10 that of canisters.

My suspicion is that salvage kits have same drop rate as booster but I don’t get 1 in 5, maybe 1/10. some other people i know get them more.

the chance to get permanent / reusable items is probably 1/500, if not 1/1000. If you are opening any number less than 500 chests at a time, you are not guaranteed a permanent item.

and revive orb has about the same drop rate as merchants, I get one in 15, sometimes 20 chests I find 1 revive orb. Those things are better bought straight with gems if you are looking for them.

Finding keys isn’t the intent, they want players buying them. Simple really.

Striker.9413:

You do realize a Revive Orb is 180 gems (5/900).

On average, the items you receive will be worth more gems than the keys you use. They just happen to be random rewards. Some boosters also can’t be purchased directly.

I’ve never used these. I have only two in my bank and don’t see any need to carry any. Usually, I just way point near a repair merchant.