Guild Wars 2

I have seen a fair amount of posts complaining about the length of time it takes to get fine crafting materials. One thing I have read and also proven to myself is there is an “Anti-farm” code in place as there was in Guild Wars 1. The way it works is basically like this, lets say you farm spiders for 1 to 2 hours for venom. You get some decent drops that first hour but then you may only get 1-2 venom the entire second hour.

When your drop rate goes from low to non-existent you have hit the anti-farm code. The solution to this is to pick another area and type of mob that drops the same fine material and farm them for awhile instead. This is probably one of the biggest reasons I have not reached 400 in a single craft yet. I understand the reason for the anti-farm code for things like bots though. However I think Fine Crafting Material drops could use a slight boost over-all.

I am not sure if it exists or not but I tend to rotate and farm a number of different of things, it also lets me expand the amount of node resources and events i stumble across as well. I get bored if I am one spot for too long.

what would be the point of the trading post if you could efficiently farm everything you need?

try “trading” for what you need instead of farming it all?

Crica.1503:

what would be the point of the trading post if you could efficiently farm everything you need?

try “trading” for what you need instead of farming it all?

It gets very expensive to just buy things all the time, unless you are plowing gems for cash.

Vim.7318:

Crica.1503:

what would be the point of the trading post if you could efficiently farm everything you need?

try “trading” for what you need instead of farming it all?

It gets very expensive to just buy things all the time, unless you are plowing gems for cash.

which is why i said “trade” IE: sell what you get that you dont need so you can afford to buy what you do need…

you are acting like the trading post doesn’t exist AT ALL…

Crica.1503:

which is why i said “trade” IE: sell what you get that you dont need so you can afford to buy what you do need…

you are acting like the trading post doesn’t exist AT ALL…

There is another side to this coin, though. Yes, you’re absolutely correct in saying that one could use the Trading Post to buy & sell materials they want or need.

There are some folks, though, that like or aim for the sense of achievement of having provided all their own materials to level. Whilst that may not be something all enjoy, or would aim for, the reality is some may choose to do that, and I don’t believe they could be labelled “wrong” for wanting to achieve this.

There isn’t anti-farm code ingame. Myself and a few guildies have farmed for potent/powerful blood and Claws in the same area for around 3 hours and I saw no substantial decrease in the drop-rate at all.

M

There is either such code or severe problem with game’s RNG. It is very easy to notice in WvW.

Proof:
I farmed first 300 badges for my Invader Bow by getting 1000 WvW kills. (Remainder came from jumping puzzles i think) Drop rate on a big sample was ~3 badges per 10 kills. Next time, i hit 1500 WvW kills and… I’ve not even reached ~50 badges! Drop rate cut down like thrice, wtf? I waited for a day, and next day, i’m getting badges at higher rates again.

Yesterday my guildie compained in TS that for whole day (we raided WvW for 4 hours) he got lots of kills but barely any bags. He was pvping all day. Obviously the system “kicked in” for him and penaltised him for WvWing to much.

I understand you must fight bots, and you cannot announce such stuff (because then bots would work around it) but this exact way to combat bots is ridiculous. That is because a lot of times in MMO, you know its a good idea to find a good “farm spot” and farm it. Breaking this is like breaking one of the pillars MMO stand on. Especially if this is hidden (and you have items that drop very rarely, so its not obvious wether you’re unlucky or were lucky previously)

Hissatsu.3174:

There is either such code or severe problem with game’s RNG. It is very easy to notice in WvW.

Even assuming that you’re correct and there is anti-farm code for PvP, that doesn’t necessarily mean that there’s a similar system for PvE…

Well, people mostly report it in PVE. I just happened to notice its effect in PVP because i PVP more. I dont think its a coincidence, i just dont farm PVE so i cannot confirm it being present in PVE (and, PVE drops people farm for – T6 mats – are rare drops so you really CAN be unlucky and get nothing in 1 hour – so i would have to farm for a LONG time to confirm it)

Midnight.9205:

Crica.1503:

which is why i said “trade” IE: sell what you get that you dont need so you can afford to buy what you do need…

you are acting like the trading post doesn’t exist AT ALL…

There is another side to this coin, though. Yes, you’re absolutely correct in saying that one could use the Trading Post to buy & sell materials they want or need.

There are some folks, though, that like or aim for the sense of achievement of having provided all their own materials to level. Whilst that may not be something all enjoy, or would aim for, the reality is some may choose to do that, and I don’t believe they could be labelled “wrong” for wanting to achieve this.

You are correct. But to demand change when you can’t achieve said target is…well….you be the judge.

Crica.1503:

what would be the point of the trading post if you could efficiently farm everything you need?

try “trading” for what you need instead of farming it all?

Fine in theory, falls apart in practice. Because there is a shortfall of fine items in the economy, crafted items sell for a fraction of the cost of the mats used to produce them, leaving anyone who wants to make a profit through crafting kitten out of luck.

The anti-farm features of GW2 and GW1 are virtually the same.

I do agree that crafting materials should have a more consistent drop rate, but for that to work out the game has to go a long way with fixing the many exploits it currently has.

For example there is this one mission where you can kill 300-450 dredge per hour with 0 difficulty, but after you kill the first 50 or so you get almost 0 drops. That’s a good example of the anti-farm feature working as intended, but as is it need some thinkering.

For clarity drop rates decrease the longer you kill the same mobs in the same zone, if you have an efficient farming pattern, lets say moving in a circle around a certain zone and not skipping mobs different from the one you are hunting or not all of them the anti-farm system will not trigger at all.

I can confirm this as I used to farm on a island with Skale on it, I started roaming aroundthe whole island and the drops stayed consistent. I think the current anti-farm system is more of an anti-bot system. :-/

Crica.1503:

Vim.7318:

Crica.1503:

what would be the point of the trading post if you could efficiently farm everything you need?

try “trading” for what you need instead of farming it all?

It gets very expensive to just buy things all the time, unless you are plowing gems for cash.

which is why i said “trade” IE: sell what you get that you dont need so you can afford to buy what you do need…

you are acting like the trading post doesn’t exist AT ALL…

And you are acting like all fine materials are of equal value and they are not. Besides. If I want to farm the mats myself in a reasonable amount of time I should be able to. The game itself is fun like Anet set out to make it. Crafting is anything BUT fun in its current state for alot of people.

it is fun if you know what you’re getting into beforehand.

considering i’ve yet to collect any of the 400 fine material for even 1 inscription (i’ve gotten 1-2 of each and no more) in the week i’ve been level 80 i have to concur… the drop rates are WAY TOO LOW!

If the drops on t6 materials are too low, you can always try to farm t5 mats and transmute them in the mystic forge to t6, it’s not the optimal way but it helps….

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mystic_Forge

Hexcaliber.5714:

Crica.1503:

what would be the point of the trading post if you could efficiently farm everything you need?

try “trading” for what you need instead of farming it all?

Fine in theory, falls apart in practice. Because there is a shortfall of fine items in the economy, crafted items sell for a fraction of the cost of the mats used to produce them, leaving anyone who wants to make a profit through crafting kitten out of luck.

While I enjoy the satisfaction of crafting the items I and others use, why would anyone with 10-50s worth of mats not buy the over crafted item for 2s and sell the mats? It’s a law of supply and demand. As long as power leveling crafters are willing to flood the market just to get a skill up, it’s the smart shoppers that get the deals. There are items that can be made for profit, but most of the items are just buried in quantity and drops.

I din’t levelled too far, but levelled any class (all 8) out of their starting zones and these are my thoughts:

- fine materials drop rate is way way way too low (after cooking change, marginally better before)
- some fine materials drop in quantity 5 times higher than others (i.e. Tiny Venom to Weak Blood)
- butter is dropping too much, really too much (after cooking change)
- excess of metals and wood through resources nodes
- lacks of leather and cloth drops
- vegetable common resources need more equity, i have excess of some type, and lack of other

I don’t expect that if i my chars were higher level these drop percentage would have been much different.

I do wish they had implemented gathering for cloth and leather. Jute plants, wool from sheep, leather from cows/pigs, silk from spiders or worms or something, etc.

xenogias.1768:

Crica.1503:

Vim.7318:

Crica.1503:

what would be the point of the trading post if you could efficiently farm everything you need?

try “trading” for what you need instead of farming it all?

It gets very expensive to just buy things all the time, unless you are plowing gems for cash.

which is why i said “trade” IE: sell what you get that you dont need so you can afford to buy what you do need…

you are acting like the trading post doesn’t exist AT ALL…

And you are acting like all fine materials are of equal value and they are not. Besides. If I want to farm the mats myself in a reasonable amount of time I should be able to. The game itself is fun like Anet set out to make it. Crafting is anything BUT fun in its current state for alot of people.

Exactly this. If I want to farm and grind for hours for my own mats, then why not? I couldn’t believe earlier today when I actually hit the anti farming lock and couldn’t get any drops. I was in disbelief that such a system could even be ingame; it’s horrible design.

Polarity.2648:

xenogias.1768:

Crica.1503:

Vim.7318:

Crica.1503:

what would be the point of the trading post if you could efficiently farm everything you need?

try “trading” for what you need instead of farming it all?

It gets very expensive to just buy things all the time, unless you are plowing gems for cash.

which is why i said “trade” IE: sell what you get that you dont need so you can afford to buy what you do need…

you are acting like the trading post doesn’t exist AT ALL…

And you are acting like all fine materials are of equal value and they are not. Besides. If I want to farm the mats myself in a reasonable amount of time I should be able to. The game itself is fun like Anet set out to make it. Crafting is anything BUT fun in its current state for alot of people.

If I want to farm and grind for hours for my own mats, then why not?

I already told you why in my very first post – because it would render the trading post worthless if everyone could just farm what they needed when they needed it efficiently…I am pretty sure that the devs and the majority of the players of GW2 do NOT want the trading post to be rendered worthless…

I am sorry that you don’t like the “economy” of an MMO, but most players do and we realize for there to BE an economy and a trading post, that game resources MUST be UN-efficient to farm….

have fun

Um, I don’t think it’s actually a code cause I’ve had it happen the other way around, where I get crud drops for the first hour then awesome drops. I just think that the RNG is a fickle mistress and that we should bow down to her whims. I could be horribly wrong, but I always just assumed that the RNG decided a value during a time period and that value, during that time period, would decide your drop frequency. Thus times of amazing loot and times of cruddy loot.

Again, I think though. Has anyone actually done a multiple hour study on this though? Cause it also might be that you notice the not dropping more often as time goes by.

EndlessDreamer.6780:

Um, I don’t think it’s actually a code

Originally, GW would put a warning message in your chat window when you triggered its Anti Farming code. I forget the exact message but I saw it several times farming Forsaken. Later, the warning message was removed but the behavior was left in.

I can verify that because my way to make money was to do storybooks. Each book covered certain missions. I would grab 10 or 20 copies of that storybook. The first 3 or 4 runs, I got a ton of loot. On about the fifth run, I stopped getting loot.

It stands to reason, that GW2 would have a similar function.

I believe there is such code. Just yesterday I went farming vials of blood.

There was a place with a lot of fast spawning harpies, and in the first 30 mins I would get a vial every 2-3rd kill. After that it suddenly became very hard.

So I moved down the area to a flock of bats. Immediately started getting blood drops again, and again in about 30 mins it stopped.

Crica.1503:

Polarity.2648:

xenogias.1768:

Crica.1503:

Vim.7318:

Crica.1503:

what would be the point of the trading post if you could efficiently farm everything you need?

try “trading” for what you need instead of farming it all?

It gets very expensive to just buy things all the time, unless you are plowing gems for cash.

which is why i said “trade” IE: sell what you get that you dont need so you can afford to buy what you do need…

you are acting like the trading post doesn’t exist AT ALL…

And you are acting like all fine materials are of equal value and they are not. Besides. If I want to farm the mats myself in a reasonable amount of time I should be able to. The game itself is fun like Anet set out to make it. Crafting is anything BUT fun in its current state for alot of people.

If I want to farm and grind for hours for my own mats, then why not?

I already told you why in my very first post – because it would render the trading post worthless if everyone could just farm what they needed when they needed it efficiently…I am pretty sure that the devs and the majority of the players of GW2 do NOT want the trading post to be rendered worthless…

I am sorry that you don’t like the “economy” of an MMO, but most players do and we realize for there to BE an economy and a trading post, that game resources MUST be UN-efficient to farm….

have fun

You must be new to MMO’s, there are always people who farm their own stuff in every game, and those games always have a trading post/auction house system. The thing is though, the vast majority of players don’t want to farm their own stuff and thus turn to the auction house or trading post to buy the things they need. It will never be rendered useless like you claim because there are always people who don’t WANT to farm, due to the convenience out weighing the repetitive nature of farming. The problem with the current anti-farming code system that’s ingame now is that it completely eliminated an entire play style that has worked perfectly fine in many other games, whilst the market economy flourished too.

You don’t like farming for your own stuff? Fair enough. You are the reason the trading post will always be around and always have a use. However, saying people shouldn’t be allowed to farm because it might render the trading post useless is by far the most naive and misinformed thing I have ever read.

I love farming my own mats, I find it relaxing, I can also chat with my guildies while doing so. Also it is an easiest enough task that I can pause if a guildie needs help.

I’m really sad they have this code in but I can understand why, I’ve seen the bot problem in Aion when my faction was about 65% bots.

I’m watching gold spamming bots fly up through map chat right now

This seems like one of those things that people would be very prone to imagining. Unless someone was willing to get a bunch of people to farm days on end and record what they got, I wouldn’t believe any of it, especially when most people say the drops don’t change.

Midnight.9205:

Crica.1503:

which is why i said “trade” IE: sell what you get that you dont need so you can afford to buy what you do need…

you are acting like the trading post doesn’t exist AT ALL…

There is another side to this coin, though. Yes, you’re absolutely correct in saying that one could use the Trading Post to buy & sell materials they want or need.

There are some folks, though, that like or aim for the sense of achievement of having provided all their own materials to level. Whilst that may not be something all enjoy, or would aim for, the reality is some may choose to do that, and I don’t believe they could be labelled “wrong” for wanting to achieve this.

As long as its easy right?

Crica.1503:

what would be the point of the trading post if you could efficiently farm everything you need?

try “trading” for what you need instead of farming it all?

Considering how hard it is to reliably make money, what with crafters selling their crafted items below cost on the TP you kind of have to farm if you want to make any profit.

Forget the trading post when leveling crafting especially, at 400 you can make SOME money with exotics, provided you farm your own orichalcum, but you usually end up having to buy ectoplasm.

Chickenshoes.6250:

This seems like one of those things that people would be very prone to imagining. Unless someone was willing to get a bunch of people to farm days on end and record what they got, I wouldn’t believe any of it, especially when most people say the drops don’t change.

Would you like me to record a video of it in action? I farmed some Svanir in the southern part of the Norn starting area and was getting loot on bodies every 2-3 kills. After about 45-60min I stopped getting loot entirely. I’m not talking about not getting anything for 5 or 10 kills, but I went literally 60 kills without a single drop. After searching briefly online I found some similar threads about it and ended up here. It’s definitely not made up and you can go test it fairly easily.

All those who say ‘anti-farm is fine’ and ‘use TP’ are TP resellers.
Tell me, how do you make money in GW2 if you don’t farm and don’t resell on TP?
Events lol? Drops? Rares are vendored for 1.8s. Dungeons? Yeah, I got whooping 26 silver from HotW yesterday.

I think people are forgetting that this code isn’t in place for the average person. If you are sitting there farming you will notice the decline, simply move to a new location farm something different. This really means change of scenery nothing more.

For those that are botting, or using a program to farm, they won’t notice or will have to take extra steps to continuously get the loot they want.

This too me is a fantastic idea, I’ve farmed a ton in previous mmo’s, it’s nice to know I’m not going to just sit in one spot for hours on end.

Get over it, if you want to farm the stuff, go farm. The “code” doesn’t stop it, it just helps remove monotony.

Whats even scarier is this code applies to salvaging also. I know because I found an item I could by salvage and it would give me 1-3 ectos. I would average 1.8 ectos per salvage (over ~200 trials) There was a issue though, I could get them at this rate until I got 11-13 ectos, then the drop rate went to 0% (14 was the most trials after hitting that magic number, 4 w/o an ecto was most i went without an ecto before hitting the “magic number”)

I have also seen this with the forge.

SaintAvalon.2096:

I think people are forgetting that this code isn’t in place for the average person. If you are sitting there farming you will notice the decline, simply move to a new location farm something different. This really means change of scenery nothing more.

For those that are botting, or using a program to farm, they won’t notice or will have to take extra steps to continuously get the loot they want.

This too me is a fantastic idea, I’ve farmed a ton in previous mmo’s, it’s nice to know I’m not going to just sit in one spot for hours on end.

Get over it, if you want to farm the stuff, go farm. The “code” doesn’t stop it, it just helps remove monotony.

Speak for yourself. My game time is limited (job, guild CTAs) and I want/need specific stuff and I have limited time to get it. So when I can’t get get drops worth akittenwhen I go and kill stuff it’s negatively affecting my gameplay.
And I’mkitten off as is with orichalcum ore respawn time, I can only gather it once per day since the respawn time (at least for me, ppl say they were getting it per 2-3 hours) is more than 5 hrs (and yes, I was running around likekitten through all the maps multiple times after that time and it didn’t spawn).

So all in all, I’m pretty dissatisfied with how they made the drops, it feels frustrating, and it especially feels like it’s not equal for all players (I compare my drops against ppl in my party, with comparable magic find, over multiple days). Part of it can be RNG, but on longer time it should average, but it does not.

Ive set out to farm stuff myself, and clearly you notice a drop in loot after a while. I grind karma at Lonepost in Straits of Desolation. Nice 3 stage event there that triggers fast after another.
When i start the first few cycles the mobs drop loot like crazy so to speak. Im getting loot from roughly half of the mobs. Ranging from salvageable, to rare/masterwork vendor trash, and lootbags.

Then suddenly, a steep dropoff after a while. Where a whole pack of 15 Risen, as few as 0-2 actually drop loot. Consistently. Ive farmed here for karma on several occasions and its always the same.

The problem is, mob diversity in Orr is close to zero. Sure a lot of different skins, but its all Risen/Undead at the end of the day with fairly similar loottables, so going out and killing other stuff isnt an option because there is no other stuff.
Secondly, if you want gear in this game you need to grind. Karma, dungeons, crafting, whatever Exotic it is. Its usually a time/gold sink. But then Arenanet goes around and punishes players for grinding.

Getting seriously mixed messages here.

Ive noticed alot of things that make money gets nerfed sooner or later, this way gem sales go up.

So i wont be shocked if there actully is a Anti-farm code.

Crica.1503:

Polarity.2648:

xenogias.1768:

Crica.1503:

Vim.7318:

Crica.1503:

what would be the point of the trading post if you could efficiently farm everything you need?

try “trading” for what you need instead of farming it all?

It gets very expensive to just buy things all the time, unless you are plowing gems for cash.

which is why i said “trade” IE: sell what you get that you dont need so you can afford to buy what you do need…

you are acting like the trading post doesn’t exist AT ALL…

And you are acting like all fine materials are of equal value and they are not. Besides. If I want to farm the mats myself in a reasonable amount of time I should be able to. The game itself is fun like Anet set out to make it. Crafting is anything BUT fun in its current state for alot of people.

If I want to farm and grind for hours for my own mats, then why not?

I already told you why in my very first post – because it would render the trading post worthless if everyone could just farm what they needed when they needed it efficiently…I am pretty sure that the devs and the majority of the players of GW2 do NOT want the trading post to be rendered worthless…

I am sorry that you don’t like the “economy” of an MMO, but most players do and we realize for there to BE an economy and a trading post, that game resources MUST be UN-efficient to farm….

have fun

You are completely wrong on this. Completely. People need to be able to farm materials in order to A. sell them in the quantities required to meet crafting demands. If the drop rates are kept to the minimal levels they are at then crafting becomes a broken mechanism.

Most people will not go through the monotony of farming for a mat. Only if the mat is made to drop a reasonable level will people be able to afford them.

Look at the cost of the mat cost to end product result and then talk to me about economics.

How in the world would allowing us to farm something render the TP useless?

All of a sudden there would be more of said item on the TP and it would be used more. As prices went down, a lot of people would use the TP instead of farming and the prices would stabilize.

Right now the prices are too high and we can’t farm them. It just makes you want to log out.

All Anti-farm code system would do is make ingredients more expensive at the auction house. If you want the farming to stop make the items more available otherwise the cost of ingredients to items are more than the item itself and makes crafting expensive and rewards people who can just spin off and farm other things and wait out the period of time, this just hurts crafters in the pocket book.

Well, in the grand scheme of things, I don’t mind the “buy gems” to save time farming model. In WoW, you only had the option of spending Money(renewing your sub) AND Time(spending the next two months farming content) to farm rate mats…

Make no mistake though, they are walking a fine line by charging real $$ for imaginary items that they control the supply of and cost them $0 to create. But again, time is money, so spending real $$ to save real time is a good option for those that can afford the money but not the time.

Midnight.9205:

Crica.1503:

which is why i said “trade” IE: sell what you get that you dont need so you can afford to buy what you do need…

you are acting like the trading post doesn’t exist AT ALL…

There is another side to this coin, though. Yes, you’re absolutely correct in saying that one could use the Trading Post to buy & sell materials they want or need.

There are some folks, though, that like or aim for the sense of achievement of having provided all their own materials to level. Whilst that may not be something all enjoy, or would aim for, the reality is some may choose to do that, and I don’t believe they could be labelled “wrong” for wanting to achieve this.

Lol .. no hes not right.

Hes making the assumption that you can find equally valuable items off every monster you kill. This just isn’t the case.

Terrahero.9358:

Secondly, if you want gear in this game you need to grind. Karma, dungeons, crafting, whatever Exotic it is. Its usually a time/gold sink. But then Arenanet goes around and punishes players for grinding.

Getting seriously mixed messages here.

You’re not the only one. Literally as soon as I started crafting I noted that it stood out in stark contrast to the spirit of the Manifesto, and mostly because of fine crafting materials.

I wasn’t completely surprised, however, because crafting was not pushed heavily as a Manifesto bullet-point during the years of pre-game hype. There were numerous blog posts identifying specific problems or shortcomings of current MMORPGs and discussing ANet’s proposed solutions, and the few that covered crafting were not very convincing. They didn’t really identify the problems, and therefore didn’t really propose any solutions.

Still, I think it’s completely fair to judge the game based on the spirit of the Manifesto rather than the substance of any particular bullet point. Crafting is a grind and its implementation didn’t really address the core problems of crafting within MMORPG’s.

Voltaire.5809:

All Anti-farm code system would do is make ingredients more expensive at the auction house. If you want the farming to stop make the items more available otherwise the cost of ingredients to items are more than the item itself and makes crafting expensive and rewards people who can just spin off and farm other things and wait out the period of time, this just hurts crafters in the pocket book.

I disagree, I believe the purpose is deter botting etc. and make the materials more valuable as well as the results. I know a few events I would love to continually farm and use to level but don’t because of the drop in mats after the first run. =p

I think it has temporarily thrown things for a loop but I think things will even out over time. People became used to the extreme cheap prices because of the overabundance of crafting materials at launch. I mean really, 1.6s for an omnomberry bar is cheap! It’s the best magic find food in the game. Most level 80’s I know are making several gold per day. I would love to see the bars going for 3-4 silver each . =p

Crica.1503:

I already told you why in my very first post – because it would render the trading post worthless if everyone could just farm what they needed when they needed it efficiently…I am pretty sure that the devs and the majority of the players of GW2 do NOT want the trading post to be rendered worthless…

As far as I’m concerned the trading post is already worthless… I tend to vendor almost every thing I find or make because I check on the TP and it’s posted for 1-2c above vendor price… that doesn’t cover posting fee much less the 10% TP cut. So the TP is worthless to me because it’s flooded with people who either don’t have a clue that they’re losing money or don’t care that they are.

I’ve also seen request to purchase items that is below vendor price… or people placing requests for Account Bound items. So, until they idiot-proof the TP (upping the min bid/post to cover the costs would be a start as would making bids/posts dump out after a week and have to be re-entered), it will remain worthless in my opinion.

I think the anti farm code is a) getting worst and b) time based. I did two glitched events before, both for about an hour. At launch, I did a level 40 event (launch launch, not 3 day head start) and after an hour it was barely worst. Yesterday, I killed something like 3’000 monsters in about 45 minutes. The anti farm code went from blues and drops every monsters to one per 45 monsters. The code is a tad extreme.

On a side note, claws/scales/blood etc need to be taken off the anti farm code. 100%. Gemstones, which were by ANet’s statement meant to be harder to get are SO much easier to get right now. I can level 1 to 400 jewler easier then I can 1 to 100 anything else.

Also, if the anti farm code goes to dungeon drops (tears of ascalon etc), this is ever more reason for these to be account bound. >.>

About buying crafting material @ TP. Let’s see: 1 fine crafting mat costs ~1.5s (some cost more, some cost less). So I need 8 of them to lvl my craft by 2-3 points. That means 12s for 2-3 points of crafting proffesion. We can lvl 20 points by refining resources, so we need to level ~300 points using fine mats (say craft 150 items). That’s 18g.

And then the best part: now you need to use that freshly leveled crafting prof to equip yourself. Good luck farming Powerful bloods. And ectoplasms. And gossamer.

If you decide to just buy those mats – you can just buy that crafted item off the TP (price is the same).

teemoor.4397:

About buying crafting material @ TP. Let’s see: 1 fine crafting mat costs ~1.5s (some cost more, some cost less). So I need 8 of them to lvl my craft by 2-3 points. That means 12s for 2-3 points of crafting proffesion. We can lvl 20 points by refining resources, so we need to level ~300 points using fine mats (say craft 150 items). That’s 18g.

And then the best part: now you need to use that freshly leveled crafting prof to equip yourself. Good luck farming Powerful bloods. And ectoplasms. And gossamer.

If you decide to just buy those mats – you can just buy that crafted item off the TP (price is the same).

Having levelled 6 professions to 400, 5 of which were done by buying mats from the TP, I can tell you you’re very wrong about how much it costs. 18g is gross overestimation. If you properly calculate what you need, you can level the first 24 levels of each bracket easily by refining what you’ll need for the rest of the bracket, you’ll only need 18 fine crafting materials for the next 26-28 levels, then the last 23-25 levels of the bracket require another 56 fine crafting materials. So for an entire bracket you only need 74 fine crafting materials until you hit 375. Then the rares you’re making you can salvage into ectos to break even. Considering if you buy the cheapest fine crafting materials at any time you can frequently get prices less than a silver, the whole process comes out to about 5g per craft including the white crafting materials.

Maths is your friend.

Crake.5827:

If you properly calculate what you need, you can level the first 24 levels of each bracket easily by refining what you’ll need for the rest of the bracket, you’ll only need 18 fine crafting materials for the next 26-28 levels, then the last 23-25 levels of the bracket require another 56 fine crafting materials.

28 lvls/18 mats. 3 per craft. That’s 4.6 lvl per craft.
25/56. 8 per craft. That’s 3.5 lvl per craft.

Really?

I would like to confirm that there is an anti-farm code in the game, however I don’t think it modifies the drop tables. I also don’t think it’s based on a fixed amount of time you spend in an area. It appears to be based on how many mobs you kill within a certain area and timeframe. Once I reach a certain threshold, the game nerfs my chance for a mob to drop anything. It goes from a 50% drop to maybe 10 or 20%. This becomes very apparent in areas where I can kill 12 mobs a minute or more.