Guild Wars 2

Getting legendary precursors at this point seems to be almost exclusively a matter of luck or time, which makes the whole process of acquiring a legendary feel like a pure grind / gamble.

I think it would be interesting if there were some skill-based ways to “nudge” that luck, making the process feel more epic and and perhaps making players travel more around the world in the process (some zones feel completely empty).

Here’s my suggestion:

• Give legendary precursors a (ridiculously small) chance to drop from all named veterans and champions above level 25 (slightly higher for higher-level enemies, but not by much, so that X, Y and Z below would still matter more than level).

• That chance increases by X if the player is fighting the enemy alone (no other players within 2000 units of the enemy for the duration of the fight, no external healing, etc.).

• That chance increases by Y multiplied by the time since that particular enemy was last killed (similar to bonus XP).

• That chance increases by Z multiplied by the time the player spent at less than 10% HP while fighting that enemy.

X, Y and Z would be adjusted by the designers based on data collected from the game and the intended final drop rate. I am aware of the fact that all the factors above also have some drawbacks (such as promoting solo play vs. group play, in the case of X), but it’s hard to judge how “epic” something is using such simple metrics, and I think a good balance of the various coefficients could be found.

This system (or a similar one) would increase the drop chance based on the “epicness” and “rarity” of the fight, making the acquisition of the precursor more memorable (“I survived by the skin of my teeth, but it was worth it!”), and will also encourage high-level players to travel around, participating in events that spawn rare enemies and / or visiting emptier areas of the map, to improve their chances of a drop.

In the long run, this will lead to a better distribution of players across the game world, which means max-level players won’t get as bored of Orr as they currently do. It will also increase the number of players getting legendary precursors after an epic and memorable fight, rather than simply as a result of Mystic Forge gambling or spending a lot of gold.

For those who don’t want to adventure, the current methods would remain.

Note: I’m posting this in the “crafting” forum because most of the discussions about legendaries seem to take place here, and legendaries seem to be treated as an aspect of crafting by the GW2 developers. If the moderators / developers think this makes more sense in the suggestions forum, feel free to move it there.

They could make me do something like finish Battletoads without getting hit for all I care, if that guarantees me a precursor, then so be it, I gladly accept. Because technically, that’s not time consuming or grind/luck based, that’s all based on my actions and how well I play/react.

But yeah, this Korean RNG B.S. has to go.

I think ANET should just add actual post lvl 80 content, an open WvW area if you will, where PvE and PvP collide, requiring you to group with allies based on personal story quest choices, servers, or other in game choices. Where not only do you have to fight the monsters, but enemy players as well, to become increasingly legendary and fearsome. Where “raid-esque” open world bosses (they already have the dragons) with actually difficult mechanics have a better chance to drop precursors as well as named exotics.

As it stands now, the only content that is post lvl 80 is grinding dungeon armor, or grinding/gambling a legendary. That’s it.

Someone once said, “You don’t have your legendary, good. There, I said it, it’s good you don’t because the game is only a little over a month old” and yeah, he’s right if you think about it. The journey to legendaries will make obtaining the legendary that much more satisfying. I’m already stocking up on wood (elder and ancient in Orr, the rest in appropriate Ascalon levels) and exploring whenever I can.

Agemnon.4608:

Someone once said, “You don’t have your legendary, good. There, I said it, it’s good you don’t because the game is only a little over a month old” and yeah, he’s right if you think about it. The journey to legendaries will make obtaining the legendary that much more satisfying. I’m already stocking up on wood (elder and ancient in Orr, the rest in appropriate Ascalon levels) and exploring whenever I can.

Spending 300g+ for nothing IS NOT A JOURNEY. There is no PATH in this scenario, no WAY FORWARD. And no way to influence whether you succeed or fail. You can’t ‘dodge’ luck, or beat luck with superior twitch and firepower. And in this case, you can’t make choices that will minimize luck’s influence.

Korean RNG system is Korean. And flawed. And makes Arena Net look like hypocrites.

Agemnon.4608:

Someone once said, “You don’t have your legendary, good. There, I said it, it’s good you don’t because the game is only a little over a month old” and yeah, he’s right if you think about it. The journey to legendaries will make obtaining the legendary that much more satisfying. I’m already stocking up on wood (elder and ancient in Orr, the rest in appropriate Ascalon levels) and exploring whenever I can.

So I should be stifled getting my legendary because other people want to be casual? Your telling me that the way I play isn’t satisfying?

WHAT?

I need the precursor and I have my legendary, it’s been this way for weeks, it’s been this way for 220 exotic GS thrown into the forge for a grand total of 10g made, stop trying to limit how I can play and worry about yourself. If your OK with never getting a legendary, or taking 9 months to get one, that’s fine, I’m not trying to stop YOU from doing it that way because, “it’s too slow.”

Slic.2406:

They could make me do something like finish Battletoads without getting hit for all I care, if that guarantees me a precursor, then so be it, I gladly accept. Because technically, that’s not time consuming or grind/luck based, that’s all based on my actions and how well I play/react.

But yeah, this Korean RNG B.S. has to go.

In Wonderland Online all weapon crafting (called alchemy or compounding) was RNG. You even needed alchemy books to drastically increase the rate. Some things even required five ingredients to make, and to top that off some required a certain ingredient that in turn also needs five. Also, you would literally need to grind your alchemy level by crafting (thankfully non-RNG but only applies to vehicles, mats, and training food) small wood gears over and over (well, you don’t have to do that specifically it’s just the most efficient way that everyone does). This is because to gain a point towards leveling alchemy the combined product must be a higher level than the two combined ingredients, and you could make six small wood gears out of one wood.

With that said I really hated leveling alchemy, and there are three levels of it -_-

Vicariuz.1605:

I think ANET should just add actual post lvl 80 content […]

That would do nothing to make mid-level zones feel less empty, on the contrary. There are already plenty of games following that model; GW2’s philosophy is to keep the entire game world alive, regardless of player level.

Also, please don’t turn this thread into yet another discussion about “I have nothing to do at level 80”. This is specifically about ways to make the acquisition of a legendary weapon (or its components) more epic and memorable.

Not about making it easier or about other things you might want to do at level 80. Please stick to the topic (thread title) and post comments about the suggestions in the original post or (even better) more suggestions on how to achieve that goal.

Account.9832:

Vicariuz.1605:

I think ANET should just add actual post lvl 80 content […]

That would do nothing to make mid-level zones feel less empty, on the contrary. There are already plenty of games following that model; GW2’s philosophy is to keep the entire game world alive, regardless of player level.

Also, please don’t turn this thread into yet another discussion about “I have nothing to do at level 80”. This is specifically about ways to make the acquisition of a legendary weapon (or its components) more epic and memorable.

Not about making it easier or about other things you might want to do at level 80. Please stick to the topic (thread title) and post comments about the suggestions in the original post or (even better) more suggestions on how to achieve that goal.

They say they have that model, I see no evidence of that, since Cursed Shore exists, is the only pure lvl 80 zone, with the highest/best drops and karma farm till DR.

What does low level areas being unpopulated have to do with precursor items?

Regardless the legendary items are for post lvl 80 TO BEGIN WITH, so ADDING MORE post lvl 80 content isn’t a bad thing.

My post WAS about how to acquire the precursor in a more skillful epic way, if you read it past the first line.

Learn to read the whole post.

Food for thought:

“I want you guys to think about this a bit. Seriously. Why would we ever want to systematically discourage you from chucking things into the Forge or salvaging them as often or as fast as you want to? It is SO SO SO (I can’t stress this enough) important for items to be leaving the economy at a healthy ratio to the items being created and entering the economy, otherwise, there would be no economy. Everything would pile up and pile up until everything was worth nothing because the supply would be endlessly higher than the demand.” – LinseyMurdock

And the thread can be found here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/crafting/Mystic-forge-glitch-Unintentionally-suffering-from-DR/first#post390904

And I would believe Precursors be the main source for these items to leave the economy…

Is it fair for Anet to center the acquisition of precursors as a way to benefit the economy as a whole?

So it looks like the forge is here to stay, now the question is how to we work with it?

I think something needs to be changed, but how?

IMO #1 raise drop chances and #2 make them account bound… that way everyone must do it (and everyone benefits the economy) and with a much higher drop chance, one wouldn’t “burn out” and quit… this would also be a much easier solution than adding brand new content.

I agree that there needs to be an item sink. It doesn’t need to hurt the players making use of it.

The PROBLEM with this method of obtaining teh precursor is the way it is done.

Use level 75ish items??? You need 15 mats to do so. Use exoctics? YOu need globs of ecto plasm and orichalcum (or any other high level material) to accomplish this. It’s HORRIBLE!

If the rares were only 8 mats like they are for everything else..fine, but 15 per???? without the AH, which is extremely skewed, people would not be able to make these.

Something needs to give. I don’t give my knickers about legendaries. What exactly is the big deal? Stats are no better, only the skins on it as worth anything and I dont CARE. Its just annoying that I can’t craft anything to make money, I can farm things I might need for alts to level their crafting.

The economy is borked until people realize that crafted goods should > than materials that get put in. If face value of mats equals 1g50s, then people should MINIMUM be selling for 4g 50s. That is how today’s society works. 3x the value of what it cost to make to a) make money to return investment b) make money to pay employees( yourself in this case) and c) make a profit overhead.

THIS is how money is made, yet people don’t seem to care when it comes to the market, and I have ceased to sell people anything.

teviko.6049:

If face value of mats equals 1g50s, then people should MINIMUM be selling for 4g 50s. That is how today’s society works. 3x the value of what it cost to make to a) make money to return investment b) make money to pay employees (yourself in this case) and c) make a profit overhead. THIS is how money is made

In the place where I live, I can’t get an infinite supply of items for free by killing zombies. If I could, I doubt any shop or factory would be profitable.

The economy in MMOs (at least MMOs where loot drops infinitely) is not comparable to the economy in the real world (where items are not created out of nowhere).

Anyway, the topic of the thread is not “pricing in the trading post” (or “item sinks”, or “name your random pet peeve”). It’s how to make the process of obtaining legendary precursors (and legendaries themselves) feel more memorable and epic.

No wonder the developers can’t sift through these forums; everybody just posts in random threads about whatever issue is annoying them at the moment…

Account.9832:

teviko.6049:

If face value of mats equals 1g50s, then people should MINIMUM be selling for 4g 50s. That is how today’s society works. 3x the value of what it cost to make to a) make money to return investment b) make money to pay employees (yourself in this case) and c) make a profit overhead. THIS is how money is made

In the place where I live, I can’t get an infinite supply of items for free by killing zombies. If I could, I doubt any shop or factory would be profitable.

The economy in MMOs (at least MMOs where loot drops infinitely) is not comparable to the economy in the real world (where items are not created out of nowhere).

Anyway, the topic of the thread is not “pricing in the trading post” (or “item sinks”, or “name your random pet peeve”). It’s how to make the process of obtaining legendary precursors (and legendaries themselves) feel more memorable and epic.

No wonder the developers can’t sift through these forums; everybody just posts in random threads about whatever issue is annoying them at the moment…

I was a little…off my game last night. Yes, issues regarding the economy in the game annoys me. The fact that you have to craft rares or exoctics to have a chance at the precursor is horrible. Legendary weapons should about skill, hard work and dedication. A way that only legit players can achieve. Having it as a ‘Lottery’ in the game is stupid. What kind of achievement is that????

That’s why legendary precursors ONLY (well mainly only) are in the hands of botters/gold farmers/sellers (i’m sure a few legit players have). Legendaries should have a legendary progression in the game and should be far more proliferate in the game?

So what the game is only a few months old? It tookittentle to no time for people to reach level 80. It tookittentle to no time for gold farmers to settle in. It tookittentle to no time for botters to start rampaging across Tyria. It tookittentle to no time for servers to settle themselves in their dominant WvW statuses..

It tookittentle to no time for everything in this game because that game is 1) not that difficult, and 2) because people in beta KNEW what they were doing.

With this random lottery system, its horrible. Nothing says: ‘I have no idea how to implement this’ like PURE RANDOMNESS than the mystic forge.

Using the forge to create one item into another or upgrade an existing item is a GREAT idea. Like silk to gossamer. Using the mystic foge to craft a precursor or a legendary is fine, but it needs to be implented in a such a way that you are CRAFTING something and not just getting lucky. How lame is that?

Account.9832:

Here’s my suggestion:

• Give legendary precursors a (ridiculously small) chance to drop from all named veterans and champions above level 25 (slightly higher for higher-level enemies, but not by much, so that X, Y and Z below would still matter more than level).

• That chance increases by X if the player is fighting the enemy alone (no other players within 2000 units of the enemy for the duration of the fight, no external healing, etc.).

• That chance increases by Y multiplied by the time since that particular enemy was last killed (similar to bonus XP).

• That chance increases by Z multiplied by the time the player spent at less than 10% HP while fighting that enemy.

This is an incredibly bad idea. Here’s why:

• It will make players angry to see each other. People fighting against a veteran would be annoyed if another player appeared, thus reducing their chance to get the precursor. Not only this goes completely against ArenaNet’s goals to make people happy to find other players in the world, but also this would allow people to annoy others by camping the area of the most farmed veterans and staying there, not really killing anything, just to reduce the change of others getting their items.

• It would also make players angry at each other due to how other people killing those enemies would be bad for you. There’s not only the issue of the drop rate increasing as long as other people don’t kill the enemy (so it lives longer), but also the fact that eventually players would spawn camp the easier to kill veterans. Notice how, in GW2, there’s not a single item that is a random boss drop in the open world, exactly so people won’t spawn camp enemies. This suggestion goes against this mentality, found everywhere in the game.

• And, of course, people would flock to the easiest enemies and leave the harder ones alone. Again, expecting ArenaNet to perfectly balance ALL champions and veterans so they are equally difficult or give equivalent rewards is simply delusional. People would flock to a given kind of enemy, use as many exploits as possible to keep their health as low as possible (skills that self inflict condition would become very popular here) for as long as possible, and basically remove any kind of “epicness” from farming those items.

• In the end… It would still be an almost mindless, RNG-based, farming grind. The ideas in the OP would massively hurt the game while not even solving the true issue with the current way to get the precursors.

No offense to the OP, but this suggestion speaks of a huge lack of understanding about the ideals behind Guild Wars 2 and the way players think. I hope it will never be implemented in the game.

Bad suggestions, dont look like they are in spirit of an MMO

Those are all terrible ideas that promote spawn camping and avoiding other players.

Tomcat.8375:

Food for thought:

“I want you guys to think about this a bit. Seriously. Why would we ever want to systematically discourage you from chucking things into the Forge or salvaging them as often or as fast as you want to? It is SO SO SO (I can’t stress this enough) important for items to be leaving the economy at a healthy ratio to the items being created and entering the economy, otherwise, there would be no economy. Everything would pile up and pile up until everything was worth nothing because the supply would be endlessly higher than the demand.” – LinseyMurdock

And the thread can be found here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/crafting/Mystic-forge-glitch-Unintentionally-suffering-from-DR/first#post390904

And I would believe Precursors be the main source for these items to leave the economy…

Is it fair for Anet to center the acquisition of precursors as a way to benefit the economy as a whole?

So it looks like the forge is here to stay, now the question is how to we work with it?

I think something needs to be changed, but how?

IMO #1 raise drop chances and #2 make them account bound… that way everyone must do it (and everyone benefits the economy) and with a much higher drop chance, one wouldn’t “burn out” and quit… this would also be a much easier solution than adding brand new content.

Well, someone once posted something about special events that spawn once a day, once a week, and when the event was over, a special NPC would spawn that would sell a unique item. We’ll call it…the ruined hilt of Zhaitain…or something. Notice it’s ruined, we’ll get back to this. However per event you can only buy 1 of these items. So, in a chest, you get a ‘reward’ item that you then turn in for this ruined hilt.

Notes for events like these:

1)If you particpate, you MUST get a gold badge to get this reward item that the merchant will then trade you for.

2)events such as these can be once every week, every day, maybe even once a month. It can be controlled when it spawns by A.Net so they can keep a firm track on the ‘explosion’ of legendaries.

3) if the event succeeds, loot the chest, get your reward, turn it in to merchant. A monetary value can also be assigned to this item, for another possible gold sink.

4) if the event fails, you will still get your gold metal and your karma, but you will not get a chest and the NPC will not sell his items. Plus a zone wide debuff can be applied to anyone in zone (some kind of demoralized debuff). This is to stress the importance of working together and ensuring the event succeeds.

Now, you need to repair it. Well shucks, how do you do that? Seems like someone might know how to repair it. But who???

You find an NPC who will then tell you how to fix it. And yes, it would require another event. An event where, when successful, you get an item to exchange for the ‘ONE TIME USE’ recipe that will guide you in how to repair your broken hilt. It does not require you to be a weaponsmith (since we all know this will require the mystic forge).

Items needed can be the shattered fragments of the sword (which will require..yup, you guessed it, MORE events, and more money) and some kind of alchemical, or mystical bonding agent. The bonding agent can be an epic collaberation of crystalline dust, and putrid essences, or a combination of MANY things that once combined into the forge make your bonding agent.

Same as the hilt, you will need an epic amount orchalcum and leather and…whatever to reapir it.

And the shattered fragments of the hilt also require being repaired before the final weapon can be constructed.

The time it takes to achieve can be strictly controlled by A.Net, can STILL feel legendary, and for teh most part, takes out the precursors of legendaries out of gold sellers/farmers hands.

Since every piece of this progress would be SOULBOUND, meaning you’d have to do it for every character (and somtimes more than once per character) would mean that replayability would increase. People would WANT to achieve this for themselves, instead of grumbling about impossible amounts of gold that an ‘average’ player will never have access to, or losing hundreds of amounts of gold in a lottery.

Also, people will see and feel they are progressing, which will feel like an achievement in itself.

This ‘method’ kind of satisfies the developer’s need to have stuff disappear from the economy. For the mystic forge to be used in the process of gaining a legendary, players to feel they are progressing and gaining something for themselves.

Also, with the amount of time it would take to implement somethig like this, the developers will have time to reskin the legendaries so that all legendary items will feel epic to who ever posses them, and not just the greatsword.