Guild Wars 2

My guildie told me last night that there are diminishing returns on farming for the blue components in crafting.

He said the higher level you are , even with the scale back, you will find fewer to no drops vs. being the appropriate level for the zone.

Is this true?

Not true in my experience. The drop rates on fine crafting materials is just not very good, period. I don’t think it shifts based on level though. I was fishing for scales on barracuda last night, I out leveled them by 6+, but they were dropping scales about 50% of the time, I’d say. That’s a bit higher than I expect in general. Normally it seems that fine crafting drops are in the 20-30% range. It’s irritating. Often however, you can supplement your farming with cash from the vendoring the other drops you get while farming to purchase the remaining materials you need off the BLT. Also, you do get the XP, as if you’re at level with what you’re farming as a rule, so there is that to soften the blow of having to slaughter millions of grubs.

I’ve found them to be somewhere in the 15-20% range between levels 15-30 (that’s when i started paying attention).
I agree it takes a little bit of patience to farm them, but it doesn’t feel impossible to do. Also, you are gaining xp no matter which zone you are in, and you gain xp for crafting so it’s bearable since the farming is serving a dual purpose.

It used to be you’d do well hunting humanoids that drop loot bags. Now you’re better off going with a character equivalent to the level you’re hunting for, and hunting the mobs that drop the type you’re looking for, whether it’s scales or poison or what have you.

Some Magic Find also helps so that you have a higher chance of getting non-grey drops.

Opal jewelry and magic find food buff.

I needed some vials of thin blood a couple days ago, and went and farmed bats for them, in a zone about 20 levels below me. I farmed up 40 of them in about an hour, with a lot of time spent chatting instead of farming. It’s not so bad, just a bit time-consuming.

Mf equips and food buffs really helps.