Guild Wars 2

I’ve been on Lost Shores for a few hours now and am wondering why. Many of the mobs hit a lot harder and rewards are through the floor. I’ve run through a couple of events and never seen so many people die. The “protect me while i run suicidally through everything in the neighbourhood” quest I just completed was around 15 minutes of following and protection for an incredibly poor amount of loot (for example not a single blue / green or higher loot other than the odd Karka shell) which was promtly followed by everyone running to get repaired afterwards. This was with around 10 other players.

I asked other players if they were getting the same type of poor drop rate and they were. I don’t think this has anything to do with variance.

I took down a Champion shark earlier and got 2 grey fins.

I know it’s not all about loot but come on, I’m already wondering what’s so special about it. The balance seems way off to me.

The only area / mob that did seem ok was killing the reef skelks and handing over to the person collecting. They seemd to drop a reasonable amount of blood / items.

The Veteran Karkas didn’t drop a single thing, needed to be killed twice (why
????) and had attacks that weren’t showing as visible – no red circles on ground and no conditions on me so why am I losing alot of health per tick?

How are others finding it?

I find the map pretty good to get cypress logs and mithril ore. Monster balancing wasn’t done very well here. The art department did a wonderful job with the graphics though!

Sadbast.7086:

The Veteran Karkas didn’t drop a single thing, needed to be killed twice (why
????) and had attacks that weren’t showing as visible – no red circles on ground and no conditions on me so why am I losing alot of health per tick?

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Retaliation

Also yes. The loot at the lost shores from mobs and the jumping puzzles was very underwhelming.

It was more rewarding (and fun) to run fractals and ignore the lost shore as well as its one time events completely.

It’s probably because loot scaling still doesn’t seem to work right. Killing ten weak mobs is much better than killing a single Veteran, even though AoEing everything down the Orr Zerg way is faster.

I know the latest patch was supposed to make tough mobs more rewarding, but so far, I haven’t seen a difference. Could be bad luck, too, of course.

Isn’t the sidekicking for lower levels in the zone a temporary thing? Might be why the loot is underwhelming at this time.

The new map requires parties, if you find a Veteran Karka in your way you better run!

There is a smaller island in the bottom right corner that has this quest where skelk’s swarm the island while you collect boxes. The skelk’s drop T5 and T6 blood in abundance. During the 10 minute event I found 3g worth of blood.

Also under the island (it is raised there is a beach under it) there are constantly spawns of skelk’s that also drop the blood in abundance. If you are looking for a good place to farm loot i’d try there.

It’s possible the normal loot tables aren’t active just during the event because of the sidekicking for the event. Imagine a swarm of sidekicked-up level 5 bots.

Considering how many karka shells are probably going to be required to craft anything, I don’t know we’re expected to collected enough with such a low drop rate. I spent over an hour doing nothing but killing young karka and got less than 5 shells.

To quote Game update notes 15th Nov. “The drop rarity of Rare and Exotic weapons from certain places in the world (champions, veterans, and players in WvW) has been increased. Rares and Exotics should be much more likely to drop and every champion should be guaranteed to drop loot. This was to ensure that world loot drops were not a significantly worse way of acquiring rare and exotic items than crafting and running dungeons”

Total rubbish. Killed so many veterans, champions since then even in Orr and new area to test this and guess what….nadda…nothing….and l’m not talking massive zergs of 50 people either, oftentimes only a handful on champions and duo’ing/solo’ing veterans. In new area this evening, duo or trio’d numerous veterans, killed a champion with about 15 people, many complained they received nothing also.
So disillusioned right now.

Well. The drop rates ARE quite bad. I was mostly farming for the new crafting that you can do. I killed 150 (tracking through the achievement for monthly) and ended up with…6? seriously. That’s really low rates.

I ran through the Lost Shores in a zerg following escort quests initially, then explored further in a duo. Either way the drops were poor. I don’t think I had a single loot item of any kind from the champions or most of the veterans. Loot seemed to drop more easily from the lower level mobs but none of it was even masterwork level.

Sadbast.7086:

The Veteran Karkas didn’t drop a single thing, needed to be killed twice (why
????)

If you pay attention, the first time you “kill” it, you take away its shell and making it more vulnerable and easier to kill for good. Can’t remember where it was said, but ArenaNet has said that we have to get rid of the shell.

In my opinion the drop rates have gone much better. Went from completed 4 scales of Fractals and got 2 exotics from chests (account bound on acquire) and 1 exotic torch from veteran enemy. Also many of my party members received few exotics and while i was on TS i know atleast 3 guys got exotic item as drop. U guys might just have been unlucky lol. ( also received many rares. one time i got 3 rares from opening one chest)

I’d have to agree with Siliconmana here. Something really seems off with the drops. It was clearly bugged when they first implemented the new loot scaling, as I remember farming small scales and weak blood in Queensdale when it went live and just about every scale and drake I killed dropped level 80 green and yellow items.

The new zone… I have not got one single drop from veterans or champions at all since it went live. And I know it wasn’t from lack of doing sufficient damage to the mobs to ‘tag’ it, as I took on a handful of veteran karkas with just two guild-mates once things calmed down later in the evening. None of us got any drops from these guys, and only one (probably whoever got the killshot) actually got experience for the kill even though we were all attacking from 100-0 (for both the armor and squishy phases). Something really seems off, and as far as risk/reward goes… It is unquestionably skewed way over to the ‘risk’ side to the point that I don’t feel much need to waste time and repair bills there until/unless something changes.

Wizzy.7910:

In my opinion the drop rates have gone much better. Went from completed 4 scales of Fractals and got 2 exotics from chests (account bound on acquire) and 1 exotic torch from veteran enemy. Also many of my party members received few exotics and while i was on TS i know atleast 3 guys got exotic item as drop. U guys might just have been unlucky lol. ( also received many rares. one time i got 3 rares from opening one chest)

I think this thread is referring to the new map area, Southsun, rather than the FotM dungeon.

In any case, the loot drops in Southsun are terrible. Killed I-don’t-know-how-many Veteran Karka, plus a good handful of Champions, and got NOTHING for loot. Not even a grey. Killed my quota of karka for the monthly, wound up with 7 shells from all 200.

7? Really? That’s awfully low.

As for gear… I got about 5 blues and 2 greens during my hours killing mobs. No yellows, certainly no exotics (hahaha!!! Makes me laugh even thinking I would be so lucky). If there was an increase in loot drops from the tougher mobs, it certainly isn’t showing for me.

greyman.8105:

I’d have to agree with Siliconmana here. Something really seems off with the drops. It was clearly bugged when they first implemented the new loot scaling, as I remember farming small scales and weak blood in Queensdale when it went live and just about every scale and drake I killed dropped level 80 green and yellow items.

The new zone… I have not got one single drop from veterans or champions at all since it went live. And I know it wasn’t from lack of doing sufficient damage to the mobs to ‘tag’ it, as I took on a handful of veteran karkas with just two guild-mates once things calmed down later in the evening. None of us got any drops from these guys, and only one (probably whoever got the killshot) actually got experience for the kill even though we were all attacking from 100-0 (for both the armor and squishy phases). Something really seems off, and as far as risk/reward goes… It is unquestionably skewed way over to the ‘risk’ side to the point that I don’t feel much need to waste time and repair bills there until/unless something changes.

Pretty much this for me as well. I bounced around the new zone, and altho very eye-appealing, that is pretty much it. There is no reward vs. risk. I found myself back farming in Queensdale, getting better drops, and even time-wise, I can pull in more Karma and faster than the new zone by helping with events.

Unless something changes with the loot table there, I really don’t think I will bother wasting my time there. Nothing more than a money sink for repair bills at this time.

Ditto…spent 2 hours “farming” in a group of 5 people, doing most veterans, wore maximum magic find I could put together, plus passive 10% guild buff + guild banner and I got a grand total of 3 greens, 7 blues, zero rare, zero exotic, and a whopping 4 shells. I’ve also found that veterans and champions all over the world are generally dropping far less loot that they used to drop. I’ve killed Jormag 8 times in a row now without receiving a single rare, duoed/trioed at least a dozen generic champions and gotten virtually nothing, and I have no idea how many veterans I’ve killed with absolutely nothing better than a green dropping.

I did get a few rares from doing runs in the Fractal of the Mists but those are the only ones I’ve received since the patch that supposedly boosted those drop tables. Pretty discouraging…

I guess it depends on what you consider the reward. I’ve had a ton of fun this weekend roaming with guildies, laughing at the utterly frothily insane sylvari crab chef, getting surprised by karka barrel roll attacks and hatchling facehuggers, RPing with my guild …

And I’ve had a number of blue and green drops, a few shells (got over a hundred shells by using my November gem purchase on consortium chests), and one orange named scepter from the shark chest when I hadn’t even tagged the giant shark my first time to that event.

This game isn’t about loot, it’s about fun, with loot as a bonus. I’d say ANet has delivered a -lot- of fun in this new content, despite the bugs.

I have had great fun during the event, but I must agree the reward vs effort for this region is not well balanced. Other areas are easier and give better loot, perhaps it can be rectified in the future.

Yeah, it seems the droprates for normal vets and champs seem to have gotten broken entirely; However, I’ve been finding a lot more rares at the jormag events lately (averaging about 2 rares/event; the ones during peak hours are a lot less profitable because everyone kills phase 1 too quickly. During non-peak hours, I managed to get 5 rares and a lodestone in a single run…). The champ drops there are broken as ever, but it seems like the vet adds at that event are about the only ones so far that have actually gotten the boosted droprates. If fractals have as good of droprates as I hear though, I’m going to do some runs of that…

The biggest Karka’s & vets drop the least of all.How crazy is that?I just go for the young ones unless a large one sticks his wet mouth in the way.

Just been running around for ore and wood.And hitting young karka’s.Certainly needs ramping up for rewards and events when it becomes a proper 80 zone.

This is all just a reminder of how overwhelmingly horrendous the grind is in this game. It makes me sad.

Have to agree on this one – the island is absolutely beautiful, but the rewards for killing the rather tough mobs are more than underwhelming (and I haven’t received a single rare since the update, either, no matter where I was (hello boss-chests in TA and HoM) and veterans still don’t drop anything for me). I am fine with the challange they provide (except, maybe, the veteran karkas – I hate it when they just pop up behind my back ^^°), but to get absolutely no reward for killing something like that twice (yes, I figured out that armor-thing pretty quickly, but still)…not fun.

And I’m not even worried about farming (I just don’t. Period.) – but, you know, it would be kind of nice to be rewarded for taking on hard enemies :/

I had similarly poor drops from Karka in Lost Shores. Everywhere else seemed all right but I have not really farmed in at least a week. Will try out Orr, today, before going back to Lost Shores for food items and shells to use in future crafting recipes.

Got three rare drops in Orr of mobs during the usual events over the course of two hours, drops off champs and vets are poor at best.

RandomHominid.3456:

It’s possible the normal loot tables aren’t active just during the event because of the sidekicking for the event. Imagine a swarm of sidekicked-up level 5 bots.

That’s the most logical assumption. I mean, it really would suck if drops were coming out really good and it was level 2-5 bots in droves on the island.

Also, the Karka are event-based spawn right now, not normal spawn. They may get replaced with normal standing Karka after the event, but all they are is a means to an end. Just wait until today’s event for the “big loots”

Yeah, seems dungeons are more rewarding now than that map. Veterans are hard to kill but most of the time they don’t have any drops compared to other maps.

I have killed 130 Karka according to my Achievements, and I have had 2 shells drop. I have been using Peach Tarts, and my gear is 57%, for a total of 83% magic find.

I personally think MF in Guild Wars is wrong, but lets say that we want folks stated that way. What MF rate would you need to get a decent drop rate?

Edit – the shells also dont go to your Collectibles. nor the Passion Flowers.

Siphaed.9235:

RandomHominid.3456:

It’s possible the normal loot tables aren’t active just during the event because of the sidekicking for the event. Imagine a swarm of sidekicked-up level 5 bots.

That’s the most logical assumption. I mean, it really would suck if drops were coming out really good and it was level 2-5 bots in droves on the island.

Also, the Karka are event-based spawn right now, not normal spawn. They may get replaced with normal standing Karka after the event, but all they are is a means to an end. Just wait until today’s event for the “big loots”

If that affected the island for the whole 2 days you want it to be a fun introduction and worth prioritizing to visit?

Wouldn’t having the loot table artificially rewarding to that scenario, bots notwithstanding, be the whole point of a weekend event?

Instead, the rewards for the event feel tailored to reduce the amount of things in the world (examples include: Single Karma jug for phase 1 chain, 5 captain commendations for phase 1 chain, junky reward rate for the entire Cove, Donations mathematically analysed that suggest there is no scenario where it’s worth securing them through donations for purchasable end products).

And if the Bots are such the issue, perhaps having someone set to respond to them running amok in the Cove immediately to observe and address the case would be efficient?

Sorry, but this logic doesn’t hold mate, though I can appreciate the point of supposition.

So far, I haven’t found ANY kind of enemy NPC that drops good loot. All the loot is just randomly generated stats on the same skins. Nothing rare to go after, no themed loot off certain enemies, etc.

I MISS LOOT TABLES IJS

I’m sad to say this is the biggest downfall of the game. The rewards are god awful. Even before the Lost Shore I got a full exotic Magic Find set and granted I will get 3 to 5 rares an hour farming in Orr. However, I haven’t got an exotic to drop in 2 months. That’s pathetic.

I think I found out why the shells have such a poor drop record, you can turn 1000 of them in for the accessory. http://www.gw2db.com/items/72531-ancient-karka-shell-s

So then who is going to use them to craft with? Love that the first major patch has stuff for crafters, but please give us stuff that is going to be realistic.

I did the most of the big event on Sunday, and helped kill lots of enemies. I ended up with one clam as far as loot goes… I did get some cool items from the reward chest, but was surprised to kill many enemies with NO loot. But I did have fun, and people were all very helpful about resing, so I didn’t have any armor bills, so it wasn’t all bad.

Max Lexandre.6279:

The new map requires parties, if you find a Veteran Karka in your way you better run!

Good luck with trying to find a party to farm that area..

I spent some time in lost shores during and after the event, the main thing I noticed is that veteran karka never drop anything, and never reward experience. I never once received a drop from the vets. and I never once received any experience from the kills. I started paying attention after I had helped fight the first 3 or 4. I noticed that no matter how involved I was in the fight, I never got anything. Lost Shores is pretty, but an absolute waste of time. Why would I want to go somewhere that is just gonna run up the price of the death tax/armor repair bill?

Drop rates in Lost Shores are beyond pathetic, I doubt I’ll be back there after this weekend. Whats the point if nothing drops anything? During the event I killed Karka for about 2-3 hours before disconnecting and got one drop in that whole time, ONE DROP in 2-3 hours of countless Karka!

And if what Siliconmana.3816 said about an increase in drops rates included in the patch on the 15th is true then I think they forgot to release it. Veteran Giants in Orr still drop nothing for me after killing five or six of them. Would be nice to even just get a porous bone from them at this point

dekou.6012:

It’s probably because loot scaling still doesn’t seem to work right. Killing ten weak mobs is much better than killing a single Veteran, even though AoEing everything down the Orr Zerg way is faster.

I agree too that the risk vs reward for killing any tough Veteran mob in the world is generally not worth it and with the double life of the Karka this can be an extra problem. I don’t however think that ArenaNet needs to balance this out by making them drop exotics or anything like that. I think what they need to do is factor the time involved in killing a pack of weak mobs vs one big mob. As long as the time spent on both are about the same, then maybe they just need to balance the drop % better. They could do this by having Veteran mobs drop more gold in a bag of cash in addition to the item a player would get. So if i attack a mob that is a veteran I have a smaller chance to get any loot (since its only one mob and killing a group would probably result in at least a few drops) , but if I “do” get the drop, it would be more rewarding in that it is a nice little bit of cash, on top of whatever i normally would get, that made it seem like it was worth it. Over time I think farming an hour of veteran mobs only vs an hour spent farming a bunch of packs of weaker mobs should balance out to about the same! The only difference would be that there is a chance of more small rewards for packs of mobs vs the one chance at a bigger reward with the veterans.

The drop system should consider:
- How long as monster has been alive since it spawned. ‘Older’ monsters would drop better stuff.
- How long a monster has been alive during a fight that leads to its death. A monster that takes 20 minutes to kill should give way better rewards than one you can kill in one hit.
- Also its stats: HP, attack, armor, etc. Monsters with higher stats would drop better stuff, since there would be more risk. Monsters that can one-hit-kill you should give really good rewards.
- Also, after a certain amount of people the power scaling of some monsters can’t keep up, and fights become way easier. Much more people, and may of those fighting will not get credit or drops at all from the battle, no matter how much damage they do. To avoid that, after a certain number of people the drops should dramatically drop, so people spread more and avoid crowds. Events with big bosses would be an exception, of course. I’m talking mostly about normal creeps, champions unrelated to events and veteran.

As it is now, almost no one attacks champions at all. There’s simply no point, unless they know there’s a chest after the fight, and there isn’t a chest for most of them.

Take the Champion Svanir Marauder.
Every single time, EVERY SINGLE TIME, people run inside the building, to check if there’s a chest, and since there’s none, most if not all players leave annoyed, saying that they won’t waste time with it again.
Of course the champion itself rarely drops anything. So players would get more stuff by doing a series of normal events that spawn waves of enemies that a big one leading to a champion with no chest.

It’s true that we should play for fun, not for the shinies, but if there’s many other places that are fun too, and also give shinies, people will avoid those with a bad ratio of risk vs reward.

An update said that they had increased the drops. And for a short while we had things like Harpies level 9 dropping exotics.
But after an update after that, drops got even worse than before, excepting for dungeons.

The Lost shores content only makes things worse. Monsters there have very high armor and attack, so they take a lot of time to kill and are rather risky (if 2 young karka decide to spawn around while you are fighting a 4th and aim their crippling water spears at you, you’ll be in big trouble, and most probably dead if you didn’t have block or reflect skills, since dodging will only evade one or two of the spears)
So people just run around, avoiding enemies, to go for the nodes diretly.