Guild Wars 2

May or may not have been suggested yet, but I believe a relatively easy change to how these are handled may at least smooth out the hate towards the chests/keys.

Make the keys a drop at the same rate as chests drop now. Keep dropping Locked chests. Do not soul/account bound the keys or locked chests so the keys can be sold on the trading post like the locked chests are now. When people are able to loot keys and chests, it will feel more rewarding than they do now. Having to buy the keys with gems seems like the act of opening chests is more of a reward for the gem store than the player.

Replace the keys on the black lion gem shop with Unlocked Black Lion Chests. Make all Unlocked Black Lion Chests account bound. Price them the same as the keys are priced now. That way, the people that want instant gratification can buy it and the players that are out killing can actually have some sense of accomplishment when receiving a key/chest as a drop. The insane surplus of the chests on the trading post should drop once people realize they can find the keys out in the world or buy them from other players. Some will receive far more keys than chests. Others, the opposite. A more balanced supply/demand ratio will be introduced.

If there’s flaws in this idea, please let me know. Currently though, the reliance on gems to unlock something you find by playing the game is a tough sale. Having weapon skins that are only available through this current system also leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. Could have just sold the weapon skins on the store. People don’t like spending real money for the remote chance to get a weapon skin.

Some more fun late night math…with the current conversion rate of gold to gems, here’s how it breaks down:

1 locked black lion chest on the trading post costs 5c. 125 gems for 1 key costs 8g 72s.

I totally agree with this. Although, it is the fault of the players on how much gold it takes to convert to gems, I find the cross-exchange to be ridiculous on a great many levels.

I am pretty sure players would have no problem buying/converting gold to gems for keys if the exchange was more even to that of work entailed to even get the keys.

(personally, my husband and I downright refuse to even buy keys for chest around the holidays, cause the last thing we want to see drop out of that chest is a darn tick or treat bag. I’m almost positive that no one wants to spend 10 dollars for 800 gems, just to open up trick or treat bags… come on now.)

Which is exactly why I’d like to see players be able to loot both items necessary to play the RNG game instead of looting 1 piece and being forced to buy the other just to roll the dice.