As a player that has enjoyed running dungeons and fractals since launch I can tell you that the latest round of loot nerfs radically reduced the loot potential of both venues.
These nerfs specifically target the portion of the player-base that favors dungeon content with the goal of seriously impeding that group’s ability to accumulate wealth.
I am not talking about minor tweaking either, Anet has nerfed the already pathetic rewards for all dungeon paths to the floor, somewhere in the neighborhood of a 66% reduction. No changes to the content itself, no additional paths, no similar alternative content, just a straight up heavy handed, oppressive nerf down to 1/3rd of the previous average.
Considering here have been no new dungeons, or even paths, in YEARS, the only thing that kept the content interesting, aside from the small group size and ease of filling a party, was the loot, however sad and underwhelming it might have been, it was a stable source of a little income that could be acquired while doing the type of content that I enjoyed, with a small group of friends, on a daily basis.
I made lots of friends over the years by joining random dungeon parties, I had a lot of fun learning the dungeons and each of their paths, working to shave a little time off each run as I gained more and more experience. And yes, making a little gold along the way, somewhere around a whopping 5 gold an hour on average.
That hardly seems like an amount significant enough to warrant a full scale effort to destroy the “dungeon runner” population and/or the viability of doing the dungeon content at all anymore aside from grinding for dungeon tokens tokens, but apparently that 5 gold an hour going into the hands of players actually playing and earning it was just too much for Anet to stand.
So one of my most favorite things to do in this, or any, game has been ruined, all incentive to run dungeons has been effectively removed, I suspect to ensure that the influx of new players on their “free” accounts are not able to adequately generate any meaningful wealth and to make sure they spend their fair share in the gem store.
It is really disappointing and disheartening, I was really holding on to the hope that Heart of Thorns might finally bring a fresh dungeon or 2 for us faithful long time players and supporters that love that type of content and play style, instead I feel like I got a swift kick in the kittens.
On to the new improved Fractals of the Mist…
Ok, so there are no new fractals actually, nor have any of them been improved, beyond blocking off a couple “stack spots” that so few people were up in arms about… stack spots that actually require a different strategy, …that ARE a different strategy, developed to mitigate some of the more difficult and/ or annoying mechanics, but that is a subject for another discussion all its own.
Where was I? Oh yeah, the new and improved fractals of the mist are neither new nor improved, they are simply broken into smaller pieces, and the rewards for doing them nerfed disproportionately to their smaller size.
Our fractal run which involved 5 fractals showed us the following:
On average each fractal yields less than half of the loot that the same fractals yielded prior to this update. FAR fewer enemies now drop loot when you kill them, the daily reward chests for each tier have also been removed, and your chances at any of the decent drops like ascended items or skins are now locked inside of yet another RNG box, that you now have to purchase keys to unlock.
These keys will run you 20 silver and one fractal relic each, but wait, it gets better… So far in my experience 90% of the time the contents of these boxes are worth less than the 20 silver you paid for the key to open it, and god forbid you have to sell the contents on the Trading Post, because then you will get hit for yet another 15%.
I don’t know what to say, other then, SERIOUSLY?!?!
Who thought it would be a great idea to lower the loot yield by 50%+, then on top of that locking any chance at decent items inside of yet another box and then making the players BUY keys to see if they got anything other then the typical handful of trash loot that we have become so accustomed to?
Honestly how long and how far do the “powers that be” think they can continue to nerf loot yields in every aspect of the game, making content and events less and less rewarding while making premier items more and more expensive and tedious to acquire, before the proverbial kitten hits the fan?
I was so excited about the launch of the Halloween content, and the new expansion, I was online with friends the best part of the day and night waiting on the launch, we DL’d with excitement… ran a couple laps in the Labyrinth with great enthusiasm before deciding to check out the new fractals…
After our run of fractals, we were all so disappointed and feeling not only like we got shafted, but honestly feeling like we, as players and supporters of this game, were straight up being disrespected and grossly underestimated. It’s as if the assumption is that GW2 players are not smart enough to tell the difference between a blatant loot nerf and a new and improved content design and are so dimwitted that nobody will notice the majority of the loot yield has flat out removed, or that they are being forced to pay 20 silver for 10-15 silver worth of loot they just earned.
All but two of us logged off, without ever even heading into the expansion content, and the two of us that remained only did so to share our experience, opinion and disappointment in the changes made to what many consider to be the backbone of PVE content.
I can’t end this rant though, without at least mentioning the ridiculous price of the ascended salvage kits… one gold and 2 fractal relics per use, and of course sitting behind yet another wall of RNG… LOL
I think there is a point where players can start to feel exploited, and that can’t be good for anyone.
I am still hoping to find some sort of silver lining somewhere amongst all the nerfs, expense and tedium, I have been hanging on for quite some time waiting on and looking for the next really rewarding experience in the PVE portion of GW2, it’s been awhile.
