Guild Wars 2

I have an issue with the fractal skin drop rate and the means of acquiring them. It’s just flat out unacceptable and the only logic I can come up with is that I’m bugged. I exclusively run 48 and haven’t touched anything in the 20’s for over 2 months. I will occasionally run a 38 if I’m having a hard time finding a 40’s group. I have 103 pristine relics.

Here’s what I have to show for it:

2 warhorns, 1 shield, 1 scepter and 1 harpoon gun. Countless rings.

I don’t like coming on the forums and QQ’ing about things, I really don’t. But I’m starting to reach my breaking point here. The simple solution would be to just stop going after these elusive skins and except that it just isn’t meant to be. Unfortunately my brain isn’t wired that way. A friend of mine summed it up pretty well that once you reach 80 it’s basically about Barbie Dolls. You want to look a certain way. Exotics are trivial – in most cases people hit level 80 and they have full exotics due to saving up Karma or dungeon tokens. I really don’t want to make the skins trivial – I understand they can’t drop every run and I don’t expect that.

Solution #1:

Allow players to purchase the skins. Make it a lofty price. Say 50 Pristine and 10 Shards of Mist. Something – a light at the end of the tunnel if you will. There needs to be a way for players who have done this dungeon in earnest and put countless hours into trying to acquire these skins an alternate means to do so. I don’t want to say “Gwah gwah – this isn’t fair he got the skin he wanted on his 2nd run… rabble rabble… woe is me… rabble rabble.” But that’s kind of where I’m going here – RNG is one thing but this doesn’t feel very random to me.

Solution #2

Increase the drop rate for someone with the 500/500 achievement. Or as they go up the ladder of completion. (personally I’m not a huge fan of this).

Solution #3

Take the RNG out of the equation and after running X number of dailies give them a random skin.

For those of you who have multiple skins – congratulations on your luck.

For those of you in my shoes – I fell sorry for you. I really due. This dungeon stopped being enjoyable long ago and has reached the level of grind I didn’t think was possible.

For Arena Net – I realize we’re still in early stages. Please address this issue before you really start alienating your player base.

/flame on

50 pristine imo is a fair price, 50 daily runs- thats alot of time a player has wasted not to get a skin, and I think it would be a fair trade if they could turn those in.

myself- I am up to 68 prstines with no skins from those 68 runs and I feel rather burnt out Really would like a light at the end of the tunnel T_T

Neat, I should be getting my legendary this weekend and was thinking of going for the Fractal torch next. This thread kind of makes me want to hold off for a while until they maybe address the grind.

50 Pristine + 1 shard + 3 globs + 5 vials sounds about spot on to me. Make them buy able at the FotM vendor.

Yeah, ANet really needs to do something about this…a fractal skin is a gorgeous reward. I don’t even think it should be RNG based (don’t you just hate the player who has only done 70 fractals total who gets a GS fractal skin when you’ve done a few hundred!) , but rather based on a number of criteria, two of which should be fractal level and fractal frequenter (number of which can be debated upon).

Otherwise, yes, that idea about the pristine relics and shards is a valid one as well. May be throw in 150 fractal relics as well, nothing else to do with – as of right now – them anyway!

NO. Nothing with pristine relics. That would screw over those who already used them to buy other rings as they had nothing to spend it on.

Instead, introduce fractal tokens with increasing drop rates 30+. 48 should bear a guaranteed token or two, considering the amount of grind involved to get there yourself.

Imagine running a full TA 48 times and only having 6 skins to answer for it. My guildie has leveled 42 times to fractal 42, and he has no skin to show for it. It’s preposterous.

Hell, try completing a fractal 48 daily with PuGs, especially mossman and grawl shaman, and tell me that two or three rares is all you have to show for it as a good reward? Absurd.

The reason they aren’t available cause just like you said there isn’t much to do at 80. If you got the skins quickly then you would get bored and quit anet doesnt want this so they made it pure luck

yesterday i found my third skin. all between 20-28 as i dont have motivations to go ahead with the actual contents.

the only skin i can use on my char is focus while i dont use the other cause i dont want to have alts. i salvaged one, got one orichalcum if i remember right… now i wait if something will be changed about it.

anet knows that if skins will be easy get no one will run fractal as often, skins are used to save time time for more contente i hope.

i been trying to get 1 skin my class ranger/war can use for idk almost 2 months now been doing daily 38. like many other bank full of rings and no skins. i get is RNG but when you are that high lv atleast give us a 100% way even if it cost a lot of tokens or 4 ring in MF = 1 token to trade for any skin at fotm npcs? i mean there is count less way just plz don’t give me RNG.

for those who haven’t got anything like me after 50+ Pristine. i feel you pain and i hope this coming patch will give us some thing to do.

side note: only reason i play gw2 atm is wvw and fotm skin. since the lengendary are not worth my time and effort. maybe if the precuser drop price to the good old KAKA event time.

I feel you man. I’ve about half the pristine as you, but I’ve onyl received 2 skins. One of which was actually the one I wanted(hammer skin) and I accidentally salvaged it because it doesn’t prompt you asking if you’re sure, like it’s supposed to.

Basically, with the rarity of them and the RNG nature of there being so many weapons it’s likely I will -never- see it again. I’m 100% for there being a recipe, but not one as expensive as you said.

I feell similar. I think i get bugged again too for some reason.Not geting any skin from like week and half.

I agree completely, there should be a vendor selling weapons like for every other dungeon.
I am running lvl 38 FotM daily and in several weeks I got staff, spear and long bow (none of which I can use on my Engineer BTW) + bunch of useless rings.

I have gotten trident, speargun and dagger while doing 2x dailies a day at least. It has been many months now since fractals were released and all i have to show for it is an underwater weapon on my guardian.

Im sorry but the current reward system for fractals is propostrous, culminating with the fractal weapons.

Doing a 1.5h lvl 44 run and getting ZERO rares/cores from the jademaw is beyond absurd. This is to add to the countless greens i get from the other chests and the Bind on Account exotic shortbow which is just like ANY OTHER shortbow on the Trading post.

Please fix this!

If there was another way of getting skins nobody would bother with the higher lvl of fractals. IMO the only reason to go into the 30-40 range is so that you have more opportunity to get daily chests i.e. 26-30-40. I currently sit at lvl 32 with 46 pristine relics and no skins to show for it.

With some guild mates, we made several runs of dailies 20+, praying for a skin.
Total: 100 runs (20 runs x 5 characters).
Skins: 5 (3x speargun, 2x focus)
Estimated chance to get a random skin : 5%.
Estimated chance to get the skin I WANT : 5%/19 = 0.26% (19 types of weapon).

I never played a fractal since I got that figure. Seriously, 0.26% to get the skin I want… Almost the same probability to get a precursor throwing rares in MF. For a skin account bound, that you will never get any profit from…

So for me, no more fractals till something is done to improve. Sorry Anet, but I am really disappointed and I leave your game. The feeling of never being rewarded is too high.

Seriously Anet, start do some with loot fractals skins, i have mace 5th time and alway drop on lvl 20. Not 30+ 40+. Also i have 3x warhorn. Is realy awsome loot table. If noone developer can fix this crap. I have idea for u. Players can use mystic forge, put 3 skins and item what want to last spot. Because is pointless have 15 useless skins. And go milion time fractal for staff, which i need://////

Chauntry.1635:

Solution #1:

Allow players to purchase the skins.

It seems that this is more likely given that they have also added a way to spend excess Karma and this way is more consistent with other dungeon specific skin that you can purchase with tokens.

I don’t know why they didn’t do this with Fractals. :/

From my observasions of running 48 for over a month, and other levels for many more, at least one party member is likely to get a skin. This does mean that you will ever be that party member. I suggest a recipe that can be thrown into the forge awarding you with the weapon you want. This also means that those who run high levels can reach this goal “faster” but putting more effort and skill into it.

My post on the recipe is here.

In short, you can use the existing relics (20 pristine/2000 regular) to buy two specific pieces that determine the weapon you want. Then, you can take 3 or 5 Cores of Mist Essence (15-25 shards after conversion) and a few ectos to create the weapon at the mystic forge.

Cores would be a new material that drops 40+ or 50+ if they ever open it up again. You can also create them with the existing conversion recipes and shards.

Perhaps even drop the regular relic cost and make it two 10 pristine purchases.

This way, those who run high levels will be limited by their ability to run skillful content,and those at lower levels by their patience and persistance. Otherwise, you will be able to reach your goal eventually while reinstilling the positive feelings of getting a skin drop since they no longer hinder your progress towards your goal if the skin is wrong.

Also salvaging rings and skins to try gand get others would be greatly appreciated.

I hit my 500th fractal over a month ago. I have over 50 pristine relics, and almost 30 useless ascended rings. I’ve been running 20+ fractals almost every night for months. I have never, NEVER had a fractal skin drop.

One member of my party, who has run less than half the fractals that I have, has gotten five. This system is ridiculous.

I personally think that they should have the same drop rate as ascended rings. Tired of all this elitism “They should keep it the same because it makes them more rare” I don’t give a flying pig who else has a skin and why should you? People should not have to run fractals for 2+ months just to get a random drop… As for using pristine relics to buy them I believe 50 is way to high I would drop that more to like 20. The skin should represent that you do fractals not that you got lucky in fractals.

Common people/anet it is a skin not a legendary….People are finishing their legendary items before they get the skin they want. That’s saying something.

Excursion.9752:

Common people/anet it is a skin not a legendary….People are finishing their legendary items before they get the skin they want. That’s saying something.

this is why its acceptable…

Grinding for a skin = good
Grinding for stats = bad

looks at manifesto….it stated exactly that.

Players were given the chance of farming to get rare skins (as most games) but those skins shouldn t be stronger than other weapons but just visually stunning.

So now there are people who farmed cof1 that have legendaries….
And people that farmed fotm 2X + that got fotm weapons….

if you give cof1 farmers even an easy chance to get fotm weapons is a kick in the face to those players who got the worst reward in the game just to have chances to get a skin.

RNG is RNG.

To be honest I like RNG even though I don’t obtain what I’m looking for after hundreds of tries. Everything in this game is not too hard to obtain via currency so really some RNG is ok.

make it 100 pristine and 100 cristals and we have a deal.

btw: i salvaged countless fractal skins, just for the ectoplasms
i hate the fractal textures, and most of them can’t be used on my class anyway :P
these skins i salvaged include: staff, axe, rifle etc.

LordByron.8369:

Excursion.9752:

Common people/anet it is a skin not a legendary….People are finishing their legendary items before they get the skin they want. That’s saying something.

this is why its acceptable…

Grinding for a skin = good
Grinding for stats = bad

looks at manifesto….it stated exactly that.

Players were given the chance of farming to get rare skins (as most games) but those skins shouldn t be stronger than other weapons but just visually stunning.

So now there are people who farmed cof1 that have legendaries….
And people that farmed fotm 2X + that got fotm weapons….

if you give cof1 farmers even an easy chance to get fotm weapons is a kick in the face to those players who got the worst reward in the game just to have chances to get a skin.

I never said anything about CoF? You also act as if it is hard to get to 20+ fractals. Yes it takes time but If people run it enough you should be able to get what you want when it comes down to a skin. I guess I have to restate my point I don’t care who has what skin and why should you? My point is people should have to do the content not have the RNG god of luck on your side. It does not mean that you are a great player if you have the skin. Like I said before it just means you got lucky. Who knows if the player your looking at with a skin got carried that entire run died over and over and over and did not contribute a thing to the party but ended up getting that from a skin from the chest? I know this is probably unlikely but you can’t disprove it either. What I want is fractal skins to be a symbol that you do fractals, not that you got lucky. Every time I see a person with a skin I have never thought anything but dang, I wish I had their luck.

As for people who have skins already great for them, I’m happy they got theirs and now they can have more and perhaps even the one they want….

To me it seems that fractals are incomplete. I think the maps are fine but the problems with skins, pristine relics and rings in general need to be addressed.

Lol you say it as if farming cof path 1 is like a free legendary after a day. I farmed cof for around 3 months, virtually all day, with kitten luck and finally got my legendary. And about the fractals skins, it’s kind of a double edged sword. I often wish that precursor prices would fall, but then I think that if they did, I wouldn’t have the hope of getting that 600g drop everytime I open a chest. Once you introduce a way to get fractals skins without RNG, it’ll be nice to have it and then there’s no reason to do fractals at all. Everyone will have the skin they want, fractals 30+ will be a ghosttown and you run out of goals fairly quickly in this game.

Syn Sity.5826:

Lol you say it as if farming cof path 1 is like a free legendary after a day.

about 1G per run for 6 mins…..
to do a single run at fotm u need about 90 mins….(even more in case of dredges etc).

Try to make an esteem of how many cof runs TIME would be needed to get the fotm skin you desire.

If i just stickied the same time to cof1 i would have at least 2 legendaries by now (instead i ’m still looking for the dagger skin :/ and i m poor).

P.S. agree on the ghost town part….

Syn Sity.5826:

Once you introduce a way to get fractals skins without RNG, it’ll be nice to have it and then there’s no reason to do fractals at all. Everyone will have the skin they want, fractals 30+ will be a ghosttown and you run out of goals fairly quickly in this game.

If getting a fractal skin is end game then anet has done a really bad job. I am sure they are going to add more maps to the Fractals along with more items. Who knows what they will do next to fractals to keep it going but given its design it can be easily expanded upon. I know myself that I am not running fractals for just the skin I am also going for ectos. To me it is the best place for me to gather them. As for 30+ fractals maybe every 10 levels they add some guarantees like X amount of ectos. That would keep people coming back. Not to forget the players that want every fractal skin for their character they will be back. I think it would actually increase gameplay. Just my thought though.

Excursion.9752:

I know myself that I am not running fractals for just the skin I am also going for ectos. To me it is the best place for me to gather them

its actually one of the worse place to go for “rewards” expecially ectos…..

COf1/2 farm> openworld bosses >>>>>>> fotm 30+

LordByron.8369:

Excursion.9752:

I know myself that I am not running fractals for just the skin I am also going for ectos. To me it is the best place for me to gather them

its actually one of the worse place to go for “rewards” expecially ectos…..

COf1/2 farm> openworld bosses >>>>>>> fotm 30+

I wrote that wrong. Its the best place for me to go seeing how I’m trying for a skin. But as for world bosses I like to play on my time not theirs. But as for CoF runs I understand.

What I was saying is, once you’ve got the skins you need, you’re certainly not going to return to fractals for the gold rewards. Maybe it’s just me (and everyone i know) but fractals rewards are crap compared to like.. any other dungeon.

Syn Sity.5826:

What I was saying is, once you’ve got the skins you need, you’re certainly not going to return to fractals for the gold rewards. Maybe it’s just me (and everyone i know) but fractals rewards are crap compared to like.. any other dungeon.

I have my fingers crossed they the loot tables are a constant WIP and will be made better later on. I actually want a few skins so I think I’m doomed for eternity. I still do other things but FOTM is at least one run a day. I also am looking forward to the day they double the number of maps there.

Personally, I’d love a fractal sword, and the day I’m able to get one without relying on RNG, I will work tirelessly toward it.

Runing Fractal lv38/48 almost daily, lv28 if I have extra time.

So far I have , 3 Shields, 3 Harpoon guns, 2 Warhorns, 2 Staff, Dagger, Pistol, Mace and 15+ infused rings.(Another thing I notice is that I got a lot of doubles, same ring and same skin etc)

I already have 3 fully upgraded glowing Fractal capacitors for my main and two alts, working on my 4th one.

Skin I am going for ever since FotM is announce is that kittene Fractal Sword.

So last night my guild run fractal lv38, 3 frequent fractal runners with one casual and one pug.

The casual got the sword.

If it only happen once, I guess it just RNG.

But no it wasn’t, because the day before yesterday SAME THING HAPPENS ON DIFFERENT CASUAL.

Is there anything in the work for Fractal Weapon skin to be purchase by fractal tokens?

For the love of God please say yes, I don’t know how much more disappointment I can take before I quit.

p.s.(Didn’t get my first ring after 30 daily runs and that was before daily token was added.)

Someone posted some math a while ago about this

It takes 386 daily runs on average untill you get ur desired skin… good luck and happy grinding

Yes, it’s insane but i guess devs like to give u the middlefinger everytime a skin drops that you dont need. (Talking to you stupid harpoon >:( )

Yep, maths never lie. And getting Harpoon over and over…

What is killing me is the lack of communication about players complaints relative to really important topics.
- What happened to the scavenger hunt ? No answer
- Do something about Fractals cause they are not rewarding players. No answer

But “Spider queen solo engineer 36” got an answer quickly.
But “Path 3 of CoF unfair” got an answer quickly.

This is unfair, not Cof Path3…

I pray something is done about this in either this months or next months update.

Idea: Make a new golden relic that can drop in place of the pristine relic. Add skins that require 1 gold relic to purchase from the vendor. So this way people could get what they want but still would require the RNG Gold of luck to be in their favor?

Has anyone suggested making Fractal Skins a possible drop in the physical Fractal Chests – not just the daily Maw? Higher chances the higher you get, of course.

That would help appease both of us that are frustrated with fractals due to the crappy skin drop rate, and those of us frustrated with the crappy loot in the physical chests.

Adding a new tier of relics that are exchangeable for fractal weapons also seems like a logical step, but that sounds like something the devs probably already have plans for.

Well I’m pretty well done with fractals since writing this… Pretty much done with the game too. Not really because of this just the fact that end game content doesn’t exist. If fotm is end game then I’ll be a monkeys uncle.

To the OP: Great thread, constructive criticism is always welcome on these forums.

In my time running FotM, I also felt the same anxiety, and I applaud your determination in pursuing your desired fractal weapons. I was actually really lucky in getting all the fractal weapons (and then some) that I was interested in, but I didn’t get my final and favorite piece, the fractal greatsword, until well after getting 500/500 fractal frequenter. Your first solution seems very good, and could even be higher than you suggested, but the light at the end of the tunnel is completely necessary, while degrading its value is not.

EDIT: lol just noticed your most recent post. I feel the same way. I’ve done everything I want to in this game. The only reason I kept playing was to progress in FotM, but they took that away with the 1/28 patch, soooooooo XD lol

The issue with fractal skins is less about farm created by the system, and more about the animosity it creates between players. Lets compare grinding CoF for whatever-you-want and Fractals for skins.

If someone grinds CoF, they gain about 5 gold an hour, and so do everyone else that does this farm. This way, the more effort and persistence you put into the farm, the closer you get to your goal. Consider trying to get Dusk for 800g.
-
Spending 3 hours a day, you reach this goal in 54 days, and so can everyone else. Sometime during those two months, you have a chance of Dusk dropping out of a chest, and if it does for anyone, you congratulate them and then complain about the droprate.

Now someone grinds FotM level 48. At this level, an average of 1 person per party gets a weapon skin, with 1/19 chance of getting the skin you want. Because it is based completely on chance, it may take you anywhere between 1 day, and many months or years to get the skin you want.
-
Spending 3 hours a day, you can run FotM once for one chance at the skin a day, first being lucky enough to get the 1/5 drop rate (at 48, lower at 20, 30), and then the 1/19 type drop rate. Because of this, if a weapon skin you want drops for another player that has not put as much effort into fractals, you curse them and then complain about the drop rate.

The difference in these two cases is that, on one, you can reach a goal along with others after a significant amount of effort, while the other may give skins to players that have put in minimal effort, while never giving the skin to players who have more experience and time put into fractals.

For me, after 3 months of 3 hours a day spent in fractals, still without the skin to show for it, I’m dead tired of that place. The 270+ hours spent can be better put to use in WvW, or in other dungeons, or playing in lower level areas with my alts (ALL activities that are more fun and less frustrating).

Got all fotm weapon skins after 1420 +/- runs, ofc not all daily and not all above 20 (and also a lot of duplicates) thus I can’t make a good assessment on my luck/drop rate, still I think it shouldn’t take that long to complete a skin collection.

Keep in mind that skins are the only thing that still keep players interested, after they acquired the 2 rings and after the last patch loot nerf (and there was one, we can’t all be idi0ts) and after the lvl 50 hard cap.

Drop rate is ridiculous. It would be one thing, if you had to get to lvl 40+ to get skins, but to spend 90+ minutes repeatedly doing runs at these levels and to get no drop or rings obtainable at lower levels… is just absurd.

Past 500 fractals, I couldn’t tell you how many I’ve ran. I have more globs/vials/shards than I can ever use, and multiple of every infused ring just rotting in my bank. That’s not counting all the ones on my 80’s.

I can’t even progress because of the lvl 50 hard cap, and am quickly seeing no point in playing fractals until something is done to correct these horrible decisions.

Drop fractal skins is realy ridiculous. I have on my main ele 6x Fractal Mace and 3x warhorn. WTF.. I want staff not useless Mace… Next patch here, and again no change with fractals skins. For Anet is much more important steal players money with new skin on black lion… Good job anet…..

Why does it always seem to be that you get what you can’t use? I have 3 Fractal Hammers I’ll never use, and the guy above me has 6 Fractal Maces that I’d love one of! Argh! Just let us trade these 1-for-1 at some trader! Make them salvage to a “Fractal Skin Token” which we can throw at a merchant for a skin of our choice!

I’d suggest that the gateway vendors offer a fractal design for a fractal skin, then a fractal skin for a fractal design plus 20 pristine tokens.

callisto.7184:

Seriously Anet, start do some with loot fractals skins, i have mace 5th time and alway drop on lvl 20. Not 30+ 40+. Also i have 3x warhorn. Is realy awsome loot table. If noone developer can fix this crap. I have idea for u. Players can use mystic forge, put 3 skins and item what want to last spot. Because is pointless have 15 useless skins. And go milion time fractal for staff, which i need://////

I’ll trade you my staff if u have a hammer or a knife… oh wait you can’t trade.

this is what’s kitten me of:

• it’s 2 types of RNG, first u need to get a weapon and then the right one.
• you can’t buy it.
• you can’t trade it.

having 2 of those criteria for a skin is ok, but all 3, then i consider it to be a grind.

Just as an update:

I ran fotm 22 yesterday because it was a daily. First time running a 20’s in forever, anyway, no I didn’t get a skin but a guy who’d only done a daily 20’s twice got the dagger a weapon I’ve been after for my D/D Ele. Ridiculous the way the RNG is set up here. It’s just not right.

@OP

i reached my breaking point a few weeks ago. ive earned 130+ relics from 38 and 48 and all i have to show for it is 3 LBs, 2 rifles, 2 torches, and 1 shield.
ive done maybe a coupel fractal runs since then (mostly for the daily, and last night my friends and i just ran lvl 1 swamp instead of a real fractal for this daily)

i made a thread a while ago about how to address the issue, sadly it seems to have fallen on deaf ears, as will yours probably.

the good news? super skins are way kittening cooler anyway, and not based on RNG. praise jesus…

so far we have only a limited selection of super skins, but hopefully they add the rest later and we can set the enraging RNG of fractal skins aside forever and curse its memory.

Solution #2

Increase the drop rate for someone with the 500/500 achievement. Or as they go up the ladder of completion. (personally I’m not a huge fan of this).

Wow, this!

Here are my thoughts regarding this matter:

First, I’d rather go over some of the points already discussed in this thread:

Allow players to purchase the skins. Make it a lofty price. Say 50 Pristine and 10 Shards of Mist.

I understand that you want to see some “light at the end of the tunnel”, I do as well. The issue I see with this idea is that FOTM scale 10 awards one Prestine, and FOTM scale 48 awards one prestine. If Anet were to take your advice, it would make more sense to farm scale 10. Which then brings up the question of, do you really want people stuck in the 10-19 bracket to be awarded skins? Keep in mind, just about anyone could level an alt character to scale 10 within 2-3 days.

Take the RNG out of the equation and after running X number of dailies give them a random skin.

This is something along the lines I was thinking of too. However, I would prefer that Anet track an account’s activity in FOTM:
How many times has this account run a daily in the 10-19 bracket? 20-29 bracket? 30-39 bracket? etc..

My suggestion would be something along these lines:

Player receives a Fractal skin of choosing after completing 20 dailies in the FOTM 10-18 range.
Player receives a Fractal skin of choosing after completing 15 dailies in the FOTM 20-28 range.
Player receives a Fractal skin of choosing after completing 10 dailies in the FOTM 30-38 range.
Player receives a Fractal skin of choosing after completing 5 dailies in the FOTM 40-48 range.

Just an idea, but I really think you should try to reward players more on skill and effort as opposed to double randomness if over 20.