Guild Wars 2

Preface:
Like many players, I began to tire of the RNG associated with drops in this game and thus searched for information on how to “game” RNG. I found a few posts discussing people running Frac 10 Swamp to get Globs, but found out that the drops were subsequently nerfed.

After reviewing information, I found that many players had significantly higher drop rates in Dredge fractal. I assume this had something to do with the inability to skip a significant portion of the NPCs. So, I decided to try it out in a fractal that I (as a Guardian) could solo with ease. Ascalonian Fractal.

Information:
I’ve not done extensive play testing on this, and as such am requesting a larger number of players to try it out. Here is my theory.
As the number of NPCs you kill in a fractal increases, so does the chance of a mists essence dropping.

This afternoon, I ran Ascalon four times. Three times at personal/fractal level 24 and once at fractal level 10. Of those four runs, I received 3 Shards and 1 Glob, respective to their fractal levels.

I cleared everything past the gate, with two of my Shards dropping during the Shaman event at the end.

End:
I’d like to see a bit more feedback concerning this. I have no idea what other classes might be able to solo this fractal. I will post my build as a reply.

80 Guardian
Gear: None (You will die quite a few times).
Trinkets: Zerker
Food: Omnom
Traits: 0/15/30/20/5 (Other builds will probably work. 0/15/30// is required).
Concept: Spam VoJ for avoidance (through blinds), increased damage output, and heal through AH.

Personal Notes: The NPCs will bug. If you die and they stick by the door, just hang by them for a minute or two while the arrow carts pull them away from their stagnant position.
Note: MF gear is not needed if my theory is correct. The theory being that as the number of NPCs killed in each fractal increases, so does the chance for an essence to drop. Up to 100%

Just finished a fifth run with one guildie. I got a Shard, but he didn’t.

I don’t think this is the way it works. Rng being Rng and what not. In Fractals that have many mobs that drop loot (not Swamp, with no loot whatsoever) you’ll just be more likely to hit the 0.5% (or whatever) chance to get a specific drop. Statistics and what not.

If you want to test your theory in earnest do Dredge Fractal on lvls 10, 20 and 30 with increasing mob numbers at Rabsovich and write down your drop statistics.

I really don’t think it works that way though, since I’ve had Dredge Fractal run with tons of loot and not a single [mists essence] drop.

e: Humans are pattern seeking animals that will find patterns where none exist. I think this is an example of said trait. RNG is RNG.

Cheers.

Well, you don’t have much of a choice but to kill all of the non-inifinite re-spawning mobs in dredge fractal and I have never had any mists drop from that particular fractal through levels 1-28. I think it’s just a coincidence in your case, for one to confirm it you would have to do at least 100 fractals in such way, with at least 50 % mists drop rate.

Seveleniumus.5973:

. I think it’s just a coincidence in your case, for one to confirm it you would have to do at least 100 fractals in such way, with at least 50 % mists drop rate.

We’ll see. I don’t think that getting an essence on five out of five runs is coincidence. I would like the community to try this since I cannot realistically run 100 fractals.

Also, I’m sure some will be lazy and not clear the entire instance.

yosslives.1345:

[…] We’ll see. I don’t think that getting an essence on five out of five runs is coincidence […]

It most certainly is.

Cheers.

Six for Six.
Video posting soon. Will link while I run a seventh/record a seventh.

My question would be why? Are you really low/out of them? With the MF conversion i got mats to do tons of upscale with only a few shards. I don’t think i have ever been held back on a conversion by these mats, have you?
Once i had the relics or P. relics to buy the items i always had the other mats.

Ballads.2509:

My question would be why? Are you really low/out of them? With the MF conversion i got mats to do tons of upscale with only a few shards. I don’t think i have ever been held back on a conversion by these mats, have you?
Once i had the relics or P. relics to buy the items i always had the other mats.

Before last night I was.

I’ve not done many fractals (117 logged). But, I had plenty of trinkets that needed to be upgraded so I could access the higher level fractals. Out of the 117 runs, I had only see three vials drop. No globs and no shards.

Now I’m mostly running them to see how sound of a theory it is. I highly encourage everyone to try this.

I tried Ascalon fractal solo on my guardian and to be honest I was surprised when I got vial drops (I only tried a level 1) I got 2 in one level 1 run…

It only took me 20 minutes to complete it without any deaths or any problems, I’ll run it a few more times to see how many vial drops I get.

Btw the MF conversion recipies require a Master’s Salvage kit, which isn’t expensive, around 15s, but still if you can avoid the cost, why not?

7 of 7.

Has anyone attempted this besides me?

maddoctor.2738:

I tried Ascalon fractal solo on my guardian and to be honest I was surprised when I got vial drops (I only tried a level 1) I got 2 in one level 1 run…

It only took me 20 minutes to complete it without any deaths or any problems, I’ll run it a few more times to see how many vial drops I get.

Btw the MF conversion recipies require a Master’s Salvage kit, which isn’t expensive, around 15s, but still if you can avoid the cost, why not?

I’ve not really considered doing lower level runs, although the 24 level version isn’t very hard.

Thank you for testing it, let me know your other results.

One starts to care less about things like this when he’s got this many mists..

kanderous.7512:

One starts to care less about things like this when he’s got this many mists..

I’m sure eventually everyone will be drowning in them. One of the points I wanted to make is that maybe some things that we as a community have considered to be controlled by RNG are not so.

There’s been extensive testing on mystic forge creation for precursors, usefulness of magic find, and diminishing returns on T6 crafting drops. I’m not satisfied with the information returned on many instances of these tests. Too many times do players give up and conclude that the returns on certain items are attributed to random mechanics.

While I was attempting to help people (like me) who are having issues acquiring mists, the second line of thought is this: What if not all things are random? I mentioned above how clearing an instance is (in my testing) directly correlated to drop rate. Here is what I imagine the code would look like.

X = Number of NPCs with a drop table killed.
Y = Chance of receiving item

If X < .15
then Y = .10

If .15 < X < .25
then Y = .25
…
If .95 < X < 1
then Y = .95

Those numbers are obviously completely made up, but done so to illustrate that Anet may be using some definitive code for gating mechanics (mists are gating mechanics for fractal progression).

Of course if you kill more mobs in an instance your chances of a drop increase, because you’re increasing the number of drops. Not sure what is interesting about this.

in mid to high level FOTM, these mists drops are meaningless. I wouldn’t waste much time in low level FOTM trying to get these drops when you can just get infused rings in mide to high.

Leablo.2651:

Of course if you kill more mobs in an instance your chances of a drop increase, because you’re increasing the number of drops. Not sure what is interesting about this.

Read the posts. What I am suggesting is that when an instance is loaded, there is a 100% chance to include a certain item related to that instance (in this case, mists). If this is true, the implications are very important. Especially for future content releases that may follow a similar pattern.

VitisVinifera.2834:

in mid to high level FOTM, these mists drops are meaningless. I wouldn’t waste much time in low level FOTM trying to get these drops when you can just get infused rings in mide to high.

Yes. Again, read the post(s). I originally started out trying to find a way to game the system by soloing content. I discovered something much more important.

I hope you’re correct, OP. Some of us (still) have pretty bad RNG, and others don’t know how good they have it. I’d love a guaranteed way that effort = reward instead of relying on the fickle kitten of lady luck.

bravoart.5308:

I hope you’re correct, OP. Some of us (still) have pretty bad RNG, and others don’t know how good they have it. I’d love a guaranteed way that effort = reward instead of relying on the fickle kitten of lady luck.

I absolutely suggest you try soloing it. It’s not hard, by any means, and does not take that long. Just make sure you clear everything past the first gate.

I’ve also had my mists drop on the final event when the Shaman is doing the ritual, so keep that in mind.

I’m one of those people that never, ever gets drops.
I’m sitting at 480something/500 fractals and I’ve only ever had enough mats to infuse 2 rings (on my guardian).
My regular fractal group disbanded due to burnout/disinterest. We always killed everything. My constant bad rng luck was the subject of discussion nearly every single run we did while everyone else got at least 1 of something except me. (lots of globby gloops tho!) I pugged with some regular people afterwards but we skipped trash more often than not due to time constraints.

I took a month off gw2 and since coming back at the start of April I’ve been running 2 dailies on my ele and high 20s on my guard. I will sometimes run a 10daily on my warr/mes as well.

Total fractal mats I have ‘earned’ this month: 2shards. Both from separate Ascalon fractals and on my ele.
I’m pugging (nobody I know still wants to do fractals) and its 70% we skip maw trash, 100% chance we skip dredge/svanir forest mobs.

I currently have 3ess/0globs/2shards in the bank and my ele is now blocked from progressing (in the sense that my AR is reason enough to be kicked & replaced)
If I have it in me to bother anymore with fractals after I do another round of dailies today, I’ll toss my guard into ascalon and post what I more than likely don’t get. My guards personal reward level is only ~24 at the moment though.

yosslives.1345:

Leablo.2651:

Of course if you kill more mobs in an instance your chances of a drop increase, because you’re increasing the number of drops. Not sure what is interesting about this.

Read the posts. What I am suggesting is that when an instance is loaded, there is a 100% chance to include a certain item related to that instance (in this case, mists). If this is true, the implications are very important. Especially for future content releases that may follow a similar pattern.

Your posts never actually stated the claim that there is a 100% inclusion of the drop in the instance. You repeatedly phrased this as “the more you kill, your chances increase, up to 100%”. Which is interpreted as, “if you kill enough mobs, you’ll eventually get a mist” and as I said, that is completely uninteresting.

I’m glad to have assisted you in stating your hypothesis clearly. You’re welcome.

yosslives.1345:

I absolutely suggest you try soloing it. It’s not hard, by any means, and does not take that long. Just make sure you clear everything past the first gate.

I’ve also had my mists drop on the final event when the Shaman is doing the ritual, so keep that in mind.

Perhaps I need more information, because I certainly wasn’t able to kill a single mob past the Siegemaster, and certainly can’t spam VoJ.

More insight on your weapon/traits perhaps?

bravoart.5308:

yosslives.1345:

I absolutely suggest you try soloing it. It’s not hard, by any means, and does not take that long. Just make sure you clear everything past the first gate.

I’ve also had my mists drop on the final event when the Shaman is doing the ritual, so keep that in mind.

Perhaps I need more information, because I certainly wasn’t able to kill a single mob past the Siegemaster, and certainly can’t spam VoJ.

More insight on your weapon/traits perhaps?

I mentioned my original build above, but it really doesn’t matter what build type you use. Anything that maximizes mitigation (blocking) and avoidance (blinds).

I typically will run Shelter for the heal (2 second block), Wall of Reflection, Sanctuary, and Retreat.

As far as the build goes, I think you can play with anything, but I use 0/15/30/20/5. X/15/30/X/X is probably mandatory, at a minimum.

The trick is in the pulls. Anything with warriors you need to either have Line of Warding down pre-pull (to interrupt charge) or be prepared to dodge a few times. Mages are problematic because a few of their cast animations are instant. Other than that, it’s really just positioning the friendly NPCs in between you and the hostiles. Once one friendly gets hit, they’ll start attacking and quickly gain agro. After that, it’s just tagging each mob and helping spam VoJ for might builds/blind up time.

Hope this helps.

Siv.4351:

I’m one of those people that never, ever gets drops.
I’m sitting at 480something/500 fractals and I’ve only ever had enough mats to infuse 2 rings (on my guardian).
My regular fractal group disbanded due to burnout/disinterest. We always killed everything. My constant bad rng luck was the subject of discussion nearly every single run we did while everyone else got at least 1 of something except me. (lots of globby gloops tho!) I pugged with some regular people afterwards but we skipped trash more often than not due to time constraints.

I took a month off gw2 and since coming back at the start of April I’ve been running 2 dailies on my ele and high 20s on my guard. I will sometimes run a 10daily on my warr/mes as well.

Total fractal mats I have ‘earned’ this month: 2shards. Both from separate Ascalon fractals and on my ele.
I’m pugging (nobody I know still wants to do fractals) and its 70% we skip maw trash, 100% chance we skip dredge/svanir forest mobs.

I currently have 3ess/0globs/2shards in the bank and my ele is now blocked from progressing (in the sense that my AR is reason enough to be kicked & replaced)
If I have it in me to bother anymore with fractals after I do another round of dailies today, I’ll toss my guard into ascalon and post what I more than likely don’t get. My guards personal reward level is only ~24 at the moment though.

I’ve had eight drops out of eight runs on fractal 24 (same level as my guardian). Let me know what your results are. Good luck!

Leablo.2651:

yosslives.1345:

Leablo.2651:

Of course if you kill more mobs in an instance your chances of a drop increase, because you’re increasing the number of drops. Not sure what is interesting about this.

Read the posts. What I am suggesting is that when an instance is loaded, there is a 100% chance to include a certain item related to that instance (in this case, mists). If this is true, the implications are very important. Especially for future content releases that may follow a similar pattern.

Your posts never actually stated the claim that there is a 100% inclusion of the drop in the instance. You repeatedly phrased this as “the more you kill, your chances increase, up to 100%”. Which is interpreted as, “if you kill enough mobs, you’ll eventually get a mist” and as I said, that is completely uninteresting.

I’m glad to have assisted you in stating your hypothesis clearly. You’re welcome.

It’s a refining process. If you want to help test or offer constructive remarks, I would appreciate it. Other than that, your most recent reply doesn’t really address either of those points.

I’m on my 4th run right now (alt tabbed autoattacking the door behind Dulfy)
I’ve gotten 1 shard.
I notice the loot scales up in quality. Everything just after the gate is blues, everything closer to the courtyard drops a fair amount of greens. I got my shard from the mobs near where you fight the boss, before the bit where you defend the shaman.

I’m playing my guardian, typical 0/0/30/30/10 AH build.
No armour equipped
zerker trinks

You will die often doing this, and it takes a fair while depending on the city layout you get. You might have to enter the courtyard and knock down doors/oil to get access to other areas. Remember to check the walls around the courtyard for extra groups.

Tips:
- Don’t even bother trying to gear and take on these mobs, let the npcs do the work. Typical of anet’s stance on making content ‘difficult’- mobs just hit for astronomical amounts of damage and there’s not a single thing you can do to stop it. I put on my soldiers suit (3.1k armour & ~20k hp) and equipped the -10% damage signet and popped as much protection as possible and I ate 22k rushes and back-to-back 9-12k fire blasts just as much as I did naked. Save yourself the headache of repair bills and just go naked.
- Aggro mages first, they will drop an aoe on you and instantly aggro your npc army.
- Guardian scep/focus is good for the aoe from smite & blocks/blinds from focus skills
- If you fully die, your npc army will die. If they dont respawn with you, just walk up to the wall above where you spawn and they’ll appear on you. Saves waiting ~2mins.
- Warriors will often bug out after rushing you. Use this to your advantage. Scepter immo seems to provoke them into using rush again, so you can get their attention that way, otherwise they’ll stand there being pummeled by your orbs but instantly regenning the whopping 300damage you did.
- Assassin mobs are tricky to get your army to aggro on. Stack behind the corner of a building then pull one. Hope that their heartseeker move doesn’t 1-shot you and your army aggros onto him, otherwise try and stand near a friendly npc and when they throw their dagger, move behind him so the npc aggros.
- Shouts help your allies, as do your virtues. AH still wont save you from anything however.
- Siege weapons will only ever target you. If you thought the CC in AC was bad, wait til you get to the courtyard.

Edit: 0% magic find for these as well. I have no gear or mf food or even the willpower to do another run after this one to see if it makes any difference.

You can have some of my shards to—Oh, account bound, right.

Siv.4351:

I’m on my 4th run right now (alt tabbed autoattacking the door behind Dulfy)
I’ve gotten 1 shard.

Thank you for testing this. For your runs where you didn’t get any shards, did you clear the courtyard and defend the shaman event?

yosslives.1345:

Thank you for testing this. For your runs where you didn’t get any shards, did you clear the courtyard and defend the shaman event?

Yep, I didn’t leave any run until the final boss spawned. On my last run (no shard for that one either, btw) I actually had the shaman die and the event restarted with new mobs that were dropping loot. I tried to fail that event as much as possible to see if its farmable, but its pretty hard to just make 1 guy die. The new spawns were dropping loot however. (I got a bunch more blues and a green)

Siv.4351:

yosslives.1345:

Thank you for testing this. For your runs where you didn’t get any shards, did you clear the courtyard and defend the shaman event?

Yep, I didn’t leave any run until the final boss spawned. On my last run (no shard for that one either, btw) I actually had the shaman die and the event restarted with new mobs that were dropping loot. I tried to fail that event as much as possible to see if its farmable, but its pretty hard to just make 1 guy die. The new spawns were dropping loot however. (I got a bunch more blues and a green)

As I said earlier: RNG is RNG.

Cheers.