Guild Wars 2

Is it dead since the Feature patch and changes to how LS works?

I wouldn’t say “Dead”. But definitly changed. It nows takes quite a bit longer, due to having to level up to 10 just to be able to do it. People have been looking into crafting to level up, but that costs money, and just isn’t worth it for the time it takes to get the key. I’m still waiting for a “power leveling” guide to get to 10. I’m sure it’s being worked on, if not completed by now.

than its easier to make gold and buy it from gemshop^^

Romek.4201:

than its easier to make gold and buy it from gemshop^^

Pretty much, but that will only increase the price of gems. And frankly the cost of buying keys vs the chest rewards isn’t really worth it anyway. I only key farmed to use up the 150 chests I had just chilling in my inventory.

I’ve been doing grove and rata sum completion, then grabbing the first few hearts in rata sum and queensdale- not too troublesome, takes a bit longer but I also get 2 transmutation charges (which I use a lot of). For this I usually run warrior instead of the old guardian meta because I can use sword #2 to traverse cities right out of the tutorial level, instead of waiting for the #3 skills on gs and staff

Piogre.2164:

I’ve been doing grove and rata sum completion, then grabbing the first few hearts in rata sum and queensdale- not too troublesome, takes a bit longer but I also get 2 transmutation charges (which I use a lot of). For this I usually run warrior instead of the old guardian meta because I can use sword #2 to traverse cities right out of the tutorial level, instead of waiting for the #3 skills on gs and staff

Nice! I’ll have too look into this. About how long do you estimate per run?

It’s been talking me a little under an hour to get to level 10. If I have any low level crafting mats to refine (such as jute or green logs) I refine them in WvW after I get out of the starter instance. Then I do the 5 low level hearts in Queensdale. Jump to the garrison and do the heart there, the centaur trap one to the west and the wasp killing one to the east. After that, they start to get time consuming so I go to Lions Arch via PvP and thru the portal to Caledon. In Caledon I do a few low level hearts till I reach level 10.

In Reddit, the defacto method of keyfarming since the patch has been to learn Cooking and level it up to 200, which gets you enough XP to get to level 10. It costs around 1.75 gold for the materials, and around ten minutes to do the cooking. The costs are mostly recouped from what you get by doing the keyrun.

There has even been a guide added to gw2crafts.net specifically for Cooking 1 – 200.

ShadowDragoonFTW.3418:

In Reddit, the defacto method of keyfarming since the patch has been to learn Cooking and level it up to 200, which gets you enough XP to get to level 10. It costs around 1.75 gold for the materials, and around ten minutes to do the cooking. The costs are mostly recouped from what you get by doing the keyrun.

There has even been a guide added to gw2crafts.net specifically for Cooking 1 – 200.

Yeah I saw that thread. Seemed interesting. But it did seem like too high of a cost for a key. And I’m not sure about the cost being recouped from this, unless you are selling what you make, selling whatever you loot, and picking up a bit of extra coin along the way. I’ll check it out though because I’m curious.

pdavis.8031:

And I’m not sure about the cost being recouped from this, unless you are selling what you make, selling whatever you loot, and picking up a bit of extra coin along the way.

What, you actually keep the stuff you get from a keyrun? Why? It’s only good for characters up till level 10. If I’m playing a character to actually level him, I’ll get the gear I need through playing the story anyway. No need for you to stash everything you loot, just because “one day” you might need it just for an alt. >.>

The recouping costs is based on the average skin’s selling price divided by the number of runs it would take to get enough scraps for a ticket. You get like 5 silver total from completing the story steps, about 5 silver for the copper doubloon, and a few silver for the dye. You also get 11 loot bags but you will not get expensive materials from them often due to RNG.

http://www.twitch.tv/deetrex/c/5111112

Here is a keyrun I did in 16 min and 32 seconds.
The bad part about this is that you have to get materials to level up cooking. But so far it seems to be the fastest way.

ShadowDragoonFTW.3418:

pdavis.8031:

And I’m not sure about the cost being recouped from this, unless you are selling what you make, selling whatever you loot, and picking up a bit of extra coin along the way.

What, you actually keep the stuff you get from a keyrun? Why? It’s only good for characters up till level 10. If I’m playing a character to actually level him, I’ll get the gear I need through playing the story anyway. No need for you to stash everything you loot, just because “one day” you might need it just for an alt. >.>

No, I salvage what I don’t need. I might keep an extra weapon or some gear (don’t like the sword starting out with warrior) if I find one along the way, and am doing consecutive runs. If I’m only doing 1 run, I won’t keep anything and salvage it all.

Ran one time and got lucky. Pyre dye.

Ayrilana.1396:

The recouping costs is based on the average skin’s selling price divided by the number of runs it would take to get enough scraps for a ticket.

That’s not what the recouping cost they’re talking about the keyruns on Reddit is from. Because if that’s the case, we wouldn’t be talking about “keyruns”, we’d be talking about “Chaos Greatsword Skin runs”. :-/

Not only is the price from skin to skin highly variable, but so is the price between sets. Some of the older BL skins sell cheaper than the current, some more expensive. You can’t base recouped prices on varying market prices as well as an RNG shot at to when you’re actually going to get your payout, because it will change depending on how many tickets you need for each skin.

Well then you don’t recoup your costs. I only assumed it was that because i know you do not make over a gold from the loot bags and silver you receiving from ckmpleting the story steps.

Of course anything you get from those bags is based on RNG so those items can’t be used as a basis to recoup costs. This of course going by what you said. There’s also ge skins that sell for a single ticket and tend to become for valuable later on but that doesn’t count either.

You’ll notice I said you’ll recoup most of your costs, not all of them. This is because you actually will make a significant part of that 1.7 gold back by selling items you gain in your playthrough on the AH. (This also counts the money you receive from finishing quests, the things you actually can sell from quest rewards, etc.)

Just because you’re pessimistic about it doesn’t mean it’s inaccurate.

So… don’t salvage stuff if you want to make your money back. Gotta sell it.

It’s a neat method, but I won’t be key farming anymore if the only speedy way is to invest upfront. At that point, I can’t really call it “farming” – more like “key investing.”

ShadowDragoonFTW.3418:

You’ll notice I said you’ll recoup most of your costs, not all of them. This is because you actually will make a significant part of that 1.7 gold back by selling items you gain in your playthrough on the AH. (This also counts the money you receive from finishing quests, the things you actually can sell from quest rewards, etc.)

Just because you’re pessimistic about it doesn’t mean it’s inaccurate.

So… don’t salvage stuff if you want to make your money back. Gotta sell it.

66 loot bags opened with the average value of everything being around 30 silver every 11 bags. Yep. You get 11 bags so to recoup the cost you would have to make on average 15 silver. It could be RNG but then not even champ boxes offer that much.

pdavis.8031:

Piogre.2164:

I’ve been doing grove and rata sum completion, then grabbing the first few hearts in rata sum and queensdale- not too troublesome, takes a bit longer but I also get 2 transmutation charges (which I use a lot of). For this I usually run warrior instead of the old guardian meta because I can use sword #2 to traverse cities right out of the tutorial level, instead of waiting for the #3 skills on gs and staff

Nice! I’ll have too look into this. About how long do you estimate per run?

Close to an hour, actually. Following the tutorial I warp up to dwayna’s wp in DR (already unlocked, nab the speed boost person on my way north past the minister’s wp, up to the palace wp then south through the asura gate to LA. I have optimized routes for quick completion of the grove and rata sum.)

I have one premade set of level 4 power gear for when I finish the grove and Rata sum, which gets me to level 4 at least. I then leave Rata sum and hit hearts: Doola, gahf, opticalium, Kaii scrap suit, Blopp, nabbing the convenient POI’s on the way, then warp back and run through the funhouse for shoon, then talk to all the skritt for the brill alliance- this gets me to about level 8.

I then warp back to shaemoor wp (first wp in queensdale), and hit the normal hearts farmer diah, fishermen, kitten , orchard, moas/bandits, then warp to shaemoor garrison to nab centaur heart and the skritt heart just north, which brings me to level 10. I then warp to the bank, switch to premade level 10 power gear, and run the story.

Again, about an hour for a key, which is not the fastest, but no gold spent on crafting- just a one-time expenditure for the two gear sets. Also, two trans charges in the process.

Might be obvious but I didn’t see anyone mention it…. you can hand off your 11 bags of loot to an alt to open for higher level gear to sell or salvage for mats. If you’re going for mats have an alt of appropriate level open the bags (50’s for linen, etc). If you’re going to sell gear, mid to lower level stuff sells better. Level 80 stuff doesn’t sell well. RNG means you might even get a yellow or better!

I saw a video by WoodenPotatoes and if you are doing a hybrid leveling/crafting method, he suggested getting to about level 7 first before using crafting to get to level 10, since the first few levels are the fastest.