Black Lion Keys. Are they worth it?

Black Lion Keys. Are they worth it?

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Posted by: Arkanthor.2307

Arkanthor.2307

IMO no they don´t.

Black lion chests are a kind of lottery, you can get any “exclusive” item from the Black lion pool. It is only RNG if you get a goodie or not. There are really good things, that´s true but you need a divine blessing in order to get one .We all know how RNG works on this game. I t probably wouldn´t bother me… if Black Lion chests were the only way to get Black Lion skins (aside from an absurd grinding).

When I´m aiming for a skin I want I´m not interested on the boosters (who does) or the chance that stars align and I get something really good. I´m simply not willing on spending a simple gem on a lion chest key for a chance to get a part of a tciket I need. Well I normally need more than a single ticket so I could open A LOT of them and waste a lot of my resources getting things I don´t want.

This system makes the customer feel frustrated and feel that they time they invested on the thing he wanted was worthless because he ended up with nothing but things he doesn´t care.

Right now I´m doing a few keyruns and by the results I´m getting I wonder why would anyone buy these keys. Please share your opinion maybe we could figure out something.

Thanks to my illusions this combat is nothing but a stage scene.
You should prepare for your great finale.

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Posted by: hazenvirus.8154

hazenvirus.8154

IMO no they don´t.

Black lion chests are a kind of lottery, you can get any “exclusive” item from the Black lion pool. It is only RNG if you get a goodie or not. There are really good things, that´s true but you need a divine blessing in order to get one .We all know how RNG works on this game. I t probably wouldn´t bother me… if Black Lion chests were the only way to get Black Lion skins (aside from an absurd grinding).

When I´m aiming for a skin I want I´m not interested on the boosters (who does) or the chance that stars align and I get something really good. I´m simply not willing on spending a simple gem on a lion chest key for a chance to get a part of a tciket I need. Well I normally need more than a single ticket so I could open A LOT of them and waste a lot of my resources getting things I don´t want.

This system makes the customer feel frustrated and feel that they time they invested on the thing he wanted was worthless because he ended up with nothing but things he doesn´t care.

Right now I´m doing a few keyruns and by the results I´m getting I wonder why would anyone buy these keys. Please share your opinion maybe we could figure out something.

From a statistics point of view they could be worth it now or in the future. Maybe you need at least $2000 invested to guarantee a reasonable return. Most people invest a little at a time and don’t see much and then stop investing, some people get lucky and others break even. It is all supply and demand though if less people buy keys then the cost of skins goes up and vis versa. It could be worth it, but maybe not for the amount you are willing to invest.

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Posted by: Zanshin.5379

Zanshin.5379

Supposedly they increased the drop rate of scraps. Personally I’m actually getting less scraps, so meh…

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Posted by: Genesis.8572

Genesis.8572

Black Lion chests are one of those items that make me curse when I get one as a drop, because it just means having to do another stupid key run to unlock the content.

Will Hawkins (Human Guardian)
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Posted by: Revolutionen.5693

Revolutionen.5693

Fooook no. I’ve bought at least 80 keys and gotten nothing but useless boosters and a few black lion scraps. Never buying them again. A tip to any new player is to simply swap gems into gold. It’s a much better investment.

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Posted by: Kreejaffa.3682

Kreejaffa.3682

I rather enjoy doing a round of chest openings every 6 months or so.

I like to wait until keys are on sale, and then unload about $100 to buy some, and open as many chests as I can.

So far, I have always made at least as much money as I would have if I converted the gems to gold, or made a little more, so I must be lucky.

Kreejaffa [Ferguson’s Crossing]
Leader of Looking For Gandalf [LFG]
Worst Commander of Ferguson’s Crossing (Self Proclaimed)

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Posted by: Lolyta.4582

Lolyta.4582

In my humble opinion, purchasing keys is not “worth it.” Black Lion chests contain mostly useless “junk,” and the RNG governing whether or not you get anything of value is so tight-fisted that it is pointless to bother purchasing keys. Plus, key-farming has now been effectively curtailed.

I once saw an announcement that chest contents had been ‘improved" so I spent a fair amount of cash money in the Gem Store to purchase keys, and opened 50 or so chests. About 99% of what I got was the typical junk like XP boosters (useless when all my characters are level 80), about 25-30 dyes, only ONE of which I didn’t already have and NONE of which was “Exotic” quality, and some Account-Bound Exotic gear with stats very few players would actually equip. Being account-bound, all they were worth to me was a few mats including a couple of Ectos… and (this is the funny part) I had to salvage them using cash-money Gem Store BL Salvage Kits!

I currently have over 350 Black Lion Chests in the bank, and that number grows weekly. I keep hoping that one day the tightwad RNG and/or chest contents (items and quality) will be improved to the point where it makes sense to spend the money to open them, but based on the few chests I’ve opened when random keys dropped and what others are saying in-game, that hasn’t happened yet.

The tightwad-RNG problem isn’t unique to the BL chests, it’s pretty much the same in the Mystic Toilet- generally speaking, you get identical quality items to those you put in, and when the rare quality upgraded item DOES drop, the stats are generally weird so even level 80 exotics are only worth 50s or so at the BLTP, or you can pay money for BL Salvage Kits and hope the mats are worth more than the TP price of the item. So the only time I use the Mystic Forge any more is on “known” crafting recipes where there is 100% certainty of the end result, or when it’s the Daily, at which point I just toss 4 common items in just to get the Daily completed.

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Posted by: Ashen.2907

Ashen.2907

In gambling establishments the house wins. You don’t play slot machines for the possibility of winning, you do it for whatever entertainment value you find in giving someone else your money in return for flashing lights and sounds.

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Posted by: Xenon.4537

Xenon.4537

Are they worth spending real money on? Short answer: no.

Long answer:

NNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

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Posted by: Inculpatus cedo.9234

Inculpatus cedo.9234

Key-farming curtailed? Bah…I must be doing it wrong. Might just be a matter of choice. /shrug

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Posted by: papry.8096

papry.8096

Depend of the people.
I got: permanent hair kit & a few other thing like permanent trading post, permanent merchant, BL ticket Scraps & BL ticket.

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Posted by: Just a flesh wound.3589

Just a flesh wound.3589

Are they worth it? Well it depends. Diligent key farming has allowed me to get a number of weapon skins, both for personal use and to sell. However if I had paid actual money for them, they they wouldn’t have been worth it because of the frustration and irritation with the RNG. But since I spent my spare time running keys, I can ignore chests with nothing I want.

As to key farming being curtailed. Not really. It’s been changed and requires more effort, either in leveling or crafting, but either way people are still key farming. Whether or not at the same numbers I can’t say but the prices and volumes of the skins for sale doesn’t seem to be reduced so possibly not too much.

Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.

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Posted by: Ardenwolfe.8590

Ardenwolfe.8590

I can only speak from my own experience, but overall? No. Not at all.

Gone to Reddit.

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Posted by: Behellagh.1468

Behellagh.1468

Black Lion Keys are, IMO, solely something that should be used for fun. Gee, wonder what stuff I’ll get this time? I have most of a 30 slot bank tab full of boosters and other minor gem shop items. Yes, I’ve gotten a few backpacks, dye packs, minis, hair and total makeover kits but it’s mostly boosters and items like repair kits and bankers.

Tickets and scraps? I’ve gotten them too but I don’t buy or acquire keys in the hopes of getting those. If I get enough to buy a skin, sure I’ll buy one and turn around and sell it. But I’m certainly not buying keys expecting to make money on skins. And forget about the permanent contracts. I’ll see a precursor drop in the field before that.

If you are buying keys as a goof, fine (I only do it when they are deeply discounted). If you buy them because you think you’ll hit it big, you’ll probably have better luck with the Mystic Slots or the Ecto Skritt.

We are heroes. This is what we do!

RIP City of Heroes

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Posted by: Khristophoros.7194

Khristophoros.7194

It’s impossible for black lion keys to be worth it. The economy system is designed to make sure of it.

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Posted by: Illconceived Was Na.9781

Illconceived Was Na.9781

BL Keys are worth the cost in gems if (and only if) you enjoy the anticipation of a good drop. All lotteries (including those in this game) are set up so the house always wins by a large margin. So unless you are one of the small fraction of people seeing fantastically lucky streaks, the contents from opening chests are going to be worth less than you spend on the keys.

BL Key farming is worth it to some people, because they enjoy the activity itself, so they don’t need a perfectly efficient return on their investment of time (and sometimes money, for gear and e.g. ingredients to level up via learning the chef discipline).

In other words, the point isn’t the key or the contents, it’s the fun people get from playing this particular game of chance.

John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”

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Posted by: Zephyra.4709

Zephyra.4709

If you buy the keys in mass batches (100-150 or more) I would say RNG is RNG… You have good days and bad days. I’ve bought probably over a thousand or so of these keys, right now I feel like the drop tables are lacking in certain areas or give lame rewards.. The new mini egg thing.. Blah.
But, as others have stated… If you enjoy the activities to acquire keys via farming them then sure, you get your enjoyment. Likewise can be said about gambling in general; that is your enjoyment out of it.

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Posted by: sorudo.9054

sorudo.9054

unless they remove all the boosters and “bonus” items (like instant bank access, trading post tokens, etc..) it’s not worth a single penny.

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Posted by: Broom.2561

Broom.2561

Complete and utter waste of money, especially if the RNG gods hate you.

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Posted by: Behellagh.1468

Behellagh.1468

unless they remove all the boosters and “bonus” items (like instant bank access, trading post tokens, etc..) it’s not worth a single penny.

Except that’s exactly what the BL chests are for. Tickets are purely a bonus and until players accept that this topic will keep coming up.

Buy keys if and only if you want a random selection of boosters and services. And if you buy gems with cash, exchange it for gold rather than keys. Right now a $25 gem card (2000 gems) is worth 217 gold if exchanged. There are a lot of weapon skins less than 217 gold and a chance of getting even 1 ticket from 25 keys (2100 gems) is 50/50.

We are heroes. This is what we do!

RIP City of Heroes

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Posted by: Just a flesh wound.3589

Just a flesh wound.3589

unless they remove all the boosters and “bonus” items (like instant bank access, trading post tokens, etc..) it’s not worth a single penny.

And what would be in them then? Nothing? Just a 30% chance for a ticket and nothing else? How in the world would that be better, opening one up and getting nothing at all. Maybe the bank accesses, merchants, etc.. don’t have high value but I do use them and I certainly wouldn’t want them taken out and replaced with nothing at all.

Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.

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Posted by: sorudo.9054

sorudo.9054

unless they remove all the boosters and “bonus” items (like instant bank access, trading post tokens, etc..) it’s not worth a single penny.

And what would be in them then? Nothing? Just a 30% chance for a ticket and nothing else? How in the world would that be better, opening one up and getting nothing at all. Maybe the bank accesses, merchants, etc.. don’t have high value but I do use them and I certainly wouldn’t want them taken out and replaced with nothing at all.

in the 3 years i have only got 4 scraps, not full tickets but scraps.
just think for a sec, what do you get when you remove the junk, exactly.
you get ether the scraps or the full tickets, the reason why pretty much everyone uses BL chests.

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Posted by: Tommyknocker.6089

Tommyknocker.6089

Use gold to buy everything you want. I have all nodes in my home, many skins and I bought them all with gold off the TP. If I was to try and calculate the amount of keys I would need to just get the items I bought, the 0’s alone would easily fill this post.

I also do gems to gold occasionally, but only when items that make the TP go nuts (wings) come out. I then wait about a week and get my gems back; last time with a nice 200 gold bonus off 5k gems. Generally though I never gamble and even the keys I have gotten from map completion and/or drops have never given me anything of real value.

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Posted by: BrotherBelial.3094

BrotherBelial.3094

Last ti.e I bough key I got junk. And the time before that was the first Halloween skins, spent about £25 and got nothing but boosters and tonics. The only keys I get now are when I’ve gotten 8 ToK from PvP or what ever, then I do a little key run and roll my free dice. I will never buy them again.

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Posted by: Vague Memory.2817

Vague Memory.2817

Those black lion chests are full of junk. Not even a guaranteed ticket scrap. Total waste of money imo. You can’t even sell the stuff in them to recuperate some gold.

(edited by Vague Memory.2817)

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Posted by: Just a flesh wound.3589

Just a flesh wound.3589

unless they remove all the boosters and “bonus” items (like instant bank access, trading post tokens, etc..) it’s not worth a single penny.

And what would be in them then? Nothing? Just a 30% chance for a ticket and nothing else? How in the world would that be better, opening one up and getting nothing at all. Maybe the bank accesses, merchants, etc.. don’t have high value but I do use them and I certainly wouldn’t want them taken out and replaced with nothing at all.

in the 3 years i have only got 4 scraps, not full tickets but scraps.
just think for a sec, what do you get when you remove the junk, exactly.
you get ether the scraps or the full tickets, the reason why pretty much everyone uses BL chests.

ANet tried selling weapon skins directly from the gem store with the first set of weapons. The second set was by RNG. Every set after that was by RNG. This tells you that they got more money by selling a chance at a ticket and not by direct sales. Since people like chance better, then the scraps and ticket will remain by chance and not from every chest. The individual person might say they don’t like it but ANet has proven to its satisfaction that the group does, and that chance is where the money is.

Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.

(edited by Just a flesh wound.3589)

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Posted by: Paulytnz.7619

Paulytnz.7619

Black Lion chests are one of those items that make me curse when I get one as a drop, because it just means having to do another stupid key run to unlock the content.

You could just sell the chest on the tp. They are worth a little over a silver now. I sold 2 stacks last week and made some nice change from it. I still do key runs from time to time but tbh I get so many chest drops I wont ever be short even after selling those 2 stacks lol.

Since when did this business of being a hero become being a business?

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Posted by: Bob F It.5701

Bob F It.5701

Opening chests from gem bought keys will nearly always not be worth it. Keys are among other things, like salvaging ectos, opening heavy mouldy bags, and flushing in the toilet, will return an average value somewhere under the value of what went in.

The reason is twofold.
First, a lot of players are inclined to gamble; if there’s a chance of winning big, then it’s like a game to them, so they’ll buy the input (say gold>gems to buy keys), increasing its demand and the winners will often put their gains on the market, increasing the outputs supply. The prices will move in accordance to this.
Secondly, if it ever were worth it, you can be kitten well certain that players will crack the chests open, buy globs from Tarrktun, etc. .
Ok, that last example was a bad one, but my point is that when some item-to-item transfer will give you a net gain, then demand a supply will be affected similarly to my first point, until it once again reaches an equilibrium of just not quite being worth it.
An example of this is something I made a gain on during Escape From/Battle Of Lion’s Arch: iron ore was in massive demand due to iron and steel ingots being required to upgrade the new backpiece. I saw that I could make a profit by buying out armour and weapons that would only give iron ore when salvaged, up to the price point of a single iron ore, and selling the ore back, while also getting lots of essences of luck on the side. Eventually all the weapons and armour left on the TP were priced at a point were it was no longer certain that a profit was to be made.

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Posted by: Nilkemia.8507

Nilkemia.8507

No. Get keys from map completion and convert gold if you feel so inclined, but never waste real money on gems for them.

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Posted by: Crimson Clouds.4853

Crimson Clouds.4853

I would never gamble real money on black lion keys. Like what’s already mentioned (Behellagh summarised quite nicely), you’re so unlikely to “profit” from them, you’re better off converting your gems to gold.

However, I do like gambling with BL keys by obtaining them in-game. I have had plenty of BL keys from a little bit of farming, but most of mine come from the huge amount of map completion and personal stories I do. I’ve received countless ticket scraps, a few whole tickets, some hair and make-over kits and the occassional skin and mini. I would estimate that I’ve opened somewhere between 70 and 90 chests. The best drops I’ve got was an exclusive dye worth 120g and a Merchant Contract.

The perk of this is that I quite liked key farming and I absolutely love map exploration and personal story. I also like receiving keys and getting materials. So even if I get a really kitteny lot from a BL chest, I can just go “Oh well, next time”, shrug it off and still smile upon my adventures.

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Posted by: Paulytnz.7619

Paulytnz.7619

I would just like to offer a tip for those who have mentioned the “useless” boosters. You can now take them to the armoursmith at the TP and he can convert them into those items that give better boosters. Personally I convert all mine and use either the MF (magic find not mystic forge lol) for that type and for the combat type depending on char I could use gather boost or movement speed. The hp regen might be ok too in dungeons or wvw situations.

So they are not totally useless but they do cost a bit to convert, 10 silver each. Nice way to add in a gold sink there anet, to take some away from the key farmers and key buyers. But still it’s worth converting them imo if only just for the bank space saving.

Since when did this business of being a hero become being a business?

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Posted by: Just a flesh wound.3589

Just a flesh wound.3589

I would just like to offer a tip for those who have mentioned the “useless” boosters. You can now take them to the armoursmith at the TP and he can convert them into those items that give better boosters. Personally I convert all mine and use either the MF (magic find not mystic forge lol) for that type and for the combat type depending on char I could use gather boost or movement speed. The hp regen might be ok too in dungeons or wvw situations.

So they are not totally useless but they do cost a bit to convert, 10 silver each. Nice way to add in a gold sink there anet, to take some away from the key farmers and key buyers. But still it’s worth converting them imo if only just for the bank space saving.

Yeah. I forgot about that. The chests also drop the powders used to convert the boosters. It’s one way to convert a booster you have no use for to one you do.

Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.

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Posted by: Renkencen.6127

Renkencen.6127

Considering that I had only recently recived a single ticket scrap (it’s complete BS that they created a ticket scraps in the first place when it should be a ticket on itself. I mean what does the scraps look like? Bits of papers that stuck together when turning it into a ticket???) from key farmings five times. no. I’m only doing it tp try to get a Dreamwhistle weapon skin but at this rate I’m better off having a go at farming gold.

Heck I bet by the time I made around 400g I probably would had gotten many scraps to make the tickets!

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Posted by: Zanshin.5379

Zanshin.5379

The problem with the black lion chests is that they contain things that we do not want. Since we actually pay money for the keys, I would have expected the chests to only contain things that we want, of course with varying chances of loot.

It’s heartbreaking to receive boosters that you know you’ll never use when you’ve actually paid for the keys…

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Posted by: Pockets.3201

Pockets.3201

As I’ve said before, black lion chests are all about spending real money and not getting what you want. Preying off of what makes gambling so addictive so they don’t have to give you much in the way of rewards for your money, unless you get lucky.

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Posted by: Just a flesh wound.3589

Just a flesh wound.3589

Considering that I had only recently recived a single ticket scrap (it’s complete BS that they created a ticket scraps in the first place when it should be a ticket on itself. I mean what does the scraps look like? Bits of papers that stuck together when turning it into a ticket???) from key farmings five times. no. I’m only doing it tp try to get a Dreamwhistle weapon skin but at this rate I’m better off having a go at farming gold.

Heck I bet by the time I made around 400g I probably would had gotten many scraps to make the tickets!

The reason there are ticket scraps is because there used to be only tickets. If you think scraps drop rarely then you should consider the ticket drop rate before they started using scraps. It was about one ticket every 50 – 60 chests or so back then. If RNG hated you, then not even that often. The scraps were put in so that they could drop more frequently than a ticket and people could progress by slowly getting enough scraps until they had a ticket. Scraps are actually better because their more frequent drop rate lessens the RNG part.

Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.

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Posted by: Nilkemia.8507

Nilkemia.8507

The reason there are ticket scraps is because there used to be only tickets. If you think scraps drop rarely then you should consider the ticket drop rate before they started using scraps. It was about one ticket every 50 – 60 chests or so back then. If RNG hated you, then not even that often. The scraps were put in so that they could drop more frequently than a ticket and people could progress by slowly getting enough scraps until they had a ticket. Scraps are actually better because their more frequent drop rate lessens the RNG part.

Eh, no. What they could’ve done is just increased the drop rate of tickets to match that of scraps, instead of using scraps. It’s just a cheap way to make it seem like you’re making progress when you’re really not getting to your goal any faster.

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Posted by: Kal Spiro.9745

Kal Spiro.9745

Anything that is cheap as free is worth it. If you’re spending gold or real money you’re doing it wrong. If you’re only spending a little bit of time then what’s the problem?

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Posted by: Illconceived Was Na.9781

Illconceived Was Na.9781

The reason there are ticket scraps is because there used to be only tickets. If you think scraps drop rarely then you should consider the ticket drop rate before they started using scraps. It was about one ticket every 50 – 60 chests or so back then. If RNG hated you, then not even that often. The scraps were put in so that they could drop more frequently than a ticket and people could progress by slowly getting enough scraps until they had a ticket. Scraps are actually better because their more frequent drop rate lessens the RNG part.

Eh, no. What they could’ve done is just increased the drop rate of tickets to match that of scraps, instead of using scraps. It’s just a cheap way to make it seem like you’re making progress when you’re really not getting to your goal any faster.

That was entirely the intent: to let you know how much progress you were making, without changing the drop rate. A lot of folks suggested something along those lines, which seems to have influenced ANet in introducing the system.

I’m in favor of it and I wish they would do it for other things, like the mini ghost puppy, fossilized insects, etc.

John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”

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Posted by: Just a flesh wound.3589

Just a flesh wound.3589

The reason there are ticket scraps is because there used to be only tickets. If you think scraps drop rarely then you should consider the ticket drop rate before they started using scraps. It was about one ticket every 50 – 60 chests or so back then. If RNG hated you, then not even that often. The scraps were put in so that they could drop more frequently than a ticket and people could progress by slowly getting enough scraps until they had a ticket. Scraps are actually better because their more frequent drop rate lessens the RNG part.

Eh, no. What they could’ve done is just increased the drop rate of tickets to match that of scraps, instead of using scraps. It’s just a cheap way to make it seem like you’re making progress when you’re really not getting to your goal any faster.

The scraps make progress more dependable and steady to have frequent small drops (the scraps) than infrequent larger drop (the ticket). It has to do with the range of the RNG. If a ticket is dropping on average every 50 keys then some people were going up high numbers of keys before they got one. If a scrap drops every 5 keys then it will drop much closer to that range. This means more people got 10 scraps within the 50 key range than 1 ticket within the 50 key range.

As to making the tickets drop as frequently as the scraps do. Why should ANet do that when people have shown they will buy keys at the present drop rate? ANet has increased to chance to get a ticket from about 50 chests to about 30-35, but too many people like the “gamble” factor for them to remove it,

Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.

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Posted by: Behellagh.1468

Behellagh.1468

Excuse me for the following shouting.

BLACK LION CHESTS ARE SINCE DAY ONE GEM STORE BOOSTER AND SERVICE SAMPLERS!!! YOU ARE ALL COMPLAINING ABOUT THE STUFF THEY ARE SUPPOSE TO CONTAIN!!! TICKETS AND TICKET SCRAPS ARE ANCILLARY “PRIZES” AND HAVE ALWAYS BEEN!!!

Got that? They are spiced up with items like backpack skins, dye packs, minis, hair and makeover kits and yes tickets and ticket scraps. Tickets and scraps and meant to be a surprise bonus to the usual Gem Shop fare and not the primary reward from them. It doesn’t matter if they are the reason you buy or acquire keys, they simply are not the primary reward. Check out this post of 350 chests.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/3-Tickets-Per-Each-BL-Chest-Weapon-now/5335303

Out of 1050 drops they got 128 scraps and 8 full tickets. And I consider that, well scraps, well above average. That’s roughly 1 out of 8 items dropped which is my point. They aren’t the primary reward that item gives out. Look at the dye kits, the minis, the boosters, the services, the mail carriers. Look at the list.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Black_Lion_Chest

Again apologies.

CHESTS AREN’T JUST FOR TICKETS, YOU ARE PAYING FOR THOSE GEM SHOP ITEMS AND EXCLUSIVES, TICKETS AND THEIR SCRAPS ARE BONUSES!!!

And until you realize and accept the absurdity that you are buying boxes of chocolates not for the chocolates but for a chance to get a chance to win a PS4 and then complain that the boxes contain chocolates, you are beyond hope.

We are heroes. This is what we do!

RIP City of Heroes

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Posted by: Xbon.9086

Xbon.9086

chests are worth in my opinion. you always get atleast 1 booster, most of these boosters worth more than the chest itself so in that regard, you always get your gems back in items, except it’s random which you get, when you’ve stockpiled a ton though you can then use the powder to turn them into any one you want in that class.

AND THEN on top of that, you have chance to make your gems back into gold or get one of the highly wanted permanent contracts! (still searching for a tp contract :P)

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Posted by: sorudo.9054

sorudo.9054

unless they remove all the boosters and “bonus” items (like instant bank access, trading post tokens, etc..) it’s not worth a single penny.

And what would be in them then? Nothing? Just a 30% chance for a ticket and nothing else? How in the world would that be better, opening one up and getting nothing at all. Maybe the bank accesses, merchants, etc.. don’t have high value but I do use them and I certainly wouldn’t want them taken out and replaced with nothing at all.

in the 3 years i have only got 4 scraps, not full tickets but scraps.
just think for a sec, what do you get when you remove the junk, exactly.
you get ether the scraps or the full tickets, the reason why pretty much everyone uses BL chests.

ANet tried selling weapon skins directly from the gem store with the first set of weapons. The second set was by RNG. Every set after that was by RNG. This tells you that they got more money by selling a chance at a ticket and not by direct sales. Since people like chance better, then the scraps and ticket will remain by chance and not from every chest. The individual person might say they don’t like it but ANet has proven to its satisfaction that the group does, and that chance is where the money is.

there are players and there are fools, not my fault there are more fools then players.
Anet sees that too and takes advantage of that, anything beside that is simply mute at this point.

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Posted by: Just a flesh wound.3589

Just a flesh wound.3589

unless they remove all the boosters and “bonus” items (like instant bank access, trading post tokens, etc..) it’s not worth a single penny.

And what would be in them then? Nothing? Just a 30% chance for a ticket and nothing else? How in the world would that be better, opening one up and getting nothing at all. Maybe the bank accesses, merchants, etc.. don’t have high value but I do use them and I certainly wouldn’t want them taken out and replaced with nothing at all.

in the 3 years i have only got 4 scraps, not full tickets but scraps.
just think for a sec, what do you get when you remove the junk, exactly.
you get ether the scraps or the full tickets, the reason why pretty much everyone uses BL chests.

ANet tried selling weapon skins directly from the gem store with the first set of weapons. The second set was by RNG. Every set after that was by RNG. This tells you that they got more money by selling a chance at a ticket and not by direct sales. Since people like chance better, then the scraps and ticket will remain by chance and not from every chest. The individual person might say they don’t like it but ANet has proven to its satisfaction that the group does, and that chance is where the money is.

there are players and there are fools, not my fault there are more fools then players.
Anet sees that too and takes advantage of that, anything beside that is simply mute at this point.

ANet is a business and like every business they go where the money is. If the money is in RNG grab bag boxes, well, then RNG grab bag boxes is what they will have. If you have a business and you offer straight purchases and RNG purchases and people pay more for the RNG, then let’s see you refuse the money for RNG and offer the straight up purchase only. People will be saying that you’re taking advantage if you offer the RNG but you’re only offering what people actually want to buy, like any smart business.

Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.

(edited by Just a flesh wound.3589)

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Posted by: sorudo.9054

sorudo.9054

unless they remove all the boosters and “bonus” items (like instant bank access, trading post tokens, etc..) it’s not worth a single penny.

And what would be in them then? Nothing? Just a 30% chance for a ticket and nothing else? How in the world would that be better, opening one up and getting nothing at all. Maybe the bank accesses, merchants, etc.. don’t have high value but I do use them and I certainly wouldn’t want them taken out and replaced with nothing at all.

in the 3 years i have only got 4 scraps, not full tickets but scraps.
just think for a sec, what do you get when you remove the junk, exactly.
you get ether the scraps or the full tickets, the reason why pretty much everyone uses BL chests.

ANet tried selling weapon skins directly from the gem store with the first set of weapons. The second set was by RNG. Every set after that was by RNG. This tells you that they got more money by selling a chance at a ticket and not by direct sales. Since people like chance better, then the scraps and ticket will remain by chance and not from every chest. The individual person might say they don’t like it but ANet has proven to its satisfaction that the group does, and that chance is where the money is.

there are players and there are fools, not my fault there are more fools then players.
Anet sees that too and takes advantage of that, anything beside that is simply mute at this point.

ANet is a business and like every business they go where the money is. If the money is in RNG grab bag boxes, well, then RNG grab bag boxes is what they will have. If you have a business and you offer straight purchases and RNG purchases and people pay more for the RNG, then let’s see you refuse the money for RNG and offer the straight up purchase only. People will be saying that you’re taking advantage if you offer the RNG but you’re only offering what people actually want to buy, like any smart business.

in short: taking advantage of fools who can’t think further then desire.

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Posted by: Just a flesh wound.3589

Just a flesh wound.3589

unless they remove all the boosters and “bonus” items (like instant bank access, trading post tokens, etc..) it’s not worth a single penny.

And what would be in them then? Nothing? Just a 30% chance for a ticket and nothing else? How in the world would that be better, opening one up and getting nothing at all. Maybe the bank accesses, merchants, etc.. don’t have high value but I do use them and I certainly wouldn’t want them taken out and replaced with nothing at all.

in the 3 years i have only got 4 scraps, not full tickets but scraps.
just think for a sec, what do you get when you remove the junk, exactly.
you get ether the scraps or the full tickets, the reason why pretty much everyone uses BL chests.

ANet tried selling weapon skins directly from the gem store with the first set of weapons. The second set was by RNG. Every set after that was by RNG. This tells you that they got more money by selling a chance at a ticket and not by direct sales. Since people like chance better, then the scraps and ticket will remain by chance and not from every chest. The individual person might say they don’t like it but ANet has proven to its satisfaction that the group does, and that chance is where the money is.

there are players and there are fools, not my fault there are more fools then players.
Anet sees that too and takes advantage of that, anything beside that is simply mute at this point.

ANet is a business and like every business they go where the money is. If the money is in RNG grab bag boxes, well, then RNG grab bag boxes is what they will have. If you have a business and you offer straight purchases and RNG purchases and people pay more for the RNG, then let’s see you refuse the money for RNG and offer the straight up purchase only. People will be saying that you’re taking advantage if you offer the RNG but you’re only offering what people actually want to buy, like any smart business.

in short: taking advantage of fools who can’t think further then desire.

Yep. Just exactly like you would do if you were selling something.

After all how many stores do you see that refuse to sell cigarettes, alcohol, or lottery tickets on a moral basis because they would be taking advantage of the fools who can’t think further than desire? Very few, let me tell you. Would you refuse to work for such a store because of moral grounds? If not, then you were also involved in taking advantage of fools.

Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.

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Posted by: papry.8096

papry.8096

unless they remove all the boosters and “bonus” items (like instant bank access, trading post tokens, etc..) it’s not worth a single penny.

And what would be in them then? Nothing? Just a 30% chance for a ticket and nothing else? How in the world would that be better, opening one up and getting nothing at all. Maybe the bank accesses, merchants, etc.. don’t have high value but I do use them and I certainly wouldn’t want them taken out and replaced with nothing at all.

in the 3 years i have only got 4 scraps, not full tickets but scraps.
just think for a sec, what do you get when you remove the junk, exactly.
you get ether the scraps or the full tickets, the reason why pretty much everyone uses BL chests.

ANet tried selling weapon skins directly from the gem store with the first set of weapons. The second set was by RNG. Every set after that was by RNG. This tells you that they got more money by selling a chance at a ticket and not by direct sales. Since people like chance better, then the scraps and ticket will remain by chance and not from every chest. The individual person might say they don’t like it but ANet has proven to its satisfaction that the group does, and that chance is where the money is.

I’m not sure that the issue lie there’s.
Eveything sell on the trading post is account bound so exchanging skin is impossible.
So player had to pay a certain amount of gold in a very short amoount of time or pay money for a skin.
With the current system the ticket are account bound & random but the skin are sellable; so people can buy them long after; they are removed from sell by Anet.
The new system is overall better for the economy as you also avoid big gold spike because everyone want that one weapon skin.

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Posted by: aspirine.6852

aspirine.6852

You buy them for real money or get some luck and get one to drop for you.(next to impossible) and the chance that you get nothing but crap is huge. So no they are not worth it at all imo.

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Posted by: Mystic.5934

Mystic.5934

keys are worth around 2-4g each. that’s not counting things like boosters and bank tellers. so depending how much value you place on the account-bound things you get… you would have to place a LOT of value on those to make them worth it.

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Posted by: Just a flesh wound.3589

Just a flesh wound.3589

keys are worth around 2-4g each. that’s not counting things like boosters and bank tellers. so depending how much value you place on the account-bound things you get… you would have to place a LOT of value on those to make them worth it.

True, true.

On top of that consideration, using your numbers as a base, people who sell the weapon skins undervalue those items. If the keys are worth ~3 gold each and you get a ticket after 30 keys then you would need to sell the skin at 90 gold just to break even. While putting a value on the boosters and merchants does reduce this break even point, imo people who get the new skins then immediately sell at the current lowest price are doing themselves a disservice if they are buying keys to sell skins for gold.

Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.