Guild Wars 2

I can’t remember the last time I’ve gotten one outside of map completion/personal story.

I’ve had plenty of key drops from map completion. Not from monsters afaik.

I have all 8 chars lvl 80 most of them done story mode,yet i only ever had one drop of a mob and that was low lvl area,a few from story mode on all chars,not had any from map completion yet.

i wish i had the ops luck.
Maybe i need to do more map completions.

XxTAFxX.6741:

I have all 8 chars lvl 80 most of them done story mode,yet i only ever had one drop of a mob and that was low lvl area,a few from story mode on all chars,not had any from map completion yet.

i wish i had the ops luck.
Maybe i need to do more map completions.

I found that I get the most from map completions in the 20-40 range. Any lower, and I just get basic transmutation stones. Any higher and I mostly get gear.

The idea was to get you hooked then take away the supply so you will have to buy more.

Q: Black lion keys drop-rate?!

A: 0.00000000000000000001%

I can confirm that at the very start of GW2 the keys had a decent drop rate. It was not rare to get at least 1 a day just from normal questing within the first few weeks of playing. Infact, during headstart there was a point where I had more keys than chests.

The drop rate of keys has been fiddled with since launch, as was the drop rate of dyes.

Haven’t seen a key drop in months. One from the monthly would be good. Is there even anything worth getting in those?

I’ve seen more precursors drop than I have seen keys drop…if that means anything to anyone.

I think the OP is confused. You did get Black Lion Keys early on in the game quite a bit – from Personal Story and map completion, not from drops. As an experienced player, though, you almost never see them (without buying them outright).

Budg.3064:

I can confirm that at the very start of GW2 the keys had a decent drop rate. It was not rare to get at least 1 a day just from normal questing within the first few weeks of playing. Infact, during headstart there was a point where I had more keys than chests.

The drop rate of keys has been fiddled with since launch, as was the drop rate of dyes.

August low drop rates
http://www.guildwars2forum.com/threads/11627-Black-Lion-Chest-Keys

October low drop rates
http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/72152-someone-just-bought-500000-black-lion-chests-why/page__st__30

October low drop rates
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/938738-guild-wars-2/64236394

November low drop rates
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/938738-guild-wars-2/64518031

Keys are rarer drops than precursors. Really. It is so ridiculous.

But they do in fact drop.

Geotherma.2395:

snip

Looks like alot of people with bad luck, or maybe I just had really good luck at the start of the game. One thing I noticed while reading through those links is that, like this thread, several people are complaining about only finding a few keys through drops. However, those links you provided are from the first few months of the game. A few keys in 3 months is a far better drop rate than a few keys in 8 months.

I have played around 1500 hours since early release. In that time, I have only looted 3. The last being a few weeks ago.

Wow I consider myself stupid lucky then. Recently came back. Started a new warrior on the Fergoson’s Crossing server. He is lvl 12 right now. I have gotten 2 keys so far in just a couple days play. Well to be fair I think I got one from story. But I did see one as a drop. I suppose I won’t expect more to drop and I won’t look a gift horse in the mouth.

I have never had a key drop from outside the story line. In fact even within the story the wife seems to be luckier then me and gets more keys.

Back lion keys can drop.
I’ve looted one off an invader loot in wvw.

I haven’t gotten a key drop in 4 months. Except from other Black Lion Chests (that I opened with story mission reward keys).

to give you an idea how frequently keys dropped when gw2 first came out, let me use this example: I had 20 stacks (25 uses each) of black lion salvage kits all from keys I found or map completion from one character, and I was getting more faster than I was using them on exotics, so I started using them on rares to get ectos. shortly after starting to do this they stealth-nerfed the key drop rate, and I didn’t catch on that the kits I had would be all I had for a long time until I only had 3 stacks left.

i got my last 250-400h ago, very nice drop rate…

When the game launched, I think I was getting roughly one key for every six boxes. Not long after release, it seemed to drop to about 1:10. The past month or so, I haven’t seen a single key on either of two accounts, though I still seem to accumulate chests at roughly the old rate. So, yeah, they seem to really be letting greed trump fairness or common sense. (I’ve always maintained that more key drops would get more people used to opening chests and using the contents, which would, for some, prove the value of said chests and spur higher rates of key sales, but whatever Cash Shop dudes…)

I have been playing since BWE1, and honestly, after the beta ended, other than appearing as reward in person story quest, I don’t think I have ever gotten another key from “drop” to this day…

I don’t remember them dropping randomly from mobs. I got the keys from personal story for sure. I know a got a few of them beyond personal story as well, from map completion, I think.

RNG is RNG . Now stand by for one person’s anecdotal evidence that does disprove that they don’t drop, but doesn’t prove anything else.

In Feb I looted 4 in about 2 weeks time, yet even with that I looted enough chests that I felt like buying a 5 pack of keys. Took half of March and all of April off, so no looting anything. Came back nearly 2 weeks ago, I’ve opened 3 chests in that time and am still sitting at 5 keys between a lucky drop key in this last week and the keys in chests I’ve opened. I get my dropped keys from open world (not dungeon, not wvw). No 80 toons and I don’t pvp/wvw, so open world and limited story (mainly one toon from 26-50 this most recent couple of play sessions prior to the 1-8 warrior) is pretty much all I do.

Wild baseless speculation time: Is there diminishing returns on the key drop rate? The more one plays, the lower the drop chance gets? It would explain why my casualness has looted more keys than the folks with 1600 hours played. Meh.

Mad Rasputin.7809:

Keys are rarer drops than precursors. Really. It is so ridiculous.

But they do in fact drop.

I’d go along with this. I was lode farming when i got my first one at ~2100 hours logged. I’d hazard that a precursor would stand a better chance at dropping than a key, but I’ve not had one of those drop either.

Ridiculous is a good word, but stupidly rare is more apt. For a white item whose only real purpose is to serve as an aide for alt’s (and maybe get a fused weapon ticket) it’s beyond a joke.

At launch I was getting a few keys per week from drops.
Now I haven’t had a key drop in months. the only keys I have gotten are from story line and map completion.

I would say I stopped seeing key drops around Halloween or shortly after.

They should really create an NPC that sells these keys like in GW1. Or remove chests, and put them around the world, and give them some nice loot cus keys are kitten expensive in the gemstore. 3G for 1key average. You can buy an exotic for less than 3G.

Valandil Dragonhart.2371:

Mad Rasputin.7809:

Keys are rarer drops than precursors. Really. It is so ridiculous.

But they do in fact drop.

I’d go along with this. I was lode farming when i got my first one at ~2100 hours logged. I’d hazard that a precursor would stand a better chance at dropping than a key, but I’ve not had one of those drop either.

Ridiculous is a good word, but stupidly rare is more apt. For a white item whose only real purpose is to serve as an aide for alt’s (and maybe get a fused weapon ticket) it’s beyond a joke.

If that was actually the true I would have more than 3 precursors by now. Unfortunately that is not the case.

They never dropped a lot for me. But the first couple of chests I opened from one of the keys I got from the quest during headstart I got 12 keys in a row from the chests. Thats the most keys I’ve ever seen.

Drop wise I’ve seen maybe 4 since then. The way I see it, if I loot one of these keys its probably a chance of a exotic I never saw. lol

Had 2 drop the first 2 days aswell, had a third drop last week

I’ve had maybe 2 or 3 drop from random mobs during my entire play (1400+ hours I think). Dropped one of them the other day, shame really, wasting so much luck on that :/
Ah well, the canister will be handy in fotm if I forget to repair my gear.

I’ve had 3 keys drop from random mobs since release. As it happens, one dropped for me yesterday, and a guildie got one yesterday little time after I got mine. RNG at work.