Guild Wars 2

I’d like to report that as of today, 12AM GMT, certain monster in Orr, along more HP, have almost the double breaking aggro range. So, perhaps something is moving.. in the wrong direction.

Edit: 19GMT Back to normal

Been reading this thread this morning, and a funny thought: what if GW2 failed as a FTP game and became a sub based one? Because my position is, I’d pay 15 a month to play this without the gem nonsense.

This is an entirely subjective little ramble, but you know, I’m not a particularly loot-driven player. Sure, I like loot and part of the fun of the game for me is getting my characters the weapons and armor I want (which don’t always have to be top tier to make me happy). But I’ll often spend time doing things just for kicks that I know are not going to be profitable for me, but they’re fun so I don’t mind. What I’m winding up to here is that when I start to notice the lack of decent loot drops, that to me is a signal that the game must be really, really stingy. And like others who’ve posted in this thread, I do believe this is a change. I don’t recall having an issue equipping my other lowbies just from drops, but my baby Charr, at level 9, is still in mostly her starter armor. (I’ve crafted armor and weapons for her that she can equip at level 10.)

Also, on the topic of champions, I helped defeat 3 in Kessex Peak last night. Not one dropped a thing. But at this point, I think we were already sure that the stated intent that “all champions should drop something” (I’m paraphrasing from the AMA) is not in place, or not working properly.

I don’t attribute this to any malice or shenanigans on ArenaNet’s part. I really want to think that it’s not working as intended and that they are working hard to fix it, and I can certainly believe that it’s a complex issue and not a trivial fix. I do expect that some statement will be forthcoming, but I really hope it happens soon.

Well, I AM reward/loot driven and make no bones about it. Last night over the course of ~3 hours, in Cursed Shore I did the events up to Arah twice (First run failed) and did the Melandru events…totaling probably 6-8 champions, many veterans/normals and 2 area bosses…resulting in two big chests. Nothing better than a green, totaling probably less than 10s in loot. Don’t get me wrong, the grouping up was fun as were the events, but I can farm resources in low level areas for 30 minutes and make more than that…there’s something wrong here. Really…does anyone at level 80 running Cursed Shore wear white gear? Champions, ESPECIALLY unique bosses, should drop nothing less than a rare with a good probability of getting an exotic. To get high level exotic gear or even rare…with rewards like this would takes months….and what’s with all the porous bones?…wholly flipping hell!!!

If you’re working toward a legendary…crack out the VISA because it’s the ONLY way you’re going to get the mats/gold you’re going to need, unless you grind 24/7 for the next 2 years.

I’m really starting to understand why people are resorting to bots…it’s becoming the only way to get anything good.

Well that’s why anet reduced the drop rate. To monetize on people who don’t want to farm.

If they’ve done it on purpose…they’ll not get another cent out of me and if they don’t fix it soon, I’m going to stop playing…I’ve gotten my $60 worth out of the game. I bought the guide and $60 worth of gems early on. I’m not in to grinding for no reward. There are less frustrating games…I still have to play the two Skyrim expansions, Darksiders 2, countless classic games I’ve been meaning to play…….

they didn’t intentionally do anything, it’s just something made up to be negative about by people who are disappointed in the game for in my opinion the wrong reasons.

FrizzFreston.5290:

they didn’t intentionally do anything, it’s just something made up to be negative about by people who are disappointed in the game for in my opinion the wrong reasons.

No, the drop algorithm changed mid-November…they even made a big announcement about it…champs with guaranteed drops, rares/exotics drop more often…all that jazz…none of it delivered on.

Science.6709:

Been reading this thread this morning, and a funny thought: what if GW2 failed as a FTP game and became a sub based one? Because my position is, I’d pay 15 a month to play this without the gem nonsense.

I’d pay $15/mo if they reverted the game to the state it was in at launch/headstart in terms of loot etc., that is, with all the current bug fixes intact, but none of the DR, massive income nerfing, massive drop rate nerfs etc.

Basically, I’d pay $15 for them to un-mess up GW2 back to when it was working just fine (in terms of loot/rewards) before they decided to break it with DR and constant nerfs to income and loot.

Last night was the first time since release I played something other than GW2, and this issue directly contributes to my lack of desire to play.

crystal.5930:

This is an entirely subjective little ramble, but you know, I’m not a particularly loot-driven player. Sure, I like loot and part of the fun of the game for me is getting my characters the weapons and armor I want (which don’t always have to be top tier to make me happy). But I’ll often spend time doing things just for kicks that I know are not going to be profitable for me, but they’re fun so I don’t mind. What I’m winding up to here is that when I start to notice the lack of decent loot drops, that to me is a signal that the game must be really, really stingy. And like others who’ve posted in this thread, I do believe this is a change. I don’t recall having an issue equipping my other lowbies just from drops, but my baby Charr, at level 9, is still in mostly her starter armor. (I’ve crafted armor and weapons for her that she can equip at level 10.)

Thanks for this. Often times people that don’t pay attention to their loot closely come into threads like this and naysay everyone that does pay close attention.

Honestly though, I noticed it immediately, but it took a week or so to really confirm it with enough trials to know it wasn’t just RNG.

When you’re going from 3-4+ rares in one run of Plinx and related events to a single rare in three days of farming it’s pretty easy to tell something is up.

Anyway, I agree, something is very wrong if players that don’t normally pay attention to loot are noticing this (and I think something is very wrong, and is clearly evident from the strong agreement about the decrease in drops across the ~13 pages of replies).

Leamas.5803:

FrizzFreston.5290:

they didn’t intentionally do anything, it’s just something made up to be negative about by people who are disappointed in the game for in my opinion the wrong reasons.

No, the drop algorithm changed mid-November…they even made a big announcement about it…champs with guaranteed drops, rares/exotics drop more often…all that jazz…none of it delivered on.

I obviously meant the decrease in drops that wasn’t intentional. :p

FrizzFreston.5290:

Leamas.5803:

FrizzFreston.5290:

they didn’t intentionally do anything, it’s just something made up to be negative about by people who are disappointed in the game for in my opinion the wrong reasons.

No, the drop algorithm changed mid-November…they even made a big announcement about it…champs with guaranteed drops, rares/exotics drop more often…all that jazz…none of it delivered on.

I obviously meant the decrease in drops that wasn’t intentional. :p

Intentional or not, and I truly hope it wasn’t intentional, it looks incredibly bad on ArenaNet that they have not come out with any sort of official response yet. They are losing players because of this and that is HUGE. Run some of the big boss events in Orr and watch the frustration and comments people make about the drops they get?

I’m really considering moving on a new a game or limiting my champion/boss encounters to skill points for map completion only. Regular/world events just aren’t worth the time and effort. You could easily spend more on repairs/respawning to waypoints than you actually make on the event. Took over an hour last night to put Melandru down, and we got lucky because it glitched, shortening the event…all for a meager two blue and a green item that weren’t even worth a silver each.

FrizzFreston.5290:

they didn’t intentionally do anything, it’s just something made up to be negative about by people who are disappointed in the game for in my opinion the wrong reasons.

FrizzFreston.5290:

I obviously meant the decrease in drops that wasn’t intentional. :p

I am just incredulous that someone could read through the entirety of a thread of this scale, encompassing an issue that is so fundamentally important in the context of the game itself, and come out with something like this.
If this issue with the drop rate decreases, and all it entails for the mechanics of all player’s existence within the game, was unintentional, how on earth could a team of developers who have put more than half a decade into producing this game not pounced upon it immediately, fully aware as they are of the repercussions upon their product and vitally important player base?
As for the glibness of the opening sentence, a little more thought put into your arguments would be greatly appreciated, instead of wholesale dismissive summations.

There is a thread over in the bugs section regarding this…also being ignored. Might be more difficult to ignore if more people post there.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Loot-Drop-Rate-Bug/first

I really don’t see any reason to duplicate the posts, they are obviously fully aware of this considering it’s been 15 days, 600 posts, and 20k views. There is little else left to say and I have little to no respect for the way they have failed to handle this whole situation.

The patch fix will be out when it’s ready guys! But seriously I too have noticed this issue while playing, at first I thought it was just me and noticed I was getting way more trash items than normally. Hopefully this issue will be resolved but seeing as they pushed the Lost Shores fix today I think they pushed their efforts into fixing that 1st than will focus on this…hopefully.

EMAN.6190:

The patch fix will be out when it’s ready guys!

We want to hear this from Anet. As of this moment, they’ve not acknowledged this issue and when asked over AMA, they just said “its a perceived nerf”, so I really doubt if they’d accept that they messed up things.
They can fix this issue after a month, but communicating it would make things lighter for everyone so we can do something else, than try our luck everyday at getting some loot and waste our time with hopes of ninja fixes.

I already quit and I know 5 more people that quit because of this so called bug but before that I logged today and looked at trading post prices /facepalm and logged off

I wanted to spent another 50euro right after lost shores went up .. well those 50e just went to steam and league of legends …

since this topic is up for 2 weeks I would at least expect reply on such major bug
the lack of communication on Anet part is completely unprofessional and I am thinking that this is intended and not bug if they can’t even hotfix it after 2 weeks.

and if this is intended then pardon me but I hope GW2 will flop same way as swtor …
for me personally this will be last mmo that I spent money on …
I tried almost every mmo that came out in past 3 years its seems like they do not care about longevity but only for quick cash grab

while I was happy seeing Anet patching game on almost weekly basis
this is something that is game breaking issue for me
and its not even adressed after this topic and many topics in general / bug section or 150 comment topic on reddit …

I would rather pay 20$ or so sub fee to play and not deal with this pay 2 win or fractal grind bullkitten

I am not saying that fractals are bad I am really fine with them my problem is this is becoming same crap as WoW everyone is in 1 hub (major city) in this case LA and spamming lf fractals while leaving outside world to dead because of inferior drops
I don’t understand why developers create such a big world and then abandon it for 1 dungeon …

I would not quit if Anet at least admitted it saying something like …
“yes we are aware of this bug that is ruining your playing experience and we are working on it but fix will be on the next major patch as this requires major overhaul of our loot tables "
but keep silence … it’s best thing to do if you want to lose players …

I was thinking of quitting as well. But I’ve spent quite a lot on gems and am stuck halfway to getting my legendary so I can’t leave either.

Hoping desperately for a response:(

getting more and more obvious that anet wont reply on this, since they nerfed it and its not a bug.

they reply on many other posts, but a thread with 20k views and 600 replies gets ignored.

bet they wait till nxt friday when people are busy with wintersday event and delete this

to all the people who say droprate is fine, its not if u get 2-5 rares an hour you are just lucky but its no where near the droprate it was before

for me its more about beeing honest to their customers and not to take the piss out of them

Traxous.2304:

Hoping desperately for a response:(

Preferably an actual non-automated reply. Anything at this point would be fine by now, at least to put this question to rest.

I’m sure today’s maintenance has improved the drop rates for…. porous bones! yayyyy!!!

phaneo.4597:

I’m sure today’s maintenance has improved the drop rates for…. porous bones! yayyyy!!!

You mean..we weren’t getting enough? Oh my God!!!

Now I’m getting completely normal drop rates, MF seems to be working although someone I was playing with last night complained that hers wasn’t. I got several rares last night (4 or 5) in about two hours’ worth of gameplay, runnign with about 35% MF.

Maybe it really is just a luck thing? I had completely dismal drop rates across the board a few weeks ago on all my chars.

douceline.2741
Happened to me too, just once for an hour in three weeks I was getting normal drops. Then the patch was installed and I stopped getting drops again. You can notice several people in this thread that had experienced same one-time “spikes of luck”.

Aelaren.3784:

douceline.2741
Happened to me too, just once for an hour in three weeks I was getting normal drops. Then the patch was installed and I stopped getting drops again. You can notice several people in this thread that had experienced same one-time “spikes of luck”.

That sounds like a telltale sign of a bugged DR mechanic that doesn’t properly reset once it has been triggered.

DR=“Diminishing Returns”? It could very well be that this is broken and not resetting properly, however, with the notable silence from ANet, it makes me think the change was more intentional than not. Lowering drop rates like this breaks the marketplace, it breaks crafting. If they keep the drop rates like this, they have to do something to bring the marketplace in line.

For instance, currently it would take hours of farming to be able to afford to buy a single ecto on the market. Salvaging rares and exotics to get ecto is…well…let’s just say you need to get them first. “Very few drops”=“next to no salvage”=“pretty much no new ecto in the market”=“Skyrocketing price of ecto”=“Way too expensive to craft”

The net result is a non-functioning marketplace and crafting becomes nothing more than a means to power-level, which it is essentially now. Drop rates HAVE to be drastically increased to fix these critical game mechanics.

ASB.4295:

Aelaren.3784:

douceline.2741
Happened to me too, just once for an hour in three weeks I was getting normal drops. Then the patch was installed and I stopped getting drops again. You can notice several people in this thread that had experienced same one-time “spikes of luck”.

That sounds like a telltale sign of a bugged DR mechanic that doesn’t properly reset once it has been triggered.

Yeah, actually, that makes sense and I hadn’t thought of that. Would certainly explain the spike and sudden drop.

Perhaps the strategy is; not answering will far out weigh the aggravation of the initial problem and we’ll all let it go LOL!

Yeah, I think it is safe to say due to the lack of any response that this is not a bug and is now the new normal.

I had a blast playing Torchlight 2 with a friend (that usually plays GW2 with me) last night.

It’s refreshing to play something that’s not actively wasting my time, or moving goal posts out from under me via nerfs to income generation/drop rates.

I won’t be playing GW2 until (or I guess, “if” since they aren’t responding at all) this is fixed, and neither will my friend.

It’s just not worth grinding and grinding all to get garbage loot and pocket change. I’d like to play something that respects my time, y’know, how GW2 used to be before being nerfed into the ground.

Is Torchlight rewarding and fun?

Yes, drop rates have been nerft, and Anet wont admit that they did it or screwd up massivly!

Navi.7142:

Is Torchlight rewarding and fun?

Nothing published by Perfect World Entertainment is rewarding and fun. They are delirious customers. Having been PWE games for 5 years, I feel as if I have been beaten with a stick and forced to enjoy the poop rubbed in my face. I’m only now starting to recover and it’s been a handful of weeks without contact from PWE. They treat their employees like complete garbage, like I have never seen before. They also refuse to pay for relative-to-work Continuing Education classes, which I think is pretty stupid.

Navi.7142:

Is Torchlight rewarding and fun?

Yes. Much much more so than GW2 with the constant nerfs.

douceline.2741:

ASB.4295:

Aelaren.3784:

douceline.2741
Happened to me too, just once for an hour in three weeks I was getting normal drops. Then the patch was installed and I stopped getting drops again. You can notice several people in this thread that had experienced same one-time “spikes of luck”.

That sounds like a telltale sign of a bugged DR mechanic that doesn’t properly reset once it has been triggered.

Yeah, actually, that makes sense and I hadn’t thought of that. Would certainly explain the spike and sudden drop.

A good way to test this is to go to a new (never before accessed) zone and see how the drops are… I’ll have to try that this weekend.

Just did a quick experiment.
Full MF gear, MF token buff, raspberry peach bars.
Farmed mobs in Cursed Shore for one hour, alternating between undeads and tar elementals.
Loot: about two dozen porous bones and ONE blue.

Yes, I’m aware that one hour is not a significant test at all.
Still, about two dozen porous bones and one blue.

The drops nerf must be analized together with the gems price raise. If you need gold how will you get it now?

I just want to say that all of us here should not forget or become lazy about getting a response about this issue. We should not lie down and just accept the way things are now without at the very least an explanaition. We need to keep this thread alive until we get a fix and/or a response to this thread.

The worst thing we could do is to let this issue go unanswered for.

I really hope they respond to this thread…When i first hit 80 getting loot was so nice and common that i actually enjoyed going around killing things in Orr just for the fun of it. Now to hear that you only get porous bones and a blue occasionally (been only playing lower level alts atm), just makes me sad….If this is the new norm then screw it. I’m not going to waste money JUST so i can make virtual money in a game which will be consumed in seconds.

To be fair, since December 3rd patch I (and those of my guild) have been farming in Cursed Shores and have been getting a decent mix of blue and greens. That being said, the amount of blues and greens we have been getting are not at the same rate as it was before 15th November and rare drop rates are still as bad as they have been since the 15th November patch. Occasionally we’ll get a rare or 2 (my record is 3 rares in one event since the patch) but these occasions are few and far between.

Before November 15th people were getting on average about 1-2 rares per event. That is no longer the case. People now go days without receiving a rare while farming.

If this was an intentional change or a bug an explanation is to be expected.

I for one don’t believe anyone here is lying down or have been lazy regarding this particular issue and many have posted valuable information. My wife and I have spent quite a bit of our normal gaming time trying to determine the exact cause of what we’ve experienced, tried desperately to rule out whether or not it was anything we were doing wrong. In fact she has asked me not to keep coming back to this thread because it’s ruined my outlook and most of he last two weeks of my game time and my answer was this; first off my intent was to point out what I felt was a bug and I wouldn’t have to keep coming back here if the question was answered and I knew it wasn’t anything we did or I had imagined. I’ve done 22 years of quality control for an international firm and one thing I excel at is details so it was pretty apparent to me fairly quickly the issue was not perceived. Most here have done their best to help out, “give feedback” as they claim is needed and appreciated, they are the ones who haven’t had the decency to acknowledge the question or address the customers concerns.

That said I’m going to step back a bit before this completely ruins for me what I’ve said was the best MMO ever developed. I flat out do not regret starting the post nor my efforts to try and solicit a response because frankly many here seem to have greater concern about this than those paid to care and that’s pretty darn sad. Keep it going but I have very little faith it will matter in the end.

Leamas.5803:

DR=“Diminishing Returns”? It could very well be that this is broken and not resetting properly, however, with the notable silence from ANet, it makes me think the change was more intentional than not. Lowering drop rates like this breaks the marketplace, it breaks crafting. If they keep the drop rates like this, they have to do something to bring the marketplace in line.

For instance, currently it would take hours of farming to be able to afford to buy a single ecto on the market. Salvaging rares and exotics to get ecto is…well…let’s just say you need to get them first. “Very few drops”=“next to no salvage”=“pretty much no new ecto in the market”=“Skyrocketing price of ecto”=“Way too expensive to craft”

The net result is a non-functioning marketplace and crafting becomes nothing more than a means to power-level, which it is essentially now. Drop rates HAVE to be drastically increased to fix these critical game mechanics.

You are so close here. The answer is right there in your comment.
Skyrocketing prices for required materials, lack of funds at hand to purchase, but wait! Luckily there’s a place you can wave your magic card and have all the gold you need to buy the materials you used to be able to obtain through, you know, playing the game and having fun.
Thanks to the Nexon fairy for gutting the process, and turning it into a simple cash for reward treadmill.
Every day I wonder how the devs are feeling – you know, the ones that poured so much of their time and skills into this amazing world, wondering how they must feel behind the scenes watching the strip mining starting up in earnest.

Vlad,

Check the following link please:

http://www.gw2spidy.com/gem

After 15th of November nothing was ever the same. Reduced drops, increasing gems value non-stop until now. Basically, if you need gold, buy gems and trade for gold..:)

puffintoast,

I fully agree with you. Devs must be feeling really sad but at the end of the month it is the Nexon fairy that gets the cash to pay them…well, at least while this game thrives…:(
If this game fails, the Nexon fairy will milk the next one…

RedBaron.6058:

Vlad,

Check the following link please:

http://www.gw2spidy.com/gem

After 15th of November nothing was ever the same. Reduced drops, increasing gems value non-stop until now. Basically, if you need gold, buy gems and trade for gold..:)

Thanks for that link, RedBaron.
Now I’m off to sit, sulk, and brood over what has become, and even more depressingly, is yet to come.
Terrible to think that in a few years this will all just be another dot point achievement in the chest key fairies’ portfolio.

puffintoast,

You are most welcome. The whole thing is so obvious that we are even entitled to be offended for being considered so dumb..:)

So I saw a GM in game today, and decided to ask him a question about the loot drops. He was very nice at least, but sad to say, it wasn’t his department to look into it. I at least told him to try and pass it along.

His advice was that this would make an excellent forum topic discussion >.>.

I mentioned there was one, 12+ pages long, with no response, but sadly, he no longer was responding to me then.

Guys, I’m sad to say this, but it’s been almost a month and we’ve gotten no response. It’s really sad that they didn’t at least tell us but what can you do..It was fun while it lasted (loot that is)