Guild Wars 2

Essence Snow.3194:

The move changing the booster slot to a seasonal item really was a poor choice. It will overshadow the positive changes for many players.

How to remedy: Reinstate the booster slot and make the seasonal item a + item. Keep everything else the same.

I’d like this a lot better. I love the celebration boosters, and magic finds are always good. It might be better to revisit the boosters and just revise what drops if nothing else. I have an entire bank tab of boosters, most I’ll never use, and I’d still rather have a chance at the couple boosters I WOULD use than get a ToT bag.

And what about putting the primers back in? I’d buy a crap ton of keys if I had a chance at a primer instead of a Tome or a Bag. I won’t buy primers outright, but I used to buy bags just because I had a good shot at primers and scraps.

Dulfy said duplicate account bound items are now replaced with a key if they show up again—I’m hoping that’s true because that would be the best change you made. I had so many account bound ravens and owls I quit buying keys because I got tired of deleting them.

A step forward

And a step back.

The preview function is great. +100 for that.
The wardrobe unlock item. That’s a good, possibly a great addition. Same for the skins you can get that can be either sold or used.
The possible 4th slot that opens up and gives you a rare item. That is good. It’s a pleasant surprise to get it.

Getting a guaranteed festival bag that I can get from killing a moa or wanding to death a mob in the Labyrinth? A bag that I can get by the hundreds each day if I want? That doesn’t feel good at all. if it was a choice between a booster and a festival bag I’d rather have the booster.
Losing a chance… now that hurts. It most definitely doesn’t feel good when I open a chest and see 2 chances.

My personal opinion. Drop the festival bag then leave it as an empty 3rd slot or add the boosters back in, but one or the other.

I’m actually really disappointed, I haven’t bought keys with real money for a long time and thought this would be an improvement, now the drops seem even worse than they were, seriously? 1 TOT bag is one of the drops??! is this some kind of joke? I feel I just wasted money and wont be spending gems on them again. Sorry but this ones a miss for me.

Mea.5491:

I’m not happy that 1 of the 3 rewards was a guaranteed ToT bag. I don’t want to sound greedy but… really?

Thanks for the warning – I was going to buy keys but I get plenty of ToT bags already, its not like they’re rare. I certainly don’t want to essentially pay Gems / RL money for a ToT bag.

I don’t miss the boosters really so that’s not a big deal to me. Perhaps in the non-seasonal times instead of the current ToT bag it will be boosters, we don’t know that yet. So those that like getting the boosters will still have a way to get those.

I love the guaranteed wardrobe unlock. I’ve long been working on unlocking skins so I have all of the regular dyes unlocked (just missing the new special ones), I have all the basic crafted skins unlocked and I have quite a few minis. The things that are left for me to get unlocked are things that I mostly want.

I wound up with 7 wardrobe unlocks. I got:
Mini Ghost Droobert
2 dyes
4 Black Lion weapon skins, one of which was the Sclerite Longbow (and none are available on the TP for that one).

The wardrobe unlocks encouraged me to finally use my 4th birthday dyes too so that I could ensure I removed a few more possibilities from the unlock table.

Overall, I really like the change and I’m curious to see what the contents are like between holidays.

Got these items twice i a row , really Anet ? I want boosters back . Before i have at least one item i could use but this is just laughable .

P.S. With changes like these and last update , does this mean Colin is back ?

Does this apply to chests you got before this change? Is it retro-active?

Gearheart.2173:

Does this apply to chests you got before this change? Is it retro-active?

Containers always pull from the drop table at the time they are opened, not at the time you got the bag.

Gearheart.2173:

Does this apply to chests you got before this change? Is it retro-active?

Chests are chests…they’re all the same until you open them. So if you open your chest now, it’s the Halloween chest. If you save it and open in December, it’ll be Wintersday.

Thanks for the replies.

I have to agree…make the seasonal item a “4th” item by default…not taking up a slot that now could be something(not a booster) in the RNG table.

Myself…I will just wait until after the update next Tuesday to do anything with BLCs. I’m patient.

I agree with the people who point out that always getting a seasonal bag from the chest is a let down. Seasonal bags rain from the sky. Seasonal bags can be pulled from moa entrails. Why would I see one in a gamble box as anything other than a lost chance at something not so easily obtained?

I got a trick or treat bag, a tome of knowledge and a merchant express. Jesus Christ im so very glad I didn’t pay for this load of garbage. Think ill steer well clear of purchasing keys in the future.

Guaranteed ToT bag? Seriously? That is a rip off. You now only get two chances to get anything decent instead of three.

Gets free key: Woo hoo!
Opens chest: Oh. Kinda the same Meh

But hard to complain at the price.

So when we’re not in a seasonal event, you get 3 RNG slots, but during seasonal event you get 2 RNG slots and 1 (in this case) ToT bag?

Yikes, that’s a kick in the junk.

I liked it better when a 4th slot was added for this type of thing rather than removing one of our RNG chances.

Thanks for the warnings. I’ll hold my “customer appreciation” key until next week when I am guaranteed to NOT get a ToT bag in the 1st slot.

Aaand now we must type the chest’s name to destroy it… XD I’m pretty sure this is new because I usually destroy the chests. Edit: This was a dropped one, btw.

Their decision to take out the booster make sense, booster are going to run low in a moment and people are gonna be back to buying them. This is purely a commercial move.

The problem is they removed that, and removed a slot, while keeping the other trash. We’ll still get trash like bank access (still absolutely NO use if you got the permanent one), tome of knowledges and now a 5 silvers item you can get by spending 5 seconds in the lab.

Let’s also not forget that the permanent black lion trader/merchant are still spawning a npc rather than just a panel, which kinda kills the convenience. and annoys the other players. If you were all about revamping the black lions goodies, why is this still here?

Remove the tomes and revive orbs.
Bring back the boosters – these are actually of use.
Bring back the gathering nodes.
Make the TOT bags +1.

Come on A-net

My drops from 25 BL Chests :

Unidentified Dye – 3
Revive Orb – 4
Black Lion Claim Ticket Scrap – 10
Transmutation Charge – 5
Grasping Phantom Glider – 1
Tome of Knowledge – 5
Bank Access Express – 3
Trading Post Express – 3
Teleport to Friend – 1
Guaranteed Wardrobe Unlock – 4
Improvised Pistol Skin – 1
Black Lion Miniature Claim Ticket – 1
Merchant Express – 9
Toy Miniature Egg – 2

Well…i think i was kinda lucky

P.S. : Forgot the 25 ToT bags

Avigrus.2871:

Remove the tomes and revive orbs.
Bring back the boosters – these are actually of use.
Bring back the gathering nodes.
Make the TOT bags +1.

Come on A-net

Boosters collect dust in my bank, I’m glad they’re gone. I use tomes and revive orbs, so they’re cool to stay.

I wouldn’t be surprised if the lost gathering nodes is a glitch that’ll get a patch to return ’em.

~EW

The issue people in general have is even if they didn’t want boosters they are inherently more valuable, as per the game economy, than a ToT bag.

Boosters value is 100-150 gems, approximately 30g.

ToT value is currently around 5 and a half silver, or less than 1 gem.

There is a value loss of nearly 100%, that’s a huge disparity, and the other QoL improvements don’t make up for that loss of value.

My #1 issue with it, though, is it’s replaced a BLTC item with an in game drop. The allure and fun of chests and keys was getting things that aren’t otherwise available for purchasing (even boosters I forget to use).

A friend of mine pointed out that perhaps this is a business decision on Anet’s part to actually disincentivize or discourage buying BL keys entirely. If so, the recent changes make perfect sense.

His theory is that maybe BL keys haven’t been generating as much income from gem sales as Anet would like, so instead of increasing the rewards obtainable from them, they revamped the BL chest system entirely to reduce the amount of loot you can get from them. This will in turn cause loot like nodes to increase in price, and players who are truly interested in filling their home instance will become a more reliable source of income for gem sales as they begin buying gems and trading them for gold to buy the nodes they want. Nodes becoming more expensive will mean more gem sales across the board, provided there are still a lot of people converting $ to gems to gold.

It’s a really round-about theory and seems to be a bit of a gamble, but if this is their intention it may work out in their favor. That said, it doesn’t do the players much good, and as many have pointed out, the seasonal drop replacing an actual slot is more of a slap in the face than anything.

At the end of the day, though, BL Keys have always been more of a lottery or gamble than anything else. I’ve certainly spent my fair share of money on gems to buy keys but I really can’t see myself justifying those purchases any longer

lol, nerfing chests now.
who came up with this change? just awful

obastable.5231:

The issue people in general have is even if they didn’t want boosters they are inherently more valuable, as per the game economy, than a ToT bag.

Boosters value is 100-150 gems, approximately 30g.

ToT value is currently around 5 and a half silver, or less than 1 gem.

There is a value loss of nearly 100%, that’s a huge disparity, and the other QoL improvements don’t make up for that loss of value.

That’s not an inherent value. ANet artificially sets the prices of the boosters… if they set them to 1 gem, you’re argument would be completely invalidated. Also, boosters cannot be sold in the TP, where as the ToT bags can. So the ToT bags are more valuable for the game economy because boosters have 0 value. Your reasoning makes no sense.

For me personally, even if the boosters were set at 1 gem, I still wouldn’t buy or use them…. the ToT bags have more value for me than any booster does.

~EW

Meanma.5623:

One Halloween bag, one Merchant Express and one ticket that promised to give me a random RARE item. It could be armour skin, weapon skin, glider, mini or dye. It gave me Papaya Dye which is a COMMON dye.

Wanted to get some keys this weekend and gamble a bit but after this I’m never buying black lion keys.

I would bug report the Rare ticket.

So basically Blc keys went from being a scam to being a super scam lol

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

obastable.5231:

The issue people in general have is even if they didn’t want boosters they are inherently more valuable, as per the game economy, than a ToT bag.

Boosters value is 100-150 gems, approximately 30g.

ToT value is currently around 5 and a half silver, or less than 1 gem.

There is a value loss of nearly 100%, that’s a huge disparity, and the other QoL improvements don’t make up for that loss of value.

That’s not an inherent value. ANet artificially sets the prices of the boosters… if they set them to 1 gem, you’re argument would be completely invalidated. Also, boosters cannot be sold in the TP, where as the ToT bags can. So the ToT bags are more valuable for the game economy because boosters have 0 value. Your reasoning makes no sense.

For me personally, even if the boosters were set at 1 gem, I still wouldn’t buy or use them…. the ToT bags have more value for me than any booster does.

~EW

Remove ToT bags from every other source in the game.

Put them on the gem store for 100 gems for a regular, 150 gems for a personalized.

Do not change the current loot table.

Is it still worth 30g to you?

mtpelion.4562:

A single Trick or Treat bag is billions of times more valuable than another Tome of Knowledge, Revive Orb, or most of the other account bound junk that drops from a BL chest.

I can’t fathom why anyone would be opposed to getting a guaranteed ToT bag over the guaranteed garbage we used to get.

I don’t want anything that it is easy to get in another way. I can run around the Labyrinth for a while and get 100 ToT bags. I also agree that I don’t want a Tome of Knowledge. I don’t get Revive Orbs any other way so I don’t object to those. Same with Boosters which they removed.

Why did the remove boosters but left tomes? /o\

obastable.5231:

Remove ToT bags from every other source in the game.

Put them on the gem store for 100 gems for a regular, 150 gems for a personalized.

Do not change the current loot table.

Is it still worth 30g to you?

Still worth 30g? I never said they were worth 30g in the first place…. boosters also aren’t worth 30g. But reduce the price down to 5s (or 1 gem), and the ToT bag is worth it, while the booster still isn’t.

~EW

edit: and if you were to remove ToT bags from every other source in the game, they certainly would go for way much more than 5s on the TP… where as you still can’t sell boosters.

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

obastable.5231:

The issue people in general have is even if they didn’t want boosters they are inherently more valuable, as per the game economy, than a ToT bag.

Boosters value is 100-150 gems, approximately 30g.

ToT value is currently around 5 and a half silver, or less than 1 gem.

There is a value loss of nearly 100%, that’s a huge disparity, and the other QoL improvements don’t make up for that loss of value.

That’s not an inherent value. ANet artificially sets the prices of the boosters… if they set them to 1 gem, you’re argument would be completely invalidated.

Do they change the prices for boosters? If not then it is an inherent value.

Djinn.9245:

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

obastable.5231:

The issue people in general have is even if they didn’t want boosters they are inherently more valuable, as per the game economy, than a ToT bag.

Boosters value is 100-150 gems, approximately 30g.

ToT value is currently around 5 and a half silver, or less than 1 gem.

There is a value loss of nearly 100%, that’s a huge disparity, and the other QoL improvements don’t make up for that loss of value.

That’s not an inherent value. ANet artificially sets the prices of the boosters… if they set them to 1 gem, you’re argument would be completely invalidated.

Do they change the prices for boosters? If not then it is an inherent value.

Through “promotions” and packages that include boosters, the prices do change.

~EW

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Djinn.9245:

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

obastable.5231:

The issue people in general have is even if they didn’t want boosters they are inherently more valuable, as per the game economy, than a ToT bag.

Boosters value is 100-150 gems, approximately 30g.

ToT value is currently around 5 and a half silver, or less than 1 gem.

There is a value loss of nearly 100%, that’s a huge disparity, and the other QoL improvements don’t make up for that loss of value.

That’s not an inherent value. ANet artificially sets the prices of the boosters… if they set them to 1 gem, you’re argument would be completely invalidated.

Do they change the prices for boosters? If not then it is an inherent value.

Through “promotions” and packages that include boosters, the prices do change.

~EW

I wouldn’t count packages, and a sale isn’t changing the price.

Djinn.9245:

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

Djinn.9245:

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

obastable.5231:

The issue people in general have is even if they didn’t want boosters they are inherently more valuable, as per the game economy, than a ToT bag.

Boosters value is 100-150 gems, approximately 30g.

ToT value is currently around 5 and a half silver, or less than 1 gem.

There is a value loss of nearly 100%, that’s a huge disparity, and the other QoL improvements don’t make up for that loss of value.

That’s not an inherent value. ANet artificially sets the prices of the boosters… if they set them to 1 gem, you’re argument would be completely invalidated.

Do they change the prices for boosters? If not then it is an inherent value.

Through “promotions” and packages that include boosters, the prices do change.

~EW

I wouldn’t count packages, and a sale isn’t changing the price.

Yeah it is. If the price were inherent then it couldn’t be changed… even if that change is wrapped in a “promotion” or package, the price is still being changed.

~EW

I’ve seen a couple of posters seem to misunderstand the wardrobe unlock — it’s not guaranteed every chest will have one, but if you get one (as the occasional 4th item — I got 3 4th items in 26 chests, one of which was a wardrobe unlock) then it’s guaranteed to give you something you don’t yet have.

I intend to winnow through my wardrobe for the cheap to buy skins I don’t happen to have yet and gather them up so any future unlocks won’t have those to troll me with.

I like the preview feature.

I have mixed feelings on the new wardrobe unlock. Its nice that it won’t give you things you’ve already got and it seems like a nice idea, but one of the good things about getting a skin or a mini or whatever is that if you don’t want it then you can trade it.

I got a Wintersday Focus from the free chest. I don’t use foci on any of my characters and don’t especially like the skin so I will probably never use it. If I’d gotten the actual skin I could have sold it for 100g and gotten something I would like, which would be fantastic. This way I just have another random skin in my wardrobe that will never get looked at again.

I feel like I can’t really complain because I will never buy keys (because I don’t like the gambling aspect, even if the drops were amazing I wouldn’t buy them), so whatever I get is free. But this is in a way worse than getting a booster or a tome or something. At least I could use that. On top of which it feels worse because it’s something I know I’m supposed to consider a really good drop.

It’s like someone getting you an expensive but ugly ornament as a birthday present. You should be pleased that they spent the money and time to get you a gift, but now you’re stuck with this thing you’ll never use. (And can’t even re-gift it.)

But I just spent $200 on gems for keys since the Halloween event started, I was hoping for something cool. FeelsBadMan

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

obastable.5231:

The issue people in general have is even if they didn’t want boosters they are inherently more valuable, as per the game economy, than a ToT bag.

Boosters value is 100-150 gems, approximately 30g.

ToT value is currently around 5 and a half silver, or less than 1 gem.

There is a value loss of nearly 100%, that’s a huge disparity, and the other QoL improvements don’t make up for that loss of value.

That’s not an inherent value. ANet artificially sets the prices of the boosters… if they set them to 1 gem, you’re argument would be completely invalidated. Also, boosters cannot be sold in the TP, where as the ToT bags can. So the ToT bags are more valuable for the game economy because boosters have 0 value. Your reasoning makes no sense.

For me personally, even if the boosters were set at 1 gem, I still wouldn’t buy or use them…. the ToT bags have more value for me than any booster does.

~EW

So because he holds a booster at higher value than a ToT bag he’s wrong? Sorry but boosters are way more useful than 5s. I mean you can kill a mob and potentially get more than 5s.

BrotherBelial.3094:

So because he holds a booster at higher value than a ToT bag he’s wrong?

No, they’re wrong because they asserted that boosters have an inherent value, when boosters don’t… therefore their supposition of a value loss is incorrect. If they want to personally value boosters higher than ToT bags that’s their choice, but even that means it’s a subjective loss in value they’re arguing, not an objective inherent loss.

~EW

I thought we got 4 items?
Guaranteed ToT bag + 2 items + 1 uncommon item.

I got a revive orb, a toy miniature egg (Mini Shade), and the new glider on my first chest! Win!! Definitely love this one far more than the previous BL chest.

Personally I’m going to miss boosters! I’d take boosters over tomes on knowledge anyday. I have over a stack of tomes of knowledge and with 13 characters not much to use them on. Whereas I do like my boosters for SW or holidays or new mastery XP farm.

I really like the new preview window. But that said one trick or treat bag?!?! Seriously how can the devs be so disconnected from the game? It literally costs 5s or two seconds to get one bag! Its not even a special trick or treat bag!

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

BrotherBelial.3094:

So because he holds a booster at higher value than a ToT bag he’s wrong?

No, he’s wrong because he asserted that boosters have an inherent value, when they don’t… therefore his supposition that there’s a value loss is incorrect. If he wants to personally value boosters higher than ToT bags that’s his choice, but even that means it’s a subjective loss in value he’s arguing, not an objective inherent loss.

~EW

I can see your point, but he also has a point. A booster if you used it had a value greater than that of a ToT bag. A booster potentially saved you time, like an XP one could help you finish a PvP track faster, or a mastery. 5s from a single ToT is nothing when you think about it. Compared to the time saved/rewards gained faster, I’d lose the 5s. For the boosters.

Abelisk.4527:

I thought we got 4 items?
Guaranteed ToT bag + 2 items + 1 uncommon item.

I got a revive orb, a toy miniature egg (Mini Shade), and the new glider on my first chest! Win!! Definitely love this one far more than the previous BL chest.

You get the ToT bag and 2 items guaranteed. Then there is a RNG chance for a 4th slot that has a rare item. (From opening up 26 chests, I’m guessing it as around 1 in 10 keys that you’ll get a 4th slot)

What you got with one key was unusually lucky. My free key gave me a ToT bag, a revive orb and a tome of knowledge. Your 4th rare item was the glider.

Abelisk.4527:

I thought we got 4 items?
Guaranteed ToT bag + 2 items + 1 uncommon item.

I got a revive orb, a toy miniature egg (Mini Shade), and the new glider on my first chest! Win!! Definitely love this one far more than the previous BL chest.

Me too, guess I need to re read the patch notes.

I am very disappointed to see that the ToT bags/seasonal items replaced a regular item instead of being something additional during celebrations. We already get useless Tomes of Knowledge.

At this point, I can’t justify spending cash on chests with this additional chance of getting another abundantly dropped item.

I would be more apt to buy keys when additional items are offered or when they are on sale.

I wish the seasonal item, ie ToT bag, was a 4th slot like it was in years past. As it is now, it cheats people out of 1 item.

PS Please remove Tomes…we get them from daily logins, pvp tracks, and wvw tracks…we don’t need them in the BL Chests anymore lol.

I’m salty they removed boosters…..

When you get a repair canister, a revive orb and a booster, atleast you could say “hey I got a booster”….

Boosters are always helpful.

I think people are misunderstanding what has changed and the fact that BL chests always dropped junk and are always going to drop junk — these are designed to appeal to those who like the thrill of rolling the dice; it’s not for bargain hunters.

Before today, we had a guaranteed chance to get a booster and two rolls to get something else, which included BL scraps & tickets, a ton of stuff that people complained about, and very, very, very low chances of anything meaningful to most of us.

Today, we get a guaranteed low-value seasonal item all year round, the same two chances for junk, and a fourth chance for a guaranteed skin unlock, including a lot of hard-to-find, some impossible-to-find, and some very costly skins.

I’m going to miss the boosters, since I never considered buying any because of all the free ones I got. But I really like the idea of the guaranteed unlocks and I think, in the long run, that’s a much more valuable offering to the vast majority of us.

tl;dr seasonal-replacing-booster is a bad trade-off, so it’s a good thing what we got was seasonal plus a 10% chance of an unlock. (Still not worth the price in gems, of course.)

I have to agree that the ToT bag isn’t a positive. But they wanted something they could change frequently, that doesn’t break the TP or fill your bank with what some call “more useless junk”.

The other items in the first row of common are the “convenience item” and the second row in commons are the “progress your account in some way” item. If you are going to pull tomes, what would you replace them with? Also not everybody gets tons of tombs. Sure I get 8-10 a week but I know many people who barely get any because they aren’t here daily or frequent WvW or PvP or acquire enough writs from doing dailies to convert.

Question is who buys keys? Is the greater number of keys bought by those who don’t play frequently or those who do? If it’s players who can only play a day or two a week, then it’s a good reward.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

I think people are misunderstanding what has changed and the fact that BL chests always dropped junk and are always going to drop junk — these are designed to appeal to those who like the thrill of rolling the dice; it’s not for bargain hunters.

Before today, we had a guaranteed chance to get a booster and two rolls to get something else, which included BL scraps & tickets, a ton of stuff that people complained about, and very, very, very low chances of anything meaningful to most of us.

Today, we get a guaranteed low-value seasonal item all year round, the same two chances for junk, and a fourth chance for a guaranteed skin unlock, including a lot of hard-to-find, some impossible-to-find, and some very costly skins.

I’m going to miss the boosters, since I never considered buying any because of all the free ones I got. But I really like the idea of the guaranteed unlocks and I think, in the long run, that’s a much more valuable offering to the vast majority of us.

tl;dr seasonal-replacing-booster is a bad trade-off, so it’s a good thing what we got was seasonal plus a 10% chance of an unlock. (Still not worth the price in gems, of course.)

This is all true, however my main gripe is the removal of many long-running items from the chests which have always been available as very rare drops, in particular the home instance nodes.

These items were a rarity, to be sure, but their drop rate was relatively consistent if you consider that a lot of people open BL chests on a regular basis. With their removal, the supply on these has effectively been dropped to zero, meaning the price on them will steadily rise until the chest’s drop tables are adjusted with the next festival or seasonal patch.

As someone pointed out earlier in this thread (might have even been you, IWN), it’s likely that they are going to be reintroducing the home instance nodes as BL chest drops, based on the season or currently-running festival. This makes sense, but I’m confident that unless they introduce them at higher-than-normal drop rates, supply will not be able to meet demand. Some nodes are already prohibitively expensive, like iron, hard wood, or flax, and those are only going to get even higher now that they are no long acquirable through non-TP means.

Regarding boosters, the only way to get them is through level-up or character birthdays (unless I’m forgetting something) and personally, I burn through my boosters pretty fast so I always appreciated getting what I did from chests. I’m thankful that I own the candy corn gobbler as that will be my main method of getting boosts—I won’t ever spend gems on boosters as I don’t feel they’re worth the high price tag, despite their usefulness.

For the record, I’d rather get a booster than a trick-or-treat bag or Wintersday gift, but the debate of booster vs seasonal item is an endless one and I doubt that both sides will ever come to an agreement on which is more desired.