Guild Wars 2

Chest of Exotic Equipment

If I don’t have anyone coming up that needs anything any more, is there any that’s better to pick than the others? Maybe for salvaging reasons? Do some usually come with better ruins than the others? Are the lights best to get for salvaging mats? If so, any light better than the other (Elementalist/Mesmer/Necro)?

Light armor, any > sell silk scrap or use to craft the ascended one (bolt of damask) then sell.

RSLongK.8961:

Light armor, any > sell silk scrap or use to craft the ascended one (bolt of damask) then sell.

Thanks. Everything else is pretty random? With respect to type and runes and the class set you pick?

If I’m not mistaken, there is a chance to get even a pre from it.
Since there are named exotics coming out of it.

Tao.1234:

If I’m not mistaken, there is a chance to get even a pre from it.
Since there are named exotics coming out of it.

Well that’s interesting. I already have Bifrost. I wonder if I should alternate between Mesmer and Necro..just in case?

Even though i main a mesmer i pick warrior everytime in case i get armour with a strength rune to salvage.

ToT.7018:

Even though i main a mesmer i pick warrior everytime in case i get armour with a strength rune to salvage.

See, that’s kinda what I was thinking. I don’t suppose anyone has done any metrics on it? Like whether you’d just be further ahead salvaging for cloth vs hoping for str runes? Are the str runes common enough? Or is it pretty much just anything can show up?

I take the Mesmer box. Your drop table then includes light armor and Greatswords.

I’ve had armors with strength from picking warriors box, however if i remember right the last time i got rabid amulet lol. End of the day though it’s random but as long as im getting nice items to salvage on warrior i will stick to that.

OK, great input, thanks folks.

tl;dr: RNG affects your value much more than your choice of box. If you must choose based on some estimated value, choose ele or mesmer boxes.

Detailed analysis:

It’s nearly impossible to get enough reliable data to make predictions on what pops out from the chests. Each account only gets one item every 4 weeks and there are dozens (if not 100s) of potential drops. So you’d have to crowd source from 500-1000 different players. Since even the wiki rarely gets more than 2-3 dozen people offering drop rate data, I don’t see that happening any time soon.

Thus any estimation we make is entirely speculative based on the sorts of things we see on the TP, exotics that drop from other containers, results from the forge, and the things we know can drop.

Here are imo the most reasonable assumptions we can make:

• Necro|Ele|Mesmer boxes are guaranteed to drop light armor, if they drop armor.
• Ele & Mesmer have the highest ratio of exotics suitable for precursor forging (40% and 33% respectively). (The highest valued exotics that drop from convention sources are GS, Staff, Dagger, & Sword, so the ratios are G: 3/11, W: 2/11, E: 0/4, R: 2/10, T: 2/6, E: 2/5, Me: 3/9, N: 2/8)
• Some argue that mesmer has an extra chance of getting a precursor, since there are two GS. However forging data suggests that the odds are the same as for other weapons, just divided between dusk and dawn.

In terms of strength runes, here’s the data on TP armor that includes one:

• 10 heavy
• 8 light
• 3 medium

So I would argue that the chance of getting one from the warrior box isn’t notably better than if you choose a mesmer or ele box.

tl;dr elementalist and mesmer are good choices because they have a chance to give a small bit of silk and you can use their weapons to roll for the most valuable precursors. However, the overall variation is so high and we get so few boxes per account, that it probably doesn’t matter in the long run which you choose: the best choice is the one that gives you a lucky drop and there’s no way to predict that.

Has this logic changed in the last few months?

Or are the light armor boxes still the way to go. If it matters, I am playing a Thief & am working on my ascended armor now. (Have ascended daggers/sword, praying to RNGjesus for pistol.)

mtpelion.4562:

I take the Mesmer box. Your drop table then includes light armor and Greatswords.

This.

Blaqatak.1395:

Has this logic changed in the last few months?

Or are the light armor boxes still the way to go. If it matters, I am playing a Thief & am working on my ascended armor now. (Have ascended daggers/sword, praying to RNGjesus for pistol.)

The logic remains the same:

• The odds of getting a great drop are too low for it to matter which prof you choose.
• The odds of getting the right piece of gear with the right stats are also low.

In other words: it only matters if you get super lucky and there’s no way to predict when that might happen.

That said, since your choice is unlikely to matter much, you might as well choose the prof that gives you better entertainment value in the anticipation of wondering what you might get.

• Mesmer or Ele remain good choices, because bad results mean cloth (which is reasonably valuable) and the odds of getting a good weapon choice are better than in other profs.
• In your case, Thief is a good option because a bad result means leather (which is very valuable) and you have a use for a lot of potential weapons.

tl;dr it doesn’t matter, much. Choose something that offers the possibility of an interesting drop for you.

Leather is now more valuable than cloth, if that affects your decision making. That said, Mesmer still offers the potential of Sword, Staff and Greatsword, three weapons that are generally expensive.