Guild Wars 2

A group of guildies and I were running some dungeons last night, and got to talking about exotic drop rates. Pretty much the experience everyone (except me) has had is that they get about 1-3 exotic drops per week. Sometimes none, sometimes one or two, even multiples in a given day. But about 1-3 per week.

What’s my experience? I’ve had one exotic drop for me since release. One. It was a level 78 berserker amulet, and it dropped from the chest at the end of one of the Wintersday instances. That’s it. I’ve gotten exotics from higher-end zone completion rewards, but I’m not counting those. Everyone gets those, just for completing the zone. I’m only counting random drops, chest drops, world event boss chests, etc. Anyway, when I relayed my drop rate experience to my guildies, they were shocked.

I’ve got 3 level 80’s and a few alts in the mid-30’s. I run world events regularly, I do dungeons, lots of DE’s etc. So it’s not that I’ve been playing since release but just hanging around LA. I’ve gotten out there a lot. Just only that one exotic drop.

So, I’m curious, GW2-ers, what is your experience with the frequency of exotic drops?

Before people chime in here and label this thread as “just another whiny loot post,” I enjoy this game for lots of reasons, and I’m not a “it’s all about the loot” player. Sure, I’d love to get better drops, but it doesn’t ruin the game for me.

I’m just curious.

Been playing since last October, have only ever had exotic sigil/rune type items drop. Never seen an exotic weapon.
edit: or armor piece

I have had too many exotics too count. From weapons to armor I gotten them. I tend not to keep them I just sell them (depending). I also have gained like 10 account bound exotics from Fractals.

Playing since release, so far only I’ve had two exotics drop. One was a medium chest armor from a Tequatl chest, none of my chars could use it so I checked the TP, the item went for like 6g, but the rune it had equipped went for like 10g (don’t remember which one it was), so I salvaged it and sold it, other was an exotic trident that dropped on a dungeon run from a trash mob, placed it on TP for a few days (there were a couple others selling for like 3g), nobody wanted it so now my guardian has it equipped.

I’ve had like a dozen or so drop outside of the Giant Momma Karka event.

I play since release and my first exotic drop was from Maw (the exotic earring) four days ago.

I have played on and off since headstart – played a lot til November, then intermittently until March and now quite a bit again.

I’ve had a couple of exotic drops. For what I can remember, I received one in a Wintersday dungeon, one on the Maw world boss event and one in a Fractals dungeon.

I have approximately 420 hours of playtime, and 2 level 80’s 1 level 72.

I have received one exotic drop and it was a level 78 I believe.

I am on the low end of the drop rate scale (meaning I rarely get good drops). My husband and I can run through an area together (doesn’t matter which of the 8 professions we’re using that day) but 98% of the time he gets more drops and better quality (multiple greens and rares).

In large group events (chest spawning bosses) I’m just happy to even get a chest!
I become laggy once there are more than 10 players in the event area, so sometimes I don’t receive the chest nor any type of participation reward. (this is why I do not WvW).

Drop rates seem to be all over the place. Some rarely receive good drops, while others always get multiple rares/exotics. Could be due to RNG, player skill (DPS), computer speed, or a combination. Who knows?

I still enjoy the game, and luckily hubby passes to me any item he has no use for….so eventually I end up getting what I need. :-)

I have to say 1-ish a week as well. Two this week, but that’s anomalous.

About exotic drops in PVE; never more again after NOV.
Only in Dungeons and Fractals

Exotics drop very rarely from mobs (exceedingly rarely) however it does happen.
Exotics drop fairly frequently in high-level fractals. Not all the time, but you will get quite a few if you’re running them every day.
Exotics drop from world event chests more frequently than regular mobs but less frequently than fractals.

One level 78 exotic since launch…

Too many to count since the world boss chest buff. I got 2 today. A couple days ago I got an exotic off a player in WvW. Looking back through my sold items history on the BLTP it looks like I’ve gotten > 20 in the last month.

Before the world boss chest buff, I think I had probably gotten < 10 exotic drops (not counting map completion) since release.

I might see an exotic drop once a week on average. I spend the majority of my time inside dungeons or fractals.

Played since head start, WvW + PvE exotics dropped = 0
1 lvl80 Ranger, 1 lvl80Guardian the others are low lvl except the Warrior I’m playing on to make money for the other characters. Just got that to lvl75 recently. It gets more loot and better loot but have only been using it for a couple months now.
~700hrs

The last exotic drop I received was February 13th. I know the exact date because it’s in a post I made and it’s part of my “highly rated posts”.

Since launch I have only received 2 exotics, including the one mentioned here on 3 different characters.

I do dragons every day. I do the Maw event every day. I do Sunless and Maw on 2 different characters every day.

I want to complain about the drop rate of exotics, but after the change they made where you are guaranteed a rare from the dragon chests I really hate to.

The last thing I would want to see is them to revert the loot back to the way it was. It’s still horrible, but at least a dragon chest is a guaranteed rare and an ecto chance.

I have no idea what fractals drop. I don’t do them, no one in my guild does them and I don’t know anyone who does.

Remember that you don’t even qualify for Exotic drops until level 70-ish. All the time spent before getting to that point is discounted because you don’t fight mobs capable of dropping exotics until that point.

It also relies heavily on what you spend your time doing. Chests have a much higher chance to drop exotics than anything else. That means a lot of Dungeons, Fractals, and Dragon events. If you spend your time doing map completion, DE, hearts, or WvW, you simply do not have the return rate of Chest farming. Even before the Pent/Shelt nerf in Orr, it was still better to run Fractals repeatedly for Exotics than to use DEs and kill massive amounts of zombie chickens.

I would have to guess, but I think it’s around two a month for me. on 1 hand, getting those exotics were extremely noteworthy, but not so much as to say 1 or 2 ever.

in fact, in my best stroke of luck, 2 weeks ago I got 2 named exotics, emberglow & drakevenom. Best luck I’ve ever had.

I have known people with much better luck than that though

I have had External Ice drop once in a Maw event, other than that all my exotics are from either Arah Vendor or from a Dungeon Vendor. Through I do seem some Exotics linked from Maw most days. now

800 hours of play and no exotic drops.

Tuesday was the first time I’ve had an Exotic drop. It was Final Rest. It really doesn’t bother me much since I just craft my exotics as I get materials. As long as there is a viable outlet for gaining exotic gear, I don’t really see the problem with a low drop rate in PvE.

Playing since mid january… have 1 lvl 80 main, 450 hrs played last time I checked.
I do all big chest events daily (give or take a day in between) and I always hop on dungeon runs our large guild does. I also do fractals.

So far I have gotten 3 exotics. 1 was a lvl 78 account bound ceremonial focus from a large fractal chest on personal reward lvel 5, 1 a lvl 78 shield from Jormag’s chest and – best luck so far – Final Rest from Shadow Behemoth a couple days ago.

So that would be roughly one exotic every 2 and a half weeks.

(unless we are also counting superior sigils/runes… I have gotten 4 I think all from explorable mode dungeons)

I have done about 10 dragon events total from launch and only 1 dungeon. I am going to hazard a guess that it pretty much disqualifies me from getting an exotic.
I am happy that drops of rares have improved though.
EDIT: forgot to mention that the main lvl80 ranger has been lvl80 since October so it wasn’t the level holding me back.

Playing since launch, my main toon reached lvl80 mid September I think, and I must have dropped 4 or 5 exotics in 2 or 3 months of regular (but not daily) play.

I don’t recall an exotic ever just dropping for me. Which is not to say that one never has, just that if one ever did it was so long ago I don’t remember it. I’ve got them from map completion of high level zones and I got a level 80 named exotic shortbow from the Lost Shores event aftermath email, but beyond that all my exotic gear has been bought from the TP or crafted (with mats mostly bought from the TP, looking at you, gossamer).

I’ve killed thousands of mobs with full magic find and I have found 4 exotics since August.

I ran CoF for 1 week and found 3. There seems to be an almost 0% chance to drop from regular mobs, and a higher chance from chests.

I’ve received… 2? Crystaline Blade and Handheld disaster, both from the Lost Shores Karka event. I was still 70-something at the time, so I probably would’ve received better if I’d actually been level 80.

Since then… nothing.

I can’t really complain, though, since I get lucky with other things. Like Halloween skins from Black Lion chests and such. Saving those up made more than enough money to just buy whatever I need.

From doing a LOT of farming lol.. I can say I haven’t seen many exotics at all from event mobs. I don’t farm much outside of the events so I couldn’t say for that. The times I’ve seen exotics most were from chests, though I think I remember Anet saying that dungeon chests etc have better chances of rarer loot that mobs. I don’t mind so much as I make plenty of mats and rares, but I can’t say that the exotic prices for regular non shiny gear being 1-3g each, isn’t too bad really. If you start seeing standard exotics reach 4+g I’d say we might have a problem.

100% non farmer here. Never ran FOTM either.

I level and play wpvp mostly. I do Orr from about 72-80 at the tunnels and running events. Been playing since beta weekends.

I have gotten 6 exotics. 2 were in wpvp. I have gotten a ton of rares..

people always remember the times things happen, not the times they don’t.
If you’re out looking for exotics, you remember getting them all the time, so of course your estimate is higher. you might think to yourself: “I’ve found maybe 4 in recent memory, and recent memory is maybe 2 weeks, so I found 2 per week”, forgetting that 2 of those were from the mystic forge, and 1 of them was purchased off the TP.
On the other hand, if you’re looking for all the times you didn’t get an exotic, your general impression is that you haven’t gotten any in a long time, and you can remember 2 weeks back, so you get less than 0 from 2 weeks.
human memory is highly unreliable. Just ask Sammy Jenkins

Good old Sammy…

What Sammy also knew is that the emotional involvement of those who want it more, meants they will even further skew their perception – I can invest more (everything and care less about an exotic/legendary than someone else who invests less (whatever) and cares more.

In short – because you care about loots it will never drop, NEVER.

Maybe a dozen world boss/dragon chests today, two exotics (Shatterer’s orange version of the Kral earring and named gloves off the champ icebrood wolf at Claw) and +6 extra rares.

Rarely get exotics otherwise. In a WvW blitz after the upgraded drops I found The Ugly Stick (and a rare pistol in the same loot bag…), but other than that, maybe an exotic a week if frequently playing as an 80.

Try the world bosses. With the dragon timers and guesting you can get ten done in an hour of actual play (I’m assuming you’re AFK while waiting). That’s a guaranteed 10 rares (2.5-3g) with enough blues and greens to cover WPs and a respectable chance at additional rares/exotics, including precursors.

It actually isn’t too boring if you do other stuff while you wait, especially Tequatl and Claw. Scummy it may be, but I like to run around killing Risen at Teq and okittenerker thief can tag a good three dozen Vets during Claw of Jormag. If you do a bit of damage to the champion wolf and goliath during the second faze you’ll get credit when they’re instakilled at barrier drop/event completion, and that’s an extra four champ kills on top of your guaranteed chest.

3 weeks ago had in night 2 exotic in wvsw :P

Been playing since release
At the top of my head, I can probably think of about 12 exotics that I looted since release, with the best being Final rest

age = 878 hours & change
5 L80 alts
1 L72 alt, 1 L65, 1 L49

Exotic drops ? exactly zero.

Friend who has been playing about 900 hours but with fewer high-level alts: “too many to count”.

Something is completely out of whack.

Played since Beta Weekend 1, number of exotic drops of any kind = 0.

It is RANDOM, and basically reset what- four weeks ago was the last documented change? So really in four weeks Otaur saw zero, before that who knows!

Reach into a cup and pull out a numbered ball within it (lets say there’s 10 consecutive balls) read the ball – then put it back into the cup. The logic problem is that for each “negative” does not bring you closer to the possitive…

As someone who has both won and lost THOUSANDS playing two-up (one day a year) trust me when I say your mind wants to put in those patterns you report, it really does.

Doomdesire.9365:

Been playing since release
At the top of my head, I can probably think of about 12 exotics that I looted since release, with the best being Final rest

I’m about on par with this. Mind you all the armour I’m wearing is from throwing in 4 x rare into MF to get exotics.

As a side note, i’ve had 3 tiny wooden chest drops in wvw with my guardian from level 55 to 62ish.

1 was completely empty, 2 had junk skulls and that’s it.

I like to think they would have been precursers if she was 80..

I get one or two a week. Got a decent exotic named bow day before yesterday. Usually they’re just the regular unnamed exotics though.

OP, how often do you get rares?

the dro is epic fail grind fest

If those orange sigils/runes I loot from dungeons count, then relatively often.

If not, maybe one every 30 hours of playtime.

If I’m lucky I might get a rare or two a week- since headstart I’ve had 3 exotics, two of which were aquatic weapons and one some or other crest. ( all off regular trash mobs)
The aquatic weapons are now on my main and the crest sold for less than 50 silver.
Luckily I am not that bothered by loot :P

Gads! What a diverse range of responses …

I have been playing since game launch, my Ranger hit lvl 80 in October, my alt Guardian hit lvl 80 early last month (Feb).

Exotic drops have been very few for me, but oddly enough I had this drop off a risen wraith in CS last evening:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Khrysaor,_the_Golden_Sword

Over the months, 2 other exotics have dropped from mobs in Orr, one was this: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/X7-10_Alpha
Sold for 2-3g
The other was an armour piece I salvaged cos the rune was worth more than the item.

From the Karka chest I got this:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Naga_Fang
Sold it for 4g at the time

From a CoF chest a while back I got this:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mojo
Also sold for 2-3g

Might have had another from a chest along the way I cannot recall ..
So, this means 5, perhaps 6 at the most over 6 months.

The people who say they are getting 1 or 2 a week I find, frankly, astounding!

To clarify: when I said zero exotic drops, I did not just mean armor, weapons, and jewels. I have also never had a crest (of any kind whatsoever) drop, nor any lodestones.

Every “orange” item I have ever obtained has been via map clearing or purchase (including karma armor).

In 878 hours, my highest ever gold total has been 21 in the bank, because I’m constantly having to spend it to buy rare or exotic gear for my L80 alts.

Vayne.8563:

I get one or two a week. Got a decent exotic named bow day before yesterday. Usually they’re just the regular unnamed exotics though.

OP, how often do you get rares?

since the “loot fix” of a few weeks ago, I probably get one rare per day, not including what I get from world event chests. Prior to that, I got perhaps one rare every two weeks.

Euryon.9248:

In 878 hours, my highest ever gold total has been 21 in the bank, because I’m constantly having to spend it to buy rare or exotic gear for my L80 alts.

It’s been about the same for me. I heard someone in voice chat the other night say they were contemplating buying a second commander tag. I can’t imagine even one.

Been playing since Beta. I just had 1 exotic since then. Sold it for about 3 Gold…

Maybe the question is not how long you have been playing without a drop. Playing 1 hour a day for the past 200 days since launch or 200hrs and not getting any drops is one thing. Then again playing many hours a day over the past 200 days or 1500 hrs is completely different.

I personally consider myself quite unlucky when comparing myself to others that I run with as documented by the drops from Valuable Chests as the Wiki calls them. Allow me to give you an example.

I documented All the Valuable Chests that I opened over the past 12 days, total 134. This amounted to anywhere from 9 to 18 chests opened in one 24 hr period. I only do this on my home server(no server jumping). And in that previous 12 days I received a grand total of…Zero Exotics.

Yes my friends I said No Exotics in 134 chests. Now don’t get me wrong I am not complaining as I have gotten about 150 Rares out of that batch. I am quite pleased.

So whats my point you say? Day 13, yesterday, I opened 5 chests and got…2 Exotics.

Go figure.

Of the maybe 15 total exotics I’ve ever gotten (not counting karma bought gear), maybe half have been from map completion, one from random loot, and the rest from chests. Event chests seem to be the best lately, as it is close to a guaranteed rare, and perhaps an exotic. I have gotten two exotic amulets/accessories (not worth much), and an exotic shield since they changed the chest loot recently.

I have two level 80’s, one with full map completion and the other with maybe 60% complete. I have been doing on average about 4-5 world events daily since the chest change.