Guild Wars 2

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

A few farmers will get less keys per week and the whole player base gets more from random drops, i dont see how this will impact bl skin prices in a bad way.

So, do you think that the majority of the BL weapon skins are from people buying keys and not key farming? If most skins are from key farmers then this is a serious hit to supply. It takes on average 30 keys to get one skin. Since I sincerely doubt they will be dropping at a rate of 30 keys per player per year, then they aren’t going to be replacing even one competed set of key farming per year. The average key farmers who does his weekly key farm is going to get maybe two tickets a year. The only way that supply isn’t going to be hit is if the main source of skins is from people buying keys, not farming.

Yes, in my opinion, only a small minority of opened chests was from farmed keys.

Then I wonder, if only a small minority of opened chests are from farmed keys, then why did ANet go out of their way to nerf farming keys? Normally companies don’t invest time and money changing issues of small importance to their pocketbook, especially a situation where they had already said that they were fine with people farming keys. To reverse a long standing policy of this nature suggests that there were a substantial number of farmed keys. Enough to impact them financially.

I dont think they did this change for financial reasons, otherwise they wouldnt have buffed the droprate from random mobs. I guess they dont want people to create a character, do the same story mission over and over again and then rinse and repeat but rather have them play in the open world with other players.

And reversing a longstanding policy where they said it’s fine. If the number of keys being farmed like this is small, as you suggest, then the number of people who were doing this is smaller, which means they reversed a long standing policy and spent the time to code this in in order to affect a small number of people. If the number of people who were tied up with this is so small, and it’s not affecting much, why should ANet care enough about it to nerf it?

Because they dont want new players to see this repetitive gameplay as the best way to earn wealth. They want them to experience the full story line and open world pve or other parts of the game.

Unless the key drop rate was increased on an exponentially large scale, Anet really made a petty, money-grubbing change to the game.

I’ve played a lot (and paid a lot, in gem purchases). In 6000 hours of play, I’ve had about 3 black lion keys drop.

Stop kittening on the people that support your game Anet. It’s NOT good for business. I will NEVER buy a black lion key from you again.

Wanze.8410:

Because they dont want new players to see this repetitive gameplay as the best way to earn wealth. They want them to experience the full story line and open world pve or other parts of the game.

Yeah sure! It’s way better to experience boreing repetitive world completions, personal story, dungeons, fractals and the old same pvp.
Anet should just remove all this content because it’s endlessly repetitive!

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

A few farmers will get less keys per week and the whole player base gets more from random drops, i dont see how this will impact bl skin prices in a bad way.

So, do you think that the majority of the BL weapon skins are from people buying keys and not key farming? If most skins are from key farmers then this is a serious hit to supply. It takes on average 30 keys to get one skin. Since I sincerely doubt they will be dropping at a rate of 30 keys per player per year, then they aren’t going to be replacing even one competed set of key farming per year. The average key farmers who does his weekly key farm is going to get maybe two tickets a year. The only way that supply isn’t going to be hit is if the main source of skins is from people buying keys, not farming.

Yes, in my opinion, only a small minority of opened chests was from farmed keys.

Then I wonder, if only a small minority of opened chests are from farmed keys, then why did ANet go out of their way to nerf farming keys? Normally companies don’t invest time and money changing issues of small importance to their pocketbook, especially a situation where they had already said that they were fine with people farming keys. To reverse a long standing policy of this nature suggests that there were a substantial number of farmed keys. Enough to impact them financially.

I dont think they did this change for financial reasons, otherwise they wouldnt have buffed the droprate from random mobs. I guess they dont want people to create a character, do the same story mission over and over again and then rinse and repeat but rather have them play in the open world with other players.

And reversing a longstanding policy where they said it’s fine. If the number of keys being farmed like this is small, as you suggest, then the number of people who were doing this is smaller, which means they reversed a long standing policy and spent the time to code this in in order to affect a small number of people. If the number of people who were tied up with this is so small, and it’s not affecting much, why should ANet care enough about it to nerf it?

Because they dont want new players to see this repetitive gameplay as the best way to earn wealth. They want them to experience the full story line and open world pve or other parts of the game.

This opinion might be worth considering, if they hadn’t already said they were fine with it. If it actually was the best way to earn wealth. If there were so many key runners that new people were rushing to join the crowd. If they had put in the nerf 3 years ago when key running appeared.

Sorry, at this point you’re reaching. Either there was enough people doing key runs that key running was making an impact and was nerfed. Or there wasn’t many people doing key runs, not enough for ANet to go out of their way to nerf. Not your opinion that there were few yet these few were impacting the game enough to need a nerf.

Zypher.7609:

Paulytnz.7619:

My fix:

1 – Remove chests/keys.
2 – Sell the skins or Tickets DIRECTLY.
3 – Add a TON more skins that people will actually want with no RNG behind it.
4 – Enjoy gem sales.

Gambling of this form has no place in this game at all. The game is a shining example of being great quality from makers with top notch integrity, well that’s what you think until you discover this part of the game.

You can already buy the weapon skins directly? I can open the trading post and buy the skins, there is no RNG involved.

I would prefer to buy from anet at a decent, fair price and not from some money hungry greedy player who bought it for cheaper and then bumped the price up to make a profit.

Say no to Trade Wars2!

Paulytnz.7619:

Zypher.7609:

Paulytnz.7619:

My fix:

1 – Remove chests/keys.
2 – Sell the skins or Tickets DIRECTLY.
3 – Add a TON more skins that people will actually want with no RNG behind it.
4 – Enjoy gem sales.

Gambling of this form has no place in this game at all. The game is a shining example of being great quality from makers with top notch integrity, well that’s what you think until you discover this part of the game.

You can already buy the weapon skins directly? I can open the trading post and buy the skins, there is no RNG involved.

I would prefer to buy from anet at a decent, fair price and not from some money hungry greedy player who bought it for cheaper and then bumped the price up to make a profit.

Say no to Trade Wars2!

mmmh at the moment you need about min. 25 key for 1 ticket ( ratio about every second chest one scrap) = 2100 gems ( you would get 300 gold if you convert your gems directly to gold!)
mmmh at the moment you can buy new 1 ticket blc skins for round about 70 g

Find the error (or not) Paul and keep on saying no to trade wars 2 and greets to the money hungry greedy player w:)

The never said it key farming was fine, they simply allowed it. Big difference.

When asked if you could get into trouble key farming, the answer was no.

When asked if the NPE PS move to level 10 was to nerf key farming the answer was no.

That doesn’t mean they supported it. They simply didn’t have the data that allowed them to set a limit and know if that limit would affect a player playing “normally”. Now obviously they do and like DR, and dungeon and world boss chests they are setting a limit to discourage a form of game play they never wanted players to focus on.

Zaron.1987:

Paulytnz.7619:

Zypher.7609:

Paulytnz.7619:

My fix:

1 – Remove chests/keys.
2 – Sell the skins or Tickets DIRECTLY.
3 – Add a TON more skins that people will actually want with no RNG behind it.
4 – Enjoy gem sales.

Gambling of this form has no place in this game at all. The game is a shining example of being great quality from makers with top notch integrity, well that’s what you think until you discover this part of the game.

You can already buy the weapon skins directly? I can open the trading post and buy the skins, there is no RNG involved.

I would prefer to buy from anet at a decent, fair price and not from some money hungry greedy player who bought it for cheaper and then bumped the price up to make a profit.

Say no to Trade Wars2!

mmmh at the moment you need about min. 25 key for 1 ticket ( ratio about every second chest one scrap) = 2100 gems ( you would get 300 gold if you convert your gems directly to gold!)
mmmh at the moment you can buy new 1 ticket blc skins for round about 70 g

Find the error (or not) Paul and keep on saying no to trade wars 2 and greets to the money hungry greedy player w:)

I found your error alright.

I said I would prefer to buy these skins from anet at a decent, fair price. To heck with keys and chests, get rid of them and sell the skins directly. So too for the endless tonics and other items. Just you watch these skins shoot up to well and truly beyond the 70 gold current price.

The only people that are going to benefit from this are those players who choose to plonk down vast monies (real life) for the keys to turn into tickets to then price gouge the heck out of everyone else on gw2. That is what is going to happen here and yes creating many more new greedy players. But hey sure, yes if you are one of them sure go for it, continue to support this, feel free to.

Paulytnz.7619:

Zypher.7609:

Paulytnz.7619:

My fix:

1 – Remove chests/keys.
2 – Sell the skins or Tickets DIRECTLY.
3 – Add a TON more skins that people will actually want with no RNG behind it.
4 – Enjoy gem sales.

Gambling of this form has no place in this game at all. The game is a shining example of being great quality from makers with top notch integrity, well that’s what you think until you discover this part of the game.

You can already buy the weapon skins directly? I can open the trading post and buy the skins, there is no RNG involved.

I would prefer to buy from anet at a decent, fair price and not from some money hungry greedy player who bought it for cheaper and then bumped the price up to make a profit.

Say no to Trade Wars2!

Wait you don’t consider a skin with a real money value of 184€ a fair price?

Behellagh.1468:

The never said it key farming was fine, they simply allowed it. Big difference.

When asked if you could get into trouble key farming, the answer was no.

When asked if the NPE PS move to level 10 was to nerf key farming the answer was no.

That doesn’t mean they supported it. They simply didn’t have the data that allowed them to set a limit and know if that limit would affect a player playing “normally”. Now obviously they do and like DR, and dungeon and world boss chests they are setting a limit to discourage a form of game play they never wanted players to focus on.

I can understand and accept this. But we are obviously dealing with 2 issues here. It’s not only the key farming and the option to be able do it or not. It’s also the issue of the BLTC chests, how they work and what you get from them.

Obviously being that people were able to do the key farming they could somewhat look away or ignore the terrible mess that the BLTC chest/key system is. Now that option is taken away, yes people are going to look at the system again, grumble and straight out make some noise over it. Anet are going to have to address both issues here and not just 1 if they expect to come out of this with any great deal of happy players.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

A few farmers will get less keys per week and the whole player base gets more from random drops, i dont see how this will impact bl skin prices in a bad way.

So, do you think that the majority of the BL weapon skins are from people buying keys and not key farming? If most skins are from key farmers then this is a serious hit to supply. It takes on average 30 keys to get one skin. Since I sincerely doubt they will be dropping at a rate of 30 keys per player per year, then they aren’t going to be replacing even one competed set of key farming per year. The average key farmers who does his weekly key farm is going to get maybe two tickets a year. The only way that supply isn’t going to be hit is if the main source of skins is from people buying keys, not farming.

Yes, in my opinion, only a small minority of opened chests was from farmed keys.

Then I wonder, if only a small minority of opened chests are from farmed keys, then why did ANet go out of their way to nerf farming keys? Normally companies don’t invest time and money changing issues of small importance to their pocketbook, especially a situation where they had already said that they were fine with people farming keys. To reverse a long standing policy of this nature suggests that there were a substantial number of farmed keys. Enough to impact them financially.

I dont think they did this change for financial reasons, otherwise they wouldnt have buffed the droprate from random mobs. I guess they dont want people to create a character, do the same story mission over and over again and then rinse and repeat but rather have them play in the open world with other players.

And reversing a longstanding policy where they said it’s fine. If the number of keys being farmed like this is small, as you suggest, then the number of people who were doing this is smaller, which means they reversed a long standing policy and spent the time to code this in in order to affect a small number of people. If the number of people who were tied up with this is so small, and it’s not affecting much, why should ANet care enough about it to nerf it?

Because they dont want new players to see this repetitive gameplay as the best way to earn wealth. They want them to experience the full story line and open world pve or other parts of the game.

This opinion might be worth considering, if they hadn’t already said they were fine with it. If it actually was the best way to earn wealth. If there were so many key runners that new people were rushing to join the crowd. If they had put in the nerf 3 years ago when key running appeared.

Sorry, at this point you’re reaching. Either there was enough people doing key runs that key running was making an impact and was nerfed. Or there wasn’t many people doing key runs, not enough for ANet to go out of their way to nerf. Not your opinion that there were few yet these few were impacting the game enough to need a nerf.

Opinions change, even Anets. They were fine with farming cof1 for gold until they nerfed it in order to promote running other paths and dungeons. They were fine with champ trains in low level areas until they removed most champs.

Point is, if player behaviour and meta changes, Anet has to re-evaluate the situation, which they did now.

Just because they once said they were fine with key farming once, doesnt mean they will always be fine with it.

People can still farm a key once a week, if they wish. The amount of gold they make per hour with it wont change, they only cant spam it anymore. If Prices for BL skins should really rise significantly, which i dont believe, it will be an incentive for other players to get one once per week, even though they usually wouldnt bother.

RIght now people just claim its a stupid change because the prices of BL skins will rise, which remains to be seen.

Some people complain that there is mostly rubbish in BL Chests and Anet should put better rewards into it. If this change makes BL skin prices rise, that would exactly what those people asked for. Unless of course, those people that complained about useless stuff in bl chests were the same that farmed hundreds of keys per year.

Varonth.5830:

Paulytnz.7619:

Zypher.7609:

Paulytnz.7619:

My fix:

1 – Remove chests/keys.
2 – Sell the skins or Tickets DIRECTLY.
3 – Add a TON more skins that people will actually want with no RNG behind it.
4 – Enjoy gem sales.

Gambling of this form has no place in this game at all. The game is a shining example of being great quality from makers with top notch integrity, well that’s what you think until you discover this part of the game.

You can already buy the weapon skins directly? I can open the trading post and buy the skins, there is no RNG involved.

I would prefer to buy from anet at a decent, fair price and not from some money hungry greedy player who bought it for cheaper and then bumped the price up to make a profit.

Say no to Trade Wars2!

Wait you don’t consider a skin with a real money value of 184€ a fair price?

Sorry I am from NZ, your Euro currency sounds greek (no offense :P) to me. Either or, just you watch these skins will shoot up and and you will see even the players who NEVER farmed keys suddenly turn around and start to make some noise.

The low scrap/ticket drop rate from chests is exactly why I don’t buy keys anymore.

We can all agree that’s what most are after with the chests. When you put in 25 keys and barely squeeze out one full ticket, when you need 3 or even 5 tickets per weapon skin, it really makes you never want to spend money on it again.

I honestly think that you should get a guaranteed scrap per key. That would drive sales.

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

A few farmers will get less keys per week and the whole player base gets more from random drops, i dont see how this will impact bl skin prices in a bad way.

So, do you think that the majority of the BL weapon skins are from people buying keys and not key farming? If most skins are from key farmers then this is a serious hit to supply. It takes on average 30 keys to get one skin. Since I sincerely doubt they will be dropping at a rate of 30 keys per player per year, then they aren’t going to be replacing even one competed set of key farming per year. The average key farmers who does his weekly key farm is going to get maybe two tickets a year. The only way that supply isn’t going to be hit is if the main source of skins is from people buying keys, not farming.

Yes, in my opinion, only a small minority of opened chests was from farmed keys.

Then I wonder, if only a small minority of opened chests are from farmed keys, then why did ANet go out of their way to nerf farming keys? Normally companies don’t invest time and money changing issues of small importance to their pocketbook, especially a situation where they had already said that they were fine with people farming keys. To reverse a long standing policy of this nature suggests that there were a substantial number of farmed keys. Enough to impact them financially.

I dont think they did this change for financial reasons, otherwise they wouldnt have buffed the droprate from random mobs. I guess they dont want people to create a character, do the same story mission over and over again and then rinse and repeat but rather have them play in the open world with other players.

And reversing a longstanding policy where they said it’s fine. If the number of keys being farmed like this is small, as you suggest, then the number of people who were doing this is smaller, which means they reversed a long standing policy and spent the time to code this in in order to affect a small number of people. If the number of people who were tied up with this is so small, and it’s not affecting much, why should ANet care enough about it to nerf it?

Because they dont want new players to see this repetitive gameplay as the best way to earn wealth. They want them to experience the full story line and open world pve or other parts of the game.

This opinion might be worth considering, if they hadn’t already said they were fine with it. If it actually was the best way to earn wealth. If there were so many key runners that new people were rushing to join the crowd. If they had put in the nerf 3 years ago when key running appeared.

Sorry, at this point you’re reaching. Either there was enough people doing key runs that key running was making an impact and was nerfed. Or there wasn’t many people doing key runs, not enough for ANet to go out of their way to nerf. Not your opinion that there were few yet these few were impacting the game enough to need a nerf.

Opinions change, even Anets. They were fine with farming cof1 for gold until they nerfed it in order to promote running other paths and dungeons. They were fine with champ trains in low level areas until they removed most champs.

Point is, if player behaviour and meta changes, Anet has to re-evaluate the situation, which they did now.

Just because they once said they were fine with key farming once, doesnt mean they will always be fine with it.

People can still farm a key once a week, if they wish. The amount of gold they make per hour with it wont change, they only cant spam it anymore. If Prices for BL skins should really rise significantly, which i dont believe, it will be an incentive for other players to get one once per week, even though they usually wouldnt bother.

RIght now people just claim its a stupid change because the prices of BL skins will rise, which remains to be seen.

Some people complain that there is mostly rubbish in BL Chests and Anet should put better rewards into it. If this change makes BL skin prices rise, that would exactly what those people asked for. Unless of course, those people that complained about useless stuff in bl chests were the same that farmed hundreds of keys per year.

I’ve been thinking about this situation and I think I might have figured out why they nerfed key farming. It has nothing to do with the number of key farmers or ANet’s wish that people be out more in the world. It has to do with the part where the keys drop more frequently.

What if they did substantially increase the numbers of key drops? Enough that the average player gets one a month or so. What happens when someone gets enough keys dropped over the months that they have almost a full ticket? What happens then?

Before this a person could do some key runs to finish up his ticket. Now he can’t, not in a reasonable amount of time. He has to buy the keys from the gem store. imo this has nothing to do with key farming itself as a player activity and everything to do with getting those people, who before never bought keys, to now buy keys to finish up their scraps to get a valuable ticket. It’s a gemstore driven decision.

Give people a slow but steady stream of keys
Have them get “this close” to something they really want
Block off the fast, free route to finish. Leave only the gem store route to get it fast.
Profit

Wanze.8410:

Because they dont want new players to see this repetitive gameplay as the best way to earn wealth. They want them to experience the full story line and open world pve or other parts of the game.

Oh, come on. Repetitive gameplay is NOT the issue here. Some love it, some hate it. The ones that love it will do it and the ones who hate it won’t. And face it, there’s plenty of repetitive gameplay here to choose from.

The issue is the value of the gamble boxes. Using gameplay to attain them was an okay value for many players. Using cash to attain them never was— so if Anet wants to sell them for cash, something should change.

This goes back to what BLTC are and always have been and that is primarily a gem shop sampler. You are focusing on the box tops for a chance to win and not what normally comes in the box.

When they settled on adding ticket/ticket scrap onto the list of possible drops from the BLTC back in July 2013, it became all that anyone focuses on now. Even though it’s shown time and again that it is neither a means to generate income or that a player would be better off either using the coin spent on buying gems or selling cash bought gems for coin to buy the skin they want off the TP than buying keys with those gems and spinning the wheel.

They were meant to be a surprise bonus rather than the sole reason to open a BLTC.

One way to “fix” this is double the ticket drop rate and eliminate the scraps. This way it doesn’t matter if BLTC are opened by 1000 player or 100, the same number of tickets get generated, because spreading tickets across 10x the number of players means fewer will have the 10 needed for a ticket.

Scraps give players hope. Scraps passively encourage players to drop gems on keys. “Look, you only need X more and I’m a common drop. If only you had more keys.” Tickets are immediate gratification. Would the pull to open as many BLTC as possible shift substantially of scraps were … scraped and replaced with double the chance for ticket directly?

When the Black Lion Ticket is the best drop out of those(with a reasonable chance of dropping)why buy BL Keys? Just buy the weapon skins straight off the auction house.

If you want to change how ArenaNet implements their cash shop stuff, you have to speak with your wallet by not spending any money.

My beef with the gem shop is that 2 years ago things were reasonably priced. I could get 5 keys for like 25-35 gold. That seemed reasonable. The prices aren’t reasonable anymore. The items in the chest were worth it for fake, in-game currency. For real money though? No thanks.

If they want me to start spending real money again, give me new content to go along with the cash shop that was implemented to subsidize content. Now that they are charging money up front for content, why would I spend more money on the cash shop for things that aren’t worth real money? Especially when it’s not a guarantee that I can get the item I want.

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

A few farmers will get less keys per week and the whole player base gets more from random drops, i dont see how this will impact bl skin prices in a bad way.

So, do you think that the majority of the BL weapon skins are from people buying keys and not key farming? If most skins are from key farmers then this is a serious hit to supply. It takes on average 30 keys to get one skin. Since I sincerely doubt they will be dropping at a rate of 30 keys per player per year, then they aren’t going to be replacing even one competed set of key farming per year. The average key farmers who does his weekly key farm is going to get maybe two tickets a year. The only way that supply isn’t going to be hit is if the main source of skins is from people buying keys, not farming.

Yes, in my opinion, only a small minority of opened chests was from farmed keys.

Then I wonder, if only a small minority of opened chests are from farmed keys, then why did ANet go out of their way to nerf farming keys? Normally companies don’t invest time and money changing issues of small importance to their pocketbook, especially a situation where they had already said that they were fine with people farming keys. To reverse a long standing policy of this nature suggests that there were a substantial number of farmed keys. Enough to impact them financially.

I dont think they did this change for financial reasons, otherwise they wouldnt have buffed the droprate from random mobs. I guess they dont want people to create a character, do the same story mission over and over again and then rinse and repeat but rather have them play in the open world with other players.

And reversing a longstanding policy where they said it’s fine. If the number of keys being farmed like this is small, as you suggest, then the number of people who were doing this is smaller, which means they reversed a long standing policy and spent the time to code this in in order to affect a small number of people. If the number of people who were tied up with this is so small, and it’s not affecting much, why should ANet care enough about it to nerf it?

Because they dont want new players to see this repetitive gameplay as the best way to earn wealth. They want them to experience the full story line and open world pve or other parts of the game.

Do you think a new player is going to notice that guy flying by him, just like any other dude/dudette, and say to him/her self, “WOW that guy is moving fast. They must be a key farmer. that’s all I wanna do now” :P.

Anet said on multiple occasions that key farming was kosher. Not everyone did it. And even fewer still spent the majority of their time doing it. New players fragile sensibilities( jk ) had nothing to do with this. It’s not like the entry lv. trains that used to happen. That was crazy broken. No, this is something else entirely.

Wondrouswall.7169:

Looking at the loot available from Black Lion Chests I would like to see some of the more less-rewarding items be removed, others merged, and an increase of quantity of other drops to make it at the very least a bit less disheartening when receiving these.

Remove the following:

• Boost Enchantment Powder
• Beast, Forest, and Furniture Mystery Tonics (the ones that come in quantities of 10)
• Tome of Knowledge
• Large Guild Discovery
• Medium, Large, and Heavy Crafting Bags
• Endless Monkey King Tonic
• All Boosters except the Heroic Booster.

Merge the following:

• Revive Orb & Repair Canister as a Recovery Package
• Merchant Express, Trading Post Express, and Bank Access Express as a Tradesman’s Package
• All individual Miniatures as part of the Toy Miniature Egg

Increase Quantity the following:

• Unidentified Dye to 3-5 per stack (up from 1-2)
• Transmutation Charge to 5 per stack (up from 1)

I’m sure more can be done to improve the BLC contents, and the removal of highly unwanted items and a possible merger of others would be a good start to make BLC more rewarding. Just a suggestion, feel free to criticize or bounce more ideas around.

I love those idea so much except some few points.

Another big problem with Black Lion chest is account bound item. I have double and triple of some of those and this is no fun since you can’t even sell them. But I understand the principle of account bound item to make them unique. People need to open chest to get those specific reward. But there is ways to help the situation. We should be able to choose those rewards so we don’t have the same one multiple time. They could have a item that allow you to select specific minis that will be account bound, another one that allow you to select a tonic, etc.

Another idea would be to put 4 random account bound item from the Black Lion chest to receive another one account bound item. I’m talking here about tonic and mini here. Not the Revive Orb, booster, etc.

Or just make them bind on use so we can sell them. Already half the minis from BL chest are that way.

leftyboy.9358:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

A few farmers will get less keys per week and the whole player base gets more from random drops, i dont see how this will impact bl skin prices in a bad way.

So, do you think that the majority of the BL weapon skins are from people buying keys and not key farming? If most skins are from key farmers then this is a serious hit to supply. It takes on average 30 keys to get one skin. Since I sincerely doubt they will be dropping at a rate of 30 keys per player per year, then they aren’t going to be replacing even one competed set of key farming per year. The average key farmers who does his weekly key farm is going to get maybe two tickets a year. The only way that supply isn’t going to be hit is if the main source of skins is from people buying keys, not farming.

Yes, in my opinion, only a small minority of opened chests was from farmed keys.

Then I wonder, if only a small minority of opened chests are from farmed keys, then why did ANet go out of their way to nerf farming keys? Normally companies don’t invest time and money changing issues of small importance to their pocketbook, especially a situation where they had already said that they were fine with people farming keys. To reverse a long standing policy of this nature suggests that there were a substantial number of farmed keys. Enough to impact them financially.

I dont think they did this change for financial reasons, otherwise they wouldnt have buffed the droprate from random mobs. I guess they dont want people to create a character, do the same story mission over and over again and then rinse and repeat but rather have them play in the open world with other players.

And reversing a longstanding policy where they said it’s fine. If the number of keys being farmed like this is small, as you suggest, then the number of people who were doing this is smaller, which means they reversed a long standing policy and spent the time to code this in in order to affect a small number of people. If the number of people who were tied up with this is so small, and it’s not affecting much, why should ANet care enough about it to nerf it?

Because they dont want new players to see this repetitive gameplay as the best way to earn wealth. They want them to experience the full story line and open world pve or other parts of the game.

Do you think a new player is going to notice that guy flying by him, just like any other dude/dudette, and say to him/her self, “WOW that guy is moving fast. They must be a key farmer. that’s all I wanna do now” :P.

Anet said on multiple occasions that key farming was kosher. Not everyone did it. And even fewer still spent the majority of their time doing it. New players fragile sensibilities( jk ) had nothing to do with this. It’s not like the entry lv. trains that used to happen. That was crazy broken. No, this is something else entirely.

But it promotes only experiencing the first chapter of the personal story, rather than leveling your character. It has nothing to do with fragile sensibilities of new players. Anet made a personal story spanning 80 levels and I can see why they want players to experience the whole thing.

And right now, Anet didnt say key farming isnt kosher either because you can still do it once a week.

The only bad side effect that was mentioned until now is that skin prices will sky rocket but they havent yet, so i dont see the problem.

Wanze.8410:

leftyboy.9358:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

A few farmers will get less keys per week and the whole player base gets more from random drops, i dont see how this will impact bl skin prices in a bad way.

So, do you think that the majority of the BL weapon skins are from people buying keys and not key farming? If most skins are from key farmers then this is a serious hit to supply. It takes on average 30 keys to get one skin. Since I sincerely doubt they will be dropping at a rate of 30 keys per player per year, then they aren’t going to be replacing even one competed set of key farming per year. The average key farmers who does his weekly key farm is going to get maybe two tickets a year. The only way that supply isn’t going to be hit is if the main source of skins is from people buying keys, not farming.

Yes, in my opinion, only a small minority of opened chests was from farmed keys.

Then I wonder, if only a small minority of opened chests are from farmed keys, then why did ANet go out of their way to nerf farming keys? Normally companies don’t invest time and money changing issues of small importance to their pocketbook, especially a situation where they had already said that they were fine with people farming keys. To reverse a long standing policy of this nature suggests that there were a substantial number of farmed keys. Enough to impact them financially.

I dont think they did this change for financial reasons, otherwise they wouldnt have buffed the droprate from random mobs. I guess they dont want people to create a character, do the same story mission over and over again and then rinse and repeat but rather have them play in the open world with other players.

And reversing a longstanding policy where they said it’s fine. If the number of keys being farmed like this is small, as you suggest, then the number of people who were doing this is smaller, which means they reversed a long standing policy and spent the time to code this in in order to affect a small number of people. If the number of people who were tied up with this is so small, and it’s not affecting much, why should ANet care enough about it to nerf it?

Because they dont want new players to see this repetitive gameplay as the best way to earn wealth. They want them to experience the full story line and open world pve or other parts of the game.

Do you think a new player is going to notice that guy flying by him, just like any other dude/dudette, and say to him/her self, “WOW that guy is moving fast. They must be a key farmer. that’s all I wanna do now” :P.

Anet said on multiple occasions that key farming was kosher. Not everyone did it. And even fewer still spent the majority of their time doing it. New players fragile sensibilities( jk ) had nothing to do with this. It’s not like the entry lv. trains that used to happen. That was crazy broken. No, this is something else entirely.

But it promotes only experiencing the first chapter of the personal story, rather than leveling your character. It has nothing to do with fragile sensibilities of new players. Anet made a personal story spanning 80 levels and I can see why they want players to experience the whole thing.

And right now, Anet didnt say key farming isnt kosher either because you can still do it once a week.

The only bad side effect that was mentioned until now is that skin prices will sky rocket but they havent yet, so i dont see the problem.

If it turns out that this is because of an increased chance to get keys from drops then it’s ANet’s way to get more money. Nothing to do with key farming by itself.

Let’s see how much key drops are increased. If it turns out to be a substantial increase then…..

Give people a slow but steady stream of keys
Have them get “this close” to something they really want
Block off the fast, free route to finish. Leave only the gem store route to get it fast.
Profit

Iason Evan.3806:

My beef with the gem shop is that 2 years ago things were reasonably priced. I could get 5 keys for like 25-35 gold. That seemed reasonable. The prices aren’t reasonable anymore. The items in the chest were worth it for fake, in-game currency. For real money though? No thanks.

Gem Store prices haven’t changed since they are priced in terms of real money and not “fake, in-game currency”. It always was a sucker’s play to buy keys with gems for skins rather than buy them off the TP, even two years ago when a 5 ticket skin was selling for 90g and gems were 5g per 100.

When did I buy keys?
Sale time. When those keys were sold either with other substantial bundles or at a significant discount. That also wasn’t a one-time notion.

As of right now, the value per key is excessively low:
1 key: 125 gems. $1.56 (or 1.56 euros, which is $1.76, even worse)
25 keys: 2100 gems. 32.8% discount, pretty hefty. Problem is, that’s $26.25! And that’s still over a dollar per key! ($1.05)

The 125 gem cost is also a blatant tactic. Don’t put the amounts in values even enough to spend in the 800-chunks we by them in, so we always have extra gems that can’t be used. Even converting gems to gold, you can’t get rid of that last few gems, because the value rounds up in gems per gold, instead of selling gems for the exact amount they are worth.

So, question is, how to make keys worth it without breaking ANet’s cash flow?

1. Price keys at 50 gems (or 2 for 100).
   This puts the cost at roughly 63-cents per key, which is much easier to fritter away. It also puts it in a manageable chunk that can be given away easily. (Buy outfit and two keys for 800 gems! I’d have actually bought keys at that point.)
   20 keys for 800. Another nice, round number that offers a +25% value!
2. Dramatically increase content value.
   To be frank, stop with the ticket scraps. Or change them significantly. I’d much rather see full tickets drop much more often. If ‘scraps’ are honestly so needed to randomize rewards, then have the scraps available to turn in to a vendor for a random skin of that type. If scraps are common, then unneeded skins can go to market in greater numbers, adding value to the seller and opportunity for the buyer.

Well lock box keys in other games are similar in price to our keys. None are as cheap as you are suggesting.

I agree about the scraps. Scraps are there as a psychological inducement to buy more keys. “I only need X more scraps for a ticket, scraps are pretty common.” Scraps are only useful for players who use lots of keys. Doubling the ticket drop rate while eliminating scraps would reduce the casual desire to binge on keys. Which is why it won’t happen.

Heh, funny notion.
GW2 tried to break convention by avoiding “how it’s done” in some places, but they seem firmly entrenched in their crappy keybox ripoff strategy, just like every other Asiagrinder MMO.

Of course, now I wonder how I’d find peer-reviewed articles about how to con people into buying keys, and what the findings were. “That’s how we do things” isn’t the most suitable mode of course in design decisions.

Guys as much as I love a good discussion this isn’t about the keys.
It’s about the contents of the box and improving the experience so that people would actually find them worth buying.
We’ll all miss farming because that felt 100% worth it. But we have yet to fully test how well they drop so we’ll have to see exactly how much they’ll be missed.

On subject of the original OP – The best lotto box I’ve ever purchased in a game was by “Smite”. You had promised odds. Promised odds meant at 1 point after few purchases you would end up with what you wanted. This was GREAT because people felt the boxes were a small gamble but worth it in the end.

You could only buy the box a certain amount of times before the box was “fully unlocked” and you had to try your luck at another box. They made tons of money doing it this way because it was FAIR to the players.

Of course there were a few boxes that were awful (where it required 54 purchases to unlock everything in the box fully) but you knew what you were getting into before you bought it.

The problem with the BLC is that it’s not fair to players. It’s a high risk low reward box that barely renders anything useful. For a low level new player I would much rather see them offered a different chest as a “sampler” so as I have seen said here. But to vets and long term players alike it’s not aimed towards our needs nor desires so the idea of buying them just gathers dust.

As a business person myself. . . I can see where and why Anet might be tired of giving away “something for free” so quickly with the key farming. But how I also feel is you get what you paid for and with this current chest contents that is hardly EVER the case.

You could get 5 pieces of armor skins for 700 gems. Great buy. Good purchase. How many gems will it take to get 1 singular weapon skin? It can add up to ridiculous numbers and all you receive in the end is feeling defeated and unrewarded.

What could fix this? Lowering scrap requirements? Getting rid of scraps and only getting ticket drops? Removing trivial items such as boosters, repair canisters, revive orbs? Making Minis Mystic forge-able?

Anything would be a vast improvement over the current contents. This wasn’t because we could farm. . . it’s because nobody likes to throw 150 gems away over and over to maybe get 1 scrap.

It’s extremely important for the in game economy that we improve the BLC or soon the prices will only be another problem that players wont enjoy.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Let’s see how much key drops are increased. If it turns out to be a substantial increase then…..

If people are getting 3 keys in 3 years of play, then even a 10 times increase in the droprate isn’t going to get them close to one ticket a year.

And if Anet did increase the droprate by 10 times or more, you bet they would hype that fact like crazy.

Guys really. On subject. I don’t want this locked.

Rauderi.8706:

Heh, funny notion.
GW2 tried to break convention by avoiding “how it’s done” in some places, but they seem firmly entrenched in their crappy keybox ripoff strategy, just like every other Asiagrinder MMO.

Of course, now I wonder how I’d find peer-reviewed articles about how to con people into buying keys, and what the findings were. “That’s how we do things” isn’t the most suitable mode of course in design decisions.

Actually it’s most non-subscription MMO with cash shops, not just “Asiagrinder MMO”.

They need to clear out the junk. By junk I mean stuff like the repair kits, the account bound minis that you can only delete if you have more than one, the boost enchantment powder, the transmutation charges and the crafting bags. No one wants to spend real money or even ingame gold and get items that are easily and more cheaply found in game. Then adjust the drop rates of the other items.

Either allow account bound minis to be forge fodder. Or make it smart enough to roll again if you get a duplicate.

Behellagh.1468:

Either allow account bound minis to be forge fodder. Or make it smart enough to roll again if you get a duplicate.

That would be awesome. I have gotten the snow owl 4 times so far. v_V

I won’t buy keys. It’s against my religion to spend money on RNG/Gambling so anything they did to it would still get nothing from me.
I did however enjoy relaxing keyfarming runs while I was busy doing something else IRL where I couldn’t put my full attention towards the game. Oh well to that though. Guess I’ll just stay logged off during those times and find a new distraction to keep me awake.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

They need to clear out the junk. By junk I mean stuff like the repair kits, the account bound minis that you can only delete if you have more than one, the boost enchantment powder, the transmutation charges and the crafting bags. No one wants to spend real money or even ingame gold and get items that are easily and more cheaply found in game. Then adjust the drop rates of the other items.

I just ran another alt through chapter 6 of the second LS (getting all my alts ready for HOT) and got a key for my effort. Guess what I got from the chest?

1 Booster (as usual)
2x Trans stones.

Just wow! O.O

Imagine the poor sod who waits a whole week for such a reward…..

And yes people, running your alts through the Second LS will guarantee them at least 1 key at chapter 6 completion.

Paulytnz.7619:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

They need to clear out the junk. By junk I mean stuff like the repair kits, the account bound minis that you can only delete if you have more than one, the boost enchantment powder, the transmutation charges and the crafting bags. No one wants to spend real money or even ingame gold and get items that are easily and more cheaply found in game. Then adjust the drop rates of the other items.

I just ran another alt through chapter 6 of the second LS (getting all my alts ready for HOT) and got a key for my effort. Guess what I got from the chest?

1 Booster (as usual)
2x Trans stones.

Just wow! O.O

Imagine the poor sod who waits a whole week for such a reward…..

And yes people, running your alts through the Second LS will guarantee them at least 1 key at chapter 6 completion.

Aw I’m sorry for your turn out! This definitely isn’t encouraging what so ever. I’m really hoping Anet will take a look at this thread and have some food for thought. This is for THEM and US. It can be a win win!

I just wanted to point out that you have to spend 31€88 average for one black lion 1 ticket skin. (buy 25 + 5 keys) or 159€4 average for a 5 ticket skin

->There is a point where if you just buy gw2 core game at 15 € on the net and farm keys with 9 alts you actualy are more effective than buying keys for black lion keys by 100% after one year if you concider the 1 ticket skin worth 30€.

BLK drop rates :https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Black_Lion_Chest/Drop_rate

Fair

Abimes.9726:

I just wanted to point out that you have to spend 31€88 average for one black lion 1 ticket skin. (buy 25 + 5 keys) or 159€4 average for a 5 ticket skin

->There is a point where if you just buy gw2 core game at 15 € on the net and farm keys with 9 alts you actualy are more effective than buying keys for black lion keys by 100% after one year if you concider the 1 ticket skin worth 30€.

BLK drop rates :https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Black_Lion_Chest/Drop_rate

Fair

That’s a very interesting fact! Thank you for sharing.

This needs fixing big time. I’m talking the box contents kitten many others have said.

ANET!!! What the kitten is this kittining kitten blarghgrrrrr Kitten Account bound garbage even doing in my BL Boxes?!?!

I bought the 3 bird minipack (owl/raven/hawk) as a single package as a set. AS A SET. All three with gems bought with real Canadian dollars- back when our dollar wasn’t kitten either!

Why in the name of the Great Ooogly Moogly do you think it’s fine to put those Account bound things in the BL boxes I’m opening? Is it a hold over from before the wardrobe/pet system? Do you Realize your Mail Carriers are doing the same thing? I don’t know what else pops out account bound but it’s got to stop.

GET RID OF THEM please or make them trade-able or usable in the Mystic Forge as others have suggested. Although I would one up that and ask they be considered by the forge as a standard rare quality item. I don’t even care if it counts as clothing/jewelry verses a weap -to prevent use for precursor weapons. Just “Anything” is better then their current state.

I’m not kidding- I would prefer not to have to hold on to 1-3 of these while I wait for a 4th to pop from a box as the massive disappointments they are. So considering each as a Forgeable “accessory/ring/amulet” classification even would be nice. Something! Anything….

And the dust… The transmute dust we can buy from the npc next to every major city’s bank as we actually need it…. WHY!!??? WHY would you even put this in?…..

WHY in the name of all 6 gods?!?

Alright I’m done for now….

I usually key-farmed once a week anyway but dang…. I bought a couple of Dwayna skins right now for what I could afford in gold cause I know where this is going. Straight to Skin market HE double hockeystix.

Just for posterity sake: Last year, when they changed how the PS worked with the NPE, people were claiming that the prices of Black lion skins would sky rocket due to the “nerf” of key farming. (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/RIP-keyfarming-merged/first)

From what I can tell, the price of the skins has remained pretty steady, the only major changes are when the item is no longer available.

So I don’t believe that this change will have too much of an effect on prices.
Plus with an increased drop rate in open world, it might actually help drive prices down, as essentially, you are introducing more keys, thus more skins, to the general population, rather then the small handful of key farmers.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

A few farmers will get less keys per week and the whole player base gets more from random drops, i dont see how this will impact bl skin prices in a bad way.

So, do you think that the majority of the BL weapon skins are from people buying keys and not key farming? If most skins are from key farmers then this is a serious hit to supply. It takes on average 30 keys to get one skin. Since I sincerely doubt they will be dropping at a rate of 30 keys per player per year, then they aren’t going to be replacing even one competed set of key farming per year. The average key farmers who does his weekly key farm is going to get maybe two tickets a year. The only way that supply isn’t going to be hit is if the main source of skins is from people buying keys, not farming.

Yes, in my opinion, only a small minority of opened chests was from farmed keys.

Then I wonder, if only a small minority of opened chests are from farmed keys, then why did ANet go out of their way to nerf farming keys? Normally companies don’t invest time and money changing issues of small importance to their pocketbook, especially a situation where they had already said that they were fine with people farming keys. To reverse a long standing policy of this nature suggests that there were a substantial number of farmed keys. Enough to impact them financially.

I dont think they did this change for financial reasons, otherwise they wouldnt have buffed the droprate from random mobs. I guess they dont want people to create a character, do the same story mission over and over again and then rinse and repeat but rather have them play in the open world with other players.

And reversing a longstanding policy where they said it’s fine. If the number of keys being farmed like this is small, as you suggest, then the number of people who were doing this is smaller, which means they reversed a long standing policy and spent the time to code this in in order to affect a small number of people. If the number of people who were tied up with this is so small, and it’s not affecting much, why should ANet care enough about it to nerf it?

Because they dont want new players to see this repetitive gameplay as the best way to earn wealth. They want them to experience the full story line and open world pve or other parts of the game.

This opinion might be worth considering, if they hadn’t already said they were fine with it. If it actually was the best way to earn wealth. If there were so many key runners that new people were rushing to join the crowd. If they had put in the nerf 3 years ago when key running appeared.

Sorry, at this point you’re reaching. Either there was enough people doing key runs that key running was making an impact and was nerfed. Or there wasn’t many people doing key runs, not enough for ANet to go out of their way to nerf. Not your opinion that there were few yet these few were impacting the game enough to need a nerf.

Pretty much this. If we take this to its logical conclusion the only thing we should be doing is the Silverwastes. The rest of the game is just a tutorial for SW that they plan to phase out anyway.

They made 364758892958 adjustments to the BLC in the past 3 years. And not a single one made me pay real cash for keys. Because 95% of the stuff in these chests are either garbage or stuff I don’t need. Better of buying stuff from TP. 100% guarantee for a desired item.

pdavis.8031:

Just for posterity sake: Last year, when they changed how the PS worked with the NPE, people were claiming that the prices of Black lion skins would sky rocket due to the “nerf” of key farming. (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/RIP-keyfarming-merged/first)

From what I can tell, the price of the skins has remained pretty steady, the only major changes are when the item is no longer available.

So I don’t believe that this change will have too much of an effect on prices.
Plus with an increased drop rate in open world, it might actually help drive prices down, as essentially, you are introducing more keys, thus more skins, to the general population, rather then the small handful of key farmers.

The problem is that some of us have god awful RNG and are lucky to see an exotic a month and rare a week. Getting a key would be a miracle. Key farming was one of the few ways we could keep up with the economy and it wasn’t even that great for it.

DaShi.1368:

pdavis.8031:

Just for posterity sake: Last year, when they changed how the PS worked with the NPE, people were claiming that the prices of Black lion skins would sky rocket due to the “nerf” of key farming. (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/RIP-keyfarming-merged/first)

From what I can tell, the price of the skins has remained pretty steady, the only major changes are when the item is no longer available.

So I don’t believe that this change will have too much of an effect on prices.
Plus with an increased drop rate in open world, it might actually help drive prices down, as essentially, you are introducing more keys, thus more skins, to the general population, rather then the small handful of key farmers.

The problem is that some of us have god awful RNG and are lucky to see an exotic a month and rare a week. Getting a key would be a miracle. Key farming was one of the few ways we could keep up with the economy and it wasn’t even that great for it.

Been farming trash mobs to see key drops seeing as people on reddit said they got em that way. 4-5 hours later all I’ve gotten is a headache + 8 BLC.

@ the idea that this wont change the prices. There was still a way to get them in game which is why the prices didn’t render any difference. Now that the keys are actually a rarity now it WILL change things. There aren’t too many people who find it worth it to throw away 150 gems per repair canister. That’s just how it is.

It’s all about supply and demand. And the demand for weapon skins will remain the same while the supply will dwindle because there is no way to EARN the keys at a decent rate anymore.

The change has to be with the boxes if they insist on keeping it this way.

pdavis.8031:

Just for posterity sake: Last year, when they changed how the PS worked with the NPE, people were claiming that the prices of Black lion skins would sky rocket due to the “nerf” of key farming. (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/RIP-keyfarming-merged/first)

From what I can tell, the price of the skins has remained pretty steady, the only major changes are when the item is no longer available.

So I don’t believe that this change will have too much of an effect on prices.
Plus with an increased drop rate in open world, it might actually help drive prices down, as essentially, you are introducing more keys, thus more skins, to the general population, rather then the small handful of key farmers.

I’m not so sure the previous change actually affected key farming that much. With crafting to level, writs and tomes, the people who wanted to key farm continued. They just had to make some small changes to their routine. The only ones it discouraged were those to whom key running wasn’t something they did routinely. I know the change didn’t slow me down once I changed how I got to level 10. I could do one a week, one a day or several a day, as I pleased. And sometimes I did 2 or 3 a day. If I wanted to grind, I could get a skin a month, or less

This however is a completely different kettle of fish. No matter what I do, I can only do one a week. If I do my one a week, it will take me 7-8 months to get one skin. (Assuming 30 keys to get 10 scraps).

It’s the difference between key farmers doing enough key runs to get up to 12 skins to sell a year, to 1 or 2 a year. That’s quite a nerf. If it’s key farmers that were supplying a noticeable quantity of the skins then there won’t be as many from key farming.

Yeah, the contents of the chests are such that I would never buy one with money. If the rewards were better, I’d consider it, but not the way they are. They are also rather expensive as well.

And, the worst reward from them, I think, is the guild discovery. That’s not even for me! As lacklustre as many of the rest of the items are, at least they are for me.

I will say that I like the idea of keys as it is fun to see if you will get something exciting, but it is almost always a disappointment when you actually use the key. Adjusting the loot table and the price would make them more appealing for me.

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

A few farmers will get less keys per week and the whole player base gets more from random drops, i dont see how this will impact bl skin prices in a bad way.

So, do you think that the majority of the BL weapon skins are from people buying keys and not key farming? If most skins are from key farmers then this is a serious hit to supply. It takes on average 30 keys to get one skin. Since I sincerely doubt they will be dropping at a rate of 30 keys per player per year, then they aren’t going to be replacing even one competed set of key farming per year. The average key farmers who does his weekly key farm is going to get maybe two tickets a year. The only way that supply isn’t going to be hit is if the main source of skins is from people buying keys, not farming.

Yes, in my opinion, only a small minority of opened chests was from farmed keys.

Then I wonder, if only a small minority of opened chests are from farmed keys, then why did ANet go out of their way to nerf farming keys? Normally companies don’t invest time and money changing issues of small importance to their pocketbook, especially a situation where they had already said that they were fine with people farming keys. To reverse a long standing policy of this nature suggests that there were a substantial number of farmed keys. Enough to impact them financially.

I dont think they did this change for financial reasons, otherwise they wouldnt have buffed the droprate from random mobs. I guess they dont want people to create a character, do the same story mission over and over again and then rinse and repeat but rather have them play in the open world with other players.

And reversing a longstanding policy where they said it’s fine. If the number of keys being farmed like this is small, as you suggest, then the number of people who were doing this is smaller, which means they reversed a long standing policy and spent the time to code this in in order to affect a small number of people. If the number of people who were tied up with this is so small, and it’s not affecting much, why should ANet care enough about it to nerf it?

Because they dont want new players to see this repetitive gameplay as the best way to earn wealth. They want them to experience the full story line and open world pve or other parts of the game.

Of course this is about money – you are naive if you think otherwise. Every avenue in the game that they can monetize is slowly creeping in, and it’s becoming more and more grindy.

MashMash.1645:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Wanze.8410:

A few farmers will get less keys per week and the whole player base gets more from random drops, i dont see how this will impact bl skin prices in a bad way.

So, do you think that the majority of the BL weapon skins are from people buying keys and not key farming? If most skins are from key farmers then this is a serious hit to supply. It takes on average 30 keys to get one skin. Since I sincerely doubt they will be dropping at a rate of 30 keys per player per year, then they aren’t going to be replacing even one competed set of key farming per year. The average key farmers who does his weekly key farm is going to get maybe two tickets a year. The only way that supply isn’t going to be hit is if the main source of skins is from people buying keys, not farming.

Yes, in my opinion, only a small minority of opened chests was from farmed keys.

Then I wonder, if only a small minority of opened chests are from farmed keys, then why did ANet go out of their way to nerf farming keys? Normally companies don’t invest time and money changing issues of small importance to their pocketbook, especially a situation where they had already said that they were fine with people farming keys. To reverse a long standing policy of this nature suggests that there were a substantial number of farmed keys. Enough to impact them financially.

I dont think they did this change for financial reasons, otherwise they wouldnt have buffed the droprate from random mobs. I guess they dont want people to create a character, do the same story mission over and over again and then rinse and repeat but rather have them play in the open world with other players.

And reversing a longstanding policy where they said it’s fine. If the number of keys being farmed like this is small, as you suggest, then the number of people who were doing this is smaller, which means they reversed a long standing policy and spent the time to code this in in order to affect a small number of people. If the number of people who were tied up with this is so small, and it’s not affecting much, why should ANet care enough about it to nerf it?

Because they dont want new players to see this repetitive gameplay as the best way to earn wealth. They want them to experience the full story line and open world pve or other parts of the game.

Of course this is about money – you are naive if you think otherwise. Every avenue in the game that they can monetize is slowly creeping in, and it’s becoming more and more grindy.

And it is very sad that they are choosing to go the monetization route. Because it negatively affects gameplay. Tbh I paid for half of my Living story 2, and I honestly wouldn’t mind paying for that. Outfits I can understand too. And even gathering tools and salvage kits to a point. Bag slots and bank slots kind of push the limit for me but I’ve bought a few (bag slots are especially annoying, and I’ve only bought one because of sale). Then we get to black lion keys, no way in hell am I paying 125 gems for them, hell I wouldn’t even pay 10 gems per key.

Even with the change to keys to make them once a week, and supposibly an increase to the droprate in the world (which probably isn’t enough to make a difference…) I can’t say I will ever buy keys.

1. Too much random chance.
2. Too expensive for random chance.
3. Not in the spirit of gw.
4. Too much random chance.

StrangerDanger.3496:

Solution: Keys for completing raids, create spvp reward where you grind for a key would operate just the same as normal gear boxes and progress bars only the last reward is a key. Do the same as in spvp only have it in wvw (hell add in all the gear/crafing boxes with the same progress mechanic as spvp)

Keys that you would be able to get per week: 3 (if you grind spvp,wvw, and do a raid which imo is a good way to keep all aspects of the game very active even if your not a huge pvper/pve’er)

more keys you can actually farm, more boxes you open, the more BLT’s and fragments you get. no need to adjust drop rates.

And no please don’t remove tomb of knowledge. those things are probably the most valuable thing I get in game right now given I’m new and saving them for a quick revenant progression.

NO I disagree with this idea over 9000×. Why should key be limited to only those that can RAID/PVP. What about the young, the elderly or the handicap and others who either can’t or choose not to PVP/Raid. Why can’t we have both the key farming be revert back plus the world drop increase.

Dikeido.8436:

StrangerDanger.3496:

Solution: Keys for completing raids, create spvp reward where you grind for a key would operate just the same as normal gear boxes and progress bars only the last reward is a key. Do the same as in spvp only have it in wvw (hell add in all the gear/crafing boxes with the same progress mechanic as spvp)

Keys that you would be able to get per week: 3 (if you grind spvp,wvw, and do a raid which imo is a good way to keep all aspects of the game very active even if your not a huge pvper/pve’er)

more keys you can actually farm, more boxes you open, the more BLT’s and fragments you get. no need to adjust drop rates.

And no please don’t remove tomb of knowledge. those things are probably the most valuable thing I get in game right now given I’m new and saving them for a quick revenant progression.

NO I disagree with this idea over 9000×. Why should key be limited to only those that can RAID/PVP. What about the young, the elderly or the handicap and others who either can’t or choose not to PVP/Raid. Why can’t we have both the key farming be revert back plus the world drop increase.

Because that’s too much and Anet would feel like they are bleeding keys.

Eh, this my be borderline “pay to win”, but I would be for more happy to see/obtain, and use item boosters if they also provided.

When this booster is active
- Promotes all fine gear drops to masterwork tier
- 25% increase in speed. (does not apply in WvW or PvP)
- Quickness is granted during gathering
- Mobs level 64 and up have potential to drop t6 material equivalents or their t5 loot table while this booster is active. (ha, this may be what takes it too far. ) Not being too serious with this, just giving some examples.
- A special effect is added to the characters appearance while this booster is active.