Guild Wars 2

Prior to the jan patch, i was able to solo level 1 fractals like swampland, farming mobs for hours to get the vial essence. I hate doing full fractals. So this was my way of getting the backpack in a way i preferred. Even with 180% magic find, it would typically take 5 hours. I knew the mobs that would drop them.

Now…..ANET has nerfed those fractals. nothing drops from those mobs anymore when I solo them. So, with all the problems and badly broken things in the game, THIS is what you focus on anet? I don’t appreciate your forcing me to group up to do your fractals to get the vial essence. It isn’t purchasable or available outside the fractals. so, WHY are you doing this to your customers?

This makes me laugh.

For real, OP?

(15 char limit.)

Lol…. Complaining about not being able to solo Fotm. Best thread of 2013, do not delete this lol

Geotherma.2395:

Lol…. Complaining about not being able to solo Fotm. Best thread of 2013, do not delete this lol

It’s just trash “yellow” mobs, skeeters, spiders and what not. He’s not doing some amazing feat of taking all the orbs and doing the boss solol. I did the same thing and got 3 total, that should keep my alt stash plenty full for awhile =)

I don’t really understand the hate either. The only way to get an ascended back piece is by doing fractals… which is kind of unfair, considering they have given us multiple avenues of acquisition for all other ascended gear. If this is the case, that really sucks OP.

Geotherma.2395:

Lol…. Complaining about not being able to solo Fotm. Best thread of 2013, do not delete this lol

lol at your lack of reading comprehension. i am talking about farming mobs, lol. I never finished a fractal. Do try to read next time.

For those of you who can read, yes, I killed 80 mobs in swampland, and nothing dropped, even though they dropped a lot back before the january patch.

Columba.9730:

For those of you who can read, yes, I killed 80 mobs in swampland, and nothing dropped, even though they dropped a lot back before the january patch.

I read perfectly clear. You want to solo “inside” a group dungeon. That’s great. But to complain that you can’t get cool drops anymore alone in a group dungeon, well that’s a different story.

I solod the first two bosses in CM story. I did get some rewards. I would not however expect to be rewarded for killing mobs in said group dungeon solo. So if they took that away, I’d not be upset one bit.

Its your game though, your free to play as you like of course. And this is all just my opinion and may not be shared by others but, there is clearly no shortage of qq about the smallest most insignificant things on these forums. No hate intended toward what you do or how you play, again, just my opinion. Perhaps they made it so only a party is able to achieve loot status so that people cannot exploit certain dungeons, who knows.

maybe DR kicked in?

Geotherma.2395:

Columba.9730:

For those of you who can read, yes, I killed 80 mobs in swampland, and nothing dropped, even though they dropped a lot back before the january patch.

I read perfectly clear. You want to solo “inside” a group dungeon. That’s great. But to complain that you can’t get cool drops anymore alone in a group dungeon, well that’s a different story.

I solod the first two bosses in CM story. I did get some rewards. I would not however expect to be rewarded for killing mobs in said group dungeon solo. So if they took that away, I’d not be upset one bit.

Its your game though, your free to play as you like of course. And this is all just my opinion and may not be shared by others but, there is clearly no shortage of qq about the smallest most insignificant things on these forums. No hate intended toward what you do or how you play, again, just my opinion. Perhaps they made it so only a party is able to achieve loot status so that people cannot exploit certain dungeons, who knows.

so 5 hours soloing to get the loot hurt you how, and is an exploit in what way? lol. Lol how is this insignificant? Didn’t this company state that I could play the way I wanted? Is that an exploit? I was killing mobs, lol.

Cool drops? I didn’t care about anything other than the item mandatory to get an ascended backpiece which is far better than anything else. It’s bad enough that anet is forcing us to grind for items in dungeons. it’s laughable that they waste their time conducting social engineering by forcing us to group, going out of their way to nerf a way to solo for the vial.

… no it’s not DR. they nerfed it.

Columba.9730:

Geotherma.2395:

Columba.9730:

For those of you who can read, yes, I killed 80 mobs in swampland, and nothing dropped, even though they dropped a lot back before the january patch.

I read perfectly clear. You want to solo “inside” a group dungeon. That’s great. But to complain that you can’t get cool drops anymore alone in a group dungeon, well that’s a different story.

I solod the first two bosses in CM story. I did get some rewards. I would not however expect to be rewarded for killing mobs in said group dungeon solo. So if they took that away, I’d not be upset one bit.

Its your game though, your free to play as you like of course. And this is all just my opinion and may not be shared by others but, there is clearly no shortage of qq about the smallest most insignificant things on these forums. No hate intended toward what you do or how you play, again, just my opinion. Perhaps they made it so only a party is able to achieve loot status so that people cannot exploit certain dungeons, who knows.

so 5 hours soloing to get the loot hurt you how, and is an exploit in what way? lol. Lol how is this insignificant? Didn’t this company state that I could play the way I wanted? Is that an exploit? I was killing mobs, lol.

Cool drops? I didn’t care about anything other than the item mandatory to get an ascended backpiece which is far better than anything else. It’s bad enough that anet is forcing us to grind for items in dungeons. it’s laughable that they waste their time conducting social engineering by forcing us to group, going out of their way to nerf a way to solo for the vial.

… no it’s not DR. they nerfed it.

I didn’t say you exploited, I said perhaps they added a function that does not allow you kill credit/loot if not in a party. As far as play it your way ideals, that’s between you and Arenanet, I have no problem with how other people play the game so long as it doesn’t affect me negatively.

The entirety of the ascalon and underwater fractal can be solo’d (from personal experience at level 10, while waiting for people to login/not afk), including the boss. Not sure what can drop it, but maybe try there?

But the vials dropping off respawnable regular mobs was always a bug imo.

I also find it unethical that they never told us what they changed.

Columba.9730:

I also find it unethical that they never told us what they changed.

“Working as intended” (Wargaming.net’s unofficial slogan for World of Tanks would work just fine here)

I think soloing swamp for vials was actually quite common. I know a few people who were doing that but complaining about them nerfing it is amusing.

Cloaks may only have one way to acquire them but eventually i’m sure there will be another. Just hope its not on guild mission rewards.

You’d be right, OP, if Anet forced you to have the backpack by gating content. But if you have no interest in doing fractals you don’t NEED the backpack. You’ve convinced yourself or tricked yourself into thinking you need it. You don’t actually need it.

You can do all the content of this game without that backpack, except for maybe higher levels of the fractals, and I’m not even sure about that.

That said, Anet’s ability to put together patch notes has been pretty bad, generally. I’ve found plenty of bugs that got fixed that were never mentioned. It makes it seem like they’re doing less than they actually are.

Anet is its own worst enemy.

I can’t find a backpack for sale that has stats anywhere near those of that backpack. I don’t see why I can’t get the best gear doing what I want to do vs the forced grouping in the fractals. Secondly, who are you to tell me what I need or don’t.

You can still go there and kill mobs solo, just becouse it wont reward you something designed for a group dungeon reward doesnt mean they dont let you “play as you like”.

Dont mistake “playing as you like” with “do w/e you want and get all the big rewards”.
I can play the game just soloing WvW road guards, but that doesnt mean I’ll get a legendary to drop from it…

Really, people are using the “play as you like” argument way too much on their lame QQ…

whatever. I don’t know how me spending 5 hours grinding to get one miserable vial was hurting anet. it’s hilarious that they focused on this vs fixing the hundreds of other broken parts of the game.

wait you’d go through the trouble of solo’ing for over 5 hours, but you couldn’t just bear through a level 1 and 2 in probably less than half the time? Also if you are complaining about not finding a good backpiece(and specifically wanting a fractal back piece) you only need 1 vial essence to make any of the book/ quivers (you wouldn’t need the infusion since you don’t seem to want to go past level 1). So i don’t see where you need to farm multiple vials unless you are making it for multiple characters.
http://dulfy.net/2012/11/17/gw2-ascended-gear-and-infusion-recipes/

alts? yes, I’d prefer 5 hours of grinding vs going through a bunch of fractals. yes, all i wanted was the vial essence.

Columba.9730:

alts? yes, I’d prefer 5 hours of grinding vs going through a bunch of fractals. why does it matter to you?

because what you are describing is like bashing your head against a wall and complaining it hurts. You are free to hurt your head as much as you want, but do not expect anyone to take you seriously. Also they probably didn’t nerf the loot, you probably just have bad luck and need to farm more. This should also probably be in the dungeon section rather than the discussion.

Lol, read again. NOTHING is dropping now vs. loot was dropping before. NO LOOT now. items dropped from every 3rd mob before. they changed it. I am not complaining about bad luck, lol. they made nothing drop now.

why do you care how i choose to play the game. I don’t like doing fractals. i could live with farming mobs. why do you care?

Columba.9730:

Lol, read again. NOTHING is dropping now vs. loot was dropping before. NO LOOT now. items dropped from every 3rd mob before. they changed it. I am not complaining about bad luck, lol. they made nothing drop now.

why do you care how i choose to play the game. I don’t like doing fractals. i could live with farming mobs. why do you care?

Because you choose to play the game in a way that doesn’t give you what you want and then complain about it.

Do you see anyone complaining that lvl4 Moas in Wayfarer’s don’t drop ascended pieces? Because that’s what you are doing.

If you don’t want to do fractals, then right now you can’t get an ascended back piece. Simple as that. Simply accept that you can’t get everything by doing anything.

Gaudrath.6725:

Columba.9730:

Lol, read again. NOTHING is dropping now vs. loot was dropping before. NO LOOT now. items dropped from every 3rd mob before. they changed it. I am not complaining about bad luck, lol. they made nothing drop now.

why do you care how i choose to play the game. I don’t like doing fractals. i could live with farming mobs. why do you care?

Because you choose to play the game in a way that doesn’t give you what you want and then complain about it.

Do you see anyone complaining that lvl4 Moas in Wayfarer’s don’t drop ascended pieces? Because that’s what you are doing.

If you don’t want to do fractals, then right now you can’t get an ascended back piece. Simple as that. Simply accept that you can’t get everything by doing anything.

dude they were dropping items. why did they nerf it? That’s my question. I don’t want an ascended piece to drop. I just want the vial, which requires tons more farming. I don’t understand why they felt the need to make these changes. Wasnt their manifesto to let people play the way they wanted, not force them into one play style?

Secondly, they said there’d be other ways to get these things. where can we obtain the backpiece outside of frectals.? simple questions, really.

I guess people who love fractals feel threatened by those who don’t like doing them, lol.

Columba.9730:

Gaudrath.6725:

Columba.9730:

Lol, read again. NOTHING is dropping now vs. loot was dropping before. NO LOOT now. items dropped from every 3rd mob before. they changed it. I am not complaining about bad luck, lol. they made nothing drop now.

why do you care how i choose to play the game. I don’t like doing fractals. i could live with farming mobs. why do you care?

Because you choose to play the game in a way that doesn’t give you what you want and then complain about it.

Do you see anyone complaining that lvl4 Moas in Wayfarer’s don’t drop ascended pieces? Because that’s what you are doing.

If you don’t want to do fractals, then right now you can’t get an ascended back piece. Simple as that. Simply accept that you can’t get everything by doing anything.

dude they were dropping items. why did they nerf it? That’s my question. I don’t want an ascended piece to drop. I want the vial, which requires tons more farming.

Secondly, they said there’d be other ways to get these things. where can we obtain the backpiece outside of frectals.? simple questions, really.

I guess people who love fractals feel threatened by those who don’t like doing them, lol.

Not at all. I treat fractals like other dungeons, sometimes I enjoy them, sometimes not, which is when I don’t play them.
Maybe they nerfed the drops, or maybe you got hit by the anti-botting measure, DR, which auto-nerfs the drop rates and loot quality the more you farm in a certain area. You spending 5 hours in the swampland sounds like a prime candidate.

It also makes you a greater lover of fractals than anyone, since you could have done like 5+ fractal runs in that time, with better loot overall and a higher chance of getting a vial.

So what you are doing is making yourself focus on fractals more than those who play them normally. Fractal lover. :p

I simply can’t sit for an hour and ignore my family to do them with a full group. That’s why I farmed on and off for a longer period. It worked. Again, I killed 80 mobs, not a single drop OF ANY LOOT now. They definitely changed it. I don’t understand why.

If the mobs you were farming were just the regular mobs in the swamp, their drops were nerfed because they are regular, respawning mobs. There would be no patch note about it because is was most likely considered an exploit. If the skelk dropped vials for example, it would have been very easy to bot it using a simple macro and a warrior.

You can solo all of the mobs in the ascalon fractal quite easily if you use the NPCs.

Columba.9730:

I can’t find a backpack for sale that has stats anywhere near those of that backpack. I don’t see why I can’t get the best gear doing what I want to do vs the forced grouping in the fractals. Secondly, who are you to tell me what I need or don’t.

I’m a person who speaks English. Need is a word that has a definition. That definition is in the dictionary. Therefore you’re misusing the word. It’s pretty simple.

A lot of people today use the word need instead of want. You want BIS gear, you don’t need it. Because the game is completely playable without it. Whatever it adds is in your mind.

Like when my kid comes up to me and says he needs a certain game. What happens if he doesn’t get that game? Nothing. He doesn’t play it. But he doesn’t need it. He needs food…shelter…air to breathe…those are needs.

Technically there’s nothing in the game you need, but assuming that you’re talking about this from a casual point of view, you need to have armor. Because if you don’t have armor you won’t be able to do content.

Since I can beat any dungeon or boss in the game without an ascended backpack I stand by the statement that you don’t need it. You want it. There’s a difference.

It’s probably just a generational thing, but so many people can’t distinguish between need and want. I blame advertising.

Well thanks. I suppose in the mind of anet that makes sense. I don’t see how it could be considered an exploit. The other fractal you referenced didn’t give me any drops while solo. I killed about 30 and nothing ever dropped. Thanks, though. The underwater one did, but the mobs never respawned.

Fletch.3572:

Geotherma.2395:

Lol…. Complaining about not being able to solo Fotm. Best thread of 2013, do not delete this lol

It’s just trash “yellow” mobs, skeeters, spiders and what not. He’s not doing some amazing feat of taking all the orbs and doing the boss solol.

Pretty much why those drops needed to be nerfed.

Good job ANet.

Lol well I WANT it to avoid getting curb stomped in small scale WvWvW.

Columba.9730:

Lol well I WANT it to avoid getting curb stomped in small scale WvWvW.

Eh? You think a 3% difference in your stats is going to make a difference? Honestly, you should spend those 5 hours improving your skills, that’s going to have a much better impact.

Can’t hurt, and I like pinks!

Vayne.8563:

Columba.9730:

I can’t find a backpack for sale that has stats anywhere near those of that backpack. I don’t see why I can’t get the best gear doing what I want to do vs the forced grouping in the fractals. Secondly, who are you to tell me what I need or don’t.

I’m a person who speaks English. Need is a word that has a definition. That definition is in the dictionary. Therefore you’re misusing the word. It’s pretty simple.

A lot of people today use the word need instead of want. You want BIS gear, you don’t need it. Because the game is completely playable without it. Whatever it adds is in your mind.

Like when my kid comes up to me and says he needs a certain game. What happens if he doesn’t get that game? Nothing. He doesn’t play it. But he doesn’t need it. He needs food…shelter…air to breathe…those are needs.

Technically there’s nothing in the game you need, but assuming that you’re talking about this from a casual point of view, you need to have armor. Because if you don’t have armor you won’t be able to do content.

Since I can beat any dungeon or boss in the game without an ascended backpack I stand by the statement that you don’t need it. You want it. There’s a difference.

It’s probably just a generational thing, but so many people can’t distinguish between need and want. I blame advertising.

This misconception about need and want is the main reason for most of the qq in this forum…

Columba.9730:

Can’t hurt, and I like pinks!

You making his point now, you know that? About “need” or “want”… ;-)

If the no loot is just isolated to the swamp fractal’s respawning mobs, the change to no loot was probably just a fix, and not specifically targeted at penalizing soloers. (ie a soloer can probably still get loot from killing normal trash in any of the other fractals) The swamp trash probably no longer drops loot even if you’re in a group, because it’s exploitable. Mobs that endlessly respawn don’t tend to drop loot any more all over the game, and this specific case probably caught A-Net’s attention because people were botting in the privacy of their own instanced dungeon.

Some story quests had the same issue, where constantly respawning mobs also dropped loot, and botters set up there characters to endlessly farm in private. To fix the issue, those mobs no longer drop loot; some legitimate players got upset, but it was an understandable change.

wait…I thought Guild Wars 2 was a MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game). U mad about not beeing able to do stuff solo in a dedicated MULTIPLAYER game? Why not play a single player game?

Just make the kitten vials buyable through normal relics already, then people would not have to farm for them.

Mobs on ascalon,underwater and grawl still drop stuff,thats how i got my vial after january patch.

Oh come on, I hate it how people always draw “this is multiplayer game” card out of their kitten when someone wants to do things alone or prefers to be alone.

Hell I like to solo things, most of the time. Simply because most other players are idiots from neverhadbrains land, or they are elitists which pisses me off. “You need to have this and this build blahblahblah. Then finally in the dungeon, skip-skip-skip-kill that one -skip skip- kill that one. End” Yay I played multiplayer for that kitten?

Though I do have quite fun dungeon group nowadays, except they wont do anything else than AC since it’s “easiest & fastest.” Randomly some “theme” days for change.

And I can understand the pain of OP in this thing. Since that Ascended back piece is way way better than green kitten we get from normal ways.
I want it to laurel merchant as well, like other stuff. Also there is no other means to get that skin either which is bad. Game should not force ppl to group, just because it is multiplayer game.

I do enjoy having ppl around, since they are better than normal npcs and it’s fun to talk with some ppl in cities, chats etc. Thus I’m enjoying multiplayer game, just without stupid groups.
Forced groups don’t define game as Multiplayer, just having ppl around in the maps does.

anet is a genius in killing fun…. pve is lacking in many ways… the balance is kinda….. pve mainly builds up on stacking and avoiding…. too many anoying mechanics…..

it doesnt feel good to get downed…. and some mechanics r build on this….
lets take dredge fractal for example…. since mobs hit rly hard 20+ its dying on purpose…. just die on the button…. this feels so wrong…..

there is also a problem with loot that makes u feel bad…. no real loot table… evrything can drop everywhere…. sometimes u got 5 rares but u only get 1 ecto… this feels soooo……

this game is lacking in nice moments….. its flat….

You guys all need to look apart from what the OP is doing, at to what he is saying. They DID nerf Fractals drops heavily. Even at level 34 I’m not seeing half the rares I used to. Last time I came out with a core and 1 rare. Before patch it was not uncommon for me to come out with 3-6 cores and I guess 4-5 rares. Fractals is not worth leveling anymore, except for ascended rings if one does not already have them.

It’s all in your heads. Did a level 10 fractal last night, got 5 rares and an exotic. Loot was not changed, what you are experiencing is RNG. Sometimes you get more loot then other times.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Sometimes you get more loot then other times.

…And this wasn’t exactly what you experienced last night? As i remember, even before nerfs, I did not get that kind of loot at level 10. But on the other hand I have never come out of Fractals 30 before with 1 rare. I haven’t tried that since at least before level 20. The end chest which has ALWAYS given either a few rares or a lot of cores gave me 1 core. And that was it. Greens and blues from there.

randomness…. thats the big issue…. just feels strange to see ppl in your grp loot exotics and lodestone and u end up with 1 rare…. its often a 4g gap….
i enjoyed playing frac too, but i got sick of it due to the big loot gap. its much better to farm events to sell bags and stuff….
there have always been rly anoying parts that i could only arange with by using spy kits… dredge fractal 20+ is just anoying… so now i stoped playing frac because timespend/reward is even worst…. wirhout spykit it could take up to 20 mins longer depending on your grp….

Maethril.9586:

Also there is no other means to get that skin either which is bad. Game should not force ppl to group, just because it is multiplayer game.

So are you talking about the fractal back piece skins? You think you should be able to get these outside of the dungeon they are themed from? So should I be able to get Arah or CoE gear if I don’t do those dungeons?

The main problem here is he was farming a respawnig trash mob. That’s it. Those don’t drop loot anywhere. Story missions, dungeons, fractals. They don’t drop anywhere and IMO they shouldn’t.

Also, you don’t have to do a full fractal run. You could attempt to find a group just for something like Ascalon which will take you like 20 minutes tops.

I think the problem is there are no ways to get ascended backpiece besides fractal.

And those people don’t want to do fotm are forced to resolve in this “methods”.

Anyway I think it was nerfed a long time ago. Since I remembered someone mentioned it is possible to farm swamp and get vial? But when I tested it a couple month ago it isn’t possible. So it probably is nerfed and is nerfed quite a while ago.

I really just tested it to see if I can help those people that don’t want to do fractal.

clubpro.1823:

Mobs on ascalon,underwater and grawl still drop stuff,thats how i got my vial after january patch.

Thanks. Are those all fractals level 1? Do the mobs respawn?