Guild Wars 2

[BASIC PREMISE}
One major reason why people perceive the RNG system to be bad, is that most of the loot received is “junk.” Even though level 80 exotic gear is on the loot table, it is perceived as “junk” due to the saturation of the market.

1) The market is saturated with all the originally available stat combos for exotic gear, such as berzerker’s, knight’s, and all the other stat combos that were originally available at launch.

2) “junk” is typically defined as
a) not usable by my class
b) sells for little to no money on the trading post (say 50 silver or less)
~[edit] compared to “rare skin” exotics which typically sell for 10 gold and up, not to mention big money precursors. [/edit]
c) is a stat combo that my character already owns on gear, therefore i don’t need it.

[A ROOT CAUSE OF RNG PERCEIVED FAILURE]

there is a disparity in the acquisition methods of exotic and ascended level gear based on stat combos

1) stat combos that were available at launch (such as berserker’s and knight’s) have many more methods of acquisition by the player (crafting, loot drops, dungeon token barter, guild commendation barter, karma barter, badges of honor barter, laurel barter)
a) i have a chance at getting this gear i want from loot drops.
b) i have alternate guaranteed methods of earning this gear such as
1) crafting, recipes available at the crafting vendor NPCs
2) token barter, whether via completing dungeons, WvW, login reward laurels, event karma

2) stat combos introduced after launch (such as zealot’s and sinister’s) only have 2 methods of acquistion. (crafting, story achievement metas) with the exception of two sinister trinkets available at the bandit crest vendor in silverwastes
a) i have zero chance of getting this gear from loot drops
b) the only way i can acquire this gear is to dedicate many days of crafting, due to the much greater material and time requirements compared to crafting other original stat gear.
c) there is no guaranteed acquisition method for the crafting recipes, since they drop only via RNG in loot drops, meaning that ascended keeper’s (sinister’s) gear can be more expensive than precursors (700 gold for keeper’s heavy pants recipe)

[SUGGESTION]

1) loot tables should be updated with new gear stat combos, not just recipes
a) all new stat combo should be added to the loot table at all rarity levels
b) all new stat combos should be added to the loot table without the “account bound on acquire” tag, to allow for trading and prevent market stagnation.

2) alternate guaranteed acquisition methods should be updated with the new gear stat combos
a) all new stat combos should be added to all karma, commendation, laurel, badges of honor, dungeon, etc… vendors
b) all new stat combos recipes should be added to the crafting vendor NPCs

3) “select your own stats” recipes and gear should be updated to include the new stat combos

[HOW THE SUGGESTION BENEFITS RNG PERCEPTION]

obtaining a piece of (for example) exotic level 80 light armour gloves containing sinister stats from defeating Vinewraith or Shatterer (because the general loot tables would be updated) would solve several of those problems i listed above.
~ i would be receiving a new stat combo that my class might be able to use.
~ it would be a piece of gear that has not already saturated the market
a) gear that is not already saturated the market will be worth more at first
b) unsaturated gear that drops means that the gear that is saturated drops less often, so the price of the saturated gear will go up slightly due to smaller supply
c) unsaturated gear will be worth more based on supply and demand, (less supply, higher demand)
d) higher priced gear doesn’t feel like junk
~ newer stat combos have a higher chance of not already being owned and used by my character, and would feel like a better reward

[RISKS]

1) players will stop complaining about RNG
2) players will focus their RNG discussions on precursors, requesting alternate guaranteed method of acquisition

[SUMMARY]

New stat combos are not added to the the existing loot tables and existing alternate acquisition methods as they are introduced, therefore the RNG system gives the appearance of “nothing but junk loot”, especially for the unlucky.

Post Script: i started a new thread for this due to John Smith’s post in the RNG thread:

John Smith.4610:

I want to remind everyone that this isn’t a discussion about precursors or specific rewards, that’s a different conversation. This is a discussion of the pro/cons and philosophy behind different forms of RNG implementation.

Idk about anyone else but I’d be happy with exotic “junk”. Problem is, I simply rarely get any of it. Everything is blues and greens. Just throwing random pull out my kitten numbers here but it seems that for every 5k blues and greens I might have a chance at an exo, but then again maybe not.

I have NEVER seen anyone call exotics junk, they almost always worth at LEAST a gold each. The problem is how uncommon these exotics are when compared to the ACTUAL junk such as greens and blues.

Problem is most of the “loot” is, as people have said, blues and greens. They are so ignorable if you are out of the leveling phase they don’t feel like loot. They are largely crafting mats that I have to pay to break down. Yes, I have to pay money to make them useful to me, and take the time to break them all down. I’d love to be able to click a setting that makes them all just drop as mats instead, or autosalvage as I get them.

And this is on top of so much of it coming in bags upon bags now, requiring us to unwrap our junk before we can pay to break it down.

I’ve never really heard of anyone complaining about getting exotics though, poor stat combos or not. Many of them have interesting skins and the stuff they break down into is almost always useful.

well, maybe i should edit out the part about exotic junk…

i included it originally, because people in the other thread called it junk in relation to precursors ( 100s of gold) and the “rare skin” exotics that sell for 10g and up

Yeah, greens aren’t “junk” so much as “vendor bait” because I sell em more than any other use, really. I might feel sassy and drop a bunch in the Mystic Forge but rarely. I mean, I wouldn’t equip them unless I was leveling and only if they were a straight upgrade . . . which is to say, not all that often.

So why do I say “not junk”? They pay for my waypoints. At 1s+ each, as well, they comprise a lot of the gold I earn in the game.

Blue weapons/armor? They get fed to my salvage kits and provide me with T6 like Orichalcum, Ancient Wood, and Hardened Leather I need to work on my crafting. In that case, I view them as ‘not junk’ because I still got a use for them.

Junk is, to me, something which doesn’t salvage, sells for less than a silver, and I can’t get rid of it anywhere. Bloodstone Duest and Dragonite Ore? Yeah, that’s “junk” even though it’s really needed for Ascended crafting. (Though in such limited amounts one wonders why it’s so ubiquitously overdropped.)

And honestly, if the value went up of the loot? It still would be junk to most people because then prices would go up due to people both needing to list for higher and having more money to spend.

What’s all that gold useful for anyway? Oh. Right. Precursors and legendaries. And maybe a few oddities people really want their hands on.

In other words it’s pretty close to every other MMO economy out there, only I don’t see atrocious gold sinks getting added to try to compensate. Thank the gods for that.

Forgotten Legend.9281:

well, maybe i should edit out the part about exotic junk…

i included it originally, because people in the other thread called it junk in relation to precursors ( 100s of gold) and the “rare skin” exotics that sell for 10g and up

Yeaaah let’s be honest, what isn’t junk compared to precursors?

Even some precursors are junk, some say.

Celestina.2894:

I have NEVER seen anyone call exotics junk, they almost always worth at LEAST a gold each. The problem is how uncommon these exotics are when compared to the ACTUAL junk such as greens and blues.

Would you prefer more exotics (which would make them less valuable, and therefore more likely to be ‘junk’), or fewer blues and greens?