Guild Wars 2

Maize balm farming was…well balanced. You could make a lot of gold quickly, but it was so terribly boring and grindy that no one wanted to do it for too very long, as was evidenced by the stable price of ToT bags and maize balm vials.

So why the nerf? Please bring it BACK.

When you put it that way (ludicrous profit reigned in by boredom) it sounds like a pretty terrible time.

I’m sympathetic to people who find Maize Balm farming fun, but this is the worst argument I’ve heard in favor of it.

Diminishing returns already kept ToT bag farms in check. There is no need for the nerf and it is completely uncalled for.

These balms have functioned the way they have for ages and it has never caused a problem, either on the marketplace or anywhere else.

Well if you’ve ever done it you’d know it was terrible. Grindy as balls. And everyone i’ve ever introduced to it felt the exact same way as me: (1) initial joy at finding such a great way to make a lot of gold fast, (2) swearing I’m crazy for not doing it all the time, and then (3) after 1-3 days admitting they could only take so much of it before needing to move on. The only regulars you would see was the same small group of people there who could actually take doing it regularly, thus the stable prices. (edit: and as pingu said, DR helped keep it in check too.)

So arguing that it was an innocuous way to make fast gold that anyone could do, and that few wanted to play long enough to make ludicrous amounts of gold – sounds like a pretty good reason to keep it in play to me.

And really it was the only semi-dependable grind in the game that casual players who didn’t have much time to play could use and feel like it wouldn’t take forever to afford shinies.

At a guess? Because of reports about rude remarks, etc. Every nerf to farming in this game has been preceded by complaints on the forums about rudeness, griefing, etc. and no doubt an increase in use of the report system.

It’s been in need of a nerf since last year. perhaps now we’ll have far less rage at people accidentally killing an ambient creature.

Good on you, ANet

I was farming in the Nord Camp of wvw borderlands – whenever I needed gold or was bored – it was fun for some time. 6 people “stole” my bags – two of them died, 3 sent me my bags and one kept it = it was all good.
Since the old borderlands are no more I have no good farming spot anyway, so I’m not that sad but the nerf seems a bit harsh, from 9 potential bags to one per potion..

rapthorne.7345:

It’s been in need of a nerf since last year. perhaps now we’ll have far less rage at people accidentally killing an ambient creature.

Good on you, ANet

Absolute nonsense.

Considering that ANet had to change white critters to green in some areas AND we got roughly a complaint thread about the farm about once a week, I’d say the farmers are the ones to blame for the nerf.

Especially the rude farmers that hung out in Bloodtide Coast.

Generally ANet has nerfed for 2 reasons. One is economic and the other is people fighting. Since you say it was economically stable and because there were so many threads about arguments between maize farmers and others, then I’m going so say the nerf was because of fighting.

Players were fighting over ambients

Good riddance

Dunno why i need to point this out but here it goes :

pug arah 124 for around 1 hour u get 10 gold; or w/e dungeon with even less gold
run around and kill ambients for 1 hour u get like 30 gold

And yet ppl ask why it was nerfed lol

tAzz.8497:

Dunno why i need to point this out but here it goes…run around and kill ambients for 1 hour u get like 30 gold

And yet ppl ask why it was nerfed lol

30g/hr? Yup, that was not unheard of. I usually did about 20g/hr when I did it. So why wasn’t everyone doing it every day all day? See my original post. It was not being abused. You didn’t need to point out anything cuz you have no point.

And who cares if people were whining/arguing about it? People whine and argue about WvW, PvP, dungeons and everything else, but has aNet removed WvW, PvP, and dungeons from the game? Nope. Likewise, there was absolutely no need to completely remove the maize balm farm.

btw jana – it’s not one bag per potion. It’s ZERO bags per potion. You just like candy corn or something now.

CuteLilKittenHugz.2064:

And who cares if people were whining/arguing about it? People whine and argue about WvW, PvP, dungeons and everything else, but has aNet removed dungeons from the game? Nope.

wrong . they did the same with dungeons!

ANet has shown that If people get into fights about PvE content, they will nerf it. They have done this repeatedly. From reports on forum threads, maize balm farmers and non farmers were clashing repeatedly. People warned on these threads that if the two groups continued to clash, ANet would step in and nerf the farm.

And ANet did.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

ANet has shown that If people get into fights about PvE content, they will nerf it. They have done this repeatedly. From reports on forum threads, maize balm farmers and non farmers were clashing repeatedly. People warned on these threads that if the two groups continued to clash, ANet would step in and nerf the farm.

And ANet did.

So wait, if we want something to be nerfed, we simply have to start an arguement and it will happen? Hmmm, in that case I may have some ideas (laughs evil).

Albadaran.1283:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

ANet has shown that If people get into fights about PvE content, they will nerf it. They have done this repeatedly. From reports on forum threads, maize balm farmers and non farmers were clashing repeatedly. People warned on these threads that if the two groups continued to clash, ANet would step in and nerf the farm.

And ANet did.

So wait, if we want something to be nerfed, we simply have to start an arguement and it will happen? Hmmm, in that case I may have some ideas (laughs evil).

Or they may nerf you personally. ^^

Albadaran.1283:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

…People warned on these threads that if the two groups continued to clash, ANet would step in and nerf the farm.

And ANet did.

So wait, if we want something to be nerfed, we simply have to start an arguement and it will happen? Hmmm, in that case I may have some ideas (laughs evil).

Haha – except that’s exactly what some people are doing. Don’t like the way some people play the game? Make a stink until aNet gives the vocal minority their way. For example, the people who complained about maize balm farming. Gz y’all.

I laughed so hard when I saw this update. mostly because I offloaded all my maize about 2 weeks ago for 14s. I thought it was underpriced then (each gave ~40s worth of ToT bags), but that it wouldn’t go that high before halloween, when more would enter circulation.
But nurfing them to 1 ambient each was harsh. they should of changed it to: 1 charge, affects 9 ambients. I think that would still be called a nurf (how often are 9 ambients that close to each other?). Not sure what they were trying to accomplish.

Mystic.5934:

I laughed so hard when I saw this update. mostly because I offloaded all my maize about 2 weeks ago for 14s. I thought it was underpriced then (each gave ~40s worth of ToT bags), but that it wouldn’t go that high before halloween, when more would enter circulation.
But nurfing them to 1 ambient each was harsh. they should of changed it to: 1 charge, affects 9 ambients. I think that would still be called a nurf (how often are 9 ambients that close to each other?). Not sure what they were trying to accomplish.

Wow you are lucky. I hadn’t farmed in so long I hadn’t even thought of it until yesterday when I saw ToT bag prices were up. Thought i’d make some quick gold so I grabbed some balm out of my 600ish stockpile and headed to one of my fav spots. This was my face after 10 seconds: T_T lol

btw it’s one ambient per maize balm vial, but it’s not one [ToT bag] per ambient. it’s one [worthless item] per ambient now. I mean they nerfed it so hard they might as well take maize balm out of the game and replace them all with salt packets or something.

Oh, there’s even more than the Maize functionality changes.

Maize completely removed from loot table.
Candy Corn output from ToT bags was reduced by 250%
Vendor values for Nougat Centers, Chattering Skulls, and Plastic Fangs were reduced by 33%
Oontz necklaces, a once very rare and valueable item is now a fairly common drop.
Mini Gwyn, a once Legendary level mini with about a 4k gold to acquire, is now a fairly common drop. Can even be purchased at a vendor too. Though it appears someone tweaked the rates since Friday morning’s launch already.

So there’s just been a gutting to ToT bags across the board. Next up is going to be how quickly the global Candy Corn supply runs out and the Gobbler is rendered too expensive to use.

What was needed was a new place to harvest outside of Queensdale, preferably gated within the HoT maps or even a raid. Was so hyped to play and find one yet, I’ve barely played since Hot Launched. Within minutes of the download I began witnessing JS’s economic changes. I really can’t stomach how biased his rewards are for content players versus traders.

DeWolfe.2174:

Oh, there’s even more than the Maize functionality changes.

Maize completely removed from loot table.
Candy Corn output from ToT bags was reduced by 250%
Vendor values for Nougat Centers, Chattering Skulls, and Plastic Fangs were reduced by 33%
Oontz necklaces, a once very rare and valueable item is now a fairly common drop.
Mini Gwyn, a once Legendary level mini with about a 4k gold to acquire, is now a fairly common drop. Can even be purchased at a vendor too. Though it appears someone tweaked the rates since Friday morning’s launch already.

So there’s just been a gutting to ToT bags across the board. Next up is going to be how quickly the global Candy Corn supply runs out and the Gobbler is rendered too expensive to use.

What was needed was a new place to harvest outside of Queensdale, preferably gated within the HoT maps or even a raid. Was so hyped to play and find one yet, I’ve barely played since Hot Launched. Within minutes of the download I began witnessing JS’s economic changes. I really can’t stomach how biased his rewards are for content players versus traders.

The necklaces are still a rare drop. Yes, the drop rate has been increased but I wouldn’t say it’s a common drop. I’ve opened over 40k bags since Friday and have gotten only 6. That’s like a 0.02% chance per bag. The value should go up again after Halloween w/ the nerf to Maize Balm, causing bag value to go up due to low supply over time. Who knows, Anet may bring back the old loot table afterwards.

The nerf was needed. Balm farming brought out the worst in everybody. They did however go too far with it.

Because you’re not in HoT content and you deserve to be punished for it.

CuteLilKittenHugz.2064:

btw it’s one ambient per maize balm vial, but it’s not one [ToT bag] per ambient. it’s one [worthless item] per ambient now. I mean they nerfed it so hard they might as well take maize balm out of the game and replace them all with salt packets or something.

wait, maize balm doesn’t give ToT bags? HAHAHAHAHA why is it even selling above 1c anymore?

CuteLilKittenHugz.2064:

Maize balm farming was…well balanced….

So why the nerf?

I’ve answered this one before. Presciently…

Sariel V.7024:

… maize farmers are quite happy to abuse and berate other players because they have a mistaken assumption that they own this part of the game content.

Not to worry, though. Farmers always escalate their making nuisances of themselves until the devs come in and ruin it for everyone. This will be no different.

Well found out about the maize balm and actually bought the recipe to make them last week for 8 gold!!! It’s not worth it anymore obviously… but that’s only partially why I write here.
I think they nerfed it the wrong way because the recipe was already time gated to 1 per day.
So what AN really should have done was reduce the drop rate of the balm from ToT because with enough people farming the balm it was actually self sustaining when you had 10 followers:
1 balm would generate 9×10 ToT bags which according to the drop rate study would result in about 4 balms distributed amongst the followers.
Essentially if the only/main source of Maize balm was through the recipe there wouldn’t be a farm because of the time gating and the cost would be representative of the ingredients required to make it and the potential income.
Did I miss something?

Maya Kirilian.9051:

Well found out about the maize balm and actually bought the recipe to make them last week for 8 gold!!! It’s not worth it anymore obviously… but that’s only partially why I write here.
I think they nerfed it the wrong way because the recipe was already time gated to 1 per day.
So what AN really should have done was reduce the drop rate of the balm from ToT because with enough people farming the balm it was actually self sustaining when you had 10 followers:
1 balm would generate 9×10 ToT bags which according to the drop rate study would result in about 4 balms distributed amongst the followers.
Essentially if the only/main source of Maize balm was through the recipe there wouldn’t be a farm because of the time gating and the cost would be representative of the ingredients required to make it and the potential income.

Did I miss something?

yes. They don’t want people to do it at all. Just like dungeons and key farming, they “disincentivized” it.

• Because balm farmers were actively blocking content for new players at certain hearts.
• Because balm farmers, like queensdale champ train farmers before them, were extremely rude and abusive to any player that didn’t abide by their self imposed rules.
• Because the combination of those two things damaged the play experience for people playing the game as intended.
• Because risk/reward factors were extremely out of line to the point it was becoming economically damaging.

This game was designed like a Casino’s slot machine. Gain 1000% profit (gold sink) before giving back 1%. Only way to make money in this game is to have no life and be on 24/7 farming dungeons or playing the market. With DR added to the system, there is no way you can farm something if you are into making money that way because you get hit by this. For example the ToT bags… once you get a stack of 250 DR sets in. A stack = 9 to 12 gold. So yeah Anet didnt want players taking advantage of that.

Albadaran.1283:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

ANet has shown that If people get into fights about PvE content, they will nerf it. They have done this repeatedly. From reports on forum threads, maize balm farmers and non farmers were clashing repeatedly. People warned on these threads that if the two groups continued to clash, ANet would step in and nerf the farm.

And ANet did.

So wait, if we want something to be nerfed, we simply have to start an arguement and it will happen? Hmmm, in that case I may have some ideas (laughs evil).

Sort of. It needs to be a pitched battle between farmers and innocent bystanders that regularly hurts peoples widdle feelings. I don’t think they actually give two kittens about it, tbh, they’re just afraid of their flagship marketing tool “GW2 is cooperative” being marred.

SpreadCheese.5208:

This game was designed like a Casino’s slot machine. Gain 1000% profit (gold sink) before giving back 1%. Only way to make money in this game is to have no life and be on 24/7 farming dungeons or playing the market. With DR added to the system, there is no way you can farm something if you are into making money that way because you get hit by this. For example the ToT bags… once you get a stack of 250 DR sets in. A stack = 9 to 12 gold. So yeah Anet didnt want players taking advantage of that.

Take it as a hint that just maybe their idea is we should enjoy the new content rather than 24/7 farming?

A lot of the economy had changes. I saw at least one mat drop by a factor of 10. Like the method or not, it is hard to argue that maize balm was being used as intended.

Well the candy corn gobbler was up until this “adjustment” a nice way to keep a permanent XP buff on your character. Now, not so much, hence we are to look elsewhere for the buffs (gem store anyone).

My gobbler will be sitting in my bank until next Halloween once the price exceeds its usefulness. As for using the gem store for a quick boost now and again, no thanks, I would rather just do more events.

So my answer is profit, they wanted more (big shock there) and even though some of us bought the item for gems we were no longer giving them enough. If you notice the item was not even put up for sale this or last year, although I in a way am grateful due to candy corn inflation already costing to much due to these nerfs.

Yeah this was yet another blatant money grab by Anet, people were able to farm enough gold to buy things in game… so they figured by nerfing this to the floor, like every other farm, people will spend more cash on the gem store, which is wrong, because many people, like myself, refuse to purchase things for cash from the gem store anymore in direct response to the constant nerf of all decent farms.

I used to spend cash pretty regularly, because I would way out if I wanted to spend the time farming enough gold to purchase gems for item X, or if I’d rather spend cash and do something else with my time, often times I chose to spend the cash..

Once Anet removes the choice from the table, basically saying they will make it such a long, tedious and miserable experience to farm enough gold to make gem store purchases that I will be forced to just make the cash purchases… I, like many others, decided to not make anymore cash purchases AT ALL.

If Anet wants to limit the options of players and forcing our hand in hopes of prodding us into pulling out our wallet, instead of counting on financial support of customers happy with quality content and fair value in their offerings… I feel compelled to show them that there is another option entirely, I just go without that extra cosmetic item, just playing through the content, again, with the same aesthetics, both in content and my toons, until I get bored and start playing another game for 6 months to a year…

Hopefully the new Season 3 content will be much better in terms of game play and story then the heart of thorns expansion was/is. I just feel like they over promised and under delivered there… then nerfed off many of the staple aspects of the existing game to try and funnel players into that new content that many people were much less interested in then Anet anticipated.

I play more and spend more when there is a good solid farm to get me part or sometimes most of the way to my end goals, be it a new legendary, or ascended set or new skins or account.character upgrades, etc. I also become impatient one I start to see the finish line and often would drop the cash to finish up my current projects.

I am far less likely to spend cash at the beginning of a new pursuit… I just don’t.

So, as far as I am concerned, and players that share my views and gaming habits, nerfing the gold farms to death is counterproductive and actually yields Anet less cash in the long run.

It’s the same with the nerfing of key farming.. people that were farming a handful of keys on occasion did not suddenly start buying keys on a regular basis, they just moved on to something else and turned their nose up at black lion chests all together.

When I farmed keys, if I had like 7 or 8 ticket scraps, being burnt out on key farming, I would often buy 10 keys or so to get the last scraps I needed for a full ticket, but I definitely don’t buy any keys now, hoping to get enough scraps for a full ticket… it is WAY cheaper to just buy the skins off the TP.

We did the math back when they nerfed key farming and it was like 30 gold for a key, to open a chest that 95% of the time had contents worth less the 2 gold…. the value for purchase price was terrible. They nerfed key farming thinking it would equal more key sales, it didn’t. If they want to sell more keys, cut the price of them in half. THEN they will get a massive spike in sales and actually gain ground..

Just venting my thoughts… I just came back to playing about a week ago, getting ready for the Halloween event, it really is one of the best parts of the game as far as me and my group of friends is concerned.

See you in the Lab…

/rant

Maize balm farming isn’t the only way to make gold and they certainly have added more ways to do so since that nerf.

Because farming is not everything in GW2.

And well, good luck on gathering enough people to form a “whine party”, if there’s nothing useful to gain (usually it falls to content to do and enjoy, which the players themselves cannot create with their hands), most people will not be much inclined to stay and see it through.

Thread necroing aside, there are plenty of ways to make gold in this game now, in fact better than it has ever been.

I guess since Halloween is just around the corner, forum posters are practicing their thread necromancy.

Are you aware you bumped up a topic from almost a year ago?

Are you also aware maize farming was never actually a great way to make money, certainly not compared to things that have been added since. Unless you got extremely lucky and got one of the few valuable items you were likely to have almost nothing to show for your time farming.

Personally I’m glad it’s gone. A year on I still catch myself thinking “could this be a farming spot?” any time I see 3 or more ambients close together. (But then I also think caterpie’s are rare in Pokemon Go because I’m used to Red version and I haven’t played that in years.) It was a poor way to compensate for absurdly low drop rates that caused a lot of extra problems (like people getting abuse for trying to finish the heart on Grand Barrier Isle) and I think the game as a whole is better off without it.