Guild Wars 2

I’ve been champ farming off and on for about a month and a half now trying to save up some money, before today when I would open my boxes/bags up I would get between 8 to 4 silver per box/bag. Today I started opening up a stack that I have been saving and I noticed I’m getting a lot less…sometimes 7 silver to nothing at all. Seems the more boxes I open up in a row the less money I’m getting…What is going on ANET?, money is hard enough to make in this game as it is, why did you have to nerf the champ loot?

Are you trying to drive people away from playing your game?, because I really don’t feel like playing anymore.

This latest patch seems to have reduced the silver and bloodstone dust you get from champ bags.

I’m all for less bloodstone dust. Havn’t noticed and reduction in money though. I pay more attention to items than anything else.

Honestly I think I would pay money to get the dust reduced so…

Yeah the dust I didn’t care about, I have piles of that stuff on alt characters, and I have just been throwing it out anyways. It’s the money that upsets me, for a pile of about 1500 boxes/bags I would usually end up with just over 100 gold just from the loot boxes themselves, that’s without selling anything. I just opened up 250 boxes and ended up with 7 gold.

That seems like an effective way to end the “champ farm” (assuming that is what they want to do). Pure speculation on my part.

So another stealth nerf that anet claims they don’t do? that’s just lovely.

well I just noticed I now get 1-7 silver from champ boxes after the patch. The average was about 16 boxes to 1g in coin. Now its like 26 boxes to 1g in coin. Thanks Anet. Why do I even play anymore you nerf everything. Do you plan to kill any reasonable means of making gold in this game? When will it stop? Will I eventually need gems to just log on and waypoint?

good nerf. champ farming is corny but effective. looks like world events might actually get done now

Though necessary, this is a bummer for people like me who already have a terrible time making any kind of income, I guess it will take me longer to reach that precursor at this rate, -sigh- , yay for more boring time at making 800 gold im so excited about this……………

Way to kill all the enjoyment ANet.

Seriously? Did they really nerf it…

Yeah, anet did nerfed champ loot all together, some of the boxes I get do not even give silver when opened, looks like silver earned from champ loot boxes are now 0-10 silver… Thanks Anet…

Yup pretty terrible move

ANET must of finally figured out that the best gold revenue in the game, was also the most boring thing to do in the game. So to keep all the players from dying of boredom they scale the champ train rewards with everything else. So players don’t feel forced to kill the same 6 champs, they can now do whatever they enjoy.

Thank you for reminding me why I stopped playing for 6 months? I came back with the champion farming in Frostgorge. There was finally reward for effort and time expended … now you turned it into an RNG lottery on if you will get any silver from the chest.

Most of those farming the champs were farming it trying to come up with the gold for a precursor. You remember that thing you were supposed to have fixed LAST YEAR to make it attainable by the masses. That same thing you won’t be fixing until 2014 now. The profoundly sad part is, at least on Yak’s Bend the group farming Frostgorge was made up of good people that were beyond dedicated to achieving their Legendary goals. In short you screwed a large group of not only dedicated gamers but polite ones as well (an uncommon thing in an MMO). Personally, I finished my Twilight and have enough for a 2nd, I am ranting on behalf of all those I see daily that will be severely impacted by this.

It’s official, you guys are the kings of leeching fun from a game.

Sounds like a good change to me. Now lets up those dungeon and dynamic event rewards just a small bit.

Champ train seemed to be the optimal gold/hour if you would put the time in.
If they take that away from us, how else are we supposed to farm money then?

At least getting a legendary was possible for some of us that dont farm cof, and/or manipulate the TP…

Anet wants farming to be opening up your wallet, pulling out the credit card, buying gems with said card and then converting said gems into gold……

Hmm, I have to find a new way to raise my income, harder grind for legendary, great

I had quit running champ farms since around 2 weeks ago because i seriously could not take it anymore. It was more stressing than satisfying trying to catch up with a train of 50 people rushing to tag champs. Then i looked for alternatives.

3xdungeon speed runs equal around 5-6g worth of rewards on average. All AC can be done within an hour or so with a good group and i found the LFG tool quite usefull in building the groups i want for optimal runs. Add some God temple runs on top of that and there, here’s your gold farm.

Just yesterday i did 5 dungeon runs, did 3-4 temples and i totalled 15g. I had gotten over 12 rares on top of 1-1.5g per dungeon run final reward AND lets not forget the ascended mat drops as well!

Dungeons and temples drop a crap load of rares and the temple pre events also have some good drops occasionally.

Seriously, way, way more fun and interactive

Overall i enjoy this varied playstyle way more than champ farming. A step to the right direction i say!

Ath.2531:

I had quit running champ farms since around 2 weeks ago because i seriously could not take it anymore. It was more stressing than satisfying trying to catch up with a train of 50 people rushing to tag champs. Then i looked for alternatives.

3xdungeon speed runs equal around 5-6g worth of rewards on average. All AC can be done within an hour or so with a good group and i found the LFG tool quite usefull in building the groups i want for optimal runs. Add some God temple runs on top of that and there, here’s your gold farm.

Just yesterday i did 5 dungeon runs, did 3-4 temples and i totalled 15g. I had gotten over 12 rares on top of 1-1.5g per dungeon run final reward AND lets not forget the ascended mat drops as well!

Dungeons and temples drop a crap load of rares and the temple pre events also have some good drops occasionally.

Seriously, way, way more fun and interactive

Overall i enjoy this varied playstyle way more than champ farming. A step to the right direction i say!

Nothing was stopping you from doing that before they nerfed the Champ farm. You saying this was a step in the right direction screams that you are just supporting Anet blindly in this or don’t actually have any real game goals requiring a lot of gold. Anet doesn’t need to nerf another thing in this game. If they are unhappy with people farming something they need to BUFF other alternatives not nerf the already very LIMITED opportunities that currently exist.

The champ farm was more than just the silver per box it was also Tier6 mats … 2 birds one stone, which is what made it so efficient. If it is easier to obtain gold it frees time to actually DO OTHER THINGS. Having to grind for longer to make less just forces people to choose to grind and only grind or leave the game. For the love of common sense Anet please wake up and realize that.

leprekan.7248:

Nothing was stopping you from doing that before they nerfed the Champ farm. You saying this was a step in the right direction screams that you are just supporting Anet blindly in this or don’t actually have any real game goals requiring a lot of gold. Anet doesn’t need to nerf another thing in this game. If they are unhappy with people farming something they need to BUFF other alternatives not nerf the already very LIMITED opportunities that currently exist.

The champ farm was more than just the silver per box it was also Tier6 mats … 2 birds one stone, which is what made it so efficient. If it is easier to obtain gold it frees time to actually DO OTHER THINGS. Having to grind for longer to make less just forces people to choose to grind and only grind or leave the game. For the love of common sense Anet please wake up and realize that.

Even though i can agree that nothing was stopping me from doing that before they nerfed the champ farm you coudn’t be farther from the truth in your assumption that i have no real game goals requiring a long of gold.

I have farmed my way to crafting a legendary, ascended weapon and on my way to crafting another ascended weapon + backpiece before the end of this week. Having already gotten another 2 gifts my longer term goal is to craft another legendary when the new ones are announced.

The reason i said that this is a step in the right direction is because i fondly believe that this will indirectly push people in acquiring gold in more varied ways than repeating the same route for hours on end. When i was farming in Orr for 3-4g an hour there were no other equivalent alternatives.Now there are. Quite a few actually. Please do try them as a proof of concept before saying they are unequal in terms of income.

Don’t get me wrong. I am an avid farmer and i continue to farm, albeit in a different style. But the Champ farm in my opinion is the single worst way i have encountered for farming in my life.

Do try this:
1) Do 3 dungeon speed runs. (at least 2g upon finishing each one) for over 4.5g + ascended mats
2) Check http://www.gw2state.com/temples.html and guest to a server that is currently doing 1-3 temples. You can guest to 2 servers a day. So doing 3 temples a day is easy for around 1g per temple in loot or less + ascended mats
3) Do a Scarlet invasion when it pops up for up to 5g in gold

After doing these 3 things, sell your mats or what not and count your gold. If you havent made at least 10g within 2-3 hours then i’ll take my word back.

Edit: I did stop the champ train around 2 weeks before it got nerfed

Peetee.9406:

Sounds like a good change to me. Now lets up those dungeon and dynamic event rewards just a small bit.

LOLOLOL… ya, like THAT’S gonna happen.

Stop being lazy , arenanet did a nice move to nerf it . Pressing 111 ina blob of players without any strategy . Should give only 1 silver+ 1 drop and some mats . You can farm dungeons which give way more than champtrain, dungeons are as easy but at least it’s not in a giant blob.

a t s e.9614:

Stop being lazy , arenanet did a nice move to nerf it . Pressing 111 ina blob of players without any strategy . Should give only 1 silver+ 1 drop and some mats . You can farm dungeons which give way more than champtrain, dungeons are as easy but at least it’s not in a giant blob.

It’s not that they did it. It’s the principle. I personally don’t do the champ farms but I know people who do. Why punish the champ farmers and not the dungeon runners? Some dungeon runners are just as rude as some champ farmers, and on the other end of the spectrum, some are kind as well.

And ~80% of the game can be done by pressing 1 without any strategy and ~95% of the game can be done without any strategy pressing mostly 1. Just saying.

a t s e.9614:

Stop being lazy , arenanet did a nice move to nerf it . Pressing 111 ina blob of players without any strategy . Should give only 1 silver+ 1 drop and some mats . You can farm dungeons which give way more than champtrain, dungeons are as easy but at least it’s not in a giant blob.

Except dungeons are frustrating and unfun, whereas at least champ farming is kind of fun anyhow. So why shouldn’t they nerf dungeon rewards then?

Some of you may not be considering how economy works. Precursors dont come from farming champion trains. Champion train is a gold faucet. The more people do it, the more gold is injected into economy and this pushes the price of precursors (supply of which has nothing to do with champ farms) further up. Which means that over time you will have to farm those champs even more to be able to afford one. Once upon the time Dusk costed 200g. Now it costs 800g. And if gold faucets are not nerfed, over time it will cost over 1000g. You want cheaper precursors? Ask Arena to buff the supply of precursors. The more “masses” can afford one, the more it drives the demand up. Which at steady level of supply will inevitably boost the price even further. While at the same time making the economy go FUBAR. Nerfs (or buffs) like this are necessary to keep the economy in check. They are not made becouse evil Arena doesnt want Johny to buy his precursor.

rizzo.1079:

a t s e.9614:

Stop being lazy , arenanet did a nice move to nerf it . Pressing 111 ina blob of players without any strategy . Should give only 1 silver+ 1 drop and some mats . You can farm dungeons which give way more than champtrain, dungeons are as easy but at least it’s not in a giant blob.

Except dungeons are frustrating and unfun, whereas at least champ farming is kind of fun anyhow. So why shouldn’t they nerf dungeon rewards then?

As the matter of fact, they should. Rewards for speed running some dungeons are too good. And I mean about the raw gold you get for completion. Compare how much money you get for doing a level 70+ heart quest with a reward for completing CoF1. This shows that gold “arms race” is already in place and the more it is curbed, the better.

I really didn’t know how much raw gold it gave me. I mostly farm champs for the fun running in zerg/lack of time/the blue and greens. So I can say I’m unaffected.

We’re going to see inflation in gold continuing for a while I think, which isn’t a bad thing since gold was WAY too valuable initially. I do think the heart quests and DE’s should be buffed way beyond what they are now…I can’t explain how frustrated I was to see a level 80 heart quest hardly reward more than a level 10. I don’t think nerfing the rewards for anything is the right way to go about it though. Maybe a chest and increased money reward for DE’s/heart quests that are 70+? That still leaves a lot of zones with no good reason to visit them since their stuff is <70…

Right-on, Awe, right-on. +1

I didn’t do farm champ runs, because the couple times I tried I found it too boring, but if this reduces their effect on the economy, and reduces the mob around Queensdale, then it seems like a positive change for me. The rest of the economy might still be slow at earning gold (compared to fixed-price items, like Icy Runestones and cultural armor,) but at least trading posts costs won’t be driven up for everyone who isn’t farming champs by those who are. Or, rather, they won’t to the same degree that they have been.

I’m sympathetic to those whose favorite way to play got nerfed, though. That’s never a fun experience, whether or not it’s necessary.

If not getting as much gold for your farming makes you not want to play the game anymore, you already had one foot out the door.

So you feel the champ trains are no longer rewarding you for what you put in? Sorry, but I don’t think you are really putting ‘anything in’ when riding a champ train. If you truly do enjoy the style of game play that the champ train offers, nothing is stopping you from doing it. ANet has a responsibility to plug up avenues that generate too much money too easily, it’s sort of what caused a lot of the economy issues here in the first place and drove prices up like crazy.

I’m sure everyone can get back to earning money by doing more than spamming auto attack.

Personally i dislike the Bloodstone nerf the most, since i don’t do Dungeons, and mainly did Champs now and then for Bloodstones. Now with this nerf i have to do even more Champs if i wanted to craft more ascended Weapons.

And yes .. i know the dungeon runners drown in that stuff .. i however have much more Dragonite and Fragments than Bloodstone.

Beldin.5498:

Personally i dislike the Bloodstone nerf the most, since i don’t do Dungeons, and mainly did Champs now and then for Bloodstones. Now with this nerf i have to do even more Champs if i wanted to craft more ascended Weapons.

And yes .. i know the dungeon runners drown in that stuff .. i however have much more Dragonite and Fragments than Bloodstone.

You are the 1st person I know that want more dust.

50 players vs 1 champion mob should give more than 5 players vs a whole dungeon? That sounds fair . Champs reward was way too big for spamming 11111 mindlessly , at least in dungeons you still can fail if you’re terrible where the champs is always a GUARANTEED victory .

Roleplaying a zergling is a perfectly valid form of game play. By nerfing champion zergs, they ruined my fun. What am I supposed to do now?

I guess I can roleplay a zergling in WvW but it’s just not as satisfying.

They didn’t ruin anything , if you want free rewards for spamming mindlessly it’s not arenanet’s fault . This farm shouldn’t even be allowed because there’s no possibility of failure. Try content that requires skill like arah paths , you will get 3g .

On the other hand, the incentive to kill a champion outside of a train has dropped precipitously.

Dark Catalyst.1028:

Roleplaying a zergling is a perfectly valid form of game play. By nerfing champion zergs, they ruined my fun. What am I supposed to do now?

I guess I can roleplay a zergling in WvW but it’s just not as satisfying.

This doesn’t stop anyone from doing it; not like messing with spawn timers would have done. You just won’t be rewarded ridiculously well for it anymore.

Beldin.5498:

Personally i dislike the Bloodstone nerf the most, since i don’t do Dungeons, and mainly did Champs now and then for Bloodstones. Now with this nerf i have to do even more Champs if i wanted to craft more ascended Weapons.

And yes .. i know the dungeon runners drown in that stuff .. i however have much more Dragonite and Fragments than Bloodstone.

Do tell us what you’ve been doing for the past few weeks if you really needed Bloodstone dust.

Dust should be sellable, that would solve a lot of the problems. Especially since all the new recipes take 100 dust each, including the new top tier condition damage crystals.

Problem with champ rewards was they were “exploited” into champ trains in Queensdale. Waypoints weren’t being cleared, regular content not being done, open hostility if the sequence was interrupted by another, etc. At least back in the day of speed running that one dungeon path you had level limits and instances to limit participation and not in the open world or a starter zone.

I understand that players will naturally evolve their game play to the most optimal means to achieve their goals whether it’s XP or coin but what champ trains did was disrupt the game play of newcomers and that’s really a no-no. The reduced rewards are likely a means to reduce the attractiveness of trains so players will actually go off and participate in the rest of the game than mindlessly running/waypointing from champ to champ for an entire evening.

Well if this is true, wow is that ever so frustrating…

Behellagh.1468:

Problem with champ rewards was they were “exploited” into champ trains in Queensdale. Waypoints weren’t being cleared, regular content not being done, open hostility if the sequence was interrupted by another, etc. At least back in the day of speed running that one dungeon path you had level limits and instances to limit participation and not in the open world or a starter zone.

I understand that players will naturally evolve their game play to the most optimal means to achieve their goals whether it’s XP or coin but what champ trains did was disrupt the game play of newcomers and that’s really a no-no. The reduced rewards are likely a means to reduce the attractiveness of trains so players will actually go off and participate in the rest of the game than mindlessly running/waypointing from champ to champ for an entire evening.

Well said. The endless porting and rushing to catch up with the zerg was almost a game killer for me.

I never did champ trains because they seem boring, and I try not to spend hours doing boring kitten so I can get some external reward. I’m okay with them nerfing champ trains.

If nerfing champion rewards means people who only play to farm leave, and people who want actual content stay, maybe the game will be better off.

Ath.2531:

leprekan.7248:

Nothing was stopping you from doing that before they nerfed the Champ farm. You saying this was a step in the right direction screams that you are just supporting Anet blindly in this or don’t actually have any real game goals requiring a lot of gold. Anet doesn’t need to nerf another thing in this game. If they are unhappy with people farming something they need to BUFF other alternatives not nerf the already very LIMITED opportunities that currently exist.

The champ farm was more than just the silver per box it was also Tier6 mats … 2 birds one stone, which is what made it so efficient. If it is easier to obtain gold it frees time to actually DO OTHER THINGS. Having to grind for longer to make less just forces people to choose to grind and only grind or leave the game. For the love of common sense Anet please wake up and realize that.

Even though i can agree that nothing was stopping me from doing that before they nerfed the champ farm you coudn’t be farther from the truth in your assumption that i have no real game goals requiring a long of gold.

I have farmed my way to crafting a legendary, ascended weapon and on my way to crafting another ascended weapon + backpiece before the end of this week. Having already gotten another 2 gifts my longer term goal is to craft another legendary when the new ones are announced.

The reason i said that this is a step in the right direction is because i fondly believe that this will indirectly push people in acquiring gold in more varied ways than repeating the same route for hours on end. When i was farming in Orr for 3-4g an hour there were no other equivalent alternatives.Now there are. Quite a few actually. Please do try them as a proof of concept before saying they are unequal in terms of income.

Don’t get me wrong. I am an avid farmer and i continue to farm, albeit in a different style. But the Champ farm in my opinion is the single worst way i have encountered for farming in my life.

Do try this:
1) Do 3 dungeon speed runs. (at least 2g upon finishing each one) for over 4.5g + ascended mats
2) Check http://www.gw2state.com/temples.html and guest to a server that is currently doing 1-3 temples. You can guest to 2 servers a day. So doing 3 temples a day is easy for around 1g per temple in loot or less + ascended mats
3) Do a Scarlet invasion when it pops up for up to 5g in gold

After doing these 3 things, sell your mats or what not and count your gold. If you havent made at least 10g within 2-3 hours then i’ll take my word back.

This is better for tracking temples and all other meta events that reward a chest + a bonus chest (guaranteed rare / chance for exotic)

http://us.gw2stuff.com/

All those events are my main form of farming, jumping through different chain of events keep things fresh, switching between that and dungeons should give a decent income, with the small chance to get precursors.

I’d be fine with this if it were only the Queensdale farmers getting hit. Since I quite often run frostgorge in a party of 3-5, and we’re the only ones there, getting our reward nerfed into the ground is painful.

So, to be able to afford trying to hit the goals I want (insane gold req. for getting Weaponsmithing/Artificer up to 500 so that I can be on level with others in wvw. Having some spare gold to trade for gems to get character slots/storage space, and maybe, one day, saving enough for a precursor – right.) my only option is to… what, buy a few thousand gold and try to manipulate the TP like the other rich people?

I’m sorry, boys and girls, but the champ train was the one reliable source of income for those who don’t want to 1) buy gems -> gold. 2) run an unfun dungeon on a class you may not want to play, 3) abuse the TP system after buying gold.

It’s worth noting, I don’t enjoy speedclearing – it strikes me as being the complete opposite of how the dungeons are supposed to be done. (I’d love to see a dungeon “vanquish” mode, that rewards you at a much higher level for clearing every baddy on the path you chose, instead of skipping 99%+ of the dungeon.)

Current ways to make decent money (decent = 3-5g after 2-3 hours of play)

- Running dungeons till your fingers bleed, if you’re into speedclearing, if you have the right profession(s).

- Being on a server where the invasions actually get done. From what I can tell, the current invasion actually empties the zone on IoJ. Someone else pointed out the rewards from the invasion are the coffer/bags, and if they’ve been nerfed, that reward just got borked too.

- Have enough money already to effectively play the TP.

- Be online exactly at server reset, to join the meta boss runs – or get godly enough to solo all the bosses/temples. (I’m not good enough to solo the temples, and I’d have to quit my job to be online at server reset.) Or spend a good chunk of my game-time server hopping to figure out where a set of temple runs is happening when I’m on.

- Until a couple days ago, grab my wife and a couple guildies, and go do frostgorge for a couple hours. (going to collect bags today for myself. Not that I don’t believe the rewards have been nerfed, but I always prefer to see for myself.)

- Buy gems.

Yeah, the post rambles, but I think I covered everything. Need sleep or coffee.

You don’t think that ANet watches how players play and if gameplay devolves into something they disapprove of they will change the reason that style of gameplay popped up in the first place?

It use to be when the Troll popped up someone would announce it and then whoever wanted to participate shows up. Do that now and if the train isn’t there yet you will get your butt handed to you over chat and that’s in most likely the most popular starting zone. Let’s leave the impression on the new guys that there is a rigid order in playing the zone as oppose to the relative restriction free of do anything in any order style that this game was promoted to be.

Yes champ rewards needed to be improved because too many players simply skipped them leaving them running wild. As what happens quite often in games the pendulum was swung too far and players were ignoring the overarching event simply to farm champs (Scarlet, Tequatl).