Guild Wars 2

Qaelyn.7612:

I get why people want to do it. I also get why Arenanet might want to nerf it.

Do you get why people keep telling ArenaNet hates farming?
They keep defending themselves, saying it’s not true, but the anti-farming nerfs keep coming.

Theftwind.8976:

One thing I did notice is that it is almost impossible for me to collect dragonite ore with my luck versus the rng. I have everything needed to build an Ascended weapon but for 200 dragonite. I already have my WvW season achievement locked up, already have enough Champions for the November monthly, in fact have all the Living stories done up to date but no dragonite. The only option I have now is to farm Jormag as that is the only time I have collected any dragonite at all.

The shatterer works well for Dragonite also. I wouldn’t waste my time with the frozen Maw or the Shadow Behemoth.

The issue here is that champs are no longer worth doing outside of a zerg now. The whole reason champ reward bags were put in is now declared null and void.

I’m offended that zergling roleplay is no longer viable! GRR!!

The thing I can’t reconcile is the nerf vs. the buff they were adding to make it more worthwhile to kill champs.

They have said in the past that they are going to make it more worthwhile to kill champions across the world, but then they nerf them because of the zerg farming thing. How can you do both?

Or, a better question: Why didn’t they just nerf Q’dale and leave the rest alone?

Please, Anet… review what y’all have done and try to come up with a more workable plan?

For a while there was a constant drone of cries for a reduction in Bloodstone Dust drops because people didn’t want to part with it and it was piling up on them. Now that the forum’s wish has come true, people are once again complaining. Be careful of what you ask for, you may get it.

The loot in the game is already horrible and yet you lower it.

DarcShriek.5829:

For a while there was a constant drone of cries for a reduction in Bloodstone Dust drops because people didn’t want to part with it and it was piling up on them. Now that the forum’s wish has come true, people are once again complaining. Be careful of what you ask for, you may get it.

No one’s complaining about Bloodstone Dust decrease man, lol, people are complaining about the silver drop decrease.

This just makes the already rich even richer. How exactly is a poor player supposed to amass gold short of winning the RNG lottery now? While I’m no fan of the champion train I can’t help but find this bad form. Hard work should pay over market manipulation.

John Smith.4610:

Hello all, I looked into this because we intended to have a release note for the changes to the champion loot.
We did modify the gold and bloodstone dust coming from champion bags, and a release note will be added shortly.
What I can tell you is that we made a mistake, this one fell through the cracks and I’m truly sorry. I’ve promised before that we won’t make stealthy economic changes without notes and I mean to stick to that promise.
Thank you all for pointing out the error, we will be more vigilant in the future.
Good luck in your adventures.

Is there any way you could revert it for even 24hours? I have 1.3k+ boxes saved up to help save space. Had I known I would have obviously popped them.

If not can I at least get a hug?

John Smith.4610:

Hello all, I looked into this because we intended to have a release note for the changes to the champion loot.
We did modify the gold and bloodstone dust coming from champion bags, and a release note will be added shortly.
What I can tell you is that we made a mistake, this one fell through the cracks and I’m truly sorry. I’ve promised before that we won’t make stealthy economic changes without notes and I mean to stick to that promise.
Thank you all for pointing out the error, we will be more vigilant in the future.
Good luck in your adventures.

Hi John,

Can you explain the reasoning behind the change to the bloodstone dust? It seems like overkill to nerf the dust acquisition while also simultaneously adding in 6 new recipes for consumables that require 100 dust each. It may turn out not to be a problem I suppose, but it seems like it might have been a better idea to implement one change at a time and wait for the market to adjust before adding in another change if necessary.

If you think for one second that every precursor or item that people have been farming for are going to suddenly drop in price because there’s less money income in the game due to this nerf, you’re terribly wrong.

People would rather let their items on the AH collect dust than to eat the post price and lower their profits by reposting it. Doubly so now that the potential to get money outside of flipping has been nerfed – yet again.

Aberrant.6749:

John Smith.4610:

Hello all, I looked into this because we intended to have a release note for the changes to the champion loot.
We did modify the gold and bloodstone dust coming from champion bags, and a release note will be added shortly.
What I can tell you is that we made a mistake, this one fell through the cracks and I’m truly sorry. I’ve promised before that we won’t make stealthy economic changes without notes and I mean to stick to that promise.
Thank you all for pointing out the error, we will be more vigilant in the future.
Good luck in your adventures.

Is there any way you could revert it for even 24hours? I have 1.3k+ boxes saved up to help save space. Had I known I would have obviously popped them.

If not can I at least get a hug?

Not to be rude… after what they did in the Queen’s Gauntlet (regardless of how ‘exploitive’ it was) if you haven’t learned to open them up before logging off then this is partly you to blame… But I agree they should undo the change and give a rollback & fair warning period similarly to the Karma one (though they only reverted the Karma one because, ahem, it’s a Gem store buff they were nerfing)

Procabiak.5206:

Aberrant.6749:

John Smith.4610:

Hello all, I looked into this because we intended to have a release note for the changes to the champion loot.
We did modify the gold and bloodstone dust coming from champion bags, and a release note will be added shortly.
What I can tell you is that we made a mistake, this one fell through the cracks and I’m truly sorry. I’ve promised before that we won’t make stealthy economic changes without notes and I mean to stick to that promise.
Thank you all for pointing out the error, we will be more vigilant in the future.
Good luck in your adventures.

Is there any way you could revert it for even 24hours? I have 1.3k+ boxes saved up to help save space. Had I known I would have obviously popped them.

If not can I at least get a hug?

Not to be rude… after what they did in the Queen’s Gauntlet (regardless of how ‘exploitive’ it was) if you haven’t learned to open them up before logging off then this is partly you to blame… But I agree they should undo the change and give a rollback & fair warning period similarly to the Karma one (though they only reverted the Karma one because, ahem, it’s a Gem store buff they were nerfing)

Yea but it’s been a while since they were out (didn’t foresee a nerf to these because of that) and I was just going to wait until ascended armors were out to pop them for mats. I guess even if they don’t I’ll make up the $ difference when t5/t6 mats spike again when the armor hits. Oh well, bad timing

Really, the champ farming was driving up the prices of gems, making it so that those who don’t farm look at a steadily increasing price over the past few months. Look at this chart:

http://www.gw2spidy.com/gem

Zoom it out to see the price for all time. Notice how for most of the game, 100 gems was steady over time, with a couple bump ups. And now the price is raising in a linear fashion.

When you get 8gp/hr doing something boring and skilless, but doing something fun that requires skill gets you not even 10% of that, those who are looking to have some fun are forced to ignore the gem store completely, because each day they are making comparatively less gems.

I want gold to actually be worth something…and having less of it enter the system is a way to make that work.

Why do you assume that champion farming is what caused the gem price increase? Most people who farm farm to get precursors. I would argue that super rich tp flippers are buying gems to get all the gem store exclusive skins that anet is always releasing.

Havvy.4897:

Really, the champ farming was driving up the prices of gems, making it so that those who don’t farm look at a steadily increasing price over the past few months. Look at this chart:

http://www.gw2spidy.com/gem

Zoom it out to see the price for all time. Notice how for most of the game, 100 gems was steady over time, with a couple bump ups. And now the price is raising in a linear fashion.

When you get 8gp/hr doing something boring and skilless, but doing something fun that requires skill gets you not even 10% of that, those who are looking to have some fun are forced to ignore the gem store completely, because each day they are making comparatively less gems.

I want gold to actually be worth something…and having less of it enter the system is a way to make that work.

I don’t think that has to do with champ farming as much as you do. It’s just been easier to get gold overall.

Psycho Robot.7835:

Why do you assume that champion farming is what caused the gem price increase? Most people who farm farm to get precursors. I would argue that super rich tp flippers are buying gems to get all the gem store exclusive skins that anet is always releasing.

Yea I agree, that’s more likely the bigger culprit. If you’re farming buying gems probably isn’t going to be your priority.

I’m not sure about this but did the price of blues/greens also go up on tp due to people trying to boost MF? Maybe its to help balance that a bit too? Not defending it just saying it may have been a factor. Either way the fact they are always conveniently forgetting to include certain needs in the patch notes is getting borderline insulting to a community that already feels like they are being mistreated and duped. Not good for business…

kailin.4905:

I’m not sure about this but did the price of blues/greens also go up on tp due to people trying to boost MF? Maybe its to help balance that a bit too? Not defending it just saying it may have been a factor. Either way the fact they are always conveniently forgetting to include certain needs in the patch notes is getting borderline insulting to a community that already feels like they are being mistreated and duped. Not good for business…

It’s gone up a bit, but you can still make a profit on some stuffs and break even on a lot. There are a few areas where I’m pretty sure people are using tp bots on their orders. 24/7 outbidding by 1c within a few mins and auto removing the old bid… and placing the same number up (another reason why they are going up in price).

I really don’t think they are doing it intentionally. They probably just have a lot going on.

The Trading Post destroys gold. The flippers doubly-so, since 20-25% of the gold gets destroyed. If the TP flippers are the ones buying the gems at higher prices, it’s only because there’s a larger amount of gold out there. That gold comes from various places: Champions and Dungeons being the biggest two I’ve seen, with champions outweighing dungeons by quite a bit. If you lower the gold form champions, you lower the gold going into the system, meaning there’s less gold for the TP flippers to make a profit on, but at the same time, that gold has more value. Make gold more valuable, and the prices for everything will go down. It’s simple economics.

“The only option I have now is to farm Jormag as that is the only time I have collected any dragonite at all.”

Get the dragonite from the temples in Orr. If you see one of the temples contested just head over and see if it is under way.

Aberrant.6749:

John Smith.4610:

Hello all, I looked into this because we intended to have a release note for the changes to the champion loot.
We did modify the gold and bloodstone dust coming from champion bags, and a release note will be added shortly.
What I can tell you is that we made a mistake, this one fell through the cracks and I’m truly sorry. I’ve promised before that we won’t make stealthy economic changes without notes and I mean to stick to that promise.
Thank you all for pointing out the error, we will be more vigilant in the future.
Good luck in your adventures.

Is there any way you could revert it for even 24hours? I have 1.3k+ boxes saved up to help save space. Had I known I would have obviously popped them.

If not can I at least get a hug?

you had to know a nerf was coming it was just a matter of when .

I’d have been happier of the cash rewards scaled with the level of the guys you were facing. But you know, I’ve run the zerg train in Queensdale and Frostgorge and it’s not that much more difficult in Frostgorge. If you’re with a zerg, it’s trivially easy.

So the question remains, why are people being rewarded for easy content?

Havvy.4897:

The Trading Post destroys gold. The flippers doubly-so, since 20-25% of the gold gets destroyed. If the TP flippers are the ones buying the gems at higher prices, it’s only because there’s a larger amount of gold out there. That gold comes from various places: Champions and Dungeons being the biggest two I’ve seen, with champions outweighing dungeons by quite a bit. If you lower the gold form champions, you lower the gold going into the system, meaning there’s less gold for the TP flippers to make a profit on, but at the same time, that gold has more value. Make gold more valuable, and the prices for everything will go down. It’s simple economics.

I’ll believe this works when precursor prices fall before they introduce precursor crafting.

Vayne.8563:

So the question remains, why are people being rewarded for easy content?

Is there a reason they shouldn’t be?

John Smith.4610:

Hello all, I looked into this because we intended to have a release note for the changes to the champion loot.
We did modify the gold and bloodstone dust coming from champion bags, and a release note will be added shortly.
What I can tell you is that we made a mistake, this one fell through the cracks and I’m truly sorry. I’ve promised before that we won’t make stealthy economic changes without notes and I mean to stick to that promise.
Thank you all for pointing out the error, we will be more vigilant in the future.
Good luck in your adventures.

I have around 5 stacks of unopened bags. You guys really aren’t going to temporarily revert this error???

At least make them drop increased amounts of mats. Getting rid of the coin and not replacing it is a terrible choice.

Aberrant.6749:

Havvy.4897:

The Trading Post destroys gold. The flippers doubly-so, since 20-25% of the gold gets destroyed. If the TP flippers are the ones buying the gems at higher prices, it’s only because there’s a larger amount of gold out there. That gold comes from various places: Champions and Dungeons being the biggest two I’ve seen, with champions outweighing dungeons by quite a bit. If you lower the gold form champions, you lower the gold going into the system, meaning there’s less gold for the TP flippers to make a profit on, but at the same time, that gold has more value. Make gold more valuable, and the prices for everything will go down. It’s simple economics.

I’ll believe this works when precursor prices fall before they introduce precursor crafting.

The problem is that the decrease in gold is relative to what is was otherwise. If there’s still more gold entering the system than there is leaving, there’s still going to be inflation, just a smaller amount than previously. So the prices will be overall lower that they otherwise would be. Whether precursor prices fall or not depends on whether this change leads to deflation or not. The more that I think on it, this change is not enough to completely turn around the inflationary effect. Furthermore, the current amount of gold in the system needs to leave, which takes time.

So, while I don’t think we’ll see prices go down, we won’t see them go up as fast. And that is better than nothing.

Gene Archer.8560:

Vayne.8563:

So the question remains, why are people being rewarded for easy content?

Is there a reason they shouldn’t be?

I think the concept most people talk about is risk vs reward. If the most rewarding thing in the game is easiest, that’s what people will gravitate too. I don’t particularly think that’s good for a game.

Rewards should be for accomplishing something, not running around doing something that is so simple it can’t fail…particularly if doing it that way cuts off normal play for other people attempting to just enjoy the game without a zerg coming and taking down a champion in two seconds.

I try to think of it from the point of view of someone who buys the game and starts off a human charcter and runs into Queensdale. And they see a champion…but they can’t get enough hits on it to get any credit because the zerg mowed it down. People are calling out stuff in map chat and instead of playing the game the way Anet originally intended, someone in map chat tells them about zerg farming. So now, this person who has no real chance to experience the game is running around with a zerg. They could, in theory, completely level to 80 without leaving Queensdale.

They’ll never get better at the game that way. Never learn their profession. Never be prepared for anything that happens later…then they’ll come to the forums and complain the game is too hard.

The idea in most games is that the reward you get should be directly proportional to the time/risk factor. If it’s not, the game is out of balance, and will eventually suffer for it.

I don’t mind calling it out in map chat. That’s being open and sharing info rather than keeping it to yourself. It lets more players know and gives them a chance to waypoint in to participate since when I announce I also list the closest waypoint. As long as someone doesn’t charge past the group of players gathering around me I’ll wait a bit before charging in.

Not to sound preachy but this game is all about helping each other in a spirit of cooperation. That’s why no tagging and no XP/Loot splitting, participate and get the prize. It’s other MMOs that treat every encounter, ever resource node as the one true ring and all the players are competing Gollums wanting their precious.

anyone know if this nerf is for ALL champ bags or just ones in frostgorge?

Ya inflation is the entire fault of the five regular FGS champ train people. Makes sense if you’re not too big on realism. Never mind the 150 person world boss train……. uh huh.

Oooops…oh well say goodbye to that loot now too. Sorry world boss killers. Oh….wait…that is the stuff anet WANTS you to do. Never mind how you want to play. Does not matter to anet in the least as long as gem sales are good

wads.5730:

anyone know if this nerf is for ALL champ bags or just ones in frostgorge?

Lol… are you serious? Its all champion bags, doesn’t matter where you acquired them, They all got hit by the nerf hammer. It might be a good sign for people want lesser bloodstone dust , making the the new recipie (especially Toxic Focusing Crystal)http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Toxic_Focusing_Crystal worth a slightly more due to bloodstone dust nerf. But it sucks for people wanting raw money which I feel the whole topic is all about. The raw money these bags offer. (not the items that follow when popping a bag)

Vayne.8563:

Rewards should be for accomplishing something, not running around doing something that is so simple it can’t fail…

I disagree here. Some people really can only handle the easiest of things. I don’t think that should preclude them from rewards. (Before anyone even tries: I’m talking about a video game, not real life.) The moment you go into “rewards should be for accomplishing something” in these types of games…that’s the moment you invite elitism and the “elitist hardcore” type of player (which is different from just hardcore), which I would argue is even worse than just handing items out, due to those types of players never being satisfied with the difficulty curve, and always wanting more and more exclusive content that leaves out the majority of players.

Obviously, this does create a problem, though, as you’re right that people will go for what’s easiest. I can’t say that I have any idea of a solution, unfortunately.

Vayne.8563:

particularly if doing it that way cuts off normal play for other people attempting to just enjoy the game without a zerg coming and taking down a champion in two seconds.

I can agree with this portion, however.

Vayne.8563:

People are calling out stuff in map chat and instead of playing the game the way Anet originally intended,

That’s nobody’s fault but Anet’s. They have shown, in my opinion, a lack of understanding in how to handle rewards in this game over all. Too much time gating, rng, etc. It’s really no wonder people farm champs, and it’s not all about the ease of it, though the ease is involved.

Vayne.8563:

someone in map chat tells them about zerg farming. So now, this person who has no real chance to experience the game is running around with a zerg. They could, in theory, completely level to 80 without leaving Queensdale.

This ability existed before the current spate of champ farming was a thing. I should know, since it’s how I finished leveling my first character after getting tired of trying to complete hearts and maps in zones that lagged too much for me to be able to handle dodging three million undead all using massive cc.

Vayne.8563:

They’ll never get better at the game that way. Never learn their profession. Never be prepared for anything that happens later…then they’ll come to the forums and complain the game is too hard.

And so what if they do? If it causes enough of a problem, then Anet will act accordingly. But if it is causing that much of a problem, then..well, just maybe the game IS too hard in that instance. I know you like to talk about metrics. Well, this would be just another metric.

I am personally of the opinion that challenge junkies need to start realizing that there’s nothing wrong with a game being easy mode. Not everything needs to be some huge challenge or hurdle. Not everything needs to be a “great achievement”. There’s merit in getting an item just for the sake of getting that item and enjoying having it.

Vayne.8563:

The idea in most games is that the reward you get should be directly proportional to the time/risk factor. If it’s not, the game is out of balance, and will eventually suffer for it.

I do somewhat agree with this sentiment, despite what I’ve typed. I would argue, however, than when it comes to Guild Wars 2 in particular, that over all, the game simply isn’t rewarding. Like, at all, whether the content is easy OR hard.

It seems to be that maybe the best thing Anet could do is truly buff rewards all around the board. From easiest to hardest, increasing the reward amount based on challenge, but increasing that reward most definitely all around.

Maybe a little less RNG and grind would do wonders for the game.

Havvy.4897:

Aberrant.6749:

Havvy.4897:

The Trading Post destroys gold. The flippers doubly-so, since 20-25% of the gold gets destroyed. If the TP flippers are the ones buying the gems at higher prices, it’s only because there’s a larger amount of gold out there. That gold comes from various places: Champions and Dungeons being the biggest two I’ve seen, with champions outweighing dungeons by quite a bit. If you lower the gold form champions, you lower the gold going into the system, meaning there’s less gold for the TP flippers to make a profit on, but at the same time, that gold has more value. Make gold more valuable, and the prices for everything will go down. It’s simple economics.

I’ll believe this works when precursor prices fall before they introduce precursor crafting.

The problem is that the decrease in gold is relative to what is was otherwise. If there’s still more gold entering the system than there is leaving, there’s still going to be inflation, just a smaller amount than previously. So the prices will be overall lower that they otherwise would be. Whether precursor prices fall or not depends on whether this change leads to deflation or not. The more that I think on it, this change is not enough to completely turn around the inflationary effect. Furthermore, the current amount of gold in the system needs to leave, which takes time.

So, while I don’t think we’ll see prices go down, we won’t see them go up as fast. And that is better than nothing.

That can be very hard to gauge and show what caused it.

Also I really don’t think that champ farming was bringing in massive amounts of currency to where it would cause serious enough inflation to where the effects will be very noticeable by removing some of the coin. I could be wrong though.

I’ve been doing Champion Farming until I’ve grown bored of it and actually started world completion (note: I’m pretty new, and I only have a level 45 Mesmer.) And I got to finish meta events around the world which are FUN and rewarding if you finish it to the end. (Especially the meta event chain on Harathi Hinterlands, where the final boss is against an epic Modniir boss that gives rares and a bomus chest. He had us fighting summons, and by the end, we were happy.) So I hope this means we get more people spreading about the vast world of Tyria.

Thank you, we are now finally able to roam around queensdale without the map chat drama since the zerg gets smaller Now I would love to see an increase of the collectible slot or larger bags. We get flooded by Dust, Candy Corn and now Spores. Even after changing the loot bags it’s still a pain.

This has nothing to do with anything other than their resident economist telling them to slow it down. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t rewarding, or if some people find it fun. The game would tank fast if the economy went. They have to tune the game for the player that plays one character, all day, everyday, in the most efficient way possible. Such is the reality of games with an economy. Same thing with Diablo 3. I think that game was more rewarding in terms of loot but not game play (which is rather sad). You will get your gold at the rate their economist decides you will.

Champion Bags were crazy. Every bag was like 8 to 10 silver into the game…. that’s a lot of “actual coin” entering the game. It’s not like getting a expensive drop and selling it for 500 gold, you didnt produce 500 gold into the game, you exchanged it with another player, where champion bags are adding CONSTANT money into the game. I seen this was going to happen when champion bags first came out. Also assuming post players are salvaging blues and greens now, that’s another gold sink on top of itself too.

Mojo.7986:

This has nothing to do with anything other than their resident economist telling them to slow it down. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t rewarding, or if some people find it fun. The game would tank fast if the economy went. They have to tune the game for the player that plays one character, all day, everyday, in the most efficient way possible. Such is the reality of games with an economy. Same thing with Diablo 3. I think that game was more rewarding in terms of loot but not game play (which is rather sad). You will get your gold at the rate their economist decides you will.

The resident economist has done more harm than good if you ask me. For proof, one need look no further than the prices of this years Halloween items.

Absurd doesn’t begin to do justice to needing tens of thousands of items.

Gene Archer.8560:

Mojo.7986:

This has nothing to do with anything other than their resident economist telling them to slow it down. It doesn’t matter if it isn’t rewarding, or if some people find it fun. The game would tank fast if the economy went. They have to tune the game for the player that plays one character, all day, everyday, in the most efficient way possible. Such is the reality of games with an economy. Same thing with Diablo 3. I think that game was more rewarding in terms of loot but not game play (which is rather sad). You will get your gold at the rate their economist decides you will.

The resident economist has done more harm than good if you ask me. For proof, one need look no further than the prices of this years Halloween items.

Absurd doesn’t begin to do justice to needing tens of thousands of items.

Champion bags are one of the reasons why the prices you mentioned are so high.

Awe.1096:

Champion bags are one of the reasons why the prices you mentioned are so high.

Really? What do champion bags have to do with Candy Corn?

The value of gold should didn’t dictate the cost of the Halloween items. ArenaNet had full control over how many of some very limited items these things cost. Sure, they had an excess surplus last year…this year you could farm perfectly for the entire duration of the event (perfectly = without sleep/logging off/doing anything else) and would be just barely able to afford the pail, let alone any of the other items that require 1000s of rares.

Why were the prices so high? Apparently because there were people who had a ton of candycorn from last year, and they wanted to get rid of the glut. But they went with the completely wrong approach to that.

The champion bag nerf makes economic sense. The Halloween prices do not. But are they related? I’m going to say no.

Edit: There could be a misunderstanding about what prices Gene Archer mentioned. He’s mentioning the in game crafting and merchant prices, not the Trading Post prices. The champion bag loot has a role in the Trading Post prices, but not in the crafting and merchant prices. Especially when those prices are not in terms of gold.

Just another point I’d like to make. Since the relative deflation increases the value of gold, this is technically a buff to every other way of making gold and those who are saving their gold for whatever reason.

And with the current inflation rates, saving money is losing money. And I’m sure a lot of you champ farmers are saving money…

Havvy.4897:

Edit: There could be a misunderstanding about what prices Gene Archer mentioned. He’s mentioning the in game crafting and merchant prices, not the Trading Post prices. The champion bag loot has a role in the Trading Post prices, but not in the crafting and merchant prices. Especially when those prices are not in terms of gold.

This. The only reason I even brought it up is because there’s no doubt the resident economist has a say in how items are priced, since he’s the one deciding what needs to be done with the TP and any items associated with it.

And the point there has to do with them designing their content and tuning it to the portion of the playerbase who farms nonstop and has a large quantity of various items from it. It’s bad design. And it will always be bad design, because all it does is alienate everyone who isn’t that type of player because it makes those items out of their reach, 100%.

And that takes away from the fun of the game.

I guess what I’m saying is this: Is a healthy economy really worth it if the game becomes a game of playing the market to be able to afford anything nice? Is a healthy economy worth sucking the fun out of killing a mob or a boss and getting a shiny? Sure, the reward isn’t necessary per say, but it certainly adds to the fun. This is a fantasy game, after all, and we’re the heroes!

We slay the dragon! We rescue the damsel/knight! We pull that awesome looking Chicken Dagger from the mystical stone and claim the BoS Power Armor that makes us look totally boss!

Content needs to be rewarding, in story, experience (not exp), and in loot.

Deus Xiphos.7046:

I’ve been doing Champion Farming until I’ve grown bored of it and actually started world completion (note: I’m pretty new, and I only have a level 45 Mesmer.) And I got to finish meta events around the world which are FUN and rewarding if you finish it to the end. (Especially the meta event chain on Harathi Hinterlands, where the final boss is against an epic Modniir boss that gives rares and a bomus chest. He had us fighting summons, and by the end, we were happy.) So I hope this means we get more people spreading about the vast world of Tyria.

As a new player myself, I can advise you to save as many of the bags as possible until you hit level 80. One of the really weird things about this game is that you get items out of bags appropriate to the level you are when you open them, not the level you were when you got them.

And from the moment I saw swarms of level 80s running around slaughtering champions when I myself was just level 15, I thought to myself: “there’s something seriously wrong with this game if this is the best way to get loot”. One of the things I like about GW2 is that Arenanet pays attention to the game and adjusts it as needed.

After dealing with the changes for a day or so, here’s what I found.

I still get “exotic” bags/purses/whatevers that contain high-end mats. I still get dust, although not quite as much as I did before (but that’s ok) and I still get a few copper.

I never depended on the bags and chests to give me gold. I truly did not notice the difference in what I was gaining.

Mats, on the other hand, which in turn can get me the gold I need, seem to have remained somewhat the same. Since I am not a crafter, most of the mats I get are redirected directly to the TP.

The point is, I seemed to have been worried for naught. I can still make a decent living if I should decide to farm for a while.

The only thing that really hurts me is DR. It seems to kick in a lot sooner these days.

Behellagh.1468:

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?

No, i don’t, because they didn’t change that reason. People were farming champs, because everything in this game requires farming now, and champs were the best spot for it. If champ trains will stop being the best choice, the farm zerg will move elsewhere, but the main reason it exists remains still unchanged.
Anet is trying to fix the symptoms of the problem, but consistently ignores it’s underlying cause.

Lévis.5489:

The loot in the game is already horrible and yet you lower it.