Guild Wars 2

Let me preface this by saying that I am usually the last person to cry foul when it comes to RNG. I absolutely love randomness, especially when it comes to loot. It is my favorite system. I believe there are good streaks and bad streaks and most of the time when someone complains it’s just the luck of the numbers that is at fault. Also, I absolutely love GW2 and it’s one of my favorite games in a long time.

However, I’m starting to wonder if there isn’t something else going on behind the scenes here (intentional or not). I have played 651 hours to date. Over the last couple months I’ve noticed some things with loot that may be coincidence but are really starting to hurt my desire to play. From my experience, characters with less play time get better drops.

Why do I think this? I play every single day (I haven’t missed a daily yet). My loot has been terrible. I regularly run with 180-200 MF. Comparing with several of my friends/guildmates I consistently get less/worse loot in everything we do. On the other hand, one of my friends that plays often but not as much as I do gets plenty of good loot. We spend time in Orr playing together regularly and he turns up far more yellows with significantly less MF than I have just about every time.

The first time I really noticed this though was during the Halloween event. I spent several days (and probably 40+ hours) farming Mad King’s Ascent. In that time I noticed that the friends I had with me who had the least amount of time playing got the best loot. Those of us (level 80) that spent days farming pulled out zero Mad King’s pieces. My level 15 friend pulled out 2 in a single run and then 1 just about every run after that. Near the end of the event I decided to test out a theory. I logged on to a level 20ish alt and ran a few runs. Within the first 3 runs I pulled out 2 Mad King’s pieces. My other friend who had been running on his level 80 swapped to an alt as well and within a run or two he also found a Mad King’s piece. Strange coincidence within a very small sample size. Oh well.

This weekend I was on all weekend, probably clocking in 35-40 hours from Friday-Sunday. I also opened over 60 Consortium chests. From the Consortium chests I received 1 Southsun Mask and every single other chest had a shoulder/breathing mask skin in it. From the final event reward chest I received 2 crappy exotics totaling maybe 4g. A level 70 guildmate pulled out TWO of the same precursor from the chest. Another friend who missed at least a whole day of the event logs in, opens a handful of consortium chests and gets 2 mini-pets, then kills a random drake and gets another mini-pet. He pulls a precursor out of the final event chest as well. I found out this morning that he had a few random skins left and made 2 more consortium chests last night and pulled yet ANOTHER mini-pet from it.

We ran fractals and the same friend that pulled the 3 minipets and precursor (also the same friend that pulls more yellows farming orr with less MF than me on a regular basis) pulls a Vial of Condensed Mists Essence in his 4th or so fractal. I managed to get one after my 10th. He also was pulling yellows from every other chest while I don’t think I’ve seen anything better than a green (maybe I got a yellow once) from all of my fractal chests. This is consistent with our dungeon runs over the last 2 months as well where he pulls yellows regularly and I pull mostly blues.

At this point I have to wonder if I hit some serious diminishing returns that are not going away (I try to take breaks from the game, PvP for a bit, swap to alts occasionally, etc to avoid any DR). Or maybe I should NOT be wearing magic find? Or maybe my character has a random seed that is just really unlucky? Am I looking for answers where there are none? The only time I seem to get any loot worthwhile is while playing a lower level alt, and I’m not much of an alt guy. It’s getting a bit disheartening watching the same people and brand new people repeatedly get better loot than I do at everything. I almost feel like my only option is to just abandon my main character, and I really don’t want to do that.

Again, I love this game and I love RNG systems but it just really feels like the loot has been less than random over the last couple months within my group of friends/guild. It’s almost predictable as to who will get anything worthwhile from anything we do.

Has anyone else noticed any trends?

No.

Kyosji.8961:

No.

Can’t argue with that logic

I did ask a yes or no question… so I guess I deserved that.

Svenn.5209:

I did ask a yes or no question… so I guess I deserved that.

Maybe Kyosji could have elaborated a bit haha. I mean, you did write a pretty long post that deserves more than a “No.”

Yea this has also happens to me, although when I first start doing a certain activity (like event farming in Cursed Shores or when I first started FotM) I will get quite a few rares and some exotics. After awhile, however, I’ll just end up getting blues. Really disappointing. I feel like RNG laughs at me, a lot.

I have also noticed this.

Deadly Spirit Guy.4769:

Svenn.5209:

I did ask a yes or no question… so I guess I deserved that.

Maybe Kyosji could have elaborated a bit haha. I mean, you did write a pretty long post that deserves more than a “No.”

Yea this has also happens to me, although when I first start doing a certain activity (like event farming in Cursed Shores or when I first started FotM) I will get quite a few rares and some exotics. After awhile, however, I’ll just end up getting blues. Really disappointing. I feel like RNG laughs at me, a lot.

Sounds like diminishing returns to me. We don’t have any solid data on this as far as I know, but it’s really disappointing. I play often, and for long periods (regularly 6+ hours an evening after work most days) so I’m starting to wonder if my crappy loot is just serious diminishing returns from playing too much. It really sucks if I’m being punished for playing too much.

Well here you go, I was more like your friend always lucky wearing 0 magic find I even got an exotic compare to 0 to my friend who wears full magic find. I then got magic find armor and boom I had so much more loot 8 rares in a grenth run wasn’t unusually for me. However ever since at dye nerf, I believe they changed a lot of drop rates secretly, for instance I am lucky to even get a rare from a grenth run, and the usually 1-2 lodestones from grenth has become nonexistent, even spark farming I get 0. I believe your hitting a bad streak but there are other numbers in the works effecting us.

730 hours on a ranger – got my legendary the day of the event, sad to see my bow which cost me 190g drop to 80g but that’s how the market works :/

Svenn.5209:

Deadly Spirit Guy.4769:

Svenn.5209:

I did ask a yes or no question… so I guess I deserved that.

Maybe Kyosji could have elaborated a bit haha. I mean, you did write a pretty long post that deserves more than a “No.”

Yea this has also happens to me, although when I first start doing a certain activity (like event farming in Cursed Shores or when I first started FotM) I will get quite a few rares and some exotics. After awhile, however, I’ll just end up getting blues. Really disappointing. I feel like RNG laughs at me, a lot.

Sounds like diminishing returns to me. We don’t have any solid data on this as far as I know, but it’s really disappointing. I play often, and for long periods (regularly 6+ hours an evening after work most days) so I’m starting to wonder if my crappy loot is just serious diminishing returns from playing too much. It really sucks if I’m being punished for playing too much.

I’m saying that I never have gotten as good of loot as when I first started doing the activity. Even if I wait a few days and go back to that activity.

Deadly Spirit Guy.4769:

Svenn.5209:

Deadly Spirit Guy.4769:

Svenn.5209:

I did ask a yes or no question… so I guess I deserved that.

Maybe Kyosji could have elaborated a bit haha. I mean, you did write a pretty long post that deserves more than a “No.”

Yea this has also happens to me, although when I first start doing a certain activity (like event farming in Cursed Shores or when I first started FotM) I will get quite a few rares and some exotics. After awhile, however, I’ll just end up getting blues. Really disappointing. I feel like RNG laughs at me, a lot.

Sounds like diminishing returns to me. We don’t have any solid data on this as far as I know, but it’s really disappointing. I play often, and for long periods (regularly 6+ hours an evening after work most days) so I’m starting to wonder if my crappy loot is just serious diminishing returns from playing too much. It really sucks if I’m being punished for playing too much.

I’m saying that I never have gotten as good of loot as when I first started doing the activity. Even if I wait a few days and go back to that activity.

Yeah, that seems to be about what I’m seeing. I really am starting to wonder if the diminishing returns aren’t ever fully going away (or take WAY too long to return to normal)… so the more you play the less loot you can expect to see.

Svenn.5209:

Deadly Spirit Guy.4769:

Svenn.5209:

Deadly Spirit Guy.4769:

Svenn.5209:

I did ask a yes or no question… so I guess I deserved that.

Maybe Kyosji could have elaborated a bit haha. I mean, you did write a pretty long post that deserves more than a “No.”

Yea this has also happens to me, although when I first start doing a certain activity (like event farming in Cursed Shores or when I first started FotM) I will get quite a few rares and some exotics. After awhile, however, I’ll just end up getting blues. Really disappointing. I feel like RNG laughs at me, a lot.

Sounds like diminishing returns to me. We don’t have any solid data on this as far as I know, but it’s really disappointing. I play often, and for long periods (regularly 6+ hours an evening after work most days) so I’m starting to wonder if my crappy loot is just serious diminishing returns from playing too much. It really sucks if I’m being punished for playing too much.

I’m saying that I never have gotten as good of loot as when I first started doing the activity. Even if I wait a few days and go back to that activity.

Yeah, that seems to be about what I’m seeing. I really am starting to wonder if the diminishing returns aren’t ever fully going away (or take WAY too long to return to normal)… so the more you play the less loot you can expect to see.

Well in theory that would make sense. Also, have they ever fully explained magic find?

Deadly Spirit Guy.4769:

Svenn.5209:

Deadly Spirit Guy.4769:

Svenn.5209:

Deadly Spirit Guy.4769:

Svenn.5209:

I did ask a yes or no question… so I guess I deserved that.

Maybe Kyosji could have elaborated a bit haha. I mean, you did write a pretty long post that deserves more than a “No.”

Yea this has also happens to me, although when I first start doing a certain activity (like event farming in Cursed Shores or when I first started FotM) I will get quite a few rares and some exotics. After awhile, however, I’ll just end up getting blues. Really disappointing. I feel like RNG laughs at me, a lot.

Sounds like diminishing returns to me. We don’t have any solid data on this as far as I know, but it’s really disappointing. I play often, and for long periods (regularly 6+ hours an evening after work most days) so I’m starting to wonder if my crappy loot is just serious diminishing returns from playing too much. It really sucks if I’m being punished for playing too much.

I’m saying that I never have gotten as good of loot as when I first started doing the activity. Even if I wait a few days and go back to that activity.

Yeah, that seems to be about what I’m seeing. I really am starting to wonder if the diminishing returns aren’t ever fully going away (or take WAY too long to return to normal)… so the more you play the less loot you can expect to see.

Well in theory that would make sense. Also, have they ever fully explained magic find?

They need to remove magic find from this game completely. This isn’t Diablo. Magic find also runs face first into the diminishing return wall, making it obsolete.

dimgl.4786:

Deadly Spirit Guy.4769:

Svenn.5209:

Deadly Spirit Guy.4769:

Svenn.5209:

Deadly Spirit Guy.4769:

Svenn.5209:

I did ask a yes or no question… so I guess I deserved that.

Maybe Kyosji could have elaborated a bit haha. I mean, you did write a pretty long post that deserves more than a “No.”

Yea this has also happens to me, although when I first start doing a certain activity (like event farming in Cursed Shores or when I first started FotM) I will get quite a few rares and some exotics. After awhile, however, I’ll just end up getting blues. Really disappointing. I feel like RNG laughs at me, a lot.

Sounds like diminishing returns to me. We don’t have any solid data on this as far as I know, but it’s really disappointing. I play often, and for long periods (regularly 6+ hours an evening after work most days) so I’m starting to wonder if my crappy loot is just serious diminishing returns from playing too much. It really sucks if I’m being punished for playing too much.

I’m saying that I never have gotten as good of loot as when I first started doing the activity. Even if I wait a few days and go back to that activity.

Yeah, that seems to be about what I’m seeing. I really am starting to wonder if the diminishing returns aren’t ever fully going away (or take WAY too long to return to normal)… so the more you play the less loot you can expect to see.

Well in theory that would make sense. Also, have they ever fully explained magic find?

They need to remove magic find from this game completely. This isn’t Diablo. Magic find also runs face first into the diminishing return wall, making it obsolete.

So I should sell my MF gear? Because it’s taking up like 15 of my 30 bank slots, or however small the bank slots are.

Deadly Spirit Guy.4769:

dimgl.4786:

Deadly Spirit Guy.4769:

Svenn.5209:

Deadly Spirit Guy.4769:

Svenn.5209:

Deadly Spirit Guy.4769:

Svenn.5209:

I did ask a yes or no question… so I guess I deserved that.

Maybe Kyosji could have elaborated a bit haha. I mean, you did write a pretty long post that deserves more than a “No.”

Yea this has also happens to me, although when I first start doing a certain activity (like event farming in Cursed Shores or when I first started FotM) I will get quite a few rares and some exotics. After awhile, however, I’ll just end up getting blues. Really disappointing. I feel like RNG laughs at me, a lot.

Sounds like diminishing returns to me. We don’t have any solid data on this as far as I know, but it’s really disappointing. I play often, and for long periods (regularly 6+ hours an evening after work most days) so I’m starting to wonder if my crappy loot is just serious diminishing returns from playing too much. It really sucks if I’m being punished for playing too much.

I’m saying that I never have gotten as good of loot as when I first started doing the activity. Even if I wait a few days and go back to that activity.

Yeah, that seems to be about what I’m seeing. I really am starting to wonder if the diminishing returns aren’t ever fully going away (or take WAY too long to return to normal)… so the more you play the less loot you can expect to see.

Well in theory that would make sense. Also, have they ever fully explained magic find?

They need to remove magic find from this game completely. This isn’t Diablo. Magic find also runs face first into the diminishing return wall, making it obsolete.

So I should sell my MF gear? Because it’s taking up like 15 of my 30 bank slots, or however small the bank slots are.

Don’t do anything without ArenaNet directly addressing the problem. You don’t want to throw Magic Find gear away and then see that they changed the functionality of it or improved it in some way.

Magic Find only works on kills and increases your odd’s at higher-tier gear.
the example given was if you had 200% MF and a rare had a 1/10 chance in dropping your odds would be 3/10.

as for the event chest it’s your typical RNG experience, i have over 1200 hours on this game, which is crazy yes, looted the chest twice, got like 4g worth of items, meanwhile trial accounts get a Dusk.

such is life i suppose.

First, there’s a difference between “Random” (the real random, a dimension that we can’t use or access) and “Random created by humans” (using complicate formulas to simulate random). So the random that you see in videogames is never really random.

I’m not going to start a philosophy or physic lesson, but the only “real random” of this universe happened during its “potential” creation. Then atoms and physics laws did all the rest. With that, for example, you can already predict all loots you’ll get during your life, before you are even born. Then, you are not directly “lucky” but your luckiness happened during the creation of the universe… well, see what I mean, lol? It’s just logic.

Short version is, a bad particule position at time 0 and you get no loot all your life. If you have 1/2 chances to get something, well, that’s wrong, you have chance 1/unknown chances that the creation of the universe was proper to you getting this something.

Well, my theory is considering our minds are all-made of atoms so I may be wrong.
That was my philosophy moment.

Keiran.1896:

First, there’s a difference between “Random” (the real random, a dimension that we can’t use or access) and “Random created by humans” (using complicate formulas to simulate random). So the random that you see in videogames is never really random.

I’m not going to start a philosophy or physic lesson, but the only “real random” of this universe happened during its “potential” creation. Then atoms and physics laws did all the rest. With that, for example, you can already predict all loots you’ll get during your life, before you are even born. Then, you are not directly “lucky” but your luckiness happened during the creation of the universe… well, see what I mean, lol? It’s just logic.

Short version is, a bad particule position at time 0 and you get no loot all your life. If you have 1/2 chances to get something, well, that’s wrong, you have chance 1/unknown chances that the creation of the universe was proper to you getting this something.

Well, my theory is considering our minds are all-made of atoms so I may be wrong.
That was my philosophy moment.

So what you’re saying is some of us are inherently kittened from the beginning of time? haha, believable

Deadly Spirit Guy.4769:

So what you’re saying is some of us are inherently kittened from the beginning of time? haha, believable

Exactly If there’s no random in human mind, then your destiny and your choices are all written.

Keiran.1896:

Deadly Spirit Guy.4769:

So what you’re saying is some of us are inherently kittened from the beginning of time? haha, believable

Exactly If there’s no random in human mind, then your destiny and your choices are all written.

That sucks, I hate not being able to change fate. (little off-topic now lol)

So I was just destined to get terrible GW2 loot drops from the beginning of time… sigh

Deadly Spirit Guy.4769:

(little off-topic now lol)

Well, I was about to talk about Baye’s formula… but, yea, my reminder about random is kinda enough