Guild Wars 2

This is why I question it, what is early to them? Since to me the orders branch is still relatively early in the Personal story as between that and the character story it feels to be just about 1/3 of the personal story. That would knock out the ability to get a second key if that was the case.

Paulytnz.7619:

Just wait and see, next they will nerf being able to get them from map completes. As I suspect many key farmers will just turn into map complete farmers instead.

I don’t doubt it. They’ll just make all map completion rewards transmutation charges for that spot and do away with key rewards altogether.

Seth Moonshadow.2710:

I did not get a key with my level 40 rewards when I tried it the first time those +30 scrolls came out. So as far as I know the level 40 key reward is not 100% as the the level 10 key is. Granted it could have been a bug?

I have always got a key at that level, so seems it may have been a bug.

EDIT: I have had 5 characters pass that point and 5 keys out of it. So I don’t know why you got scrolls.

Instead of limiting to one key a week . . .

Why not just change Tomes of Knowledge to not work on characters under level 10.

5 keys/400 gems please.

@ the people that think they’re going to be getting keys as drops at a decent rate now. (pic related)

Black Lion skins will probably go up in price, unless they start doing key sells more frequently. (or I may be underestimating the number of people who buy black lion keys, and rip themselves off from selling skins so cheap)

I hope I’m wrong, I want to be wrong, I want to stick my foot in my mouth, I want people to point at me and mock me.

That could slow down the process and make getting keys more valuable while still keeping it possible in game. I like it!

Though anyone who just wants to make alts and get tomes to 80 will probably dislike it very much. XD

You can go from level 1 to 10 in a few minutes with crafting. And it only takes maybe an hour (tops) to go from 1-10 playing normally. Limiting use of Tomes really wouldn’t do anything.

People also level by doing hearts/events and crafting to level 10.

Because getting to level 10 the old-fashioned way is still really fast and easy. If they only want us getting 1 key a week, well, I can farm dozens of chars to level 10 in a week’s time. They obviously hate players doing this whether they use tomes or not.

Lambent.6375:

5 keys/400 gems please.

@ the people that think they’re going to be getting keys as drops at a decent rate now. (pic related)

Black Lion skins will probably go up in price, unless they start doing key sells more frequently. (or I may be underestimating the number of people who buy black lion keys, and rip themselves off from selling skins so cheap)

I hope I’m wrong, I want to be wrong, I want to stick my foot in my mouth, I want people to point at me and mock me.

The keys aren’t worth a diddly when the chests give nothing but junk 9/10. 5 for 400 gems is a ripoff.

There’s no way that they have upped the drop rate of BL keys to anything that anyone is going to even notice. It’ll be a very small percentage, bordering on nano-level miniscule.

That guy is hilarious, btw.

Lambent.6375:

5 keys/400 gems please.

@ the people that think they’re going to be getting keys as drops at a decent rate now. (pic related)

Black Lion skins will probably go up in price, unless they start doing key sells more frequently. (or I may be underestimating the number of people who buy black lion keys, and rip themselves off from selling skins so cheap)

I hope I’m wrong, I want to be wrong, I want to stick my foot in my mouth, I want people to point at me and mock me.

I mock you for adding that pic instead of the vid link, was the most hilarious thing I have seen in a good long time lol.

Celtic Lady.3729:

Leveling alts to 40 once a week for 2 keys? That hardly seems worth it any longer. Leveling to 10 was relatively easy with tomes.

Oh no, it’s Levelling to 40 for one key, with a weekly bonus. It isn’t just kitten; it’s full on stinking cat.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

I did one yesterday and then one after the patch so you should be able to do one also.

They didn’t say the reset time but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the same time as the gold cap per account reset. That would be an easy way for the game to handle it.

(From the support page about the gold cap)
For the purposes of this limit [the gold cap], a week begins at 12:01 AM UTC each Sunday (5:01 PM PDT/4:01 PM PST Saturday)

I am hoping that someone will test this and report the findings back onto the forums I am not a key farmer but I have a lot of chars I intended to take through the story before HoT which this change has kind of screwed

Just a flesh wound.3589:

People also level by doing hearts/events and crafting to level 10.

And this is the good part. That added value to the keys via time or money spent where as using tomes = stocked from and tossed away without any value added.

Whether it be time or money spent that = end result of some sort of value.
Right now they are forcing the value of keys to go up while the contents of the box stay the same (which is fulla junk). It’s not a balanced value and will only hurt the game long term.

SRoode.7318:

I’m hoping the key drop rate is significant.

I bet they didn’t increase it at all.

skullmount.1758:

So has anyone ran that story a second time yet? I’m curious what the reward is after you get your key for the week.

I was going to but I can’t delete my keyrunner, thanks for reminding me I gotta put in a ticket to support about that.

Roundabout.1752:

skullmount.1758:

So has anyone ran that story a second time yet? I’m curious what the reward is after you get your key for the week.

I was going to but I can’t delete my keyrunner, thanks for reminding me I gotta put in a ticket to support about that.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3l3ryi/for_the_curious_heres_your_2nd_keyrun_reward/

MashMash.1645:

SRoode.7318:

I’m hoping the key drop rate is significant.

I bet they didn’t increase it at all.

They could always say they did and not do it and we would never be the wiser. And even if they actually did raise it, the increase would be miniscule.

Celtic Lady.3729:

MashMash.1645:

SRoode.7318:

I’m hoping the key drop rate is significant.

I bet they didn’t increase it at all.

They could always say they did and not do it and we would never be the wiser.

Bingo.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Seems like an awesome change to me. Key farming was never intended, keys are supposed to be a major contribution to their gem store sales, but were being significantly undermined by key farming.

Hopefully with the restrictions in place they can increase the drop rates in the chests now so people will buy keys again.

The only thing that could significantly increase key purchase rates is to make them actually worth buying, and they aren’t. Odds are a BLC is just going to yield worthless crap, and in a game that is already stingy with worthwhile loot, getting drops that are behind a paywall is just a slap in the face.

The only effect this change will have is to further aggravate an already disgruntled playerbase.

Well, I have 2 tickets from previous key farms. I better hold on to them unless it’s something I really, really want.

Goodbye, weapon skin a month. Well, hello Scarcity. How you doing? Sit down and make yourself comfortable. You’re going to be here some time, I see. Have a refreshing glass of tears, salted.

Thatkitten Rat.1236:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

Seems like an awesome change to me. Key farming was never intended, keys are supposed to be a major contribution to their gem store sales, but were being significantly undermined by key farming.

Hopefully with the restrictions in place they can increase the drop rates in the chests now so people will buy keys again.

The only thing that could significantly increase key purchase rates is to make them actually worth buying, and they aren’t. Odds are a BLC is just going to yield worthless crap, and in a game that is already stingy with worthwhile loot, getting drops that are behind a paywall is just a slap in the face.

The only effect this change will have is to further aggravate an already disgruntled playerbase.

I’m not the only one who has noticed they’ve become more and more tightfisted right? Everything is pushing us to the gemstore more and more.

Paulytnz.7619:

Celtic Lady.3729:

The logic is they don’t want us to play the game to get keys any longer. They want us to buy them with gems. End of story.

That’s how it has always been tbh. All other forms of getting keys were merely put in as the odd advertisement now and then to entice you to buy them with gems.

Just wait and see, next they will nerf being able to get them from map completes. As I suspect many key farmers will just turn into map complete farmers instead. Anet will see the spike in keys being obtained this way and go into emergency nerf mode again.

As that would be the dumbest thing they could do, yeah it’s the most likely course they’d take. Because bugger actually making chests worthwhile and keys worth buying, although the holding loot ransom method of selling these things is disgusting and needs to stop.

I don’t think they thought this through at all. Now legitimate players are going to get trolled out of their keys.

• You can very easily go through 2 of the story steps that reward keys in less than a week. It’s even possible to go through all 3 in a week for hardcore players.
• Some people don’t do story steps as they come up, instead either saving them and doing them in a large bunch or from having leveled via tomes.

And I seriously doubt anybody will even notice an increase in drop rates. I’ve gotten maybe 2 or 3 keys since headstart, and none since around a year after launch. I’m really not expecting to see one anytime soon.

How about we just admit that gambling boxes for real money are exploitive, and stop doing it altogether.

Seth Moonshadow.2710:

Devildoc.6721:

Do people really think the increased drop rates are going to make up for it? Not that I keyfarm a lot anymore (not since they changed it to have a level requirement) so it won’t really impact me, but people thinking that they’ll get more keys from just doing regular content are out of their gourds. They could double, triple, even raise the chance by 500% and it won’t even be noticeable because the chance is so small.

Actually yes I am hopeful the drop rate returns to what it was in the first year! In the first year I had over 40 keys and over 80 chests! All doing just normal play, events, mobs, champions, world bosses. That was FANTABULOUS! After the second change they made to the drop rate a while back they have all but disappeared and seemed to drop less often than a precursor would. Hence the volume of players that took to key farming.

Shame the chest contained absolutely nothing worthwhile back then.

Okay, since this horrendous change I have played for 8 hours this evening and received 2 black lion chests (noticed increase in drop rate) and ZERO keys.

Like it or not, I had 2 keys left from buying some in the sale so I opened them and got:

Boost enchantment powders. Anet, are you having a joke? With these supposedly new super boosters this item itself is more useless than before.

2 black lion trading post expresses (1 in each chest) – not bad I guess but I have 10 or so already. Definitely NOTHING special.

Strength booster. #facepalm

Armor booster #pullhairout

An account bound parrot mail carrier, which is pretty cool but I have one and 2 more taking up needless room in my bank.

Need I say ANY more? Lets see if my husband or I get any keys tomorrow!

Do we know what the drop rate increase is yet?

risa.1382:

I don’t think they thought this through at all. Now legitimate players are going to get trolled out of their keys.

• You can very easily go through 2 of the story steps that reward keys in less than a week. It’s even possible to go through all 3 in a week for hardcore players.
• Some people don’t do story steps as they come up, instead either saving them and doing them in a large bunch or from having leveled via tomes.

And I seriously doubt anybody will even notice an increase in drop rates. I’ve gotten maybe 2 or 3 keys since headstart, and none since around a year after launch. I’m really not expecting to see one anytime soon.

How about we just admit that gambling boxes for real money are exploitive, and stop doing it altogether.

I’d be happy with them removing them completely as an alternative. You are right – it’s basically gambling with real money.

They did increase the drop rate!

……… of chests

I did my weekly key run today and got a valuable, free chest to use my one solitary key on.

Thank you ANet!!!

(Some sarcasm was brutally murdered with this post)

I already have 287 BL chests. I don’t really need more of those…

CETheLucid.3964:

“Man, that last Mordrem event sure was grindy! Why are you forcing me to grind?!”

“Oh no, they nerfed key farming! How will I grind for keys now?! ANET Y U NO LET ME GRIND!?”

Not that fair of a comparison because the mordrem event was for a limited time only while the monsters didn’t drop any mats whereas monsters you kill on the way to 10 will drop them. Also you needed to play for awhile within a certain time constraint during the modrem event whereas key farming could be done on the player’s terms and timeframe.

Celtic Lady.3729:

MashMash.1645:

SRoode.7318:

I’m hoping the key drop rate is significant.

I bet they didn’t increase it at all.

They could always say they did and not do it and we would never be the wiser. And even if they actually did raise it, the increase would be miniscule.

Such negativity in these forums. I for one am happy Anet has chosen to increase the drop rate from 0.0000001% to 0.0000002%. It shows they care.

Substance E.4852:

Celtic Lady.3729:

MashMash.1645:

SRoode.7318:

I’m hoping the key drop rate is significant.

I bet they didn’t increase it at all.

They could always say they did and not do it and we would never be the wiser. And even if they actually did raise it, the increase would be miniscule.

Such negativity in these forums. I for one am happy Anet has chosen to increase the drop rate from 0.0000001% to 0.0000002%. It shows they care.

can you feel the love toniiiiiiiiight!

Klocknov.8219:

Unless they only limited level 10 rewards then this is potentially hurting legitimate players as it is telling them they can do up to level 39 one week then up to 59 the next week or they sacrifice two keys just to complete that story. As that is the only real reward from Personal Story that is a wee bit bullcrap. Now add in that they state nothing of if it will also effect LS2 Tangled Paths ability to get a key and you have a wonderful mess. All this is if you are only running one character through the story, no imagine people that have 8 soon to be 9 with the revnant and some not even having story completed once or others like me that have 13 and an empty slot. I have only completed the story twice, and that was going to be my next charge after mapping all my characters, well guess that idea was a bust. I wouldn’t care if I had to wait a week per a character but 3 weeks per a character just to complete story and not be robbed of rewards is bullcrap.

From the patch notes. Emphasis mine.

Black Lion Chest Keys from the early personal story rewards have been limited to one per week accountwide.

LOL. They increased the drop rate of chests knowing the price would drop like a rock anyway due to killing the keyfarm.

Behellagh.1468:

Klocknov.8219:

Unless they only limited level 10 rewards then this is potentially hurting legitimate players as it is telling them they can do up to level 39 one week then up to 59 the next week or they sacrifice two keys just to complete that story. As that is the only real reward from Personal Story that is a wee bit bullcrap. Now add in that they state nothing of if it will also effect LS2 Tangled Paths ability to get a key and you have a wonderful mess. All this is if you are only running one character through the story, no imagine people that have 8 soon to be 9 with the revnant and some not even having story completed once or others like me that have 13 and an empty slot. I have only completed the story twice, and that was going to be my next charge after mapping all my characters, well guess that idea was a bust. I wouldn’t care if I had to wait a week per a character but 3 weeks per a character just to complete story and not be robbed of rewards is bullcrap.

From the patch notes. Emphasis mine.

Black Lion Chest Keys from the early personal story rewards have been limited to one per week accountwide.

I can see new players missing out though. You get a new account, and level up a few different toons / classes to the teens in the space of a week. That’s not outrageous is it?

Of course, most new players may not even know about it. Still plenty will miss out.

Shout out to the Anet Accounts Department

One per day would be fine, one per week is silly. Looks like I won’t be getting that extra character slot, and after other recent actions, debating if spending any money or upgrading is worth it. Anet just doesn’t seem to care anymore.

Abimes.9726:

Seriously !?

Comme on, I have about 600 tomes , i only play pvp and i can’t buy skins because we don’t get much money in pvp … but i still could make keys to get black lion chests and get some skins like that.

NOPE NERF !

Can we at least exange 30 tomes for one key ? Because leveling up in pvp just makes no sense, i start lvl 80 anyway . It was the only pve junk i could make use of spending once a weak one or 2 hours to make some keys. (Tomes now = Bloodstone dust —-> Trashbin ! )

600 tomes =600 spirit shards, put up with it and use them all for shards, then make 1000s of gold using the shards in the forge to convert mats, make rare skins, etc. Look up a video on how to do that.

You must be swimming in “useless” pve stuff by now like mats huh? Get off you rear end and make money and stop feeling sorry for yourself! pvper have the best ways to make money over all players!

Zera Allimatti.2541:

This recent patch is obviously an attempt to cull key farming, but it kind of screws over the new players. How about instead of punishing the legitimate players, you punish the actual key farmers. I propose an alternative: remove the periodic BL key rewards from personal story until the very end. Then, when you give the player their Pact Token to get those weapons in Caer Aval, you also give them 5 BL keys for completing the story. Alternatively you can have the weapon NPC at Caer Aval offer 5 BL keys for the Pact Token. This way key farmers would have to level a character to 80 and complete the story before they even have a chance to get their keys. This would provide more incentive for new players to finish the story. This is how you get your player base to play: provide incentives to finish something they started. I know, 5 BL keys is probably going to eat a lot into your profits, but it’s just an idea.

I don’t know, maybe I’ve gone soft, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to give the new players the shaft like this. Don’t let the actions of a few key farming drones be punitive to the rest of the players.

Pact Tokens are no longer given out at the end of Personal Story. Instead you’re given a chest for an account-bound Pact Weapon of your choice.

BrooksP.4318:

One per day would be fine, one per week is silly. Looks like I won’t be getting that extra character slot, and after other recent actions, debating if spending any money or upgrading is worth it. Anet just doesn’t seem to care anymore.

Yeah, this is just another mark on the “reasons to not buy HoT” list. Anet’s decision-making has been really bad lately, ranging from just plain stupid to blatantly anti-consumer. This one manages to get high up in both of those categories.

Hah, only thing that will make me put a dime into BL keys is if ticket scraps are guaranteed – at least I’d get a skin for every $10 I put in (which is already ridiculous since that’s the price of a full set of armor skin), but right now it’s just a ripoff.

Only thing ANet succeeds in doing here is make me want to play less.

Anet is about to learn the same lesson other game devs/pubs, the film industry, and the music industry have learned (or failed to learn in many cases). Someone getting a product for free, does not equal a lost sale. A lot of pirates would have never actually bought a game/song/movie, just like a lot of key farmers will never buy a BL key.

Anet can try to strong-arm us into buying keys all the want, but they’re going to find out that they’re the ones being strong-armed when the players simply refuse to bother with their RNG box weapon skins. Unfortunately, for us and them, Anet doesn’t like to back down from their dumb decisions, so we all get to suffer the consequences. They still won’t get any money out of keys, and we’ll never have BL weapon skins obtainable after the existing supply dries up.

I don’t like buying keys because it’s like 27g each, and I don’t think I’ve ever gotten something, even an account bound thing that ever came remotely close to the value.

mrstealth.6701:

Anet is about to learn the same lesson other game devs/pubs, the film industry, and the music industry have learned (or failed to learn in many cases). Someone getting a product for free, does not equal a lost sale. A lot of pirates would have never actually bought a game/song/movie, just like a lot of key farmers will never buy a BL key.

Anet can try to strong-arm us into buying keys all the want, but they’re going to find out that they’re the ones being strong-armed when the players simply refuse to bother with their RNG box weapon skins. Unfortunately, for us and them, Anet doesn’t like to back down from their dumb decisions, so we all get to suffer the consequences. They still won’t get any money out of keys, and we’ll never have BL weapon skins obtainable after the existing supply dries up.

They won’t dry up completely. But they’ll become more expensive.

Maybe HoT sales are so low that everyone got around the conference table to figure out how to squeeze a li’l moar money out of the players…and the key farm nerf was the quickest and cheapest to implement.

What we should do is get everyone we can together for a weekly “get together” and farm the keys together. It could almost be a mini-event. Leveling and doing the story together in organized groups.

(Just pick the same story as the people you party with and you can progress with the instance holder).

Might not be as it was but the more people that can come together the more keys are quickly pocketed.

MashMash.1645:

mrstealth.6701:

Anet is about to learn the same lesson other game devs/pubs, the film industry, and the music industry have learned (or failed to learn in many cases). Someone getting a product for free, does not equal a lost sale. A lot of pirates would have never actually bought a game/song/movie, just like a lot of key farmers will never buy a BL key.

Anet can try to strong-arm us into buying keys all the want, but they’re going to find out that they’re the ones being strong-armed when the players simply refuse to bother with their RNG box weapon skins. Unfortunately, for us and them, Anet doesn’t like to back down from their dumb decisions, so we all get to suffer the consequences. They still won’t get any money out of keys, and we’ll never have BL weapon skins obtainable after the existing supply dries up.

They won’t dry up completely. But they’ll become more expensive.

I don’t expect them to completely gone, but I do expect what is left (especially future ones) to be well beyond an attainable price for the vast majority of players. The players that do eat the cost and buy keys are probably less likely to be doing so with the intention of selling the weapon.

Overall, I expect the number available on the TP to be very small and extremely expensive.

I bought a bunch of keys during the sale (63 gems per key, buying 25 at a time), and kept track of what they netted me:

> 64 gems per chest, and
> 37 silver per chest.

These figures do not include items which have no purchase cost and no selling value (like account bound stuff.) It also does not include crafting bags (I was too lazy to calculate these.)

If I had paid regular prices for 25 keys (84 each), I still would have netted 43+ gems and 37+ silver per key.

MashMash.1645:

mrstealth.6701:

Anet is about to learn the same lesson other game devs/pubs, the film industry, and the music industry have learned (or failed to learn in many cases). Someone getting a product for free, does not equal a lost sale. A lot of pirates would have never actually bought a game/song/movie, just like a lot of key farmers will never buy a BL key.

Anet can try to strong-arm us into buying keys all the want, but they’re going to find out that they’re the ones being strong-armed when the players simply refuse to bother with their RNG box weapon skins. Unfortunately, for us and them, Anet doesn’t like to back down from their dumb decisions, so we all get to suffer the consequences. They still won’t get any money out of keys, and we’ll never have BL weapon skins obtainable after the existing supply dries up.

They won’t dry up completely. But they’ll become more expensive.

Actually, its possible that they can dry up – just start making all future BL skins account-bound. As I mentioned above, this has already happened to all current Pact Weapons from Personal Story (Arah).

The possibility is there now. I fully expect it to continue.

How about giving a key in every Black Lion Goods daily log in reward? Because anything other than a key feels like a complete waste of a log in reward.