Guild Wars 2

As to supply drying up, I think it’s going to take a couple of new BL weapons sets. There are bound to be a lot of people who have one or two tickets stashed away. It’s after those are gone that the supply shortage is going to hit the trading post. So a couple of months from now is when I think the prices will really go up and supply goes down.

My take on it is, either the key runners were doing a substantial number of key runs, and supplying a large proportion of the skins, in which case it’s going to be interesting when the supply hits the fan and suddenly people who could pick up a nice skin for 60-100 gold no longer can do so. They are bound to be unhappy about this and that’s not a benefit to ANet or to the game as a whole. Or, the key runners weren’t doing that many key runs and weren’t supplying most of the skins and this nerf is basically pointless as they weren’t affecting the gemstore’s profit. /shrug. I know I’m not going to buy keys instead of farming and I’m not so sure that many key farmers will.

Permanent contracts already gone up in price a lot due to this.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

As to supply drying up, I think it’s going to take a couple of new BL weapons sets. There are bound to be a lot of people who have one or two tickets stashed away. It’s after those are gone that the supply shortage is going to hit the trading post. So a couple of months from now is when I think the prices will really go up and supply goes down.

It might start to have an impact sooner if people see what is happening, and hold onto their tickets for a later weapon they actually want. Plus those that will keep them to wait for prices to reach insane levels.

I think we’ll see some fast shifts from holdouts and speculation, but the full effects will be a couple months head, like you said.

Daddicus.6128:

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.

Does that gem value include all the boosters that we consider useless?

Just a flesh wound.3589:

As to supply drying up, I think it’s going to take a couple of new BL weapons sets. There are bound to be a lot of people who have one or two tickets stashed away. It’s after those are gone that the supply shortage is going to hit the trading post. So a couple of months from now is when I think the prices will really go up and supply goes down.

Expect to see another removal or re-addition which seems to drives more fluctuation than new items.

Though I don’t think this is really about the skins or BL Keys themselves but more so about keeping the gem to gold prices high, which promotes direct gem purchases.

TheGrimm.5624:

MashMash.1645:

Agrotera.1254:

Who is the uninformed person that works at Anet that thought this was a good idea and fair thing to do?

The accountant. Anet needs dat $$$$.

But the people that don’t buy keys, will just convert in game gold to gems so you increase people grinding and people creating gold farms which creates negative environments.

Then gems will rise in price and people will buy gems to convert it to gold. ANet still wins.

People keep typing up speculations as if they are facts. We just don’t know what’s going to happen.

• How much will BL keys drop in open world?
• Will ANet also adjust the drop tables and rates of the contents?

The main thing we know is that the distribution of keys will be more spread out — previously, they were only available to those willing to pay for the excitement of opening chests or those willing to farm for it; now, keys might be available to everyone.

How the market will adjust… well, we aren’t going to see that today. We might see it in a month.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

People keep typing up speculations as if they are facts. We just don’t know what’s going to happen.

• How much will BL keys drop in open world?
• Will ANet also adjust the drop tables and rates of the contents?

The main thing we know is that the distribution of keys will be more spread out — previously, they were only available to those willing to pay for the excitement of opening chests or those willing to farm for it; now, keys might be available to everyone.

How the market will adjust… well, we aren’t going to see that today. We might see it in a month.

We’re talking about how the market will react. But yes, it does all hinge on how much the drop rate for keys increases.

MashMash.1645:

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.

This! And I’m watching it closely.

Bob F It.5701:

Daddicus.6128:

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.

Does that gem value include all the boosters that we consider useless?

Yeah, it’s not much of a value when the items are a bunch of junk you would never have even considered buying otherwise.

Bob F It.5701:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

People keep typing up speculations as if they are facts. We just don’t know what’s going to happen.

• How much will BL keys drop in open world?
• Will ANet also adjust the drop tables and rates of the contents?

The main thing we know is that the distribution of keys will be more spread out — previously, they were only available to those willing to pay for the excitement of opening chests or those willing to farm for it; now, keys might be available to everyone.

How the market will adjust… well, we aren’t going to see that today. We might see it in a month.

We’re talking about how the market will react. But yes, it does all hinge on how much the drop rate for keys increases.

It surely would be less than the regular supply provided by key farming? What other purpose could changing them as rewards be intended for? Hence, their will almost certainly be less, which eventually means less skins and the prices will go up. They’ll jump around a bit at first, but they’ll definitely settle at higher levels.

If the change meant more keys were flooding the market – which would be great! – that would impact how much money they make via the Gem Store. That won’t happen.

I’m fascinated to see how it pans out.

As a dedicated key farmer, this hurts really bad. Despite the grind and bad luck, it was, at the very least, an alternative. Like others have said, Anet is unlikely willing to give us a straight answer to the reasoning behind this change, and it’s sad they’re still employing time gating as a quick fix to a problem that they’ll sweep under the rug: never forget Continue Coins or players having their karma boosters removed for no given reason. With all of these frenetic, unexplained changes, I have extreme reservations about using the gemstore or even playing the game beyond getting my daily metrics treat – what’s the point if my accomplishments will be rendered useless on a whim?

In any case, looks like it’s time to add another column to Spreadsheet Wars 2.

We need some clarification. It says the early personal story. Someone from Anet needs to tell us exactly what “early” means.

As for the drop rate being increased, I am not convinced. I did, among other things, a map completion and a set of 4 Fractuals and saw no keys at all, not a single one. None dropped in the map completion and no one in my Fractual group got one although there were several chests that dropped.

After seeing that I wonder just what they were increased from and to? Needless to say I will not be holding my breath waiting to see one drop. What I will be holding on to is the 30 keys that I have accumulated over the last few months and are currently sitting in my warehouse. I am waiting for those skin prices to skyrocket.

I still say that one per week is wrong, one per day would make more sense and be more fair to the player base as a whole.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

People keep typing up speculations as if they are facts. We just don’t know what’s going to happen.

• How much will BL keys drop in open world?
• Will ANet also adjust the drop tables and rates of the contents?

The main thing we know is that the distribution of keys will be more spread out — previously, they were only available to those willing to pay for the excitement of opening chests or those willing to farm for it; now, keys might be available to everyone.

How the market will adjust… well, we aren’t going to see that today. We might see it in a month.

The numbers of keys that drop to replace the numbers of keys that will no longer be key farmed would have to be substantial because the drops are spread across the population. The average right now seems to be about 30 keys to get one skin. Even if they drop substantially more by ANet’s standards, the odds are not high that any one person will get 30 keys in even one year. I’m not even expecting to see one key a month, much less 2 to 3 a month to get 30 a year. Unless there are a large number of people buying keys, I can’t see other than supply of skins going down.

I mean making an alt running the story the deleting and repeating….

they could make much better ways to get keys, and they should.

Maybe…raid rewards?

I’m all for taking out methods of cheesing game mechanics like this, but at least put in something to compensate.

I’ve seen 1 drop in 3 years. Saw a few in beta, but pretty much nothing after that.

Just so they know:
Anet: your BLK are such a rip off. The fact that the average price for ONE weapon skin is more than $20 should make you feel ashamed of yourselves. That’s ludicrous. Especially in a game that is touted as having a cosmetic end game. You have a game with some of the worst rewards in it’s genre then make the only interesting rewards $20.

mrstealth.6701:

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.

I’m having a severe case of buyer’s remorse about pre-purchasing HOT. According to these little bits in the HOT faq it looks like I’m screwed.

Between this:

“Is a pre-purchase the same as a pre-order?
No. The term “pre-order” can vary from seller to seller, but usually means that you’re just reserving an opportunity to purchase at a later date. In the case of the Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns pre-purchase, you’re paying for the game in advance of its release and receiving all of the other benefits of your purchase right away. For instance, if you pre-purchase the deluxe edition, you will pay the full purchase price and receive all of the pre-purchase and deluxe bonuses/items within 3-4 hours of redeeming the serial code. Then, when the expansion is released, you’ll get access to the new content.”

And this:

“…Standard 30 day refund policy on game purchases…”

I’m doomed.

They can keep the free character slot, the beta weekends, and the “exclusive title” if I could get my money back.

I’ve had maybe five key drops since the headstart. That’s like a precursor, except infinitely worse in every way.

Atlas.4509:

Good, I’d much rather have a chance at getting keys from doing content I enjoy than mindlessly grinding the same story instance.

Yep same.
Good move.

As for skins … bah They need to fix their code first so so many players don’t have to run on minimum graphics

Tapioca.9062:

I’ve had maybe five key drops since the headstart. That’s like a precursor, except infinitely worse in every way.

Black Lion Keys,
Rarer than a Precursor.
Valued way less.

Wish they’d realize that if they dropped the price of keys more would be bought. Sadly, this company fails to see the value of a lot of little transactions vs the few large ones. I’d happily buy keys but not at the crazy steep price of 125 per key. No way, not for the little return and the chance of getting nothing but junk.

chemie banger.9624:

Atlas.4509:

Good, I’d much rather have a chance at getting keys from doing content I enjoy than mindlessly grinding the same story instance.

Yep same.
Good move.

As for skins … bah They need to fix their code first so so many players don’t have to run on minimum graphics

You have a better chance to win the lottery.

The problem is they barely drop at all anyway. Your “chance” is so infinitesimal as to be almost non-existent.

My suspicion is, they’ve made this change, but haven’t increased the drop rate at all. They simply hope to make more money out of this by shutting down an avenue to get keys that doesn’t involve paying real money to Anet on a regular basis. This is just a cash grab – nothing more. But they are a business, so, that’s the whole point I guess lol

chemie banger.9624:

Atlas.4509:

Good, I’d much rather have a chance at getting keys from doing content I enjoy than mindlessly grinding the same story instance.

Yep same.
Good move.

As for skins … bah They need to fix their code first so so many players don’t have to run on minimum graphics

A boring grind it may have been, but at least you actually got a key for it. It will likely be months before any of us (in this thread) actually see a key drop.

Look at all the players who’ve gotten 3 keys in 3 years of play. Even if they increased the drop rate by 10 times, the next 3 years still wouldn’t yield enough tickets to get one skin.

KhanKatir.4038:

mrstealth.6701:

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.

I’m having a severe case of buyer’s remorse about pre-purchasing HOT. According to these little bits in the HOT faq it looks like I’m screwed.

Between this:

“Is a pre-purchase the same as a pre-order?
No. The term “pre-order” can vary from seller to seller, but usually means that you’re just reserving an opportunity to purchase at a later date. In the case of the Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns pre-purchase, you’re paying for the game in advance of its release and receiving all of the other benefits of your purchase right away. For instance, if you pre-purchase the deluxe edition, you will pay the full purchase price and receive all of the pre-purchase and deluxe bonuses/items within 3-4 hours of redeeming the serial code. Then, when the expansion is released, you’ll get access to the new content.”

And this:

“…Standard 30 day refund policy on game purchases…”

I’m doomed.

They can keep the free character slot, the beta weekends, and the “exclusive title” if I could get my money back.

I think I’m in the same boat as your are

I just got my first key since the patch from a monster in Iron Marches

I’m almost afraid to log in and look at the prices of some old skins I had bids on.

As it is, Monday, a full day before this patch was released and nobody outside of ANet should’ve known what was coming, the Chaos Dagger Skin had its supply completely bought out and 1 relisted at 1,300g!

• https://www.gw2tp.com/item/67065-chaos-dagger-skin
• http://www.gw2spidy.com/item/67065

After being at a relatively steady supply of the mid to high 20s and a stagnant price of the high 200s since around April, midway through September 12th the supply of skins being put on the TP for sale stopped and the available supply suddenly dropped due to regular purchasing not being countered with additional skins being put up for sale.

Even more telling of leaked info and of people taking advantage of insider information, a full day before the patch, the supply gets completely bought out and 1 is relisted for 1,300g! No additional supply being put up for sale in the 2 days prior to the patch, and the existing supply being completely bought out the day before the patch tells me of some shady dealings.

And this is just one skin that I was watching as I had a bid for one in place before this shadiness started. Take a look at others and the days leading up to the patch.

Makai.3429:

As a dedicated key farmer, this hurts really bad. Despite the grind and bad luck, it was, at the very least, an alternative. Like others have said, Anet is unlikely willing to give us a straight answer to the reasoning behind this change, and it’s sad they’re still employing time gating as a quick fix to a problem that they’ll sweep under the rug: never forget Continue Coins or players having their karma boosters removed for no given reason. With all of these frenetic, unexplained changes, I have extreme reservations about using the gemstore or even playing the game beyond getting my daily metrics treat – what’s the point if my accomplishments will be rendered useless on a whim?

In any case, looks like it’s time to add another column to Spreadsheet Wars 2.

I don’t understand why some people upset about this change. Key farming was not what Anet wanted in GW2. They designed the personal story reward as a bonus to your story completion. If players want keys, they should buy gems (or convert gold into gems) then purchase keys on the gem store. Period.

StinVec.3621:

I’m almost afraid to log in and look at the prices of some old skins I had bids on.

As it is, Monday, a full day before this patch was released and nobody outside of ANet should’ve known what was coming, the Chaos Dagger Skin suddenly jumped from lowest sell of 294g to 1,200g

After being at a relatively steady supply of the mid to high 20s and a stagnant price of the high 200s since April, midway through September 12th the supply of skins being put on the TP for sale stopped and the available supply suddenly dropped due to regular purchasing not being countered with additional skins being put up for sale. Even more telling of leaked info and of people taking advantage of insider information, the night before the patch, the supply suddenly drops down to 10 skins available with the lowest being 1,200g! No additional supply being put up for sale in the 2 days prior to the patch, and the existing supply basically being bought out the day before the patch tells me of some shady dealings.

And this is just one skin that I was watching as I had a bid for one in place before this shadiness started. Take a look at others and the days leading up to the patch.

It could just be a coincidence, and some aggressive attempts at price gouging, but it is a bit suspicious. There are several skins that seem to take a sharp jump in price over the last couple days.

Certainly not the first time I’ve heard of such shenanigans with Anet staff. It happened at least a few times in GW1.

Tuthan.3250:

Makai.3429:

As a dedicated key farmer, this hurts really bad. Despite the grind and bad luck, it was, at the very least, an alternative. Like others have said, Anet is unlikely willing to give us a straight answer to the reasoning behind this change, and it’s sad they’re still employing time gating as a quick fix to a problem that they’ll sweep under the rug: never forget Continue Coins or players having their karma boosters removed for no given reason. With all of these frenetic, unexplained changes, I have extreme reservations about using the gemstore or even playing the game beyond getting my daily metrics treat – what’s the point if my accomplishments will be rendered useless on a whim?

In any case, looks like it’s time to add another column to Spreadsheet Wars 2.

I don’t understand why some people upset about this change. Key farming was not what Anet wanted in GW2. They designed the personal story reward as a bonus to your story completion. If players want keys, they should buy gems (or convert gold into gems) then purchase keys on the gem store. Period.

What is there not to understand? You may not agree with it, but it’s easy to understand.

Players think the process to obtain Black Lion Skins is too expensive, and they don’t feel that other things you get from black lion chest make up for it.

On average you’ll probably have to spend $20-$30 for just one ticket, which will get you one skin, and only during the time e the Black Lion weapons are on sale for one ticket, after that they’re looking into the $50-$100+ range. (you can also get lucky and get an extra few skins)

At this point anyone who aspires to just get one of each black lion skin that’s released, may as well be playing a P2P, they’ll might save money that way. (unless they have a lot of play time, or have amassed a huge sum of gold they can use to just buy the weapons)

Of course, we wont know how this change affects the actual market until the next 1 or 2 rounds of black lion weapons.

Additionally, key farming was a pretty fun activity for some individuals.

Tuthan.3250:

Makai.3429:

As a dedicated key farmer, this hurts really bad. Despite the grind and bad luck, it was, at the very least, an alternative. Like others have said, Anet is unlikely willing to give us a straight answer to the reasoning behind this change, and it’s sad they’re still employing time gating as a quick fix to a problem that they’ll sweep under the rug: never forget Continue Coins or players having their karma boosters removed for no given reason. With all of these frenetic, unexplained changes, I have extreme reservations about using the gemstore or even playing the game beyond getting my daily metrics treat – what’s the point if my accomplishments will be rendered useless on a whim?

In any case, looks like it’s time to add another column to Spreadsheet Wars 2.

I don’t understand why some people upset about this change. Key farming was not what Anet wanted in GW2. They designed the personal story reward as a bonus to your story completion. If players want keys, they should buy gems (or convert gold into gems) then purchase keys on the gem store. Period.

For me it’s because another option – another activity – has been practically removed from the game. My enjoyment of key farming wasn’t so much about gold (though I stand to profit immensely from hoarding a bunch of skins over the last couple years): it was about doing something off the beaten path, completing new records, teaching guildies different ways to shave off a few seconds from a run, etc. In short, it was a nice way to enjoy something other than checking boss timers, pressing 1, or trying to remember whether or not I completed Tequatl within 24 hours.

They first seriously limit Key farming with NPE by limiting when a character gains access to the BLK rewarded story step (You can WvW to the level in about 30mins~ with boosters and crap), and now they make it an account bound chest reward that resets once a week?!

Look, F’in anet, If you want to disable Key farming to boost your STUPID Gem sales just do that. Stop breaking areas of the game that have been intact and used by a wide range of players SINCE.THE.START of the game over 3 years ago.

I get it that you want those gem cash sales, i really do. But prohibiting the player base and punishing those by doing this crap, it just shows the direction you are taking finally here.

This is a good way to bury a good game by making worth while things completely unachievable.

As it is, 4k+ hours over 1114+ days on my account, i can recall 4 BLK drops from the world, 2 from instances, and 1 from a WvW boss. And out of those drops…1 scrap for a Black Lion Ticket. ONE. Countless garbage such as boosters. BLK’s are seriously worthless now unless you are dumping gold (87g+ for 1 key, mind you) in 50+ key purchases. I guess that fine for the super rich players, but many of us are not (I sit on about 760G right now, saving for a couple skins)

(And dont get me started on Precusor drops, I have had 2…so I’m luckier there, but BLK’s are near Precusor in rarity)

Unless you mix the BLK’s to be 1 in 100 chests dropped, you are doing NOTHING good here for the players, and its only to pad your own pockets.

-I wonder if now they may offer key at more a discount now. If they were I may even buy a couple now and then.

Lambent.6375:

Tuthan.3250:

Makai.3429:

As a dedicated key farmer, this hurts really bad. Despite the grind and bad luck, it was, at the very least, an alternative. Like others have said, Anet is unlikely willing to give us a straight answer to the reasoning behind this change, and it’s sad they’re still employing time gating as a quick fix to a problem that they’ll sweep under the rug: never forget Continue Coins or players having their karma boosters removed for no given reason. With all of these frenetic, unexplained changes, I have extreme reservations about using the gemstore or even playing the game beyond getting my daily metrics treat – what’s the point if my accomplishments will be rendered useless on a whim?

In any case, looks like it’s time to add another column to Spreadsheet Wars 2.

I don’t understand why some people upset about this change. Key farming was not what Anet wanted in GW2. They designed the personal story reward as a bonus to your story completion. If players want keys, they should buy gems (or convert gold into gems) then purchase keys on the gem store. Period.

What is there not to understand? You may not agree with it, but it’s easy to understand.

Players think the process to obtain Black Lion Skins is too expensive, and they don’t feel that other things you get from black lion chest make up for it.

On average you’ll probably have to spend $20-$30 for just one ticket, which will get you one skin, and only during the time e the Black Lion weapons are on sale for one ticket, after that they’re looking into the $50-$100+ range. (you can also get lucky and get an extra few skins)

At this point anyone who aspires to just get one of each black lion skin that’s released, may as well be playing a P2P, they’ll might save money that way. (unless they have a lot of play time, or have amassed a huge sum of gold they can use to just buy the weapons)

Of course, we wont know how this change affects the actual market until the next 1 or 2 rounds of black lion weapons.

Additionally, key farming was a pretty fun activity for some individuals.

And when won’t you all understand that Ticket Skins were cosmetic rewards for players who primarily purchase keys with gems as a reward for buying a metric ton of blind boxes. Players who could generate loads of gold to dump into the exchange or cash to spend on gems.

Sure, if they want they could put them up for sale but really it was for show, and when shown it encourages other players to do the same. Remember buying gems with cash is ANet’s monthly cash flow and after expenses they would like it positive.

The weapon skins are not a “reward” for gaming an activity that wasn’t intended to be done as steady source of free keys. They now realize that they turned the faucet nearly off for dropped gems in the game and the result of that was a major upswing in key farming.

Remember, tickets and scraps weren’t added to the BLTC as a reward until chapter 9 of Living Story 1 in July 2013, although they had experimented with specific weapon tickets in BLTC starting in late March 2013. And about this time was when keys virtually vanished as map complete rewards, common BLTC rewards and world drops.

Hmm do we know yet if the once per week cooldown is a personal cooldown or does it have a fixed reset day like guild missions and wvw has?

Dikeido.8436:

KhanKatir.4038:

mrstealth.6701:

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.

I’m having a severe case of buyer’s remorse about pre-purchasing HOT. According to these little bits in the HOT faq it looks like I’m screwed.

Between this:

“Is a pre-purchase the same as a pre-order?
No. The term “pre-order” can vary from seller to seller, but usually means that you’re just reserving an opportunity to purchase at a later date. In the case of the Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns pre-purchase, you’re paying for the game in advance of its release and receiving all of the other benefits of your purchase right away. For instance, if you pre-purchase the deluxe edition, you will pay the full purchase price and receive all of the pre-purchase and deluxe bonuses/items within 3-4 hours of redeeming the serial code. Then, when the expansion is released, you’ll get access to the new content.”

And this:

“…Standard 30 day refund policy on game purchases…”

I’m doomed.

They can keep the free character slot, the beta weekends, and the “exclusive title” if I could get my money back.

I think I’m in the same boat as your are

Maybe not! After I wrote that I decided to try and opened a support ticket. I’m actually surprised, but I just got a refund.

Ameepa.6793:

Hmm do we know yet if the once per week cooldown is a personal cooldown or does it have a fixed reset day like guild missions and wvw has?

I think someone mentioned that up on the support site that it’s tied to the weekly reset on Sunday.

Behellagh.1468:

Ameepa.6793:

Hmm do we know yet if the once per week cooldown is a personal cooldown or does it have a fixed reset day like guild missions and wvw has?

I think someone mentioned that up on the support site that it’s tied to the weekly reset on Sunday.

Thanks. That’s good. Haven’t done farming for a while, but might start doing it once a week now. For some reason adding the cooldown inspired me to start getting some keys again. Unlimited option made me bored of it. :P

Behellagh.1468:

And when won’t you all understand that Ticket Skins were cosmetic rewards for players who primarily purchase keys with gems as a reward for buying a metric ton of blind boxes. Players who could generate loads of gold to dump into the exchange or cash to spend on gems.

Even ignoring the overall issue with encouraging spending via what is essentially ingame gambling, there is a huge problem with Anet’s assignment of value to these items.

Gem exchange or not, Anet has clearly laid out that they feel a single weapon skin is worth $30-150 (average, depending on ticket cost). Is this supposed to be considered an acceptable cost? This isn’t a new game, a or even a DLC/season pass, or some sweet collector’s edition swag. It’s a single…kittening…weapon…skin. $150 for something they’ve proven they can easily churn out a full set of every month or two.

And then we have the fact that this has, for the most part, been the only manner in which new weapon skins have been added to the game. Outside of BL tickets, we’ve seen few new skins added. And even many of those are now BL ticket skins.

Maybe this wouldn’t be such a problem if the keys/skins weren’t so ridiculously overpriced, or if they actually bothered to add some skins that didn’t involve these stupid $30-a-pop claim tickets.

Hey I’m with you on that. It’s humorous that EVE had protests over an $80 cosmetic item and here it’s roughly $25 of gems on average, although RNG will still statistically create unlucky players, per ticket and at back when they were available, fused skins cost 7 tickets.

Today’s 1 ticket skins, Dwayna’s, can be bought off the TP for 90 gold. 90 gold will roughly buy you 5 keys and with 5 keys you have less than a 1 in 8 chance for a ticket.

I have like 75 chests, but never once received a random key drop. I hope patch changes this.

Behellagh.1468:

Hey I’m with you on that. It’s humorous that EVE had protests over an $80 cosmetic item and here it’s roughly $25 of gems on average, although RNG will still statistically create unlucky players, per ticket and at back when they were available, fused skins cost 7 tickets.

Today’s 1 ticket skins, Dwayna’s, can be bought off the TP for 90 gold. 90 gold will roughly buy you 5 keys and with 5 keys you have less than a 1 in 8 chance for a ticket.

Today’s prices won’t stay, though. They are that price because the primary supply was key farming. With that gone, the supply of existing ones will begin to dry up and future weapons will have much lower supply. Players aren’t going to let a skin go for 90g when they had to put in 2500 gems to get it.

Future weapons will likely be around 500g, if the gem rate is similar to what it is now. Which will increase to several times that cost after the introductory 1 ticket price.

Just wanted to post here to express my disdain at this choice made by Anet. I have never posted here before, nor had ever the desire to do so, but I feel this cannot go unnoticed.

Keyfarming is one of my favorite activities to do in Guild Wars 2. I do not grind, I do not run twenty dungeon paths per day to accrue gold and if I do any kind of extensive playing, it’s usually a map completed a day or some light WvW. I’ve been doing Keyfarming for some time now, and in a world of jumping through maps or event chains to get bonus chests I find it to be one of the more calming things in the game. Although I haven’t been doing it recently (especially now that they’ve decided to not put character slots on sale) this honestly still feels like a kick to the lower parts.

Even when I did do it, it was never more than once a day, sometimes even a couple of times a month — but just the idea of being limited from doing one of the things I’ve enjoyed doing for a very long time now (especially trying out each and every personal story branch and speedrunning them to see which are faster) is frankly horrible. I never expected much from Keyfarming, and have yet to see a single useful Gem store item drop, but the tickets alone were enough to bank most of my non-grindy endeavors. Hell, it’s been forever since I sat down and actually played the game since I’ve already levelled most of my characters to 80 and have been waiting for HoT to drop.

Is it because keys didn’t sell enough? Restricting keyfarming will NOT make me want to buy any Keys. If I wanted to, I would have. This past sale I could have easily bought 5 keys, and I didn’t — solely on the fact that I had hope for goodies to go on sale. If anything, this just makes me feel even less like buying them.

Has the effect on the economy even been considered? People farm tickets, they get skins. That keeps the skins low enough so that most everyone has a chance to purchase them. Do they want to spend hours working on new sets of weapons the majority of the userbase will never get to see because they are just too expensive? Or do they think this change is enough to make the purchase of keys a “better” deal? (so the balance of tickets being created is not upset — let’s be honest, even with the increase I doubt we’ll be seeing (m)any drops.) It honestly just comes out of left field, considering how this has been in the game for so long now, even after knowingly nerfing it.

What about people who are just levelling alts at the same time to try out the professions (Or just making alts for making alts)? Should they get punished for something they might not even be aware of? Is this some kind of Play for Free restriction that’s also being applied to regular accounts?

I’m baffled. I do not expect it to be changed back, but I still think it’s a loss for Guild Wars as a whole. I guess we should all just give up on our dreams of Permanent Contracts for now.

Pardon me for the length, I felt it thoroughly necessary, and I hope I’m not the only one.

Increased drop rates, I would love to know what the new drop it is, in 3years/ 4k hours ive had 3 drop in game, even if they doubled it, It would not make any impact at all, instead of nerfing this and basically forcing people to buy them from the gem store and that stupid 125gems per key price, they should have massively lowered the cost of the keys, this may actually encourage people to buy them, rather than waste hours farming for a few of them.

People who farmed them will not buy them, so they will either spend less time in game, or be forced to join the boring champ bag farm in SW.

Remember when they took drops out of the Personal Story? That affected keyrunners because all of a sudden we weren’t getting those extra mats and we couldn’t promote them for Gold or for personal use. I think perhaps keyrunners unbalanced the system Anet has set up to keep some mats in short supply. I’m not suggesting that is the main reason and I could certainly be wrong but I think it may be more then just skins and keys or even Anet’s bottom line.

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

People keep typing up speculations as if they are facts. We just don’t know what’s going to happen.

• How much will BL keys drop in open world?
• Will ANet also adjust the drop tables and rates of the contents?

The main thing we know is that the distribution of keys will be more spread out — previously, they were only available to those willing to pay for the excitement of opening chests or those willing to farm for it; now, keys might be available to everyone.

How the market will adjust… well, we aren’t going to see that today. We might see it in a month.

If you honestly believe the drop rate increase will make up for this or be noticeable at all, then I suggest you seek immediate psychiatric aid as you appear to experiencing a serious delusional state.

Lambent.6375:

What is there not to understand? You may not agree with it, but it’s easy to understand.

Players think the process to obtain Black Lion Skins is too expensive, and they don’t feel that other things you get from black lion chest make up for it.

Players who farmed keys because they were too expensive to buy, cannot do math. It’s about the worst time investment you can make.
I was told you were able to get about 3 keys per hour. One key costs 90 gems if you buy 5. This is 90*1.25cent = $1.125. Per hour $3.375.

You are farming for the equivalent of $3,35 hourly wage. I don’t know how you get paid in your country, but here in Germany a cleaner for your household gets about 10 Euro per hour (assume $1=1Euro).

If you go farming keys for 12 hours, you get 3*12=36 keys.
But if you go working as cleaner for only 4 hours, you get $40, which also gets you about 36 keys. For the remaining 8 hours, you can go playing Guild Wars 2 and do whatever you like – you don’t have to waste your time and create and delete characters the whole day.

If you now tell me you would never pay $40 for black lion keys with money you earned the hard way in 4 hours as cleaner, why would you tell me you waste 12 hours of your life time by clicking through a computer program to get the same amount of keys? 4 hours as cleaner more wasted than 12 hours as nothing? This alone should tell you that you should never started farming in the first place.

I don’t mind. I never did the keyfarming because I only have like 60 of the tomes saved up.

On the other hand, now that they limited keyfarming to once per week, it sounds like an easily reached achievement. I might actually start using one character slot for low level rotation. Kind of like I play certain content once a day, just go through the low level PS once a week.

Silmar Alech.4305:

Lambent.6375:

What is there not to understand? You may not agree with it, but it’s easy to understand.

Players think the process to obtain Black Lion Skins is too expensive, and they don’t feel that other things you get from black lion chest make up for it.

Players who farmed keys because they were too expensive to buy, cannot do math. It’s about the worst time investment you can make.
I was told you were able to get about 3 keys per hour. One key costs 90 gems if you buy 5. This is 90*1.25cent = $1.125. Per hour $3.375.

You are farming for the equivalent of $3,35 hourly wage. I don’t know how you get paid in your country, but here in Germany a cleaner for your household gets about 10 Euro per hour (assume $1=1Euro).

If you go farming keys for 12 hours, you get 3*12=36 keys.
But if you go working as cleaner for only 4 hours, you get $40, which also gets you about 36 keys. For the remaining 8 hours, you can go playing Guild Wars 2 and do whatever you like – you don’t have to waste your time and create and delete characters the whole day.

If you now tell me you would never pay $40 for black lion keys with money you earned the hard way in 4 hours as cleaner, why would you tell me you waste 12 hours of your life time by clicking through a computer program to get the same amount of keys? 4 hours as cleaner more wasted than 12 hours as nothing? This alone should tell you that you should never started farming in the first place.

You’re comparing apples to oranges when you compare paid jobs to playing a game. When I’m playing, I’m not making real money. When I do key runs, it’s at a time when I’m not making money. When I’m playing, I might spend that time doing a key run or mapping or a dungeon or harvesting nodes. It’s part of playing the game, not part of a real life job.