Guild Wars 2

The reason precursors feel so nasty to acquire isn’t that they’re too rare. Based on my knowledge of MMOs, players will literally grind for anything. The problem is that they’re too distributed.

Spamming autoattack on world bosses and farm trains shouldn’t get you essentially the same odds for a precursor as Arah or FotM 50. There’s absolutely no reason for there to even be a minuscule chance of them dropping off of trash mobs.

When so much faceroll content has odds of dropping a pre, the odds for any given activity have to be crazy low to keep the supply limited. Players are pushed into this global lottery where nothing feels like progression. Why work my way up to harder content if it won’t even improve my chances?

This leads to a situation where the most effective method is to find the easiest gold grind and buy it off the TP, rather than actually putting any effort into playing the game. This feel cheap to do, and is the reason why legendaries have near zero prestige right now. When you see a legendary these days, all it means is “farmer” or “RNGeesus”.

My suggestion:Take precursors off of trash mob loot tables. Take them out of afk-auto world bosses. Dramatically raise the odds of them dropping in actual content, so that players get to feel like they can do something about getting them, and they regain a bit of prestige factor.

What do you guys think? Would it actually help the process of getting a legendary feel more special, or would it see too much casual backlash?

Well, I agree, but meh… ANet wants everything different, even it if means squishy and nonsense.

Linnael.1069:

Why work my way up to harder content if it won’t even improve my chances?

- Could you explain what you mean by “working your way up” to “harder content”?

No they don’t. Everywhere means me included, and that’s a lie since my most expensive drop was worth 20 gold in 2 years.

Oxidia.8103:

No they don’t. Everywhere means me included, and that’s a lie since my most expensive drop was worth 20 gold in 2 years.

No, they do. You are just unlucky. My friend dropped from a level 10 zone Moa.

I know, long ago i made peace with the fact i will never get a precursor drop nor any drop i want and i have to buy everything from tp. Eh.

Edit: since your post kind of says that precursors are flying everywhere, if someone has a spare precursor i’ll be more then happy to take care of it and make it into beautiful shiny.

“My suggestion:Take precursors off of trash mob loot tables. Take them out of afk-auto world bosses. Dramatically raise the odds of them dropping in actual content, so that players get to feel like they can do something about getting them, and they regain a bit of prestige factor.”

Define afk-auto world bosses? Doesn’t that mean almost every boss, with the exceptions of teq and triple wurm (and even thats debatable)

Actual content? Every part of the game is “actual content”. Dynamic events, random mobs, dungeons, world bosses, fractals, Personal and Living Story, Heart quests, etc…

Trash mobs? Almost every mob, up to and including champions, can be considered trash mobs…

I’m sorry I’m just not getting what you want…

What qualifies as “acutal content”? Because if it’s repeatable, everyone will know exactly where to focus their grind. That’s okay with me, because it will likely bring the costs down. I’ve played two years and have never gotten one in a drop. It would be nice to be able to either afford one or know where to focus my efforts.

Played from day 1, 8k hours in game. I’ve had one precursor drop in all that time.

Precursors are not “dropping everywhere”.

What is this mythical precursor?

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

Played from day 1, 8k hours in game. I’ve had one precursor drop in all that time.

Precursors are not “dropping everywhere”.

I have not played quite that long, but also have quite a bit of time in game and have never seen a precurser drop either. If they are dropping everywhere, I would like to know where and what server so I can go get my share.

I played 4,700 hours and not seen one yet either tho ive given up on them and started to collect mini pets

Linnael.1069:

The reason precursors feel so nasty to acquire isn’t that they’re too rare. Based on my knowledge of MMOs, players will literally grind for anything. The problem is that they’re too distributed.

Spamming autoattack on world bosses and farm trains shouldn’t get you essentially the same odds for a precursor as Arah or FotM 50. There’s absolutely no reason for there to even be a minuscule chance of them dropping off of trash mobs.

When so much faceroll content has odds of dropping a pre, the odds for any given activity have to be crazy low to keep the supply limited. Players are pushed into this global lottery where nothing feels like progression. Why work my way up to harder content if it won’t even improve my chances?

This leads to a situation where the most effective method is to find the easiest gold grind and buy it off the TP, rather than actually putting any effort into playing the game. This feel cheap to do, and is the reason why legendaries have near zero prestige right now. When you see a legendary these days, all it means is “farmer” or “RNGeesus”.

My suggestion:Take precursors off of trash mob loot tables. Take them out of afk-auto world bosses. Dramatically raise the odds of them dropping in actual content, so that players get to feel like they can do something about getting them, and they regain a bit of prestige factor.

What do you guys think? Would it actually help the process of getting a legendary feel more special, or would it see too much casual backlash?

The problem with that, kemosabe, is doing this won’t add prestige to legendary weapons. It’s too late for that. The damage is done. Unless you make a ‘Real’ Legendary weapon category above Legendary, it’s too little too late.

While I agree with you that Legendarys lack prestige in this game, I don’t agree with your notion to change them so they will. People have long accepted they won’t grind for one, they’ve seen a hundred of them floating about, the skin itself isn’t as awe-inspiring as they once were. Making them suddenly balls-hard to attain for only the l227 players that can do level 50 fractals with their eyes closed is beyond cheap…cheaper than the image Legendaries have now.

Just leave Legendarys as cool and rarer weapon skins.

Now maybe if they create Legendary armor, they can take your route.

Misleading thread title is misleading…

He meant that precursor have a chance to drop in every mob in tyria, not that its easy to aquire..

I’m not apposed to he idea that Precurors should have a (slightly?) higher chance to drop in Orr than Queensdale, but the fact that this is not the case isn’t a game stopping tragedy of epic proportions….

This thread is more proof that far too many players seem to think the pursuit of the almighty Precursor is why the game exists.

yup they are dropping everywhere…

Hahahahahahahahaaa /endofsarcasticlaugh

Really because on 2 accounts and hours and hours of gameplay I have never seen one drop for me or for any of my friends or guildies. Hmm.

I never got a worthwhile drop in all this time, that changed last night though. Helped a guildie out for her title and got Leaf of Kudzu from a dungeon chest

I’ll just be selling it though, legendaries mean nothing to me (anymore). Once I had wanted Twilight or Sunrise, but not anymore :p So I don’t really care either way ^^

yet i still havent gotten a single precursor from anywhere in the game….and ive been playing over 2 years now….

and even if i somehow get 1 im sure from aaaall the precursors it will be the one i want the least….

Why does this sound more like the OP is asking the Dev’s to only drop Pre’s on the content he likes to do?

Personally I am sick of seeing legendary weapons. Even though I know not everyone has one, it certainly seems like most do. They’ve become so common place that it sickens me to see them sometimes. I give more respect to players with regular weapon skins because they’re not showing off a legendary weapon… Which for me is just a public cry of, “Look at me! I did this too! Look at ME!!!”

So over it.

Man I had so many precursors drops from mobs I don’t even know what to do with them its insane.

Problem is: Not everyone enjoys the same kind of content. Is it really worth the time and effort to gauge the play difference of a) precursor drop on in some forsaken and forgotten corner of Tyria that no one goes to but a soloing explorer who went there just for the experience, and b) precursor drop during a farm-happy event?

The issue on prestige recognition of precursors isn’t that they can drop anywhere – it’s that they are solely RNG. Luck is the only way to get a precursor. I’d support an extremely difficult precursor scavanger hunt before any changes to a precursor drop table.

Azhure.1857:

Personally I am sick of seeing legendary weapons. Even though I know not everyone has one, it certainly seems like most do. They’ve become so common place that it sickens me to see them sometimes. I give more respect to players with regular weapon skins because they’re not showing off a legendary weapon… Which for me is just a public cry of, “Look at me! I did this too! Look at ME!!!”

So over it.

Which is basically a bit unfair because I found my precurser and crafted the legendary myself. But I’m well aware that a lot if not all people suspect I just bought the legendary – and sometimes I like it better that way, after dying like a noob in wvw, for example ;)

I’ve always wanted to have marginal acquisition tables in GW2 to make going to a certain area have a point. I can barely play the game anymore because it’s literally just hopping on a ktrain and spamming 1 with my ranger while I hope that the RNG Gods smile on me.

Azhure.1857:

Personally I am sick of seeing legendary weapons. Even though I know not everyone has one, it certainly seems like most do. They’ve become so common place that it sickens me to see them sometimes. I give more respect to players with regular weapon skins because they’re not showing off a legendary weapon… Which for me is just a public cry of, “Look at me! I did this too! Look at ME!!!”

So over it.

Well then you’d hate my guardian because I love my Twilight.

Played 2706 hours and havent had a precursor drop i have seen one drop of a champion bag in Ac tho for a guildie

He got the legend I said I wanted it so he sent it to me, I asked him if he was sure it was worth like 800 gold at the time ( he wanted it back and being a good guy i returned it )

So you basically think that events all over the world that give us mobs to kill doesn’t count as in-game content?

Why should 1 type of content be more important then the other in a game like GW2, where there is nothing hardcore about PvE in the first place?

I’m pretty sure that Legendaries, being the one major long-term goal the game offers, are aimed at everyone, not just people who do FotM or Arah. This post is just another disguise of the request that the best “stuff” only drop in the hardest content. Legendaries already have a massive to-do list. They don’t need additional requirements.

I agree. I had a Colossus drop from Jormag and that didn’t feel particularly Legendary. I sold it. I got Dusk from an epic WvW fight that lasted over an hour. I made Twilight because it reminds me of a great battle in game. This is how precursors should arrive. They should try and think of ways to make the acquisition memorable. Swatting a random grub or standing in front of a forge or hitting a loot pinata for the 1000th time isn’t particularly memorable. Of course, my view is colored by the fact I’ve actually seen two precursors.

have never had one drop…for 2+ years of steady gameplay.

that said, i sorta agree with the OP. it seems dumb that they drop from open-world/dungeon trash mobs. i’d prefer “better rewards” occur upon completing a task…..rewards in general should encourage completion.

i’d rather they eliminate trash-mob precursor drops in all content (champ bags included), and then compensate the drop rate in dungeon/fractal/WB chests.

Jana.6831:

Azhure.1857:

Personally I am sick of seeing legendary weapons. Even though I know not everyone has one, it certainly seems like most do. They’ve become so common place that it sickens me to see them sometimes. I give more respect to players with regular weapon skins because they’re not showing off a legendary weapon… Which for me is just a public cry of, “Look at me! I did this too! Look at ME!!!”

So over it.

Which is basically a bit unfair because I found my precurser and crafted the legendary myself. But I’m well aware that a lot if not all people suspect I just bought the legendary – and sometimes I like it better that way, after dying like a noob in wvw, for example

I don’t blame you or players like you. They made it so people could just up and pay for their legendary weapons. * shrugs * Had it been made more personal and difficult – I think I would be okay with the situation.

I’m sure there are people that will scream and yell at me, “But its not easy!” Yet for something designed to be “legendary”, yes, yes it is too easy. But it doesn’t matter what I think.

Azhure.1857:

Jana.6831:

Azhure.1857:

Personally I am sick of seeing legendary weapons. Even though I know not everyone has one, it certainly seems like most do. They’ve become so common place that it sickens me to see them sometimes. I give more respect to players with regular weapon skins because they’re not showing off a legendary weapon… Which for me is just a public cry of, “Look at me! I did this too! Look at ME!!!”

So over it.

Which is basically a bit unfair because I found my precurser and crafted the legendary myself. But I’m well aware that a lot if not all people suspect I just bought the legendary – and sometimes I like it better that way, after dying like a noob in wvw, for example

I don’t blame you or players like you. They made it so people could just up and pay for their legendary weapons. * shrugs * Had it been made more personal and difficult – I think I would be okay with the situation.

I’m sure there are people that will scream and yell at me, “But its not easy!” Yet for something designed to be “legendary”, yes, yes it is too easy. But it doesn’t matter what I think.

“Too Easy”
Maybe if you have chosen grinding video games as your profession.

I’ve only seen one, and I got it during melandru. Am I somehow not worthy of getting a precursor, since I didn’t earn it in a memorable fight?

Azhure.1857:

I don’t blame you or players like you. They made it so people could just up and pay for their legendary weapons. * shrugs * Had it been made more personal and difficult – I think I would be okay with the situation.

I’m sure there are people that will scream and yell at me, “But its not easy!” Yet for something designed to be “legendary”, yes, yes it is too easy. But it doesn’t matter what I think.

I knew what you meant, actually, I was just making fun of the legendary situation.
I think the only thing that makes legendaries non legendary is that they are tradeable. If it were only the precursers it would still take a lot of effort to craft them. But economy and stuff – so maybe it’s just like it is.

Becka Williams.4978:

I’ve only seen one, and I got it during melandru. Am I somehow not worthy of getting a precursor, since I didn’t earn it in a memorable fight?

absolutely not…..but a perceived problem in the game is that harder/longer content is not worth doing since the rewards are terrible compared to much easier/faster tasks. another problem is that often failing events on purpose is more profitable that successfully coompleting them.

limiting precursors to “mission-accomplished” chests helps remedy both of those issues.

They should remove precursors from the forge and increase the drop rate from certain mobs.

No thanks. I’ve been playing since day 1 and still haven’t had a precursor drop. I don’t want my chances to go from piddly to completely nonexistant.

Linnael.1069:

The reason precursors feel so nasty to acquire isn’t that they’re too rare. Based on my knowledge of MMOs, players will literally grind for anything. The problem is that they’re too distributed.

Spamming autoattack on world bosses and farm trains shouldn’t get you essentially the same odds for a precursor as Arah or FotM 50. There’s absolutely no reason for there to even be a minuscule chance of them dropping off of trash mobs.

When so much faceroll content has odds of dropping a pre, the odds for any given activity have to be crazy low to keep the supply limited. Players are pushed into this global lottery where nothing feels like progression. Why work my way up to harder content if it won’t even improve my chances?

This leads to a situation where the most effective method is to find the easiest gold grind and buy it off the TP, rather than actually putting any effort into playing the game. This feel cheap to do, and is the reason why legendaries have near zero prestige right now. When you see a legendary these days, all it means is “farmer” or “RNGeesus”.

My suggestion:Take precursors off of trash mob loot tables. Take them out of afk-auto world bosses. Dramatically raise the odds of them dropping in actual content, so that players get to feel like they can do something about getting them, and they regain a bit of prestige factor.

What do you guys think? Would it actually help the process of getting a legendary feel more special, or would it see too much casual backlash?

This game is designed for the casual player. Removing the casual players ability to get a Legendary would destroy the franchise. It will never happen. They implemented Fractals for the hardcore player, those weapon skins are for the hardcore gamer I believe. The game is actual content from level 1, there is no need for “endgame” content as the hardcore player sees it. There is disdain for the casual player in your words, and it is more than evident.
I have received 4 precursors by playing the game, including using the forge. By playing all avenues that the game offers is how you increase your chances. Low level mobs, high level risen chickens, the forge, and World bosses all have the possibility to drop them, so go play more of them. I did trade one in to get one I wanted, built 2 without buying the materials, and sold two.

I play this game so much, it’s not funny. An example: A guildie of mine left the game for 2 months, and came back, and got a precursor from a low level mob. Meanwhile, I’m playing the game, doing multiple game modes, pvp, wvw, pve, and I don’t get anything. So, no, doing more events doesn’t mean you have a better chance. RNG in this game is broken. My guildie’s gotten like 10 precursors, and I’ve gotten 1. And I probably play twice as much as he has.

Becka funny you say that, I took a few months off and got 3 ascended drops within a week.

On another note, I just read a thread where half the commenters never bothered to read the OP, rather they just reacted to the title. Is this FB or something?

To the OP, have you personally gotten a precursor and made a legendary?

To answer your proposal, in a word “NO”. What does it matter from what mob it falls, it would be special no matter what. After 6,200 hrs. I’ve never seen any precursor fall into my lap in the last 2 years, despite having all the gifts ready and waiting to make the one I want. Options? saving gold (which is what I’m doing tho the TP price seems to increase faster than my wallet) or flush items into the Mystic Toilet. RNG is RNG. Some are lucky, many many more are not.

gonna chime in here on the RNG bit. started playing when the game launched, dropped off playing due to issues with my pc. been away for a sometime started playing again in march, currently on 1,4k hours and got a pre drop from tequatl.

so yeah Rng is rng, I struck it super lucky, folks with a lot more time in game not so much, based on that experience itself people who sunk more time into the game deserve a better shot getting them.

I’ve been rolling a idea around since the collections came out, will be posting it soon once I can get my head around the economy issue.

it won’t be perfect but it won’t be exploitable either

Brother Grimm.5176:

I’m not apposed to he idea that Precurors should have a (slightly?) higher chance to drop in Orr than Queensdale, but the fact that this is not the case isn’t a game stopping tragedy of epic proportions….

This thread is more proof that far too many players seem to think the pursuit of the almighty Precursor is why the game exists.

Actually precusors do have a slightly higher chance of dropping in Orr than Queensdale.

That’s because in Queensdale you get both 80 level drops and 15 level drops. Only a percentage of your drops have a chance to be precursors.

In Orr all your drops can be precursors.

People seem to have misunderstood the OP’s point. OP starts from the following:

• Precursors can drop from any mob or chest that can drop exotics. That is true everywhere for L80 characters.
• Therefore, the drop rate must be super low so that precursors aren’t dropping “too often.”

OP proposes that:

• Precursors no longer drop from non-boss mobs.
• Precursors no longer drop from any of the world bosses, except those that have been revamped.

In exchange, OP asks that:

• The drop rate for precursors be noticeably increased for the few places they continue to drop.
• The remaining drop situations involve the most challenging content in the game, probably meaning some dungeons (but not all), a very few world bosses, and the latest map-wide challenges from the Living Story.

Personally, I prefer the status quo: I can do any content I want, save my coin, and buy the precursor on the TP.

The stupidest thing is how I got my first precursor.

After 1.5 years of playing the most difficult content available I’ve yet to see a precursor drop. Happens, bad luck to a certain extent. I don’t expect a precursor to drop on me, ever. Not even from the forge (even though that happened later).

Anyhow, I do high level fractals and what are considered the hardest dungeons frequent enough. Several thousand hours in the game.

So… on to how I got my first precursor.
I was checking out what happened to the newly designed area in wvw, the middle area where you capture the ruins. There was a sentry lurking at me, and I figured I’d get it along the way.
So I accidently also lured a neutral spider there. And that thing dropped me Dusk.
Do I feel happy about it dropping? Absolutely. Do I feel like I earned one? Sure. Do I feel that I got it the right way? No, absolutely not. I find it disgusting that that thing dropped it for me. Hilarious.

In the two years I’ve playsd I’ve had two drop. One of my former guild mates has had 4 drop for her. So yeh. Rng gg

I had 1 precursor from MF = Zap long time ago (2 years ago maybe).

If you dont have precursor farm gold for it. I farmed my kitten out for a month to buy The Colossus and to make The Juggernaut. Started with 10 gold last month ended with a Legendary last sunday and i have now like 120 gold left plus i bought 1600 gems for gold for some cosmetics. It supposed to be legendary not some usual stuff that you can see and something that you can feel special. If you have a goal you will make it, QQ bout MF chances or dropping from mobs wont get you far from a starting point.

Stop QQing and farm gold if you want legendaries.

and btw…havent seen one precursor drop in a month and i played all world events lus all dungeons plus farming orr and SW for 10h/day. So you are being trolled by someone for some reason that precursors drop that often. 90% precursors on black market are from MF.

Becka Williams.4978:

I’ve only seen one, and I got it during melandru. Am I somehow not worthy of getting a precursor, since I didn’t earn it in a memorable fight?

Was it in a chest or a drop from a mob?

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Personally, I prefer the status quo: I can do any content I want, save my coin, and buy the precursor on the TP.

Generating a farm will also decrease the value of a precursor on the TP, which makes buying it easier. The only reason to keep the status quo is that millionth of a chance that you’ll get the precursor while grinding your gold elsewhere.

just buy your kitten prec. from TP , if you are so pro , you should have alot of gold or ways to make gold right?

Maybe you are just jealous about other dropss

Legendaries are everywhere , they arent something special anymore