Guild Wars 2

The recent announcement about the future of Guild Wars 2 had a screenshot showing some of the currently idealized items we will be able to buy with the achievement tokens, as seen here. We have been told that we will get one token per daily, and ten tokens per monthly achievement (source). In the screenshot above, we see some items which purposes are not exactly obvious, such as the “Guardian Gear” box, the “Warrior Gear” box, and etc; they are currently somewhat cheap, only 5 tokens per box. In a recent interview with someone else from ArenaNet, it was mentioned how the rewards for map completition are somewhat random, and often cannot be used by the profession of the character doing the map completition; the ArenaNet developer mentioned how they thought that was an issue.

Now, we know little about this feature. Everything in that screenshot is subject to change, the amount of tokens earned is subject to change, and we have no idea what those “Profession” Gear boxes are.

I would like, then, to raise the idea that “Profession” Gear boxes are intended to work as a lottery: opening them would give a random item useful for a given profession (opening the Guardian Gear box could give someone a random rare scepter or a random exotic shield or a random blue sword, but it would never give a bow, for example).

If that’s the case: I would kindly ask ArenaNet to rework how those things work, considering how GW2 already has waaay too much “random number generators” as the game is. We don’t need some new kind of lottery.

(“Why are you asking ArenaNet to change a feature they have barely talked about, and that you really know next to nothing about?” Simple: because this is a kind of thing easier to change now than after it’s released. ArenaNet is less likely to remove a lottery after it has been implemented in the game and used by hundreds of players than before it were implemented in the first place.)

With any luck they’ll make it even worse and it will be 5-10% chance of being ascended piece of random gear.

90% chance of grey loot.

95% chance to receive porous bones. ^^

They were talking about rewards so I hope they were discussing rewards for players generally rather than simply the lotto winners. There is a reason why it’s not a good use of money to play the lottery. Similarly, it’s not a good use of play time if all you are doing is playing a lottery. RNG has a function in a loot system but the system must be tuned so that players feel rewarded for playing the game. You don’t want the big rock candy mountain and you don’t want a loot wasteland. I did get the understanding from the post that they were talking about tangible rewards for playing the game.

I have to agree with this. Crowns seem like they will be a slowly earned currency. I can’t see how spending such a currency on RNG will be rewarding a player’s time.

I’d bet on a random MW/Rare/Exotic/Ascended item. The whole thing is subject to change, of course, but because the box couldn’t contain several good items for that price, it must be a single item. A single item must be random. So, it must be a lottery. Or the dyes are overpriced.

I’ve seen well-done lotteries, too. In Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer for example. However, the thing with ME3’s multiplayer is that you always get an item of certain quality from the box (like “this box contains one rare item and four other items”), so it feels like a random reward generator instead of a lottery.

And yes, if we’re right, the boxes will suck.

It would also be rather ironic if the boxes had a 0,0001% chance of dropping a precursor, and ArenaNet were to consider that the solution to the low drop rate of precursors from the Mystic Forge.

Erasculio.2914:

It would also be rather ironic if the boxes had a 0,0001% chance of dropping a precursor, and ArenaNet were to consider that the solution to the low drop rate of precursors from the Mystic Forge.

This is what I’m hoping we somehow avoid by having this discussion.

Eh, I’m personally hoping it’ll just be gear that’s cosmetically themed around the different professions, and you’ll get a random piece.

I would rather they just fix the current freaking drop rate and DR before introducing even more random stuff.

One suggestion someone in my guild just made: They could be profession specific armor sets and each box contains one piece.

Hopefully if that is the case then either 5 crowns will be really cheap and the armor will be tradeable/sellable (or at least salvagable) or there will be some mechanic in place to make sure you don’t get repeats.

Danikat.8537:

One suggestion someone in my guild just made: They could be profession specific armor sets and each box contains one piece.

If that were the case, IMO it’s more likely we would simply be able to buy individual pieces with the tokens – we have already seen a few vendors offering a lot of items by having multiple tabs.

As someone mentioned above, having a box like this being sold for half as many tokens as some dyes strongly suggests it will have random items. Considering how the screenshot doesn’t show that many items for sale (looking at the scroll bar at the right, there aren’t many more options other than what is being shown), unless the current system isn’t changed we would have relatively few things to use the achievements tokens for, other than this possible lottery.

To me they look like full set boxes like you get on the trading post..if they are RNG it makes the whole thing pointless..

And i know the thing hasn’t been added yet but why are they all rares again? where are the Exotic boxes etc… so sick of Rare junk i cannot or do not use..

WarMacheen.7124:

I would rather they just fix the current freaking drop rate and DR before introducing even more random stuff.

I agree i like the new stuff being added, but this DR and loot rates are the primary reason open world is toast..

Either way i hope its a step in the right direction. At least we got some Info..

This didn’t work in SWToR,it wont work in GW2.

I think they are just trying to further cement the new title for the game – Grind Wars 2.

Gotta add more RNG and more super-grind currencies, can’t be outshined by the Korean hyper-grinder MMOs after all.

how is this a grind. time passes by. the achievement is based on time. so technically if you do your part, you’ll be getting a token everyday, if an achievement can be done daily.

Another thought:
Maybe the gear is “free”, but what about the fine transmutation stone we’ll need, in case it is not just a skin or an exotic armor?

please Anet, not more of the RNG-stuff. Not random loot and not random dropchance. A lot of people have quite little patience and this would only reflect negatively to the forums where people would get more angry each time they don’t get their Skins/Ascended.

Reward the people with something they can work for with a cool mind. I’d rather pay much more for that armor if I can be shure that it would be guaranteed. Why not make a survey of this and ask the people directly how they think of RNG in GW2? You did a survey about german-voiceovers, you could do it again.

You said it yourself: “no one likes grind, no one finds it fun.”

Notice that the gear boxes are colored as rare, so they most likely contain items of rare quality. But yeah, they may be random profession-usable items. The question then is, what would be the point of that? It’s not like we are having particular trouble acquiring rare items as it is, they are under 50s on the TP, and would it really be worth to spend 5 daily rewards on items whose TP value is less than 50s?

Maybe they include new profession related skins?

I’d like to ask that two things to be implemented with these boxes:

1. They never ever drop anything but exotic loot the level of the opener.
2. They also drop T6 mats namely the harder to find ones in the open world (gossamer scraps, powerful blood, stones of all kinds but specifically Onyx Lodestones)

if not a drop then please add these harder to find T6 mats to the inventory of the vendor so we can direct buy them for these points.

It will probably be class themed armor skin. A random 1 pc or if full set the price will be increased. Take note the cost is most likely not fixed yet.

WarMacheen.7124:

I would rather they just fix the current freaking drop rate and DR before introducing even more random stuff.

And that they don’t get this is precisely why I don’t bother logging in anymore.

I get the feeling that the Profession Boxes will be a RNG loot bag that always gives an item usable for that profession. If you’re an Elementalist, for instance, you’ll only get Staves, Scepters and Focii from it, not Swords or Axes. Judging by the prices on that screenshot, such items will probably be Rare or higher, and might even drop Ascended weapons or Precursors.

Anyone who buys the Elementalist Gear gets banned for exploiting! :-P

Heh, sorry, couldn’t resist.

But seriously, we don’t even know the context of the vendor selling this stuff. Is this just one of many vendors? Is the gear in the boxes something level-appropriate to the zone you bought it from? Is it a full set of all rares for people who just made it to 80? Whatever it is, I doubt it will have anything to do with the Ascended tier. ANet is working on more ways to attain Ascended gear, but I don’t think “buy a box with Ascended items in it” was what they had in mind.

I’m just excited about the general prospect of having new regular goals and events, and more avenues for acquisition of items, rewards, etc.

if those boxes have a high chance of getting an exotic then its worth picking them up. If they include blues/greens in that box all i can say is gg and add some whites/grays for maximum awesomeness. First time i saw the screenshot i thought it was boxes to store your armor… so it doesn’t use 2/3 of your storage space.

Anet lurvs RNG.

You should know that by now.

Don’t forget to eat your MF food, and open with the best MF gear, MF banner, and guild buff, and DR will affect the boxes so make sure you haven’t killed anything in the past 5 days…

I wish I could be sure the above is jest…

I’ll chime in as anti-RNG. If the boxes are going to use that mechanic, I will not be pleased.

We can always hope they’ve learned from past mistakes. RNG is ok is some cases but not in the reward system.

Navi.7142:

Maybe they include new profession related skins?

This is what I thought too the moment I saw those boxes.
My question now is, do the boxes contain one item or a full set, since it does look like an armour box- also do you have more than one skin per profession?

That would be so great- then we can mix and match and get real professional variety going

i have some bad news guys. the RNG war was fought in pvp and it was lost. i am not even hoping anymore. when i see a box it means RNG. don’t you know, people LOVE it and anet wants something for everyone:P

PetricaKerempuh.7958:

i have some bad news guys. the RNG war was fought in pvp and it was lost. i am not even hoping anymore. when i see a box it means RNG. don’t you know, people LOVE it and anet wants something for everyone:P

that’s only partly true, you can craft the armor you want with the mats from those pvp-pieces.

Marcus Greythorne.6843:

PetricaKerempuh.7958:

i have some bad news guys. the RNG war was fought in pvp and it was lost. i am not even hoping anymore. when i see a box it means RNG. don’t you know, people LOVE it and anet wants something for everyone:P

that’s only partly true, you can craft the armor you want with the mats from those pvp-pieces.

and this is how the war was lost… there is always gonna be somebody like you saying: but you can use mystic forge to get a precursor.

If the past few months are anything to go by…

Each 2nd box will drop a precusor, followed shortly by lots of them on TP, then a week later everyone that got one will get banned for using an exploit!

I hope in that boxes will be ONLY profession themed skins, nothing else.

More grind and Rng cant wait wow this game is just going great. Gated gear grind and Vp, grind for legendary,grind for armour. Now new open world grind.
Can we please get a little more grind I feel that my teeth as a beaver are growing faster than I grind. I need more too do. Please add new dungeons with more +1 gear to grind.

what they need to do to really make this game unique is make times for things they want you to do. for example: open world pve all day but crappy rewards. 12-14 dungeons but without DR (go do your 7min runs of cof1 as many times as you can). 18-20 pvp (finally we can have paid tournaments, people are just loving this, everybody is in the mists). if it doesn’t work lets make it once per week.

more RNG please. we need to have all the armors people were grinding in dungeons for tokens removed and get one single RNG box that will give you random armor piece with random stats. BUT, don’t get excited, this is actually good for you because the box will cost only 30 tokens and you can use mystic forge to get whatever you want. just be patient, and as an extra fun, you can discover your own recipes:)

if you get the armor stats you want, but not the skin, np, we have transmutation stones w8ing for you in the cash shop:) enjoy the no grind philosophy anet style.

I got a feeling they’ll just be rares :p then a 1% chance for exotics :P

I really hope it’s just skins that suit the classes. Sort of like early WoW and the dungeon tier gear. I’d love to see epic looking class themed skinned gear as the game progresses.