Guild Wars 2

Profession loot was one of the features announced today. There are a lot of concerns by a lot of people, but they hinge on a central question that was very vague in the blog post:

Does the new “Profession Loot” system affect level 80 characters, or only sub-80 characters?

If we can get a red post to clarify, I think either this debate can be largely settled, or we will have something more concrete to discuss.

Please, if even a dev who doesn’t know the answer sees this, can you pass on a message to someone who can just take 2 minutes and answer a simple yes or no question?

+1

I think it should be sub level 80, personally. But I agree, let’s wait for a red post to clarify before we jump to conclusions…

Sub 80 would make it less annoying without ruining it’s perks.

Rayden Kastor.5918:

I think it should be sub level 80, personally. But I agree, let’s wait for a red post to clarify before we jump to conclusions…

I almost had a heart attack!!
Someone being REASONABLE on the forums!!!
Lord Have Mercy!!!

This is the way to go about it. I’d like to know as well.

I agree. I hope this only affects level 79 and lower items.

Otherwise, jeez, look at the loot selection Mesmers get. Greatswords, swords, staves, cloth armor… that’s some profitable stuff. I play Mesmer, so, I mean, that’s nice and all, but I’d hate to have a system where everyone who wants to grind for loot switches to the professions that have the best selection.

Agent Noun.7350:

I agree. I hope this only affects level 79 and lower items.

Otherwise, jeez, look at the loot selection Mesmers get. Greatswords, swords, staves, cloth armor… that’s some profitable stuff. I play Mesmer, so, I mean, that’s nice and all, but I’d hate to have a system where everyone who wants to grind for loot switches to the professions that have the best selection.

New Mesmer farming meta.

Bumping for visibility. This is a pretty simple question, and I am hoping a dev who can answer will see it and be able to settle this uncertainty.

Rayden Kastor.5918:

I think it should be sub level 80, personally. But I agree, let’s wait for a red post to clarify before we jump to conclusions…

They already have that with their current loot system. Trust me you get way better loot prelevel 80 than you do at level 80. Saw it happen on two of my toons. LEvel 79 getting all kinds of riches ding level 80 suddenly it’s all greys.

I definitely agree, this could be very harmful for medium armor classes.

Leather is basically worthless.

Meanwhile, light armor classes would benefit from all the silk (which is much more costly).

Damask (and therefore Silk, etc.) is REQUIRED for all Ascended armor.

Personally, I would enjoy if it affected my lv 80 characters. It just seems more flavorful to me, but I can understand how problematic it can be for some people.

I think this should affect lv80s, but the acquisition for silk and leather and their respective ascended recipes should be rebalanced.

All i have to say is, poor engineers when it comes to weapon drops. Yikes!

munkiman.3068:

All i have to say is, poor engineers when it comes to weapon drops. Yikes!

Not to mention all the leather the medium armored classes will be getting.

There’s a lot of speculation and debate across the forum on this topic. We could really use a clarification.

If, all of a sudden, silk floods the market, would that not make the price drop? A method to their madness?

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

If, all of a sudden, silk floods the market, would that not make the price drop? A method to their madness?

The issue has multiple layers though. Not all light armor wearers on an account are an account’s tailor. My tailor is a heavy and I’d like to farm the tailor mats on my tailor. This whole thing would be fixed if we had cloth nodes though.

Does it make a difference which character gathers the materials? I mean they all go into the same bank.

But, if you are saying you want to salvage, say silk, on your Warrior/Guardian, I can understand that. I was speaking, though, to the result of many people suddenly playing Light Armor characters (and salvaging their Profession-specific drops). If they do so, and generate a lot of Silk (much like all the Wood being generated because of Foxfire Essences), would not the cost of Silk drop?

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

Does it make a difference which character gathers the materials? I mean they all go into the same bank.

But, if you are saying you want to salvage, say silk, on your Warrior/Guardian, I can understand that. I was speaking, though, to the result of many people suddenly playing Light Armor characters (and salvaging their Profession-specific drops). If they do so, and generate a lot of Silk (much like all the Wood being generated because of Foxfire Essences), would not the cost of Silk drop?

[All that follows is Morsus.5106’s personal speculation and should be taken as such]
It would, but only temporarily. There’ll be a flood of it, but it would have to be pretty big and sudden to do anything long term. As the price lowers, less people will be farming it. If 10 million scraps were suddenly introduced a lot of the demand would be met and the price would go down for awhile, but since it won’t hit all at once (over a few minutes at best) people will adjust back to what they were playing before the patch hit. It’ll go down a few copper, but nothing long term, at least from my perspective.

I actually agree somewhat. Although i have about 25 stacks of silk now anyway (and prolly just as much mithril). I don’t think this is going to impact the economy, but i do worry that level 80’s will be “stuck” with a plethera of profession specific drops, which could be pretty troublesome for most people (read Engi with limiting 80’s to 3 weapon drops). Right now i have TONS of leather too, and i have nary a medium armor class i play often. I think i’m in the same boat as a few… is this just for up to level 80 or is this across every level? If it’s across the game, I’m going to be pooping mithril and silk, since all i play are heavy and light classes and barely any leather…

Iason Evan.3806:

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

If, all of a sudden, silk floods the market, would that not make the price drop? A method to their madness?

The issue has multiple layers though. Not all light armor wearers on an account are an account’s tailor. My tailor is a heavy and I’d like to farm the tailor mats on my tailor. This whole thing would be fixed if we had cloth nodes though.

So you aren’t liking it for RP reasons?

Does running 2 drop schedules, one for pre 80 and 80 weigh anything in server resources? As far as I can tell, the weight of that outweighs any impact on the economy of having no distinction.

This will be a big problem if it is applied to lvl 80 items as well because most people have a favored or dedicated farming character and profession loot will make it very hard to get some precursors for people.

Guessing it will be applied to all levels as they’ll no doubt claim “programming difficulties” in having it only affect sub-80s.

I see no upside for level 80 characters. I have an 80 of every class, and it hardly ever happens that I find loot that’s good enough to move to another character. That’s because randomly generated items are drawn from a pool of far too many stat options to have a decent chance of getting one you like.

If none of my characters find exotics that are useful for any of my characters, why would it help in any way if the drops become profession-appropriate? It would actually worsen the chance of getting useful items, from an account based point of view. Because, for example, if my engineer ever rolls a weapon with stats another character could use, the new loot system would make it more likely that such an item would be a rifle, pistol or shield, and not a weapon that other character might want.

Most loot will always be salvage-fodder, or TP ware. This new system, when applied to level 80s, won’t change that. It will only make things more awkward.

Can we please get a response to this question? It’s been a day, and as the “No Profession Loot” thread shows, this is a controversial issue. This clarification is a pretty simple yes or no question about how this new system is actually programmed. If a dev sees this thread, can you please ask someone who would know the answer to take two minutes and respond?