If you throw yellows in to aim for a precursor, do the rares need to be all weapons or can you use armour? Also, if you do use weapons, do they have yo be the same weapon type?
I have found that 3armour and one weapon will give occationaly an exotic weapon so has that tiny chance of giving a precursor. You do have a chance of getting armour back but it seems random and not dependent on ratio of weapons to armour. You can also use trinkets armour and weapons and magically pull out a precursor (using rare not exotic). Four weapons of the same type only will give that specific weapon, 3 of one will not.
Safest bet is to craft your own rares of the specific weapon type you’re aiming for. That way you’ll narrow down the loot options the forge can reward per recipe. If you buy the weapons from the TP it can get costly, so making them should be cheaper, especially if you farm all your own materials.
The old-school Arrow-Key warrior.
“Obtaining a legendary should be done through legendary feats…
Not luck and credit cards.”
My only precursor came from all level 80 rares, 3 random weapons and 1 armor. I’ve tried exotics, all of one type of rares and exotics, and using the MF stone. Only the one precursor. I don’t really think it matters which one you get (unless it’s an underwater one), as you can always sell it if you don’t want it and use the gold to buy the one you do.
Me: Over 1200g wasted on buying greatswords + most of my found rares for around 2 years and no precursor from Mystic Forge.
My friend: First few tries in Mystic Forge using random rare weapons/armor pieces, 2 precursors…one of them being Dusk…
If you ask me, all of those “you have higher chances if you use only the weapons of the same type” and “only if you use weapons” aren’t true. Sure it makes logical sense, but in practice – it doesn’t really matter. It’s pure luck/RNG.
It’s not that you have a “higher chance using weapons of the same type”. It’s just that using weapons of the same type guarantees output of that same type. If you want any precursor, you can just throw whatever weapons you want into the Mystic Forge, but if you’re specifically gunning for a Greatsword precursor, you’ll want to be throwing in Greatswords, because 4x Greatswords in the Forge always gives a Greatsword back. Your chances of getting a precursor won’t be any better, but if you do get one, you’ll at least get the one you want.
You might think you’re being really smart by using a Focus and three Torches in the Forge to try for a precursor, but then when you get a Trident precursor from it, it’ll be less amusing.
Since launch I have got two precursors, four rare pistols, and four exo LB. Adding armor to the mix does open a new return table (chance of gear instead of weapons).
I prefer knowing that if I use four of the same type of item I will get in return that item.
Some advice: Don’t try. When you get rares throw them in your bank, when you have four of the same toss them into the mf, and move on. Eventually you will get one you either wanted or one to sell.
The smart way to do it is to do as many all weapon forges as you can, then do any remaining weapons you have left over with the armor pieces.
All weapon forges have a better chance at a precursor, since they can only return a weapon, but a mixed group still has a chance at a precursor so doing them won’t hurt you (assuming you don’t have enough weapons left to do an all weapon forge).
I’ve made 7 precursor in the forge using the random rare weapons method. The whole concept behind it is we know on average that you get 1 exotic every 5 tries and that the exotic has a small chance to be a precursor. Sell the exotics! (I also sell the expensive rares that I get rather than throwing them back in).
By throwing in an armor piece, you get a chance for the result to be armor. So if you get an exotic armor, that’s taking away one of your small precursor chances. Personally I would not do it.
I think it’s simply a matter of “do you feel lucky today?”
When I got The Lover out of the MF, I went there because over 2 days I got 11 exotics as drops. I had NEVER EVER had that kind of luck in my 2 yrs of playing, so I thought, hey I wonder if this will carry over to MF? And BLAM! Yes… yes it did. Never be that lucky again, I’m sure, no matter how much I throw in, my account is back to regular bad luck.
I’ve made 7 precursor in the forge using the random rare weapons method. The whole concept behind it is we know on average that you get 1 exotic every 5 tries and that the exotic has a small chance to be a precursor. Sell the exotics! (I also sell the expensive rares that I get rather than throwing them back in).
By throwing in an armor piece, you get a chance for the result to be armor. So if you get an exotic armor, that’s taking away one of your small precursor chances. Personally I would not do it.
I only do mixed groups with 3 pieces of armor and 1 weapon, as weapons are more valuable to group together. If I’ve got 2-3 weapons left over, I’ll usually just save them for my next forging batch, unless I have a ton of armor to use up.
I’ve made 7 precursor in the forge using the random rare weapons method. The whole concept behind it is we know on average that you get 1 exotic every 5 tries and that the exotic has a small chance to be a precursor. Sell the exotics! (I also sell the expensive rares that I get rather than throwing them back in).
By throwing in an armor piece, you get a chance for the result to be armor. So if you get an exotic armor, that’s taking away one of your small precursor chances. Personally I would not do it.
I only do mixed groups with 3 pieces of armor and 1 weapon, as weapons are more valuable to group together. If I’ve got 2-3 weapons left over, I’ll usually just save them for my next forging batch, unless I have a ton of armor to use up.
I was putting in bids for rare weapons, bought literally 1000s of them over a course of a month or so. It made more sense to do it back when you could pick up cheap rares for 16s a pop since although the price of very desirable precursors like Dusk have risen, we have not seen a proportional rise in many of the less desirable precursors (for instance I made a Chosen and sold it for 400g, it’s only going for 452g now while the cost of each “chance” has almost doubled).
If you hit the jackpot, great! But the risk/reward is greater now using the random rares method.
Safest bet is to craft your own rares of the specific weapon type you’re aiming for. That way you’ll narrow down the loot options the forge can reward per recipe. If you buy the weapons from the TP it can get costly, so making them should be cheaper, especially if you farm all your own materials.
It’s more that I get quite a lot of rares from teq/jormag runs and to be honest I don’t really need anymore ectos. I know it is more economically more sound to sell the ectos/mats, but I thought I’d give the MF a whirl for fun if there was a chance armour contributed towards getting a pre.
Thanks to everyone for their input, was very useful
It’s more that I get quite a lot of rares from teq/jormag runs and to be honest I don’t really need anymore ectos. I know it is more economically more sound to sell the ectos/mats, but I thought I’d give the MF a whirl for fun if there was a chance armour contributed towards getting a pre.
Salvage armour, forge weapons then?
Actions, not words.
Remember, remember, 15th of November
I am not a big fan of the mystic forge for precursors as it is all RNG.
Well, it is the main source of them so you can either forge them yourself, or pay others to forge them for you.
You forgot the third option which involves arranging human skulls and votive candles around your computer and chanting to the precursor gods whilst spamming map chat in LA with current events or political agendas.
Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.
^ Uses Guild Wars 2 character screenshots for desktop wallpapers.
But it’s better to have more weapons than armors.