Guild Wars 2

I just had a really unpleasant event while trying to increase my achievement points today. I’m well aware that people like to farm ambient creatures on Grand Barrier Isle in Bloodtide Coast with Maize Balm, as it’s the largest concentration of ambient creatures. I avoid that place like the plague, and thought, let them have their island.

Well recently I was going to Queensdale where another good portion of ambient creatures is to help get some weapons master achievements. I like running back and forth between Godslost Waypoint and Swamplost Haven Waypoint, and recently took to going to Deathroot Shack where a nice clump of Ambients are…only to find I was not alone. No one was using the Maize Balms before I got there, but you can bet when I started killing things the shrieking started. One person asked why I was killing them, and when I explained politely, I was called something inappropriate repeatedly. I wasn’t too bothered as I wasn’t sure why he/she was insulting me, and have since screenshotted and logged his/her account name. When I moved on from the area, to a larger swath around the shack, I was chased by a different person who tried killing every ambient before I got to it. I have also logged his/her account name.

I went to go back to my path between my two waypoints figuring that I’d just avoid the shack, but there was people with Maize Balm there too! I can’t go anywhere to farm Ambients now because Maize Balm farmers are there!

I understand that if you intentionally wreck a Maize Balm farm that’s not okay, but now they’re spreading around the game and I am having a really hard time enjoying myself when people I can’t even freaking accomplish something without having someone scream at me that I’m wrecking their farm. They’re Ambients for crying out loud, they respawn fast enough and I just want to finish getting my weapons master achievement that I’m so close to finishing without having to run super far to find Ambients to kill.

Has this happened to you? Is there anything we can do about it?

My answer? Too kittening bad for them. They don’t have any more right to maze balm those ambients than you have to kill them for AP, which is what I gathered you meant you were doing.

Also, it’s completely ok to wreck a maze balm farm as long as you’re not just doing it to grief them. ANet has the metrics to see that you’ve been killing ambients for a while and are earning points toward that AP, so again, too bad for those guys. Also, report any of them that harass you, that’s not ok.

They don’t own the ambients. Don’t start deliberately griefing them in retaliation of course, but you have just as much right to kill ambients as they do. If they start harassing you, report and block.

Kal Spiro.9745:

My answer? Too kittening bad for them. They don’t have any more right to maze balm those ambients than you have to kill them for AP, which is what I gathered you meant you were doing.

Also, it’s completely ok to wreck a maze balm farm as long as you’re not just doing it to grief them. ANet has the metrics to see that you’ve been killing ambients for a while and are earning points toward that AP, so again, too bad for those guys. Also, report any of them that harass you, that’s not ok.

Thank you for this reply, it means a lot to know that I’m not being unreasonable.

I don’t care if someone kills Ambients near me, I’ll move. I don’t mind sharing, what I do mind is being harassed, stalked and yelled at for playing the game appropriately.

Ya know, the report button works way better than the forums.

Nike.2631:

Ya know, the report button works way better than the forums.

Yes, but if you’re concerned about an ongoing and widespread problem, not to mention wanting to make sure you’re not just overreacting, the forum seems like a better place to do that. One can get feedback here.

Ultimately the people that will decide what’s acceptable for the game are wired in to the other path .

If you just want to commiserate in the locker room, you’ve come to the right place. If you want things to change, there’s an ap for that .

kitten them, the farmers don’t own the ambient creatures

You have every right to kill them, guilt free

Kal Spiro.9745:

My answer? Too kittening bad for them.

Pretty much my answer as well, and for the same reasons as others have stated.

They can either wait for them to respawn, or go somewhere else. Especially if you were there first. It’s first come first serve. If they are using maize balms though, it would be courteous to leave them to it as they spent their gold.

Otherwise, tough luck as already stated.

sighs I hate this crap

Hopefully once Halloween opens, we’ll all have access to that lovely instance again so those corn-obsessed twits can go seal themselves off from the rest of the world and leave us the hell alone.

I maxed my focus there last year and hopefully I can be done with the other offhands this year.

As someone who is constantly doing this farm, you are completely in the right. We get trolls and new players a lot, but as long as you don’t go out of you way to ruin the farm, then its completely fine. People just get a bit cancerous when someone gets in the way. Personally I wish everyone was more respectful, but thats too much to ask. : \

Also, no need to be rude to farmers. A lot of us are pretty nice people you know. We just go where the gold goes, and with Halloween around the corner, thats Trick or Treat bags. Gold is the currency of the game, and chasing it does not make you a jerk… =S

It’s one of the few situations remaining where there’s competition in PvE. I love the concept of turning ambients into loot-bearing foes, but maybe ANet needs to reconsider the impact and make some tweaks — decrease the time before ToT-bag DR sets in, reduce the # of ToTs dropped, give the transformed elementals some health and armor, so that they don’t die as easily, limit the number of transformations that can happen, or perhaps create a second type of ambient that won’t die unless transformed and limit that type to small pockets in each zone.

tl;dr it’s okay to farm ToTs; it’s okay to farm weapon chieves — what’s not ok is griefing someone trying to do either.

the problem with that is, who has rights to do which type of content over the other illconcieved… killing ambients for achieves is part of the design of the game, maise balm is too… who gets control of the mob, and for how long? at what point is it ok to spend 5 days strait killing ambients tying up a spawn so no one else can use it… same for weapon achievs, at what point do we say your turn is done, let someone else play here? Who decides?

People on both sides are weird about maize balm farming. I’m not sure why but it seems to bring out aggression in people like nothing else in the game.

I’ve even had people who have simply seen me using the Emissary of the Mad King title and a Halloween mini (because I’m excited about Halloween coming up) detour from where they were going to where I happen to be standing, kill all the ambients around me, hang around as if waiting for a reaction, and then eventually carry on with what they were doing. It was only when I actually thought about ToT farming that I realised why they were doing it.

When I have been maize farming (which is not often, I hate farming) I always try to look for somewhere out the way where ideally hardly anyone else ever comes past and if they do they have no need to kill those specific ambients (the big problem with Barrier Isle is not only is it the location for a heart but it’s a heart that involves killing ambients). But even then if anyone else does come along I’ll stop and wait for them to go, it’s just not worth the trouble to do anything else.

And yet even with that approach I’ve had numerous people who will either take the time to insult me for it or who will actually follow me around killing any ambients near me until I give up and leave the map.

On the other hand I’ve had people either ordering me to stay away as soon as I come in sight because they’ve already “claimed” a spot or yelling at me because I didn’t announce to the entire map that I was starting a farm or killed the elementals before they could tag them (when as explained above I thought I was alone), both of which apparently earned me a torrent of abuse and sometimes threats of being reported.

I’m just hoping that this Halloween Anet will fix the underlying issue by giving a way with less RNG to get the ridiculously rare items from the bags.

I feel like i should mention – using the maize balm actually KILLS the critters (necros will get LF from their deaths) so i would assume that it could progress the achievement that way.

So you can always sponsor a maize farm yourself!

I think he’s doing it for individual Weapon Master achievements, not the Ambient Slayer achievement. So killing them with Maize Balm probably would not count as equipped weapon kills.

Dear OP,
Message me in game and I will help you get your weapon master in a MUCH MUCH quiker way. Took me 20 minutes to get my shield master on engi.

Easy fix to this dilemma. Easy fix. Put a few ambient groups in home instances. This would also help reduce candy corn/ToT production when its limited to 5 players.

The frustrating thing about it is it really should be possible for both maize farmers and weapon achievement farmers to operate, even in the same area, without issues because if we look at it more specifically they aren’t looking for the exact same thing.

Maize farmers specifically need groups of 3 ambients close enough together to hit them all with the balm, which even in areas with lots of ambients is relatively rare.

Whereas people getting weapon achievements just need lots of individual ambients to kill.

So in theory it should be possible for maize farmers to only targets the groups and weapon farmers to only target ones on their own (or in twos) and then everyone is happy. (Barring mistakes like maize farmers aiming badly or weapon farmers killing 1 ambient where 2 more were about to spawn.)

But the chances of that happening are pretty low. If only because it demands a higher level of accuracy with your skills than most of the game needs, from people who just want to get their task done as quickly as possible.

I don’t get it….

They’re ambient creatures that people are farming for poly-luminescent trinkets and what ever else, while you’re farming them for weapon master titles…

Why do you have right of way because you’re farming weapon master while they farm for something else? are you royalty? are you someone special we need to know about? what makes you so important that everyone else needs to stop doing what they’re doing to cater for your needs?

sephiroth.4217:

I don’t get it….

They’re ambient creatures that people are farming for poly-luminescent trinkets and what ever else, while you’re farming them for weapon master titles…

Why do you have right of way because you’re farming weapon master while they farm for something else? are you royalty? are you someone special we need to know about? what makes you so important that everyone else needs to stop doing what they’re doing to cater for your needs?

I don’t think OP is asking for anyone to cater to his needs. On the contrary, he seems to be leaving the maize balm farmers alone when he encounters them. He just wants to be able to reach HIS goal, too.

RoseofGilead.8907:

sephiroth.4217:

I don’t get it….

They’re ambient creatures that people are farming for poly-luminescent trinkets and what ever else, while you’re farming them for weapon master titles…

Why do you have right of way because you’re farming weapon master while they farm for something else? are you royalty? are you someone special we need to know about? what makes you so important that everyone else needs to stop doing what they’re doing to cater for your needs?

I don’t think OP is asking for anyone to cater to his needs. On the contrary, he seems to be leaving the maize balm farmers alone when he encounters them. He just wants to be able to reach HIS goal, too.

You’re quite correct, I don’t even tag the elementals out of respect for the person farming. I just want the right to get what I need to done without someone harassing me for it. When I get those 5000 kills per weapon you’re never going to see me there again unless it’s for Shadow Behemoth and only then for the loot.

The problem comes when I can’t find an alternative place to go, because there are farmers everywhere that there is a concentration of ambient creatures.
I have since found a new spot to farm that requires a lot of set up (thanks again to that kind player Chuck), but the player’s disrespect when I showed them nothing but courtesy is appalling. They didn’t even ask me to stop because they were going to farm, they just insulted me and then tried to stalk me to run me out of the map like a jealous mother hen.

Thanks for letting me know where these people like to hang out. I have some achievements to get….

Feral Drifter.6804:

You’re quite correct, I don’t even tag the elementals out of respect for the person farming. I just want the right to get what I need to done without someone harassing me for it. When I get those 5000 kills per weapon you’re never going to see me there again unless it’s for Shadow Behemoth and only then for the loot.

The problem comes when I can’t find an alternative place to go, because there are farmers everywhere that there is a concentration of ambient creatures.
I have since found a new spot to farm that requires a lot of set up (thanks again to that kind player Chuck), but the player’s disrespect when I showed them nothing but courtesy is appalling. They didn’t even ask me to stop because they were going to farm, they just insulted me and then tried to stalk me to run me out of the map like a jealous mother hen.

I enjoy farming the candy corn golems, and I do it often.

I can tell you for certain, it’s a lot harder to find good spots that are suitable for balm farming than AP hunting. When you run into these farmers and they snap at you, it’s because they have already been drowned in griefing, nasty players. Understand they are going to be edgy. It’s not an excuse, but it’s the reason.

Do yourself a favour and find somebody that has Forewarned is Forearmed active. The ambients run to you in constant stream. It’s too bad the golems made in instances drop no loot. I know I’d prefer to farm in a private area. That’s one thing I miss a lot from GW1….

Lol, that just reminds me of the toddler’s rules of possession. Some people just don’t grow up.

I agree with what has already been said: you have just as much right to kill those ambient creatures as anyone else. You should obviously try really hard to find places that aren’t filled with other players who were already farming them before you, but if you’ve already tried and can’t find anywhere then you and the other players need to come to an agreement, like taking turns or something.

You could also go to areas with high concentrations of non-ambient creatures that are easy to kill to get your achievements. The problem with balm-farming is that the balm ONLY works on ambient creatures, but the achievement can progress for anything.

How dare you…. why? why don’t you just keep killing…

they don’t own the ambient creature, so they are there for everybody to kill.

So please continue.

Firebaall.5127:

Feral Drifter.6804:

You’re quite correct, I don’t even tag the elementals out of respect for the person farming. I just want the right to get what I need to done without someone harassing me for it. When I get those 5000 kills per weapon you’re never going to see me there again unless it’s for Shadow Behemoth and only then for the loot.

The problem comes when I can’t find an alternative place to go, because there are farmers everywhere that there is a concentration of ambient creatures.
I have since found a new spot to farm that requires a lot of set up (thanks again to that kind player Chuck), but the player’s disrespect when I showed them nothing but courtesy is appalling. They didn’t even ask me to stop because they were going to farm, they just insulted me and then tried to stalk me to run me out of the map like a jealous mother hen.

I enjoy farming the candy corn golems, and I do it often.

I can tell you for certain, it’s a lot harder to find good spots that are suitable for balm farming than AP hunting. When you run into these farmers and they snap at you, it’s because they have already been drowned in griefing, nasty players. Understand they are going to be edgy. It’s not an excuse, but it’s the reason.

Do yourself a favour and find somebody that has Forewarned is Forearmed active. The ambients run to you in constant stream. It’s too bad the golems made in instances drop no loot. I know I’d prefer to farm in a private area. That’s one thing I miss a lot from GW1….

Too bad, he was there first killing ambients, get lost and find a new spot or wait your turn. I can promise you and anybody else on these forums that if I am farming ambients for whatever reason and you start balming them I am going to kill the candy corns just as fast as I would ambients and you’d only be hurting yourself.

The sense of entitlement in your post and in the other pro-maize balm farmers here is quite disgusting. Best community my kitten .

Best way to farm ambients is in the personal story anyway. There are enough rats in the vigil 60th level personal story in the LA sewers to level anything much more quickly than anything in the open world.

Feral Drifter.6804:

Has this happened to you? Is there anything we can do about it?

Yes, this has happened to me. Many times.

And no, there is nothing we can do. You can report abusive language, but that’s about it.

sephiroth.4217:

I don’t get it….

What makes you so important that everyone else needs to stop doing what they’re doing to cater for your needs?

It’s a two-sided issue here… and while I don’t think OP owns the ambient creatures, neither do the farmers. Not even Melandru owns them!

However, if you’ve ever had to deal with maize-balm farmers before, then you will quickly realize that most of them are a self-entitled bunch and are very quick to get angry when you mess up their oh-so precious gold farm (regardless of who was there first). I’ve had nothing but unpleasant experiences with these farmers; even when I tried to handle the situation politely, they’d just shout angrily ’til I moved somewhere else.

So if anything, I’ve been forced to cater to maize-balm farmers more often than I should.

I’ve ran into maize balm farmers only once, I didn’t even know it was a thing until a few weeks back. Maybe I did hit the jackpot but they weren’t unpleasant at all, they seemed just like, well normal players playing. After 10 mins or so, people thanked each other for the contribution and each went their way.

I rarely see unpleasant behaviour, apart from the occasional muppet I run into when leveling alts, who yells at me to let an event fail or something, followed by trying to insult me with all kinds of edgy gamer words. In which case I’ll go out of my way to complete said event, since hey that’s how karma works. :P

I am a ToT farmer and I am sorry these people are mean to you :/ My friend and I always ask if we see someone killing them, we say “Do you need these for your achievements?” So that if they do, we will leave and find somewhere else. But most of the time, people always come over and kill them for no reason I am guessing to get a rise out of us. Which doesnt work because.. well I am not petty like that. We also ask if they want to join us, which we have had some success with. But we had a few people call us names and troll us lol Not much we can do I guess.

Dinks.2478:

Too bad, he was there first killing ambients, get lost and find a new spot or wait your turn. I can promise you and anybody else on these forums that if I am farming ambients for whatever reason and you start balming them I am going to kill the candy corns just as fast as I would ambients and you’d only be hurting yourself.

The sense of entitlement in your post and in the other pro-maize balm farmers here is quite disgusting. Best community my kitten .

Can the aggressive attitude, there’s no place for it here.

Entitled? I sure am. I’m entitled to find a good compromise that makes everybody happy, and helps all to enjoy the game. Read my post again.

Gaebriel.3754:

I’ve ran into maize balm farmers only once, I didn’t even know it was a thing until a few weeks back. Maybe I did hit the jackpot but they weren’t unpleasant at all, they seemed just like, well normal players playing. After 10 mins or so, people thanked each other for the contribution and each went their way.

I rarely see unpleasant behaviour, apart from the occasional muppet I run into when leveling alts, who yells at me to let an event fail or something, followed by trying to insult me with all kinds of edgy gamer words. In which case I’ll go out of my way to complete said event, since hey that’s how karma works. :P

I have no problems sitting idle while somebody runs through, or is killing the ambients for a mission. Getting angry or abusive only encourages other players to grief you back. Patience is the key.

Now that being said, I’ve experienced far more players looking to grief in terms of harassing farmers (well, because I farm…). It’s a two way street, but there’s always bad apples or people that are just jerks.

Firebaall.5127:

Dinks.2478:

Too bad, he was there first killing ambients, get lost and find a new spot or wait your turn. I can promise you and anybody else on these forums that if I am farming ambients for whatever reason and you start balming them I am going to kill the candy corns just as fast as I would ambients and you’d only be hurting yourself.

The sense of entitlement in your post and in the other pro-maize balm farmers here is quite disgusting. Best community my kitten .

Can the aggressive attitude, there’s no place for it here.

Entitled? I sure am. I’m entitled to find a good compromise that makes everybody happy, and helps all to enjoy the game. Read my post again.

There is only one compromise, you admit that you don’t own the mobs and move along or you waste maize balms and I get free ToT bags and farm my achievement.

This isn’t an aggressive attitude, this is reality. The way you maize balm farmers act entitled really is the type of kitten that destroys this game. The same way that guilds will join a Bloodtide Coast and then yell at people to leave the map because they’re not invited. No, they are invited, either deal with them being there or move.

Balm farmers may have reasons for getting upset. They may feel justified due to the nature of the farm, because they believe others are griefing them, or because others are griefing them and announcing that. However, resorting to behavior prohibited by the ToS/UA is the wrong response.

ANet has a history of changing farming conditions if enough reports are submitted about farmer behavior. This type of behavior has killed how many farms now? It’s too bad that such a change to the game would affect farmers who do not engage in the rude behavior as well as those who do. However, that’s what will happen. You’d think farmers would learn from past mistakes.

#GeorgeSantayana

Part of me wishes they’d just do away with Maize Balm this Halloween. I know there are perfectly pleasant people who enjoy the farm, but it’s been surrounded by conflict ever since it started, and that’s awkward, when the game seems to pride itself on avoiding these kinds of “I was here first!” situations.

Since Maize Balm can be crafted instead of simply dropping from ToT bags, however, it’s not as a simple as just removing them from the loot table. They could remove the really valuable drops (Oontz’s Necklaces, for example,) to make it not worthwhile, but that risks sucking a lot of interest out of Halloween, as long as Trick or Treat bags are being used.

i feel if your there first then they should be the ones to find a new place and if there there first then you should be the one to find a new place also a very good place to find ambients is the level 60 vigil story (endless supply). Also there reason your seeing alot more tot farmers is the halloween is in less then a week and people are stocking up, when halloween finishes there will be a big drop off of tot farmers.

Without a doubt, people should learn how to share, and how to at least be civil to one another.(If not polite, or even kind to one another.)
But why do ambients even count towards the weapon master achievements? Getting one of those ought to mean that you actually fought enemies with that particular weapon. How is counting ambient “kills” and different than just using an attack that will go off without even having to have anything targeted?
They need to make ambients count for different achievements, the “I pressed 1 on dagger/hammer/sword/etc… 5000 times” achievement. And those achievements should not give any title or AP.
Making ambients not count towards weapon master achievements would make them actually mean something, and it would help resolve this issue as well.
<edit>
You know, this whole thing is really stupid. Anet makes their own problems by creating things like the “ambient killer” daily(thankfully retired) and letting ambient creatures count towards weapon master achievements. And creating an item that makes ambient kills profitable.
Even so, a little common sense and courtesy on the part of players could prevent a lot of conflict in these situations.

Dinks.2478:

No, I think YOU need to reread what is going on. The ambient farmer was there first. End of discussion.

They game has very CLEAR rules on who owns a mob — the person who kills it.

Nike.2631:

Dinks.2478:

No, I think YOU need to reread what is going on. The ambient farmer was there first. End of discussion.

They game has very CLEAR rules on who owns a mob — the person who kills it.

People griefing the maize balm farmers by killing their ambients have received temporary bans before. People griefing achievement farmers – no matter why they are griefing – are every bit as susceptible.

Redenaz.8631:

Part of me wishes they’d just do away with Maize Balm this Halloween. I know there are perfectly pleasant people who enjoy the farm, but it’s been surrounded by conflict ever since it started, and that’s awkward, when the game seems to pride itself on avoiding these kinds of “I was here first!” situations.

Since Maize Balm can be crafted instead of simply dropping from ToT bags, however, it’s not as a simple as just removing them from the loot table. They could remove the really valuable drops (Oontz’s Necklaces, for example,) to make it not worthwhile, but that risks sucking a lot of interest out of Halloween, as long as Trick or Treat bags are being used.

Agreed.

I made a lot of gold off of Balms last year, but I never really felt right. To me it goes along with failing events. I would prefer if these things that risk turning the community against each other never surfaced.

I get how in this case, the Balms are being used for their intentional use, but I just don’t get WHY. At the very least, they should have been limited to one target. As it is, they already nerfed the Rata Sum spot.

i don’t understand WHY there is such uproar about maize balms. They are a legitimate item, being used in a legitimate way, with the devs blessing and support, to the benefit of all involved parties.
why does the community get so toxic over this one small item?

Narrrz.7532:

i don’t understand WHY there is such uproar about maize balms. They are a legitimate item, being used in a legitimate way, with the devs blessing and support, to the benefit of all involved parties.
why does the community get so toxic over this one small item?

Because the legitimate way is both open to trolling against farmers and open to ridicule against anybody trying to do anything but farm.

DarkWasp.7291:

Narrrz.7532:

i don’t understand WHY there is such uproar about maize balms. They are a legitimate item, being used in a legitimate way, with the devs blessing and support, to the benefit of all involved parties.
why does the community get so toxic over this one small item?

Because the legitimate way is both open to trolling against farmers and open to ridicule against anybody trying to do anything but farm.

But… why? what is it about this that brings out the worst in people?

Narrrz.7532:

i don’t understand WHY there is such uproar about maize balms. They are a legitimate item, being used in a legitimate way, with the devs blessing and support, to the benefit of all involved parties.
why does the community get so toxic over this one small item?

Did you even read the topic…?
IT is not about farming ToT bags. It is about others trying to farm something else on ambient creaters.

On topic: the only part that is weird is that they harras people and that should be worked on. The rest? Well, first come first served.

Narrrz.7532:

DarkWasp.7291:

Narrrz.7532:

i don’t understand WHY there is such uproar about maize balms. They are a legitimate item, being used in a legitimate way, with the devs blessing and support, to the benefit of all involved parties.
why does the community get so toxic over this one small item?

Because the legitimate way is both open to trolling against farmers and open to ridicule against anybody trying to do anything but farm.

But… why? what is it about this that brings out the worst in people?

It’s because it’s obscenely profitable.
ie Envy (griefers) & Greed (farmers).

one of these creates up to nine of these .. for one person. A good enough return solo. Now imagine a coordinated group, all tagging each critter with starter weapons, it adds up ..

I have occasionally seen Maize Balm farmers whilst I’m working towards weapon master cheeves (usually Godlost Swamp before/after Behemoth); so far I always leave them alone if they got there first, and they usually wait till I’m done if I was there first.

If they start up before I go I will tag some elementals for free loot then leave them, I think that’s a fair tradeoff.

PS: I always am tagging ambients before/after Behemoth, so please farmers, time your maize balm parties well clear of that event!

Sariel V.7024:

sighs I hate this crap

Hopefully once Halloween opens, we’ll all have access to that lovely instance again so those corn-obsessed twits can go seal themselves off from the rest of the world and leave us the hell alone.

I maxed my focus there last year and hopefully I can be done with the other offhands this year.

They’ve nerfed that.

Pity the poor noobie. I’ve stumbled into one of those area. I didn’t know anything about that particular farm. Imagine how confusing it is to have so many people yelling at you to take off your armour and then yelling abuse at you when you don’t. I found it funny in the end but it was a bit confusing until I sussed out what they were doing. Still, I stuck around and nabbed a few bags of stuff that is now cluttering up my inventory.

I’d never intentionally grief someone but if I have legitimate business in an area I have no qualms about continuing that business, regardless of whatever else is happening there. If the best maize farm is in a heart location then it might not be the best maize farm…

too bad for them i say, especially since you seem to be going out of your way to not cause issues and yet they are still whining. the second that started happening i personally would have stuck around and killed all the ambients and probably mail them some salt afterwards so you are already being better than i would

could always try wvw with the north supply camp in your home borderlands, there are plenty ambients up there and only really 2 groups of them maize farmers would probably go after. that is assuming of course you are not in a server you have to queue for

I have a lot less problem with balm farmers than with the fact that there are certain weapon-master achievements that MUST be farmed. Whose brilliant idea was THAT?

Elden Arnaas.4870:

But why do ambients even count towards the weapon master achievements? Getting one of those ought to mean that you actually fought enemies with that particular weapon. How is counting ambient “kills” and different than just using an attack that will go off without even having to have anything targeted?

You don’t have to just fight an enemy with a weapon to get credit for those achievements. You must deliver the “killing blow” with that weapon. That is a whole different kettle of fish. “Killing blow” seems to have a very strict definition. For example, if the last tick of damage that kills the foe comes from bleeding inflicted by a particular weapon skill, that does not seem to count as a killing blow and gives no credit towards the achievement. That means condition builds have a serious disadvantage, but even a DPS build will miss getting credit now and then.

For a main-hand or two-handed weapon, the achievement is no problem. Nobody farms ambients to get weapon master for those because it will come, easily, in the course of normal combat. You will never even notice that some of your kills aren’t actually counting.

For an offhand weapon, however, it is extremely difficult to get a “killing blow”. Because of the long cool down of offhand skills, you must time your use of the offhand very carefully to ensure that it does the last bit of direct damage. The only way to get a guaranteed “killing blow” is to kill something that will die in one hit. I.e., an ambient. Furthermore, given the long cool down, you really need to hit as many ambients as you can with each use of an offhand skill to progress the achievement at an acceptable rate. I.e., you need to be in an ambient-rich environment.

Compounding the problem is the fact that certain offhands are entirely incapable of delivering a “killing blow” in the hands of certain classes. For example, a mesmer cannot progress the achievement for a focus, despite being able to kill with it. I can kill some non-ambients using only the focus’s phantasm, but it does not count as a “killing blow”.

I have never done any ambient farming for weapon mastery. And in three years I have not completed weapon mastery for a single offhand-only weapon. (I have over 3k kills for a couple of them, but under 500 for most.) It’s all well and good to decry the farming of ambients, but I don’t think most people really want to put in years for these achievements, especially when it only takes weeks or months for other weapons. It’s a sadistic system, second only to WvW achievements.

The closer we get to Halloween, the more toxic this issue of balm farming seems to get.

It’s really brought out the worst behaviour in the player base. I’ve seen entire guilds trolling popular spots, effectively shutting down entire areas where balm farmers tend to gather. They set up macros to auto spam attacks, killing all ambients instantly…for hours at a time.

I’ve seen cooperating farmers turn on each other, fighting over the same resource.

I would like to see this taken out of the game, or have the opportunity of ambient clusters increased though out the game to avoid the trolls and other conflicts. It’s just not worth the harassment and abuse.

If you ever thought PvP players could get toxic to each other, try seeing what balm farming can do.