Guild Wars 2

Blackwolfe.5649:

Colin has a duck on his head, yet nothing we say can convince him that he has a duck on his head.

lol

ColinJohanson.2394:

Just wanted to give a quick update on this topic. We’ve completed verifying every update from the november release, and there were zero changes to anything what so ever that would have negatively affected loot in any way/shape/form. We can officially confirm this as an X-files level conspiracy at this point.

We’re in the midst of evaluating every loot table in the game and running massive random roll evaluations table by table, as well as evaluating every system game wide that causes a player to qualify for items to determine if any issues exist in those systems from launch.

Will update again when we have another round of concrete information.

Thank you for the exhaustive investigation, and the update.

While I do still feel that drops were consistently much better for me prior to the November 15th update, I suppose that it could have simply been a run of good luck followed by a run of bad luck. I’ve seen a slight improvement over time since then. However, I very rarely receive drops at all from veteran or champion mobs, despite the patch notes saying that they should always drop something worthwhile. And the number of rares I received seemed to decrease, rather than increase.

If it’s not a problem with loot tables, or character/account-specific data, or anything like that, is there any possibility of it being an issue with how kill credit is awarded? I was told at some point—and this may be wrong, as I heard it secondhand—that kill credit is calculated according to individual damage done, and that a character has to do a certain percentage of damage to a monster to gain a loot roll, even if they get EXP from the kill. You share that percentage with people in your party, which is why players get far more loot in a party when lots of people are attacking the same targets. If huge numbers of people are attacking a single target, it seems to be possible for the percentage needed to gain a loot roll to become impossible to reach for a single person. That’s annoying, but understandable; loot credit has to be calculated somehow.

However, kill credit has behaved oddly at times since the start of the game. People (including me) have had issues with participating fully in an event only to get bronze credit or no credit. During the karka event, some people got full loot credit for all the karka slain, while others got little or none. There’s a recent issue some players are having where they’re unable to get loot credit for dragon kills.

I don’t have any hard data, and wouldn’t know where to start in collecting it, but from my personal experience with kill credit wonkiness, it seems like it sometimes reaches the limit of what it can manage in deciding who gets what and skips over some people randomly. I farm a lot in Cursed Shore, where it’s easy to see the difference between farming in a party and farming solo; it’s the difference between tens of bodies laying on the ground with loot to collect and the game acting as though you didn’t touch them at all.

In short, is it possible that we’re perceiving “nerfed” drop rates, and Champions and Veterans dropping nothing, because whatever method is used to calculate loot credit simply can’t account for every player that hits a given enemy?

Bonefield.9813:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Just wanted to give a quick update on this topic. We’ve completed verifying every update from the november release, and there were zero changes to anything what so ever that would have negatively affected loot in any way/shape/form. We can officially confirm this as an X-files level conspiracy at this point.

We’re in the midst of evaluating every loot table in the game and running massive random roll evaluations table by table, as well as evaluating every system game wide that causes a player to qualify for items to determine if any issues exist in those systems from launch.

Will update again when we have another round of concrete information.

Thank you for the exhaustive investigation, and the update.

While I do still feel that drops were consistently much better for me prior to the November 15th update, I suppose that it could have simply been a run of good luck followed by a run of bad luck. I’ve seen a slight improvement over time since then. However, I very rarely receive drops at all from veteran or champion mobs, despite the patch notes saying that they should always drop something worthwhile. And the number of rares I received seemed to decrease, rather than increase.

If it’s not a problem with loot tables, or character/account-specific data, or anything like that, is there any possibility of it being an issue with how kill credit is awarded? I was told at some point—and this may be wrong, as I heard it secondhand—that kill credit is calculated according to individual damage done, and that a character has to do a certain percentage of damage to a monster to gain a loot roll, even if they get EXP from the kill. You share that percentage with people in your party, which is why players get far more loot in a party when lots of people are attacking the same targets. If huge numbers of people are attacking a single target, it seems to be possible for the percentage needed to gain a loot roll to become impossible to reach for a single person. That’s annoying, but understandable; loot credit has to be calculated somehow.

However, kill credit has behaved oddly at times since the start of the game. People (including me) have had issues with participating fully in an event only to get bronze credit or no credit. During the karka event, some people got full loot credit for all the karka slain, while others got little or none. There’s a recent issue some players are having where they’re unable to get loot credit for dragon kills.

I don’t have any hard data, and wouldn’t know where to start in collecting it, but from my personal experience with kill credit wonkiness, it seems like it sometimes reaches the limit of what it can manage in deciding who gets what and skips over some people randomly. I farm a lot in Cursed Shore, where it’s easy to see the difference between farming in a party and farming solo; it’s the difference between tens of bodies laying on the ground with loot to collect and the game acting as though you didn’t touch them at all.

In short, is it possible that we’re perceiving “nerfed” drop rates, and Champions and Veterans dropping nothing, because whatever method is used to calculate loot credit simply can’t account for every player that hits a given enemy?

What about a character solo play? How would that account for the folks who solo those champs/vets and still get zero drops or just trophy porous bones?

Bonefield.9813:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Just wanted to give a quick update on this topic. We’ve completed verifying every update from the november release, and there were zero changes to anything what so ever that would have negatively affected loot in any way/shape/form. We can officially confirm this as an X-files level conspiracy at this point.

We’re in the midst of evaluating every loot table in the game and running massive random roll evaluations table by table, as well as evaluating every system game wide that causes a player to qualify for items to determine if any issues exist in those systems from launch.

Will update again when we have another round of concrete information.

Thank you for the exhaustive investigation, and the update.

While I do still feel that drops were consistently much better for me prior to the November 15th update, I suppose that it could have simply been a run of good luck followed by a run of bad luck. I’ve seen a slight improvement over time since then. However, I very rarely receive drops at all from veteran or champion mobs, despite the patch notes saying that they should always drop something worthwhile. And the number of rares I received seemed to decrease, rather than increase.

If it’s not a problem with loot tables, or character/account-specific data, or anything like that, is there any possibility of it being an issue with how kill credit is awarded? I was told at some point—and this may be wrong, as I heard it secondhand—that kill credit is calculated according to individual damage done, and that a character has to do a certain percentage of damage to a monster to gain a loot roll, even if they get EXP from the kill. You share that percentage with people in your party, which is why players get far more loot in a party when lots of people are attacking the same targets. If huge numbers of people are attacking a single target, it seems to be possible for the percentage needed to gain a loot roll to become impossible to reach for a single person. That’s annoying, but understandable; loot credit has to be calculated somehow.

However, kill credit has behaved oddly at times since the start of the game. People (including me) have had issues with participating fully in an event only to get bronze credit or no credit. During the karka event, some people got full loot credit for all the karka slain, while others got little or none. There’s a recent issue some players are having where they’re unable to get loot credit for dragon kills.

I don’t have any hard data, and wouldn’t know where to start in collecting it, but from my personal experience with kill credit wonkiness, it seems like it sometimes reaches the limit of what it can manage in deciding who gets what and skips over some people randomly. I farm a lot in Cursed Shore, where it’s easy to see the difference between farming in a party and farming solo; it’s the difference between tens of bodies laying on the ground with loot to collect and the game acting as though you didn’t touch them at all.

In short, is it possible that we’re perceiving “nerfed” drop rates, and Champions and Veterans dropping nothing, because whatever method is used to calculate loot credit simply can’t account for every player that hits a given enemy?

Then how would this account for players killing things alone without other players interfering? Wouldn’t people soloing champions and veterans not notice a drop change at all, except for a positive one, if this were the case?

So if I understand this correctly the developers say nothing is wrong – yet I can not get any loot.

So I give up – what a shame as I like this game apart from this.

Good luck to everyone who stays and plays – but this is it for me – uninstalling myself and moving on – oh and making sure all my friends don’t make the mistake of buying this game.

Seems to me that Colin Johanson’s latest statement strengthens the theory that this issue is due to a DR bug? Maybe I’m wrong, since I don’t know much about how games function on that level.

Anyway, not looking forward to another lengthy wait, just hoping they will at least acknowledge there is an issue. A bit disillusioned now tbh.

lynspottery.6529:

What about a character solo play? How would that account for the folks who solo those champs/vets and still get zero drops or just trophy porous bones?

I’m not sure, which is why I’m wondering if there might be an issue with it that’s contributing to this problem specifically. I do think the Champion/Veteran drop lack is maybe a separate thing, because I simply haven’t seen any difference at all in their quality or quantity of drops before and after the update that was supposed to make them more worthwhile. No difference whatsoever.

Here is my confusion. The Nov. 15th update had this…

•The drop rarity of Rare and Exotic weapons from certain places in the world (champions, veterans, and players in WvW) has been increased. Rares and Exotics should be much more likely to drop and every champion should be guaranteed to drop loot. This was to ensure that world loot drops were not a significantly worse way of acquiring rare and exotic items than crafting and running dungeons.

Where it says “Every champion should be guaranteed to drop loot.” Except not every champion is dropping loot. I have frequently received nothing from champions.

Touringman.9750:

So if I understand this correctly the developers say nothing is wrong – yet I can not get any loot.

So I give up – what a shame as I like this game apart from this.

Good luck to everyone who stays and plays – but this is it for me – uninstalling myself and moving on – oh and making sure all my friends don’t make the mistake of buying this game.

/sigh I agree with what you are saying. I am sorry the game is turning out this way as I truly am enjoying the play but not fun any more. Especially since, contrary to what they told us, game has turned into a major “grind” if you want decent gear/weapons.

But I must admit, there has been a big improvement in the quantity of mobs in Southsun and Cursed Shores area. I no longer get nailed to the ground unable to play in those areas. I ran through Cursed Shores last night with a guild mate and we actually were making good progress; whereas before, we avoided the area because we could not go 2 feet without being nailed/controlled then downed/defeated.

I’ll see what happens with this next month before I move on to another game.

I’m wondering if perhaps this diminishing returns problem is less a bug and more an intended consequence (albeit, hopefully, a temporary one) to flush out and starve out bots. I’m not sure if anyone else has noticed, but our drop problems correlate to the dramatic decrease in bot populations, at least on my server. I don’t know about others, but I haven’t seen any major bot farming in a month, and the only bot activity I’ve seen lately is gold sellers spamming in overflow map chat in Lion’s Arch. Personally, I would like to believe that Anet’s silence is less to do with a conspiracy against players, and more to do with a conspiracy against bots.

To clarify, I would like to believe that their silence is a way to encourage botters to think that this current drop rate is the PERMANENT drop rate, and as such to pack up and leave; i.e. why we see sellers selling out their inventory but not farming to refill it.

That doesn’t make me feel better in the way that my drops will be fixed, and I know that I won’t hear anything from Anet one way or the other, but at least it makes me feel like this drop rate thing has a purpose other than to frustrate me and other legitimate players.

Jeahanne.5209:

I’m wondering if perhaps this diminishing returns problem is less a bug and more an intended consequence (albeit, hopefully, a temporary one) to flush out and starve out bots.

But the bots don’t care if they get 10000 porous bones and DR is ineffective…it’s still money…they need to fix the exploit(s) the bots are using. All DR is doing is screwing up the trading post and, by extension, crafting. As much as I hate to say it, captcha, as others have mentioned is probably the one of the best ways to do this.

I remember reading in this very thread, someone saying that they predict the next time we hear from a Dev on this issue, it would just be them saying that nothing is wrong and everything is working as intended…. bravo sir. That is exactly what happened.

Leamas.5803:

Jeahanne.5209:

I’m wondering if perhaps this diminishing returns problem is less a bug and more an intended consequence (albeit, hopefully, a temporary one) to flush out and starve out bots.

But the bots don’t care if they get 10000 porous bones and DR is ineffective…it’s still money…they need to fix the exploit(s) the bots are using. All DR is doing is screwing up the trading post and, by extension, crafting. As much as I hate to say it, captcha, as others have mentioned is probably the one of the best ways to do this.

I actually mentioned that idea somewhere on forums months ago, and I agree with you. But the truth is bots have an overhead. Bot accounts aren’t free on GW2, and as such each account, which doesn’t last long, has to make at least $60 USD to so much as break even on just game costs. I imagine that they have other overhead as well. Botting is only profitable so long as they make it cost effective. Farming things like Porous Bones will make them a few silver, but nothing like what they were making farming mats to sell on trading post, or yellows or oranges that they could sell likewise, and it will take them much longer to make money that way. Further, time is the enemy as a bot. Anet has made it beautifully simple for players to mass report bots, and as such, they get banned very quickly (I don’t know the exact time frame, but I know it isn’t long). So while it is true that a bot doesn’t care about time in the respect that they don’t have to worry about getting bored, they have to worry about how long that account can be active and still remain fiscally viable.

In other words, Anet nerfing drops won’t end botting in and of itself, but that combined with other measures in place make botting something that isn’t profitable in real world money, which is what companies that bot care about. This means that, hypothetically, keeping drop rates low like this for a long enough time will starve them out, at which point Anet could slowly begin raising drop rates until they found a sustainable level. The problem with this is that EVERYONE, bots included, must undoubtedly believe that drops will NEVER get better, or they will just wait Anet out, and such a dramatic measure to get rid of botting will never work. This also means that Anet CAN’T tell anyone what they’re up to, or the scheme fails, which would explain their silence.

But like I said before, this is just what I would like to believe is the case. I might be totally wrong, who knows?

Awesome. Now it’s official, all the DR problems amount to this:

I began playing around the time the Lost Shores update were introduced, leveled quite fast and started doing fractals. Until I hit fractal lvl 10 it was a total jam – several rares every run, chest in underwater fractal always gave rare underwater weapon for example, an exotic sometimes. Exploration also was good, though not so profitable. Well, as I made progress, I’ve noticed I was getting less and less yellow loot during my fractal runs and now I get a rare only once in 2 or 3 days (mostly do lvl 20 daily and then switch to alt). I honestly don’t have time to read all this topic, to test farming or to solo champions, but, seriously, something fishy is going on.

On an unrelated note, my main char is an engineer, which adds a good deal of spice to my gaming expirience.

Before I gave up on open world, I once got more than 12s worth of porous bones in less than an hour and a half…not counting anything else that might have dropped. It doesn’t take long for a bot to be profitable. Teleporting bots are farming material nodes, and they are very hard to nail down long enough to report. Mandatory Catpcha when DR is suspected would fix this. A bot is useless if it requires baby sitting.

Another thing that can be done, and quite easily detected by tracking player gold, is to punish/ban players for using gold sellers…the word wouldn’t take long to spread. If a player suddenly has a huge influx of gold that came of suspicious circumstances and if they can’t justify where it came from, warn and remove gold on the first offense, ban them on the second. If no-one is buying, bots will whither and die.

What about the combat log? I haven’t looked to see if it lists the drops received but if so maybe there is a way to save the combat log and isolate the mobs versus the drops looted. Honestly I have begun to fall out of love with this game. It had begun to feel like work instead of fun. I am not a ‘shiney’ driven person but I do know what it’s like to need a little reward to even out the playing experience.
It costs in game money to play the way I like to play. WvW isn’t cheap as a ranged character. I haven’t figured out how to get the badges or the bags consistently even if I get credited with kills. I like to craft and that is expensive even when getting 90% of the mats yourself.
The only positive sign I have seen as of late has been me shaking DR one time. I played my main and ran 4 Penitent/Shelter DE’s each. Unfortunately it’s the only way to make consistent gold. I hit DR with the typical porous bones and occasional blue item. I logged out of the main and onto an alt to finish the daily acheivement. About 15 minutes in I saw my loot go back to blue/green and a single rare item.

That is the absolute first time since August that once DR hits it has reset for me. Still haven’t seen a lodestone or an exotic. But I have a little hope.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that for me, champs and vets still only give blue/white or nothing

BTW – Colin your new loot chests are buggy. They give white/blue/green/rare and plain junk. I like the feature just hope it gets fixed in an upcoming patch.

houndmd.4360:

Well, as I made progress, I’ve noticed I was getting less and less yellow loot during my fractal runs and now I get a rare only once in 2 or 3 days (mostly do lvl 20 daily and then switch to alt).

I agree with this. I’m up to fractal lvl 41, and prior to the Jan 28th patch, I was getting 3-8 rares per run for about 300+ runs according to my achievements, but after the patch I’m lucky if I see a rare. For example, my first 3 fractal runs after the patch only gave blues and greens from chests, but not 1 rare save for a crystal core for frac lvl 28, 38, and 40.

Also, the people I’ve been running fractals with also noticed a significant decrease in rare drops, so either we are all crazy and experiencing a streak of terrible luck, or rare and exotic drop rates were nerfed whether intentionally or accidentally… I smell dat fish!

Lastly, I’ve been farming sparks & air elementals in Orr to work towards a Gift of Light for weapons, however, after farming for weeks, I’ve recorded my drops and average about 1 lodestone per 2-3 hours, so I’ve considered giving up farming to just selling stuff to buy them from the BLTP. One day, I farmed for 4 hours and didn’t see a rare drop the entire time even after killing the Champion Risen Knight and Veteran Air Elementals that spawn south of Cathedral of Zephyrs. It’s just disheartening that there isn’t a consistent farming method for Charged Cores or Lodestones because 2-3 hours of farming for 1 lodestone avg with 200+ magic find is just ridiculous.

….champions and veterans still feel like a waste of time and effort since I either get a green or blue, but mostly junk loot or even nothing at all after attacking the enemy for the entire kill. now that’s some bullcrap.

Well, I can start with Orr and the loot there. It’s great actually! After jan. 28th update it has yielded much loot, both rare/exotic/master, aswell as coin directly.

However(!), elsewhere the loot is sh***! After the latest patches mentioned above, farming other places for mats and lodestones are, how should i put it, a turn-off! When you make a game like this, please have in mind that farming is a big part of this. As someone mentioned above, it’s pointless to try and get a Legendary, it would take 3-4 years to get it (in my opinion). This because the same things put in action to stop bots, are stopping us, your typical gamer, at getting the things we need to craft our legendaries. Yes, there’s Dungeons and WvW, PvP etc…. But those are another topic to be honest. I don’t feel like running Dungeons or WvW, to get my Legendery, atleast not when it feels like you are forcing me to do it. If(!) i want to, i should be able to yes, but don’t force me to do something i feel is not related to farming. Heck, let’s call it “collecting” or “hunting” for mats. “Farming” seems so “bottish”, but it’s actually something i enjoy doing, running around and killing stuff, and getting paid to do so. So please, don’t take away my payment.

EDIT: As an last note… Farming for corrupted lodestones used to be fun, I’d get 1-2 an hour… Now, I’ve got that same amount (1-2) in total since patch…. (and yes, i’ve farmed the sam amount of time, going elsewhere for DR reset etc).

Jeahanne.5209:

Leamas.5803:

Jeahanne.5209:

I’m wondering if perhaps this diminishing returns problem is less a bug and more an intended consequence (albeit, hopefully, a temporary one) to flush out and starve out bots.

But the bots don’t care if they get 10000 porous bones and DR is ineffective…it’s still money…they need to fix the exploit(s) the bots are using. All DR is doing is screwing up the trading post and, by extension, crafting. As much as I hate to say it, captcha, as others have mentioned is probably the one of the best ways to do this.

I actually mentioned that idea somewhere on forums months ago, and I agree with you. But the truth is bots have an overhead. Bot accounts aren’t free on GW2, and as such each account, which doesn’t last long, has to make at least $60 USD to so much as break even on just game costs. I imagine that they have other overhead as well. Botting is only profitable so long as they make it cost effective. Farming things like Porous Bones will make them a few silver, but nothing like what they were making farming mats to sell on trading post, or yellows or oranges that they could sell likewise, and it will take them much longer to make money that way. Further, time is the enemy as a bot. Anet has made it beautifully simple for players to mass report bots, and as such, they get banned very quickly (I don’t know the exact time frame, but I know it isn’t long). So while it is true that a bot doesn’t care about time in the respect that they don’t have to worry about getting bored, they have to worry about how long that account can be active and still remain fiscally viable.

In other words, Anet nerfing drops won’t end botting in and of itself, but that combined with other measures in place make botting something that isn’t profitable in real world money, which is what companies that bot care about. This means that, hypothetically, keeping drop rates low like this for a long enough time will starve them out, at which point Anet could slowly begin raising drop rates until they found a sustainable level. The problem with this is that EVERYONE, bots included, must undoubtedly believe that drops will NEVER get better, or they will just wait Anet out, and such a dramatic measure to get rid of botting will never work. This also means that Anet CAN’T tell anyone what they’re up to, or the scheme fails, which would explain their silence.

But like I said before, this is just what I would like to believe is the case. I might be totally wrong, who knows?

It doesn’t affect everyone, though, as would be expected if this were the case. Like I said, I experienced what seemed to me like a dramatic decrease in the amount and quality of loot I got after the Nov. 15th update—specifically in Orr—but I’ve never gotten such horrible drops that I made no money at all. Even when 99% of what I’m getting turns out to be porous bones, I’m at least making some money, and RMT are happy with anything they can get as long as it can be automated. Bot accounts are absolutely free in GW2; they steal the accounts of legit players, or use stolen credit cards to create throwaway accounts. They don’t care how much they’re making, as long as they can make something, and do it predictably over a long period of time with as little input as possible.

I think the simplest answer to this whole problem is likely that there’s no bug or DR glitch or stealth nerf or whatever, and that drop rates just aren’t generous enough for players to feel sufficiently rewarded. The good news if that’s the case is that it’s easily fixed; the bad news is that drop rates are probably the way they are for a reason. But they’ve already made a ton of progress in this last patch in their reward structure, so I think it’s something they’re dedicated to working on.

For me, personally, Orr is much more rewarding after the recent patch. For the first time since before Nov. 15th, I feel like playing there (not grinding, necessarily—just playing) really is about as good a source of income as dungeon runs. A lot of this is because the Orrian jewelry boxes are very rewarding. I’d like to hug whoever came up with those. Bags are also dropping a lot more, and there’s a larger spread of mats, so it’s easier to craft a lot of rares to sell/salvage/flush down the Mystic Toilet.

Infernia.9847:

BTW – Colin your new loot chests are buggy. They give white/blue/green/rare and plain junk. I like the feature just hope it gets fixed in an upcoming patch.

I think they mentioned in another thread that they’re aware of a bug that’s making them drop the wrong type of stuff, and are working on a fix.

Avitarus.1865:

Aproposs Of Fire.4056:

You know, avitarus, this isn’t about you “being right all along” and “I told you so”. This is about sadness for a game that had so much promise and potential.

Well, nah.

After all your page long posts telling everybody what to do and how your experience leads you to believe blah blah blah this is the best you’ve got? At this point, since most of the people who posted here are going to quit playing this game, all that is left is a few “Told ya so’s” before we kitten off and go elsewhere.

And dont even start trying to act like a martyr.

Well at least one person on this thread didn’t really care about the game. Some people want and feed off of controversy and nothing more. I certainly am not going to argue with you. So I’ll just say “Congrats, you were right on and got what you wanted”.

Edit: Note all the new people who have posted that there are indeed problems with the game since you came out and “confirmed” there is not, ANet. I guess the “conspiracy” is much wider than you expected.

What really sucks for the other posters (most of the other posters) in this thread who only began having problems in November is that the ‘wi-flagged-account’ issues began at launch or in beta and so since ANet is allegedly looking at that period there is still a chance (I suppose %-/) those accounts might still get help.

I have to say the art was really pretty good in this game – in spots, excellent above all others. However, the art is only part of a fulfilling gaming experience. The art could look like RS and still be successful. (Edit2: No offense intended to RS, errr, no offence.)

I don’t know what NCSoft/ANet is aiming for: perhaps as some have speculated it’s about the cash shop plain and simple. Perhaps this thread was about getting as many of the people who are having these issues to post details so that ANet could figure out how to spread these issues to all the players.

If what we are experiencing is intended, then the other players who are getting normal loots are the ones they want to “fix”. Dry periods in MMOs are to be expected – we all agree on that. But if a 3-month dry period with no end in sight is “intended”, then an EU-type economy is what is intended and perhaps the Nexon people in the GW2 business office are the guiding force as many on this thread have worried.

Loot is terrible and has gotten worse since November. This is a fact. If your tests are not showing any differences, then your tests are flawed; perhaps they don’t include some kind of DR code or are missing some other factor.

I have run level 40+ fractals for over 2 weeks and the loot is atrocious. I get maybe 2-4 rares from the entire set, and I primarily run dailies (jade maw) because the loot is so bad that I have no interest in progressing further (48 atm). I’ve gotten exactly 3 fractal weapon skins, and 2 of those were from doing the tier 3 dailies (20-29).

I also agree with what another poster said about some people getting worse loot since Nov and some people having unchanged loot. A good friend of mine just hit lv 20 fractals, and he has already gotten about 8 rings and he gets 1 exotic, 5 rares, and a core or 2 nearly every set he runs.

Basically, you are trusting whatever tests you are doing to give you the “accurate, unbiased, concrete picture,” but they are not – they are misleading you. This wouldn’t be a 23 page thread if it was false.

If your watch says 12pm but it is pitch black out, no sunlight at all, you don’t say “I don’t believe it’s pitch black out, and I know there is plenty of sunlight, because my watch says noon. I must need to get my eyes replaced, because this cannot be reality.” You would think, Oh my watch needs to be set to the correct time.

Don’t make this more complicated than it needs to be. Loot sucks. Champions don’t drop loot. Fix it.

Also, I am actually playing less and become less and less interested in the game because the rewards are so bad, I don’t have any incentive to do much of anything. Cof, AC, etc.? I don’t need the tokens, and I don’t feel like there is a chance of getting a good drop.

GW2 currently feels like a casino where no one is winning much of anything and people are starting to look for another casino to play at, but it’s hard to leave because we like this casino and we know it would only take a simple, common sense fix. And Elder Scrolls Online isn’t out yet.

Thank you for an update Colin, Im sure the truth is out there !

Just because we are paranoid it doesn’t mean THEY are not out to get us though.

I have noticed my Warrior is no longer cursed with bad luck since the last patch but im not sure how long that will last for.

Well, my drops have been excellent since the patch. 2-4 rares every day, the Orr critters have been droping piles of useless essence like crazy, which makes me hopeful next time I seriously farm sparks I might get a lode stone or two. It seems like either the patch fixed something for me, or at least reset it for now.

I even had a real live rare drop off a landscpe (not event) Champion another person and I downed because it kitten us of hanging around a skill point.

Dynamic Event Veterans and Champs still basically NEVER drop item loot though. Guess they are exempt from the word “all” …

Just to share my experience..

I have 4 level 80s, about 1000 hours invested and about 8k kills in WvW. That should give some sort of idea on my time invested.

I have never gotten an exotic drop, and I can literally count the number of rares I have received on one hand. That is.. a lot of playtime to be receiving that kind of reward. I am all for having exotics drop a very, very small percentage of the time. However, at 1k hours played, I dont feel like I should be able to remember each individual instance I have received the third best level of gear (rare). It seems a bit off to me.

Then again, it is well known to me that the RNG holds a pretty intense grudge. He is a mean, mean guy :\

Aproposs Of Fire.4056:

Avitarus.1865:

Aproposs Of Fire.4056:

You know, avitarus, this isn’t about you “being right all along” and “I told you so”. This is about sadness for a game that had so much promise and potential.

Well, nah.

After all your page long posts telling everybody what to do and how your experience leads you to believe blah blah blah this is the best you’ve got? At this point, since most of the people who posted here are going to quit playing this game, all that is left is a few “Told ya so’s” before we kitten off and go elsewhere.

And dont even start trying to act like a martyr.

Well at least one person on this thread didn’t really care about the game. Some people want and feed off of controversy and nothing more. I certainly am not going to argue with you. So I’ll just say “Congrats, you were right on and got what you wanted”.

Edit: Note all the new people who have posted that there are indeed problems with the game since you came out and “confirmed” there is not, ANet. I guess the “conspiracy” is much wider than you expected.

What really sucks for the other posters (most of the other posters) in this thread who only began having problems in November is that the ‘wi-flagged-account’ issues began at launch or in beta and so since ANet is allegedly looking at that period there is still a chance (I suppose %-/) those accounts might still get help.

I have to say the art was really pretty good in this game – in spots, excellent above all others. However, the art is only part of a fulfilling gaming experience. The art could look like RS and still be successful. (Edit2: No offense to RS, errr, no offence.)

I don’t know what NCSoft/ANet is aiming for: perhaps as some have speculated it’s about the cash shop plain and simple. Perhaps this thread was about getting as many of the people who are having these issues to post details so that ANet could figure out how to spread these issues to all the players.

If what we are experiencing is intended, then the other players who are getting normal loots are the ones they want to “fix”. Dry periods in MMOs are to be expected – we all agree on that. But if a 3-month dry period with no end in sight is “intended”, then an EU-type economy is what is intended and perhaps the Nexon people in the GW2 business office are the guiding force as many on this thread have worried.

You set that straw man up and you knocked him right down, get any loot off of that fallacious argument? Go ahead and edit this post a few more times, and while youre at it delete your previous posts. Cant have everyone seeing how hard you were a white knight for ANet/NCSoft/Nexon. Dont want people to see how patronizing your attitude was to folks just trying to report their issues.

Fact of the matter is everybody here is having an issue and you tried to be some fearless leader and now you are eating crow. It tastes bad and now you are bitter, which is understandable.

Bonefield.9813:

ColinJohanson.2394:

Just wanted to give a quick update on this topic. We’ve completed verifying every update from the november release, and there were zero changes to anything what so ever that would have negatively affected loot in any way/shape/form. We can officially confirm this as an X-files level conspiracy at this point.

We’re in the midst of evaluating every loot table in the game and running massive random roll evaluations table by table, as well as evaluating every system game wide that causes a player to qualify for items to determine if any issues exist in those systems from launch.

Will update again when we have another round of concrete information.

In short, is it possible that we’re perceiving “nerfed” drop rates, and Champions and Veterans dropping nothing, because whatever method is used to calculate loot credit simply can’t account for every player that hits a given enemy?

Absolutely not. This wouldn’t account for people in empty zones post the FotM focus where no one was located in these zones so there was no one to help with these champs/vets and the loot was horrible despite reassurances that the loot was fixed both in the patch notes and posts on reddit and interviews.

Not to forget the post online of Jon Peters speaking to the public about how they want regular players to not be effected by DR because they care about and actually like legit farmer style players and want to keep those players in the open world, then on the very next patch they nerf the drops to the only dragon event (Jormag) that still was dropping a relatively honest amount of rares and exotics. (honest in that it was closer to the original month of drops we all received when we started the game that early and that easily facilitated the more horizontal gear acquisition we were all promised this game would be pre-launch in multiple interviews and videos across the net.) I haven’t forgotten those.

Nike.2631:

Well, my drops have been excellent since the patch. 2-4 rares every day, the Orr critters have been droping piles of useless essence like crazy, which makes me hopeful next time I seriously farm sparks I might get a lode stone or two. It seems like either the patch fixed something for me, or at least reset it for now.

I even had a real live rare drop off a landscpe (not event) Champion another person and I downed because it kitten us of hanging around a skill point.

That’s good news – grats! I hope it continues for you. Make sure you do everything you can to not trigger DR.

Well, I decided to go on good faith and test out Orr…the first time I’d been on Cursed Shore in about a month. Same kitten, different day. Was there for an hour to hour and a half. Did Penetent/Shelter, Jofast, the defense of the Arah waypoint, Champion Risen Abomination, Champion King (The one that looks like an Eye of Zhaitan). Couple greens, rest blues and whites…blues from both champions, about 8 moldy bags (Yes, more than I used to get), about 8 salvageable items, about 30 vendor junk between porous bones, claws and whatever else dropped. One armored scale, a couple T6 venom sacs and perhaps 10 or so misc lower level crafting stuff…that’s it.

It MIGHT be marginally better than it used to be, it might be just due to me not being there in a while, but it’s certainly not good to the point that it will draw me back to Orr. I realize that this a very small sample and perhaps a bit unfair, but I’m a little jaded over this and have no reason to think things will get better…and don’t have a great deal of patience left.

Colin, either I hope you’re joking or you guys are just afraid to own up about tweaking drop rates. Anybody that has played the game before and after November notices the change in the drop rate. I used to get around 4 rares an hour doing pent / shelter. Nowadays I’m lucky to get even one rare drop an hour. And yes, I am putting the frequency change of events in account as well. It’s like you guys despise the idea of rewarding players.

I’ve probably put around 600 hours into this game and I can count how many exotics I’ve found on one hand. And obviously, no precursor as well. 600 hours ANET, your reward system isn’t very rewarding at all.

Turbo Chet.8527:

Colin, either I hope you’re joking or you guys are just afraid to own up about tweaking drop rates. Anybody that has played the game before and after November notices the change in the drop rate. I used to get around 4 rares an hour doing pent / shelter. Nowadays I’m lucky to get even one rare drop an hour. And yes, I am putting the frequency change of events in account as well. It’s like you guys despise the idea of rewarding players. Should of kept the system similar to Guild Wars 1. That system was good for some time.

One rare drop and hour?!?!?! At this point, I’d be ecstatic about this….before I essentially stopped participating in open world, I was lucky if I got one rare drop a week.

Turbo Chet.8527:

I’ve probably put around 600 hours into this game and I can count how many exotics I’ve found on one hand. And obviously, no precursor as well. 600 hours ANET, your reward system isn’t very rewarding at all.

I would much rather have your issue :P

As I said, I can count the number of rares I have gotten in 1k hours on one hand. Maybe I am forgetting a couple, so lets just say both hands.

I have never gotten an exotic.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Just wanted to give a quick update on this topic. We’ve completed verifying every update from the november release, and there were zero changes to anything what so ever that would have negatively affected loot in any way/shape/form. We can officially confirm this as an X-files level conspiracy at this point.

1. Did you verify that champions should drop something as per Nov15 patch note?

2. When you say “X-files level conspiracy” are you saying that there is an issue but not sure where, or that we’ve created a conspiracy?

“We can officially confirm this as an X-files level conspiracy at this point.”

This is even more insulting than “perceived”. There is a very real problem with open world loot. It is not perceived or an X-files conspiracy.

I have declined from posting in these numerous and very lengthy threads until now because it has all been said add infinitum by others, but at this point I don’t know how much longer I’ll continue with GW2.

I don’t do dungeons and bought this game because of the stated “play the way you want” for equal rewards philosophy. I love the open world you built but this has proven to be far from true. I’m already looking at other games sadly, fix it or lose a lot of us.

I have been noticing this too. i ued to salvage all lvl 70+ rares for ectos and quite often got 1-3 ectos on roughly a 7/10 ratio using black lion salvage kits. since the update i have completely given up salvaging my high end rares in hopes of ectos because i’ve now gone 5+ in a row and not seen a single ecto. Thought maybe it was just me but then I saw this so I’d have to agree that something did get tweaked from one of the last few updates.

killed 50 branded to do the daily kill, and this is what I got: 0%MF lvl80 downscaled to lvl51

9 barbs (in 6 drops)
8 piles of radiant dust
1 pile of luminous dust
1 jagged metal scrap
clerics dagger lvl78 (blue)
carrion steam trident lvl76 (blue)
dagger lvl76 (white)

Sigh, just did Shelter as part of the daily events, 1st time in Cursed Shore today, 0% MF.
1st wave dropped quite a few items, but each wave after that either dropped 1 item or nothing.

We get on average one topic per week asking if the drop rate of ectos has been nerfed. Those posters usually employ as “evidence” the fact that in the previous week they got a lot o ectos, but n the current week they didn’t.

I think that’s enough evidence that players are not capable of judging if there’s something wrong with their loot or not. In the end, this topic is somewhat useless – players simply cannot objectiveky know iftheir drops are working as intendedor not.

Erasculio.2914:

We get on average one topic per week asking if the drop rate of ectos has been nerfed. Those posters usually employ as “evidence” the fact that in the previous week they got a lot o ectos, but n the current week they didn’t.

I think that’s enough evidence that players are not capable of judging if there’s something wrong with their loot or not. In the end, this topic is somewhat useless – players simply cannot objectiveky know iftheir drops are working as intendedor not.

It is very simple. ANET stated Champions and Veterans should drop loot. They don’t. It isn’t “perception” when you look at a dead Champion you soloed.. and it is unlootable. It isn’t “perception” when most of the Champions and Veterans I kill, mostly solo, drop blues rarely, whites and junk rarely, and nothing predominately.

They state one thing as fact, and then experience in the actual game world, by many many players, says it is far from being fact. Whose perception is skewed?

Blaming other players for a legitimate issue on ANETs side of the fence isn’t very bright, helpful, or constructive. However, at least you managed to be less insulting than Colin was. You just implied we are stupid, instead of delusional.

Hey guys, I made a separate thread specifically about the veteran/champion drop rate issue since it has been ignore in ever update supplied by Anet staff in these threads. If you could post any evidence specifically relating to champion drop rate in that thread it would be appreciated:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Clarification-on-November-patch-requested/first#post1360745

Cheers.

The champ/vet drop rate I can agree with, that there’s a problem there somewhere; often when I get a champ, the drop is blue or nothing. Sometimes a green. I don’t know if I’ve ever gotten a rare—this coming from someone who routinely kills them on-call for guildies and actively runs around to solo them because he likes the fights. That being said, while I certainly can’t speak for all of the zones, I can say that I often run the volcano chain, Hinterlands chain, and farm Cursed Shore for hours with a friend of mine and consistently fill my bags (full slots, 18 slot bags each) with gear and materials every hour if I’m in Orr, and every hour and a half to two hours anywhere else if we’re consistently killing. Mostly blues, generally five or six greens, and one or two rares. This is with zero magic find since I consider it a wasted stat most of the time because of my build. Also, anywhere from one to three unidentified dyes.

ColinJohanson.2394:

Just wanted to give a quick update on this topic. We’ve completed verifying every update from the november release, and there were zero changes to anything what so ever that would have negatively affected loot in any way/shape/form. We can officially confirm this as an X-files level conspiracy at this point.

We’re in the midst of evaluating every loot table in the game and running massive random roll evaluations table by table, as well as evaluating every system game wide that causes a player to qualify for items to determine if any issues exist in those systems from launch.

Will update again when we have another round of concrete information.

I am curious, are you agreeing that something is wrong but can not find what the problem is, or are you saying you don’t think there is a problem but you are checking anyway?

Maybe the perceived X-files conspiracy mind set is because we have been playing other MMO’s that are a lot more rewarding and not so much of a chore compared to this?

My experience with the Nov patch was the day it came out I was getting rares and also got 2 exo’s.. and has gradually been getting worse and worse.. so much now I am happy when a green drops.. well was happy because I still haven’t logged back in for a while now and don’t really plan to after all of this kafuffle :P

I predicted this is exactly what would happen.
Also, seeing as we paid for the game and they took our money they don’t really need us on their servers anymore because we begin to generate a cost.
So.. I’m dropping my loot on another game.. and will watch the perceived profits drop

ColinJohanson.2394:

Just wanted to give a quick update on this topic. We’ve completed verifying every update from the november release, and there were zero changes to anything what so ever that would have negatively affected loot in any way/shape/form. We can officially confirm this as an X-files level conspiracy at this point.

We’re in the midst of evaluating every loot table in the game and running massive random roll evaluations table by table, as well as evaluating every system game wide that causes a player to qualify for items to determine if any issues exist in those systems from launch.

Will update again when we have another round of concrete information.

Thanks so much for not insulting us and not accusing us of being paranoid. You ask us to provide information and we prove it you and then you come back and insult us. Do you honestly expect people to still play this game when the next mmo comes out?

Guy one: I don’t get good loot off 10 mobs.
Guy two:I get amazing loot off 10 mobs.
Guy one:Game is broken.
Producer:There is nothing broken that we can find. And we did not nerf drops.
Guy one:Clearly lying, game is against me.

Spend $10 dollars on lottery tickets, when you lose write to your state and explain that its rigged. Clearly you deserve more loot because, well, its you. I once won $100 in lottery. I seen a guy win like 10M on tv. Next day he got poisoned to death. Luck works both ways. As does a RNG.

You didn’t get it. ^^

Geotherma.2395:

Guy one: I don’t get good loot off 10 mobs.
Guy two:I get amazing loot off 10 mobs.
Guy one:Game is broken.
Producer:There is nothing broken that we can find. And we did not nerf drops.
Guy one:Clearly lying, game is against me.

Spend $10 dollars on lottery tickets, when you lose write to your state and explain that its rigged. Clearly you deserve more loot because, well, its you. I once won $100 in lottery. I seen a guy win like 10M on tv. Next day he got poisoned to death. Luck works both ways. As does a RNG.

Player One: I haven’t seen a rare in days.
Player Two: I am getting about 1 an event.
Player One: What’s your magic find like?
Player Two: Don’t have any. troll face
Player One: kitten.

Not seeing rares for days, while others around you see them regularly, that RNG trolling you.

wildcode.5403:

Geotherma.2395:

Guy one: I don’t get good loot off 10 mobs.
Guy two:I get amazing loot off 10 mobs.
Guy one:Game is broken.
Producer:There is nothing broken that we can find. And we did not nerf drops.
Guy one:Clearly lying, game is against me.

Spend $10 dollars on lottery tickets, when you lose write to your state and explain that its rigged. Clearly you deserve more loot because, well, its you. I once won $100 in lottery. I seen a guy win like 10M on tv. Next day he got poisoned to death. Luck works both ways. As does a RNG.

Player One: I haven’t seen a rare in days.
Player Two: I am getting about 1 an event.
Player One: What’s your magic find like?
Player Two: Don’t have any. troll face
Player One: kitten.

Not seeing rares for days, while others around you see them regularly, that RNG trolling you.

lols

Well I can give my honest MF info, I use omnomberry and have a buff from my guild. 10% I think? And orr makes me 8-12g a day on a good day. Before patch tho, less mats dropped and bags. I made 6-8g. When I’m not busy in college programming, I will try to do a daily log and post my results maybe it will help since I play so long a day grinding dead ppl :P

I hope the luck for others improves, and I’m not rubbing in my drops. You can easily make far more daily if you do more than what I do which is just grind lol.

I seem to get at least one rare a day. no matter what it is: elemental slivers, armor, orbs, a weapon I don’t need, crests, etc. I also use the Mystic forge to make yellows from greens and Blues. Blues>Greens>Yellows.

I made my money (20g) making givers inscrpitions/insignias (ecto from the yellows I find/make) and upgrading materials to tier 5 and 6 and selling them.

I never find materials I need when I go farm for them though and that what I need not yellows, greens, blues, white or even junk.

I still have leather worker and huntsman to finish on another alt and the materials I am not paying for on the TP.

Geotherma.2395:

I hope the luck for others improves, and I’m not rubbing in my drops. You can easily make far more daily if you do more than what I do which is just grind lol.

While I understand that you do not see an issue, please understand that others, including myself, have trouble even making 40s per hour chaining events, jumping zones, etc. While I make my money primarily from harvesting ori/ancient wood/omnomberries using 5 different characters at times, it is impossible for me to make the same amount of money any other way.