Guild Wars 2

Do aoe based characters (staff guards etc) still get more loot from events, living story etc due to the dominance of tagging?

Is the quality of loot impacted (eg : more chance of finding a precursor) or do aoe based characters just get more junk than everyone else?

No opinions from over 100 views?

fadeaway.2807:

Do aoe based characters (staff guards etc) still get more lootI

Yes

the quality of loot impacted (eg : more chance of finding a precursor)

No

Do aoe based characters just get more junk than everyone else?

No

Not no opinion but I have NEVER seen anything like what you are talking about.

Can you prove what you are saying?

- yes
- no, quality is not impacted

I could further tell you how everyone can choose a weapon and utility skills accordingly for effective event tagging. But somehow I suspect you are not really interested in that and rather want to hear “yeah, you are right, the game suckz”.

There is a threshold of damage you need to reach before you are allowed loot. So you can’t really cast Guardian Staff #1 once and then get a lot of loot, you need to damage the same enemy some times before you are allowed loot.

Yes as you tag more mobs you get more loot but you also reach the diminished rewards cap more quickly as it’s time you spend in one spot or number of mobs you’ve killed in that place.

The amount the hurts your chances of finding a precursor only anet knows.

Dusty Moon.4382:

Not no opinion but I have NEVER seen anything like what you are talking about.

Can you prove what you are saying?

He is saying that if you’re playing a character with an AoE attack, like the staff Guardian, then you’re going to hit, or tag, more mobs (or players in WvW). If you’re playing a character that does single target damage, you’re not going to hit as many mobs. So those who tag more mobs will get to loot more bodies. I personally do use AoE attacks in large groups of mobs or in WvW so that I hit as many as possible and get to loot as many bodies as possible. So yes, the players who use AoE attacks/weapons fill their bags faster, but I don’t know that they have any better chance at getting precursors. I guess that would depend on if precursors have a chance to drop as normal loot, or if they have to come from a champ bag or bonus chest. I don’t know the answer to that.

Ok, let’s say you’re in front of 20 guys, and you have the choice between two weapons, a sniper riffle or a flamethrower. What’s your choice ?
Smart choice should be awarded more loot….

Acinonyx Rex.8609:

Ok, let’s say you’re in front of 20 guys, and you have the choice between two weapons, a sniper riffle or a flamethrower. What’s your choice ?
Smart choice should be awarded more loot….

Except this option is more do you want a blowpipe or a bow. Arrows are stronger but you can fire the darts faster. Though the chances of you killing anyone with one dart is very slim while the arrow has the power behind it.

Is it just about tagging though? It seems you have to do a certain percentage of damage to get rewarded a loot bag from a kill. Weak single/aoe hits in a zerg don’t reward as many loot bags that’s for sure. As a Mesmer I know I’m not getting as many bags as other classes in WvW. Usually warriors and guardians say they have full inventories and I’m looking at 1/4 to 1/6 of that amount of loot, for no less work.

So if you’re in a party your loot threshold is greatly reduced and you can use a staff.

you must be confused.. this is stack wars 2.

Considering every class has access to AoE skills, I’m going to list this as a non-issue. If you are all about getting max loot, go with AoE weapons and skills, if you don’t care, go with whatever you want. The choice is yours.

Yes, staff guardians get ~2x more loot than any other class. In the next teir down are thieves, well necros, rangers, eles, and warriors. Below them are engineers. About 10000 miles below them are mesmers.

staff 1 on guardian is currently the best attack in the game for getting loot.

What mmorpg has never been about a tag war? If any thing GW2 is far better to other mmorpgs because you do not need to compete for tags on mobs as in the person who gets first tag gets the loot.

I’m just wondering if I still need to be primarily aoeing during events and living story.

I don’t care if it will result in more junk, because I don’t care about that. Junk and greens aren’t worth much.
But if aoe tagging results in more valuable loot like precursors then I will worry about aoe lots.

ZudetGambeous.9573:

…Below them are engineers.

Use a flamethrower build, second only to Guardians.

Source: I have a Guard, Engie, and Ele all with 500+ hours.

fadeaway.2807:

I’m just wondering if I still need to be primarily aoeing during events and living story.

I don’t care if it will result in more junk, because I don’t care about that. Junk and greens aren’t worth much.
But if aoe tagging results in more valuable loot like precursors then I will worry about aoe lots.

Every mob has a chance to drop a precursor although a very small chance (just like everywhere else).

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Precursor_weapon

If you tag more mobs you get more “chances” at a precursor dropping. If you’re looking for loot AoE to your hearts content.

I play Gaurdian and Mesmer a lot in PvE and WvW. In PvE I do the Temple of Grenth event several times a week on average. It’s an excellent example of where tagging mobs with a Gaurdian staff 1, 2, and 3 can lead to massive loot especially if you have a full party dishing AoE. I often fill 50 or more bag slots during this event with my Gaurdian with big stacks of loot bags and trash trophies mixed in. I get similar results on Engineer using flame thrower and grenades. On my Mesmer I have trouble filling 20 bag slots in the same event.
In WvW zerg on zerg I get similar Gaurdian tags, but for me it’s tough to get up to the damage threshold necessary to get a lot of loot in pvt armor and traited for survival. Bags are’nt really my goal in WvW anyway. I actually get similar loot on my Mesmer in WvW. For WvW, my staff Elementalist is the bag king with huge AoE damage and I can still support my team with lots of fields.
The AoE tags on large groups of foes definitely make a difference in quantity of loot.

As a thief, I use a bow for events because it does increase the amount of loot I get. Quality is still questionable. Ive only found like 2 or 3 exotics from mob loot since I started playing pre-launch.

Thanks for your thoughts guys.

Unfortunately since it looks like there is still a chance to hit the jackpot from trash enemies in events/living story I will continue to spam aoes.

fadeaway.2807:

Thanks for your thoughts guys.

Unfortunately since it looks like there is still a chance to hit the jackpot from trash enemies in events/living story I will continue to spam aoes.

I fail to see why that’s unfortunate?

I’d imagine a loot roll is a loot roll. So AE’s get your more rolls, so get your more stuff, whether it’s junk or something worthwhile will be up to the RNG. But, if I get something good 10% of the time, and I tag 10 things, i’ll get 1 good thing, if I tag 5, then I might not even get one.

So I’d imagine you’d get more the more you tag, so you want to be tagging as much as possible in zergs.

Now, that’s all assumption as I don’t know for sure. But i’d imagine if they did something more innovative with loot to spread it out more fairly that they would have told us, as it’d be an innovative change that’s good for the players as a whole.

I can tell you for sure that I get more stuff in general using staff on my guard in zergs than I do using GS/Hammer. Whether each time I get look I can get a precursor or something really good like that /shrug again not completely sure, but I get more loot in general.

Eskarina Tigress.3785:

fadeaway.2807:

Thanks for your thoughts guys.

Unfortunately since it looks like there is still a chance to hit the jackpot from trash enemies in events/living story I will continue to spam aoes.

I fail to see why that’s unfortunate?

Certain classes or builds aren’t very good at aoe. Aoe tagging based loot discourages people from playing these.