Guild Wars 2

I have a proposed solution to the RNG issue that is bothering everyone.

The main complaint is that you aren’t guaranteed to get a BLT scrap, let alone a ticket, when opening the ONLY source of scraps/tickets in the game.

My solution is: make a raffle-type gem store item that grants a random number of scraps, guaranteed at least one and possibly up to X scraps. This would put a cap on the number of items that needed to be bought, and make guaranteed acquisition of the RNG skins possible. No matter how bad your luck is, WORST case scenario is that you buy ten of these raffle items and get ten scraps.

Instead of the worst-case scenario I recently encountered: buying a pack of 25 keys and getting 9 ticket scraps out of those 25 chests.
Buying gems with gold, that is 250+ gold only to not receive enough scraps for a single weapon.
Buying gems with cash, that is $35 plus tax, only to not receive enough scraps for a single weapon.

And this is for a current-run weapon! Just imagine if I was hoping to get one of the old weapons that costs multiple tickets!

It seems that Anet is not willing to make the weapon skins directly purchasable with gems, nor to replace scraps with whole tickets, leaving the drop rate the same, because they’re raking in the cash from hopeful buyers.

My solution will allow them to continue selling RNG items, while putting a cap on the cost of acquiring a weapon skin.

Before you propose “solutions”, there must first be a “problem”. Because everything is working as intended, there really isn’t a need for guaranteed scraps. The current mechanics are simple: You have a chance to get a BL Ticket, or scraps to make one.

The problem is, we’re getting screwed with a 25% drop rate (takes approx 40 keys to get a ticket) and the players are dissatisfied.

For a similar situation, think about the changes to the dyes. The former, per-character dye system was working as intended, and dye kit gem store purchases were bringing in money to the devs. However, despite that it was more lucrative for them to keep the system per-character, so many people were dissatisfied that they chose to take a potential hit financially to keep their player base happy – which is lucrative in the long run.

Remember, you’re not Entitled to Black Lion Tickets. These are optional prizes from Black Lion Chests. You have a chance to get them when you open the chest with Black Lion Keys. Players tend to be dissatisfied, because they forget that Anet doesn’t give anyone any guarantees of success.

There already is a no RNG solution, simply buy it with gold from the Trading Post.

Considering how easy it is to get free keys for BLTC chests, I think the current system is fine. I’m able to get at least one weapon each time they are released, and I only receive approximately 2 keys per week. More often one, but sometimes I’m more industrious. =P