Guild Wars 2

The veteran chicken is half chicken, half dragon AND half undead.

To be honest, event chests themselves are not worth the time of the event. Lately I am happy if I get some green item out of the box. Overnerfed by a mile, but I think it’s ANet’s way to tell us, don’t do them…

I like it. I don’t enjoy running bosses or events. I just like going with the flow and doing what I want. Now I can. I can do anything and get rewarded without having to stay in one place and wait for one event.

I’m not seeing anything wrong here.

There is enough truth to the chicken comments to stick and enough good humor (I hope) in presentation to help make an honest point in a positive way. Open world, event rewards, have been overly nerfed. Those chests need to mean something. Roaming events and chains is one of the things I really enjoy doing in game, one of the few uniquely done features in GW2, as there are other games with better dungeons by a long stretch in “my” view. I would like to see them remain a viable alternative to play as rewarding as anything else rather than marginalized. Doesn’t mean it will happen, but I wrote my piece.

OP, you made me laugh, good one !

Yup, who needs to mess about with dragons or dungeons when chickens drop better loot?
I have my guardian perma-camped at Penitent, just for all those chickens …

I have actually NEVER gotten an Exotic from anything OTHER than a Risen Chicken at Malchor’s Leap, last September, 2012 (been playing since 3-day headstart). All my other exotics have come through map completion (which I can no longer achieve, of course, since I am done mapping.) It’s kind of ironic than not even the biggest bosses yield better treasure than a putrid chicken (this is not a complaint… I find it rather funny instead.)

Chickens can even hurt you after you killed them! Fear the chickens!

Star Ace.5207:

I have actually NEVER gotten an Exotic from anything OTHER than a Risen Chicken at Malchor’s Leap, last September, 2012 (been playing since 3-day headstart). All my other exotics have come through map completion (which I can no longer achieve, of course, since I am done mapping.) It’s kind of ironic than not even the biggest bosses yield better treasure than a putrid chicken (this is not a complaint… I find it rather funny instead.)

Actually it makes sense. The chicken doesn’t really drop loot more often. You might kill a big boss 20-50 times. During that time you might have killed hundreds of other things. So it seems those things give you a better drop rate. But you’re always killing more of them.

If you killed as many bosses as normal mobs, would you have more or less exotics? I’m pretty sure no one can answer that question.

Yup, it’s atm one of the things that bother me in GW2. Rewards aren’t linked to efforts.

What’s the easiest way to farm in GW2 ? Kill tons of trash. It promotes a very weird play style :
A. you don’t need to kill anything, you just need to “tag” as many mobs as possible
B. you don’t need to protect you, as you might miss tags. And even if you go down, the death of one trash mob will rez you instantly
B. you don’t even care about the “end” rewards (events, bosses, …), they’re negligible.

The problem is : trash mobs give you too much, while “finishing” rewards (events, chests, bosses, …) give too little. I’m kinda OK with the rewards “in general”, but I don’t like their distribution.

Inside every chicken is a dragon screaming to jump out… you have been warned

OP I totally agree, there seems little point chasing Vets, Champs and .. yip Dragon when you can run around Maps picking up Rares and high level Mats from the most insignificant critters. I to like to hunt them pesky chickens as I have found them to be excellent loot droppers.

One thing that puzzles me though is.. where do they put all them Shiny Swords, Shields, Staff, and Heavy armours.. it must be a Dr Who Tardis in those chickens bellies

Vayne.8563:

Star Ace.5207:

I have actually NEVER gotten an Exotic from anything OTHER than a Risen Chicken at Malchor’s Leap, last September, 2012 (been playing since 3-day headstart). All my other exotics have come through map completion (which I can no longer achieve, of course, since I am done mapping.) It’s kind of ironic than not even the biggest bosses yield better treasure than a putrid chicken (this is not a complaint… I find it rather funny instead.)

Actually it makes sense. The chicken doesn’t really drop loot more often. You might kill a big boss 20-50 times. During that time you might have killed hundreds of other things. So it seems those things give you a better drop rate. But you’re always killing more of them.

If you killed as many bosses as normal mobs, would you have more or less exotics? I’m pretty sure no one can answer that question.

The point the time & effort it takes to take down an event Champ “especially if your trying to solo buck” against the rewards you drop from that champ is probably nothing better than what a few chicken might drop you… except the fact that in the same timeframe you could of dropped 20, 30, 50+ chickens… the reward system begins to feel somewhat disfuntional.

The Chicken farm in Orr (as one example) easily yileds me 1-2 Rares in a 15min farming session (when I remember to put some MF stuff on or eat a chew bar), plus countless mats, trash gear/items and of course garbage bones…the Gold returns are very noticeable to me. Then again most Champs/Vets are dropping next to nothing nowadays and many times nothing at all, so farming Champs, especially with DR seems more pointless than ever to me… aside from the occasional need for your Daily completion.

kokiman.2364:

Chickens can even hurt you after you killed them! Fear the chickens!

Like I said… inside every chicken there is a Dragon striving to jump out and bite ya

Bloodstealer.5978:

One thing that puzzles me though is.. where do they put all them Shiny Swords, Shields, Staff, and Heavy armours.. it must be a Dr Who Tardis in those chickens bellies

I just figured someone finally found a use for those Black Lion Express Couriers…

It is why I don’t get very motivated/enthusiastic when my guildmembers let us know in guildchat that a dragon is up. I sometimes join them for the fun of killing a dragon together. But as the chest is every time a let down it floats over the fun part as a shadow, which is a shame really.

Yup, expect chickens to feel the nerfbat next patch.

I agree Chikens have better drops than the Dragons Itself.

It’s sad but it’s true, but now you talked about it… Nerf incoming!

So what do you want exactly?

Guaranteed exotic to drop from a dragon?

Vol.5241:

So what do you want exactly?

Guaranteed exotic to drop from a dragon?

Guaranteed exotic or rare swould be nice. But then the chest would be limited to be looted once 24h or something for no farm on it.

Can you blame them, though? A very large number of people farm those dragon chests. Quite a lot of them don’t even WP in until a guildie or someone in map chat says “dragon up,” and in the case of Jormag’s Claw, many people wait another 5-7 minutes and WP in at the last stage of the fight to be a part of the mindless DPSing zerg and loot the chest. I don’t think this should be something that is rewarded by rares+.

I die to those chickens a lot more then I die to the dragons…

risk vs reward I guess.

I mean have you ever had 50 chicken’s explode on your kitten that you can’t even see due to culling? it hurts… a lot…

I’m torn on this. On the one hand, the distribution of loot in GW2 is unbelievably lobsided – OP’s post is spot on: more effort doesn’t get you more loot in GW2.

So we have this odd mix of fun (which is why we play) and preparing for another disappointing drop. More effort for not more reward just doesn’t sit well with our primate brains, and that’s not going to change anytime soon.

I’m convinced this simple fact is hurting GW2, and that something has to be done about this, soon.

On the other hand: do I really want big zergs farming the big DE bosses for epic loots ? Can’t we just get a laurel for a really big one ? Or if you have the balls: just make following a chained DE to the big boss fights a daily requirement. And if that’s a little bit too harsh, introduce a weekly achievement for stuff like this – kinda like the old days: you down one Onyxia a week.

Wholeheartedly agree! Participated in Teq, Shatterer and Jor twice a few days ago – from beginning to end always making sure I was getting a hit (big white number on the screen) and only got Rares twice. The rest of my disappointing results were Blues. Jor is the worst.
Those chickens though… rare machines!
Doesn’t make sense.

Just great… now chickens will get nerfed.

ADFX.6179:

Like many, I roam the lands of Orr, I stride the lost shore seeking fortune in events waiting eagerly for a temple run or the cumulation of a major chain where there shall be a boss that drops a big, fat, chest that occupies half my viewing screen. This sounds so wonderful to me and perhaps you too, whom roam the last shore, whom prefer to roam events in an open world rather than portal into a dinky little fractal. Dinky, I tell you.

But you see my good Sirs, my good Mrs. there is a problem and pronounced now more so than ever with Camp Penitent thoroughly bugged. People no longer value your events so much as to run them in preference to grinding mobs. That massive chest? It gives a few greens and blues and a tiny bit of coin for a ton of sometimes worthless effort. Yet now we can stand at a way point, even when an event is unbugged, and grind mobs of chickens, chickens I tell you, and receive moldy bags, valued ingredients, and even yellow rare or exotic items far more commonly than from your temples, your high Orrian wizards, or your vaunted dragons, no matter the magic find.

Good sirs, you have inadvertently produced a game where your risen chickens provide better loot than your dragons…

Can this really be allowed to stand? Are you secretly a front for Bojangles? For that greasy KFC? And I must write that, this is not a situation that can be solved with a NERF. You see from my point of view the open world roaming from one dynamic event to another is one of the few features you have that make your game UNIQUE. And, unless you want the open world abandoned in favor of those morbid dungeon runs, those dinky little fractals, participation needs to be adequately rewarded and of equal value.

I hereby request that you consider buffing the loot from those massive chests in Lost Shore and elsewhere so that they not only fill my screen but load my inventory with wonders. For now sir, I am heading back to the Lost Shore, and back to grinding chickens as no one sees the value in karma or chest of little comparable worth.

Chickens I tell you… And not dragons.

Thank you.

so full of win
+1111111111

too bad that anet don’t give a kitten anyways …

Vol.5241:

So what do you want exactly?

Guaranteed exotic to drop from a dragon?

How about the loot starts at green and goes up from there? Getting a handful of blues for taking down a dragon is — well, lame. Never played a game where the ratio of work vs. reward was so poor. A few days ago, I completed Only Zhul with a friend of mine. We got through the destroyer ambush, killed the champion destroyer troll, opened the chest — and I got two whites from it. TWO WHITES.

ArenaNet did a pretty good job of removing griefing from the game. Now you only get trolled by the loot chests.

Max Lexandre.6279:

Vol.5241:

So what do you want exactly?

Guaranteed exotic to drop from a dragon?

Guaranteed exotic or rare swould be nice. But then the chest would be limited to be looted once 24h or something for no farm on it.

Sounds good. I’d also toughen up the encounters some, if there’s a guarantee of a rare or better. And dragon chests should have a broader loot tables than they currently do. Throw in a small chance of a mini or something like that.

Blacklight.2871:

Sounds good. I’d also toughen up the encounters some, if there’s a guarantee of a rare or better. And dragon chests should have a broader loot tables than they currently do. Throw in a small chance of a mini or something like that.

In my opinion not only a broader loot table, but also drop more items per opening of the chest. Bag of coins, bag of gems, crafting items… All not very exciting as an item itself, but once you get them to drop next to the current items it atleast feels more rewarding.

Great post from the OP, appreciated the style and humor.

As for the issue:

-Remove rare drops from “normal” mobs.

-Increase rare drops from Veteran mobs

-Guaranteed rares from Event chests.

Exotics should remain as random as they currently are.

Spot on OP.

The dragons of legend were sought out because they hoarded gold and valuables. It seems that in GW2 these scary creatures of the world are much more content to just collect kitten from whatever trash happened by their lair within the last week. Coming from a purely AD&D background it makes no sense and IMO needs to be reworked. Greens at minimum should be offered for one of these glorious beasts of legend, with rares, exotics and yes even ascended being possible.

I can fully understand it if the chest was offered after taking down say the giant in Diessa Plateau, who, would have a few random trinkets mostly what us mere humans might not find of value (blues, greens, throwing rocks, crafting mats junk etc.). But chickens should logically drop some crafting material and nothing else (meat and feathers etc.) but it seems that logic holds no place in the GW2 universe and that is just sad.

Edit: Yes i realize this is a fantasy game and having a bow that shoots unicorns isn’t logical either, but unless we are living in an alternate universe as well as playing in an alternate reality MMO, players still want rewards worth the risk.

At least I can kill the dragons (._.)

Those chickens are killed immediately as soon as they can be touched. If I try to anticipate them being active, I cluster bomb them and get the “Invulnerable” message. If I wait a second later, they are disintegrated in a cloud of pink mist and fire before my character can draw her bow string.

I have much better luck with spiders at the other end of the tunnel.

I agree with Dragon loot and chests being increased. A chance for a precursor and named exotic(which I think is already there), a guaranteed rare, and guaranteed fragments of some sort would make them more enticing. At least then we would know that some progress either towards gearing/crafting/forging can be gained from a once per 3-4 hour event.

The idea about the big meta events “dropping” laurels at the end is a pretty decent one, but ultimately flawed because of how ANet has handled things. Laurels are sadly balanced around a very slow rate of gain. Doing a couple dragons per day, plus your daily and monthly, would mean ascended gear in a very short time frame (not necessarily bad, but obviously not what Anet wants).

This sort of problem could have been avoided if karma had been worth something. It’s a character-bound, non-transferable currency that cannot suffer from inflation. Yet they’ve pretty much abandoned it. If the highest tier of rewards could be purchased with karma (or crafted using karmic ingredients) then open world “questing” would be it’s own reward, and on a similar scale of time/difficulty to dungeons and fractals. Only monetary rewards would need to be tweaked – in favor of open world – to put everything on a level playing field.

so true, op xD.

Dragon tokens would help a little bit, but champions and, to a lesser extent, veterans need to offer something to make them worth while.

i love the challenge of killing a champ with 2-3 people, but atm it is not rewarding at all.

now i’m hungry for chicken, lol

Well, the dragons in GW2 aren’t exactly the type to collect treasure, seeing as they’re always flying around and want nothing more than to serve their master. The chickens, on the other hand, have been sitting in Orr, previously a wealthy nation, for over 200 years and have had plenty of time to gather up some loot.

Facepunch.5710:

in the case of Jormag’s Claw, many people wait another 5-7 minutes and WP in at the last stage of the fight to be a part of the mindless DPSing zerg and loot the chest. I don’t think this should be something that is rewarded by rares+.

I know what you mean. I’m wondering if they should adjust the percent chance of better loot from the chest based on the time a player was involved in the event. It shouldn’t be based on damage done to the boss, since you might be strategically fighting the mobs or ice pillars or whatnot to help the fight be successful for everyone overall.

In the example of the Claw of Jormag fight, I’d recommend that if you’re involved from start to finish, you should have a fairly high percentage chance of getting top loot from the chest. If you arrive only at the end of the event you should still have a chance to get top loot, but it should be a proportionally smaller chance.

yup, I agree with the OP. Risen Chickens drop better loots than the Dragonchests….I have only gotten a couple of yellows from the chest, but I got more from the chickens…..seriously…. may as well not waste time at the dragons.

Agreed, that events often drop squat espeically the bigger chains that you invest a lot of time in. It is dishearting to do a lvl 80 event to only get a bunch of blues and maybe a useless green, then go over over to one of the starting areas and a chicken mob at level 6 drops a rare lvl 80.

It would be nice to see maybe a few dungeon tokens thrown in for DE’s in the same zone as the dungeon. My server now it seems it is getting harder to find anyone doing dungeons and even factals now. Not sure how that is on other servers, but by making DE’s that offer chances at dungeon tokens, I could be happy with that instead of the miniscule drop rate of rares.

To look at the loot problem as a whole….there is just not enough items in the game to play for after reaching level 80. There should be a much greater number of items ranging in value for us to have a reason to play for other then the legendary.

ADFX.6179:

Like many, I roam the lands of Orr, I stride the lost shore seeking fortune in events waiting eagerly for a temple run or the cumulation of a major chain where there shall be a boss that drops a big, fat, chest that occupies half my viewing screen. This sounds so wonderful to me and perhaps you too, whom roam the last shore, whom prefer to roam events in an open world rather than portal into a dinky little fractal. Dinky, I tell you.

But you see my good Sirs, my good Mrs. there is a problem and pronounced now more so than ever with Camp Penitent thoroughly bugged. People no longer value your events so much as to run them in preference to grinding mobs. That massive chest? It gives a few greens and blues and a tiny bit of coin for a ton of sometimes worthless effort. Yet now we can stand at a way point, even when an event is unbugged, and grind mobs of chickens, chickens I tell you, and receive moldy bags, valued ingredients, and even yellow rare or exotic items far more commonly than from your temples, your high Orrian wizards, or your vaunted dragons, no matter the magic find.

Good sirs, you have inadvertently produced a game where your risen chickens provide better loot than your dragons…

Can this really be allowed to stand? Are you secretly a front for Bojangles? For that greasy KFC? And I must write that, this is not a situation that can be solved with a NERF. You see from my point of view the open world roaming from one dynamic event to another is one of the few features you have that make your game UNIQUE. And, unless you want the open world abandoned in favor of those morbid dungeon runs, those dinky little fractals, participation needs to be adequately rewarded and of equal value.

I hereby request that you consider buffing the loot from those massive chests in Lost Shore and elsewhere so that they not only fill my screen but load my inventory with wonders. For now sir, I am heading back to the Lost Shore, and back to grinding chickens as no one sees the value in karma or chest of little comparable worth.

Chickens I tell you… And not dragons.

Thank you.

You leave my chickens alone. i owe them my eternal gratitude, for they have greatly funded my legendary sword

Anyone who knows chickens knows chickens will eat anything. Even their own poop.

Dragons on the other hand have a picky diet that requires charred to ash pieces of meat.

So umm…..duh

I didn’t know chicken farming was a thing. I knew about just general mob farming around Orr, but do chickens drop more than any other Orrian mob?

I understand your point. The nerf to event chests was overly severe. I even agree, but…

…a game where the rewards from defeating chickens were better than those from defeating dragons BY DESIGN would probably be the coolest game ever.

Good post/thread.
Glad there was no mention of “And Found This Disgusting Brain-Like Organ Inside” ….I got it! There. Now you can image search this quote with chicken. Enjoy!

And not for something completely different… Veteran Svanir Champion is found in Dredgehaunt Cliffs, but will only spawn when a player of the Priory passes under the tree. How many other Veterans or Events will only appear to a player of a certain Order that pass by a specific location? So many secrets in this game!

The chickens were the real enemy all along.

LOL – you are right. The risen chickens and maggots often drop better gear than vets, champs, and dragons

Star Ace.5207:

I have actually NEVER gotten an Exotic from anything OTHER than a Risen Chicken at Malchor’s Leap, last September, 2012 (been playing since 3-day headstart). All my other exotics have come through map completion (which I can no longer achieve, of course, since I am done mapping.) It’s kind of ironic than not even the biggest bosses yield better treasure than a putrid chicken (this is not a complaint… I find it rather funny instead.)

Hahahahah, man my only exotic drop came from a risen chicken too! Need to farm them chickens!

How about this changes to Dragons:
- give them one Big Lootchest with one guaranteed Exotic once a week/month and maybe some other stuff
- to prevent ppl getting spread too much (resulting in too few ppl to slay it at the event time) try to do one of the following:
i) make them more seldom, maybe once a day and then at a fixxed time
ii) give em minor chests, like the ones now that have the chance for rares or even a guaranteed rare, so especially that Claw of Jormag is WORTH ITS TIME
iii) or a mixture of i) and ii)

That would be a huge step against this ridicolously-RNG-b(i)ased system !!

And the Problem is NOT that chicken (to be in the authors context, but with chicken I mean every normal mob) have too much and good loot.
Well in fact right now I realize why I didnt play GW2 for 2 months now …. its extremly depressing just to get enough money for a cultural armor let alone a legendary ( in fact if I sacrificed my complete free time just to farm, like I tried last week in Orr, it would take me 2 years or something to get one at current droprate but thats quite another story).

The funny thing is, like in real world, the riches get richer and poor ones poorer at least in comparison.

Awww and farm chickens now as long as you still can!
I wish Anet would have been as fast with banning China Farmers in 2012 as they are with nerfing loot. I know at that time I reported some bots two or three times a day for one week and they were still there, obviously behaving like bots. Even making Bug Reports about remote Bot-O-Rados cause there were too many to report them all.
Nothing happened then for quite some weeks….

I dropped the Limitless Furnace trident from a chicken some days ago, yea gotta farm’em all!

I’m sure that chickens have downed way more players in this game than bosses have so it makes perfect sense they would drop the best loot. My first day doing pent/shelt a guy linked an exotic and said it was from a chicken. He actually ended with an exclamation point as though it shouldn’t be this way. But over time I’ve learned to tag those nasty things and then get out of their way. They are also the most helpful NPC in getting your daily healer achievement. I’m pretty happy about where the chickens are in this game and hope they bring all the other NPC’s up to their standard.

Nerf the chickens!

Magiofdeath.2745:

I didn’t know chicken farming was a thing. I knew about just general mob farming around Orr, but do chickens drop more than any other Orrian mob?

No, they seem to have the same drop tables as all other mobs in Orr — which means that since there are a lot more mobs in Orr, and a lot more risen chickens, than there are dragons… Oh, and there’s a chance (1 in 3?) that when a risen chicken blows up on death, a Risen Maggot will spawn, which also has a chance to drop items.