In general, GW2 is pretty good about giving alternate paths to attain resources. PvP/WvW reward tracks give currencies that would normally be available only through PvE/dungeons. While PvP is not my thing, that’s a pretty cool thing for those who focus on it. Even the HoT maps have:
•Verdant Brink Reward Track
•Auric Basin Reward Track
•Tangled Depths Reward Track
•Heart of Maguuma Reward Track
“Heart of Maguuma Reward Track? Spiffy!” I thought as I searched the list. But apparently Dragon Stand not its currency is not a part of Maguuma. Sad-face.
Point being, the only way to get Crystalline Ore is through Dragon Stand.
Fun map, but actually getting into it is a painful chore for PvE enthusiasts, so I can’t imagine how that’d be fun for PvP/WvW folks.
So, I’ve been pondering alternative methods, and one of those was simply to have a reward track that includes a Noxious Cache as a container that mimics the drops for the Noxious Pods, with the 8th cache bearing a larger ore payout.
It’d be friendlier to the players in general and give PvP/WvW players a way to get the material that isn’t so mind-numbing.
The Mystic Forge is another relatively-easy implementation. There are some HoT materials that are gathered too easily but have limited purpose, so I’m thinking something like:
•100 Bottle of Airship Oil
•100 Pile of Auric Dust
•100 Ley Line Spark
•20 Mystic Crystal (Basically 12 Spirit Shards or use some Elonian Wine or whatever to add to the cost)
yields 10-20 Crystalline Ore.
(Maybe a rare chance of 30-50? Getting that notion from Noxious Pods giving 1, 3, 10, or 14, but that’s not necessary to emulate.)
I’d even consider 250 Oil+Dust+Spark and a Gift of Gliding for 100 Crystalline Ore to be a manageable recipe.
Main reason behind the idea is to get rid of those overabundant materials (including Spirit Shards) and loosen the yoke on Crystalline Ore.
Or, y’know, make it easier to get into an active map by removing Dragon Stand off the timer, so the One Sacred Map isn’t so coveted, and the Megaserver can do its thing naturally. (Basically, don’t start the timers until the camps are full.) Not exactly the easiest option, but it would make the map incredibly more playable. Which means more Machetes/Noxious Pods (and more fun), which means more Crystalline Ore.
The tl;dr – Make Crystalline Ore more available by:
Why? Then people wouldn’t do Dragon Stand. I do think getting more ore from mithril would be useful.
Why? Then people wouldn’t do Dragon Stand. I do think getting more ore from mithril would be useful.
If that’s the concern, then I’d be okay with #3 getting implemented. It’s stupid to wait two hours, squad, DIE, and pray the megaserver keeps you with the squad before being allowed to actually play the map.
That’d require a huge rework, and a way to ensure rewards don’t go to leechers, like with AB multiloot.
Then all those oil/dust/energy items could just be turned into their appropriate currency dealers in exchange for parts/aurilium/crystals, which can then be turned into machetes for opening pods during the Dragon Stand runs.
If you get all your machetes from the reward track you can use them up faster than you can get them without need to find any DS instance. It is probably set up this way since most of the things that requires crystalline ore can be bought with proofs.
If you get all your machetes from the reward track you can use them up faster than you can get them without need to find any DS instance. It is probably set up this way since most of the things that requires crystalline ore can be bought with proofs.
Good to know! I’m in the WvW phase of my legendary weapon (with the DDOS nonsense, a bad time to do it >.>), so I’m getting a few Proofs. I could save myself some trouble and buy one of the inscriptions I’ve been after.
I get machetes through the Ley-Energy Matter Converter.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ley-Energy_Matter_Converter
..when I’m not using it to avoid Tangled Depts for chak acid. :P
i dont have exact numbers, but is something near 4 or 5 dragon stands to get like 750 cristalline ore. However I open almost every pod except the last northern region full of Bristlebacks. i stack like 100 machetes, every DS run u can spend like 30 or 40.
Why? Then people wouldn’t do Dragon Stand. I do think getting more ore from mithril would be useful.
If that’s the concern, then I’d be okay with #3 getting implemented. It’s stupid to wait two hours, squad, DIE, and pray the megaserver keeps you with the squad before being allowed to actually play the map.
That’d require a huge rework, and a way to ensure rewards don’t go to leechers, like with AB multiloot.
Then all those oil/dust/energy items could just be turned into their appropriate currency dealers in exchange for parts/aurilium/crystals, which can then be turned into machetes for opening pods during the Dragon Stand runs.
Dragon Stand is perfect as is, and they must dont have to touch it.
The difficulty in general was nerfed like 1 year ago, before it was much worse.
The main change was adding a lot more pods(if you complete the side events) and giving a much longer time to loot those pods. Never noticed any change to the actual fights.
It is also sometimes possible to multi loot DS but it is very inconsistent.
Dragon Stand is perfect as is, and they must dont have to touch it.
The difficulty in general was nerfed like 1 year ago, before it was much worse.
It’s not a matter of difficulty. I never have major issues in Dragon Stand. (Except when Mouth decides it’s funny to mass-fear/kill an entire island… gg, Anet)
The problem is the timing and the obnoxious gymnastics it takes to get into the One Map doing anything. It’s a great map, when you can get there.
I’ve had no issues getting into a map on NA. I need to farm like 4K+ ore to buy up all of the guild vendor rewards and for the rest of the HoT legendaries that will be eventually released. I have zero issues with the current acquisition method of ore and don’t see myself running into issues getting onto a map.
I’ve had no issues getting into a map on NA. I need to farm like 4K+ ore to buy up all of the guild vendor rewards and for the rest of the HoT legendaries that will be eventually released. I have zero issues with the current acquisition method of ore and don’t see myself running into issues getting onto a map.
So, the usual method, then?
. . .And there’s zero problem with this?
I’m not in a tremendous rush, so I’m fine just taking a handful of machetes and running to the few pods that exist without the meta, but gathering for the meta should have been updated a year ago.
Also, 4k+ Ore. Sweet mercy, you have my sympathies and good fortune to you. May you get many 10-ore drops to speed you along.
I’ve had no issues getting into a map on NA. I need to farm like 4K+ ore to buy up all of the guild vendor rewards and for the rest of the HoT legendaries that will be eventually released. I have zero issues with the current acquisition method of ore and don’t see myself running into issues getting onto a map.
So, the usual method, then?
- Squad in 20 minutes early
- Attempt to taxi to map
- Pray taxiing actually works
- Wait the remaining time
- DIE
- Pray Megaserver doesn’t boot you anyway
- Respawn
. . .And there’s zero problem with this?
I’m not in a tremendous rush, so I’m fine just taking a handful of machetes and running to the few pods that exist without the meta, but gathering for the meta should have been updated a year ago.
Also, 4k+ Ore. Sweet mercy, you have my sympathies and good fortune to you. May you get many 10-ore drops to speed you along.
I always went in about five minute til and never joined a squad. If I didn’t see a lot of people spawning on my map, which was rare in my experience, I’d join a squad in LFG on hop over to that map. You may have very well experienced something different.
Yeah, that 4K is going to be rough. I’m just expecting the map to not be as active once the expansion hits so I’m trying to get everything now.
in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns
Posted by: Boogiepop Void.6473
The main issue is DS is a huge 2 hour investment AND you need to have spent a lot of time on the other 3 maps to get the keys because the machetes don’t drop at a reasonable rate. So it’s really closer to 8-9 hours per DS run. That is ridiculous.
Yeah, it’s about two hours including the time it takes to open up all of the pods. A lot of maps do manage to finisher quicker though.
Ideally you will want to be start the map with 70 keys. I think that was the number I used during the first push to farm ore for the current legendaries. That’s like 350 of each of the other map currencies which isn’t that difficult or time consuming to get. You can get that in less than an hour per map. I average about 1K of TD in an hour depending on meta completion, about 500 in AB from challenges through octovine completion, and about 700 in VB by hopping to each of the camp final metas and by doing the night meta. It’s probably more like 4 hours spent at most for a DS meta.
Yeah, it’s about two hours including the time it takes to open up all of the pods. A lot of maps do manage to finisher quicker though.
Ideally you will want to be start the map with 70 keys. I think that was the number I used during the first push to farm ore for the current legendaries. That’s like 350 of each of the other map currencies which isn’t that difficult or time consuming to get. You can get that in less than an hour per map. I average about 1K of TD in an hour depending on meta completion, about 500 in AB from challenges through octovine completion, and about 700 in VB by hopping to each of the camp final metas and by doing the night meta. It’s probably more like 4 hours spent at most for a DS meta.
For more passive gain, there’s also the Aurillium node in the home instance and the Ley-Energy converter. A free machete every day if you want it, then you can convert whatever currency you have the most of to whatever you have the least of (for me it’s TD crystals), and buy more machetes before the meta.
As others have said, the likely reason why we haven’t had alternative methods of acquiring Crystalline Ore is because ANet needs a hook to keep people coming back to Dragon’s Stand. (This problem will only become more acute when the next expansion is released.) It’s similar to how people keep coming back to Dry Top because it’s the game’s only source of Quartz (aside from the HI node).
Also, 4k+ Ore. Sweet mercy, you have my sympathies and good fortune to you. May you get many 10-ore drops to speed you along.
Compared to geodes required for the Ambrite collection that is … trivial
As others have said, the likely reason why we haven’t had alternative methods of acquiring Crystalline Ore is because ANet needs a hook to keep people coming back to Dragon’s Stand. (This problem will only become more acute when the next expansion is released.) It’s similar to how people keep coming back to Dry Top because it’s the game’s only source of Quartz (aside from the HI node).
Also from Wintersday Gifts and the map bonus in Sparkfly Fen on week 8.
(edited by Khisanth.2948)
Geodes needed for the collection were very easy to obtain. A single map cycle would yield 400+ geodes or players could just spend 20 min and farm the sandstorm for 100+. Much different than crystalline ore where you have to farm other maps for currency and then spend at least an hour on DS which yields about 110 ore on average.
You can get a maximum of 12(or was it 14? either way haven’t seen a tier 6 DT in forever) geodes from an event … for crowbars even on the low end just 3 crowbars and 3 airship parts from a cargo which is a total of 9. On the high end an event can give 10 crowbars while the cargos can give more than 40 that is a total of 400 from one event versus 400 from an hour.
Also the most expensive thing costing crystalline ore is 250. The cheapest you can buy the recipe sheets is 325 and that requires tier 6.
As others have said, the likely reason why we haven’t had alternative methods of acquiring Crystalline Ore is because ANet needs a hook to keep people coming back to Dragon’s Stand. (This problem will only become more acute when the next expansion is released.) It’s similar to how people keep coming back to Dry Top because it’s the game’s only source of Quartz (aside from the HI node).
I can buy Quartz. (Don’t need to, got a stack of 500 I should be selling.) If I could buy Crystalline Ore, I would. :\
So maybe we only need Dry Top for Geodes? Nope, I can PvP for those. Because going to Dry Top is labored and frustrating, but PvP potions give me piles of the stuff.
And I only got about 40 C-Ore on my last run. I got zero 10-ore hits, maybe one or two 3-ore drops. If anything, those higher-value drops need to be much less rare, and I think the acquisition rate might be more reasonable.
Not in a huge rush as it is, since the Amalgamated Gemstones are also a hideously expensive grind.
For those that cannot devote 1h 30m+ to do the DS meta. You can enter DS any time and find a few pods. I tried and got 15 Crystalline Ore within 10 minutes or so, just running around looking for single pods. It’s really slow to get all the ore you need that way, but it’s an easy way if your character has high mobility. Just 10 to 15 minutes per day and you certainly have 100 in a week. Since the maps renew every 2 hours or so, this can be done multiple times per day. If you are lucky, you get into a map where the meta failed before and there are more pods.
For those that cannot devote 1h 30m+ to do the DS meta. You can enter DS any time and find a few pods. I tried and got 15 Crystalline Ore within 10 minutes or so, just running around looking for single pods. It’s really slow to get all the ore you need that way, but it’s an easy way if your character has high mobility. Just 10 to 15 minutes per day and you certainly have 100 in a week. Since the maps renew every 2 hours or so, this can be done multiple times per day. If you are lucky, you get into a map where the meta failed before and there are more pods.
I do that on occasion as well. Last time I did it, I got . .
4.
There just aren’t enough stray pods, and most drop only 1, so it’s not typically worth it.
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