Guild Wars 2

To those who have not found out the bitter truth yet: The loot from the Black Lion Chest is not worth the gold/gems that the keys cost. I’ve spent 900 gems for keys (10) and with those + the keys (3 I think) I’ve got as quest rewards I’ve opened some 20+ chests. My results?

ONE black lion salvage kit (worth 300 gems)
ONE pack of fine transmutation stones (worth 200 gems)
ONE instant repair canister (worth 70 gems)
TWO bank access tokens (worth 150 gems)

Plus

A TON of absolutely useless, account bound tonics, of which the only meaningful use is to take up your bank space.
A FEW Black Lion harvesting tools with ridiculously low usage count.
A BUNCH of boosters, fun but ultimately useless.

So unless you think the last three are worth something, it’s not worth to purchase keys from the gem store until ANet makes the chest loot worth the price of opening them.

Want proof to my point? Check the price of Black Lion Chests in the TP.

Prepare for this post to be deleted promptly.

stating to “prepare this to be deleted” is in all honestly, childish, and idiotic.

and not sure of your server, but ask anyone in piken square and they tells exact same, that they are not worth buying. wont need forum post to figure this out, its been figured out for weeks now.

its good that chests arent gamebreakingly rewarding so your not forced to buy keys.
its good idea to have such chest in game that needs gems or irl money to open it.

bad side: those 2 wont walk hand in hand, why to buy something wich simply isnt worth it? wont need to be game breakingly rewarding, but atleast more rewarding than the key it self. perhaps add small chance to gain mini pet? wouldnt be direct money but still worth it regardless of pets prices being 300 per 3. but removing the tonics, or making them vendorable, would be nice first step to help alot of people get more bank space :P

If you didn’t get it, this was also a post directed to ANet so they might in the future tweak the contents of the chests to make opening them more desirable.

Making the tonics tradeable would be a start. Roleplayers might be willing to pay some coin for those. Adding a chance for rare crafting materials would be even better.

As you agreed, at the moment the chests are not worth it. I’m not expecting them to become jackpots, but they need to be adjusted slightly.

I got 30 chests in my bank. Only open them if I get a key as drop or reward.
I keep hoping for some awsome boosters. I like the +50% karma gain booster alot. Use them at a point where there is a continously repeating event, and you’ll have more karma than you can spend. (Not really, but it almost feels that way) :P

In the end. I don’t spend alot of time trying to open those chests. Just hanging on to them in case they decide to put some worth while lewtz in them at some point.

As for the tonics. I destroy them most of the time. Some are quite fun though.

People might perceive the value of things differently than you.

You have stated your opinion, i agree with it, but that does not mean that it is objectively the basis for buying keys.

mhm, few good tokens are the karma one, and killstreak one killstreak is 100% exp bonus for 30sec, timer resets after each kill.

repeating event with both up, rawr!

gabo.6721:

People might perceive the value of things differently than you.

They might, but based on the price BL chests sell on the market (one copper above vendor price), they don’t.

Pazernus.9273:

mhm, few good tokens are the karma one, and killstreak one killstreak is 100% exp bonus for 30sec, timer resets after each kill.

repeating event with both up, rawr!

Then just buy those directly from the gem store?

Tom Gore.4035:

If you didn’t get it, this was also a post directed to ANet so they might in the future tweak the contents of the chests to make opening them more desirable.

While I agree that making the chest more desirable would be nice (and make Anet more money) I would like to point out this is not the place for directing feedback to anet. If it gets deleted or locked it will be because of this. not the content.

And with some luck you could have gotten 10 BLSKs.
Killing dragon or doing dungeons are a waste of time then since repair bills are expensive and the loot is random, yes?

Jakula.1072:

Tom Gore.4035:

If you didn’t get it, this was also a post directed to ANet so they might in the future tweak the contents of the chests to make opening them more desirable.

While I agree that making the chest more desirable would be nice (and make Anet more money) I would like to point out this is not the place for directing feedback to anet. If it gets deleted or locked it will be because of this. not the content.

You’re right to the point. Now I’ll go post this in the suggestions forum.

Oh, right. Such forum does not exist

Abbehemoth.2471:

And with some luck you could have gotten 10 BLSKs.
Killing dragon or doing dungeons are a waste of time then since repair bills are expensive and the loot is random, yes?

You’re missing the point. The only way to get enough keys for all the chests dropping is the gem store and gems, while can be bought with gold, are ultimately bought with real money.

Tom Gore.4035:

Abbehemoth.2471:

And with some luck you could have gotten 10 BLSKs.
Killing dragon or doing dungeons are a waste of time then since repair bills are expensive and the loot is random, yes?

You’re missing the point. The only way to get enough keys for all the chests dropping is the gem store and gems, while can be bought with gold, are ultimately bought with real money.

Oh yeah? I’ve bought 4 keys with gems. The 20-ish other chests were opened with keys from chests. I have a ~80% rate on gettign a key from opening a chest. Guess i’m just lucky.

Abbehemoth.2471:

Tom Gore.4035:

Abbehemoth.2471:

And with some luck you could have gotten 10 BLSKs.
Killing dragon or doing dungeons are a waste of time then since repair bills are expensive and the loot is random, yes?

You’re missing the point. The only way to get enough keys for all the chests dropping is the gem store and gems, while can be bought with gold, are ultimately bought with real money.

Oh yeah? I’ve bought 4 keys with gems. The 20-ish other chests were opened with keys from chests. I have a ~80% rate on gettign a key from opening a chest. Guess i’m just lucky.

“Lucky” in a way, yes. The drop rate for a new key seems to be around 50%.

In any case, the key in the chest happens to replace the (usually) most useful item and you’re left with the tonics and the booster (and the key).

I have like 10 or 20+ chests and 7 keys from story or map completion. Not opened them. Because I opened 2 others early in the game and the tonics are annoying. You got them from a chest and don’t want to drop them away because technically they were for free(as I got all the stuff from rewards or drops and did not need to buy keys) and don’t like to throw away free stuff you usually can get nowhere else for free.

You can’t sell them. They are bound.

My suggestion: Instead of tonics give something that can be traded for tonics at a tonics NPC. This would take only 1 slot and you can open more chets without having 10 slots used by tonics. And you could chose to buy the tonic you wanted(maybe some rare ones more expensive at the NPC).

At the gem store sell packs ot these item you can trade for tonic(tonic tokens – tonic token pack for example).

…

Or just let us sell them at the trading post and don’t make them bound. But this will ruin the money making strategy because with every different tonic taking 1 slot inventory the market will be flooded and they got at 1 copper and nobody will buy them from gem store.

So my first suggestion is better I think. Good for users. Good for ArenaNet. If they bring some nice and rare tonics that are expensive.

Abbehemoth.2471:

And with some luck you could have gotten 10 BLSKs.
Killing dragon or doing dungeons are a waste of time then since repair bills are expensive and the loot is random, yes?

I think the idea of having fun and or entertainment is completely lost on you.

Been saving chest and keys for a while now. Just opened 40 of them.

40 Fine (lvl 80) Transmute stones (come in groups of 5)

5 BLTP Merchant summoning thingy.

4 instant bank access items.

3 Repair canisters.

7 BL salvaging kits (175 uses)

and tons of useful boosters not available in the gem store, such a rejuv for an hour, speed boost for an hour, 5% damage increase for an hour, crit boost for an hour, etc. Not to mention fun transformation items.

I spent no gems on keys. I feel the chests are very rewarding.

I think even just making it possible to sell the tonics would go a long way towards improving the situation since they seem to be both one of the more common drops and one of the most useless.

In GW1 some people clearly loved having tonics. They’d spend huge amounts of money (even by GW1 standards where 1k gold is nothing) to get some of the everlasting ones. I could never see the appeal myself, I thought they were a waste of money (and time since you had to stay in towns to use them).

So it seems silly for someone like me to be stuck with tonics when I’m torn between using them because I may as well and destroying them to save the hassle of using them, meanwhile somewhere else in the world is someone who would love to have the tonics and get a lot of enjoyment from them.

It’s not even that I want to make money selling them, I’d be happy giving them away. I just don’t like destroying or wasting something another player might really want, but I don’t have any other choice right now.

Man you guys are getting some decent stuff. I keep getting tonics that transform me into some animal. Kinda useless.

Bobobejumbo.4951:

Been saving chest and keys for a while now. Just opened 40 of them.

40 Fine (lvl 80) Transmute stones (come in groups of 5)

5 BLTP Merchant summoning thingy.

4 instant bank access items.

3 Repair canisters.

7 BL salvaging kits (175 uses)

and tons of useful boosters not available in the gem store, such a rejuv for an hour, speed boost for an hour, 5% damage increase for an hour, crit boost for an hour, etc. Not to mention fun transformation items.

I spent no gems on keys. I feel the chests are very rewarding.

You’re one lucky son of a b…

Just look at my findings from the beginning of the thread and compare.

hmm, anyone cares to mention the price of all the “boosters” plz ?
you all seem to forget that boosters are costing a lot when piled …

Battlewill.5614:

hmm, anyone cares to mention the price of all the “boosters” plz ?
you all seem to forget that boosters are costing a lot when piled …

I’d like to see some statistics how many of these boosters are actually bought directly from the gem store… Yeah.

You forgot to mention the cost of the boosters in your OP… each boost costs 150-200gems… so at the MINIMUM you are getting an item worth 150 gems, not including the tonic and 3rd item.

The boosts are extremely useful for getting SP’s and karma. Or a speed boost or armor boost or damage boost, etc…

ZudetGambeous.9573:

You forgot to mention the cost of the boosters in your OP… each boost costs 150-200gems… so at the MINIMUM you are getting an item worth 150 gems, not including the tonic and 3rd item.

The boosts are extremely useful for getting SP’s and karma. Or a speed boost or armor boost or damage boost, etc…

Read my post above. I’d say very few people buy the boosters directly from the store…

Tom Gore.4035:

If you didn’t get it, this was also a post directed to ANet so they might in the future tweak the contents of the chests to make opening them more desirable.

Making the tonics tradeable would be a start. Roleplayers might be willing to pay some coin for those. Adding a chance for rare crafting materials would be even better.

As you agreed, at the moment the chests are not worth it. I’m not expecting them to become jackpots, but they need to be adjusted slightly.

Making the tonics useable in combat AND making them tradeable would be the ONLY ways to make them worth anything.

Heck, you can’t even jump while transformed…

Pazernus.9273:

but ask anyone in piken square and they tells exact same, that they are not worth buying. wont need forum post to figure this out, its been figured out for weeks now.

Another good GW2 macroeconomics lesson. Chest drops vastly exceed key drops/key purchases such that there is way too much supply of chests.

Tom Gore.4035

You’re right to the point. Now I’ll go post this in the suggestions forum.

Oh, right. Such forum does not exist

Completely agree!

Danikat.8537:

So it seems silly for someone like me to be stuck with tonics when I’m torn between using them because I may as well and destroying them to save the hassle of using them, meanwhile somewhere else in the world is someone who would love to have the tonics and get a lot of enjoyment from them.

You can hold out hope that they add a Party Animal title to GW2, making all those tonics useful.

You even got more return value then you spent on keys, plus it’s common sense there’s nothing superior in there. If you expected some “ub3r gearz”, well – there’s the door.

I for one bought about 8 keys in total and completely happy with the contents.

I do NOT want chests to have some mythical pay to win item, they are for fun and fun only and should stay that way.

Protip to ANet. If I could sell the tonics on the TP, I would be more inclined to buy the keys. Right now, I just destroy the chests when I get them.

Tom Gore.4035:

To those who have not found out the bitter truth yet: The loot from the Black Lion Chest is not worth the gold/gems that the keys cost. I’ve spent 900 gems for keys (10) and with those + the keys (3 I think) I’ve got as quest rewards I’ve opened some 20+ chests. My results?

ONE black lion salvage kit (worth 300 gems)
ONE pack of fine transmutation stones (worth 200 gems)
ONE instant repair canister (worth 70 gems)
TWO bank access tokens (worth 150 gems)

Plus

A TON of absolutely useless, account bound tonics, of which the only meaningful use is to take up your bank space.
A FEW Black Lion harvesting tools with ridiculously low usage count.
A BUNCH of boosters, fun but ultimately useless.

So unless you think the last three are worth something, it’s not worth to purchase keys from the gem store until ANet makes the chest loot worth the price of opening them.

Want proof to my point? Check the price of Black Lion Chests in the TP.

Prepare for this post to be deleted promptly.

They could increase the prices of said content inside the chest. Cruel (and unacceptable) but effective on their end or lower the price of the keys and/or increase a bit the chance to find treasure.

Buying keys is same scheme on Team Fortress 2, which now a days a lot of games are putting the same said scheme on their games. I dont find them attractive and, in my opinion, could be considered a vice like putting quarters into a slot machine.

I dont see any reason for your thread to be deleted if is just your opinion.

TIP: DONT delete the chests! Sometimes, in quest and drops, you can get keys for you for free.

I think most people realize they shouldn’t waste their money on keys. For those that don’t, well you know what the man said: “A fool and his money are soon parted.”

To A Net: You can keep those tonics though. Would save me the trouble on deleting them. Seriously- fun for the first few seconds, but you give out at 3 or 6 in every single mystic chest.

Now, if they were somehow made to not take up inventory/bank space, they might actually be worth saving. Maybe put in a collectibles section for them? As they are now, they’ll just continue to get deleted as soon as I open the chest.

So what I get from this is YOU didn’t feel the items in the chest were worth it and found little value in them while OTHER people did.

Some people have gotten more value in gems out than they put in and some haven’t. Go figure there would be such disparity and someone feeling they didn’t get their money worth when playing with an item that is essentially a nickle slot machine.

I really like that you can stack the chests pretty high. I’ve got almost 30 of them taking up one bank space waiting for keys to drop. I trash the tonics though. It would be nice if the tonics could be traded. I imagine that some creative folks could use them to create some fun short films.

I haven’t completely figured out how to get the keys (other than gems)

I liked how the keys used to drop randomly in loot from the beta weekends but seeing as I haven’t got a single KEY drop in full release makes me think they removed it from the loot table

The chests are great as they are now.

Those chests could have something more usefull inside, like crafting materials or unique skins.

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