Guild Wars 2

I’m starting to see this pop up in map chat, usually around the dragon events, and specifically up in Frostgorge. Now, this could have been going on forever, I only recently started paying attention to and participating in the dragon events myself (even though my main has been 80 for quite some time).

Some people are saying that if you party (and even for farming Trolls, which may be more of a speed thing than anything), that loot quality will be better than if you are by yourself?

Other folks are saying there is no proof of that?

I was wondering if there was a definitive answer on this, or in lieu of a sanctioned answer, compelling evidence one way or the other?

Thanks.

You don’t get better loot from a monster if you’re in a party but the chances that a killed monster gives you XP and/or loot becomes higher when you’re in a party.

If you’re alone it seems you need to damage a monster for about ~5% of its maximum health to get experience and about ~15-25% to get loot.
However if you’re in a party you only have to damage a monster slightly to get XP and/or loot from it as long as your entire party dealt enough damage to it.

So yes, being in a party doesn’t gives you better but at least more loot.

I have no idea if party affects events with chests.

It makes a clear difference in events where the loot comes from the fallen enemies. The official guide book said that when you are in a group anything killed by a party member will potentially spawn loot for you if you wounded the npc during the fight.

I know I get barely anything alone, but running in an ‘event farming’ group on Cursed Shore about triples my loot.

Well there’s this:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Loot

But it doesn’t indicate two things.

1. Do you somehow negate the 5-10 rule simply by being in a group? Does the group become ‘one’, and ‘anyone’ who meets the loot tapping rule cause everyone in the party to be eligible for loot on that mob?

2. Does being in a group somehow ‘increase’ the likelihood of obtaining ‘better’ items. (i.e., user A has a 0.01% chance at getting a yellow drop within 5 levels of current level, but user B has a 0.2% chance at getting the same yellow because they are in a 3 person group, and user C has a 1% chance at the same yellow because they are in a full group…using completely made up numbers, of course).

I guess all the talk in /m out by the dragon in Frostgorge made me wonder if there was anything substantiated to that effect (or [insert favorite after life residence here] forbid, actual information from them).

i’ll believe it when i see it, until then its all talk. official guide books can be wrong, wiki isnt perfect neither. the only person who has the answer is Anet, but knowing them they would never answer how loot works, or at least as precisely that people would like.

How exactly it works is unclear, but being in a party definitely increases your volume of loot. From there, it’s about the usual percentages of each kind of loot, but due to the massively increased volume, you will be getting more good stuff.

Ok, so thus far, mostly speculation, barring the increased chance perhaps purely through increased volume, especially when you are doing something like farming trolls, which would make a lot of sense (@Drarnor).

Well if I don’t see any sort of grand claim with data to back it up, I’ll use Rainzar’s answer to mark it completed in a day or two, since that one basically sums it all up (we don’t know, Anet knows, they aren’t saying).

Thanks folks. I figured if there were something obvious that I was just oblivious too, I would have gotten something more definitive.

Well it IS obvious, it’s just also obviously anecdotal.

It’s just like people saying MF works vs people saying MF doesn’t work.

The truth it is DOES work, it’s just RNG so it might not always work for you, leaving you with a negative opinion towards it.

LithePanther.5027:

Well it IS obvious, it’s just also obviously anecdotal.

It’s just like people saying MF works vs people saying MF doesn’t work.

The truth it is DOES work, it’s just RNG so it might not always work for you, leaving you with a negative opinion towards it.

Well, obvious yes and obvious no.

If you mean by obvious as the other poster stated, that theoretically in a group you would clear things faster, and then have more opportunities, and hopefully over time produce more, then sure.

But the part that isn’t obvious is whether there is truly any sort of ‘party bonus’ to the system. Wherein if you are alone, your chances are x1. If you are in a 2 person party, your chances at x2, if you are in a 3 person party, x3, etc. And also, does the party count as ‘one’ thing with respect to the loot tapping rule. If one person in a party never touches a mob, but some of the other people do, do you get a roll (should it be determined anything would drop for you had you been alone and tapped it to begin with)? I would see that as a possible benefit as well, as it might also impact your gold/silver/bronze status? Thinking out loud.

So take something like Jormag. Everyone runs up saying ‘lfg’. Now, in the beginning, if we’re talking about the ‘obvious’ part of being in a group and clearing more stuff, if you manage to kills lots of those elementals as a group as well as get gold status on those ice crystal things, then maybe there’d be some benefit there based on ‘that’ part which we agree might be obvious.

What isn’t obvious is whether when you then go kill Jormag, and you are in a group, do you have, by rule, a better chance at getting ‘item x’ then me, who is alone? Clearly the obvious rule doesn’t apply at Jormag, because there is only one of him and one chest at the end. The party doesn’t kill many Jormags in the time it takes me to kill one, thereby getting more chances at the RNG?

And by rule, I don’t mean RNG experiences over time and opinion, but rather, is there a ‘group bonus’ rule in effect that improves each members chances of receiving each tier of item the bigger the party is?

Or is the ‘we need to be in a party’ some sort of mythology that grew out of the grouping that goes on in the area for, say, Trolls, which really is about quantity and brute force and chances at the RNG per time spent, and that was somehow translated to ‘well i heard if you are in a group you get better loot’?

I guess that’s what I’m asking.

Now, if ‘group bonus’ rules are confirmed, then making sure everyone is in a group would have an impact on how well you might do at Jormag.

DesertRose.2031:

You don’t get better loot from a monster if you’re in a party but the chances that a killed monster gives you XP and/or loot becomes higher when you’re in a party.

If you’re alone it seems you need to damage a monster for about ~5% of its maximum health to get experience and about ~15-25% to get loot.
However if you’re in a party you only have to damage a monster slightly to get XP and/or loot from it as long as your entire party dealt enough damage to it.

So yes, being in a party doesn’t gives you better but at least more loot.

I might debate the increased % to get loot. I’ve barely touched things and have gotten loot off them before. Most probably below 15% (but I couldn’t prove that if I had to).

But if it’s true that the entire party’s contribution effects it, only needing to contribute a smaller number when alone, then that would be a significant reason to group when running around in an area killing monsters to ensure everyone gets as much as they can.

Still not entirely convinced it would mean anything on something big? Unless you weren’t there for the entire event and had run up at the end and wanted to be sure you got something out of it, getting one hit in and having someone invite you quick before it’s over might mean something vs nothing.

Now, whether that makes sense or not is for another topic altogether. I think I’ll stay out of that.

I guess it’s run it’s course and I’ll mark yours as the answer.

Thanks everyone. It gives me more to think about when it’s offered and I hear people talking about it.