Guild Wars 2

I wanted to see if we could get together some general information from various players about their experiences up to this point; after 3 months. I’m also curious, for each, if they feel properly “rewarded” for their time spent; a sort of ROI, relative to loot. Hopefully many will input their experiences, to help compare time spent vs. returned luck / wealth. I would like to also include various other identifiers to further refine results.

Basic Format:
1. When did you begin playing? (post bw’s)
2. how many hours total do you have? (/age)
3. What’s your most gold banked so far?
4. Do you have a max level character (s)? (number if more than one)
5. List 1-3 areas / zones / events / tp; where you spend most of your time for income.
6. Do you mainly use MF or not?
7. Have you ever got an exotic weapon from a mob? If so, how many and total?
8. Have you ever got an exotic weapon from a chest? If so, how many and total?
9. What’s the most number of rare weapons you have looted in one day or 8hrs time?
10. How many rare or exotic weapons do you “expect” to loot in one hour of time?
11. How many lodestones have you looted total so far? (all types)
12. Do you craft? If so, do you have a 400 crafter? if so, how many?
13. Do you sell your looted crafting mats? (specify optional)
14. Do you feel your return, (in terms of items, completion, income, etc) for your time, has been worth it?
15. In ONE word, what needs improved most; from your perspective?

I know, some may not want to answer so many questions; please feel free to respond to less if you prefer (or have not the time). Thank you for any that participate here.

So, for me then.
1. Headstart day one (25th)
2. just over 1100 hrs (2 accts, 800 main)
3. 120g (just hit!! yay)
4. Yes, 4 – 80’s
5. Cursed shore, AC, CoF
6. MF 85% of time, yes.
7. Yes, 1 exotic (lvl 76 trident on my 1,930th event)
8. Yes, 6 exotic (2 MK, 2 Karka, 2 FoTM)
9. most is 13 rares in 8 hours
10. I expect 1 per hour (sadly)
11. total of 6 looted
12. Yes, Yes, Master crafter (8 max)
13. No. Excluding some T5 cloth, leather and dust
14. Not really no.
15. LOOT

@ Michael *catches the ball from the left field wall. I was merely making a loose analogy as I stated. Also, I did apply that we are both the employer and consumer. I am Not recommending a union, merely to correlate history. Further, I suggest no conspiracy. The fact of forgetting to change tables to current standards (including DR etc) does not need conspiracy.

@ Rabbit. Ty for the sarcasm, I did get a chuckle. I do not consider anyone lesser or greater though, so peon is not used in my vocabulary.
I merely wanted people to see this was a prime example to “how much we’ve lost” in 2 months. I apologize if my wordiness confused the underlying point.

@Marrogon, I did Labryinth once, Mad King 3 times (with guildies) and got to 80 3 days after first nerf.

After much debate, I decided to bring this small fact to light as I tend to be; A. An honest person and B. don’t like wool being pulled over ones’ eyes.

First (on a side note), and to clear up MF easily. Does MF apply to chests? NO, never has, never will. Why? “Magic find is an attribute that increases a player’s chance to receive rare loot from drops” (quote wiki) “Chest rewards” are NOT “loot” nor “drops”, simple.

Now to the more pressing issue, relative to my ideals. In some small way we can relate Anet to our employer and we are employees; getting paid for our work (gold). Now, the derivation from a typical employment scheme; is that we are also spending our “hard earned” money, soley with our employer. Sure, we are earning this money, masked in the concept of hobby or fun; however the employment “Circle” is still required.
Our (employee) main disadvantage, then, is we do NOT have an independent third party to establish a minimum pay (loot). Our Pay is decided, in total, by our employer. Now in history this has not proved to work well. Some would argue even; that some corrections didn’t help either. E.G. a workers union or gamers union in this case. The employer will always want less pay (loot), while the employee will always want more pay (loot). Again, without a third objective party; it is likely NEITHER party will adopt an ethically correct payscale; that agrees with both parties.

I wanted to show the above, because we all have a value and a voice and a valid perception; Not just the employer. We have as much authority, as a whole, as does the Dev’s themselves. Just like with work, if you have no employee’s; you make no money / product. Don’t let wool be pulled over your eyes in yet another arena of your life experience.

Finally then a point I feel was missed completely. Let’s take a look at the Mad King Labyrinth; and the Loot table settings when it was released. There were a few threads about all the great items that “magically” were dropping from this chest. Some wondered if Anet had holiday spirit and added more loot chance. Others thought it was an exploit. Still others wondered if it was a bug that needed fixed.

NO one saw what it REALLY is and I’m not sure why. This patch was developed and finished (sure bug check on test) before the game’s release. Herein lies the reason then, for loot. The loot tables for this chest were set to MATCH those of ALL chests “as per release”. There was no holiday cheer, no bug to be fixed. This merely had the loot set as it was, when the game came out. Many of those who were in HS or got to 80 early, know that exotics dropped quite regularly before “changing”. So, simply here, “they forgot to nerf the holiday tables.”

I’ve pointed this all out as I feel awareness is a good part of being able to understand things. I also wanted to show what is being termed “nerfing”; could in fact be likened to a “payroll reduction” on our employers part. It’s a lot easier to digest a “nerf” when it is not up to you; however, it is not a nerf, but a pay reduction.

So what we all got to “see” with our own eyes at the Lab, is not a bug; but how much our pay has be CUT since the game was released. I had expected many to make this correlation as the cut we’ve had is horrifying. I suppose, I hope this helps with perception to those that see this.

To fellow employees (players) we have a voice and a say.
To The employer. “forgive them, for they know not what they do”

Sincerely, Mrkraken

So I’ve been thinking / wondering this for a while and guess I might see what others think. I wonder if a simple solution can be found for several issues that seem to exist.

For the large part, I agree with Karma items and BOP / BOA items; as this follows Anet’s stated intentions. I DO like, here, that you have to “earn” these yourself and cannot be bought, cheated or traded to get.

We have several currencies in this game, though only Gold can be bought, traded, or cheated to aquire. Also, I believe most agree (since it has been stated a lot) gold has a fairly minimal value / need; with the exception of Precursors.

If we look at all the components to build a legendary they all take time, your time; again with the exception of precursors.
My perception, for the Devs’ intentions, of legendaries; is to be similar (somewhat) to gwamm from gw1. E.G – something to show that you have put time in and completed most of the game. I wonder if this, in fact, was their intention and considered “better” than the previous title only.

Here’s a proposition then, using Occam’s Razor.
If you (practically) eliminate the “cheat-able” component to legendaries; would that not solve / dramatically reduce a multitude of issues?
-People who feel legendary out of reach; fixed.
-People who dislike RNG forge; fixed.
-People feeling they can never get enough gold; fixed.
-Large demand for illegal gold purchases; Fixed.
-Incentive to “bot” ; dramatically reduced.

As many have expressed, the need for extraneous gold is fairly minimal with the exclusion of precursors. It would seem logical, that the demand for illicit gold follows this as well. If the Gold component was removed / or “made common” (relatively); it would not shorten the “expected time” for completion, as Anet intended.

One option, then, is to make the availability of precursors; somewhere in between rare and exotic lvl 80 items (eg 20s – 2g). I understand a can of worms is opened, possibly, here too. If we apply Occam’s one last time; it would seem the precursor may be best as a BOA item from XX step (s).

For instance, you receive a legendary (choice window) when your character completes the “emergency responder” title track. This would seem to follow gwamm and intention, while keeping all up to you.

Edit: above I meant legendary precursor for responder completion, sorry.

Just a thought, don’t hate too much ty

I guess I can add thoughts, but I’m not an expert. Suppose somewhere in between a hardcore / casual (530hrs), but you can lump me into a maller class (200.00 typically in a f2p mall game). I’m assuming here the free market was related specifically to the gem conversion and I wonder, if in fact, it could BE a good thing.
For the 15% TP and 38% Gem to gold, I understand this aspect and agree it helps curb issues. My perception of the whole gem to gold (from the dev’s pov) was to help reduce 3rd party gold sales and increase revenue. This most likely would be a “fine line” as gem to gold introduces the possible argument of B2P / P2W. It would seem, that the main reason / purpose for allowing gold to gem; is to nix / reduce chances of the above argument. It would seem logical that gold to gem was not considered / wanted to be a sink as it avoids revenue.
If a free market for gem to gold,, would refer to buy /sell like the tp (margin of course); this may be a win win. This potentially opens another aspect to “play” as some seem to do with the TP. If there are players buying cheap farmed gold and placing lots of buys; the value of gems should rise (more G per gem) over what they are currently. If we exclude or correct farmed gold / excess gold; then the gems should drop. In either case, from a dev pov; you don’t take the heat for these changes as you will / do currently. I suppose that’s a bit of a plus too.

Last from my pov, I’ve been waiting since release TO get gold with gems. I’ve added several bank and inventory so far, along with some mini’s and dyes. however, I still haven’t “felt” that my gem value (to me and my real money) is worth gold transactions. I’ll continue to wait there. I suppose also if I add the gem cost and total gems I spent; it may be around 4500-5000, but with $$ to anet. One guild mate who leveled up with me took his money (when he hit 15g) and put it all to gems. He was around level 65 at the time and this was all his money; but he thought, it came so quick, why not get gems “it’s free”. At that time, he got 5900 gems….. I was a little taken back that I chose a “dumb” path paying $$ for gems (still would, but wow). I wonder if a free market may help the most long term for micro’s.

Sorry to be long, I also agree with others for better reward / money from un-bottable areas. Ty

No Exotics looted or from chests in 500 hours and 2 lvl 80’s. I know they can be looted, but seem a bit too rare. Though I know they dropped MUCH more the first week of live. I had thought exotics were removed from the loot table completely but someone recently posted on in map chat; that was looted. Yes a few exotics from zone complete that were salvaged as unusable

If I’m not mistaken, I believe they were dumping the old database after 5 days from headstart (so 2nd live day). Been a while since that announcement though

ty for informing about the rock idea! I know just where a rock is in cursed to try this and I’m excited to see as it would be funny.

My only reason to state they weren’t looting (least the ones I saw) they never put themselves on top of the enemy. I was watching for them to move onto enemy for auto-loot, however they use ranged and just wander in a circle; never approach an enemy.
goes to get a rock

All of the bots I’ve seen are only there for Karma and event rewards (coin there). I have NOT seen a single bot (20 reported or so) that loots. I don’t know that any have applied looting yet; so no, bots aren’t affecting TP in any way.
Opinion
In before lock

I’d like to mention my thoughts (though it seems I find the threads that get locked). I ran MF in BW2 from the store and I ran a total of 12. I also ran MF in bw3 and stresses, so I can say it was changed before live.
I think overall Anet didn’t expect the bulk majority of players to run MF. Actually I tested the boosters so much as I was concerned (in Bw2) that this would ruin certain game aspects. My initial concern was that people would end up spending gold for gems to perma MF boosts. However, I did not feel that the MF was rewarded enough (using boosts with $$), so I was with Anet; that it wouldn’t be a big issue, after testing.

If we flash to now, a large amount of players run MF; however this is out of a thought to gain money as fast as possible. As opposed to MF actually gaining an advantage / known advantages. There are still many postings about whether MF even works, or what it effects. I myself have been on this boat since BW2 in terms of “what it does”.

I highly doubt we will ever get a proper explanation for MF, but I do have some ideas to what it does NOT do. From my own testing (so opinion here) I don’t feel MF applies to; Dungeons, Chests, Gathering, Forge, Exotic Drops, ecto chance and possibly (now) even rares. E.G- mostly you seem to get a higher percentage of useable items; specifically white armors / blues / greens and mats with less “junk”. For backing here, I am at 500 hours live and had nearly 100 hours before pre-release toon wipe; all of this with MF and I have never got a rare in dungeon, rare from chest (post bw) or any exotics looted period. I consider it a little bit of something and that’s about it, I mainly run as I have poor luck in RL lol.
Maybe if they were to officially state that MF doesn’t apply to dungeons, that would help some as I agree; good stats are better than MF in a dungeon. In regards to pricing of runes and stats, if MF is removed, there is again; only one stat all will use (for the most part). This stat / rune is power / precision / crit and is already, in general, equal to; or higher than MF components. I guess at least now I feel I have 2 choices, MF or P/P.
Sorry to ramble and give my useless thoughts

Nuther +1 for “why nerf mesmer” I love the mesmer and it is / was my main. After getting to 80 and realizing it’s very poor for Pve and DE’s; I decided to play another class. I can say, since I’m US on EU and play late (solo mostly in empty zones) mesmer was a bear to complete all areas. I’m very saddened that they further reduced mesmer in this patch. I guess my mes goes on a shelf as a collectible trinket now.

1. mostly, Yes
2. a. Yes, b. Yes, c. No
3.N/A (no one to tell)
4.No
5.No

I agree that anet did poorly at both incentivizing gem to gold, but also their price point of gold value. with the precusor dusk at appx 1,600.00 USD (didn’t calc directly here).
I had full intentions of purchasing gold at intro, however the start price was not / is not still worth it. I’m not planning on buying web site gold, though I know of a couple who already have.
I agree with op that gem to gold should be a main fighter for “reducing incentive” to gold sites; thus lowering the total number / profits / buyers. TBH I’m surprised that hasn’t been the case as of yet. The anto-farm, DR, speed clear, etc, etc has also seemed / proved counterintuitive as well it seems.
dunno

Gratz with 80g, as I’m up to 30g (highest in guild) @ about 450hrs. I believe some of this is possibly caused by the few thousand that have hundreds of gold atm. These were created from early 80’s (before nerfs), trade plundering / regulating (and they said it couldn’t happen), exploits (e.g- karma, speedclear), etc.
With money slower now than release I can’t see me getting to 200g anytime soon. Never been one to take advantage or do wrong, but I can’t say I don’t wish I got on one of those money boats now.