First of all I want to state, that I am one of those guys who was running dungeons over and over again just pugging until I got better by adopting ideas and strategies of other players. So there was the experience of Guildgroups and the extremly noob group. I could finish CM fullrun in 15-20min (I talk about legit runs without exploiting) with the right groups (where I was Thief or Guardian so not just walking with them but also having an important role) but there were also groups I needed 30min just for p1 and that was pretty exhausting especially when I LFG "fullrun, exp 1 Warri, 1Guard/Mes). My hypotheses on the toxic meta issue is Missunderstanding. Metaplayers wanted to do Dungeons obviously quick and for the profit (while I also had an satisfaction in pushing the limits) but they also sacrificed some effort in learning the strategies, getting the armor, weapons and buffood. Noob players wanted to do a dungeon just to experience the content. So when a Noob joined a Metagroup there was a problem of which not the noob nor the metaplayers were to blame for. Meta players didnt want him on board but were mostly to busy and kicked him rather than explained him he should look for a casual or noob run (or watch YT guides) and the noob was pretty upsait for getting kicked without an explanantion. Solution: Metaplayers should have taken time to talk to the noobs (especially cause the noob may one day also be a good player with whom you also could do fun dungeonruns with).
I dont want to talk about the Meta / good players debate at that point. Obviously there is skill and there is gear and i rate skill over gear but pretty much every skilled player who knows the dungeon also has some gear to do his dmg with. But enough of that.
Now About the profit. What Jockum.1385 stated above should be about right. In the first hour u could get more out of Dungeons with an exp grp (AC, CM, COF,SE(1and3)=about 16g add the tokens(2-3g)). But second hour will already drop pretty hard (let s say HoTW, CoE and maybe TA (up)=about 12g add the tokens(2g)) third hour(Arah 11g add the tokens(1g)) and then it s done. You cannot do more cost effective Dungeons then, of course you could do all other path which I didnt mention but that would be even worse than doing Worldbosses. So with an organized Guild u could do on a normal day (no record breaking, maybe one or two fails) first hour about 18g, second 14g, third 12g if not less, when u re failing more. SW gave u about 15g and that s a reliable win. Let s say you have a guild u re running SW with you could get up to 17g (have a friend who farmed about 7k gold only with SW, personally i have no idea if that s right cause i hate brain-afk gameplaystlye of SW
The main problem Anet had with Dungeon vs. SW gold was SW gold didnt influate rather it did the opposite while dungeons mainly purely influated (some lucky drops dont face the massive goldinfluation).
So going back to good old Dungeon gold seems impossible.
Just to mentioned here Fractals give about 10g in total of which 8g are directly trakittenems you sell to vendors and 2g are of matrixrelated stuff (plus sometimes u get ascended Box but u cannot sell that one so not in consideration, as well as the fractalrelics
Raids. I honestly just tried it three times and didnt care at all anymore about that. Failing a Boss until you kill it and all depends on the ten people you maybe know but mostly not (cause I dont play in a big guild). I cant see how that should compensate all the different settings stories and challenges of the dungeons. But back to topic. I heard it s rewarding for some people who are really dedicated to it as a bosskill gives you 5g but I neither know if that s correct or how much you can make out of it (maybe someone wants to add some information here?). We will see how much it does influate only over long period of time.
Finally my request to Anet. Do not give Dungeons more Gold but give them something else.
I dont care if it is ascended Chests you can buy for 100 Dungeonruns or Blackliontickets. I would even be happy about karma, if u could by something for that karma (e.g. u can buy materials for precusror crafting which are bought with gold at the moment for lots of karma instead (maybe 1mio karma for a Precursor like Howl, 2mio for spark and 2.5mio for the legend? or higher prices. This is just an idea) Or u could get an currency which is exchangeable to all other currencies except Gold and Laurels.
I dont really care what. But the Meta problem isnt solved by removing dungeons as it appears in Raids just the same (just look into the LFG system any time the day).
Dungeons are FUN! I play them even nowadays but when u finish arah p4 and get 1.26g you cannot help but laugh (if it could be possible to send the gold back to anet I guess I would have done it right away). The big Problem is already known. No one who can play the game plays dungeons anymore because they are so unrewarding that you re better off doing anything else.
If anet finds a way to get the players back to play dungeons (and maybe also fix some bugs) a small (?) part of the community (which loves dungeons not only for the reward they gave) would be very grateful and stay loyal to the game and wouldnt watch out for a better game which rewards their beloved dungeons (which are really too good in GW2!).
Dont get me wrong I dont want them to be as rewarding kitten or Tarir but at least as rewarding so players who care a little about the reward return to the best content of the game ;D
Congratulations to all who made the effort and read my statement. And sorry if my English isnt proper (still learning)