Guild Wars 2

munki.6402:

FragFire.7023:

I didn’t see this subject addressed yet so I apologize if I missed the thread on it.

It’s quite obvious that putting NPC’s next to the bank in LA means they are going to be heard A LOT! You guys know this so their location was obviously planned… Now I have no problem with gay NPC’s in this game….. However I do have a problem with you using “children” to push your politics as though it is just an innocent game the children are playing. If you want to use adults to have this type of conversation then so be it but using children is just tasteless. I’m sure plenty of people will disagree with me… not everyone believes in God and that’s fine but many people do, so how about let’s play neutral and leave stuff like this out of the game completely… thank you for caring. Respect is a two-way street.

Leaving such things out of the game completely is a very strange definition of “neutral”.

Omgosh yes! I lacked words and that’s just perfect.

ScribeTheMad.7614:

They didn’t save it, we’re simply a footnote not worth mentioning on our own.

You sound like you need a hug, pal.

Really! XD

Druid was the first they talked about. And the last to be revealed at a special event.

Sounds to me like something special. But please do insist negativity.

Because children should go around hating gays, right? Not accepting them?

Maybe those “children” are the smart ones.

ScribeTheMad.7614:

As a ranger I am not surprised by this, not after 3 years of the treatment we’ve gotten already.

Footnotes in the grand design.

Looks like you didn’t click the link before you posted!

It’’ll be revealed at twitch! Cheer up!

Yes please! I want me some light armor Tribal bangles.

I always thought that “No Trinity” in GW2 just meant that any class can do anything. Not that they should all be glass dps and never care about performing in the role of support or frontline facetank.

Both types of game play can be fun. Being against one way or another kind of limits the enjoyment you can have.

Not sure why these arguments keep coming up. Hopefully it’ll get a lock quickly and we can move onto what this subforum is supposed to be about.

Thank you Gaile and Regina!

The quick response made all that evil confusion go away! \o/

xD

munki.6402:

mtpelion.4562:

CandyHearts.6025:

If they saved it for something special like that . . .

HYPE OVERLOAD!

They didn’t “save it”, they don’t have enough to talk about so they plopped it in as an afterthought with something else.

The pessimism on these forums is almost suffocating at times …

Isn’t it?! Lol! can’t phase me though!

DRUID GUNNA BE AMAZING! <3

If they saved it for something special like that . . .

HYPE OVERLOAD!

Not to add more fuel to the fire but -https://twitter.com/GuildWars2/status/644904491263881216

Last POI today? What about Druid? O.o

My record is 7 out of 27 tries.

Not the worst but . . . this is going to take forever. XD

MirrorOfNature.4279:

Emmalouise.1763:

Thanks for your opinions guys.

I am not saying that HoT should be delayed, Hell no! it feels like forever already lol.

But there have been huge gaps in the releasing of the elite spec’s so all of them could have been released before BW2 allowing for the ranger and engi to be tested in BW2, revised and retested in BW3 and then worked on further if needed. All the other classes have benefited from 2 BW.

Instead we will get ranger and engi dumped on us last minute, feedback will be given and changes made and released into HoT without any idea if the changes made are fit for purpose. (maybe they could squeeze in 1 more BW?)

I am a little sad of this

I wouldn’t worry much about that, mate. The beta weekends are made, so players can get a taste of the upcoming content and share their opinions on their favourite classes and the content all together.

Just No.

I have beta tested over 2 hand fulls of games. While some people treat the testing period as “Early game access” it’s really not that. Because of the wonderful feedback many of us have given; things have changed and updated and gotten better. Anyone treating beta like early access is really missing out on what it should be about.

Anyway.

I have a bit of a bad feeling when it concerns the later released elites. We’ve gone through a lot of testing and reporting in with what was released to us to test in the first bwe. It’s crazy to think we are so close to HoT being live and there are still 2 untouched elites.

And anyone thinking they’d rather have a release on time vs a done product is just being impatient. I would much rather have a smooth release than something full of bugs and issues that make it lack luster. First impression is a lasting one.

For those of you who can recall Archeage going live. Or when they had Auroria going live. You might understand where I’m coming from when things need to be ready and complete or you lose 1000’s of players who will NOT come back.

I really like Sylvari Ranger. You can summon an extra pet! xD

Edit – Because of Racial.

Rauderi.8706:

Glad to re-bump. :P

I get that they don’t want keys going too cheap, since people would just gold->gem them too often. I’d say start the lowest bundle at 2 keys for 100 gems, or if the wanted to keep their “uneven gems” exploitation, 3 keys for 150 gems. The minimum buy-in doesn’t change, but the value triples.

That’s great! As long as we can see them at a price that is tempting. I myself really only care soooo much about this because I see people so upset about the changes. I want everyone Anet and players alike to feel as if they are getting what is best out of the circumstance when it comes to BLC / Keys.

This would be a lot easier to figure out if Anet could communicate their reasoning behind the sudden changes. It’s almost like grasping at straws trying to find a fix that could suit the players while never knowing what would exactly fly right according to Anet.

Scrapper is a fun name.

I’d of picked nothing else for it. <3

Game hoppers always gunna hop.

I’d rather anyone who has that type of habit to just keep on moving. No offense.

Regardless of everyones predictions it’s pretty obvious the one thing that is sound is how we feel that the BLC is not worth it nor enjoyable. It doesn’t matter who I ask. The keys are too expensive for the contents of the box. It’s time to reevaluate the box on top of the key prices.

The keys should be around 50 gems.

(Sorry if I keep bumping this thread with things I’ve already said. I just want to make sure at some point this gets noticed. Thank you all to have kept posting. <3)

I just want Anet to talk to use like living breathing intelligent human beings.

We may not like the reasons why they made this change but at the very least it would give more understanding on some level.

A lot of us have been loyal customers for such a long time. Treat us with a bit of respect here and let’s talk about this sudden out of no where change. Maybe you didn’t realize how this would impact your community but it did. So bite the bullet and let’s hear your thoughts and plans already. Thank you!

leftyboy.9358:

CandyHearts.6025:

DaShi.1368:

pdavis.8031:

Just for posterity sake: Last year, when they changed how the PS worked with the NPE, people were claiming that the prices of Black lion skins would sky rocket due to the “nerf” of key farming. (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/RIP-keyfarming-merged/first)

From what I can tell, the price of the skins has remained pretty steady, the only major changes are when the item is no longer available.

So I don’t believe that this change will have too much of an effect on prices.
Plus with an increased drop rate in open world, it might actually help drive prices down, as essentially, you are introducing more keys, thus more skins, to the general population, rather then the small handful of key farmers.

The problem is that some of us have god awful RNG and are lucky to see an exotic a month and rare a week. Getting a key would be a miracle. Key farming was one of the few ways we could keep up with the economy and it wasn’t even that great for it.

Been farming trash mobs to see key drops seeing as people on reddit said they got em that way. 4-5 hours later all I’ve gotten is a headache + 8 BLC.

@ the idea that this wont change the prices. There was still a way to get them in game which is why the prices didn’t render any difference. Now that the keys are actually a rarity now it WILL change things. There aren’t too many people who find it worth it to throw away 150 gems per repair canister. That’s just how it is.

It’s all about supply and demand. And the demand for weapon skins will remain the same while the supply will dwindle because there is no way to EARN the keys at a decent rate anymore.

The change has to be with the boxes if they insist on keeping it this way.

After update hit I spent 8 hrs. testing “the new improved key drop rates” . After killing thousands of mobs of all sorts and levels I ended up with 0 keys and only 4 blc. Today I spent 4 hours just mindlessly killing mobs and got 1 key and 4blc ( hmm well the black lion chests seems to drop more frequently at least-I wonder what that’s about /wink ). 12 hours work for one key! You have better odds in las vegas.

Grats on the key! This is great news!

Paulytnz.7619:

It would probably be quicker to make an alt, level him up to 80, do the personal story to completion and then go through LS 2 if you have it.

Doing this would probably be quicker than relying on a drop and if I have my intel right you should get a total of 4 keys all up. 3 from PS right (lvl 10, 40 and 60 I think) and 1 at the completion of LS 2 chapter 6.

So, forget this increased drops garbage, it’s not reliable….

Edit:

Then again completing maps would probably be a quicker method than what I just typed up. :P

Have you had any luck with this? After spending some time learning about this “increase in drop rate” (hue) I wasn’t eager to finish the map I’d been working on to find out. >.<

What should of been done first

1. Fix contents of Chests
-Check profits made only via keys

2. Remove key gain for free accounts.

3. Give time frame upon character creation in which tomes can be used. Be it level restriction / age of character.

4. If still all else has failed, then nerf key farming with a giant slam of rage.
-Check sales.

5. Rinse and repeat of option 1 until it meets players standards.
-Remembering the customer is always right is the biggest key factor here. If they do not listen to demands that are reasonable they will only sink their own ship.

Dikeido.8436:

StrangerDanger.3496:

Solution: Keys for completing raids, create spvp reward where you grind for a key would operate just the same as normal gear boxes and progress bars only the last reward is a key. Do the same as in spvp only have it in wvw (hell add in all the gear/crafing boxes with the same progress mechanic as spvp)

Keys that you would be able to get per week: 3 (if you grind spvp,wvw, and do a raid which imo is a good way to keep all aspects of the game very active even if your not a huge pvper/pve’er)

more keys you can actually farm, more boxes you open, the more BLT’s and fragments you get. no need to adjust drop rates.

And no please don’t remove tomb of knowledge. those things are probably the most valuable thing I get in game right now given I’m new and saving them for a quick revenant progression.

NO I disagree with this idea over 9000×. Why should key be limited to only those that can RAID/PVP. What about the young, the elderly or the handicap and others who either can’t or choose not to PVP/Raid. Why can’t we have both the key farming be revert back plus the world drop increase.

Because that’s too much and Anet would feel like they are bleeding keys.

DaShi.1368:

pdavis.8031:

Just for posterity sake: Last year, when they changed how the PS worked with the NPE, people were claiming that the prices of Black lion skins would sky rocket due to the “nerf” of key farming. (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/RIP-keyfarming-merged/first)

From what I can tell, the price of the skins has remained pretty steady, the only major changes are when the item is no longer available.

So I don’t believe that this change will have too much of an effect on prices.
Plus with an increased drop rate in open world, it might actually help drive prices down, as essentially, you are introducing more keys, thus more skins, to the general population, rather then the small handful of key farmers.

The problem is that some of us have god awful RNG and are lucky to see an exotic a month and rare a week. Getting a key would be a miracle. Key farming was one of the few ways we could keep up with the economy and it wasn’t even that great for it.

Been farming trash mobs to see key drops seeing as people on reddit said they got em that way. 4-5 hours later all I’ve gotten is a headache + 8 BLC.

@ the idea that this wont change the prices. There was still a way to get them in game which is why the prices didn’t render any difference. Now that the keys are actually a rarity now it WILL change things. There aren’t too many people who find it worth it to throw away 150 gems per repair canister. That’s just how it is.

It’s all about supply and demand. And the demand for weapon skins will remain the same while the supply will dwindle because there is no way to EARN the keys at a decent rate anymore.

The change has to be with the boxes if they insist on keeping it this way.

Behellagh.1468:

CandyHearts.6025:

The issue I have with this at the moment is. How does the key reset work? Is it based on when you get one? Or the weekly reset?

I heard it was a weekly reset and not timed to your last one.

Thank you for that. It helps in planning. I’m going to make an “event” out of it for my group.

So far I have only been on a map for about 3 hours grinding the trash mobs while I uncover the map slowly. I’ve gotten 0 keys (obviously XP) but 3 kitten BLC.

I mean they are stacking up really quick since the patch yesterday. Meanwhile the keys are MIA. I’m going to see how the map completion renders here in a bit though.

Abimes.9726:

I just wanted to point out that you have to spend 31€88 average for one black lion 1 ticket skin. (buy 25 + 5 keys) or 159€4 average for a 5 ticket skin

->There is a point where if you just buy gw2 core game at 15 € on the net and farm keys with 9 alts you actualy are more effective than buying keys for black lion keys by 100% after one year if you concider the 1 ticket skin worth 30€.

BLK drop rates :https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Black_Lion_Chest/Drop_rate

Fair

That’s a very interesting fact! Thank you for sharing.

Substance E.4852:

CandyHearts.6025:

Substance E.4852:

CandyHearts.6025:

Guys it’s been changed for a day. I’m 100% you didn’t test enough to know the exact odds. Don’t be so down. We can make this work!

Like ScribeTheMad above, I too have only seen 2 drop in 3 years of play. Both times in WvW oddly enough.

Unless they increased it by several thousands of percent, it wont be anywhere near a noticeable amount.

Even the old drop rate of chests was fairly uncommon.

Welp I’m going to spend my day fighting trash mobs and uncovering maps to see if I get anything. Seeing as RNG hates me. . . If I get one then the odds were increased by a large amount. XD

More power to ya but I suspect you will end up earning enough gold to just buy a key before one ever drops.

Well then. Either way I get something! Sweeeet!

But for the community’s sake I hope its a key. We’ve been let down so much lately that I feel like something has to give.

Paulytnz.7619:

Just a flesh wound.3589:

They need to clear out the junk. By junk I mean stuff like the repair kits, the account bound minis that you can only delete if you have more than one, the boost enchantment powder, the transmutation charges and the crafting bags. No one wants to spend real money or even ingame gold and get items that are easily and more cheaply found in game. Then adjust the drop rates of the other items.

I just ran another alt through chapter 6 of the second LS (getting all my alts ready for HOT) and got a key for my effort. Guess what I got from the chest?

1 Booster (as usual)
2x Trans stones.

Just wow! O.O

Imagine the poor sod who waits a whole week for such a reward…..

And yes people, running your alts through the Second LS will guarantee them at least 1 key at chapter 6 completion.

Aw I’m sorry for your turn out! This definitely isn’t encouraging what so ever. I’m really hoping Anet will take a look at this thread and have some food for thought. This is for THEM and US. It can be a win win!

Substance E.4852:

CandyHearts.6025:

Guys it’s been changed for a day. I’m 100% you didn’t test enough to know the exact odds. Don’t be so down. We can make this work!

Like ScribeTheMad above, I too have only seen 2 drop in 3 years of play. Both times in WvW oddly enough.

Unless they increased it by several thousands of percent, it wont be anywhere near a noticeable amount.

Even the old drop rate of chests was fairly uncommon.

Welp I’m going to spend my day fighting trash mobs and uncovering maps to see if I get anything. Seeing as RNG hates me. . . If I get one then the odds were increased by a large amount. XD

Endless Soul.5178:

CandyHearts.6025:

-Complains that SW chest farmers are greedy and force someone to farm
-Doesn’t look in LFG to get on the right map.
-Demands people who are not doing anything wrong to be limited.

Did I miss anything?

The demanding stomping of the foot for emphasis?

Crap I knew I left out the important part! Thank you! XD

Behellagh.1468:

Either allow account bound minis to be forge fodder. Or make it smart enough to roll again if you get a duplicate.

That would be awesome. I have gotten the snow owl 4 times so far. v_V

Guys it’s been changed for a day. I’m 100% you didn’t test enough to know the exact odds. Don’t be so down. We can make this work!

I am so touched to see people putting Mesmer as “Hard”

So opposite of what all those thief players whisper me in SPVP. :P

-Complains that SW chest farmers are greedy and force someone to farm
-Doesn’t look in LFG to get on the right map.
-Demands people who are not doing anything wrong to be limited.

Did I miss anything?

I don’t know why but. . .

I LOVE THE NAME! Can’t wait for the POI this week. I bet it’ll be fantastic!

The issue I have with this at the moment is. How does the key reset work? Is it based on when you get one? Or the weekly reset?

Guys really. On subject. I don’t want this locked.

AVM.5746:

Has anyone seen a noticeable drop rate of the keys? Or is it safe for me to assume they just increased it by .001% for the sake of saying it was increased?

I’m about to venture and test it out for myself.

I saw on reddit that people have gotten them from
-Fractals
-Trash mobs in various areas
-SW

But it’s not a lot of people so far. But! Maybe people just aren’t posting about it.

Guys as much as I love a good discussion this isn’t about the keys.
It’s about the contents of the box and improving the experience so that people would actually find them worth buying.
We’ll all miss farming because that felt 100% worth it. But we have yet to fully test how well they drop so we’ll have to see exactly how much they’ll be missed.

On subject of the original OP – The best lotto box I’ve ever purchased in a game was by “Smite”. You had promised odds. Promised odds meant at 1 point after few purchases you would end up with what you wanted. This was GREAT because people felt the boxes were a small gamble but worth it in the end.

You could only buy the box a certain amount of times before the box was “fully unlocked” and you had to try your luck at another box. They made tons of money doing it this way because it was FAIR to the players.

Of course there were a few boxes that were awful (where it required 54 purchases to unlock everything in the box fully) but you knew what you were getting into before you bought it.

The problem with the BLC is that it’s not fair to players. It’s a high risk low reward box that barely renders anything useful. For a low level new player I would much rather see them offered a different chest as a “sampler” so as I have seen said here. But to vets and long term players alike it’s not aimed towards our needs nor desires so the idea of buying them just gathers dust.

As a business person myself. . . I can see where and why Anet might be tired of giving away “something for free” so quickly with the key farming. But how I also feel is you get what you paid for and with this current chest contents that is hardly EVER the case.

You could get 5 pieces of armor skins for 700 gems. Great buy. Good purchase. How many gems will it take to get 1 singular weapon skin? It can add up to ridiculous numbers and all you receive in the end is feeling defeated and unrewarded.

What could fix this? Lowering scrap requirements? Getting rid of scraps and only getting ticket drops? Removing trivial items such as boosters, repair canisters, revive orbs? Making Minis Mystic forge-able?

Anything would be a vast improvement over the current contents. This wasn’t because we could farm. . . it’s because nobody likes to throw 150 gems away over and over to maybe get 1 scrap.

It’s extremely important for the in game economy that we improve the BLC or soon the prices will only be another problem that players wont enjoy.

What we should do is get everyone we can together for a weekly “get together” and farm the keys together. It could almost be a mini-event. Leveling and doing the story together in organized groups.

(Just pick the same story as the people you party with and you can progress with the instance holder).

Might not be as it was but the more people that can come together the more keys are quickly pocketed.

Shaaba.5672:

Yes, please at least make BLC drop worthwhile prizes. I do not want crafting bags and I do not want boosters other than the new ones, and I really do not want the enchanting powder. That has always been a very disappointing reward since I can walk over to this guy I know and buy it for 10s. It’s not that I want those things to be replaced by super valuable stuff (well, I do :p) but I don’t want junk. crafting mats are useful, but easily obtained in other areas of the game. The boosters clog my bank and I like that they have been reduced to the 2 new ones, so why do the old ones still drop? And the powder … I’ve already covered that.

oh – add tomes of knowledge and transmutation charges to the list. I have reliable ways of acquiring those already, thank you.

Yesyes! It’s really full of junk. The Repair canisters are the worst to me. I understand when they charged for repairs that that item was a decent find. . . but seeing as things have changed. . . that bit needs to go. >.<

Just a flesh wound.3589:

People also level by doing hearts/events and crafting to level 10.

And this is the good part. That added value to the keys via time or money spent where as using tomes = stocked from and tossed away without any value added.

Whether it be time or money spent that = end result of some sort of value.
Right now they are forcing the value of keys to go up while the contents of the box stay the same (which is fulla junk). It’s not a balanced value and will only hurt the game long term.

Lambent.6375:

5 keys/400 gems please.

@ the people that think they’re going to be getting keys as drops at a decent rate now. (pic related)

Black Lion skins will probably go up in price, unless they start doing key sells more frequently. (or I may be underestimating the number of people who buy black lion keys, and rip themselves off from selling skins so cheap)

I hope I’m wrong, I want to be wrong, I want to stick my foot in my mouth, I want people to point at me and mock me.

The keys aren’t worth a diddly when the chests give nothing but junk 9/10. 5 for 400 gems is a ripoff.

That could slow down the process and make getting keys more valuable while still keeping it possible in game. I like it!

Though anyone who just wants to make alts and get tomes to 80 will probably dislike it very much. XD

DaShi.1368:

They should reduce the ticket price of all BL skins to 1 ticket. That would make purchasing the keys more worthwhile and balance out a bit the market impacts of this patch.

I like this!

Also I feel like it would be great if . . . they cap the oldest ones at 3 tickets and just do away with scraps in general. Only full tickets and increase the odds a bit.

Paulytnz.7619:

My fix:

1 – Remove chests/keys.
2 – Sell the skins or Tickets DIRECTLY.
3 – Add a TON more skins that people will actually want with no RNG behind it.
4 – Enjoy gem sales.

Gambling of this form has no place in this game at all. The game is a shining example of being great quality from makers with top notch integrity, well that’s what you think until you discover this part of the game.

Yeah… the lotto box thing has been the scummy part of every game I’ve ever played. I would love to see it change in any way to make it more enjoyable. When things are enjoyable and rewarding people are more likely to participate. Recently handling of keys will only result in economy inflation. What to do really is up in the air. I like your suggestions, as well!

Not to be rude but isn’t that what single player games are for?

Wondrouswall.7169:

Looking at the loot available from Black Lion Chests I would like to see some of the more less-rewarding items be removed, others merged, and an increase of quantity of other drops to make it at the very least a bit less disheartening when receiving these.

Remove the following:

• Boost Enchantment Powder
• Beast, Forest, and Furniture Mystery Tonics (the ones that come in quantities of 10)
• Tome of Knowledge
• Large Guild Discovery
• Medium, Large, and Heavy Crafting Bags
• Endless Monkey King Tonic
• All Boosters except the Heroic Booster.

Merge the following:

• Revive Orb & Repair Canister as a Recovery Package
• Merchant Express, Trading Post Express, and Bank Access Express as a Tradesman’s Package
• All individual Miniatures as part of the Toy Miniature Egg

Increase Quantity the following:

• Unidentified Dye to 3-5 per stack (up from 1-2)
• Transmutation Charge to 5 per stack (up from 1)

I’m sure more can be done to improve the BLC contents, and the removal of highly unwanted items and a possible merger of others would be a good start to make BLC more rewarding. Just a suggestion, feel free to criticize or bounce more ideas around.

These are wonderful ideas! I like it very much!

mrstealth.6701:

Agemnon.4608:

As for number 3 those players were exploiting, and it’s surprising how long the key farm thing lasted. I knew they’d eventually do so. I never got around to doing it myself though

Actually, Anet stated (multiple times) that they were fine with the key farming. And even commented that they didn’t want to kill it when they made the NPE changes, and locked the first story chapter until level 10.

This is a complete 180 on a position Anet has confirmed, and reconfirmed a few times over the last three years.

And they wont comment about it of course. There is one thing I hate and that’s when there’s a problem gaming companies go into hiding and refuse to give reasons. I could almost be fine with the changes if I understood them going night and day on the issue.

DragonflyDusk.6582:

DaShi.1368:

Agemnon.4608:

As for number 3 those players were exploiting, and it’s surprising how long the key farm thing lasted. I knew they’d eventually do so. I never got around to doing it myself though

For me, the only thing that made the Black Lion Keys justifiable to farm was that the results from the chests were RNG. Paying real money for RNG is just ridiculous.

That said, I only farmed the keys a few times (usually when bored or wanted a skin on sale ) because it gets tedious really fast. I hold no ill will to those who could bare doing it over and over again. In fact, I appreciate it because it kept the price of Black Lion skins at reasonable levels.

See, I almost never key farmed, and if I did it was for maybe a week, then I wouldn’t do it again till halfway through the year. It is completely the prices of the Black Lion skins that has me freaking out about this. I’m not interested in turning this in to my second job, so if those keys dont have a significant, realistic drop increase, I’m going to pretty much say adios to anymore BL skins. And I never really had that many to begin with.

CandyHearts.6025:

DragonflyDusk.6582:

You mean if I buy keys I can gamble for one, right?

No you have to buy keys for 150 gems for a chance to activate the protection of the spleen guard.

xD

“Activate Spleen Guard!”

It’s Not Very Effective…

XD! LOOL