Guild Wars 2

My take on a better outmanned buff :
-Double the NPC’s on all objectives for your server.
-Double the respawn rate on all NPC’s for your server.
-Add X% (variable based on how outmanned you are) defense to all walls/gates.

Jinks.2057:

Heinel.6548:

Jinks.2057:

So everyone is just complaining about all thieves then.

Its either too much damage or too tanky or stealth abuses too much or resets fight at will etc etc etc

Gotta hate those 30 30 30 30 30 thieves running around

Not all. Thieves who don’t abuse stealth is not in the complaint.

That’s not true. We could go thru all the pages and pick out just as many if not more complaints about glass thieves damage.

Every aspect of the thief class has been complained about in this thread.

This thread needs to be locked.

LOL, why does this thread need locked? It’s a discussion.
I don’t think anybody would be complaining about thief burst if there was no issue with stealth. I agree that this thread went pretty off topic and started targeting thieves instead of stealth, but it’s kind of understandable since one directly relates to the problem with the other.
Of my three mains, a thief is one of them, and the crap you can pull off while abusing stealth needs addressed. I don’t know how to address it, but a conversation like this one can often spark an idea with some middle ground they may catch a developers eye. In other words, I hope this thread does not get locked, but I also hope it gets back on topic.
When they “fix culling” with the next patch, who knows, maybe stealth will not be an issue. I doubt it since historically, most games with stealth have balancing issues to where the stealth class is either completely useless or OP… Would love to see ANet be the group to find the middle ground.

FC and ET are both great servers and could use the help. Come to T8 and help swing the fight! SF has the numbers on them, but SF is very unorganized, so if you can help them get the numbers close, they could swing the fight by simple organization and coordination.

Scaled by the WvW population would be ideal, but we likely will never see this as it would provide an indication of the WvW population which Anet, for some reason, wants to keep secret.
The recent WvW population numbers for the different servers have been requested many times, so I doubt we will see them again or they would have been provided by now.

Wow ET! Way to go guys, I’m happy to see the numbers start to fall your way… if we are not careful we may have a real match-up soon without SF being able to take a lazy win by numbers. I’m hopeful and looking forward to it! See ya at reset, and good luck all.

MikeFerguson.8921:

We use existing mechanics like player kills and event completions to award world XP, but it is an entirely new system with new pieces of data associated to it so unfortunately there’s no way to award retroactive progress.

Thank you so much for the answer, lots of us were wondering the same thing.
I’ve gotten used to a red post in WvW forums meaning it was locked, and was pleasantly surprised to see this was an answer! Keep it up, we love hearing from you guys.

I’d rather see winner move up loser move down.
I’m okay with alternating between winning and losing instead of doing the same kitten thing every week… it gets old, and makes the game a bit stale IMO.

If we get the chance, I think we (SF) are going to struggle in T7.
We have a very light night crew, it just so happens FC/ET has an even lighter night crew (lucky for us).
We may very well belong in tier 8, but when we keep winning by a notable margin and are losing points for it, we start to wonder if we belong here or if the math is improperly keeping us here.
Unfortunately we have been in T8 with a significantly larger population than the other two servers for so long that:
-We are getting lazy because when you are virtually guaranteed a win through numbers, priorities on the battlefield naturally go out the window.
-We are not communicating well at all. CoSa is even split in to multiple guilds and sometimes communication is not shared between them.
-We don’t need to progress our strategies because facerolling will continue to work while we are stuck here.
-Lots of us are playing a lot more sPvP and even PvE than we would if we were in an exciting match-up (perpetuating the problem, but it’s only natural that this will happen).

The longer we sit in T8, the less likely we will be to succeed in T7 if ever given the chance. If T7 has a decent sized night crew, we likely belong right where we are at, which would mean there simply isn’t a server that would be a good match-up for ET/FC, and I hope that is not the case.
I’ve been in SF before official launch and I am getting burned out to the point of contemplating a move to a medium tier. I fear that if we are not given a chance to move up soon, by the time we do, we will fail hard due to the reasons listed above, then everybody will say something to the effect of “see, you guys didn’t belong in T7” even though if this change had happened months earlier and we didn’t atrophy so much, we may have had a real shot.

Tl;dr
-Being stuck in T8 is making us lazy.
-We have never had great server communication.
-We have never had a large night crew.
-We are losing players from WvW to PvE/sPvP (due to boredom) prolonging our stay in T8.
-My guild needs to get a lot more organized if we are going to prepare for T7 (I suspect our other large SF guilds need the same, but cannot speak for them).

jkctmc.8754:

Daecollo.9578:

Ranger Pet’s and NPCs can now track stealth thieves, we did get a nerf.

I havn’t seen this yet. Proof?

To clarify, the rangers pets are treated like NPC’s, so they will attack the thief, then when he hits stealth they will lose him, but their aggro table didn’t get reset so when he comes out of stealth, they will go back to attacking him if he is still at the top of the pets aggro table. Keep in mind, the ranger pet will not be affected by culling, so the moment the thief should be visible again, the pet will go back to work (so go attack the culled thief your pet is attacking).

I love the general idea.
I’m confused about the numbers you posted, but I totally support the idea.

Lots of people crying to nerf stealth in WvW (me included, I know what a QQ’r). Anets response: Nerf stealth… in PvE!?!!

Ungood.3054:

So there I was. I was all alone, and it was just me and 40+ Sorrows Furnace people, they hit me with everything, from Golems to Catapults, to battering Rams. yes, I ran up to their battering rams and let them hit because I am just that super tough.

I even took a sammich break, washed my hair, and played with the dog, and they still could not get past the super awesome bodaciousness that is Eredon Terrace banner flying high above me. enticing and inspiring me on to greater acts of valor and courage, even while AFK.

40 of them came, in seven ways, throwing everything from alchemist to rhinos at me, and we held the line, that’s right. me, myself, and I, took down the entirety of SF in one go!

Ooook then. Can we stop the ridiculous smack talk, please, or I’ll be forced to make up even more silly stuff in the future, I might even have to retort to quoting Po.

I was there, and fell victim to the awesome… nothing short of impressive :P
Seriously though, this story, making fun of the story above it, made my day (I was thinking pretty much the same thing while reading that post)

I’d love to see an organized group from two servers demonstrate both sides of a thief fight. One from the attacker (thief) side, and one from the defenders side, and really see how much difference there is or is not.

If you have a group organized enough to do this, please post a vid

Samhayn.2385:

I also play a thief and I will say this. Stealth does not need to be nerfed, culling needs to be fixed BUT in the mean time we should most likely increase the revealed debuff to make up the difference in load times till said time that culling is fixed.

+1
Agreed. Sounds reasonable as an interim solution.

I have a thief and a D/D ele, and I think both need a small nerf in different areas.
D/D Ele needs a nerf to health regen.
Thief needs a nerf to perma stealth.

The above is of course just my opinion, but when I play them, I feel a bit OP to be honest.

My D/D ele can take on 3+ enemies solo because of the constant boons and health regeneration (Running Daphoenix (sp?) build).

My Thief is able to walk right out to enemy siege while they are using it and start taking it (or the person operating it, or both) out without being seen once.

There is probably some sort of official word on this in some obscure tweet somewhere… sigh

Sovereign.1093:

I affirm. Makes the game realistic too, like the guards sending smoke signals that the keep/tower/castle is being sieged. >3<

D W.5179:

Would love to see the sword not be automated at all.

How about having a huge pile of wood logs at each location and only when it is being attacked, a player can light the logs on fire (smoke signals) which would then place the swords on the map?

This way, if only 2 people are attacking a keep/tower, you would just go dispatch them instead of lighting the smoke signals and wasting your teammates time, but if say 20 were attacking, it would be pretty important to get to the fire pit and light it up to allow all to see the swords on the map.

Yeah that’s what I was suggesting on page 1, but I like the idea of purchasing a more automated system using the NPC’s in addition!

Would love to see the sword not be automated at all.

How about having a huge pile of wood logs at each location and only when it is being attacked, a player can light the logs on fire (smoke signals) which would then place the swords on the map?

This way, if only 2 people are attacking a keep/tower, you would just go dispatch them instead of lighting the smoke signals and wasting your teammates time, but if say 20 were attacking, it would be pretty important to get to the fire pit and light it up to allow all to see the swords on the map.

Is this information provided, officially, here on the official forums?
If not, and this turns out to be true, then where should we get our news from in the future? I hope we are not expected to get our news from random twitter or other social networking sites.

I still don’t see how somebody not transferring means they automatically LIKE the current match-up. You have failed to explain that.
I don’t switch servers now for the same reason I didn’t switch servers when we were getting our butts handed to us. I’m finishing what I started and sticking with my server regardless of the current match-up. I figured that was respectable, but you seem to think the opposite.

Musty.3148:

Ok, so I come to this conclusion by reading and comprehending the information in said reading.

Or are you saying you don’t outnumber the other servers by ~2 or 3 to 1?

You came to the conclusion by reading and comprehending the information in said reading… sorry man, that’s a BS answer lol. What was the information that you read that logically leads you to believe (the inference that you made) that if you are in SF and not transferring then you must like the current match-up.

I am indeed saying we DO outnumber you and that’s why it isn’t fun. Where do you see that I am saying anything to the contrary?

Anyway, back to leveling my alt since it’s the same boring match-up again. I’m sure you think I’m secretly excited and love this match-up, but really, I don’t.

Ungood.3054:

The Math is Bad

well, I wanted to say, I have been shot down, proven wrong, and I rescind my stand on this.

But, to just say that would do no justice to a discussion when it was said in a void with no understanding what this means or what is inferred by it.

So I wanted to take this moment to explain what The math is bad means in relationship to the discussion between SF/ET/FC, most notably when it used to say.

The only reason SF is facing ET/FC, is because the Math is bad

What does that really mean. That means that the people who are saying this, believe that SF as a Server is capable of moving up the Tiers and facing higher ranking opponents and winning, and thus is not really T8 material but due to a bean counting error, is stuck here.

In Simple terms, it means “You (SF) are better then this”

So. With that put out, to the people rallied against me, who have attacked me and accused me of being argumentive, and incting for saying that, and simply hold a firme stand that I am wrong for saying “The math is bad”,

So by believing that the math is Correct., that means they support and agree with the numbers that say SF belongs in T8, that SF’s rightful place is in the bottom 3 worlds. And as irony would have it, these are people from SF itself.

Well guys, or gals as the case may be. You beat me. Obviously you know something about your world or whatever that I do not, and thus you agree that the numbers are correct to place you here, who am I to argue against that, and thus, I concede the point.

I will no longer mention that their is any question with the math at all in regards to SF being where it is, you have defeated me, and thus I side with you on the stand that The math is correct

Are you happy now?

What spawned this?
I can’t answer the hypothetical of what the outcome would be if SF moved to T7. I can say, that even if we got our butts kicked, we would be happy to face new opponents. This is why I personally support the winner moves up, loser moves down system. ANet said they look at things from an “is it fun to play” stance, but they are really dropping the ball here. If the math is correct (maybe it is, maybe it isn’t) “is it fun to play” against the same two servers over and over again? I’d honestly say no. So even if the algorithm is mathematically correct, it doesn’t make it fun, and should be rethought.
Don’t give up man, a lot of us agree with you.

Musty.3148:

Or about 30% of SF could transfer to the other T8 servers and make it the most fun balanced tier of all of them…

Just thinkin’.

But nah, not gonna happen because they really LIKE it the way it is imho.

D W.5179:

How does this possibly mean I really “LIKE” the current match-up?

I’d still really like to hear how you come to this conclusion, as a lot of my guild isn’t even playing WvW right now and instead are leveling alts or running dungeons because this match-up is stale and boring.
So I’d love to know how you draw the conclusion that we like the way this match-up sits, as I suspect this is just an example of the passive aggressive BS I’ve mentioned.

Musty.3148:

Or about 30% of SF could transfer to the other T8 servers and make it the most fun balanced tier of all of them…

Just thinkin’.

But nah, not gonna happen because they really LIKE it the way it is imho.

I didn’t transfer when we were getting slaughtered, why would I transfer now?
I have ZERO transfers on my account, and I don’t plan on changing that. What’s wrong with sticking with what you started with?

How does this possibly mean I really “LIKE” the current match-up?

I’ve been with SF since head start, so I have experienced being slaughtered to the point of hoping to hold a supply camp for the tick.
There was some complaining from some of our members but it wasn’t as bad as what we see in tier 8 today. That being said, we also didn’t get stomped for a couple month straight. There were at least some moments where we could come up for air so to speak.
I understand being upset (over this very stale match-up), but the anger is misdirected. Be upset, that’s fine, and understandable, but I see no need for the passive aggressive BS that has become our tier 8 thread.
I can’t speak for my entire server, but I can tell you that the general feeling in CoSa is that we are also tired of this match-up. A lot of us are not even playing WvW much at the moment and using this opportunity to run some dungeons or level alts.

For all parties involved, let’s hope ANet does something to correct the situation, whether it be modifying the scoring algorithm, manual manipulation of the current score, or perhaps making the out-manned buff be useful somehow.

Detharos.3157:

FilthyRat.4652:

Detharos.3157:

This morning’s score update brought to you by the adorable baby Quaggan!

Love it…. but please find a better picture for Charlie. Didn’t even read the caption for everyone at first have to give that a +1

Is this one better? I think the SF hat was a nice touch, a long with the parody of all our back and forth forum banter.

LMAO, that’s good stuff.

Comparing the tier 8 thread to the other tier’s threads, we may need to reselect our celebrities and ensure none of them are legal adults… maybe a cap at 15 years old or so? That seems appropriate for the amount back and forth BS our tier generates right?

Quadruple numbers in the field vs SF?
I highly doubt that figure, but I can’t prove it isn’t true.

Did SF complain when we were getting stomped?
Yes, SF complained. Not a ton, but if it had been 6 weeks, I would guess there would have been a lot more (I see no reason it wouldn’t be equal to what we see from ET and FC).

In short, I suspect there is very little difference in player conduct between the three servers. If we switched the score around and SF was one of the servers getting dominated weekly with no end in sight, we would likely complain a lot more. If ET or FC was the server dominating, they would likely see a rise in PvE players joining the fight.
Let’s keep things in perspective and remember that all three servers have a diverse population or jerks, noobs, skilled players, respectful player, organized and disorganized players.

Remember, you are not special :P

“You are not a beautiful and unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everyone else, and we are all a part of the same compost pile.”

roostapro.9827:

No point in explaining anything to Filthy rat ( or…filthymouth?) Detharos, The guy is all talk and no show, he is a gracious forum warrior who thinks camping the jp is a very good tactic to take a BL, and when something goes wrong he comes here and trash talks.

Anyway, Sorrows Furnace has an ego too big for their shoes and is losing all my respect towards them
rapidly, with all their boasting…….oh and don’t forget all the trash talk i have seen from SF on these forums this week, its disgraceful and shows no sportsmanship whatsoever.

SF – Worst. BM. Server. Ever.

(And for those who don’t know what BM is = Bad mannered)

Come on man, don’t lump us all in with this jerk. Camping a JP is super lame. Usually I /wave in a JP and you guys /wave back and we carry on about the JP.
We have some jerks on SF… there are jerks on EVERY server. There are even jerks on your server who like to imply that SF couldn’t possibly win if it was an even numbered fight. Those same people are the ones that would be bragging/boasting if you guys were winning.
There are plenty of good, talented, friendly players on SF (and indeed all servers). If there was not, I would have left SF long ago. This is the server I started on, so this is the server I will remain on. The folk bragging will have to eat a large slice of humble pie if/when we ever move up to tier 7… so you can at least look forward to that!

Anyway, keep up the good fight all!

PS
Don’t camp the JP, that’s super lame. Just /wave and move along. If you are attacked without provoking it, kill them and enjoy every second of it. Remember, a lot of the guys in the JP don’t even enjoy PvP/WvW and are only there for the BoH to get their legendary.

Elementalist Owner.7802:

we completely destroyed them, doubling each of their points in score. […] we are still losing rating.

Something is broken with the scoring here… has to be.
I don’t see a way out of tier 8 unless they correct the rating system. Doubling the score of your enemy should NOT show an overall loss in rating points.
Could somebody from ANet explain the math behind this a bit, and possibly defend it? I’d like to know what has to happen for us to GAIN points, as doubling the enemy score is not enough.

I’ve had some great 1v1 battles with ET and FC. Both of your servers, like ours, have some great players and some not so great players. The overall tone of a lot of these posts seems to be implying that SF can ONLY win with numbers. Come on… I’m not saying that we would win, but that’s the point, I’m also not saying that either of FC or ET would definitely lose. If we had a somehow guaranteed 100v100v100 all week long, I have no idea how it would turn out, and to imply or assume that your server would win in those conditions is a bit egotistical and arrogant.
To those FC and ET that I’ve had some great fights with, keep it up, it’s always a good fight and I win some and lose some. Please don’t think this is directed at FC or ET as a whole, because it is not, it’s directed at players with bad sportsmanship (SF included). There is no need for it and to mature players, it just makes you look silly.

Great fight so far. Had fun at DB defending, and then getting slaughtered as we attempted to take bb. That was a great fight, keep it up!

I assumed that we were stuck with this system because ANet set improper expectations for bandwidth usage in the min system requirements. Looking at the system requirements though, it states: “Broadband Internet connection” as the only requirement for bandwidth… well kitten… DSL @ 256 kbit/s qualifies as a “Broadband Internet connection”, so are we having such a hard time due this unreasonable expectation set with the system requirements?

I assume it is bandwidth related, and not on the client side since most of us have more than sufficient upload and download bandwidth to handle well more than the servers are allowing. Well there was talk of preloaded character models… sounds good right? Well, not really, as I don’t think this is addressing the issue. If the issue was strictly visual (implied by a fix for culling being based around a character model), then why not just have the “invader/defender” name pop up and allow you to attack/see it? To attempt to answer my own question here, I don’t think that this is a visual issue at all, I think that the characters state data is not able to fit whatever crazy (perhaps 256 kbit/s) bandwidth requirement they are holding themselves to for character state data.

ANet, please be clear what the issue is here, because your last attempt at a fix makes it seem like the client having the character data isn’t the problem, but that displaying the model is the issue. If that is the case, there are much easier fixes. If that isn’t the case, then why focus here? To make room for more of the character position data? I mean, that would make sense to a degree (open room for more important data and load models when you can).

Lots of speculation on my part here, so let me just ask two simple questions that will clear this up for me.

1) What is the bandwidth restriction you are holding yourself to?
2) Is it possible to modify that restriction to allow the game to perform better?

Perhaps the issue isn’t related to the bandwidth at all, and if that’s the case, just let us know what the issue really is.

dekou.6012:

Having a set patching time would be the most “professional” and “clean” solution, but I don’t have a problem with the way things work right now.

The other side to a professional timeline includes setting proper expectations. They want to leave a window for themselves, which I support.
Just look at all the people complaining about the patch already and they haven’t even broken the expectations they set.. imagine now if they stated noon PST Jan 28th and then didn’t get to release the content until an hour later due to CDN issues or any number of last minute gotchas.

Currently I like the way it is handled. We are told the patch day is the 28th of Jan 2013, so I know that by the end of the day (PST) to expect a patch. They have not missed this mark, historically. I look forward to playing this content tomorrow (Jan 29th), or tonight if it is pushed around the time of the daily reset.
I am not speaking specifically about this thread, as it seems reasonable, but due to other threads and the general tone about patch dates, if I was in a position to do so, I would simply state that the patch will come before the end of January, and shoot for the same target date of Jan 28th.

Olfinbedwere.5049:

Yeah it’s a 9 gold listing fee. That’s a lot to pay for lols. I’ve had a theory for a while (get your tin foil hats ready) that Anet has a Tp bot that posts and purchases items based on whatever criteria they’ve programmed into it to influence their market. A lot of times there are purchase orders for seemingly worthless items. I think their bot places purchase orders for things to influence the market and make crafting viable.

Not enough tin foil in the world :P

Yep, getting the same issue lately. TP is slower than ever for me now buying or selling. The best is when you sell something (it goes away) then you get an error on the sale, and are left with no item and no money for it. I’m sure they will sort it out, but until then I’m not going to be using the TP much.

I would love to see the lunatic Inquisition remain available with maybe a new map added every time there is a special (Holiday) event. Please do leave it available though as it was very well made and tons of fun once you understand the mechanics of it.

Still no response to the multitude of concerns regarding the free transfer frequency huh? Please give us something so we don’t assume that you are just ignoring us. Community liaisons, devs, mods, give us something please.
Please address the specific questions around the 7 day frequency. The main concern is that this doesn’t solve anything for WvWvW since the free transfer frequency is not longer than the match duration.

ANet, please respond to our cries. Why was 7 days chosen and are you willing to change it?

Perhaps investing in higher quality community liaisons would help? Which is odd, because they seem to be on their game, which leads me to believe they are taking these questions to the responsible teams and the teams are not giving answers.

Crawford.4135:

Btw: something that just slapped me was the Outmanned buff should be: ZERO armor/weapon repair bills.[snip]

Love it!
ANet, please let us in on your plans to fix WvW. You really failed hard with your 7 days transfers (since this doesn’t help at all because you matched the frequency these people/guilds were already transferring at).

2 questions that would be nice to have answered (please link me if I missed an answer already given):
1) Why are the orbs giving buffs to the team that already controls the game, skewing the score even more?
2) Why did you put in a 7 day free transfer limit when that is the exact length of a WvW match (allowing them to continue on transferring to the winning server every Saturday morning)?

Haha, 7 days, the exact amount of time to ensure people can still transfer for free to the winning team, every single match. This makes no sense Anet… please explain the logic here. I mean, it’s better than nothing, but still, how did you come up with that number? Shouldn’t it be ANY number larger than the 7 days each WvW match lasts?

Man, I hope they stay, PLEASE keep them ANet, I love the Lunatic Inquisition gametype

I think you have a good idea with more warning for WvW, however I don’t think there is a conspiracy from ANet to get your gold using this tactic.

I’m being sincere when I say get over it. Not in a bad way, just meaning that it is going to happen. People dancing on your corpse really isn’t a big deal IMO, and in fact is in a way a little funny to me. Who cares if they dance on your corpse though? What bad is it really doing?
When I am in WvW, I’m all about the battle. When I kill somebody, I don’t dance on their corpse, not because I think it’s wrong in any way (what’s wrong with a little celebration?) but because I’m too busy moving on to my next (hopefully) victim.

As for the whispering question, I have no clue how they could get your name. I have not tried this, but perhaps you can right click the “invader/defender” name and still use the whisper options without ever seeing the name. I’m at work right now or I would test this, but I’m sure somebody who already knows will be by shortly with the answer.

In summary, take it all in stride and keep on doing what you do, and above all else, have fun!

GG all, it was fun, but man am I glad it’s over. YB should be moving up a tier, so I wish you all good luck in your next battle. It should be more fun and even for all parties involved.

-SF

ANet, any word on an ETA for ending free world transfers?
If you simply listen to chat in WvW or read some of the many forums posts on this matter, it is clear that we want this shut down. I know that it has been stated that you are working on it, but honestly, no transfers would be better than free transfers IMHO. You are allowing large 500+ man guilds to transfer to another server to avoid getting stomped in their next match, meaning the server they just left is going to get stomped even worse once they’re gone. An ETA would be nice.

Scorpio Shirica.1286:

My main is a thief.

My level 30 alt guardian can pwn level 80 stealth thieves. Sanctuary, shield of absorption or any other knockdown really messes them up, especially with an AoE radius.

I would love to see a video of your lvl 30 guardian taking down level 80 stealth thieves. BS meter is off the charts.

signed. Free WvW transfers are killing the experience for many. As it stands, if we get matched up against the super server of the week (whichever server gets all the transfers) again, I’ll just stay away from WvW which is by far my favorite part of this game.
The day you lock down free server transfers is the same day that all servers WvW stats should be reset. Due to the free transfers we have servers with really high scores that just don’t have any WvW guilds left on them, and then we have some low score servers that just got the transfer from siteX so that they can stomp the next match. Very lame. Please fix.

Shotgun.4810:

Where is the candy corn or raw candy corn?

You can either mine it throughout Tyria like all the other nodes (copper, etc), or you can find haunted doors (also throughout Tyria) that halloween related baddies pour out of, and collect drops in the for of trick or treat bags that contain candy corn.

I would suggest to start in Queensdale.

AcidicVision.5498:

Wasabe and D W are missing a pretty basic point of contention here.
[SNIP]

Please see above where I did agree that it would have been nice to have placed non rare items in all BL Chests. That being said, I appreciate that they are making the skins rare (From BLTC chests) and difficult to craft. The items are cool to looks at, but if they are not rare enough, they become ordinary quickly. Definitely a +1 from me on a guaranteed event related item in all BL chests, but let’s keep the rare items rare.

igmolicious.5986:

To be fair, I very much doubt that ANet had any malicious intent with the chest gamble — I just don’t really think that they thought it through all the way. As some other posters have suggested, even minor even related prizes (event tonics/event crafting materials/Trick or Treat Bags/etc.) would have been enough to keep some folks dishing out money. Had the drop rate been such that on average a person opening 30 or so chests was likely to get a weapon or armor skin, you’d have an even larger percentage throwing money at ANet.

Hmm, now a guaranteed holiday event item of some sort… now that’s something I can get behind. In fact, that’s probably a very good idea for ANet. Everybody wins in that equation, since you WILL get something cool for the keys you bought, but those that hit the jackpot and get rare skins will still have something very special. I hope they keep this in mind for future events. Good constructive, non selfish criticism. I still think 1% is about right for the rare drops IMO, but a guaranteed holiday event item (not rare) is a fantastic idea that would probably net them even more gem sales.