Guild Wars 2

Fok.6082:

your opinion from 1st place to 5th class + weapon combination , who kill stuff fastest in open world btw 1-79lvl. (its not end game rank)
its mine opinion ( max i have 45lvl so it can be wrong , but as i see it)
1)Thief D/P
2)Thief D/D
3)guardian GS
4)warrior GS
5)necro D

so what is your top 5?

You clearly haven’t played an elementalist in PvE. Roll one, and learn it. Then make your list.

All of your characters can use the precision and toughness. It might not be your first choice, but you’re getting a weapon with 5% more damage than any exotic it replaces, and you’d not get 5% worth of power instead of toughness.

So you’re down to who can use the condition damage the most, and I’d say the elementalist. Burning gets the most damage increase per unit of condition damage. Bleeding, on the other hand, gets by far the least help.

On the other hand, keep in mind that a 2H weapon adds twice the stats than a one handed, and it is the greatest single boost to your stats you can get. Replacing a one hander only gives half the impact.

Ditto. Did Shatterer to complete daily, which it did, with rewards., zoned to Wayfarer, cleared bags completely. The daily left the screen, as was done. Changed characters, played 2 mins, crashed. Recovered, played a while quit for the night. Now, about 20 hours later, come back in, no Shatterer, daily set to 66% and rollover in an hour, no chance for Shatterer.

What gives? Why a time rollback after a crash? Is their server lag so bad that it doesn’t have a log more current than 5 minutes behind? I know the lag has gotten worse in the last few days, as key skills don’t happen until 3 presses later.

TY.

That would have been my guess, but thought to ask for someone who actually knew.

Did they ever? I can’t remember, it’s been so long.

I understand they no longer contribute to the “Been there, done that” achievement, but that is not the intent of the question.

Astralporing.1957:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

You are correct it was originally supposed to be like GW1… then the game started hemorrhaging players faster than 25 stacks of bleeding due to lack of end game goals. They stitched that problem up with ascended gear and the population stabilized.

Nah, if anything, ascended release made people leave even faster.Population stabilized only much later on, and mostly due to the Living Story. And even that wasn’t good enough longterm – which is why we’re waiting for an expansion right now.

I agree with Zudet. I stayed long enough after ascended was put in (it was weapons only back then) to build up 5 character’s worth, then left for the same reason the rest did. There is absolutely nothing to do for an end game. More zerging, with a different evil boss the target in PVE, the same maps in WvW, nothing in any dungeon I couldn’t get without stepping foot into one other than skins, and WB fights that were numbingly boring (Shatterer anyone?) and not enough people to do the WB’s on many of the servers, including mine.

Ascended stalled the departure, but only until it was made, then the end game crisis got many of the rest of us that hadn’t bailed before because of it.

That is the root cause of most departures. It’s like a PC single player game….you get done and move on. In this case, entire groups of playing friends move on.

nolop.8095:

HoT is the perfect opportunity to up the stats of exotics to be on par with ascended items.

So why not white armor?

Why exotic, if you believe in one level of armor?
or green? or blue? why not just rare?

In short, why do you accept 5 levels of armor differentiation but draw the line at 6??

Oh, wait…you can buy your armor with Master Card through exotic, but they won’t let you buy ascended??

Ah….I think I get it now.

Those with ascended actually play the game. Those who don’t issue statements like “I don’t really have all that much time to play” and plunk down MC or Visa for the same experience.

As for hoarding, I have no overriding use for them, so “hoard” them in case some use comes up. With a possible gap somewhere, I have all the skills opened on all 8 characters that I can reasonably play, including some that are specialty and I’ll likely forget to switch them in when the occasion arises, just banging on through with what I have up by force of habit. Most things can be cleared in less that top end gear and skill sets.

The “whew, at least they go into the wallet and I don’t lose them” factor isn’t very great, as I’ll have way more than I’ll ever use at the mystic forge. Yes, I understand the mystic forge as well as the use of augur stones for ascended. Therefore “eating them” doesn’t have a bad connotation, as the wallet will still be overfull of the new item. I doubt Miyani will get any new products to sell and even more doubtful they’ll be out of reach of the new wallet. Converting them to skills gives some possibility of using them for some purpose other than wallet fodder. Maybe some of the skills will become useful.

So the only attention I need to pay is harvesting skill challenges on my characters.

Since the purpose of the OP was to get resolved whether or not scrolls were leaving, and what if anything I should do about it, this thread has focussed up my thinking.

Thanks for the well written answers.

Still some confusion here. Are skills being reworked? I thought I understood traits were being reworked, but saw nothing on skills. Therefore I don’t understand why I should not fill in the blank spots in the skill tree, even if I don’t really like them. I have far and away enough surplus of skill points not earned by skill challenges to purchase anything I might need for the forge. I’ve already made a couple of dozen ascended items, and don’t see so many more in the future that I can’t get augur stones.

My takeaway is this:

I have 2 stacks of the scrolls, which I should keep as they are.

Several characters have many skill points over those needed for their skills, most coming from rollovers after 80. (i.e. reaching level 80 100 or more times after the first time). These may or may not be gone after HoT release. Making sure they have every skill available, whether I want them or not may be a use for them, but may not.

I’ve been there, done that. However, some 80’s, fully geared and actively playing, have less then 50% of the map completed. I should seek out undone skill challenges and do them as they may carry forward in the special catergory of skill points earned via skill challenge, thus helping reach elite via Hero points.

Correct any of the above that is outright incorrect.

Thanks.

I’ve seen several times in chat that Scrolls of Knowledge will be leaving the game when HoT is released. Is this urban legend, or has some official/semi official announcement been made concerning the issue?

Thanks all.

I understand odds, and given a drop rate, can compute the chance of going N consecutive times without a drop, or conversely, having gone N times without a drop can get approximately the drop rate.

So, Sparkfly chests are the problem. While they are in Maguuma, they are not Maguuma chests. (in keeping with the known rule that “some of ANET’s logic is right some of the time”). I’ll just work around it.

I just haven’t hit the correct chest class enough times, so will have at it. Yes I have alts who can camp when needed. Yes, they will. I’ll hit one chest about 8 times, then leave someone behind after that. After all, I’ve had the other 3 pieces for months.

T thought to ask in case 3/4 was known to be a rare.

TY for the answers..

Khisanth.2948:

Spelunker is in Maguuma so tat should be fine. I got mine from one of the small chests behind the Skritt king’s throne in Brisban.

Yes, but so is Sparkfly Fen, where I have close to 300 chests opened, and no 3/4. I’m pretty much certain they don’t drop in Sparkfly, Maguuma or not.

Is it rarer than the rest? or is my karma with the RNG a little low at the moment.

I’ve had parts 1,2 & 4 forever, and this week decided to find a 3/4 and finish it, to get them out of inventory. Reading says go to Maguuma Jungle, but I’ve run the empyreal fragment chest run in Sparkfly Fed probably 50 times (6 chests each) and never seen 3/4. I’ve gotten a lot of 1/4’s so I discounted that hint. I’ve sold a least 100 part 1/4’s. Similarly, I can get 2’s and 4’s to drop regularly.

I read where someone was 100% in 4 tries on Spelunker’s Delve JP, so have done that 3x and no joy. I’ve done all 3 of the Dulfy page’s chests, in the process discovering a chest that I didn’t know about, but still no joy.

So is it quite rare, unlike the common as rain 1/4’s or am I still not in the right place?

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

The history of GW2’s launch went as follows:

• 23 January 2012: ArenaNet promises GW2 will launch before the year’s end
• March: First ‘public’ BETA testing.
• April 10: First day to pre-order GW2
• April to July: More BETA tests
• 28 August: Official release date.

Based on above, my guess would be 3-4 months after pre-orders go on sale.

That’s what I was looking for. Some actuals on their track record.

TY

Yep. Known game flaw, could be readily fixed, but won’t be.

Megaservers made it much worse, as things like the Fire Elemental die in 10 seconds so a player at it’s level may not get credit at all. A couple of the Maw prequels even the 80’s don’t get credit for. Get used to being told not to worry about it for many such issues. Just play the parts of the game that work.

I know it’s not been announced, but do those who follow ANET fairly closely have an estimate as to when it will go on sale?

Seera.5916:

Michael.9403:

I understand what you are saying, but as I mentioned above, I don’t think this is the case. I think there is more going on than the simple “open a new shard when a map overflows due to an event, then close it afterward”. I have not yet teased out what it is, which is why I’m writing about it at all.

I have also, on two occasions, been asked to leave a map during a boss fight with the “too few players” message. In that case we had plenty of people and were going to kill the boss with plenty of time to spare. Folks explained that it was an overflow map and would be closed, but even mediocre software would check to see that the event that spawned the overflow was over before launching the closing sequence. (Or at least do a population check on a time delay, and see plenty of people still there). These two distinct flaws seem to indicate there is some other zoning control in place, not particularly well thought out, and shows up regularly.

And the players doing the boss may have been the only ones really on that shard. And that amount of players may have been too low. Your pre-event may have taken longer on average than most of the other maps. Or you weren’t burning the boss down as fast. So the other shards emptied out and you got the merge message as your shard was below the population levels they would like to keep shards at and there were other shards to move you and the others on your map to.

Your lawyerly alternate theory approach to proving the software is working correctly flys in the face of technical reality. Prequels have timers. Bosses have timers. It’s easy to read the value of the timers and determine if the event failed. It’s difficult in the case of sequenced prequels and long boss fights to determine it’s going to fail, as you theorize. In the case I remember, the Megadestroyer, we had a big zerg and were within a minute of killing it, with 7 mins to go of the allowed 15. Whether or not the prequels were fast or slow, they didn’t time out or we’d not be fighting it.

OTOH, if some designer decided to use an arbitrary time limit for all WB fights “one size fit’s all” it would be pitiful design, but create the exact phenomena I’ve described.
OR, just checks shards on an arbitrary timer, forgetting they were created for a boss fight, and deciding there were too few to win Teq, so must be too few to win an easier fight.

The premises offered for the OP ( zoning into a too low zone) hinge on a big unlikelihood. It presumes that at the moment I clicked to zone, the map was okay, but somehow, during the 5-10 seconds of zoning time, some arbitrary large zerg disappeared. Once a year, maybe. But not 5 times in a week, in nominally underpopulated zones and off peak periods. There is some other issue in the code, about as bad as not checking boss timer status to dump shards created for a boss fight.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Maps open and close all the time as people move in and out of them. A big reason for a map closing right after you waypoint in is because a lot of people left, such as what happens when a meta boss event ends and the zerg moves to the next boss. All the maps that were made to handle the zerg then are closed down.

I understand what you are saying, but as I mentioned above, I don’t think this is the case. I think there is more going on than the simple “open a new shard when a map overflows due to an event, then close it afterward”. I have not yet teased out what it is, which is why I’m writing about it at all.

I have also, on two occasions, been asked to leave a map during a boss fight with the “too few players” message. In that case we had plenty of people and were going to kill the boss with plenty of time to spare. Folks explained that it was an overflow map and would be closed, but even mediocre software would check to see that the event that spawned the overflow was over before launching the closing sequence. (Or at least do a population check on a time delay, and see plenty of people still there). These two distinct flaws seem to indicate there is some other zoning control in place, not particularly well thought out, and shows up regularly.

This time it is Lormar’s Pass, not known for it’s zergs.

This is the 4th or 5th occurrence as I held back writing until I saw that it’s a regular happening. The only common item would seem to be entering a zone I’d expect to have low population.

In this case I was going to Durmond Priory instance for the personal story, so just ignored it. But where would I go if I checked “okay” to being evacuated, and why didn’t I go there in the first place?

really? The flag came up just as soon as I’d zoned in.

Why to I get zoned in to a map they want to empty?

What zone control theorycraft am I missing.

Some of the gathering areas seem to have been moved. I had her buy gathering tools and thought to show her how in the level 3 area of Earth Elementals in Queensdale (2nd or 3rd heart quest of the zone). Alas, the mining nodes were nowhere to be found.

[quote=5005725;Just a flesh wound.3589:

These are the headers at the top of that chart.
Level Items Unlocks Information
[/quote]

Ah, yes. Next time I’ll try reading for comprehension. <g>.

Too bad about the skill points, as I was going to help her get some just to get her going on them. There are some quite near the newbie zones, starting level 5 or so, but seems they’ll have to wait. Remember the commune one outside the fort in the human start zone? Run a few centaurs off, or even wait until someone did the event that wipes them, then commune. C’est la vie. Everything changes, sometimes not for the better.

Thanks for the replies, as they’ve helped this vet with the NPE.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

You can read the level rewards to see when each unlock or when you get information about them.
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Level_rewards

This is exactly what I wanted. Thise in her first MMO, so had to learn the mechanics of moving the player, shooting, etc, as well as the general objectives of questing, exploring, and mundane things like banking, repairing, merchanting and the TP.

She’s learning it so we can play with her kids (10 and and she can lead them through the startup first hand. where she can see their screens. I have 7 level 80’s, the least equipped of which is full exotic + ascended 2H + ascended coat. There’s not much in the game I want to do the I can’t do solo, so the 4 of us should be able to overcome most stuff if I just lay back and let them play, and cover up overpulls, etc. We have our own ventrilo, and headsets, so should be fun.

Your link shows when things unlock, but I’m confused by the banking part. My next agenda was to go inside Rata Sum, get the WP’s needed for banking/repairing/TP etc. Will she be able to use her bank or does it have to wait for unlock? Same for TP, as she got a box of crafting supplies in the daily reward and I was going to use that to show her how to use the TP. I don’t want to run her character around, best she get the experience live, so the only way to know is to ask here, of let her fail (which looks like a bug, of course) and then log her in myself and look.

So: does banking work and or TP work for level 3, or do I need to wait to “unlock”? What the heck does a veteran do these days with a new char? I think I understand the load of “skip to level 20” tokens I’m getting on the 80’s.

BattleCat.2098:

That said, they aren’t locked or anything. They are right there. If you use a Vista at level 1, you will still get it, even if it doesn’t show on the map. So by all means, have fun and unlock as much as the map as you can. The map is only a guide. It doesn’t “unlock” anything.

Yes, I understood that, and we did.

However, the problem came about in a different way. She’s 1000 miles away, so I can’t see her screen. I wanted to show her simple jumping and chose the first (easiest) vista in the Metrica Providence beginner area. Asking if she could see the empty double red triangle on the map (I could see mine filled in, and we were beside each other, the answer kept coming back no. I guessed she could but didn’t recognize it. However, when I logged her character in, she can’t see them, nor the icons on the side. Makes it difficult to teach remotely, of course. She’d gotten a POI as we ran by it, with the xp, so I had no clue she couldn’t see what caused the xp bump either.

in the new NPE?

I would be considered an experienced player, but all my characters started pre – NPE. I’m starting my daughter, and can figure most things out easily enough, but nowhere can I see the left side icons of world exploration and local map exploration on the map. I can see the physical vista presence in game, but can’t see vistas, pois or skill point symbols on the map.

When (what level) do these things open up?

Got it. Thanks for the replies.

I understand the 28 day cycle doesn’t advance.

Do the tasks remain the same and you continue, or do they remain the same but reset, or is there a new task list to pick from?

The elementalist is the hardest to learn to play, and by far the deadliest of the game, not just of the casters.

With patience, a necro can solo PVE anything in the game. Its low DPS makes it undesired in group situations.

A mesmer is just a lot of fun. It’s not particularly good at DPS and slower afoot than the other casters but wanted in many situations because of it’s rather unique utility.

RoseofGilead.8907:

Yes, they still have a chance to drop from any mob in the world. That chance, however, is extremely rare (and has been that way basically since launch). Best way to get keys is to do personal story (get one for finishing level 10, 40, and 60 personal stories) and map completion (when you finish a map you’ll get either a transmutation charge or a key).

TY for the helpful answer.

I have 8 chars, seven 80’s and one working their way up, and all are somewhere in the personal story. That wouldn’t account for 34 though. I do have Been There Done that, so maybe that’s the rest. Bad news to hear map completion provides a key OR a transmutation charge, as I’d rather have the charge. Unless something has changed drastically, the BLC’s don’t drop anything worthwhile. I’d just not seen a key for awhile and thought to ask.

still drop in the open world?

I have 34 I got before I left on a break, have been back about 2 months and gotten zero. I have found a lot of changes in the game. Do they still drop? If so, what level zones? It may be that I have all 80’s and I got them leveling up in the past.

Xiahou Mao.9701:

Since underwater combat is now ‘unlocked’ at a higher level, that area was drained because it would be a deathtrap for players to go swimming before they actually are able to defend themselves while doing so.

Hmm.

A lot of us cut our teeth in that lake and I’m not sure I like the idea moving UW stuff up in level. Nobody is forced to do it at low levels. Change for the sake of change, methinks, where the effort could be used for new content or to fix chronic old bugs.

Now I’ll have to check the water in every newbie zone to see what’s been taken out, I suppose.

the big lake in the SE corner of the beginner zone? I’ve been gone a while, but back for over a month. I got my daughter an account and the lake is a lowbie place to learn to swim and fight underwater for Asura, but it is complete barren. Nothing in it or around it’s shoreline. It used to be infested with skelk and inquest agents, and that big shark occasionally. Now, unless my machine is suddenly not rendering anything, it’s like a lethal toxic waste was dumped there.

rapthorne.7345:

I contacted player support and asked them to remove it because I’m on a dynamic IP and it got annoying to validate every time I wanted to log in. After some security questions they did it for me with no hassle

This is the answer I was looking for. It means there is no method hidden somewhere on My Account that I can just uncheck and be done with it, that I was somehow blind to.

Beldin.5498:

Funny thing is that it is not activated on new accounts, and you must activate
it manually, but no way back.

Just noted that on my new second account, when i used my VPN.

Fortunately, that is the case that it’s not on new accounts. I got an account for my daughter who is half a continent away. She had trouble with the opening quest, and it’s difficult to help when you can’t see the screen and she’s not really able to describe what is happening. She really needed a lesson in game mechanics prior to jumping in. Eventually I decided to just log in her character and get her into the outside world by doing the quest. However, the thought of the email hassle if I did it, then the possibility she could not get back in after if I succeeded held me off a day. Finally I got her ready to find the email and hit allow, logged in, and found no blocking on her account. Made me doubly determined to get rid of it on mine.

mtpelion.4562:

There is a BUG in which your event progress gets stuck if you do not leave a map.

Simply rezone and you will reset your event progress and can collect the chests again.

I agree with that being the fix for the Shatterer, but it’s highly inconsistent, which is why I got caught in it.

For instance, my Ranger hasn’t left the Golem Mark II zone and has moved less distance away from the fight than the Warrior from the Shatterer. He camps at the WP, where a merchant is, hits the rich platnium node nearby, and the fight, and back to the WP/merchant., a minor excursion in that zone. He’s never failed to get a chest. Similarly, my Elementalist hasn’t left the Jormag area in 2 weeks, and the merchant there where he clears bags is right in the middle of the fight itself. I mispoke above when I said Fire Elemental. My Engineer hasn’t left his post right outside the door of the FE fight room in several nights either, (he doesn’t clear bags every night) and has not failed at that fight either. The list goes on.

In fact, the only places I’ve noted failure are the Dredge, Fire Shaman, and now the Shatterer when I camped nearby overnight.

Ayrilana.1396:

Have you selected to remember the new network after your IP got changed?

https://help.guildwars2.com/entries/28147576-E-mail-Authentication

Yes. I’m not failing to get logged in.

Your link tells me what to do if I’m refused login, or to save each new place. I.e. find an email in my email list that asks if I really want to and check remember if I want it remembered. I know to do that. I’m tired of having to do it.

My IP changes every time I travel to a new place, which is a lot. The game may well log every place I’ve logged in from, but what I want is to NOT have to reply to an email to get logged in at the next different IP.

I signed up for that feature when I first joined the game and did not know any better. I did not know what aggravation it is for a traveler, and now I want to stop the feature. That is the question in my OP.

I travel a lot and frankly, having my logins blocked because I’ve changed IP’s has become annoying. I’ll risk someone cracking my uncrackable password rather than have to “allow” myself to login to my own account by reading an email to myself and replying.

I’ve gotten to MY Account and attempted to find where to disable it, but might be blind, as it’s not obvious how. I can find all sorts of ways to get rid of IP’s I’ve already allowed, which I do not want to do. I can find where I can add even more hoops to jump through to get logged in on the road, but I want one less hoop.

How do I stop the blocking process completely? I don’t mind someone even saying “it’s easy if you just open your eyes”, just tell me how.

Thanks both for the comeback. I remembered the issue from the past where I’d posted characters at the Dredge and Fire Elemental and it occurred, only to be solved by swapping them daily . Since I’ve come back to the game I’ve cut my WB cycle a lot and excluded those. I’d never had the issue on Shatterer, but this is the first week only that character playing from a post up position and not moved it back to the bank areas for something every fight.

For the 2nd straight night.

I’m familiar with the game, understand the normal reasons this might occur. This one is a puzzler.

I foughtt with a level 80, fully exotic geared Warrior, using an exotic rifle. He’s posted out there and does nothing except the Shatterer fight nightly. Up, kill, sortr loot, camp out.

The first night of no chest, I invented things it might be, but didn’t believe. I must have slacked. I must have not been hitting him. etc

Tonight, I concentrated on watching the numbers boil off him when I fired. I used all appropriate keys, not just auto fire. I set banners. I stood in a group. I used 3 key and F1 every time they were up, never let up. Constant scoring of good numbers. I got a gold medal, karma, xp (not needed) but no chest and no bonus. It was if I could not see the chest (but could see it on the map). I moved slowly across the chest area, hitting the AOE loot key. No joy. Or, it was as if I’d done it already on the same character, but that’s not possible. I’m not around except for one shatterer time slot daily.

Any ideas on why he didn’t get a chest?

A belated thank you for the comeback, although I saw it immediately after you posted it. I followed the link, found it was a gem store item, but am unable to find it in the gem store. It’s rare that I would buy a gem store item other than another character slot, but this one I would buy. Either I’ve not found it or they don’t sell it any more. Since I can’t understand the marketing approach of removing things where shelf space would not seem to be an issue, it must be I just can’t find it.

I think I have drilled down each topic in the gem store, but am blind. Where is it hiding?

from surrounding players that sounds like Hero-tron (or any golem) making witty situational sayings?

Is it a gem store purchase, or an earned in game item, or player obtained from some other method? It appears to come from a player, not the background game voice system.

Frostgorge. In Jormag fight. We just turned it’s location to the 2nd phase, after breaking the wall down twice. Enough people to do that, now all beating on him to finish. 19 mins to go, so will easily succeed.

Why am I being asked to leave and get a speed buff?

I’ll get gold credit, as I’m hit it or the wall constantly other than when feared.

This happened a few weeks ago about 2 minutes before we killed Golem Mark II world boss. I didn’t leave, got the gold reward and the chest.

What’s up with the “empty zone” message when it is clear it is nowhere near empty?

Lorgus.6148:

Gee, I wonder how Anet’s rolling out an entire expansion without any “actual software people”

If you worked in the software industry, you would understand.

Got 4 more today, items that used to stack in the bank now demand their own stack.

Yep, can do the hack-a-stack by putting them all in inventory, logging out, logging back in and stacking.

I somehow felt that problem had been fixed, but some of today’s items were the scroll’s of knowledge, which are once again unstackable.

This should be a trivial item to fix permanently, for all items, but it might require hiring an actual software person to do it.

Ojimaru.8970:

Yes, it’s the aftercast delay. It’s not mentioned in any tooltips and only ever mentioned in the rare balance patch notes.

Yes, but it is always present except in instant casting skills. Without it an MMO would never be able to reconcile different ping times from each player. I.e. someone located near the server would have an advantage over someone 1500 miles away, due to difference in ping due to difference in hops. You can’t control the speed of light and usually not the routing, so generally speaking, ping gets worse with distance.

This is one of the few games that actually vary it to additionally add some hidden dps loss. Most games would include that in the cast time itself, and set the aftercast to a fixed value. Besides hiding a game affecting parameter, it makes the code run slower, helping ANET achieve high server lag, which apparently is an internal goal.

That’s it. Anyone know a value for it in seconds?

Donari.5237:

I think you mean the global cooldown. That’s not just a GW2 term, it’s mmo lingo.

It has a more specific name than that, but I can’t recall it at the moment. Thought to ask, as someone will know.

When I fire a spell, it must wait for cooldown to be fired again. However, there is a dead time that must pass before I can fire another spell, which is already ready. What is GW2’s name for that term?

If I recall, it’s not a constant, but varies with something like the type of the previous spell, the type of caster, the weapon used, or some such. Where might I find a list of these times and what they are a function of?

Anyone working DPS math would know where it is, and while that’s not my need, I still wantd to know the times.

TIA

Thanks.

The clicking on the old items part was what I needed. The stones dropped regularly, and my thief (8th char) has 66 atm, passed forward by the rest as I don’t use many. Since they dropped far more than I needed them, I called that “free”.

As for the 80’s I probably have 7 of the old item, I believed purchased from the gem store for in game gold. I got 3 of the new items recently from a daily, so I’m good to go, but won’t need until the thief reaches 80 and gets her exotic gear from the crafting crew.

Thanks again.