Guild Wars 2

I would like to suggest that ArenaNet allow support to be able to confirm id diminished return is active on an account. I have tried but hit the “its a developer issue” wall when asking support to check my account.

Please allow support to confirm if diminished return is active.

I am wondering if diminished return is the culprit in all this. I’ve been doing events once and solo in Wayfarer Foothills and only getting silver for the events and I have not been in this area or fighting these types of foes in days(maybe even a week) with any other character. This is many hours after doing events in Cursed shore for dailies. I also have almost done a whole maps worth of stuff without filling 40 or so slots of inventory through hearts and events.

Aproposs Of Fire.4056:

One hitch to the theory I can think of off the top of my head is that surely they wouldn’t put more same-type mobs in an event than DR allows. You couldn’t ever guarantee Gold participation if they did.

Without ArenaNet coming out and clearing up how diminished returns work specially since support and wiki conflict where loot is concerned, we can only speculate. But in my case I get post Nov15 drop mechanic before the 1st event of the day is over. When I fisrt start the event it looks like pre Nov15 drop mechanic initially but by the 4th undead wave it is definitely post Nov15 drop mechanic. If diminished return is the culprit then it is triggering around the 3rd or 4th wave.

Is it just me or does the topic not match the content … its titles 2 jewellery but talks of 1 bugged jewellery compared to 1 tailor recipe.

Anyways, yes you can get ecto from the tailor recipe but its not as reliable as you would think. For some of us making ecto this way is a loss even with BL salvage kits. I tried it with 30 @ 19.53s per shoulder for materials, after selling ectos I made a loss because not enough ectos were salvaged.

Unlike the bugged jewellery recipe where profit was pretty much guaranteed.

This is just my observations but after the last few days I’ve noticed a pattern regarding loot and possible diminished return. The 1st 3 waves of undead for the day (for me) seem to drop what one would consider normal, the remainder of the day junk is the most significant drop. Maybe diminished returns on drops is kicking in around 30-40 kills of the same type, in this case undead … which would mean any single event in cursed shore is likely to trigger diminished return, which then sticks with you no matter what you do.

Jrunyon.3012:

wildcode.5403:

Jrunyon.3012:

And how do you propose you’d get these “actual” drop rates?

I have numbers from before Nov15

But technically, if it’s your own observation, those are perceived drop rates. The only actual data is in the hands of Anet

Sorry but my constant “equipment” being the most significant drop prior to Nov15, to my now constant “equipment” being the least significant drop is not a perception, its a reality.

Jrunyon.3012:

And how do you propose you’d get these “actual” drop rates?

I have numbers from before Nov15

Since there is a thread about “perceived” drops behaviour, will any thread about “actual” drop behaviour be merged with it?

Polluxor.5970:

Passion flower? Whats that? I got hundreds passion fruits, but I never saw any flower. ..

The following is complete conjecture.
Passion flowers are thought to be an extremely rare item coveted by the Karka for their flavour and texture. Once thought to give the consumer invincibility, the Asuran College of Synergetics have speculated that this is what gives the Karka their outer armour essentially giving them “double” health points. Due to the extremely rare nature of this flower testing has not been completed but early results suggest the flower has the ability to resist certain environmental effects within the Mists.

In north west fireheart rise there is a rock which some players have labled pride rock because it looks just like the one in the lion king.

Before this gets moved to a thread about something completely different, I am not asking how to get rid of diminished return. However I am asking how does DR affect loot because in my conversion with support information was passed that conflicted with WIKI and support said to ask here when I asked for further information.

Quote from support:

There are currently no account restrictions causing you to get less quality loot than other players. Everyone has the same loot chance as to not provide any unfair advantages for some. Granted, some players may seem to have better luck with loot, but it is random for everyone.

Because this statement conflicts with information within WIKI, I have the following questions:

Does diminished return affect loot from foes in events, including champs and vets?

Does diminished return affect loot from foes outside of events?

Does diminished return lower the quality and quantity of loot?

Once diminished return triggers, does it affect everything regardless of area or character?

Um, why did my post get merged (with no notification) with this one? It’s an entirely different question Sure same basic subject, but definitely different question.

This thread is asking how to get rid of diminished return. I was asking what diminished return affects since there was a conflict between what WIKI says and what Support said.

Narkosys.5173:

Do you mean you loot drops are lower. It happened to me when I came back in Dec.

Before this thread gets derailed by the “loot drop issue”, I am focusing on diminished returns and how it effects loot in different situations to help determine if my issue (which has numbers to back it up) is related to diminished return.

LHound.8964:

Care to link that quote for context?

The quote was directly to me, can’t link for context but it was in response to me asking about diminished return affecting my loot drops.

Saulius.8430:

well. DR is same for everyone. so where do you see inaccuracies?

In the 1st sentence of the quote of course. That would tell me DR does not affect drops compared to someone without DR. But WIKI says otherwise. My DR does not affect others around me who may, or may not have DR.

LHound.8964:

I believe that you can find some of your answers in the wiki:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Diminishing_returns

If the wiki is accurate then support were inaccurate in their statement.

There are currently no account restrictions causing you to get less quality loot than other players. Everyone has the same loot chance as to not provide any unfair advantages for some. Granted, some players may seem to have better luck with loot, but it is random for everyone.

This is why I ask for official clarification regarding diminished return.

ColinJohanson.2394:

In saying this will be an expansions worth of stuff in these releases, we’re talking about the number of new features that will be rolled out across PvE, WvW, and PvP in early 2013, which usually you’d only find in an expansion for a traditional MMORPG.

I read this as ALOT of new content in existing areas, for free, to try to bring people back into areas that are currently lacking in population.

Unfortunately I think they already missed the mark because one of the main reasons areas do not maintain a population is it is just not advantageous to stay in some areas when it requires coin/upgraded equipment to progress. People are going to eventually congregate in areas that provide the most benefit to them. To keep people in an area you need to make it just as attractive to stay as any other area, and currently the unresolved loot issues make a small number of areas more attractive than others. Sure initially you will have people explore the new content, but after the novelty wears off we will be back to where it is now unless loot issues are resolved.

It is disappointing that there will be no new race/professions/regions, but I guess they are keeping that for a proper paid expansion later on, and I look forward to that. I am hoping some time down the track we get to play either Tengu or one of the lesser races.

In light of support telling me that loot drops are the same for everyone and random to prevent giving any one person an unfair advantage, I have questions for ArenaNet.

When I am doing events in Cursed Shore, or any other area, does diminished return affect loot drops of mobs and champs from those events?

Does diminished return affect loot drops outside of events?

Once diminished return is triggered, does if effect everything until it gets reset, regardless of area and character?

In addition to these, without going into detail, if diminished return does affect loot drops, does it lower the quality and quantity of the loot dropped?

Please, lets end the speculation about diminished return and get some facts.

Hardest part for ArenaNet in reading some of these numbers is some people are counting white items as junk, when they are not junk only perceived as junk. Makes it harder for the rest of us who counted properly.

I have submitted support tickets to try to resolve an in game (account wide) issue I am having, after ArenaNet stated they had not made any changed that would cause my issue.

Problem is the 1st ticket got closed without resolution and the 2nd ticket is heading the same way. Both tickets have gotten to the point where the response basically says it is not a support issue and to post on forums, with the second tickets explaining it is a developer issue.

From my understanding support were the next level up for “help” when forums could not resolve it for you.

My 1st ticket was about my drops changing since Nov15, my 2nd ticket was asking if diminished return was triggering on my account because of my drops changing since Nov15.

While I understand that ArenaNet see it only as a perception and have found no evidence to support drops changing for the greater community, the results I have are consistent. Prior to Nov15 “equipment” drops were the greatest number of drops I would get in any given session. Now they are the least number of drops in any given session, and include several other related issues like champs rarely drop anything (despite patch notes saying guaranteed drop), and rare drops have gone from an average of 1 per event to 1 per day (if I am lucky).

Unfortunately this experience has gotten lost in the noise of the discussions on the issue, and with ArenaNet saying its only a perception I decided tried to resolve it myself through the support process. It appears support cannot tell me if diminished returns are active on my account, with them basically replying that drops are same for everyone, and random, so that no one person unfairly gains an advantage … did not answer the question.

So where to next, since ArenaNet have stated they didn’t change drop mechanic, there is obviously something on my account affecting the drop mechanic in my case, and finally support saying its a developer issue, where do I turn to next?

Kanthor.2094:

That’s ridiculous. So if there is a new crafting recipie that crafters can actually make money from, they shouldn’t use it for risk of being banned? I bet the people who bought and sold pristine snowflakes weren’t banned.

Crafters know the mechanics (and costs) of crafting, if a recipe does not follow the mechanics such as the snow flake one, then a crafter knows immediately that something isn’t right with it.

While there are legitimate ways to make money in the game, if a player finds a more profitable way, the onus is on them to find out if it is an exploit or not. In the case of the snow flake jewels, those familiar with crafting knew there was something wrong with the recipe. And those who saw a quick buck are now banned.

Something else I would like to point out, I hit the passion fruit plants quite regularly, but I have NEVER gotten a passion flower from them. And when I say never, I mean I only get passion fruit, and the occasional dandelion.

Medazolam.3058:

I believe the whole loot issue is due to DR, I can make peace with RNG mechanics, but when you proceed to make it not random anymore by putting DR on individual accounts, then problems are bound to arise. My loot has been very good lately but I believe the reports in here and again believe DR is to blame.

The problem with DR is that support can not even tell you if DR is active on your account. I tried to get the to look into it and the response basically said the drops were the same for everyone although some people do experience bad luck, and to put a mail in the suggestion forums if I had an issue with drops.

Only when I pressed the issue further did they suggest I post in here, effectively ending the attempt to see if diminishing returns was activating on my account.

To avoid accidentally selling or banking them, grab yourself a safe box (or the other 2 versions of this from tailor and leather worker). Items stored in a safe box do not show up in merchant sell window and do not get placed in the bank when you use the inv bank option.

You do not need to empty your inventory or bank to quit the game. Emptying your inventory in anger is usually regretted later when you come back after you have calmed down.

The Australian Psychological Society defines gambling as

Gambling involves the staking of money or items of value on the outcome of an uncertain event that is determined by chance.

In the case of Guild Wars 2, the items of value are gems which are exchanged for chests/keys which then give you a chance of getting another item.

Professor Alex Blaszczynski suggests

Several core elements are necessary for an activity to be considered gambling. That there is an agreement between at least two parties to exchange items of value on the basis of the outcome of an uncertain event where participation is voluntary.

In the case of Guild Wars 2, the agreement is between ArenaNet and yourself, the items of value is Gems in exchange for an item of chance, and finally you do not have to participate at all.

In Japan they are attempting to tighten gambling regulation to include games that offer items of chance in exchange of real money, or offer items of chance in exchange of items purchased with real money, due to the large amounts of people burned by online games offering items of chance for real money.

So is it gambling, yes, is it regulated, mostly no. State and federal laws of different countries do not cover this type of gambling at this stage, but there is starting to be some movement in that direction in different countries, with the exception of the U.S where the Wire Act allows gambling within games with real cash, as long as the in game items can not be exchanged for real money.

On a final note, there is also some discussion around “deceptive practises” in different countries when games advertise themselves as free-to-play but offer in game items in exchange for real cash.

vespers.1759:

will it never end?

It, it, it it, it will never end

While ArenaNet are doing a great job removing reported bot, I would like to see them visit the areas the bots are in just to make sure there are no other bots in the area that weren’t reported.

Some area I am constantly reporting bots in, it sometimes is not possible to report all the bots due to the large numbers, or how highly mobile they are, or even with them vanishing when you get close enough. Having the “reviewer” visit the area the bot was reported in gives them a first eye look at how serious the situation is in some areas and allows them to act on all the bots, not just the ones players managed to report.

So please, don’t just rely on player reports for identifying bots. Please visit the areas reported as there is bound to be more that players didn’t report.

Pro: Community can role play away from prying eyes of pugs

Con: Only those who know how to enter this area by jumping from the upper palace area down onto a roof, are able to do so, further segregating themselves from the overall community and not allowing the general public to participate in role play.

Pro: Plenty of open buildings

Con: While there are plenty of open buildings, none of the NPC’s that exists in the instance are present in the world version of this area.

Pro: Has a bar where people can congregate

Con: Since no NPC’s are present in the world version of this area, the bar has no access to alcohol.

Pro: Can do stuff in the privacy of this area

Con: Promotes activities that might seem inappropriate in open world

Other arguments I’ve seen can relate to any other open world area.

While I do see why role players are wanting some privacy, to the point where they use squad chat so that out siders are not bothered by the role play, I don’t understand why they want to be segregated from a greater community that may want to role play themselves from time to time, but are unable to find role players because because of the lack of public exposure/access.

While the Samla issue has brought to light just one area where role players segregate themselves from the greater community, there are other areas this also occurs. I myself would love to just sit and observe role playing for a period just to see if I could get into it, and from what I have heard it can be comical at times, but the segregation via squad chat and exclusive areas makes this impossible.

If any opening up is to happen, then the role players must consider opening up to the greater community to allow the general player base the opportunity to observe and participate.

Just confirming that you dont have to do the jumping puzzle for it to count, only enter the start of it.

lynspottery.6529:

Other games have an unstuck ability that moves your character back a bit to get it unstuck. You just type in /stuck and the game mechanic works like a charm.

I do not understand why GW2 does not have a similar in game command to help players out who get stuck in odd places.

I am not sure about other games, but in GW2 through exploration it is quite possible to get yourself in situations where a /stuck mechanic would not work. I know several areas where I get stuck (can not more out of the area) but can freely move around within the area.

Not just for humans, /gangnam should trigger your character to gangnam style reguardless of race.

Could we please have a visual cue that we have hit diminished returns. I have tried without success to ask support if they can tell me if I have been hitting diminished return but they were unable to tell me.

It has been suggested that an erroneous diminished return is causing the loot drop issues many are experiencing but with no way to tell if we are triggering the diminished return mechanic, and support unable to tell you, it is impossible to rule out.

Here is how to sum up 6 weeks of frustration.

There are 3 types of drops,
1. Equipment drops which is made up of armour, weapons, jewels, back pieces,
2. Crafting drops which is made up of fines, bags and salvageable.
3. and Junk drop which is made up of anything that gets sold when you hit the sell junk button.

On Nov15 something was changed that changed the drop mechanic for a lot of players. Now while ArenaNet says they didn’t change the mechanic maybe another change did.

It is quite clear from the evidence provided that prior to Nov15 “equipment” drops were the most significant drop. This means drops of equipment were more frequent than junk and crafting drops.

It is also quite clear from the evidence that since Nov15 “equipment” drops are now the least significant drop, with “junk” drops now being the most significant drop. This means we are getting more junk than any other item.

While I acknowledge ArenaNets statement that they did not change the drop mechanic, our experience is that something has changed the drop mechanic.

What is frustrating the issue even more is our experience is being minimised as a perception despite pages and pages of evidence to the contrary.

Clearly the evidence shows,
1. Drops from champions are not guaranteed as stated in patch notes of Nov15.
2. Drops from veterans are still quite rare despite patch notes of Nov15 implying otherwise.
3. Rare items used to drop around 1 per evert, maybe more if you were lucky. Now you are lucky if you get 1 per day.
4. Equipment drops were the most significant drop prior to Nov15, since then they have been the least significant drop.
5. Magic find only makes the problem worse with even less equipment drops occurring with the more magic find you have.
6. People would quite easily make about 10G per day running events in cursed shore prior to Nov15 (that is if they salvaged the rares and sold the globs of ectoplasm). Now it can take upwards of 3 days to make the same amount.

There is one more issue people have touched on but has not really been discussed. It seems that salvaging what little rares we do get, peoples experience is that we also have a lower chance of globs of ectoplasm than prior to the Nov15 patch. This issue has been detailed in a couple of posts in the other thread by people who bought bulk rares from the trading post for the purpose of obtaining globs of ectoplasm.

The one constant in all these issues is the random number generator(RNG). Now to make it clear as to what our perception is, on the scale of loot, it appears that the RNG has been pushed further down the scale to favour junk rather than equipment.

Think of a rubber band and mark 2 spots on the rubber band a fair distance apart. Now draw a box on a piece of paper the same width as the marks on the rubber band. This box is going to represent the RNG, while the rubber band represents the loot table with no drops being on the left to exotic being on the right. Sitting the rubber band over the box, this is how we perceive our drops prior to Nov15. Now pull on the right hand side of the rubber band stretching it out. This is how we perceive drop now. The RNG seems to be looking at a lower part of the table than prior to Nov15, as if the loot table had been stretched, just like the rubber band, and the RNG was not modified to compensate.

I hope this clarifies what we are experiencing, and not just perceiving.

gimmethegepgun.1284:

Maybe they used RTL but it didn’t show you the visual effect of it?

thats what I 1st thought but the last ele used ride the lightening to get away as soon as they fired off the earth skills so if it was the case it would of still been in cool down and they would not of been able to use it.

I am seeing what I 1st believed to be a thief cloak, then end up right beside me and then fire off both earth dagger offhand elemental skills … so they have to be elementals … so how are they cloaking from a distance (out of combat range)?

And yes, they are cloaking, it takes some time between when they vanish, and then appear beside me.

Just did the shelter event … tagged many things with my grenades (lots of numbers on the screen) and all I got was

5 porous bones
2 prickly spider legs
1 potent venom sac
1 large bone
1 giant wintersday gift
1 travellers orrian staff (green)
1 shamans reinforced scale coat (blue)

that is all

Kyosji.8961:

0% base armor I use for everything:
7 rares
52 greens
71 blues

150% base MF gear:
0 rares
37 greens
32 blues

As stated many times in different threads, despite the advertised purpose of magic find, magic find reduces your drop rate, lowers the % of equipment, and increases the % of fines/bags/salvageables.

Magic Find works if you are after crafting materials, otherwise don’t use magic find.

I have put in yet another support ticket on this issue (last one was closed with no resolution) because my experience is not just perceived, so there must be something wrong with my account.

I used to get more equipment than any other loot type, I now get more junk than any other loot type with equipment being the least.

I used to get a rare or 2 almost every event, now I am lucky if I get one a day.

Most times champs drop nothing despite patch notes saying every champ should drop something.

I used to be able to keep a character updated in armor and weapons as I leveled them, now I am struggling with armour and weapons 15-20 levels lower than the characters level forcing me to use trading post to keep up to date.

I used to make 10G a day doing events in cursed shore from drops. Now it can take me 3-4 days to make 10G from the same events selling the exact same way.

You are telling me that my current “bad luck” is perceived, does that mean my previous “good luck” was also perceived?

As a player who’s has played several different MMO’s, I am glad there is no trinity. As my favourite class, warrior(tank), in GW1 I always had issues finding “groups” for doing stuff, or stood around for hours trying to find monks to fill the team.

GW2 does away with “relying on others to survive” and puts the responsibility on ourselves. No longer does the party wipe if a key member(monk) dies, instead the group can continue no matter who dies.

Putting the responsibility on ourselves for our own survival forces us to think outside the box and makes us play differently to how we would if we played one of the trinity. For instance my warrior in dungeons is often fighting at range with rifle, something unheard of with trinity setups, but I still do decent damage, and survive much better than trying to melee all the time.

The lack of the holy trinity(healer/dps/tank) in GW2 means we must change the playing style that we’ve grown lazy with by relying on the trinity in other games. GW2 is not “just” another MMO, GW2 redefines how we play MMOs and if we don’t change the lazy playing style that we have grown accustomed to, then we are left feeling like we don’t have a place in the game.

Hi, I am looking for an aussie guild, or a guild with a large australian presence on the yaks bend server. I would prefer a guild that organises a regular variety of activities for its members, including but not limited to jumping puzzles, exploration, WvWvW, achievements, and hide and seek. I have access to mumble and ventrilo but do not have access to team speak.

I would prefer a guild that will allow me to represent my current guild during the Australian day time as I have american friends who I play with regularly. I am happy to represent any Australian guild during the Australian night time. I would also prefer a guild that does not tax its members, either by gold or items, and whose leaders will not demand I represent them when ever I am on.

Thanks in advance and hope to hear from a friendly guild soon.

CC Charles.3675:

Hello everyone,

It’s true that our team is a bit reduced due to this end of the year/celebration time.

However, I just wanted to tell you that we are still reading and forwarding all you concerns and requests to the appropriate teams. So no one has forgotten you.

I let this thread open, but please stay constructive and always write your posts according to the rules written in our code of conduct.

Thanks!

What makes this statement frustrating is that sometimes the information does not seem to get forwarded. This is evident with the loot drop issue when a (now locked) thread was full of data, and ANet started another thread asking for data.

Having developers checking the forums regularly would probably help resolve some issues quicker as they would know what questions to ask, or respond to questions about what we could provide that would help them resolve the issue.

From what I can gather at the moment, any information that developers get is vetted by moderators and if a moderator mis-understands an issue, it could be mis-directed or overlooked, as is what happened when the loot drop issue was first reported in bugs (and was moved to discussion).

Again, having the developers themselves scanning the forums regularly would help in situations where issues may be overlooked by moderators.

Also, maintaining a “known issue/bug” list on the forums would be nice so we know if the developers are aware of issues we are having with the game. You have some talented developers so I’m sure someone can write an “automated” system of doing just that.

All ANet need to do is make all cloak enabling skills have 20sec cool down when you decloak, and immediately decloak on attack or damage. Thieves wont like it but it’ll save the rest of us the frustration.

Ele, staff #5 … thief kills me while trying to cast this

hmm try fiery sword elite … thief kills me before I get off the #5

hmmm, try Ele fire dagger #4 … never see ant damage numbers come up before I die to thief …

hmmm ele earth dagger #5 … die before skill fires …

try ele earth dagger #4 … not sure if it worked but still die to thief

cast mistform … thief blows all spikes and stealths … survived 10s longer

So the argument of use AoE against thief … you are often dead before the skill fires, and if you manage to live long enough for it to fire, you never see any damage numbers (or condition numbers).

This is the 3rd post I’ve seen about this … surely one is enough.

And yes, some of those views were great Makes me want to try to get to “Pride Rock”. Mind saying which map “Pride Rock” was in?

Well this was a first … the wolves in Frostgorge Sound killed my pet to the point where the only way to revive it was to swap pets and wait the 60s cooldown.

What magic find really does:

1. Lowers your overall drop rate.
2. lowers the % of equipment you get.
3. increases the % of fines, salvageable, and bags you get.

My wolf has buck teeth, is there a canine dentist in GW2 so I can have his teeth corrected?

I understand that the following video is in OSX, but I was having this issue in windows 7 so tried GW2 on the OSX side.

The problem: I am having an issue since the Wintersday patch where I will constantly burst forward and slow down, repeatedly, while moving forward. This makes jumping puzzles almost impossible though I did manage the Wintersday one while suffering from this in windows 7 (after about 5 hours of trying).

While the video below shows a low frame rate, you can make out the “bursting/slowing” as I pass the dolyak, and as I head towards the quaggin near the gate.

I have the game set at best performance @ 2880 × 1800. The frame rate doesn’t look as bad when actually playing but before winters day it used to sit at around 30-31 fps with frame limiter set at 30, but now it is between 18-20fps.

Computer specs are at start of video.