The death of farming

cellardweller

cellardweller

Likes naked dance offs

Join Date: Aug 2005

The Older Gamers [TOG]

From http://www.guildwars.com/support/gameupdates/
"Loot now scales according to party size."

Now, I'm not usually one of the "the sky is falling" crowd, but the sky is falling.

Sk8tborderx

Sk8tborderx

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Nov 2005

PA

Us Are Not [leet]

W/

I guess it is possible to flag henchies so you can still get normal drops. I can already see ectos going to about 20k each now.

eggs0wn

eggs0wn

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jun 2006

Farming just died. I did a Dragon Moss run and guess what I got? NOTHING... I did it in Hard Mode btw...

volgaris

Academy Page

Join Date: Aug 2005

yea i tried with henchies and heros at several locations i got as many drops as i did solo with them flagged off the screen grayed out

Mickey

Mickey

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Feb 2006

Eternal Insight

D/

then you guys are just unlucky, I just soloed an are in hard mode, won't say where, and got 3 golds off 3 monsters, with henchies flagged, try places out.

Tsunami Rain

Tsunami Rain

mmmmmmmm pie.

Join Date: Aug 2005

Honolulu, Hawaii

Favorable Winds [Gust]

Mo/

yes. farming with henchies shouldn't be too bad as long as they are flagged away. as for me, going to go check out hardmode to see if I can find any spots. Will report back in time
---edit---
farming isnt dead by a longshot.

cellardweller

cellardweller

Likes naked dance offs

Join Date: Aug 2005

The Older Gamers [TOG]

Maybe its just my style of farming. 50% of my farming income comes from money drops and henchies steal these even when they're not on the map.

I might have to start selling golds to maintain income =(

ChrisCo

ChrisCo

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Feb 2006

[ToR]

W/

solo farming is a joke now =( my poor 55 .. and as for heros no matter how far you flag them away they still seem to take most of the drops and almost all of the gold

Yawgmoth

Yawgmoth

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Apr 2005

flagging henchies far far away doesn't seem to work for me, i get 15-20% of the usual drops no matter if i solo or use flagged-away hench. (normal mode)

Mickey

Mickey

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Feb 2006

Eternal Insight

D/

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tsunami Rain
yes. farming with henchies shouldn't be too bad as long as they are flagged away. as for me, going to go check out hardmode to see if I can find any spots. Will report back in time
---edit---
farming isnt dead by a longshot. I found the best spot, and its for a monk, too = )

Takes 20 mins, I got 5 golds, 10 purples, and 2 k gold = )

Yays!

With heroes and henchies too, btw.

ShadowsRequiem

ShadowsRequiem

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Oct 2005

Inde is Smoking [Hawt] *ToA*

W/E

***Waits for prices to sky rocket***

oh god!!! i'll never get a colossal scimitar now!!! gah!

now i just hope they drop more

ss1986v2

ss1986v2

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2006

Mo/

farming isnt dead, just solo farming. although this is going to lead to inflation (i barely passed eco, think thats right). ecto price (as well as other things usually solo'd) will increase, while income from player to player will stay around the same. increase in prices while income stays the same; thats inflation, right?

not going to freak out just yet. will wait for the other shoe to drop before passing judgment. economy is going to be fun to watch. maybe the influx of gems will curtail the rise in ecto prices. if not, good thing ive been stockpiling ectos...

cellardweller

cellardweller

Likes naked dance offs

Join Date: Aug 2005

The Older Gamers [TOG]

Quote:
Originally Posted by ShadowsRequiem
***Waits for prices to sky rocket***

oh god!!! i'll never get a colossal scimitar now!!! gah!

now i just hope they drop more Oooh you could try chest running on newbie island in hard mode. Cheap chests and high level corsairs ftw!

Mesmer in Need

Mesmer in Need

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2006

[ToA]

^if you can survive. I died running in ascalon. Hopefully my monk can still do stuff. not much low hp farming left... i guess ill turn to flagging hench.

vlein

vlein

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Aug 2006

Greener Pastures [DVDF]

W/

u do know hard mode REQUIREs lock picks which are 1.500 each

dies like fish

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jun 2006

Winter Wonderland [brrr]

W/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by vlein
u do know hard mode REQUIREs lock picks which are 1.500 each Yes, but there's always that chance you can use a lock pick for multiple chests

Tsunami Rain

Tsunami Rain

mmmmmmmm pie.

Join Date: Aug 2005

Honolulu, Hawaii

Favorable Winds [Gust]

Mo/

Quote:
Originally Posted by vlein
u do know hard mode REQUIREs lock picks which are 1.500 each I believe it said that the chance for the picks to not break reduces with a higher treasure hunter (i think?) title. If you have a farming character that runs it should be less stressful chest running/farming. Idk if that made any sense (couldnt find the right words at the moment).

dies like fish

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jun 2006

Winter Wonderland [brrr]

W/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by Tsunami Rain
I believe it said that the chance for the picks to not break reduces with a higher treasure hunter (i think?) title. If you have a farming character that runs it should be less stressful chest running/farming. Idk if that made any sense (couldnt find the right words at the moment). It goes by Treasure Hunter and Lucky titles.

achilleus

Academy Page

Join Date: Nov 2005

I wonder how they're changing loot. Is loot now better for an 8 person party then it previously was for 8 players? Is it worse for 1 solo then it used to be? What's the optimum size?

Wonder if a solo ele or warrior can even get ecto drops at all anymore....

vlein

vlein

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Aug 2006

Greener Pastures [DVDF]

W/

doing the formula for percentage, at lvl 3 treasur hunter and lvl 2 lucky, i think i got the percent at 24% that the lockpick wont break, lol 24%

White_Chaos

White_Chaos

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jan 2006

Evrope

Its not all so bad you wont need to worry about overfarming an area
Repeated map entry no longer reduces loot.

Levi Garett

Levi Garett

Old School Nub

Join Date: Jun 2005

ABQ, NM

Guildless

Mo/Me

The way i'm seeing it now there's no reason to flag heroes/hench sides the XP.

This update is GG for me. I'm not a happy person right now.

dies like fish

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jun 2006

Winter Wonderland [brrr]

W/E

Quote:
Originally Posted by vlein
doing the formula for percentage, at lvl 3 treasur hunter and lvl 2 lucky, i think i got the percent at 24% that the lockpick wont break, lol 24% When you click on a Locked Chest, it tells you what your percentage is.

dark_slayer

dark_slayer

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Mar 2007

We Still Got It [MOJO] Leader

Yea this is pretty crappy. All i do is solo, and now all i get is 5 drops for 30 kills?, this is stupid. Im probly going to quit playing Guildwars. Is WoW any good?

Shadowfox1125

Shadowfox1125

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2005

PST

W/

Quote:
Originally Posted by LeviGarrett
This update is GG for me. I'm not a happy person right now. Same here..

/sigh

Farming's dead for me.

Master Ketsu

Master Ketsu

Desert Nomad

Join Date: May 2006

middle of nowhere

Krazy Guild With Krazy People [KrZy]

R/

Dumbest idea ever.

Ya, nerf solo farming. Might cut back on some of the little end game items.

But the price of the most valued items ?

Ectos: 11k.

....

I predict A rollback on this within the next week when anet realizes they just made all high end armor unnatainable and all high end items not worth the grasp. Nerfing solo farming does not cut back on grind, it makes it worse.

Roshi_ikkyu

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Apr 2006

Mo/W

I think Roshi Ikkyu Solo monk of Dooooom is out of a Job! :'( Never thought I would see the day.

NeHoMaR

NeHoMaR

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Feb 2006

Farming now is like having the "farming code" activated all time! just tested. Now, it's exactly the same farm solo or in a party, you will get the same, when soloing it's like there are 7 imaginary people AFK, even if they are not there!

Now the solo (or duo) farming is totally useless, now there are no sense at all to "reduce" a team for get more drops, that is over! Now that 55 monks must put the normal armor and go inside with full 8 people teams and farm the same as solo.

I only see one problem: This DOESN'T stop bots, because bots farmed anyway with few drops (farming code), bots now just get less drops from the beginning; it's really the same thing for bots.

Puran Lighthart

Puran Lighthart

Academy Page

Join Date: Jan 2007

GoAnubis

W/Me

i guess we'll really see who solo's for the challenge now

Master Ketsu

Master Ketsu

Desert Nomad

Join Date: May 2006

middle of nowhere

Krazy Guild With Krazy People [KrZy]

R/

Oh I will still solo for the fun of it. Im mainly conscerned about 3 things.

1. This is going to kill the economy. nerfing solo farming will INCREASE grind. not decrease it. This decision goes against anets key philosophy, which is to make a casual gamers MMO, and the second reason I prefer GW to any other MMO. ( first being MTG style meta ). The vast majority of items that I have in my storage right now pretty much just skyrocketed in price.

Do you know what this means ?

Ill tell you.

Remember diablo ? Know how the economy is based on ITEMS instead of GOLD ???

Thats right.

GW economy is royally screwed if anet doesnt roll this mistake back.

2. I actually have to PvE now if I want something from PvE. Normally I play PvP and when I need anything Ill just kill everything in perdition rock and sell the loot / Berserker scrolls from mahgo claws.

THis means PvE is no longer worth it. PvE is dead to me. As of now I am a 100% PvP player.

3.Can no longer give my friends cool items.

andrewf

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2006

I Seek Guild H K

R/

Oh jee thanks anet.

Sk8tborderx

Sk8tborderx

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Nov 2005

PA

Us Are Not [leet]

W/

Just because I have posted this in every other farming nerf thread:

Here is an example of why it is so bad:

This was with a full group, I got similar results when I did this solo.

andrewf

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2006

I Seek Guild H K

R/



This isn't as bad as Margonite Run...but its still bad..

blue.rellik

blue.rellik

Forge Runner

Join Date: Feb 2007

Melbourne, Australia

None

W/

There goes my chances of any more spider runs.....

HKSdivision

HKSdivision

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Feb 2006

W/

wtf...this is totally messed up now....

Spectar

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2006

R/

Any replies from someone who has done a typical solo farming run but with 8 human players? Did the drops change for 8 players or did they just decrease the drops for <8 ppl? If the latter...grab them ectos now before they skyrocket above 20k!!

andrewf

Academy Page

Join Date: Jun 2006

I Seek Guild H K

R/

My Green Storage

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Sep 2006

Arizona

My Blue Storage

N/

Anet killed the game.

Without solo farming I have no reason to play, and I'm sure others agree.

I'm currently in the Underworld and I killed around 16 smites (first 3-4 groups you run into) and I had maybe 5-6 drops. Normally you spend 1k to go in and come out with 2-3k + what you get from drops to the merchant (ectos not taken into account)

Hard mode is funny. Graspings level 30

Did the 2 groups on the left fine ... the group on the right killed me ;/

Patrick Smit

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Nov 2006

NiTe

Ok my initial experiences. Hardmode is nice in terms of getting a new challenge on the missions. I found that players have to be a bit more active in kiting and such, if they dont they just take too much damage, and consequently a bad PUG has much more chance of failing.

What i found annoying however that hardmode appears to be just increasing damage by level, and not by strategy of the mobs. so party wipes are so much more easily acchieves as 2 or 3 mobs can spike a target to death without u being able to respond at all. I find this dissatisfying. Hench and hero AI is not sufficient to deal with kiting and positioning (i.e. party formations would be very nice to develop)

Another thing which annoyed me a bit is that the lockpicks that are very expensive still yield purple garbage. That should to my opinion be changed. a bad golden is more fine with me than a good purple. purples dont count toward the wisdom track and u dont even have a good chance of selling them.

Drops are also not increased (in the 4 runs i made), making it therefore difficult (if not impossible) to support the expenditure on for example lockpicks. It is mentioned that is altered, but the loot was marginal, gold dropped at same level en I do not see more purple or golden stuff dropping.

The lightrbringer points have been nicely increased and capped as well at the same time. I think this will allow a good chance at the title without too much extensive grinding.

The tomes are a very nice addition, compliments on that.

Viet Spirit

Viet Spirit

Banned

Join Date: Mar 2007

R/

bring henchmen and flag them away does not work here. Tried in UW and got only 1 drop per mob.

Seriously this lilttle "1 line-of-text nerf" really ruins this game for me.Not sure what to do when 3 of your 10 chars have beaten all 3 campaigns if no farming. I was so excited about Hardmode and other updates but this little thing just completely kills my GW gaming experience. Sorry Arenet, my initial intention to buy GW:EN is now gone. GG