Please help! Why can't I get drops in FoW?

I have been to the Fissure of Woe every night this week. Stayed for two hours each time, before the rest of my team left. Tonight, I got a total of 33 drops... 8 Dark Reminas, 2 skeletal limbs, 1 Shard, 2 blue items, 16 piles of glittering dust (counts as 4 drops), and the rest in white items/weps. I opened two chests and got gold items from both. After the rest of my team left, I went back and picked up their discarded drops. I had several empty slots in my bags, while they had so many drops they couldn't fit it all.

I was counting and though we were a party of 8, I was only getting 1 drop in about 20. On average, I would get one drop every fourth mob, and each mob holds 4-6 foes.

The shard, by the way, was my first all week. Every other night, everybody on my team gets at least two shards. Tonight, one guy got 5 shards, and 2 obsidian keys, and 2 rare gold drops.

Any idea on why I'm getting cheated out of the "drop rotation"?

My character is an echo nuker, and so it often takes me a long time to get into the fight since I'm echo casting Meteor Shower. Typically, by the time I cast MS twice, the entire mob is dead. In the time it took me to cast MS twice, the rest of the team had spammed off dozens of hits. Does ANet Dev punish me because it thinks I'm sitting out on the fights?

Any ideas/input on how to increase my drop rate?

Pray to Fortuna?

No, seriously though, you're just unlucky. I know the feeling, but sometimes you will have a good day

It's just luck, for a good while each time I went into fissure, I would get at least 3 shards and some keys/golds (solo and 8 man) while today I only got 1 shard and we cleared out more than normal

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They stack.. :-/

Well, I hoped it was just bad luck, and not something I was doing wrong.

Thanks.

Now, the prayers to fortuna for my luck to change...

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I am not completely sure that it is just luck. If your team is actually done killing some of the enemies die without you participating at all (as in finished casting MS), you may not be counted as part of the group that killed the monsters and then wouldn't get a share of the drops. I noticed that, when playing monk, I sometimes sit back for a bit and don't do anything at the beginning of a fight. When I hang back a long way and for a long time, I don't seem to get good drops. On the other hand, when I pre-prot before the tank goes in (even if s/he doesn't really NEED it), I tend to get better drops. It could still just be luck, but I am not totally convinced either way...

an example of this is that I was doing Ruins of Surmia on my monk. In the first try, with a crappy PuG, I would hang back until the aggro was on the tank well enough and then only come forward at the last possible moment. During this mission (we only got about halfway becaues the ele kept scattering with Firestorm...seriously), the other 3 people got a few decent drops. I got whites only, not even a blue. During the next try (about 10 minutes later), I thought that my staying back might be influencing my drops so I pre-protted the tank with SoA before he went in to take aggro. During this try, I got 5 golds (one from the only chest we found) and a lockpick.

Not that this definitavely proves anything, but I have gotten the feeling that the system sometimes thinks I am not actively participating and does not allow me to be in the roll for drops (similar to when you flag heroes away to solo something). The only way I could see this being changed for your drops would be to hit AE, then MS, then something else with a short cast, then your other MS. Or, you could just make sure that the monsters are actually inside your danger circle (as opposed to just on the outside of it) while you are casting. Either way, good luck on getting better drops!

I also am beginning to think it's not just luck. I recently changed tactics, and have seen a significant increase in my drop numbers and quality.

Previously, I would hit AE, then MS, then MS again. By the time the second one went off (if I had a decent group), the enemies were all but defeated. This is when I wasn't getting any drops, or only whites. I kept count, and I was getting roughly 1 drop in 24 enemies killed. And it was nearly always a a dark remain or a bone. Sometimes a white weapon. Rarely a blue. I made my FoW money by being a garbage man: after everyone had left, I retraced our path, and picked up everything they left behind because their inventory was full and couldn't hold any more.

Now, I spam fireball or flare a few times FIRST, and then start my nuking. I still only get off 2 casts of MS. But for some reason, this seems to have increased the number of drops I'm getting, and the quality. I am actually getting a shard or two now every run, and last night, I got two gold weapon drops (both were crap, but they were still gold).

I really haven't tested this new theory long enough to say it's fact. After all, it could be that my luck truly has just changed, and in a few days or weeks, it will change back. But either way, I am starting to get more and better drops, so there is hope for the future of Fissure farming.

I have never had what people would call ''luck'' take for example UW farming I can do it solo but after 10 runs with no ectos I just quit doing it :/

note that was before the loot scaling also just in groups I only get white/blue materials sometimes but rarely a purple and 0.000001% I get a gold drop I mean comeon this has haunted me in my whole GW life so I think some people are just haunted with bad ''luck'' (or just a neverending farming code A-net doesnt wanna take away)

Ur just unlucky.
Dang.
Sry I can't help you.

I'd say you are getting unlucky, sometimes when I'm monking, I'm not attacking or anything and i still get all the drops and some other times i don't. I think you have to be in a certain range of the enemies to get the drops but it's still large enough.

Unfortunately, the fact that something has a probability means that there will always be those streaks where you don't get anything....

Just take comfort in the occasional freak runs where you get alot of stuff!