Loot scaling... Helping casual players...?

I didn't see another topic discussing this, so I made one myself...

Well after being angry for a few days after the loot scaling came out, I decided to watch what happened...

A-Net said that with the loot scaling, casual players would be able to buy cool weapons etc. (Which means they're about 1K each). So did this happen? NO. I don't see any difference in prices, except ecto, but that's because UW is about the only farm spot left, and ecto's are the only way of making decent cash.

What DID happen, is people getting poor. Going from 100K to 5K while just buying needed stuff is just not right. Clearing ENTIRE AREA'S in Hard Mode only nets one about 600 gold, which excludes the bonus cash for clearing, but you still gotta buy ID Kits and Salvage Kits.

So why the hell is the loot scaling still here? Are we supposed to farm a week just to buy some descent skills? Are we supposed to save our cash for 5 months in order to buy 1,5K armor? Is this the way you keep your people playing, A-Net?

The ironic thing is that the rich people (1000K and more) stay rich, and the poor people (150K and less) keep getting more poor. PEOPLE ARE NOT LOWERING PRICES, and BOTS ARE ALIVE AND KICKING. Once again, a farm nerf update ruins the economy, and casual players who NEEDED to farm in order to buy skills, armor and keys are screwed.

Please tell me A-Net, how the hell am I supposed to make cash, only playing 2 hours a day, and getting only about 10K per week?

Please only add constructive criticism, and not just flame or spam or whine about whining...

So you can make 10k a week, yet making enough money for 1.5k armor (Full set without runes etc is 7.5k), takes 5 months??

I'm confused.

Personally I like loot scaling i'm seeing a lot more gold items drop when I do missions. Most hardmode missions I do I see on average 5 gold items drop, granted they aren't all mine.

But before HM and loot scaling i'd be lucky to see 1 gold item drop in a mission.

loot scaling benefits the non farmer, aka the people who actually do the missions and quests and help othere to do them also. In prophecies i next to never had over 15k, in factions it was a little better, with NF it improved considerably and with loot scaling it is still just as good, i actually hve about 40k saved just from the last couple of weeks play, ok to alot of the richer people that wont sound like much but to me is alot, i can get pretty much whatever i want now, just by saving money for a couple of weeks or so while still playing through the game.

I didn't count buying stuff like ID kits, salvage kits etc. When counting these, I'm actually getting poorer every week.

I don't know what's wrong with my accounts then, but I only get about 1 gold per week now. Sometimes 2 or 3. And when I get them, they're utter crap and can't even be sold for 300 gold (except when merch gives).

HM only made things worse. I'm getting Normal Mode drops in Hard Mode, and when playing in Normal Mode, I get about nothing (sometimes a white raven staff or 2 collector's items like tusks or fangs). I'm in a position now where I can't even make builds anymore. I'm afraid of making new chars, cause in the long end, buying skills and armor all the time is just way too expensive.

And there, A-Net laughs and says: 'We have nothing against farming, we don't want people to grind, and this is best for the Casual Player).

Is this the reversed world we live in or something? :S (Twilight zone FTL :P)

Not only Ecto prices have dropped, but also all Rune prices, which makes it a lot cheaper to upgrade your Heroes now. And Dyes and most rare skinned weapons also got a lot cheaper since the update.=D
I'm still making around the same amount of cash as before the loot scaling update with a full-party, and usually a bit more when playing in Hard Mode.

I've been making more money SINCE loot scaling.

And I regularly go out with a full party when I play. Since the update I been getting more gp and drops then ever before. Sometimes even a gold here or there.

The change was very notciable to me in the UW. I always do that in a 8 man team and just with drops alone I come out with 4k. That is if we do most of it. Before Loot Scaling I was lucky to average around 2k. Then theres ectos and those I count seperatly.

Loot Scaling did what its suppose to. It made those who play the game as intended able to make more money than before and killed off solo farming. HM is now the solo farmers weapon of choice.

IMHO 2 hrs a day and 10k a week isn't really that bad for just playing. I guess it all somes down to the player.

No one ever said making builds and buying eqiupment was suppose to be easy, nor is it actually that hard. I guess it all comes down too how much time you really want to invest in a game.

And I believe most MMO like games are like that.

From what I have observed since loot scaling, the prices of rare items has become cheaper each week. A lot of the skins that were suppose to be 100k +x ectos are now only 10-20k (Dead Sword, Colossal Scimitar, Icy/Fiery Blade Axe to name a few).

Since Hard Mode, there are more chance of a rare (gold) items to be dropped, since rare items are exempt from loot scale along with few other items.

Apart from weapons prices been cheaper, runes have also become much cheaper, the most expensive rune now is only 14k compare to 20k+ before loot scaling.

Since loot scaling, I can farm about 5k per hour (this is based on all the unless items I sell back to the merchant). Since all the weapons and runes are so cheap now, the loot scaling does not bother me at all, I play GW because is fun, is not about who has the most money or whatever rare weapon.

Weapons that cost 100k + x ectos does the same as a collector weapon.

Loot scaling is good for new players starting GW for the 1st time, else they would never be able to afford anything.

As long as you don't spend money like there is no tomorrow, doing quest and mission should give you enough money to buy all your basic needs.

I've been play GW for a long time, and have saved a lot of money, but that is mainly due to the fact that I don't spend money on things to show off. If you want to buy fany looking items, you will need to work for it, save up, farm etc.

Only the weapons who were heavily farmed decreased in price. (Once again, farming doesn't make weapons rise in price, players do)

And even now, I can't afford these weapons. Runes were never a problem for me, I can do without, and if I had to buy one, I just killed off some trolls for a quick 2K and I bought myself enough runes to supply me and my heroes. Once again, though, Sup Vigor remains out of my sight atm.


I AM trying to collect cash, but when buying ID Kits and Salvage Kits, I usually lose more cash then I gained doing quests, missions and area clearing. (I most of the time get 400 gold worth of dyes and materials. I can't even buy an ID kit with that.)

Please tell me your way of making 5K per hour, cause atm, I keep getting more poor and poor, while stuff like armor, skills and rare weapons stay the same in price. (Except the ones being farmed, they went down in price, just like ecto's when they started to become over-farmed). It's kinda frustrating really, when A-Net says casual players are able to buy more, but in reality, they only get poor -.-

I think it is better then before only because I have found some good locations to farm 55 solo. The increased attack speed and lack of farm code has helped with zoning and repeating areas. I was never a huge farmer post nerf though so it is hard for me to compare (I like hard mode drops they salvage for more and ID for more$)

Double post douple /smack to the head

Ever tried... not spending unneccessary cash? (never could spell this word correctly, be it in frensh or english, luckily jap is easier to spell) Seriously I have had any problems with cash.

Is it me or the PvE-skills added more idiotic posts like this?

EDIT : Wow! That'S the first time I hear soemoen saying ID/salvages are too expensive!
Either you buy toomuch kits, or you buy the wrong ones (hint: the best money-wise are the basic ones) or you just have heavy problems with you play habits. Whatever you really need to change your play style.

Actually, if you read the original (somewhat incoherent) justification for loot scaling from ANet it wasn't meant to kill off solo farming. In fact according to ANet's posts on loot scaling it was meant to make solo farming easier and more fun!

My assumption is that loot scaling was meant to discourage players from solo farming, what you (and ANet) don't seem to get is that you punish people for playing a game the "wrong" way that they will just find another game to play.

2/day * 5 days/week = 1 plat per hour, or 700g per hour if you play every day.

The usual farming rate is (was) 10 plat / hour from merch sales and gold alone.

Yes, 10k/week is very little.

I farm, solo 55 SS necro, titans outside of Lions arch and make about 5k-7k an hour, unless I get a real nice rune. Best 30-40 minute run got me 21k just selling to the merchants/traders.

I never spend unneccessary cash anymore. As I said before, buying ID Kits and Salvage Kits kills my income from quests/missions. Buying skills makes me lose more cash.

And then there are the weekend events. Can't casual players enjoy from these when they got no cash for, let's say, Signets of Capture for double EXP for elite skill capturing or Lockpicks for double chance for gold weapons?


A common made argument is that people should stop spending cash when not needed... So the casual player is doomed to play through the game with Starter Armor, Starter Weapons and 3 skills? (these aren't actually NEEDED, as when you are truly skilled, you might beat the game with that).

Well even if we ARE doomed to do this, is it actually FUN?

The game was perfect as it was prior to Guild Wars Nightfall. Everyone could buy anything they wanted. Need skills? no prob. 30 seconds killing trolls and you had yourself a skill. Need weapons? no prob, you kill some vermins, and trade the hides for a weapon. Need rare weapons which aren't really needed? You just slowly make cash and work towards the vanity you want.

If you wanted to invest little time, you could buy about anything you want. Now, however, one has to grind for hours if they want to buy skills for an other character. I also want to test out the new Sunspear skills, but alas, I need 1 friggin platinum to change a skill point to a hero point.

And then there is the endless 'balancing'. A-Net ruined my builds so often, I lost about 30K replacing the old builds. In the past, this wasn't a problem, but when having no cash, it makes you think twice before buying a strong skill. Cause investing 1000 gold into something that gets nerfed after a week isn't really cool. Especially when it takes about an entire day of killing to get the 1000 gold

Well you can trade the mission reward items for ID kits etc, but of course this will only help you until you run out.

Tbh I haven't really farmed in a few months (I did about a week straight of UW to get an Armbrace and haven't had the heart since).

And my gold pile is slowly on the rise, for a start I rarely buy salvage kits, I only salvage when there's an upgrade or rune I want and that rarely happens.

Do you salvage everything for crafting material? I find it best to just sell the items are they are since most times this gives more gold. The only expection is when I find something that is highly salvagable.

Anet was full of it when they said loot scaling helps casual farmers, as almost all solo farms are worthless now unless you're doing ectos or other items that are exempt.

The idea of loot scaling was to make people sell golds and rare weapons instead of merchanting whites. If they gave us an easy way to trade, this might actually work, but the way it is now, it doesn't. While it is true that I am getting much more golds than before, it doesn't help me make money. Spamming WTS in towns (before anyone starts, I use the trade channel) for several hours just isn't fun, so I am pretty much stuck with an inventory of gold weapons which sell for 200 gold at the merchant.

For me, loot scaling made things that have a fixed cost (keys, id kits, SKILLS) cost quite a bit more. I like having many skills unlocked on my PvE toons, but when it's really hard to scrape together enough for a decent number (say ~100), the game becomes less fun.

When A-net throws a curve ball you need to evolve. Farming is still there but you need to go out and look for it. Originally I thought the 55 was going to die with the Hard mode changes going to effect, but it has not. There are some great an easy farming spots out there. You need to pay attention to what creatures/skills are being used in the hard mode areas as you explore. The money is there you will have to work for it. I average 2K per 10-15 minutes when farming.

Tips
1. ID everything before you sell (Always go out farming with a ID Kit and Salvage Kit)
2. If you are running out of space in inventory salvage all armors for Tanned, cloth, and Iron (hope for steel or other rare items) Collect these till you get a stack go to material trader and see what he will give you if it is over 3 gold each sell them. If not you can sell at merchant
3. Always salvage Items that ID Salvageable
4. Take or keep 1 lock pick just in case you find a chest close to you. (sell any that drop for you along the way)
5. Either sell unidentified gold’s to players or Id them yourself (if it ain’t perfect merch it)
6. When your bags are full go to town
7. Limit your down time in towns go to merchant sell and leave. (I waste more time reading what people are saying sometimes)
8. Farm in hard mode.
9. Know your targets (there is a reason the bots are at the springs, the undead take extra damage to holy which speeds up the process)
10. When it gets feeling like a grind quit farming. (you don’t have to hate it to make it)

Good luck to you all