[Raise the drop rate / make drops better] for a party of 8

I agree that the rewards from going out with an 8 man team is pretty pitiful (I usually get about 100g-500g from selling items and from the amount of gold I picked up.) One thing I see that gets quite a bit of money if completing missions with masters which gives a reward of about 500g + the whites and gold you got from the missions.

I have been able to afford a couple of sets of 15k armor and I don't farm. A lot of the money I have gotten is from getting lucky, (getting an elite tome while doing a HM mission, getting that highly expensive green when completing an elite mission.)

Other than that I would say don't spend your money on stuff and save it up. Sell materials you won't need. Buy things from people for cheaper than merchants sell it for (ie. dyes, keys, tomes.) Actually you can save quite a lot of money by buying tomes for 500g-700g from people, seeing as how you can save 300g-500g in gold from buying it from a skill trader, and a lot of these tomes are easy to find in towns.

After reading through this thread I`m a little confused. I think I remember the OP making a point about the finances of a char working through the game with a normal team of hench/heroes, like everyone, yeah, I get a little peeved to think that even my heroes are taking the rare drops and expecting me to equip them but on the other hand they can be over powered compared with hench so I`m willing to give a little.

I actually think the good drops increase when I go with other ppl and not just for me, probably just being lucky (or is this programed encouragement?).

My only advice to new chars is don`t spend if you can help it, make do with a crappy starter weapons or drops, after all its the skills that do the main damage.

Hmm.. Cynn the short tempered, lol, always been the only npc I actually got attached to, the shrew I would love to tame. But mhenlo the intelligent, not sure about that.

Loot scaling was added so casual players could afford vanity items (weapons, not armor) but they failed. But they will not admit they failed, because they have a problem doing that. (Look at HA)

Loot scaling was meant to help people working in parties and encourage party play. However they scaled loot down so smaller parties got less but did nothing to help people still in a party of 8.

So yes people in a party of 8 still get the same drops they did before, but it can't be said to help people in a party of 8 unless by helping them it meant it enabled them to laugh at the solo farmer's who'd been nerfed.

I think increasing the drops for a party of 8 is a good idea, not by much but enough to make obtaining skills a little easier and give the feeling that 15k armor and nice weapons are accessible. It would also fulfil gailes ideal of helping out players who played in a party.

[QUOTE]but not less per person and that is the important thing.

the solo farmers are crying buckets so there is your laugh

as you just said the party of 8 is not getting less only the solo farmer is getting less so why the bitchfest?

a dev sumed it up best in a post earlier
[QUOTE]

LOL @ Loviatar! Still trying to flame farmers while posting yet another assinine comment. Why do you think your other post got deleted? Rmember the one that you accused me of buying gold in? LMAO Give it up, man.

KANE

/agree

or like in proph certain quests have skill rewards... why did they get rid of that..... new chars cost a ton of money to start max armor, runes, insignia, weapons, full skillsets...... ouch casual players gl at least in proph take x quest get x skill.. free~

much much easier to save for armor weaps runes mods etc ^_~

proph was always my fave, guess it always will be :P I miss earning skills through quests though =/

Skill quests were good in terms that they give u access to skills without paying for it. They were bad because they gave a skill set similar to anyone else using identical professions.

The advantage of buying skills at wish in the game in Cantha and elona are good too, as they allow ultimate freedom in what skills u can use, so u develop differently from others.

Tokens (that can or cant be sold?) for quest might be the most optimal solution in my opinion as they combine advantages of both. They should ultimately remove skills hidden far and deep in the game. Good command skills for the paragon are actually obtained quite late in the game as i remember.

Make drops better. Nah they are fine as they are. I don't solofarm and still I can buy an expensive armor piece each few days, and get nice items in the process due the use of chests. They are worth less these days, true, but then it is also cheaper to acquire stuff.

a lot of the quests are random trivial side quests. Rather than getting some crap item you'll never use that sells for a paltry amount how about getting skills? And in proph you could buy skills just like in NF and factions, there were just some free skills =/ in nf and factions you have to pay for everything but what you'd get in pre. there should have been at least some skills available in quests

This is the most pathetic thing ever to darken Guild Wars.... Gaile please tell your game destroying designers to repair it. You tried to fix what wasnt broken! Think about the low-end farmers...Sheesh. Not all gamers are in the high-end areas of the game. please re-evalutate....I don't think i should be repeating myself over and over.

Not sure what you're wanting here. If you're saying it's hard to make money, well that's the way ANet wants it. They want you to work for it.

And if they did make money easy to get when in full groups, then how are all those farmers gonna feel, after they've spent two years working their asses off? (Much like the change to Faction turn ins - people are still mightily pissed about that, too.)

I did a double take on that comment. Sympathy for farmers? Two years? Working their asses off? That made my 'lol'.

I agree with the OP, increasing the quality of loot drops for a party of 8 would surely make the experience nicer. I'm not saying increasing the number of golds. But when you are in a party of 8 and a boss drops a couple hundred of gold because farmers have wrung him dry (despite what Anet says, we all know that farming a certain area affects everyone), then you are a little dissappointed to say the least.

A little love for a party of 8, please.

I like what Anet has actually been doing. Lets take a look at the evolution of loot shall we? Im going to exclude changes to treasure chests since thats not part of the topic.

Originally rare items of perfect caliber were very rare. Even rarer were rare items of perfect caliber and rare skins. Getting rare items with low requirements was hard too. Salvaging weapon mods was also VERY risky, since perfect mods were hard to get off of weapons.

This creates an environment where prices for useable weapons is very high. Yes collector items are perfect, but theres mod NPCs so buying weapon mods is costly. Theres a sense of elation when you get a good item since those are so rare to begin with. Theres also a sense of anger when you try to salvage that perfect mod, only to get wood. Armor prices are fixed. Skill prices are semi-fixed. Getting a gold item meant a lot of money really quick. This is also the time when runes were VERY expensive, remember when superior absorption was 100k? And monk runes meant lots of cash?

This was the time when a req 11 rare item with imperfect mods could be sold for some money, since there was so few good stuff.

Since white items dropped plenty, farming could easily generate money for armors/skills. However the truly COOL (but not required) stuff required lots more grinding since they are so expensive.


Fast forward..... What has Anet added?

Improved Drop rates - Believe it or not, drop rates are much better now.

Improved Rare item stats - Believe it or not, rare items have higher chance of being perfect in stats now. Especially with the inherent mods added to staves.

Improved Salvage - This is obvious. Remember when you wanted that 10/10 sundering, and salvaged iron? Doesnt happen anymore.

Introduction of Green items - Good weapons for everyone. Need a decent healing staff? Get a wenlauss.

These things have increased the number of rare items with perfect mods. Prices for some items dropped. Rare skinned weapons still commanded good prices, but things are generally cheaper. But now...selling your crappy gold was impossible. Only perfect items will sell. Rune prices have dropped heavily. Green items provided an alternate way to gain weapons as well as make money.

White items still drop decently, so farming them can get you your armor/skills. But getting a rare drop no longer meant instant cash. Its easier to gain items, but harder to make money.

Fast Forward some more.

Introduction of Inscribable Weapons and Armor
The whammy of all whammys. Prices plummet. Inscribable weapons are great to use, but harder to sell for money. Only the truly rare items are worth much. Non-inscribable weapons drop in value. Now you need even more perfect inscribable weapons to make money. Insignias and inscriptions provide a new market to make money, but only few standouts are really expensive.

Introduction of Loot Scaling and Hard Mode
Now white items are harder to farm for cash. Hardmode has added a new place to get rares but their worth has dropped drastically that its still hard to make money with perfect rare items, if you can even sell them.. Meanwhile...armor costs and skill costs are still there.

So overall. Usable items are easier to gain. Cold hard cash is harder to get. Armor and Skill costs more or less stay the same.

So what else needs to be changed?
Skills need to be able to be gained without intensive farming - See my skill token idea.

Non-elite armor prices are ok to me....but increasing white loot for full parties is a good reward and incentive to casual non-farming players so they can afford their armors. Insignias need to increase in drops as well.

I think rare items are at a good place right now, we just need a better way to sell it.

love
lyra~

(lyra has a small l, not a big L, >.< get it right or i get stabby!)

I’m a casual player but I do farm occasionally to boost my income when needed, so you could say I’m a casual farmer as well. From what I’ve experienced, loot scaling has impacted team players much more so than farmers. When I go out solo to my favorite farming spots in Normal Mode, I can still make quite a bit of gold from the drops. When I’m playing through the game with heroes, henchies or even live players, I see significantly less drops than I did before loot scaling. In Nightfall, it wasn’t unusual for me to easily make 2-3k in gold just doing a quest from point A to point B. Now, I’d be lucky to make 200-300g.

I’m not one to jump on the bash Anet bandwagon, but I’m not an uber-fanboi either. IMHO, loot scaling is broke and it’s hurting the casual player, but not the farmers which I believe was the intended target.

thanks lyra for analyzing the situation, great report!

I suggest Anet revision their lootscaling, and see what tehy can improve... hopefully they won't **** up like they did with SR. (Let's not get into that, again)

NO THIS SHALL NOT PASS

i have never posted that you were / are / or have ever been a gold buyer

get that one thing completely straight

i would not be so stupid as to make an accusation that serious without proof

you are confusing me with someone else on that one

Guild Wars is the only mmo game I've played that penalizes players for being in a full party. Other games have at least had an experience, rank, attribute, or drop scale that favored players in a group. This encouraged people to party with each other - something GW does not do. All the loot scaling did was to even things up so that drops sucked for everyone.

I can't say increasing drops is the answer as it goes against the original stated intention of keeping gold out of bots' hands. But the fact that casual players can no longer find their own equipment nor raise the gold needed to buy without serious grind, should at least serve as a clue that there's a problem somewhere to look into.

I think the attitude of new/casual players is the problem.

How can a new/casual player expect the same level of luxury as someone who spends hours everyday playing the game? Experienced players did not make most of their money in the starter areas of the game. They reached the elite areas, looting valuable rares and selling in-game to other players. Others wanted to do 'farming' to earn their cash.

So, new players need to play PvE more often and put thoughts of buying expensive armor for later. Finish the storyline(s) and join the community in elite missions (DoA/Deep/Urgoz drops can be very profitable). The games are not hard to beat - and are fun actually.

There are some drops in the game that can buy you 2 sets of 15k armor. Hit the jackpot, I know others did!

A new/casual player should understand that 'you get what you sow'.

I take full blame on that one though unfortunately a moderator deleted the post. However KANE OG, you yourself have stated that you buy gold in order to help the fight against Loot Scaling in the thread you made against Loot scaling.

I wont continue this post lest a moderator delete it again.

Now onto the main topic, lyra (Note the Lower case l) song has summed it up pretty much perfectly. Now while gold is harder to earn, the weapons aren't. So while none of us will ever afford let alone see a perfect Crystalline, it doesn't mean we wont have access to lower end weapons and the likes.

What i say should be fixed is slightly altering drop rates to favour the player. I dont mean Double the rate but a slight increase will somewhat offset Hero costs.

If that is not feasible then maybe a slight increase in greens may also help the market by giving usable weapons for the general public to use. While im not exactly happy with the current situation, i'm not down right hating it either. If my first two suggestions cant be satisfied then how about increasing the drop rate for the following: Dyes, Runes, Insignias, Tomes (Add them to normal mode or improve Hero/Henchmen Ai please) and good Inscribed weapons.

- Scrinner

My full apologies to Loviatar. I beg your pardon.

Scrinner appears to be the ass here. Where is my thread against loot scaling? Do you mean a post of mine? I've never bought gold, nor would I be stupid enough to tell anyone if I did.

I suggest you take this up with a moderator and have one of them dig up what the hell you're talking about. Or just keep your mouth shut.

KANE

[QUOTE]
fully accepted with no hard feelings

- DOuble post. Guru is acting up again! Lets continue the discussion =)

My apologies Kane Og. Though i am annoyed at your constant loot scaling attacks, I did confuse you with another OG member on the board. (Some idiot named Ogre Mage that made a gagillion threads on the issue.) I read it a few weeks ago and confused the two of you.