No more key drops, just lockpicks

One minor annoyance I have in Guild Wars is when I'm doing something in an area I won't return to for a while (such as helping a guildie) and a key drops for me after I've passed the last chest. So I'm left with having to chose between:

- Selling the key to he merchant
- Making a special trip just to use it
- Keeping it in storage till I go to where I can use it

Depending on the value of the key key I use either the first or last option. And even when considering keys which don't get used for a long time (FoW/UW keys can remain in my storage for months) or when I forget to grab the keys, its still only a minor annoyance at best.

So I propose that the enemy drop tables are changed so that instead of dropping region specific keys they instead drop lockpicks. Keys would still be purchasable from merchants.

Naturally low level areas would have to drop the lockpicks a lot less than they currenly drop keys, otherwise people would farm lockpicks in those areas.

play hard mode..there drop only lockpicks ....

play hard mo-
pheonix beat me to it

hehe XD

when anet would change it to only lockpicks drops in NM too. where would be then the reason to play Hm XD ^^ in point of keys...

/notsigned

for people without the titles keys are far better.

/notsigned for above reasons, and if you dont want to do hard mode, farm in normal mode in GWEN they drop there

/notsigned because the fork told me not to sign...also for all the above reasons plus I like keys.

Naaah, leave the keys as they are.

If you're not going to be in FoW/UW for awhile, sell the key. It's a guaranteed chunk of change.

/notsigned

It's better when keys and picks drop instead of having to pay for them, especially the high-end ones. As has been mentioned, hard mode drops lockpicks and GWEN does even in normal mode.

Off-topic: Enough with the fork already. It was never funny, it still isn't.

On-topic: Lockpicks were added for the purpose of hard mode. They have intigrated the ability to use them in normal mode, but in my opinion, they should only be for hard mode chests. That way, people like you can treasure the keys.

Why exactly are keys better ?

Here are some tables of retention rates required to break even with keys or lockpicks. But as the merchants will still be able to sell keys that it irrelevant.

So I'm guessing that the value comes from either the merchant value, or the number of chests you can open. If the lockpicks dropped at the same rates that keys do now then the lockpicks would get you more gold and/or open more chests in the same area.
I'm expecting the drop rate to be such that the value of dropped keys now is approximately the same as the value of the dropped lockpicks. If it was my choice, I'd go for making the expected number of chests opened the same.

Except that the annoyance isn't when I go to farm keys. Its when I go into a normal mode area for some reason (usually to help a guildie), get a key, then leave the area before using it.

For FoW/UW its pretty easy to judge if I'll return there soon or not. But what about areas like the jade sea, which I might go back to tomorrow because I tag along with a guildie or stay away from for months ?

What is there to treasure about the keys ?

Fair enough, I should've said

Nobody's twisting your arm and going "WASTE YOUR STORAGE/INVENTORY SPACE OR ELSE!" H/H up and go outside long enough to use it if you're that concerned about Treasure Hunter, or sell it.

A black die may drop in Old Ascalon.
As long as they drop in such low rates, lockpicks won't be a problem.
Who uses an Ascalonian Key, anyways?

It seems to me that if there is anything to complain about, the OP poster will complain about it. And 9/10's of the threads are just about making the game less time consuming.

And how is time consuming to get an Ascalonin key?

It's just pointless. Most of the time, finding a chest takes more time than finding a chst to use tie. And if you use it, you will never get a gold drop, and you will get no point in any title. Ascalonian keys are to be sold, not to open chests.

They are just plain useless.

The 600g kays are useful to open chest cheaper while you increse the treasure hunter. But once you hit a certain %, lockpicks are beter again.

meh, no thanks. I like the key system as it is.

Pretty much you said it all, all I have to add is:

/notsigned

This does not follow.

Keys are cheaper, but we're talking about drops.
Keys are one-time use. everyone, even a non-titled player, has a chance of retaining.
Lockpicks can be sold anywhere. Keys....can't.

/notsigned anyway, because you get them already in HM, and NM GWEN.

The reason everything isn't a lockpick, is because Ascalonian Chests don't drop the same stuff that FoW chests do.

Also, if this idea was put into place, what would happen to the people who have Kurzick or Luxon keys in storage? They would just be worthless and the people who have them stored up (for god knows what reason) would just be screwed.

Also, if you're going for the title, I think I'd rather spend 600g per key than 1k.

off topic:
I really don't care what you have to say about the whole fork thing because personally your opinion couldn't matter less then the speck of dust on my keyboard...if there is one...so stop wasting your time about it. I'm doin it because I'm bored enough to.

On topic:
I agree specifically with everything you said after the words On-topic