Do legendary survivors get crappy drops?

Will my legendary survivor get crappy drops?

I have a character that has recently made it to legendary survivor. I am not currently playing with her because I am saving her to play with my friend who must upgrade her computer first because she lags too much.

However, over the last year and a half, I have noticed that if two players are both playing well, but one has a lower level of experience, then the lower level experienced person always gets the good drops like green items and such.

For example, if I am playing my best character for green drops when I solo, and then I play her with a person such as my hubby’s main character or another friend’s character of greater experience, I get the green drops and other good drops in my name. But when I play this character with my hubby’s new character or a lower XP level friend’s character, the green drops/good drops will still come, but they are always in the name of the lower level XP person’s character. This seems true regardless of how fantastic the kill I had was or even if I was the only one on the boss at the time, or whatever the situation. This has seemed very consistent. The result always seems to be the same no matter who is playing unless I am playing with a really, really bad player.

It’s not even just me who finds this. Recently, my friend was helping her husband’s new character with her high level character and she said that he was getting all of the lucky drops. I told her that it seems that in a pair of human players, as long as both players are playing moderately well, the overall good drops go to the lower XP player.

I have not tested this theory against all extraneous variables yet, or with a larger group of human players. As for my legendary survivor, I have not tested this theory at all on her because I am saving her to play later. However, I am afraid that when I start playing her she will never get good drops unless she travels with a “God Walking Amongst Mere Mortals!”

So, is it wise to make any more legendary survivors? I really like trying to get this title, but I value my drops more, mostly because I don’t prefer to farm for drops or do a lot of trade with human merchants. Almost all of the good drops I get when I just play through the game, I keep and use on my characters.

I looked in Guildwiki, but there is no mention of this particular issue in the section on drop rates. However, this particular drop-rate inequality seems very, very consistent. So I want to know what people think of this and whether or not they found that while they were playing their legendary survivor with their friend or with one other human player, did they experience a crappy drop rate?

No. You just had a bad day.

Eh....baed lukc, mabye?

the government doesn't want us to get surivor!

Ha, ha, ha! That last one by netniwk is really funny!

Actually, I have had good luck for the most part.

I usually play with my hubby who mostly sticks to the same characters more often than I do, so my drops are good. I play so many different characters that many are lower in XP than his.

It is just that I have noticed the difference when I play with his new charcters or well... read the above more carefully.

I am not talking about one day. I am talking about a year and a half or more of observation as an active player.

It's just luck...

isnt there alreayd a Anet Hates me

I heard if you spin three times on your chair then play while doing a handstand...your drops will be much better.

QFT.. I just got 3 black dyes!

Aye..it's just bad luck.

well most of my husbands characters have more xp than mine ----and he ALWAYS gets the good drops. (he has less characters than I do so when we play I have a choice of 15 he only has 6 thus he gets more xp with those than mine, though...nevermind).
It is all just luck....I dont believe it has anything to do with xp, now my conspiracy is it has to do with how long of a break your character has taken--and the last time they went to the area you are in----I seem to get better drops when I play a character that hasnt gotten out recently and go to a place they havent been to in a while....like factions, played thru it with most of my characters, went back to finish up some quests/get faction for amber...and got some nice drops.

so when you figure out whether its just plain old luck or something else, let us all know!

Okay even if we were to go off your theory, legendary survivor only takes 1,337,000 XP. Now the 2 characters that I use for almost everything easily have more then that. It's not hard to get over 1 mil XP points anymore, even if you just play through the game and do quest. With as many quest and missions out there it's fairly simple. So your legendary survivor would still have less XP then many people's main characters. So if your theory were true then you would still get the "better" drops.

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Forum Helpful Hint #40: Soup is good for the soul, but better for a cold

Well, if this is true, it's refreshing. I would prefer it to be true, but I still recognize a pattern.

Perhaps it's something else, like my playing style. I may not want to wreck the game for my newbie friends, by slaying everything with my higher level character, so I might unconsciously hold back. It’ not like this has undergone serious testing or anything.

I guess I will continue to monitor it, keeping an eye on my play style changes and maybe make notes on drops versus experience levels and so on.

What can I say, it’s the scientist in me…I can’t help it!

Unless you track what monsters you kill, what skills you use, what classes your team uses, what XP each member of the team has, and things like who lands the killing blow, who is in aggro range, who never did damage at all, etc., you can't study this.

There are MANY MANY MANY variables. I highly doubt Anet took time to make drop rates dependent on things like player XP, killing blows, etc. But please, if the scientist in you wants an answer, be thorough, and don't do a half-assed study that looks good, but says nothing.

Ahhh, I just saw the posts from cosyfiep and I pwnd U.

That is helpful info. Thanks.

I have 30 or so characters, all receiving a good amount of play for the most part, so they each don't see that much XP as 1,000,000. Only 2 of my characters have reached that, not including the survivor.

But this "new area" theory makes sense and would explain why I am usually lucky when I travel with my hubby. Ok.

Andy yes, MagmaRed, I realize that such a study with my limited programming knowledge is futile.

I just wish I knew more about how it all worked. Oh well, I guess that's privileged information.

I dont really think this is the case. If it was I would be labeled the lucky SOB in my group. I have the least experience on all my alliance friends, esp if we all play mains. Also I have the lowest title ranks and least time in game. (dont have legendary survivor so I cant account for that) My drops are fair to good in most areas when grouping and flat out crap when h/hing.

I have noticed and have strong data to suggest that completeing and turning in quests regularly, switching zones, games, and charactors help drop rates. I also find playing with people helps drops rates for me and the people I play with.

Hey....

Thats what I do to get better drops. Don't steal my idea.



On-topic, Its all luck.

Bad luck.

My two year old Ranger who is totally epic and has explored most of Tyria and was part of the very first Wintersday and knows more GW lore than most players...

...doesn't even have R1 KoaBD. Also has only one 15k set. Also in UW trapping groups, the leader gets an ecto on the 1st Aatxe and I don't even get my merch food - and then conveniently the others have to go after, wasting 40 mins of my life.

It's just bad luck. EVIL, BIASED, bad luck.

I remember getting a black dye right after I hit LS and have been sort of a black (and white) dye magnet ever since. I can't complain.

I play with the same people all of the time and the drops seem to go well for one person over others then the next time on the same characters someone else, or even me, will get the drops, just random.

Hah, yes! Those Legendary Cowards don't deserve any loot!

though kinda messed my new area theory up....me and my husband went to the fow with our heroes---did this on 2 separate weekends (with the same characters) first weekend....we got 0 shards, not a single one (and we finished half of the quests---dang griffons ) then this last weekend, we did it again....I got 7, yes seven shards....my husband not a single one. His lucky streak is at an end---well, it didnt work that time. (oh yeah we died about the same place--this time is was the bansee who decided to give us our demise)

so its either luck or unluckiness---which ever way you see it.

Is it just me, or am I the only one disturbed by the amount of husband-wife pairs (real or not) playing gw together?

Guildwars is not eharmony!

I have been trying to get my wife to play for quite a while, but she refuses . My younger brother and his wife, on the other hand, only play together. My former guild was also ran by a husband/wife pair.

On topic, no game designer in their right mind would put in some exp-based drop modifier. Any sort of character-stat affecting the drop rate would be quickly discovered and exploited and EVERYONE would know. I have heard that playing in the same zone repeatedly does cause a decrease in drop rate and value to discourage farm-bots, but that is not a character-stat. My theory is that most people only notice things out of the ordinary (very good or very bad). If things average out 85% of the time, go poorly 10%, and go well 5%, they think they are the most unlucky people in the world. Swap the 5 and 10 and they think they are the luckiest. In reality, the 85% of the time is the best description, but it goes unnoticed.

Very good points.

Ok, I will go ahead and try to make the rest of my Survivors in to Legendaries.

I don’t mind not getting that good of drops, for the most part, but I was going to make a lot of Legendary Survivors (if all goes well that is) – I’ve had quite a few die already.

I just thought that if I were to succeed, then playing all these survivors would make me very, very broke like I was back in my newbie days where I couldn’t afford even the cheapest armor.

On the side, yes, there are a lot of husband/wife teams playing GWs. We meet lots. It is actually the first game that my hubby and I both like. I waited a long time for a game that captured both our interests.