Solo vs. H/H farming?

I've been reading all the posts here regarding the different way you can farm, as I want to maximize the amount of drops I get when I farm. That being said, I have thoroughly confused myself as to whether I should be doing this solo or with a full complement of heros/henchies. I think it's really a question of loot scaling, and how it actually works that is giving me a headache. From what I've read, certain items excepted, the amount of items dropped is based on party size, ie more people, more loot. Is this basically correct? If so, would I be correct in thinking that solo farming is farming for items that are exempted from loot scaling? Forgive my newbish questions, but like alot of us, I want to make sure that I'm farming "properly", and not inadvertently causing myself to miss out on drops by soloing/HH when I should be doing the opposite.

Thanks

Yes, for most items a lager party gets more items. however, with H/H, its the H/H that get the surplus items, not you. meaning you never see them. not to mention u share gold and exp with the H/H. also, the items that are exempt from loot scaling (dyes, rare materials, golds, greens, tomes*not sure if its all tomes or just elite*, i think thats it) do not increase in number with a larger party. so when you solo farm, they all go to you, more or less. so all things considered, solo is the way to go. unless of course you're farming rep points, those dont get shared. everyone gets what they were told they'd get. hope this helps, and i hope my information isnt skewed lol

This is my understanding of it.

With loot scaling...

If there is 1 person it drops for one person. If there is 8 people it drops for 8 people. Therefore, with that said, It doesn't matter how many people/heroes are with you. It will have drops for however many people there are. People complain about less drops with heroes. But in reality there is the same amount of drops. You just don't see them because they are "dropping for heroes".

So when you see people saying they are looking for a 5 person group for better drops. It doesn't matter. Because it's only gonna be dropping for 5 people.

Obviously gold is excluded from this. How much gold is dropped doesn't change. But how many times it drops does change.

actually, loot scaling makes it so that you get LESS items when you have more people/heroes in your party - thats why people SOLO farm.

Team of 8: Kill 8 foes, get 1 drop for you
Solo: Kill 8 foes get all 8 drops.
5 Man: Kill 8 foes, get 8/5 drops
X man: Kill 8 get 8/x drops

See how it works?

GaaaaaH I don't think you understand what loot scaling is. Loot scaling means that solo you wont get 8 drops. Your logic is right if there was no loot scaling.

did anyone test the effects of having H&H but out of your range(being greyed out)?
does loot still drop for 8 people or is it considered like solo?

solo farm, end of story

Lootscaling is this: When you have the full party, you get the full amount of drops. If you have 2 people out of 8, you may get around 1/4th as many drops. However, certain items are EXCLUDED, meaning they drop just as often in 8 person parties as in 1 person parties, which means in a 1 person party you effectively get more since less are reserved for other people.

The excluded items are: Skill tomes, Scrolls, Dye, Rare materials, such as Ectoplasm, Gemstones from the Domain of Anguish, All other rare (gold) items, All unique (green) items, Special event items.

So basically, in a smaller party there will be fewer pure gold and white/purple items dropping, but there will be the same amount of the excluded items dropping.

As for H/H: Heroes and Henchmen both 'take up' drops just like players do, the difference is that you won't see the drops they take. You will still get the same droprate with an 8-sized h/h group as with an 8-sized player group, you just don't get to see the drops the other players are getting.

Also, this applies ONLY to players/hench who are in radar range. A cool trick you can do while farming is using a H/H group to get to a boss, then flag the h/h away until their names go gray, then kill the boss and get the full drops as if you had soloed them.

http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...php?t=10283499

This is a post I made about that very same thing.So I did a 30 run of each type of way,but I "greyed out" my h&h(there's a screenshot of how I did that).I posted what was different.Read and see what you think.

In a normal 8 man party, a H/H party (with 1 player, 7 H/H), and solo farming, you'll get ~1/8ths of the non-excluded (included?) drops (depending on your luck of corse).

In all the full parties, something drops something and 7/8ths of the time, it drops for a H/H or party member. If the H/H gets it, you don't see it and if the party member gets it, you see it but can't pick it up, obviously.

Now with solo, imagine the same thing except 7/8ths of the party are invisable and useless. Same thing happens though. Something drops something, and 7/8ths of the time the invisable party member gets it and (like the H/H) you can't see it.

So it would seem to not make a difference; except for loot-scaled items. In a H/H or full party, 7/8ths of loot scaled items will not be dropped for you. But in Solo, all loot scaled drops are for you.

So, for more drops, solo.

(*Note* All this is based on my understanding and experiances with lootscalings...If I'm wrong, deal with it)

solo, however 8 man doa etc can be more profitable. but that's not h/h