The Most Efficient Chest Run
snodaard
HigherMinion
Rice
I have ran over 19k chests total and my fav spot is Icedome in HM by far. It is a very small area but can have 2-4 chest spwan. From my experience, I say 2 chests 10% chance spawn, 3 chests 60%, and 4 chests 30%. The full run takes about 3-4 min to complete so you are getting just over 1 min per chest.
The drop in Ice dome is very good too. Rares such as unisc Summit Warlord Shield, Stone Summit Shield, Summit Axe and Summit Hammer can fetch decent price if mods are good. You also get alot of armor drops, usually 40-50% of all drops are armor pieces. On top of that, tyrian armor pieces have the highest chance to yield Vigor runes since there are only 6 professions in prophecy, compared to 8 professions in nightfall and factions.
Because there are no towns connected to Icedone, the trick to achieve fast runs is to run dual account. Enter Icedome from Talus Chute and park your second account at the entrance portal. Run with first account and when u get all the chests in the zone, zone back to Talus with second account and go back in again. Enter from Frozen forest is not recommended because you can catch immediate agro from that portal.
The drop in Ice dome is very good too. Rares such as unisc Summit Warlord Shield, Stone Summit Shield, Summit Axe and Summit Hammer can fetch decent price if mods are good. You also get alot of armor drops, usually 40-50% of all drops are armor pieces. On top of that, tyrian armor pieces have the highest chance to yield Vigor runes since there are only 6 professions in prophecy, compared to 8 professions in nightfall and factions.
Because there are no towns connected to Icedone, the trick to achieve fast runs is to run dual account. Enter Icedome from Talus Chute and park your second account at the entrance portal. Run with first account and when u get all the chests in the zone, zone back to Talus with second account and go back in again. Enter from Frozen forest is not recommended because you can catch immediate agro from that portal.
Murthag The Great
Does any1 have a map for the pogmei valley chest run? There was one in the chestrunners thread but it was removed 
snodaard
not removed at all
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...postcount=1123
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...postcount=1123
Enchanted Krystal
Quote:
Originally Posted by Murthag The Great
Does any1 have a map for the pogmei valley chest run?
Leaving from Boreas Seabed, I go this way. Most times you get 5 chests & I always run in HM. Run takes 6 mins max.
As for my favourite & efficient, Hell's Precpice all the way! (as it saves me a ton of cash not having to buy Magmas!
)
Edit: This was the 1st time I have done this run in about 12 months, so that could be why it took a little longer.
As for my favourite & efficient, Hell's Precpice all the way! (as it saves me a ton of cash not having to buy Magmas!
)Edit: This was the 1st time I have done this run in about 12 months, so that could be why it took a little longer.
Whirl E Vic
Quote:
Originally Posted by HigherMinion
It lies when you assume important values and don't include chance to find major/superior vigors. Also, elite tomes are generally 6k each, with war tomes being 4k only.
*sigh*
I used 6k as the average value of the tomes in all calculations.
All the runes do is increase the value of both gold and purple drops. Since virtually all gold runes are more valuable than purple runes, the value of the gold drops increases faster than the value of the purple drops and it just skews it even more in favor of HM even when you account for the increased retains, as I have shown above.
You are welcome to challenge my values with reasonable ones of your own to try to prove your point. Frequency of Elite Tome drops is supported here:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...&postcount=389
You'll soon find out what the rest of us have figured out. Regardless, run whatever the hell you want. I'm done dealing with a moron/troll on an internet forum.
I used 6k as the average value of the tomes in all calculations.
All the runes do is increase the value of both gold and purple drops. Since virtually all gold runes are more valuable than purple runes, the value of the gold drops increases faster than the value of the purple drops and it just skews it even more in favor of HM even when you account for the increased retains, as I have shown above.
You are welcome to challenge my values with reasonable ones of your own to try to prove your point. Frequency of Elite Tome drops is supported here:
http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...&postcount=389
You'll soon find out what the rest of us have figured out. Regardless, run whatever the hell you want. I'm done dealing with a moron/troll on an internet forum.
Bright Star Shine
Quote:
Originally Posted by Enchanted Krystal
Anyway, I have an update on my test. I finally found some time to play today and did 100 chests in Witman's Folly NM, here are my results. I'm not doing 200 chests btw, I barely even have time to do Nicholas the last few weeks, so I'll stick with 100.
First screen:
Second screen:
Conclusion of my runs:
I had a retain rate of 56%, so I broke a little bit more lockpicks than I should have statistically, but still around the right number.
- Number of lockpicks broken: 51 cost = 61,2k (I buy my lockpicks for 1,2k/ea)
- Total money earned from merching everything: 19,702 gold.
Net gain: -41,498 gold.
Extra info:
-100 chests opened resulted in 33 gold items and 67 purples. Making the gold-purple ratio about exactly 1/3 - 2/3.
-I actually got a lot of 2 chest runs in the end, I don't know why, but it annoyed me. Was there a spawn point I didn't know about? Does it happen often? I had about 10 or so 2 chest runs, all of which were ~2:30 because I had to run all the way to Droks to realize there wasn't a chest there and resign.
-I got quite some survivor and blessed insignias, and some half baked superior runes. No sup vigor though. Even if I did get one, that would still be ~30k loss.
Personal notes:
-I have to admit I am surprised by the actual speed of the run. On a lot of runs I got my 3 chests at around 1:30 or on rare occasions even less. This speaks in favor of the run, but since I'm not here to investigate average speed, but NM vs HM money gain, it's not really relevant.
-I blacked out the name, not because I have something to hide, but because the account isn't actually mine, it's a friend's account, but he quit a long time ago. Nonetheless, the account is his property, I only have permission to use it, so I'm not making the name public.
-I won't have time to play again until this weekend probably, or maybe thursday, so my Pongmei test will have to wait until then.
Reformed
@ Whirl E Vic - The decimal values you posted I assume are meant to be put back in as an overall percentage of that drop. Why not just list the actual values here? Also, curious that you wound up with exactly 5% Elite Tomes with variance being what it is.
@ Bright - There will always be 3 chests in Witman's. Periodically you will get them in the south-central region of the zone or way off on the eastern edge which isn't ideal for the run.
@ Bright - There will always be 3 chests in Witman's. Periodically you will get them in the south-central region of the zone or way off on the eastern edge which isn't ideal for the run.
Bright Star Shine
Quote:
Originally Posted by HigherMinion
Now... My retention rate is slightly higher, but... I don't quite understand why your net loss was double. If your stats aren't skewed then this only indicates how sporadic the loss is.
Well, I even got a bit more from merching the 100 chests (19,702) than you, but I guess you can average it up to ~20k for 100 chests. From there on you can calculate your net loss/gain depending on your retain chances. For Witman's to be economically break even, you need to have a retention rate of ~83-84%. I'm curious as to how my Pongmei test will turn out 
BIG EDIT:
I actually did find some time today to do my 100 Pongmei runs. I documented my findings really thoroughly, here are the results.
I actually ran 101 chests, because that's how the numbers worked out. I'll leave the last drop I had (a purple Amber Wand + broken Lockpick) out of my equation (I also didn't merch it).
Start screen:
End screen:
I had a base retain chance of 26%. On my 100 chests I broke 77 Lockpicks, which is about right.
77 broken picks = 92,4k
I will count the normal tomes as 300g/ea regardless of what it is, and the Elite necro + elite assa is an extra 13k as well.
So, money refunded: 46,918 + 13 + 2,1 = 62,018k
Meaning that my total gain from 100 Pongmei chests is -30,382 gold.
I had a total of 73 gold drops (counting Elite tomes as gold) and 27 purple (counting normal tome as purple) making the total balance about 2/3 - 1/3 in reverse. A little bit more on the gold side.
EXTRA: My chest spawns. I had the following amount of chests, in order:
5-5-5-5-5-4-5-5-4-5-5-5-4-5-5-5-5-4-5-5-5 making the average number of chests (on 101) 4,80. Which is a lot higher than I expected it to be.
I screenied all my drops, except for 1 run, where I had 4 purples and 1 gold armor because I dc'ed there. Here is the picture (I'm not going to directly post it, because that would make my post super long).
I id'ed a grand total of 4 items myself, being the following:
I didn't id the skeleton shield because it had +41ench on it, which wasn't worth it to me to id.
Extra notes: I had very little elite tomes tbh, usually I get more, and better ones, but even completely without my elite tomes, I would have had about the same loss that I would have had in Witman's Folly. Because I usually run Pongmei with both my alt and my main account, I make a lot less loss/maybe even a little bit of profit because my main account has max TH and max Lucky.
In case someone wants to challenge my conclusion: Pongmei HM is still more profitable than Witman's, maybe just a little less profitable than I thought. Feel free to do a similar test to mine and post your results. Until then, I'm fairly positive this entire thing is cleared up.
BIG EDIT:
I actually did find some time today to do my 100 Pongmei runs. I documented my findings really thoroughly, here are the results.
I actually ran 101 chests, because that's how the numbers worked out. I'll leave the last drop I had (a purple Amber Wand + broken Lockpick) out of my equation (I also didn't merch it).
Start screen:
End screen:
I had a base retain chance of 26%. On my 100 chests I broke 77 Lockpicks, which is about right.
77 broken picks = 92,4k
I will count the normal tomes as 300g/ea regardless of what it is, and the Elite necro + elite assa is an extra 13k as well.
So, money refunded: 46,918 + 13 + 2,1 = 62,018k
Meaning that my total gain from 100 Pongmei chests is -30,382 gold.
I had a total of 73 gold drops (counting Elite tomes as gold) and 27 purple (counting normal tome as purple) making the total balance about 2/3 - 1/3 in reverse. A little bit more on the gold side.
EXTRA: My chest spawns. I had the following amount of chests, in order:
5-5-5-5-5-4-5-5-4-5-5-5-4-5-5-5-5-4-5-5-5 making the average number of chests (on 101) 4,80. Which is a lot higher than I expected it to be.
I screenied all my drops, except for 1 run, where I had 4 purples and 1 gold armor because I dc'ed there. Here is the picture (I'm not going to directly post it, because that would make my post super long).
I id'ed a grand total of 4 items myself, being the following:
I didn't id the skeleton shield because it had +41ench on it, which wasn't worth it to me to id.
Extra notes: I had very little elite tomes tbh, usually I get more, and better ones, but even completely without my elite tomes, I would have had about the same loss that I would have had in Witman's Folly. Because I usually run Pongmei with both my alt and my main account, I make a lot less loss/maybe even a little bit of profit because my main account has max TH and max Lucky.
In case someone wants to challenge my conclusion: Pongmei HM is still more profitable than Witman's, maybe just a little less profitable than I thought. Feel free to do a similar test to mine and post your results. Until then, I'm fairly positive this entire thing is cleared up.
Reformed
How did you get 46,918 as your base "money refunded"? If we exclude your other drops (based on your numbers 2x elite and 7x reg) that leaves you 91 drops. That's a whopping ~516g average value compared to your Witman average which is ~197g.
HigherMinion
So in conclusion, at least for the time being, Witman's is the fastest run for Treasure Hunter and Lucky while Pongmei is better for Wisdom and slightly more economic, with lucky drops.
Bright Star Shine
Quote:
Originally Posted by HigherMinion
Quote:
If you want to do the same test using 100 Lockpicks instead, feel free to do so. It's bound to have similar results. I don't see how doing 100 chests/test is a bad representation. It's just different. Also, how are the picks I broke in NM a wild fluke? Because, statistically, I broke a little bit too many? Happened in Pongmei as well. I broke 77 instead of 74.
You will find that I did my test as unbiased as I could and that I'm even meeting you half way by doing extra math. I understood your claim to be
Quote: Originally Posted by HigherMinion
I will concede, It clearly won't be the best for unlucky, but you will naturally max Unlucky before Lucky anyway. You're also talking with false information if you think you can seriously profit from regular drops in Pongmei with a 30% retention rate. You'll be able to profit a good deal more from common drops in Witman's, including survivor insignias (common), Major/Sup Vigs and dual-vamp weapons which crop up every now and then.
Hard Mode grants better drops and more golds at the cost of much lower retention. that doesn't magically make it cheaper; quite the opposite. I have a far higher chance to get multiple golds from one lockpick, while you will generally break on the first or second chest. To which I replied that my claim was
Hard Mode grants better drops and more golds at the cost of much lower retention. that doesn't magically make it cheaper; quite the opposite. I have a far higher chance to get multiple golds from one lockpick, while you will generally break on the first or second chest. To which I replied that my claim was
