Just an observation on drops

Are they in any way influenced by being on a Vanguard mission?

Lately it seems, if I'm just out running around with no purpose, drops have been pretty lame; half the time I don't even get anything - a few coins if I'm lucky.

Today, though, I'm in Regent Valley on a Vanguard mission and pretty much everything gives a drop, and I got three dyes in about ten minutes.

I was just wondering if you get more if you're in a mission area, or if they just play with the drop rates now and then.

edit: four dyes now

I dont know if its by design, but i've noticed a similar pattern as well

Is it possible that taking the vanguard quest causes you to go to an area you previously weren't in?

Anecdotally, here's what I've noticed about drops in NORMAL MODE. I've been playing about 4-10 hours a day for the past few months.

1.) The longer you're online you get less drops. You don't even have to be doing anything. Log on, idle for 4 hours, and your drops + quality of them will decrease. By the 10 hour mark, it's basically nothing but coin. Whenever I need to farm items for Nick or whatever, I always do it first thing for the day. If I wait till the end of my game time, it's basically a huge waste of time. They should change the "You should take a break" message to "You're getting less loot now than you were an hour ago!"

2.) Killing the same monsters results in less loot. Combined with #1, this means that if you're grinding through the campaign (where you're stuck in the same area for quite some time) you get considerably less loot than you should. Now that I'm basically done with the campaigns, I endeavor to not stay in the same area too long if I can help it.

Again, I have no proof of this, though I did write down drops (quality and count) by hour and area for a couple weeks to confirm that what I'd been feeling turned out to be true. I wouldn't bet money or anything on it, but I've just found #1 and #2 to be true for me in NORMAL MODE. I haven't had enough time with HARD MODE to really make any assumptions. It seems less like this. Obviously, in Pre, you're kind of constrained in you can't leave NORMAL.

I remember farming char bosses across the wall. For 5 days straight. I would go in, Almost all my purples and bags/kits happened in the first two runs. Then I would start getting less drops in general. After 5-6 runs, I didn't even have to hit the vendor anymore, because I wouldn't get anything but carvings and coin. Maybe 2-3 items a run.

Edit: The above is in addition to normal loot scaling issues, http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Loot_scaling
as well as the anti-farm code that limits initial drops when you first zone in.

One big thing that affects your drops is how many are in your party. I's not surprising in the least that you get more drops in a solo mission. When you have a party full of heroes (or H/H) the overall number of drops is allegedly the same, but most are assigned to the NPCs (you just don't see this happening as they never physically appear). You do get the most drops in terms of quantity when you are solo, though the quality is better when there are more human players around (you'll still generally get less than you would solo).

Additionally, its been my observation that heroes seem to suck up drops more than henchmen, so you could try playing with fewer heroes if you're not already. If you're concerned with your drops, try playing through with less than the a full party and using henchmen over heroes. I think you'll see a significant improvement.

When farming; do quests and missions once in a while, don't farm the same area for too long (unless there are festival drops) , close and reload GW every 2 hours. I can't prove this helps however, my drops always seem fine.

I noticed that: prophecies seems to give me drops right out of the outpost, factions less, nightfall less......and eye of the north---takes about 40 minutes before I get a drop! (with hero parties).
solo---I do chest running outside of boreal---first 3 or so wurms drop NOTHING (even after the alloted 40 minutes of play).

so doing the eye quests--I have gone thru all of assault and gotten not a single drop--MANY times, the first level of warband same, nornbear--first 3 or 4 groups wont drop anything, the rest of the quests take time to get to so by then I have usually gotten well into or past my 40 min 'no drop' time.

If I want drops, I stay in prophecies and do the jungle with one or two heroes (or solo rit).

(I have never stayed ingame more than 5 hours so I can say what happens after that much time)

Quote: Originally Posted by Captain Bulldozer