Perhaps Anet is a bit too good at swinging the Nerf Bat

Ok, first off I have to say that Anet has done a pretty great job at closing exploits and such. But I'm getting very frustrated because I think that they are doing a little too well if such a thing is possible. I've been trying to get all my runes unlocked, and have all the minors and majors and 7 superiors.. but it has been tooth and nail every inch of the way. As soon as I find a good spot to farm for them it is closed within a surprisingly short period of time. Riverside was obviously the most well known and the one I hit first. I was one of the lucky ones that made it there in time to get ahead of the game.. I understand why they nerfed those giants since you could get like 50 runes an hour if you knew what you were doing... But since then I have bounced from farming spot to farming spot only to have them closed within a couple of days at best.

Most recently tonight I was farming a relatively remote place that was difficult enough to get to that I figured that they wouldn't bother with it. It also wasn't widely known by the general public. But guess what... between one run and the next it went from dropping a couple of rare armors and a couple of purples to dropping one purple every TEN runs or so. And to add insult to injury, most times that purple armor wasn't even unidentified.

So my question is this... Do you think Anet is perhaps being a little over-zealous when it comes to "adjusting drop rates"? I have gone through 5 farming spots thus far and had them nerfed before my eyes. They didn't just reduce the drops a little, they murdered them to the point that you would have more luck getting runes trying to salvage youre aged grandmother's cooking apron. Guild Wars isn't supposed to be about time played, but my main character has over 275 hours on him right now and I still haven't unlocked all my runes. Granted, I've brought 2 other characters to level 20, but a very large portion of my playing time has gone into farming for runes and weapon upgrades. Major and Minor runes are just fine and easy to get, but I have yet to find any place where I can have any hope or expectation of getting my superiors.

I don't want to see the game economy flooded by runes to the point where they are worthless, but at the same time I think they have gone too far in shutting down every single place where they can be farmed as soon as anybody finds out about it. I was planning to have everything unlocked and PvP ready by now and that simply doesn't seem to be possible. At the current rate, I'll get all my superiors unlocked sometime around next december....

If anybody knows a good place to farm superior runes please PM me about it. Don't post it on this thread since it seems that as soon as something like that becomes public knowledge it gets hit by the Zealous Nerfbat of Runeslaying. I don't mind having to farm 2 or 3 hours to get one superior rune.. but even that snail's pace seems to be denied me at the moment.

Am I the only one that has noticed this disturbing trend? Surely I'm not completely alone here. At the current rate that drops are being adjusted it will reach a critical mass where the goal of unlocking all of the runes for all of the classes is no longer a realistic goal. I just hope that if that time comes, I'm one of the few that has managed to already do so.

So you're complaining cause you can't farm but yet you want them to hold off with the nerf bat only until you get your character set up and then it's OK to shut down the farm places, even be an advocate of shutting them down (which you probably would be, I've seen it happen way too many times. Sorry to generalize but that's what I'm getting from this thread).


That's just super

I could care less about the PVE Economy, infact I would rather it become inflated as it is.

Runes arn't difficult to unlock, getting a specific rune unlocked is

I am tired of selling superior smiting runes...

Thank you for the enlightening and helpful posts. And as to your comments Caco, I'm afraid you have completely missed the intent of my entire thread. What I am saying is that they should go a little easier on the nerfing. They can balance drops in an area without completely killing them. They can change good drops to average drops without making it subpar.

The bit about getting a specific rune unlocked is very true. I've found something like 5 superior vigor and 3 superior Absorbtion, 2 expertise and 3 hammer mastery.. etc.. but but I keep just getting the same ones and not unlocking any new. Perhaps it is a case of bad luck, I dont' know. All I know now is that those 20 or so superiors remaining to be unlocked are just out there laughing at me.

Laugh they will, mocking you everytime you get an armor that is not unided or ids into a minor!

Though I must say it is a shame that within 24 hours of finding a remotely hidden and good farming spot its nerfed to the point where its no longer dropping anything worthwhile! I am usually not one to complain, but some of the stuff arena.net has done doesn't float with me. Oh well. Time to move on to the next area eh?! Now to find it before it gets nerfed.. too late!

Going to sleep 2 hours ago eh^^? Yes.. I am your stalker

I found a spot that has one mob. I have killed him 19 times. Of those 19 times, 14 have been yellow items.

pm me for the yummy location *demonic grin*

A month of item hunting

I've yet to unlock the superiors and majors i need

I've bought several, just for PvE usage.

But I for the love of god cannot unlock them (find and id them that is)

Try killing lots of mobs I suggest riverside for mass killing

I'm a born item hunter.

I have found ONE superior rune, and it didn't even salvage. It was BLOOD magic.. oh well. Time to make a necro I suppose.

I can't even BUY super vigor because there is NO WAY I'm going to give someone 100k for it. Forget that.

>P

(besides I need to unlock these)

This update may create a market for unided runes..from what you have said it seems you have rather a large amount of money, this may just help you unlock those last few runes.

Edit: And in case the elite skills were bothering you..

Yeah, the price people are likely to charge for non-identified superior runes is likely to be nearly prohibitive. I farm money as much as the next guy, but if they want like 50k for them or something that could be a real headache to get together the scratch for the number it would take to unlock everything.

Though on the other hand, farming cash is easy.

There's not likely to be a real market in un-ided runes until you salvage them out 100% of the time. As long as there's a chance of the unided gold armor you just got salvaging into cloth, people are unlikely to take the risk of not iding first, and missing out on an unlock they may need.

As for overnerfing of farming spots, most of the "nerfs" to favourite farming spots were actually bugfixes to the way some critters drop tables were working. Maybe you're just unlucky and are just ahead of the devs as they clean that up =).

Really though, I'm starting to get the impression that the devs don't want casual players to have access to superiors. There's very few places where you can go and try hard to unlock runes these days, and combined with the fact that the chance of finding the superior you want is pitifully low (I think it's a bout 1/500 runes will be a specific superior), I can't see myself unlocking most of the runes I'd like/need for PvP.

When you say that a farming spot has been shut down, you just mean that they reduced the drop rates or have they lowered the number of mobs altogether?

1/500? Damn that's lucky.

I've spent what, over 2 million Gold on Rare Unid'ed Armors? Still got 21 Runes to unlock :|

Man, I love this Game.

If we didn't <3 the game, we wouldn't be so zealous about it would we?

there was this one place where my guild farmed religiously for a couple days. we kept detailed stats about various rune percentages and yes that place was nerfed about 5 days after we found out. On avg, we had one rune every 2.5 mins. And about 1 in 5 were superiors. Since the sigil update, the drop rates are dramatically lowered to about one rune every 16 mins. We've ran that place over 1000 times so we're pretty confident that a nerfed happend. Even though we ran it till our eyes teared, we still have more locked runes then locked runes. With the reduction in drop frequencies, I don't know if it's possible to unlock all the runes in the game...at least not in this lifetime.

but like pharalon said, some of the nerfs weren't intentional, like riverside. They offered no explanation about the recent nerfs though.

i wish they would stop dropping rare armor that can't be identified. I mean what's the point of that? It just adds more grind to the game.

They are there to piss you off, but their more salvagable and can sell for more, look at them as uber salvage.

This is one area that I disagree with AN on. I'm PvE but I just don't get the need to force PvP into unlocking. I don't want to turn the thread though.

As far as farming an area, I agree that they should keep them in the middle. What I'd really like to see is a killer hard zone that you have to go through and then a killer hard boss that always drops a random rune. Random is cool but a few well placed but super difficult bosses would be welcome.

I'm getting the feeling that Anet's philosophpy might be one of anti-farming. They might have put something in the code that automatically adjusts the drop rate for rares and such based on how many that area has dropped over a given time.

Personally I have over 200 hours on my main character and in all that time I've seen only 2 majors and zero superiors. Part of that is that I'm taking my time and enjoying the sightss for the most part. By the time I get to these spots that are getting farmed to death, they have long since been nerfed.

But I was thinking maybe.. just maybe.. this is ANet's way of tellling folks tha this farming business goes against what they want their game to be like.. Perhaps they just want people to play the entire game/map rather than one spot over and over and over again.

I'm not knocking farming at all.. do a little bit of it myself when I'm bored or worn thin from tackling missions or the like.. I just don't make it a lifestyle like some folks do. Just wandering if all these nerfs are ANet's way af keeping you from getting a lot of something for nothing so to speak.

They've actually helped rune hunters a lot with the new tags on Un-IDed runes. Now if you salvage something before you ID it, a rune might pop out with "Un-IDed, Superior Ranger rune" or what have you. You can now buy runes from players that are pretty dang specific and have about a 1 in 6 chance of getting the rune you want unlocked. No more farming needed, and increased player interaction. Great job designers.

I dont have the luck with runes, i have 3 superiors unlocked but they were salvaged in some crap. I cant seem to get those superior runes, sure i unlock them but when it comes to salvaging no luck whatsoever. Its getting frustrating sometimes, other ppl they have like 6-7 superiors and you can't even get one. Well i farm in riverside by myself and i get good drops almost every time, but mostly get minors even its a gold giant boot.

Um there will always be a need to farm. Sure you can BUY runes that are unid, but then there's the question what are you going to buy it with? You think those superior unid ranger runes are going to sell for cheap? HA! not when a superior vigor rune is going for a 100k when you know what it is. At this point it's become a grind, doing things repetively to get the things you need to stay competitive. You may say its all skill but on an equal plateau of skill the person with the best equipment is going to come out on top because thats an edge. Welcome to hours played ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the grind.

As a side note I still farm riverside even after it was nerfed, it makes all the newbies back at ascelon happy that I do since I've got to many minor runes of something or other hogging up inventory space. They really should make it so that runes and same upgrades stack.

Can't say that I quite understand the need for Superior runes.

Maybe those of vigor, to off set a few Major runes, but beyond Minor it just becomes a health sap and past a certain point you gain no benefit from having more points in a skill.

I myself havent found ONE superior rune... alright, what's wrong with that picture?

I use to farm riverside, till hill giants got totaly ganked. I heard of people farming drakes, but i never have found anything off those, even from the start... and people say those got ganked...

Well... anyhow... why is my luck so crappy that i havent found even one superior rune? (I've beaten the game three times)... so i've had my fair share of plenty of drops... not to mention i farmed riverside when it was worth it... (Now i don't farm... don't play pve... and resort to pvp without my elite items i want...)

I have to agree with the original poster,i farmed for hours in various spots,and i never unlocked a superior rune...only 2-3 majors(not even for my proffession) and a bunch of minors.

Just a example,when i started farming flesh golems,i found myself getting a decent amout of gold items,but since the latest update it seems like i am farming for...seared ribcage!

Farming isnt fun anymore,so i guess i'll go pvp and forget about the items i started a pve character for.

I've picked up a few dozen rare armors and have yet to unlock a single superior rune. Just bad luck, sure, but it has turned me off to the entire process. I'll buy the superiors I need for my RP characters - my PvP characters are just going to have to live without. I'm simply unwilling to spend the thousands of hours needed to unlock key superior runes - I've already spent a couple hundred hours on this game, and I simply no longer have any taste for preparing to have fun.

Peace,
-CxE

It's not merely bad luck. The drop tables are horrendous, and ArenaNet apparently wants to give an unfair advantage to those with waaaay too much time on their hands.

You should attempt to influence arenanet and the community so that they realize those hundreds of hours are completely pointless and that PvP should be on a level playing field.

You're new here, aren't you?

Peace,
-CxE

Oh come on man, He's a prominent citizen, of course not.

It can be done if you don't resort to silly name calling and respect that the other side has different viewpoints. Unfortunately, fox news and the other media establishments in America aren't exactly the best role models, and I think they deserve some of the blame. Just don't make it a screaming contest and attempt to make the other side understand, and I believe that some compromise can be reached.

This should be a major clue into how the drop tables have been "balanced" : In the Great Wall Mission, I got a Major Swordsmanship Rune out of some armor...the only major rune I have ever seen. I would consider that mission extremely early in the game, yet I have not found a single major rune in any other mission or EA - and I'm not even going to touch superiors.

I can tell you that Pharalon's projection of 1/500 gold armors giving you what you want is more or less right... So if you are farming, you can expect about one superior unlocked per month.

Maybe Anet really doesn't want anybody but hardcore gamers to have access to superiors...

*edit*
*Okay kids, 50 pms is enough. I already told all the people I intend to tell about this. Just among you people the place will be taken away. My fault. Oh well.*

um...
Good job showing off and then runining a good spot?

rofl...gg!

pvp on the forums is so much more fun than pvp in game atm =)

After 189 hours of play, I only managed to unlock ONE freaking superiour rune which wasnt even in my profession. Then I go try to expert salvage it and got 11 ingots....

I wonder what's on TV nowadays...

Ain't that the truth. The more I play, the more it hits me that casual PVE players are getting the short end of a mighty big stick. And casual players are the bread and butter of this game, not hard core 24/7 players.

Someday the developers may realize this, but it may be too late to recover those who don't want to make Guild Wars a second job.

I would also say that the special Temple of Ages areas are weak on the drops too, I've pretty much completely run the Fissure of Woe several times and on average see three or four purple items and one or two gold items drop the whole time I'm in there for the entire group, and those are usually from the chests after you complete quests (and I have never seen an un-id'd armor item) and its not as though you can run that place without effort. Same goes for the Underworld, although I haven't run it as extensively.

After awhile chaos axes, dragon swords, etc. loose their charm, I'd really like to get some useful things from that place, not just pretty little doodads.

Bah you are too spoiled. I would KILL to get a chaos axe or dragon sword.

The fact is, there is no way to get rid of this so called "grind" from any rpg so we are just going to have to live with it. I myself have unlocked 1 major and 1 superior which is not bad but not really good. If you are truly skilled, you wont need that extra +1-3 to a stat to win.