how hard should finding items be

Well, I'v played through the game with one char, one to ring of fire, and one to riverside, and iv maybe unlocked 7 runes and got a couple of purple items, none with any good stats. As for gold, iv earned maybe 20 k from playing, the rest has been from farming. That is close to 100 hours of gaming for that much reward. Yes, i feel great about completing the game and that should be reward enough right? Well, not really. Its hard to feel good when theres so many more challenges out there such as 15k armor and getting the rare cool looking weapons and shields and such. Once i finished the game, I help my guild mates out to complete the game for them, but my character just plain sucked. Runes help, but buying a sup absorb and vigor for my warrior is expensive.

Please treat this as an "opinion only" thread, no flaming, I just want this to see other people's opinion on this topic.

Now, instead of complaining, I am going to post alternatives. ANet needs to return farming but control it. The harder the monster, the higher the drops. Allow players to farm, but make them work for it. Make it so that people can't solo it, but has to "share the wealth" with a party. But theres UW and FoW for that right? Well, first of all your country has to have the favor. Second of all, you cant unlock runes there. Third, it costs money to get it. Its also so hard to get a group in temple of the ages now, I can sit for hours trying to find a group.

I'm probably in the minority now, but I think they've struck a good balance, at least for me. I play both PvE and PvP, and I can farm for a few hours, get some items, or farm 1000 faction or so a night doing GvG/Tombs, so either way I can get something unlocked, but, hey, I'm still a supporter of UAS/UAR =P

Well in my opinion, farming should return. It's all PvE characters can do to get stuff for their characters. With the new faction system, PvP characters get to unlock everything they need simply by doing what they were already doing. Obtaining factions points in PvP and GvG does us PvE players no good. We have no relyable method to get good items unlike the PvP people. Control the farming, but don't let it get out of control so that your only options are to completely negate it.

exactly

I have played through this game twice, in it's entirety. Those two characters have played the later missions (Thunderhead Keep on) repeatedly. I have another character ~Divinity Coast. I have found 1 weapon that I can use that is close to or equilivent to that which I can get from building a PvP only character.

I have an awsome collection of weapons. All of them bought from others.

I sincerely think that the slow rate that farming unlocks things, and gains money is a realy problem. That slow rate of return convinces people to purchase ~200K for less than $20 on Ebay and such. I did not take this path, I farmed all my money and sold the hammer that I found for 25K.

In an effort to save some money, since even unIDed Superior Vigors are worth practically nothing on the market, I have decided to try to "farm" my next weapon, a perfect damage Hornbow. I have played thunderhead keep over and over looking for this weapon, and nothing. Not one single hornbow drop for me. I know if I could solo this mission I could say that not one hornbow has dropped, but I digress.

I have beaten this PvE game to the ground, I know Thunderhead Keep and Hell's Precipace so well I can make ANY group willing to listen beat it. Yet, I cannot get a gold or purple drop worth using.

So, here we are, I can use faction to unlock that Zealous Axe haft in PvP, but what good does that do when I cannot find the haft or the weapon to put it on?

So, the real question is: If weapons are not designed to be the factoring matter in the game, why are they so scarse? If a 15-28 +15% while health above 50% bow is not supposed to be an advantage in PvP, why would it be such an advantage in PvE?

I agree that a character that is just out of pre-searing should not have access to a perfect damage anything, just because they meet the requirements, but I have characters that have beaten the game and cannot find a weapon to suit their level. This causes a bad. Either purchase some money, or farm for some money and hope that someone found the weapon you are looking for and is willing to sell it. Then again, with weapon prices in the 400K range, you may have to spend a hundred dollars or so in real life money to get the weapons you want.

Which brings up another point, on this subject. When Sigil prices were so high that everyone complained, A.Net started a system to help lower them. Where is the system that helps lower the prices of weapons? Or is there some group (other than those that make real life money on items) that would have a problem with characters having access to top level weapons?

Maybe after completing Hell's Precipace there could be a vendor unlocked?

I don't want to farm anymore. It is boring. I like playing the PvE over and over still, but that is waining.

So how hard should it be to find drops?

How about not hard at all, just hard to find the drops that YOU are looking for. Perhaps within any highlevel mission a few gold drops could be passed out. Some of those will be salvaged for componants, some will be used, and hopefully some will be traded for other drops. Yes, I suggested trading drops and not drops for money.

Eye opener answering where all the good drops are going.

Here is another talk about it.

Behold, it will make you sick.