Curse

Fox Mulder · May 07, 2007, 04:38 AM // 04:38

Hey, I wanted to start a thread that would let A-net know how bad lockpicks
are at the moment. I have farmed the southern Shiverpeaks constantly in normal mode. I've gotten pretty much crap from drops & 450g key chests. I was actually breaking even, with the salvaging thrown in. I have the second
treasure hunter (adept) & over 140 ided for wisdom. A friend & I used up 7 out of 8 picks in hard mode, I know players will yell at me for not giving it
more time, & got worse crap in HM!! A-net is forcing us to use picks in HM, make them less fragile.

KamikazeChicken · May 07, 2007, 05:10 AM // 05:10

I have over 60 lockpicks, and they've been bought off gold from the initial items that came out of the chests. :\ I don't know why people bitch about them...

Mesmer in Need · May 07, 2007, 05:14 AM // 05:14

What is your treause/wisdom title rank chicken? the chance to keep them intact increases with thoes ranks. Ive had bad luck getting good drops from the chests, let alone keeping the lockpicks. I think either the drops need to be better or the picks hould be more retainable.

Ulivious The Reaper · May 07, 2007, 05:15 AM // 05:15

Heh, is Guru having trouble with their censor? anyways i think they're an asset, i love them

dragon spy · May 07, 2007, 05:16 AM // 05:16

im on the edge i think he best thing is you dont need to buy diffrent keys. so for money wise i would say the lockpicks are better. i have not been to lucky on keeping the lockpicks. they work toward the luck and unlucky titles.

so i am on the edge.

Mad King Corn · May 07, 2007, 05:16 AM // 05:16

They are not worth buying even for HM. Personally, that has also been my luck with keys as well. I decided to never purchase keys or lockpicks again, I just wish they would drop, and I have had a lockpick drop twice! The last key drop I had was months ago. I wish they would do something about increasing the key and lockpick drops as well as up the percentage of getting a gold in a chest. Yesterday I used 43 keys (jade, kurzick and canthan) and ended up with 2 golds and they both were merchant fodder.
Another problem with lockpicks is they have always broken for me, which makes it $1500 a pop for crappy chests.

KamikazeChicken · May 07, 2007, 05:51 AM // 05:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesmer in Need

What is your treause/wisdom title rank chicken?

I think they're both lvl 2, but it's not that I have luck retaining picks (I do retain more than the % says I should though). The drops from the have been earning gold and forcing me to purchase more and more keys to keep from maxing out.

madman24749 · May 07, 2007, 07:00 AM // 07:00

I've used around 30 in various different areas so far and made a loss -.-"
So yeah I don't see them helping me much

Hell Raiser · May 07, 2007, 07:52 AM // 07:52

Would you rather they remove Lockpicks and replace them with Hard Mode Keys(1,500g, no chance of retaining)? 'Cause that's what we would have if there were no Lockpicks. Any chance at all of keeping them is amazing imo. I haven't retained many (r2 lucky r2 treasure) but I've been very lucky with Locked Chests. In fact, my first Locked Chest dropped an Elite Monk Tome.

Razorblade Monkey · May 07, 2007, 08:25 AM // 08:25

I agree with both sides for different reasons... Yes, it's great that lockpicks open every chest type, so it definately saves having a slot per key type in your inventory, and the implementation of lockpick use counting towards Luck titles is also a good idea. But like others have said, I see no benefit of the contents over standard chests. In my experience, I have used 18 lockpicks, only once retaining one for a 2nd use. Out of those 19 chests I scored 3 golds, which were crap merchables.

I think that if lockpicks are going to cost more than twice most standard high-end keys, the chance % of retaining it should be just a little higher.

Yes, I know that the Treasure Hunter & Lucky titles effect this %, but I am on lvl1 of both and have about 14% chance to retain it. So basically, to get an approximate 50% chance to retain a lockpick, you would probably need to max both titles, at which point you would probably never want to open another chest again, nor would the use of lockpicks be any benefit to the user other than a possible decent drop (no lucky or treasure points cause of being maxed). Well, i'd probably say more banter, but i'm tired... =oP

toddhd · May 07, 2007, 12:47 PM // 12:47

I'm done with keys and lockpicks too. I don't understand how people are getting such good stuff. I've never gotten better than a purple item from a chest, and usually its blue. So I end up paying 600gp for a key to get an item that sells for maybe 100gp. And with lockpicks being in the platinum range - forget about it!

But while I'm on the subject, my drops stink too, and I just don't understand it. I'll go out with any given group on any given mission, and purples and golds drop left and right for other players, and I keep getting white and blue items. Never seen a green, ever (yes, I know which bosses are supposed to drop them). And I don't farm (not yet anyway) so it's not like my drops are going down from over farming. I don't understand it. Are characters given some sort of luck component? Cause mine stinks

yarddog · May 07, 2007, 01:30 PM // 13:30

i like the idea of being able to retain your lock pick, i dont have a great succes rate as of yet, my wisdom track r3, treasure r3 and lucky title , dont even know. i have noticed tho, in hard mode ALL chests require a lock pick and not a key for the area. kinda sucks for me, i currently have 50 phantom keys, but have been playing the tombs in hard mode and those phantom chests never appear, so i bought a ton of lock picks

. i also agree that the quality of items dropping from these very high priced chests is poor at best.
i wouldnt mind paying top dollar for the lock picks, but only if i was actually able of getting items worth while, not just merchant fodder.

Jongo River · May 07, 2007, 02:59 PM // 14:59

The impression I get is that the GW lottery system works extremely well if you're an obsessive farmer/trader - all the wasted keys/picks get paid for by that 1 in a million valuable drop. It's not so good if you're just hoping for the odd decent weapon for your own characters. You waste so much time/cash, that if that 1 decent weapon you eventually find is for your own use, you generally would have been better off buying it.

Kakumei · May 07, 2007, 05:36 PM // 17:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by toddhd

I've never gotten better than a purple item from a chest, and usually its blue.

Chests don't drop blues.

strcpy · May 07, 2007, 10:31 PM // 22:31

Well, if you got a blue from a chest consider yourself to be the luckiest person alive as they do not drop from chests

Keys have almost never been a money maker unless you go with a very long term goal. For most of us they are a money sink. I've found that I loose less with lockpicks, especially given that elite tomes seem to drop from them a decent amount.

I much prefer them over keys - add to more than one title, you get to retain them every once in a while, and only take up one inventory slot.

Silent Elvin Ranger · May 08, 2007, 01:26 AM // 01:26

Well at first, like right when HM was released I did like 10 lockpicks, 8 were golds. Recently I did 20, most were purple. I had like 14 purples. It is terrible.
I think that the chests in HM should drop a lot higher quality stuff...

I mean i am getting similar stuff from the 1.5k lock pics than from the 750g margonite keys (or the 1s that are up in desolation...maybe desolation keys).

My two cents
~Silent

Winston · May 08, 2007, 02:02 AM // 02:02

I've probably been a bit luckier than most. When I do Tombs with my Ranger, I'll take 3 Lockpicks and most times after opening the 3 chests I will come out with 1 Lockpick. So 1-in-3 is fairly good.

I only have lvl1 Treasure Hunter too.

strcpy · May 08, 2007, 02:22 AM // 02:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Silent Elvin Ranger

I mean i am getting similar stuff from the 1.5k lock pics than from the 750g margonite keys (or the 1s that are up in desolation...maybe desolation keys).

In my experience once you got to any key that counted towards a title they pretty much all were equal. The only difference is some areas have a special items that can drop from their chests - which HM does in the form of elite tomes. At the least there wasn't enough of a difference in you average drops to justify the cost (however, because of the chance of something like an elemental sword some places were worth it over the long term hoping for that one great drop).

They are on par with the other keys that cost over a platinum and are MUCH easier to use - DoA, Urgoz, and the Deep are much worse rewards for the money/time/difficulty. At least in my experience.

mrvrod · Dec 23, 2007, 12:43 AM // 00:43

imho, drops from kills and drops from chests in higher lvl areas (read gotta be lvl 20 to be there) should NEVER drop non max weapons or whites. I'm all for raritey to make you feel good when you finally get lucky, but i'd rather have 50g drop from a lvl 24 monster than a white fellblade, q5 dmg 13-21!!!

It's like going to beverly hills, breaking into a mansion, and coming out with about 3 or 4 8track players (b4 cassettes for you young ones)!

anet says they're against gold-farmers, and then prices the average person out of the game. thanks a lot!

CyberMesh0 · Dec 23, 2007, 02:10 AM // 02:10

15% HM retention. Don't bother with them, they cost more than they are worth.