Curse

mr_groovy · Nov 26, 2007, 01:37 PM // 13:37

I bought Guildwars Factions for a friend of mine. I showed him the basics, and gave him a little bit of gear. He made a warrior, as it is one of the easiest prof to start with.

I told him he should upgrade his Armor every chance he got, monestary, seitung harbor & finally in Kaneing Center.
He now has been playing for 40 hours, is lvl 20 and has almost done all the quests he can find before doing Vizunah Square. (Told him better to have max armor for that one).

And here's the problem, he still hasn't got the money to buy it. With max armor using 200 Iron & 32 Steel Ignots the price get's pretty steep. And he merchs all the stuff he can find, and uses expert salvage kit's on for materials also already.

Now I don't know if lootscaling has anything to do with it, as he travels with 8 all the time. But I know first hand that if you kill a lot of creatures in a near instant moment, the scaling bumps in and u get almost nothing.

Now take this example. I go farm 1/8 and kill 12 creatures in an instant. I usually get 0-3 drops. Now if i'm 8/8 I will get (0-3)/8 drops. (Better example kill tons of groups of margonites in HM with Battle of Turai's Procession, in a instant with during pre-nerf splinter weapon, netting also 0-3 items).

Yes you might tell me your calculations are wrong because of lootscaling you still get the 0-3 drops because lootscaling recognizes party size. But experiences differ.

So my question is do you Experience the same in the quantity of drops, or is this just a figment of my Imagination?

Ps keep it clean, refrain from ranting. And please don't steer the pvp vs pve thing.

zwei2stein · Nov 26, 2007, 01:50 PM // 13:50

I finished prophecies first time with mix of armor from Ventari, Amnooon and Droks /droks gloves btw/ as i was too poor to afford better stuff.

Given that prophecies was much longer and thus should have given you more gold, so, yes, drops are about same, if not better.

Coridan · Nov 26, 2007, 01:54 PM // 13:54

I don't do bad in groups of 8 personally, although money from selling to merchants only is a hard way to make a buck. But it should be possible to achieve max armor pretty quick the biggest expense is from the steel. just tell him to buy from others rather than from the merchant. Be sure to ID everything...and be frugal don't spend his money....or if he can't save up enough at one time without spending it on something...have him buy it one piece at a time. chest, arms, legs, head, feet etc.

Keithark · Nov 26, 2007, 01:55 PM // 13:55

Drops stink there are ample threads about how people cannot afford to buy armor, skills, etc in this game anymore and A-Net will not listen......remember that when GW2 comes out before you buy

mr_groovy · Nov 26, 2007, 02:02 PM // 14:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by Coridan

I don't do bad in groups of 8 personally, although money from selling to merchants only is a hard way to make a buck.

He also had all the quest rewards. Then again when do quest pay good money?

Fril Estelin · Nov 26, 2007, 02:17 PM // 14:17

I remember that I got richer when I started exploring a little bit more the maps, rather than simply going straight from "starting point of quest" to "end point of quest". More fights=more loot. And ALWAYS identify the whites you sell to merch, overall it's rentable. To perform better, check that your friend to use max weapons, such as those from collectors (check GWiki).

There may be a gap between "normal play" and the "high end" you see around, but it's not that difficult to get enough money. Takes a bit of time, which is ok when you're patient (40h do not seem to be a lot for an MMO).

Severlator · Nov 26, 2007, 02:19 PM // 14:19

What about the collecters armors?

mr_groovy · Nov 26, 2007, 02:22 PM // 14:22

I gave him a collectors req 9 30Hp -5(20) shield, and a req 9 Max damage 14^Ornate scimitar. So kit wise he's ok. Only during my own play time I can't remember being it that hard ( or taking that long) to get max armor.

Update Finally he has it, Tyrian Male. It doesn't look half that bad

makosi · Nov 26, 2007, 02:27 PM // 14:27

Anet have gone a bit too far with preventing cash injections in to the economy and with gold sinks to the point that it's very expensive to buy 1k armour. Loot scaling was a poor workaround for bots (which has been extremely unsuccessful) which has adversely affected the casual player most.

Some Kaineng armour sets require Damask, Steel, Monstrous Claws and other expensive materials which are out of reach to the average Joe unless he gets extremely lucky. It's poorly thought-out.

$neekie · Nov 26, 2007, 02:36 PM // 14:36

My personal experience, is that solo just gives most drops.

If i do quests, wich i do with a group of 7or 8, drops just suck bigtime, in the old days it filled all my bags to the point i had to leave stuff, now im happy if i got my main bag filled(with crap). Do have to say that value of drops are better(less white merch crap,more rare materials,colored weapons ect)

PUG s is even weirder, although a lot of people probabely dont agree, as far as i can see it the ones doing the most damage get the best drops. If there are good wammo s in a pug, i (im ele fire/earth) wont get peanuts(whites ,blues), if im the one doing big damage i get good/alot drops(golds/purple). I pug a lot.........

I can imagen that new players get frustarted, as it is much harder make money now. Nooby suggestion for your friend, just let him farm the (nooby)island(dragon lily s,yeti s,ect),not very challenging but he can do it alone and fast, and the drops are far more(although less valueble,money drops are between20/50 wich he can keep for his own), with some merchs along the way to offload crap without having to go to town. I did this with begginer chars for cash...

Imo,lootscalling is very bad for the new and the casual players(me,i h8 to farm over and over, for basic stuff,dont have the time)

mzzls

Crom The Pale · Nov 26, 2007, 02:39 PM // 14:39

40 hours isnt really that long in the overall aspect of this game. Chances are he has spent money on things he should not have. He didnt need to expert salvage for example, using regular salvage kits on Highly Salvagable items will result in a good supply of crafting items. This will also increase monetary amounts for the crafting items you sell vs the item you salvaged.

He can get away with less than a full set of max armor for the next couple of missions, Chest and Legs would be the best to buy, picking up a helm with a +1 attribute if he can afford it. He should also remenber to salvage any runes/insignias from his old armor rather than buying new.

As for his drop rate its the same for everyone. I would recomend he does some exploring with a full party, vanquishing a few maps should net him enough to buy max armor.

mr_groovy · Nov 26, 2007, 02:52 PM // 14:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Crom The Pale

40 hours isnt really that long in the overall aspect of this game.

As for his drop rate its the same for everyone. I would recommend he does some exploring with a full party, vanquishing a few maps should net him enough to buy max armor.

See what u did right there?

Logic there is none.

Yes I made him buy a couple of skills, but only the essential ones. (Buying a new skill for him is now @ 350G, proves he din't buy to many of those )

Alexandra-Sweet · Nov 26, 2007, 02:55 PM // 14:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr_groovy

I told him he should upgrade his Armor every chance he got, monestary, seitung harbor & finally in Kaneing Center.
He now has been playing for 40 hours, is lvl 20 and has almost done all the quests he can find before doing Vizunah Square. (Told him better to have max armor for that one).

You don't have to buy armor inbetween the start in Shing Jea till you reach Kaineng, you can easily do Shing Jea with starters armor.

Doing all quests on Shing Jea will get you about 3K/4K, doing all quests in Kaineng will get you 5K or so + a lot of Imperial Commendations that can be used to get Superior Salvage kits, which you can sell to people for 1,5K each. Thats how I always get max armor for my new Canthan Characters.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr_groovy

So my question is do you Experience the same in the quantity of drops, or is this just a figment of my Imagination?

To me, loot is very random, sometimes I get a lot of good stuff in one run, in another run I get almost nothing. But I have to say that before HM and everything it was easier to make money out of the overfarmed spots. (Hydra farming ftw!)

Nian · Nov 26, 2007, 03:00 PM // 15:00

I haven't made new characters in a while but the last time I did I made a paragon. I was surprised to find how expensive just the 1k sets were to buy because of the materials costing more. It was close to the GW:EN release date so people probably stocked up mats. Anyway I also thought it was a helluva lot more expensive than it was ever before.

Imho just playing the game and doing quests and missions should earn you a decent amount of gold. When I made my first character I got them the collector's max armor rather than buying one so I wouldn't waste money. I also never buy armor from ShingJea unless going for a survivor. I usually just buy 1 set of armor midway(Seitung) and after that max armor and I do the same in all the campaigns, just one set in the middle before getting max. I also agree that you don't need expensive salvage kits at the start to identify crappy blues. Regulars should do just find in order to get mats.

Mordakai · Nov 26, 2007, 03:08 PM // 15:08

Factions is one of the easiest campaigns to get armor in.

I only bought armor at Seitung Harbor (and you can get collectors too, if you wish).

You don't need to spend any money on ID kits or salvage kits. You should have 5k before you leave the starter island.

Even if you don't, once you get to Kenieng City, you can use the collectors there to get Max armor until you save enough cash to get the armor and runes/incriptions you want. Yes, you will die alot (especially as a warrior) with crap armor, but considering you get gold for quests, it should not take you too long to get the 5k + materials for whatever armor you wish.

creelie · Nov 26, 2007, 03:10 PM // 15:10

Metal (iron and steel) armor is definitely the most expensive. Like Crom said, your friend should build up his armor piece by piece. A good order would be: chest, legs, head, hands, and finally feet.

mr_groovy · Nov 26, 2007, 03:23 PM // 15:23

Just to point out the costs of the Monestary armor: 5*20=100gld + 8 cloth
Seitung Harbor: 5*200=1000gld + 48 cloth.

Those aren't that expensive. Though 5*1K, 200 Iron + 32 Steel will cost any newcomer dearly.

Dev121 · Nov 26, 2007, 03:37 PM // 15:37

He shouldnt of upgraded armor on noob islands, waste of time to be honest. I totally see your point and this is why so many people farm and other ebay gold, the rewards for just playing the game the way you want arent great but its something youll have to live with. Tell him to suck it up and struggle for a few weeks and save then he should get on his feet with a few K behind him.

Savio · Nov 26, 2007, 03:44 PM // 15:44

Shing Jea-style armor is cheaper since it only requires cloth and a handful of damask. You can also get cloth easily enough from Jade Brotherhood and Am Fah mobs.

Rathcail · Nov 26, 2007, 04:03 PM // 16:03

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alexandra-Sweet

a lot of Imperial Commendations that can be used to get Superior Salvage kits, which you can sell to people for 1,5K each.

Or just sell to the merchant for 1k if you are lazy like me. Still plenty enough of money from those quests to afford max armour.