Curse

MSecorsky · Jun 20, 2007, 11:02 PM // 23:02

I'm either doing something wrong or right, but since loot-scaling I'm seeing my gold in store slowly increasing, and that's with buying lockpicks and never passing a chest up. All I'm doing is vanquishing with a full party and more times than not I'm finding my inventory full of assorted stuff plus the gold picked up. Being able to sell tomes helps with that some, but I haven't had any 'jackpot' drops yet.

Pandora's box · Jun 20, 2007, 11:10 PM // 23:10

I've said it before and I say it again:
To my opinion it would be 'normal' if individual players in an 8 man team by just exploring the countryside would earn 2-3 k an hour. And I find it really annoying that this game drops so little, unless you play 1 man solo games or bot.

Angelic Upstart · Jun 20, 2007, 11:32 PM // 23:32

I feel kinds sorry for the newer players at times , having not known the GW before Nightfall, but then i see threads started by these players moaning that they havent got this or that, and they seem to want to have everything accessible to them for next to nothing.
Then they condemn farmers for having everything they desire, wtf its not an exclusive closed shop, farming get off your arses and work for your money,although i think loot scaling could have been worked a little better, HM farming spots are plentiful and reap good rewards,besides what are players going to do when they have beaten three campaigns a multitude of times? Because ill tell you now the replay value wears pretty thin after a while, i farm now just for the challenge of making build for a new spot, sometime it works sometime it dont but that is how i spend my time nowadays on GW, that and helping people when i can. Am i rich? no far from it but i dont need anything either armour or skill wise for my characters, and i only achieved that by being al ittle savvy about what i spent my money on,one example, lockpicks - 1500 gold and only rarely do you get a drop worth the expense, elite tomes are one and maybe the exceptional rare 15^50 weapon, which now sells for bugger all, if it sells at all cos no one has any money,or wants to part with it to someone asking silly prices.Shame the newer players didnt experience the GuildWars that was.

manitoba1073 · Jun 21, 2007, 05:08 AM // 05:08

[QUOTE=Loviatar]

Quote:

I THINK THIS CAN BE FIGURED OUT

GIVE US AN ITEMIZED LIST OF WHAT YOU SPENT 95 THOUSAND ON THAT YOU CONSIDER NEEDED STUFF AND BE SPECIFIC

i think we will find a lot of actually unneeded stuff in there if you list it.

if you cant remember how you blew 95 THOUSAND GOLD that points out the problem right there

i can vermin farm the lowlands for at least 2/3 skills an hour or 1 piece of DROK armor

RIGHT THERE

KEYS ARE A GOLD SINK

i can make close to 3k per hour on that vermin hunt in the lowlands that i showed you step by step

THAT IS ABOUT 20K PER WEEK WITH ONLY 1 FARMING HOUR

USE 2 HOURS THAT IS 40+K PER WEEK OR OVER 150K PER MONTH

Great Lovitar now your telling people to become farmers, man when did your hate of farmers change. Now you want everyone to become a farmer. But id like to know where your getting 20k for farming an hour. Oh wait your math is screwed up. so lets see here if I can fix that for you. 1 hr vermin nets you 3k now to get your 20k that is a little over 3.5 hours now to get your 40k thats 7 hours and for your 150k that would be just under 28 hours of farming 3k an hour. Yeap thats just perfect for casual player to do right. Keep on telling evryone to become farmers that way its no so lonely for me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by xshadowwolfx

eh...I love loot scalling.

Before I had to farm to get enough cash to get armor and weps once in a while, but now just by playing normally Im getting lots of gold drops and cash.

The amount of money I'm getting is about normal, but everything costs less now. Think about Zodiacs, ectos, dyes, and runes for instance.

Ecto prices have dropped from a peak of 9k to 6k.
Zodiacs prices have dropped from millions for perfects to around 100k.
Black dye prices also once 10k-8k are now 5k-6k.
Runes used to be several 100g with some being 1k+, but now there all relatively cheaper.

Whats there to complain about? You get more money more golds and everything costs less just for playing normally. But don't expect to being raking in money. Do get to really rich you still need to farm, but a casual player is now able to get by and if he saves up a little get a nice skinned item.

edit: Also don't forget about mods.

+30 Shield went from 30kish to 10k
-5/20% Dropped from 30kish to 20kish
+30 Sword Pommel went from 50k to 20kish
+30 forts for everything else is under 10k now.
Superior Vigor used to be 30k now you can find people selling it for 10-12k

I made 200k in the past month from playing normally....no farming. Just did quests/missions and got a few good gold drops and elite tomes. Also remember to open all of your treasure chests. They add up to 20k + golds per chest.

Can we say YOU ARE WRONG ABOUT LOOT SCALING. Loot scaling had nothing to do with those dropping, as a matter of fact prices starting climbing crazily when Loot Scaling started, Hell ectos went up 4k in less than 5 hours.
It was the exemptions and HM that made them go down. I was set to top 100 million on my stuff if they didnt make the exemptions and the increased drop rates in HM.

alienara · Jun 21, 2007, 06:27 AM // 06:27

having a look at loot scaling, i say that it has totally made the game rather boring for some people... this is from what i have observed and what i think will happen.

Anet says that this will help casual players. the problem is here... some casual players just play alone. New people don't have guilds yet and some of us who are in guilds don't always have our guildies on doing the same thing as us. so if i'm going to play GW during my free time... i would like to be able to put my head to work, look up some builds on the forums, adapt them to my playing style and hope that i get it right. with the new system, i understand that the loot drops according to the party size, so there won't be any difference with me going out in a group of henches or alone. and it gets really boring going with henches since there aren't alot of people who like to farm in groups.

so IMO... Anet doing loot farming has incr. the price on all items due to supply and demand theory (when u have less stuff, demand goes up, price goes up, simple economy) and it will destroy the game for the rest of us who get our kick from being able to farm and getting good stuff for our efforts. if Anet really wants to do something about farming, they would put their efforts to getting rid of bots instead of penalising the rest of us.

oh and to the people who say that prices are dropping, i would suggest that u have a look at LA d1. prices are either soaring or remaining the same with zodiacs and gemstone weaps staying at above 100k.

spellsword · Jun 21, 2007, 06:42 AM // 06:42

Really, all Anet needs to do to fix this problem is to extremely increase mission and quest rewards, around several plats that is. Then people could make money by just playing the game (for real this time). Farming would still be necessary to acquire the greens/rare weapons etc, though farming for gold would be pointless (side effect - end of bots).

Pandora's box · Jun 21, 2007, 10:31 AM // 10:31

Quote:

Originally Posted by spellsword

Really, all Anet needs to do to fix this problem is to extremely increase mission and quest rewards, around several plats that is. Then people could make money by just playing the game (for real this time). Farming would still be necessary to acquire the greens/rare weapons etc, though farming for gold would be pointless (side effect - end of bots).

I agree with that. Even better: Make players choose what reward they want by completing a quest: either skillpoints or gold or an item. So instead of 1000 skillpoints and 500 gold either 1500 skillpoints or 1500 gold or something worth 1500 gold.

Destro Maniak · Jun 21, 2007, 10:57 AM // 10:57

This is really sad thing cause I think NM should have stayed as it was and HM should give really cool golds and more loots then NM mod. NOT ALL DROPS IN NM DECREASED TO 0 and HM GIVES HALF OF THE OLD NM. Why people arent understanding but more gold drops arent that good as a lot of white items to merch. You could have earn like 5k with white before by merching now you get a gold. Lol a single gold is it what gonna make. Lets say we got a req10 15^50(which I never got 1 since event after all those golds I ID'ed)Sword without an extremely wanted skin. So what. We gonna go kamadan dis 1 and spam all day long. And A-net is lied of no anti farm code. No one can say there is no anti farm. I was farming Halycon Job and today grinded it more than 10 times in HM and not even a single gold. NOT EVEN 1. UW farm has been dead to cause I clear out whole UW and its like giving 30minute+230-300gold for 1 ecto. And sometimes for non ecto cause loots are so bad that I can even get the fee for the second run. Now I am farming my fow with Lutgardis FFF

. Its kinda only non nerfed way of earning gold. I get like 7.5k every hour. 2 weeks later I will be owner of fow this way and will be owner of defender of kurzicks

. I hate this update

OH OH BTW:
What is that debate about casual player thing. Casual players DONT NEED fow armor or very rare items. They are just casul as we call them. Its enough for them to get 1.5k armors and runes and a single perf weapon. It is insane to think them should buy rare skins with playing only 1-2 hour a day lol. Anyway it still didnt changed anything. If a player is casual he still wont be able to pay 75k for a set of 15k armor and put sup vigor from 15k then but a rare skinn tormented shield and so. If they became able to buy them with work of 1 hour a day of compleating campings over and over(this is what anet wants us to do compleate missions over and over to get money) and but those items. So what every single player that played this game more than a month would have fow armor(true its ossible to get fow in a month but with a lot of farm)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Levi Garett

I made more money before loot scaling but I'm still enjoying farming in HM. I can still easily make 10k/hour not counting the rare drops that I attempt to sell. One Elite Tome is 10k+ and I get them all the time...at least one every couple hours on my farming route.

Loot scaling has definately destroyed the economy though. I have a storage account full of Req 9's that I can't seem to sell to save my life. I think people are just being tight with their money since gold coins have become harder to get. Perhaps this might change once GW:EN is released?

ANet's plan definately backfired. They wanted to encourage player to player sales of rare items and the market for these items has crashed considerably. Most people had already bought the items they needed at that point in time. The only desireable items left are the "uber" high end items that are 100k+. Don't believe me? Look at the "Buy" section in Ventari's Corner. Flooding the market with your run-of-the-mill "rare" items certainly didn't help the economy. Nowadays I just merch anything that isn't Req 9 (unless it's a rare skin) and my storage is now overflowing with items that nobody seems to want. I'm not asking a lot for these items either, and compared to pre-loot scaling prices I'm practically giveing it away.

Visit the farming sub-forum if you need help farming for gold. There's plenty of potential there to make 10k+ an hour, and one nice "rare" drop will net you plenty of gold to buy all the skills and kits you'll need for a long time.

I totally agree that its not possible to sell those golds. I sell those golds to some wisdom guy buing from 1.2k each. The trouble sellign them doesnt worth it. I have 5 tatooed scimitars all gold 3 are req9 2 are req10 I was selling from 25k but no buyer at all

reetkever · Jun 21, 2007, 11:14 AM // 11:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Destro Maniak

OH OH BTW:
What is that debate about casual player thing. Casual players DONT NEED fow armor or very rare items. They are just casul as we call them. Its enough for them to get 1.5k armors and runes and a single perf weapon. It is insane to think them should buy rare skins with playing only 1-2 hour a day lol. Anyway it still didnt changed anything. If a player is casual he still wont be able to pay 75k for a set of 15k armor and put sup vigor from 15k then but a rare skinn tormented shield and so. If they became able to buy them with work of 1 hour a day of compleating campings over and over(this is what anet wants us to do compleate missions over and over to get money) and but those items. So what every single player that played this game more than a month would have fow armor(true its ossible to get fow in a month but with a lot of farm)

I agree with this, but as it is now, casual players have a hard time buying stuff that IS needed. Such as skills and 1,5K armor.

I don't need FoW or 15K armor, sure, I like the skins and all, but I don't need them. Having my character equipped with a different armor isn't fun imo.

However, stuff like weekend events SHOULD be for casual players. Doesn't Arenanet make these events for everyone to enjoy? I really wish they made a 'New weekend event! This weekend, the loot scaling is removed!' weekend...

Squalus the Ipno · Jun 21, 2007, 11:24 AM // 11:24

think better farming greens are better to make money; i do not know why but they are worth more and more simple to sell than golds (maybe with same skin and stats).....mahh
Play HA and hope for a good drop if you are lucky to win
Farming is dead imo. I remember when after one years have dropped a GPB req 9 15^50 that i've sold for 400K....now 40K if you are lucky :P

Government Flu · Jun 21, 2007, 11:25 AM // 11:25

Okay, so here's thing with loot scaling. It's made the majority of my looting builds completely obsolete. Really, the only profitable option I have at this point is to get a few ectos in UW. Now, I have expensive tastes. Case in point.

I had a decent amount of cash. 223k plus at least 26 ectos, right?

Dead Sword (65k)
Gloom Shield (95k)
Several pieces of 15k armor, my third set. I actually tinkered around so much, I went and bought two boots with the exact same skin after destroying the first pair and then buying a second pair only to find out that I really like the first pair to begin with. Sooo...the total price most likely went beyond 100k for my new armor configuration.

And then of course...

I bought two pieces of obsidian armor shortly after that!

Now, without loot scaling, I would actually be bouncing back from this spending spree much better. I could vermin farm, or actually make some gold in UW even if I didn't get ectos...but instead I have to sell things and open chests. It gets to be risky.

I've only recovered a smattering of my wealth. I'm currently at 109k, so loot scaling is definitely not designed for the player who knows the rewards of grinding.

And to be honest, I don't see that big a difference when I'm out PvEing with new characters. My newest addition, an assassin, recently got 3 golds in rapid succession, but that's probably just a really lucky and rare feat. So I don't feel loot scaling has really helped me much.

Perhaps the original way loot scaling was made (it lasted very shortly) would have greatly altered gameplay. But when they took rare materials and green items off the list, all Anet did was destroy a wide majority of popular builds for looting. So basically, we're back at the default but now players are scrambling to find new tactics to replace the old ones.

Kinn · Jun 21, 2007, 12:14 PM // 12:14

My experience:

I'm a new player; been playing the game only 3 months, so Loot Scaling hit me right from the start basically (and I never attempted farming before the HM update anyway). I only play with one character (a Ranger).

Last Monday I completed the Nightfall campaign. I have already completed both Prophecies and Factions.

In those 3 months, the most I've ever had in my inventory at one time is 20K. I never spend money on vanity items. I never buy skills unless I absolutely need them for a particular build in mind. I have only ever been able to afford 1.5K armour, and the only reason I have a Sup Vigor is because one dropped for me. All my weapons are collector weapons apart from my two Factions and Nightfall end-game greens.

So far, I have enjoyed the game. It has been awesome. But now that I have completed all three campaigns I want nice things. I want 15K Kurzick armour, dyed black. I want cool skinned weapons for all my builds, and maybe *gasp* even give my heroes some runes and max dmg weapons

Aquiring these things is not feasible for me. I'm not playing a 55 monk or other class with a gimmick build that can farm HM. I work full time and can only invest at absolute maximum a dozen hours over the whole week; I guess that makes me a "casual gamer".

So, Anet - in what way, shape, or form does Loot Scaling benefit me, the "casual gamer"? I cannot farm normal mode because nothing drops. I cannot farm hard mode because I'm, well, a Ranger and not a 55 monk gimmick to put it bluntly.

Is my only option to trap the Underworld in the hope of getting ectos? Not very bloody likely when it costs a plat to get in only for me to die immediately because I haven't had any experience farming there.

"But you don't need any of this vanity stuff!" I hear you say. But everywhere I look, expensive armour and vanity weapons are teasing me. Towns are full of players kitted out in 15K armour, the pugs I join are full of tarts wielding rare-skinned golds and exotic greens. I course I bloody want these things - EVERYONE ELSE HAS GOT THEM!

Destro Maniak · Jun 21, 2007, 12:49 PM // 12:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kinn

My experience:

I'm a new player; been playing the game only 3 months, so Loot Scaling hit me right from the start basically (and I never attempted farming before the HM update anyway). I only play with one character (a Ranger).

Last Monday I completed the Nightfall campaign. I have already completed both Prophecies and Factions.

In those 3 months, the most I've ever had in my inventory at one time is 20K. I never spend money on vanity items. I never buy skills unless I absolutely need them for a particular build in mind. I have only ever been able to afford 1.5K armour, and the only reason I have a Sup Vigor is because one dropped for me. All my weapons are collector weapons apart from my two Factions and Nightfall end-game greens.

So far, I have enjoyed the game. It has been awesome. But now that I have completed all three campaigns I want nice things. I want 15K Kurzick armour, dyed black. I want cool skinned weapons for all my builds, and maybe *gasp* even give my heroes some runes and max dmg weapons

Aquiring these things is not feasible for me. I'm not playing a 55 monk or other class with a gimmick build that can farm HM. I work full time and can only invest at absolute maximum a dozen hours over the whole week; I guess that makes me a "casual gamer".

So, Anet - in what way, shape, or form does Loot Scaling benefit me, the "casual gamer"? I cannot farm normal mode because nothing drops. I cannot farm hard mode because I'm, well, a Ranger and not a 55 monk gimmick to put it bluntly.

Is my only option to trap the Underworld in the hope of getting ectos? Not very bloody likely when it costs a plat to get in only for me to die immediately because I haven't had any experience farming there.

"But you don't need any of this vanity stuff!" I hear you say. But everywhere I look, expensive armour and vanity weapons are teasing me. Towns are full of players kitted out in 15K armour, the pugs I join are full of tarts wielding rare-skinned golds and exotic greens. I course I bloody want these things - EVERYONE ELSE HAS GOT THEM!

I think definition of "CASUAL PLAYER" has been changed cause I think you arent casual player any longer cause you want to farm and get cool stuff. All of us were like you till finished all campings with few plat. Then we got idea of farm. Now you wanna get expensive stuff and WILLING TO FARM FOR IT! But anet doesnt lets us... People who dont need these expensive stuff are causeal players THAT never tries to get gold and want FOW armor. And I dont want my a player that playes 1 hour a day hase the same armor and weapon that I do. While Im playin like 5-10 hour a day.

the_jos · Jun 21, 2007, 12:51 PM // 12:51

I consider myself a somewhat more than average 'casual player'.
I did play several evenings a week for 2-3 hours, perhaps some more in the weekend.

I was in NO way affected by lootscaling.
I'm used to play with full hench/hero teams.
I made a lot of gold just exploring the three continents.
I bought several Vabbi pieces and still maintained a reasonable gold level.
I don't sell anything to players, it's all merch food.
Now my gold is set back, but that's because I'm working on my Elite titles and most kills don't net me 1K.

With NF cash became a non-issue, before my para and derv were in Vabbi, they got their own 15K Sunspear armor, funded themself. Just by playing missions/quests.

In my guild, I've heard no complaints on loot scale.
I know some people farm a lot (we started as farming guild) , never heard them complain.

Looking at the 'casual' players needs:
- Max armor. That's 5-7.5K, depending on campaign.
- Max weapon. Any white/blue/purp will do.
- Runes are not needed, but can help. Prices depend on profession, but most major runes are 100g.

For about 10K you can fully equip a character with all equipment he/she ever needs to complete the game.
In each campaign you can earn this before you get to the place where you get the max armor. In between are collectors which provide armor.
While working on the collectables, you are earning cash.

Did the loot scaling help casual players?
The scaling should not have affected them on the NPC items like armors and weapons, since casual players team up with max teams, so their income and spending should be the same.
On NPC traders, the prices have lowered on superior runes, because golds were left out on the scaling. Crafting material would have stayed roughly the same, I think.

Then there is the player to player market.
Take for example a green that cost 30K before scaling.
This is because farming players could afford the item in about 3 hours.
Now, they have to farm like 9 hours (or even more), dropping demand by about 2/3. People still want to sell, so they lower the price.
Prices drop up to the point where the farming players can afford them again in reasonable time.
This would also bring the price closer to the casual player, since his income is not affected by the scaling.
The same would be true for the gold item market, only to me that's no casual player market.

I think the casual player did get a lot of benefit from the scaling, specially on the player to player market.

Edit:
I just did a little calculation on Elona based characters.
The moment you get of the island, you chould have earned about 10K gold only by questing except the 'masters' ones and finishing missions in masters time.
On the main land, the quest without the 'masters' are worth about 25K.

reetkever · Jun 21, 2007, 02:46 PM // 14:46

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_jos

Looking at the 'casual' players needs:
- Max armor. That's 5-7.5K, depending on campaign.
- Max weapon. Any white/blue/purp will do.
- Runes are not needed, but can help. Prices depend on profession, but most major runes are 100g.

For about 10K you can fully equip a character with all equipment he/she ever needs to complete the game.
In each campaign you can earn this before you get to the place where you get the max armor. In between are collectors which provide armor.
While working on the collectables, you are earning cash.

You can't equip a character for 10K, as a filled skillbar already costs 8K (assuming you don't use the skills you bought and obtained in the beginning for the rest of your life). I DO have problems with cash, and farming for a skill or 2 is hell now.

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_jos

Did the loot scaling help casual players?
The scaling should not have affected them on the NPC items like armors and weapons, since casual players team up with max teams, so their income and spending should be the same.
On NPC traders, the prices have lowered on superior runes, because golds were left out on the scaling. Crafting material would have stayed roughly the same, I think.

The scaling DID affect us on NPC items, because we get less drops, and the prices stay the same. I'm a casual player, and 99% of the time, I was NOT in a full party.
Why? Cause playing in a full party doesn't get one cash. Now, it doesn't matter anymore, cause there is no way of making cash. Casual players were forced to farm too. This doesn't make them 'hardcore farmers' cause they only do 1 or 2 runs, and only to buy what they need. This has been killed.

And the most important things did NOT lower in price: skills and armor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_jos

Then there is the player to player market.
Take for example a green that cost 30K before scaling.
This is because farming players could afford the item in about 3 hours.
Now, they have to farm like 9 hours (or even more), dropping demand by about 2/3. People still want to sell, so they lower the price.
Prices drop up to the point where the farming players can afford them again in reasonable time.
This would also bring the price closer to the casual player, since his income is not affected by the scaling.
The same would be true for the gold item market, only to me that's no casual player market.

How does a green dropping less affect the demand? If I want a special weapon for a special build, I want it. I don't care about how often it drops. However, it is EASIER for me to get it, if it drops more often. If the market is flooded with the item, people wanting the weapon because of it's price, will change their mind.

If people have to farm 9 hours for the same green, they want a compensation for the increased time spending. They make the prices rise. To combat this, A-Net exempted greens from the loot scaling.

Gold market isn't a casual player market, but the gold market is dead now, anyway. A 15^50 weapon used to be special and all, now it's nothing. If I get a gold weapon, I would've been happy in the past. Now, however, nobody wants it because they're so common and crap, and selling it is a pain cause this game doesn't have a good trading system.

(Sadly enough, A-Net STILL forces us to make cash from trading only, cause all other ways have been killed.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by the_jos

I think the casual player did get a lot of benefit from the scaling, specially on the player to player market.

Edit:
I just did a little calculation on Elona based characters.
The moment you get of the island, you chould have earned about 10K gold only by questing except the 'masters' ones and finishing missions in masters time.
On the main land, the quest without the 'masters' are worth about 25K.

I am a casual player, and I did NOT get benefit from the scaling. At all. Player to player market sucks. I only have 2 hours per day, and I don't want to stay in the outpost all that time, waiting weeks and weeks before finally someone happens to be in the right time at the right place, and oddly enough have the right item/demand. That is, IF a rare item drops for me, 'allowing me to get 'cash'.

You forgot that players don't do all quests. As I said before, as a casual player I don't have much time to spend. If I did all quests, I wouldn't be off the starter island for weeks to come. Also, you assumed that the player would not buy ANYTHING. But it's kind of hard to get off the starter island with starter weapon, starter armor and starter skills.

Also, there's another problem with your theory. Before the loot scaling, people didn;t have to watch out with what they bought. They just did quests and didn't save alot of cash because they knew cash is worth so much.

The quests done BEFORE the loot scaling can't be repeated, so the 'reward' on those is gone. My position is: I already beat Nightfall in the days where I was still a hardcore player. Sure, I still have some quests I need to do, but these are just too hard, and not worth the trouble.

Markrids · Jun 21, 2007, 03:26 PM // 15:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kinn

My experience:

I'm a new player; been playing the game only 3 months, so Loot Scaling hit me right from the start basically (and I never attempted farming before the HM update anyway). I only play with one character (a Ranger).

Last Monday I completed the Nightfall campaign. I have already completed both Prophecies and Factions.

In those 3 months, the most I've ever had in my inventory at one time is 20K. I never spend money on vanity items. I never buy skills unless I absolutely need them for a particular build in mind. I have only ever been able to afford 1.5K armour, and the only reason I have a Sup Vigor is because one dropped for me. All my weapons are collector weapons apart from my two Factions and Nightfall end-game greens.

So far, I have enjoyed the game. It has been awesome. But now that I have completed all three campaigns I want nice things. I want 15K Kurzick armour, dyed black. I want cool skinned weapons for all my builds, and maybe *gasp* even give my heroes some runes and max dmg weapons

Aquiring these things is not feasible for me. I'm not playing a 55 monk or other class with a gimmick build that can farm HM. I work full time and can only invest at absolute maximum a dozen hours over the whole week; I guess that makes me a "casual gamer".

So, Anet - in what way, shape, or form does Loot Scaling benefit me, the "casual gamer"? I cannot farm normal mode because nothing drops. I cannot farm hard mode because I'm, well, a Ranger and not a 55 monk gimmick to put it bluntly.

Is my only option to trap the Underworld in the hope of getting ectos? Not very bloody likely when it costs a plat to get in only for me to die immediately because I haven't had any experience farming there.

"But you don't need any of this vanity stuff!" I hear you say. But everywhere I look, expensive armour and vanity weapons are teasing me. Towns are full of players kitted out in 15K armour, the pugs I join are full of tarts wielding rare-skinned golds and exotic greens. I course I bloody want these things - EVERYONE ELSE HAS GOT THEM!

You My Friend, are a God.

Anet, if your Listening, this person speaks the truth.

Iem · Jun 21, 2007, 04:57 PM // 16:57

I agree with some others here that there must be some confusion about what makes for a 'casual player'. Anyone that completes all 3 campaigns in 3 months hardly qualifies as a casual player in my mind. People that skip quests and rush thru to the end also wouldn't count. I suspect pretty much everyone that visits and posts on forums would not qualify as casual players, they take it too seriously.

I suspect the 'casual players' that aren't harmed by loot scaling, but might be helped by the lower prices for items, are those that do every quest, maybe even only 1 at a time. They take a couple of attempts to make it thru a mission, especially if they want to get the bonus. They have never been on a forum or heard of the wikis. They go out in full parties because they don't want to die. For them the drop rate hasn't changed.

As I see it those players still get enough gold/drops to afford the stuff that is available to them as they progress thru the game. This is especially true of Prophecies. The only time I have been stressed for gold was as soon as I hit post and didn't have what I needed to immediately upgrade my armor. I started a character, since loot scaling, in pre and have not had any issues with getting enough stuff. I routinely fill my inventory during quests/missions and have to salvage items so I don't leave anything behind.

The way I see it the only ones who claim to be hurting are the ones that want instant gratification and aren't playing for fun but to be leet or brag about their accomplishments.

As for me, I consider myself a borderline casual player. I play 2-3hrs most nights but have never tried to rush thru anything. I have had Nightfall for 6 months and not gotten a single character thru it. I generally take only 1 quest at a time and play my way thru the games. The only farming I have ever done is for Lightbringer but I do have fun slaughtering Char at Nolani. This has given me plenty of dyes and always a full inventory for a couple hundred gold. I do not sell to other players. I do share with my guildies but there are only a handful of us. I do not have any 15k armor but expect to get some Vabbian armor soon. I don't solo and would probably have my builds laughed at here, but they are fun for me.

I don't see that I have been negatively affected by the changes in the economy due to HM and loot scaling and I suspect that most true casual players could say the same.

Gli · Jun 21, 2007, 05:32 PM // 17:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by MSecorsky

I'm either doing something wrong or right, but since loot-scaling I'm seeing my gold in store slowly increasing, and that's with buying lockpicks and never passing a chest up. All I'm doing is vanquishing with a full party and more times than not I'm finding my inventory full of assorted stuff plus the gold picked up. Being able to sell tomes helps with that some, but I haven't had any 'jackpot' drops yet.

Vanquishing an area typically leave me somewhere between a 2k loss and a 2k profit. The losses happen more often, and I'm watching my gold total slip very slowly. It all depends on how well I manage to retain the lockpicks. (I buy them for 1,250-1,300 and have a 35% chance to retain them in HM). Before anyone asks, I'm not buying anything other than lockpicks and (cheap) kits, and playing with 2-4 guildies and heroes.

GW clearly doesn't favor me when it comes to loot. I'm almost done vanquishing Elona and did a few areas each in the other continents, and I hardly found anything yet that's not merchant fodder. Three elite tomes, total, all in the first weekend. I've never even seen a passage scroll.

I guess in the end it all comes down to luck, but gold is really tight when just playing and using lockpicks. I guess I should do a bit of farming soon to keep up my 'living standards'.

(And of course, make a killing off diamonds when Gwen hits.

)

reddswitch · Jun 21, 2007, 10:19 PM // 22:19

I posted somewhere else too saying vanquishing does not bring in any gold coins for me. I vanquished without buying a lockpick, had one drop, got a purple and the total earned was about 3k for little over 1 hour. Maybe I'm bad luck cause this happens to me the majority of the time.

If you don't want to do Underworld or Fissure of Woe try Urgoz or Deep ones. If you stay in the outposts there you don't have to keep trying to regain entrance. The way to get more money is basically by farming. What most should do is move on to pvp part of the game. Campaign's all done, move on to the part that doesn't cost money. Skills will if you're a pve character but you can make a pvp one.

lord_shar · Jun 21, 2007, 10:55 PM // 22:55

I'm a power-farmer that used to rake in a lot more pre-loot-scaling. Under the present patch, I can make about 1k every 8 minutes outside UW, and about 1k-30k every per UW smite run, which takes about 14 minutes per trip.

Since loot scaling got implemented, the high end market deflated considerably. I am still able to aquire plenty of vanity skin weapons, but I've also noticed a big slow-down in general sales. Loot scaling cut down the gold farming, but it did put newer players at a considerable disadvantage, and I've been playing almost 2 years.