Curse

Beliarchia Targon · Sep 06, 2011, 01:45 AM // 01:45

Whether collecting for Nicholas, or for regular collectors, I've often found myself needing to farm up a bunch of trophy items.

But reading the section on "Farming Parties and Solo Play" in the What Is Farming? Guide, I find myself completely confused.

On the one hand, it seems to say that since the April '07 update, farming solo no longer gives more non-rare drops than full group farming. And that "whites and nonrare items don’t drop as frequently in solo’s, so farming solo for whites would be a complete waste of time".

On the other hand, people seem to solo farm when collecting for Nicholas? And my personal experience is certainly that I get more common drops when solo than I do with my heroes.

Can someone clear this up for me? What should I be doing to farm trophies - going solo or with as few heroes as I can? Or taking the full team and killing quickly?

BladeDVD · Sep 06, 2011, 02:56 AM // 02:56

If you read the anet info in the link on the lootscaling page for the original wiki (where that guide took it's info from) you can see what they said they did. Which, for solo farmers, changed getting everyone's drops (8 man area, 1 person, 8 times the drops) to approximately twice what they would get in a full party for items not on the exemption list.

Also, if people really didn't get a benefit from farming solo, then no one would do it.

All I can surmise is that the info about common and blue colored drops is a mistake or misunderstanding.

MisterB · Sep 06, 2011, 02:58 AM // 02:58

The bottom line is you'll still get more drops solo, even whites or other drops subject to loot scaling. Loot scaling is confusing, especially since it doesn't work as described by ANet in the update that introduced it. Note that since the update common drops are reduced, not eliminated entirely if you are solo.

Beliarchia Targon · Sep 06, 2011, 03:39 AM // 03:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by BladeDVD

If you read the anet info in the link on the lootscaling page for the original wiki (where that guide took it's info from) you can see what they said they did. Which, for solo farmers, changed getting everyone's drops (8 man area, 1 person, 8 times the drops) to approximately twice what they would get in a full party for items not on the exemption list.

Ooh, thanks for that link. That clarifies things a lot, especially after reading the original Dev Update on the topic.

"The loot scaling for gold and common loot is not linear with the number of players in the party, and it includes an element of randomness, so while the difference is not easy to quantify, it is by no means a factor of eight. Advanced solo farmers may now earn about twice as much gold and common loot from farming solo as they would if they farmed in a party."

That gives me a nice rule of thumb.. if I can't steamroller it solo, it's probably not worth soloing. e.g. I was trying some solo farming with a spirit build and it was workable, but I have no doubt that it was taking more than twice as long to get kills as it would have with my full party.

AngelWJedi · Sep 06, 2011, 04:32 AM // 04:32

depending on the item i usually get more when solo and others when im with heros. xD

Spiritz · Sep 06, 2011, 08:11 AM // 08:11

Another factor to consider that goes along loot scaling - speed/rate of kills which means - if player/team kills multiple foes in x secs then you may get less drops.
Eg 2 examples off my head - raptor farming and vaeitres , raptors is usually 33 foes and boss and is a mass kill and you may get say 5 drops.Vaetires is 60 foes and usually are killed in just 2 big mobs and again you may get say 5 - 10 drops avg.
Hopefully that makes sense - but compare it to a player/team who kills each foe 1 at a time will get more drops.
Another example - using 7 hero discordway you could vq say unwaking waters and out of all the foes killed ( many in mass killing ) you could be lucky to get say 10 - 15 drops ( easily over 100 foes there ) but on a team which kills slower you may get 20+ drops.

Bristlebane · Sep 06, 2011, 12:03 PM // 12:03

If you can kill more than twice as fast with a hero party, then you might consider going with heroes just for the convenience of c-spacing through an area for trophies.

RedDog91 · Sep 06, 2011, 01:06 PM // 13:06

It all depends on speed vs. drops.

Say you solo a farm in 5 minutes each time and get an average of 10 drops per run (10 overall, not 10 desired)
You can farm the area in 3 minutes if you take to heros, but only get 5 drops average (again, overall)

If you farm both scenarios 3 times, the solo nets 30 drops in 15 minutes while the 3 person farm nets 15 in 9 minutes. The solo farm in this scenario gets twice as many drops in less than twice as much time, so it is more effective to farm the area solo in this scenario.

Bristlebane · Sep 06, 2011, 05:19 PM // 17:19

Not to forget the scenarios when you first clear an area of unwanted mobs using heroes, then flag them out of radar so you can solo the mobs/bosses you want alone.