Nerf to Item Drops

Right now, I'm doing Thunderhead Keep for the fourth time--not because I'm farming, but because we keep on dying.

So far, this fourth time, we're at Dagnar, and..

.. only six blues have dropped, and one of those was a minor rune.

Everything else has been coming.

I actually decided to count on the fourth round after noticing the PREVIOUS THREE were barren of interesting drops, save for a handful of blues, two purples, and one rare--IN TOTAL.

Oo. Just made it up to seven blues. Half of Dagnar's group killed.

Oops. Just died.

In any case, prior to dying for the fourth time, that's only seven blues--divided among eight people, over the course of almost that whole mission, with the rest common drops.

I've already noticed farming is ruined. I can't do crap on that, so I figured I'd play the game the way both aNet and the anti-farmers apparently want me to play it--and I still can't get worthwhile drops.

Comments, thoughts?

Yesterday i was exploring the Jungle with my friend and we actualy got a couple of blue and purple items. My friend got 1 major vigor and 1 major Air rune out of it.

I didn't see any change in drops since the last update. I don't care about item and that's probably why... I'm happy to get something that i can use or give to someone i know who need it.. but beside that, i really don't care.

Well, likewise.

I like being able to supply my guild with neat items.

Which is why I'm noticing all the crap I'm pulling.

If they did nerf farming, they shouldn't have. It just makes the people who were willing to farm before mad because now they have to farm excessively for the same amount of "Uber Items", and makes people who have never farmed or even gone through the game lose because they cannot get any gold yet prices are still soaring...

I've noticed no change. I don't really care about the drops, but I pay attention (its fun to get unidentified stuff to see what it might be). Overall I chalk it up to random chance. Just like gambling...some days your lucky and some your not.

I have adventured with people that freak out when an item drops. I'll get a blue bow or armor and they repeat over and over "what is it? what is it? is it a rune? what type of bow did ya get??" at each and every slight pause in the game. Personally, I don't bother even id'ing items until I reach town (or someone goes for a drink run and the team has to wait a few minutes). Unless there is potential for it to be cooler then what I have equipped (i.e. a nice bow with good base dmg) I'm not going to pee myself just because an unidentified item drops ;-)

Everyone is different though, and may or may not find random chances a "conspiracy to make the game easier/harder" for any one group of farming individuals.

Thanks,

CodeMonkey

Well yes they nerfed all farming and they also killed the aggro range on monsters I used to be able to drag 6-10 monsters and AOE them for kills now they don't aggro past the next group.

This like all other patches is geared toward pleasing the PvP crowd and further alienating the PvE players. Lets see if this trend continues after the next patch cause if they are trying to kill off all the PvE they are getting close. Appearently the Guild Wars devs just want a clone of Counterstrike, Unreal Tournament, etc....

Sorry to see this game becoming a pure PvP game. Sad Sad Sad

Hmm, if you are playing a monk, a mesmer or even a Necro THEY DO NOT HAVE AOE, so forgive me for say less agro is actual a plus for every other class that plays PvE. Every update is across the board, they have not yet actually singled out 1 class, but make changes that will actually benifit all.

May I ask how they nerfed all farming? The bullet I read is:

"...and other highly repetitive forms of gold and item farming"

Thus perhaps what that means (to me) is that areas that dropped lots of gold/items but requires little to no effort have been reduced. That seems to me to be more game balancing then anything. Its easier to learn from watching how players react to certain areas then it is to try to "think out" what is best for each creature, area, quest.

A developer can only make a fair assessment based on a white box closed door testing using an internal test group, but a much better assessment after watching "real world" people utilize the same areas, creatures, and quests.

You use the word "all farming" as though there was a calculated attack to destroy all fun within the gaming environment (for you). Please site examples and algorithmic changes that you've noticed and perhaps I'll agree. Otherwise I'll just assume you only took one subset of things that you may have noticed (although much is "randomized") and use big keywords like "all" to sound more drastic then things really are...

Thanks,

CodeMonkey

I agreed with your post (except for one letter )

They didn't nerf item drops, all the update did was make it harder to farm solo and for alot of the cases its by putting in lots of magic casters in the groups of melee, now its really difficult to farm at riverside. Apart from nerfing the ability to farm I don't think there is any effects on drop rates.

check this thread for what I'm talking about http://www.guildwarsguru.com/forum/s...ad.php?t=20538

Anyone want to try explaining how I can run Thunderhead Keep four different times and come up with crap each and every time?

You can ramble all you want about nerf/no nerf, but it still stands I ran that damn mission four times TRYING TO COMPLETE IT and the drops sucked each and every time.

I just flipped a coin, can someone explain to me how I can possibly have flipped 'heads' four times in a row!?

Answer: God has obviously nerfed coins!

I didn't flip a coin four times.

I flipped a coin each and every time an item dropped.

Flipping a coin heads four times in a row is fine.

Flipping a coin heads over twenty-five times (at least) over the span of five missions; I'd take a lottery ticket on those odds.

I have a legitimate question and I'd like to see a legitimate answer.

Shove that sarcasm up your ass.

My friend and I were both soloing an area today that had minor, major and superior runes dropping every 10 enemies. I'm not sure what they did to farming, because it is definately different, but I'm stilling getting good loot soloing.

See--that's why I'm posting this.

I'm trying to figure out -WHAT- I'm doing wrong 'cause I'm not trying to farm. I'm just trying to complete the mission and I'm noticing horrible drops for EVERYONE in the mission; not simply me!

I'm delighted you and your friend are having super drops. Now, can someone tell me why a party of eight trying to complete Thunderhead Keep five times manages crap loot?

still is not a verb dude

You are repeating an area over and over. Go do something else... geez.

I just took my second character from yaks bend, all the way to kryta, using only a team of henchmen.
I fought all the enemies along the way except for a few groups who were either a threat to my goals or were being aggro to another group of mobs.

Here are my observations....

1) I received a good drop the second item that came my way. It was a minor marksmanship rune. Great...when you consider i already have one in storage ffs.

2) I received absolutely nothing else except white rods/staffs and other useless and crappy items. All the way from yaks to kryta!!

3) Minotaurs now use knock down tactics! I am seeing more and more tweaks to mobs which prevent people enjoying the game solo.

I didn't make the run for items just for the record. I did it for the sake of skipping as many missions as possible while making my way to L.A. (my objective for the weekend).

Shags,

The loot was bad the first time though.

Even then though, I'm to be penalized in my loot because I can't pull a mission off?

- edit -

Deathwearer,

Considering your accusation of "useless threads" in another one of my threads, I'm surprised to see you making useless posts.

What do you mean by 'still is not a verb,' though?