Nerf to Item Drops

Yeah, those tricky "words that sound the same" always get me Maybe I meant to actually want to _SEE_ the results of his efforts (not quoted cited mateerial )

CodeMonkey

I would actually Like to know what class's can actually solo areas that still reward XP, I mean solo, as in no henchmen.
I know warriors can.
But so far, rangers, monks, necromancers and mesmers cant. Not tried elementalist.
I mean areas that still reward XP, as in more than 0.
It is my conclusion that if it is just warriors that do this, there should be more warrior killing mobs, or Just make the game so you dont need henchmen at all.
Loot drops don't bother me in the slightest, I play, I explore and I enjoy the game, what I find is a bonus, not a must have, got to get.

For everyone who doesn't get drops there are people that are getting plenty. Maybe you guys are just playing the game wrong? ;-) I've played a few nights since the patches and I've noticed nothing wrong. I still get items, I still have fun.

Maybe its because I don't count every drop, every purple item, or get overly enthusiastic about what a monster drops. I play the game, complete quests, map out new areas, and constantly day in The Wilds Mission. I take anything I've gathered later on and id/salvage it. All seems right with the world...

CodeMonkey

Yeah...I don't think they should nerf that way. I mean, when a character reaches the end of the game and does FoW and UW drops over and over because that's the only thing entertaining enough for them, do the drops lessen there? I should hope not!
Their system as we understand it is poor implemented and needs a bit of tweaking.

Issue:

a) The system is "poor" by your standards; which may meet the same standards as the few that post on the board (maybe not the other 80% of the customer base).

b) Its your opinion, because mine differ's.

c) You don't understand they're system. Your making guesses based on what you in your experience has seen. That understanding can be flawed, you recall when humans thought the sun revolved around the earth? Without scientific proof (i.e. the source code, sitting down with developers) you really are shooting blanks in the dark.

CodeMonkey

My E/N can solo some lv 20+ mobs.

OK, i just (well hours ago, but it took so long to finish) set out from camp rankor with a full group of henchmen and made my way through snake dance.
I then proceeded through dreadnoughts drift and into lornars pass.
After getting approximately 1/4 of the way into lornars, i gave up.

Why did i give up after such a long and time consuming journey?
The reason is all i got from drops was plain staffs, rods and a couple of defenders apart from the usual remnants and jawbones.

Any coloured items at all? YES i got a coloured item....what was it?
A stupid blue longbow with max damage of 21 and no salvageable parts.

Anybody who has travelled through snake dance and further north will understand the massive amount of work and coordination it takes to get through. So why, after being told to "play the game normally" is the loot still poor?

Warriors can still solo with effectively no issues - just slap on top-flight damage reduction gear and even a lot of level 24 mobs deal 0 damage per hit.

Elementalists can still blitz out Flesh Golem packs.

Monks are still fairly effective soloers in controlled environments.

But really, if you want to solo, play a WaMo. They're just built for it.

Peace,
-CxE

Codemonkey,

The reason is that I've -never- had to count my drops before this, farming or otherwise. I could run missions regularly and not have to be bothered with the fact that the loot table has run dry. If anything, the only thing I was aware of back then (about loot) was that I was always running out of room. Now, I'm lucky if I can fill up one window of my inventory--because it's all crap, and they're even scarce with that.

Five raven staffs, a handful of collectibles, and some white salvage gear.

EVEN if I'm only running a mission to complete it.

IE: Not farming! I'm with a group of eight, we're running the mission!

In other news, just spent about thirty minutes in the Fissure before we all died. Not a damn drop for me.

I'm playing the game normally. I used to get a lot better loot than this. And I'm not talking about TEN MAJOR VIG RUNES or something out of this world. I'm just talking about a nice assortment of goodies that fill up my inventory and make me go, "YAY. LEWT."

Don't get that anymore. Makes me sad.

Meh. I'm a mo/e and get nothing for drops. Oh plenty of Whitemantle Badges, and hides (Thunderkeep), and misc BS items that I don't give a crap about. Everyone else gets smiting rods/staffs, holy rods/staffs. wtf. I haven't had a good drop in about 3 missions. Even just running around solo I can't get good drops. This sucks

You misinterpreted my post.

No coloured items except for a cheap bow <50gp. Giants bracers/boots...all plain. Protective icon...plain. Shields...plain.

OH sorry, i forgot to mention the alpine seed, lol

Superior runes exist?

Questioning it, because of the 3 times I have been through the game, I have yet to unlock one.

my monk/warrior can solo 20+ mobs if they dont get too big... depends what i face - mesmer groups can get harder but mostly anything else can be done with the right set. shield of judgement with high smiting is pretty sweet.
i tested kryta today - solo - and had 2 golden salvage items (ghoul collar and corrupted orr) but both were majors [luckily 2 warrior runes i hadn't unlocked yet] - the drakes got higher air magic which means i cant take 12-16 of them anymore but that's a good thing - after all a drake is a weaker dragon and that air-dmg was hilarious. i stopped killing them cause it was too easy. anyhow - the drakes gave me nothing special: so i started helping people out with the mission and went to southern shivers to test some new ideas.

i haven't experienced a pure "no-drops-anymore" but mostly i tried to xplore with a new char i made - i soloed 90% and i had nothing special that dropped but i don't mind it cause overall i had gold from every mob and got some materials from the items - i still enjoy the adventures alone (with good xp and every drop for me)
#
last journey from temple to sanctum was with henches - and they got my quest item [royal papers]
too bad the crafter near fishermans had no armor for me >_<

Monks, mesmers AND necromancers have aoes... I don't understand what you're talking about.

That was exactly my point. I need to farm the items to give to the collectors or I need gold to buy them from other players. Either way, it still means I have to farm to get what I need. And they took that availability away from me. I stand by my previous statement that I (and probably many others) do not farm to become wealthy. I farm to maintain a stream of income to finance all of my characters' needs.

Monk AOE, is local, and has nowhere near as many as elementalist, I play a monk. (have a M/W lvl 18 atm)
Necro AOE, hits 3 enemies or is a curse, hmm, a curse that does very very little damage. (have a lvl 20 ascended N/E with nearly all skills unlocked)
Mesmers have Chaos storm, like with a monk this does not come close to the AOE of a elementalist and they have nowhere near the damage absorbtion abilities of a warrior.
Even rangers have AOE but soloing is virtually imposs as they don't have the damage absorbtion. (have a lvl 20 ascended R/M with nearly all skills unlocked)

If you actually want to see effect AOE spells use elementalist. Their AOE do from 80-180 damage to all targets, fire off 3-5 of them and you can devestate large groups, infact the bigger the group the better for elementalist. No other class can do this.
Monks are very good damage dealers agains undead, but average against all others. Nerco and Mesmer are average damage dealers.
Monk, Necro, and Mesmer and support role classes, solo in high level areas with out henchmen is just not possible.
Take a mesmer out against a group and see what happens, when more than 3 attack you are dead.
Take a monk out against anything other than undead and you are dead.
Same with a necromancer

PLEASE NOTE I mean against like level monsters. Soloing post searing Ascalon with a ascended character does not count. Solo against monsters that actually reward XP.

disagree - up to 4 blessed griffons at once, all giving 168xp, acivara tengus (2-3 if not too many wise ^^), trolls. there is lots of post-ascension stuff one can kill alone...

Lol, you guys are too funny. I'm still farming as a pure Mesmer like a madman. All these criticisms since the last update aren't affecting my daily haul.

I just got a Gold max-damage lightening hammer with +5 armor today among other purples and blues. I farmed the same spot solo (no henchies) 10+ times, and got drops every single time.

Farming still works... you guys need to change spots, change skills, change professions or something, but it works.

Well said, I have changed my strategy after each patch also, and I'm still getting the same amount of daily haul.

Seems many of you are missing the point. If you go out on a quest run solo or with henchmen, and do more than one quest before returning for the reward, and run into the same creatures repeatedly while doing so, all drops stop.

We're not playing the game any differently than we always have. And we're not searching for hidden farming spots and applying advanced farming techniques to mine items to sell. We're playing the game normally, and experiencing this.

I used to do a mission or a run of quests and come back with my backpack, pouch, and both upgraded bags full of stuff, often having to drop items or salvage them before returning because my inventory was full. Now I'm lucky to fill up the backpack and pouch on a two hour quest run or mission.

Regardless of what some of you think, the drop rate has changed. If you haven't noticed yet, then you're either partying with others, doing only one quest at a time, taking short jaunts through the environment, never dying and having to redo a zone, or applying advanced farming techniques in specific hard to find areas.