I've only read the first post so I dunno if it's already been said but all those bonuses can be gained by buying food from vendors, from the tradepost or from crafting them yourself using cooking. Including XP ones. Start a human, go to the nearest vendor once in the main world... they have food items with a stat bonus and XP buff on them for 12c each. That's right from the start. I'm sure all races have some nearby.
I've only read the first post so I dunno if it's already been said but all those bonuses can be gained by buying food from vendors, from the tradepost or from crafting them yourself using cooking. Including XP ones. Start a human, go to the nearest vendor once in the main world... they have food items with a stat bonus and XP buff on them for 12c each. That's right from the start. I'm sure all races have some nearby.
Incorrect. All of the above mentioned bonuses stack with each other and independent of food.
Meanwhile you can only have one food buff active at a time.
People who play the game more than you do also have an advantage. They level faster, gain more loot, and forthe most part will always have something that you don't. Are we going to start asking ArenaNet to cap the amount of time people can play? You will have an advantage over those who start playing the game in 6 months time. Are you going to be arguing over 'what is fair' then?
People really need to stop 'coveting thy neigbor's ox' or worrying about 'keeping up with the Joneses' and just play the game for them-frickin-selves.
Originally posted by timeraider The OP is misleading people .. these things cant be bought in the cashshop.. these things come from mystic chests... and yes, you can buy mystic keys in the cashshop.. BUT you can also get them from mobs, special pve events and special pvp events so the OP is yust misleading everyone by leaving out the whole mechanic
You are the one misleading people. You can get the key from one quest in your personal storyline. Other than that, you can expect to see one drop perhaps once every 30-50 hours.
Yeah random drops suck. The thing is I got two during the stress test, 5 during the last BWE and 4 in the one before that. I would consider it grinding if i had made it my purpose for killing mobs. Since they dropped in the course of just wondering around doing DE's and story missions it won't be grinding to me, or indeed most players.
Besides they are all weaksauce anyway. I had a look and then just forgot about it.
Wouldn't we have to compare that with players in a synchronized play test over a set number of day and calculate the average to arrive at your figure?
There is NO miracle patch.
95% of what you see in beta won't change by launch.
Hope is not a stategy. ______________________________ "This kind of topic is like one of those little cartoon boxes held up by a stick on a string, with a piece of meat under it. In other words, bait."
I've only read the first post so I dunno if it's already been said but all those bonuses can be gained by buying food from vendors, from the tradepost or from crafting them yourself using cooking. Including XP ones. Start a human, go to the nearest vendor once in the main world... they have food items with a stat bonus and XP buff on them for 12c each. That's right from the start. I'm sure all races have some nearby.
Incorrect. All of the above mentioned bonuses stack with each other and independent of food.
Meanwhile you can only have one food buff active at a time.
Well, no, I'm not incorrect. Everything I just said there is pure fact. You're right though, the ones from the CS can be stacked on top of them but since you can get gems without spending real money (and using your 'time' instead) it doesn't really matter overall anyway.
If you havn't seen it yet, read the post in my sig to understand how the gem and gold exchange system really works to understand that getting a lot of gems using gold is a viable, but ever changing, possibility.
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
Originally posted by timeraider The OP is misleading people .. these things cant be bought in the cashshop.. these things come from mystic chests... and yes, you can buy mystic keys in the cashshop.. BUT you can also get them from mobs, special pve events and special pvp events so the OP is yust misleading everyone by leaving out the whole mechanic
What is misleading with saying "only available via the cashshop or via an amount of grinding that simply can't be classified as reasonable."
Over 120 hours of playing in the BWE I have gotten a total of 3 keys. That is a 40 hour grinding investment per key. And that is simply not a reasonable time-money exchange.
Compare the karma boost that gives 50% karma increase for 1 hour. That means I have to grind 30 minutes more if I don't have it. That is a reasonable time-money exchange.
To open a chest, you need well, the chest itself. And during my time in BWEs, I didn't find that many chests. If Mystic Chests were everywhere and keys were very rare, your point would be valid, but both are rare and no one knows their ratio. One of my lvl 20 characters got four keys and no chests, for example.
Yeah random drops suck. The thing is I got two during the stress test, 5 during the last BWE and 4 in the one before that. I would consider it grinding if i had made it my purpose for killing mobs. Since they dropped in the course of just wondering around doing DE's and story missions it won't be grinding to me, or indeed most players.
Let me guess. You did story missions on multiple characters. That is the only way you could get that many keys
You won't be so happy 2 months into the game when the only viable way to get keys will be to reroll level 1 character and grind up to the personal story mission that gives the key. I guess that it is what I will do come release. But seriously, that is as much fucking grinding as rerolling characters in ddo. But I guess that is what you have to do to stay competitive in GW2.
Just don't whine, when the evitable "people without bonus buffs" need not apply starts to crop up.
So cash shopper could potentially keep those buffs all the time, while I have a low chance to get ONE of those buffs once every 30 hours??? Everything fanboys said about cash shop just got thrown out of the window.
People who play the game more than you do also have an advantage. They level faster, gain more loot, and forthe most part will always have something that you don't. Are we going to start asking ArenaNet to cap the amount of time people can play? You will have an advantage over those who start playing the game in 6 months time. Are you going to be arguing over 'what is fair' then?
People really need to stop 'coveting thy neigbor's ox' or worrying about 'keeping up with the Joneses' and just play the game for them-frickin-selves.
It is the difference between reasonable and unreasonable time expenditure. But I guess you didn't have the time to read my post.
To open a chest, you need well, the chest itself. And during my time in BWEs, I didn't find that many chests. If Mystic Chests were everywhere and keys were very rare, your point would be valid, but both are rare and no one knows their ratio. One of my lvl 20 characters got four keys and no chests, for example.
Are you serious? By the end of BWE2 I had some 30 chests stacked up.
Edit: But I guess if what others are saying and that I have just had the worst luck streak in history, then it won't be so bad.
And I had more keys than chests. Of course, I only played for 40-ish hours, so your data is more extensive, but I doubt there's a 10:1 ratio. From what I've read, it's more like 4:3.
To open a chest, you need well, the chest itself. And during my time in BWEs, I didn't find that many chests. If Mystic Chests were everywhere and keys were very rare, your point would be valid, but both are rare and no one knows their ratio. One of my lvl 20 characters got four keys and no chests, for example.
Are you serious? By the end of BWE2 I had some 30 chests stacked up.
Edit: But I guess if what others are saying and that I have just had the worst luck streak in history, then it won't be so bad.
(again, unless the chests are tradable)
You can sell the chests on the trading post I seem to recall as I considered putting some of mine up there at one time.
So assuming that practice continues to be allowed that means you have effectively an inexhaustable supply of chests off the trading post, and can buy the keys. But will it end up being a worthwhile investment of your RL cash.
I mean what actual advantage does it give you? Yes currently they can be used in WvW but how often do 1v1 contests affect the battlefield? Most of the time its going to be about strategy, numbers, siege weapons etc that will decide a battle, not if one player has 5 buffs (inc food) on him.
A follow up question though. Considering the claimed rarity of the chests (even though my experience says otherwise) and the potency of said buffs, is it really a good idea to have these buffs regardless.
They can severly change the difficulty of completing a difficult encounter. So will we end up with the most difficult encounters being balanced around you using the buffs, making them near impossible otherwise. Or faceroll if your whole party use them.
A follow up question though. Considering the claimed rarity of the chests (even though my experience says otherwise) and the potency of said buffs, is it really a good idea to have these buffs regardless.
They can severly change the difficulty of completing a difficult encounter. So will we end up with the most difficult encounters being balanced around you using the buffs, making them near impossible otherwise. Or faceroll if your whole party use them.
Yeah random drops suck. The thing is I got two during the stress test, 5 during the last BWE and 4 in the one before that. I would consider it grinding if i had made it my purpose for killing mobs. Since they dropped in the course of just wondering around doing DE's and story missions it won't be grinding to me, or indeed most players.
Let me guess. You did story missions on multiple characters. That is the only way you could get that many keys
You won't be so happy 2 months into the game when the only viable way to get keys will be to reroll level 1 character and grind up to the personal story mission that gives the key. I guess that it is what I will do come release. But seriously, that is as much fucking grinding as rerolling characters in ddo. But I guess that is what you have to do to stay competitive in GW2.
Just don't whine, when the evitable "people without bonus buffs" need not apply starts to crop up.
I know this is really going to upset you but I focused on pretty much one character for each event. Norn, then Human then Asura. Engineers all each time. What can I say? I got up to level 16 by the time I had looked all the content in the norn starter area and pretty much the same with the others. Will the rates get tweaked? Sure probably.
Every rare Item in any game I have ever played was like this. In CO I waited months for a hook sword to drop for this one toon. Didn't want to buy it so I waited. I logged in a few nights ago and 2 drop in the space of 1 hour. Random is random and rare is rare but random doesn't tend to look random as much as it does freaky and annoying.
No it's called fun and I wouldn't do it, no matter the reward, if it wasn't fun. And who am I competing against? To stay competative you have to know your abilities and have a developed combat awareness to exploit weaknesses found in battle.
There is NO miracle patch.
95% of what you see in beta won't change by launch.
Hope is not a stategy. ______________________________ "This kind of topic is like one of those little cartoon boxes held up by a stick on a string, with a piece of meat under it. In other words, bait."
Chests were far more common than keys in BWE1. In BWE2/3 they changed their ratio considerably. Also, those buffs didn't exist in BWE1, they were added later (and I don't understand why they added them but anyway)
I don't think that extra damage (+10%) and mitigation (-10%) will make a player better. Bad players will stay bad players no matter their equipment, they won't make the dungeons a lot easier, proper playing and character building is still a lot more important than a damage boost.
Block the trolls, don't answer them, so we can remove the garbage from these forums
Anyone saying that these buffs are useless: They aren not!. Even 25% speed boost alone could grant a huge advantage over someone who doesn't have the same boost.
Op should definitely have been clearer then. He gives the false impression that those boosts are directly for sale in the cash shop. Which isn't true at all.
Sorry about that. It wasn't my intention at all. However, having played a lot of PvE in the BWEs, I can say that the black lion chests drop a lot, and the keys are almost absent outside a personal story quest reward. Which for me makes the contents of the black lion chests very much cash shop items.
I could be wrong, and the keys could become much more common at higher levels. And in that case I'll admit that i am wrong. I am just talking from what I have seen so far.
Wildclaw - your OP is very misleading. As people have said before, you cannot buy these items directly in the cash shop at all. They are rewards from Black Lion Chests.
You contend that the ratio of chest drops to the ratio of key drops is way to high..... I say differently. In BWE3 I got a total of 8 Black Lion Chest drops, and a total of 4 Keys.
That seems pretty reasonable to me
Cluck Cluck, Gibber Gibber, My Old Mans A Mushroom
Wildclaw - your OP is very misleading. As people have said before, you cannot buy these items directly in the cash shop at all. They are rewards from Black Lion Chests.
You contend that the ratio of chest drops to the ratio of key drops is way to high..... I say differently. In BWE3 I got a total of 8 Black Lion Chest drops, and a total of 4 Keys.
That seems pretty reasonable to me
We have already established that black lion chests are tradeable on the trading post. That means that the cash shop keys can be directly turned into the content of said chests.
I don't think that extra damage (+10%) and mitigation (-10%) will make a player better. Bad players will stay bad players no matter their equipment, they won't make the dungeons a lot easier, proper playing and character building is still a lot more important than a damage boost.
So what happens if both players are just as skillful and 1 has the boosts while the other one doesn't have??? TELL ME.
Originally posted by Masa1 Anyone saying that these buffs are useless: They aren not!. Even 25% speed boost alone could grant a huge advantage over someone who doesn't have the same boost.
To do what?
Ok they can run faster... but what do they need to run towards to gain an advantage over another player?
- A resource node? Nope...
- A mob? Well I guess but how is that getting an advantage. Any boss enemy that spawns that will drop good enough loot to worry about will have enough HP to survive until the slower players get there, and most likely enough damage to smack down the first person to arrive.
- A location? Well again probably not. Anyway, with the number of way points in the game and the low cost of teleporting you can pretty much get anywhere very quickly once you have unlocked the waypoints.
- WvW? Maybe, but again what in WvW can you do solo that running 25% faster will make a difference. I guess you can run away *cough* coward *cough*.
Comments
[mod edit]
Chests are abundant and the only reliable way to open them is with keys from the CS.
This^ http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Food
Incorrect. All of the above mentioned bonuses stack with each other and independent of food.
Meanwhile you can only have one food buff active at a time.
Guess what?
People who play the game more than you do also have an advantage. They level faster, gain more loot, and forthe most part will always have something that you don't. Are we going to start asking ArenaNet to cap the amount of time people can play? You will have an advantage over those who start playing the game in 6 months time. Are you going to be arguing over 'what is fair' then?
People really need to stop 'coveting thy neigbor's ox' or worrying about 'keeping up with the Joneses' and just play the game for them-frickin-selves.
Yeah random drops suck. The thing is I got two during the stress test, 5 during the last BWE and 4 in the one before that. I would consider it grinding if i had made it my purpose for killing mobs. Since they dropped in the course of just wondering around doing DE's and story missions it won't be grinding to me, or indeed most players.
Besides they are all weaksauce anyway. I had a look and then just forgot about it.
Wouldn't we have to compare that with players in a synchronized play test over a set number of day and calculate the average to arrive at your figure?
There is NO miracle patch.
95% of what you see in beta won't change by launch.
Hope is not a stategy.
______________________________
"This kind of topic is like one of those little cartoon boxes held up by a stick on a string, with a piece of meat under it. In other words, bait."
Well, no, I'm not incorrect. Everything I just said there is pure fact. You're right though, the ones from the CS can be stacked on top of them but since you can get gems without spending real money (and using your 'time' instead) it doesn't really matter overall anyway.
If you havn't seen it yet, read the post in my sig to understand how the gem and gold exchange system really works to understand that getting a lot of gems using gold is a viable, but ever changing, possibility.
To open a chest, you need well, the chest itself. And during my time in BWEs, I didn't find that many chests. If Mystic Chests were everywhere and keys were very rare, your point would be valid, but both are rare and no one knows their ratio. One of my lvl 20 characters got four keys and no chests, for example.
Let me guess. You did story missions on multiple characters. That is the only way you could get that many keys
You won't be so happy 2 months into the game when the only viable way to get keys will be to reroll level 1 character and grind up to the personal story mission that gives the key. I guess that it is what I will do come release. But seriously, that is as much fucking grinding as rerolling characters in ddo. But I guess that is what you have to do to stay competitive in GW2.
Just don't whine, when the evitable "people without bonus buffs" need not apply starts to crop up.
So cash shopper could potentially keep those buffs all the time, while I have a low chance to get ONE of those buffs once every 30 hours??? Everything fanboys said about cash shop just got thrown out of the window.
B2P:
No boostsP2O:
x extra health regeneration (amount unknown)
-10% damage taken
+25% speed boost
+10% damage
It is the difference between reasonable and unreasonable time expenditure. But I guess you didn't have the time to read my post.
I doubt permanent as there is a limit on the amount of chests you get (unless they are tradeable). But for explorable dungeon runs, sure.
It is your typical whaling strategy.
Are you serious? By the end of BWE2 I had some 30 chests stacked up.
Edit: But I guess if what others are saying and that I have just had the worst luck streak in history, then it won't be so bad.
(again, unless the chests are tradable)
You can sell the chests on the trading post I seem to recall as I considered putting some of mine up there at one time.
So assuming that practice continues to be allowed that means you have effectively an inexhaustable supply of chests off the trading post, and can buy the keys. But will it end up being a worthwhile investment of your RL cash.
I mean what actual advantage does it give you? Yes currently they can be used in WvW but how often do 1v1 contests affect the battlefield? Most of the time its going to be about strategy, numbers, siege weapons etc that will decide a battle, not if one player has 5 buffs (inc food) on him.
The Enlightened take things Lightly
A follow up question though. Considering the claimed rarity of the chests (even though my experience says otherwise) and the potency of said buffs, is it really a good idea to have these buffs regardless.
They can severly change the difficulty of completing a difficult encounter. So will we end up with the most difficult encounters being balanced around you using the buffs, making them near impossible otherwise. Or faceroll if your whole party use them.
you are basing these assumptions soley on your BWE experiences that keys will be hard to get
how many dungeons did you do?
EQ2 fan sites
Yeah, I dislike them, but not enough to complain.
I know this is really going to upset you but I focused on pretty much one character for each event. Norn, then Human then Asura. Engineers all each time. What can I say? I got up to level 16 by the time I had looked all the content in the norn starter area and pretty much the same with the others. Will the rates get tweaked? Sure probably.
Every rare Item in any game I have ever played was like this. In CO I waited months for a hook sword to drop for this one toon. Didn't want to buy it so I waited. I logged in a few nights ago and 2 drop in the space of 1 hour. Random is random and rare is rare but random doesn't tend to look random as much as it does freaky and annoying.
No it's called fun and I wouldn't do it, no matter the reward, if it wasn't fun. And who am I competing against? To stay competative you have to know your abilities and have a developed combat awareness to exploit weaknesses found in battle.
There is NO miracle patch.
95% of what you see in beta won't change by launch.
Hope is not a stategy.
______________________________
"This kind of topic is like one of those little cartoon boxes held up by a stick on a string, with a piece of meat under it. In other words, bait."
Chests were far more common than keys in BWE1. In BWE2/3 they changed their ratio considerably. Also, those buffs didn't exist in BWE1, they were added later (and I don't understand why they added them but anyway)
I don't think that extra damage (+10%) and mitigation (-10%) will make a player better. Bad players will stay bad players no matter their equipment, they won't make the dungeons a lot easier, proper playing and character building is still a lot more important than a damage boost.
Block the trolls, don't answer them, so we can remove the garbage from these forums
Wildclaw - your OP is very misleading. As people have said before, you cannot buy these items directly in the cash shop at all. They are rewards from Black Lion Chests.
You contend that the ratio of chest drops to the ratio of key drops is way to high..... I say differently. In BWE3 I got a total of 8 Black Lion Chest drops, and a total of 4 Keys.
That seems pretty reasonable to me
Cluck Cluck, Gibber Gibber, My Old Mans A Mushroom
We have already established that black lion chests are tradeable on the trading post. That means that the cash shop keys can be directly turned into the content of said chests.
So what happens if both players are just as skillful and 1 has the boosts while the other one doesn't have??? TELL ME.
Two story, One explorable.
To do what?
Ok they can run faster... but what do they need to run towards to gain an advantage over another player?
- A resource node? Nope...
- A mob? Well I guess but how is that getting an advantage. Any boss enemy that spawns that will drop good enough loot to worry about will have enough HP to survive until the slower players get there, and most likely enough damage to smack down the first person to arrive.
- A location? Well again probably not. Anyway, with the number of way points in the game and the low cost of teleporting you can pretty much get anywhere very quickly once you have unlocked the waypoints.
- WvW? Maybe, but again what in WvW can you do solo that running 25% faster will make a difference. I guess you can run away *cough* coward *cough*.
The Enlightened take things Lightly