Posts by Jonast

  • How did Guild Wars treat you today? Daily Game Discussion

    Quote from Foresta

    well the skin is not rare at all.. most botted shield out there.. there are more perfect echos out there then any other skin. prove me wrong

    This is an interesting claim but i can see the logic. It’s not rare because MTSC and pongmei chestrun. But it is nice hence the demand for it.

    Value is defined by high supply and demand, but I guess the fourth wall might break if it becomes perceived as common - or maybe people just like this skin that much! Is this skin really that more common with perfect mods than the embossed aegis, which also drops in MQSC and pongmei?

  • Favorite Campaign and Why ( Bonus for favorite mission)

    Such a hard question! I started gw in December 2005 but actually completed factions first. I too had a euphoric experience getting through THK for the first time, but those Magho hydras put a hard stop on crossing perdition rock for a while.

    My favourite campaign aaaah - my head says NF but my heart says factions. That was my magical time in gw, farming greens worth nothing now (jacquis aegis was hot stuff), getting wrecked by everything in kaineng, loving FA, meeting new characters at Vizunah square, the breath of fresh air when reaching pongmei valley…

    I have a fondness for prophecies for obvious reasons but time has been less kind I think.

    I actually think my favourite mission is actually in NF though, Dzagonur Bastion. It was my last one for legendary guardian, is genuinely hard without being annoying, and I also think has a fun and different design. I always felt it had real stakes in the plot too. I have pretty fond memories of late NF too.

  • Unicorns

    I think there’s something to the above - think how there was only one known r8 colossal scimitar for so long, even though chests that dropped them existed from nf release. Obscure chests/mobs with a low drop rate. Even now with extensive farming I think only another 3 have been dropped afaik, 2 of those quite recently. Perhaps a resident expert can confirm if my own knowledge is lacking here.

  • Area in Cantha with farmable Fire elementalists ?( Potential Paperlantern Farm)

    Thanks Unholy

    Well great - an interesting question with a boring answer! So they drop from kaineng ‘classic’, vermin and temple guardian celestial, echovald generic, jade sea generic, forbidden chests.

    That leaves things like Oni, warden, outcast, naga, kaineng mantid. These are variants of the above. I guess the question I’m asking here is are there chests to avoid if you want to increase your odds.

    What is also clear from certain extreme cases of chest running - the rheas crater outcast run - is that some chests only drop in purple for some items. Purple lantern drops doesn’t equal gold ones.

  • Area in Cantha with farmable Fire elementalists ?( Potential Paperlantern Farm)

    I can also vouch for dragon mosses dropping these. But it’s probably the area I have farmed the most since 2006 and I have seen ONE drop. Like OP I didn’t believe they could drop until it happened.

    I guess it’s true that they drop from any ele foe. So the best place to farm the is ele enemies with an otherwise limited drop pool. Temple guardians seem like a good choice, I’ve had my fair share of jugs and paper fans from mantids which have a similar drop pool (celestial plus necro and monk stuff and that’s pretty much it - obv no eles here so no lanterns but I think the logic follows). I guess kappas follow the same logic?

    Anywhere that drops armors or more varied skins (dragon moss drop gothic skins, amber skins and echovald unique skins plus ele stuff) will then surely decrease your chances.

    Unholy Interested to see the chest drops with no ele foes around, no doubt it’s true. But do the foe groups have eles in their creature type? I can see a lantern dropping from jade brotherhood chest even if no mages, but not from an am fah chest (as no eles outside of WoC and Chung the attuned). Or do all human ‘kaineng’ enemies just have the same chest drop pool. Indeed, it is a head scramble.

  • Unicorns

    Really? So a fast casting req effigy can’t have 20 HCT death magic? Played the game for so long and still new information, genuinely surprised there is a distinction between primary req and all req as well as the profession unique req stuff.

    Gw loot system keeps on giving

  • Unicorns

    Quote from Jodel_GW

    I am sure some dreams (mine included) came true when we all saw the one and only Straw Effigy q9 FC 20/20 Dom. Some may know that I love the Wayward Wand and I just want to see a q9 Dom 20/20. After seeing this, I can die in peace.

    For all that forgot about the Straw Effigy:

    I still think it’s crazy that there are (at least) two r9 20/20 effigies in the game, the other being curses, give they are universal foci. Maybe the dream of a matching wayward isn’t so ridiculous.

    Is there a r9 20/20 universal wand? I’m aware of a r10 20/20 prot platinum wand but no celestials, ambers, jades or waywards. That 20/19 r9 death amber on sale atm is closest I’ve seen.

  • Creature shields/foci and their uses

    That curses undead gloom is hawt. A shield worthy of grenth himself.

    Quote from PyroLobster

    Have covered the prenerf exceptions to creature stuff here including the undead only in UW/FoW:

    (Page 16)

    Oh that is super weird. There is no logic. Why not keep plants in fow? There are frikkin plants there! Gw1 equipment system is a mess but look at what is has created.

    The reason I like the air/tengu combo is that tengu are weak to lightning damage. Fire/plants or smiting/undead would be good combos too 🙂

  • Creature shields/foci and their uses

    Interesting that only undead drops in uw/fow. An odd distinction to make. Where these areas there at release?

    I knew this already, but weird that tengu doesn’t drop in Cantha. I wonder why they reduced the numbers so drastically in factions, despite adding demons pretty much only for Oni. Naga or dredge would have been pretty low hanging fruit.

    Anyway thanks all, you have answered my questions! I shall wish for that elusive +1 fire +10 vs charr magmas or +1 air vs tengu shield or focus…

  • Creature shields/foci and their uses

    Thanks all - it was my perception that only a couple of these mods were useful, when actually it seems that only a couple of them are actually useless.

    Are these mods more common drops in factions? My gut feeling is that they are. And what drops where? Are anti charr shields more likely to drop from charr?

    Kind of interesting these mods never made it onto green weapons apart from in DOA.

  • Creature shields/foci and their uses

    I’ve seen a fair few pcs and wts threads with creature armor mods, and certainly the shields seem very popular. I think we can all agree they are pretty cool.

    Obviously demon shields are useful for DOA. Undead shields for SoO and FoW presumably. And the big kicker here is that they don’t drop on insc shields. But giants/ogres for example, can still fetch 10a plus with a good skin. Dwarves and charr as well, perhaps even more than this. Dragons seems utterly useless to me, but will still fetch a decent amount. Just interested in where the market for these other creatures comes from - is it just collections, or are these actually useful?

    Also for a caster, would a focus these mods be better, or is the +8 from the shield better than the +12 energy. Given you can sneak in a 20% HCT or HSR if you’re lucky. Are these underappreciated?

  • close pls SWS Q9 Tactic +30HP -2wStance

    Sort of agree with above, stance is less desirable with tactics, but this is another case of a nice skin only dropping with a specific req. If someone wants the skin they are going to play tactics to use it - this isn’t going to fill a caster shield hole, even -2ench +30 is sub optimal for that, where req attribute is often more of an aesthetics thing and you want a +45hp ench mod in most cases.

    I’d go for 60a-70a but depends a lot on interest as ardiunain says. I don’t think it’s that much less than a -5(20%) modded one, and I think the -2 ench sale was overvalued. with respect to comparable skins that drop in strength (magmas, outcast) that would go for coo coo bananas money XXXa with these mods, for me this seems fair.

  • Sunqua Blades

    If Luxon chests do drop them then that would be the source of the r8s of yesteryear in all likelihood: but like I say above I thought this was debunked as an assumption based on the way the skin looks. The nagas in jade sea wield all sorts of canthan swords but I have never seen them with a sunqua for example.

    R7 never dropped from 600g canthan chests tho - those must be from kaineng or shing jea unless I have my facts wrong here. Like r7 outcast shields don’t exist, right?

    I’m quite interested in all these drop table change suggestions, I literally thought it was one mob type = one drop table. There are some weird exceptions (e.g getting an SSS is possible in northern shiverpeaks HM, but not SWS?), but I think north and south stone summit are considered different groups (level and skills are different). Perhaps the same is true of bukdek byway vs pongmei valley jade brotherhood, but in this case the npcs are the same level and have the same skills. The chests are even the same type. A weird distinction if true. Afflicted in echovald don’t drop amber weapons, do they?

    I sooort of don’t think it’s jade brotherhood and am fah - just a feeling really. I just think I would have seen a white one drop in all my time playing, or one in the hand of a jade brotherhood warrior (they wield swords occasionally). The am fah warrior boss does drop a sunqua blade green, but the sskai’s sword is a wicked blade, which drops in echovald, so the logic follows that this is irrelevant.

    This xaquang skyway mantids idea might have merit if we can prove they don’t drop celestial weapons.

  • Sunqua Blades

    I agree it would be weird to change drop tables - although things like resto req staves got removed somewhere after factions release so not unprecedented.

    Also, it’s quite clear from the rheas crater chest data that not all skins that drop from a chest can drop in gold. So I get what you’re saying about afflicted, just because they drop white sunquas doesn’t mean they drop gold.

    Yeah Bokku is definite possibility, and in all likelihood did drop at least one, but it would still be disgustingly rare. Maybe Pleikki can help us to understand how many r7/r8 sunquas there are, roughly.

    Mantids, yetis, naga all exist on the mainland - my last vague recollection was that someone said sunquas could drop in luxon areas but I thought that had been debunked by now. Certainly the idea that a sunqua will fall out of pongmei is proven to be a ridiculous assertion given how many chest runs happen there.

    Did the OS HoH chest drop canthan skins?

    Where do canthan crude axes drop outside shing jea? I defo associate them with the noob island, if the do drop on the mainland perhaps sunquas drop there too.

  • CLOSE - PC OS shield

    Agree on the demon shield, +9 is a killer - the skin is okay but I wouldn’t hold out for more than 5e on that. A hard sell at r13 too. If you ever intend to do DOA just keep it, it’s practical value outweighs its monetary value.

    Not sure on the amber, 5a seems about right to me (good req, useful mods as said above, decent skin)

    The echovald is a weird one, not sure it’s useful in any way. I don’t think this is worth more than 15e, (skin liked but common, r12) but get more opinions.

  • Sunqua Blades

    The naga on the little island is lvl 16; baozo Mesmer boss is also 16; miki is lvl 14.

    Only lvl 18 foes anywhere on noob island are yijo and the afflicted kana, right at the end of a mission no less.

    Not saying you’re wrong but only dropping from 2 enemies in the game is a whole new level of rare!

    Edit: the Bog Beast of Bokku is level 17, so there are 3 foes that could have dropped r7 or r8 max sunqua blades on shing jea. I guess these 3 enemies will have been killed a fair amount back in 2006, so a very small number of the isn’t impossible. I still feel there’s more to this though.

  • Sunqua Blades

    Afaik Kaineng mantids have the celestial drop set, which doesn’t include sunqua blades - correct me if I’m wrong. To me it would be strange to differentiate between the wajjun bazaar and xaquang skyway mantids, but maybe we just have to prove this out.

    Could vizunah square be the place? That contains shing jea afflicted, which do drop sunqua blades, and iirc those afflicted drop the lower level collectibles not putrid cysts? If a canthan chest can spawn off them, then you would get gold max dmg sunquas there? Those chests would be lvl20. R8 and r7 sunquas were pretty rare in comparison to other canthan swords, and everyone in the game has passed through this mission, so the idea that these drop from an obscure mob/chest combination in a common area isn’t ridiculous to me.

    Since r7 exist it has to be somewhere in kaineng, barring a drop of extreme rarity from a lvl18 boss on shing jea. R7 never dropped in jade sea or echovald I think.

    Do sunquas drop from forbidden chests? If so the other place would be sunjiang, which presumably dropped the r7 gpbs

  • One thing I really Dislike about GW1

    Quote from Fleebusia

    This is the main contrast to most other MMO's. You can always come back to it and find something meaningful to progress towards.

    I fully get your perspective - gw1 isn’t the game you really want to play because it doesn’t suit your view of long term progression. I think everyone here gets that your comments aren’t a criticism of the game per se. Many of us have the reverse perspective of other MMOs which is shown in our comments. I certainly don’t hate gw2 for example, and would like to enjoy it, but I find it very hard to come back to - raids, fractals seem locked behind having to get a new gearset. The latest open world stuff requires me to rush through the story to get to the latest money making farm, to fund this. These things appeal to some people, but not to me and it would seem most of the commenters here.

    I’ll offer a response to the above quote though. Gw1 for me has always been a slow burn. Working towards legendary vq, legendary guardian, were meaningful things that took a couple of years of quitting and coming back to get to. I have 99% tyrian cartographer despite being at 95% in 2007. I only did WoC and WiK on my main a couple of years ago. I spent 7 months trying to do rescue at minister chos HM without consumables or stones (I did succeed, with warriors cunning and way of the fox on my bar no less. I also got to the last group with flourish on my bar and failed LOL). The point being I haven’t rushed anything, so there was never a void of content that needed to be filled by a gear treadmill. Just playing the game was enough between the times I spent doing titles. So in a sense I did always have something meaningful to come back to; challenging content of old stories I enjoyed, and new stories I hadn’t played when they first came out.

  • Emblazonned Defender

    R12 strength on a caster shield and 1 off hp hurt a lot. I think I would merch this personally.

    That being said if you put it up for sale for a week someone may buy for 5e or maybe a little more, if they like the skin and want a monk shield. Sure, there are much nicer ones around, but it might tick enough boxes for someone.

  • One thing I really Dislike about GW1

    This thread is an echo chamber really, and I can only contribute to said echoes! most people here will have played for so many years because participating in content wasn’t hidden behind this sort of progression.

    Apologies if this just a repeat of the above…

    The only other MMO I have played is gw2. Things started to go wrong there when I had to grind for hours just to get the stat set I wanted for a build, doing really banal collection of resources, just to play. In contrast it’s easy to get a new char to max level, with max gear in gw1. Then the only progression requirement is to get to the outpost where your chosen content takes place - you can either get a run, or you can play the game through. Like do fighting and quests and stuff, play the story. Maybe get a nice drop along the way. But then you have experienced how to play the profession, levelled up and geared your heroes, and unlocked the map - pretty serious improvements for a character. Comparing my main’s heroes during my first vanquish compared to my last on the way to legendary vq, a huge amount of progression and power increase too place through hero composition changes, build editing, and learning new tactics happened along the way without ever having to increase my armor or weapon values. In this regard making a new character and progressing them is a subtly much more serious endeavour that just levelling to 20. Of course progression like this will trail off after 7k hours, but I reckon a good few hundred can be taken over this process playing in an average way.

    Other progression is optional and largely cosmetic, but it’s something you can tackle organically over time without the fear of obsolescence.

    I have 4.5k hours in this game, and remarkably few of them have been doing repetitive nonsense just so I can experiment with a new build.

    I also kind of like the fact I can still get my ass handed to me on my main by 4-man area VQs or 6-man missions periodically if my build/team selection isn’t great, or I make a bad pull or don’t know the area patrols too well, in the knowledge I can swap things around without having to grind out a new set of gear to make me ‘more powerful’.

  • Close PC Magmas Shield

    Certainly no more than the above - good ones aren’t common but these are chest run regularly.

    Personally I think 20e max, r10 and 3 off hurts a lot, although -2 stance and a hp mod make this useful and potentially wieldable by a player that likes the skin.