[FEEDBACK] BL Chest Guaranteed Drop

I can speak only for myself, but the one thing I hate the most about opening a BL Chest is getting something that I can easily get just by playing the game. This post is focusing specifically on the guaranteed drop. The value of that drop, in my view, is what drives me to either open a chest or hoard keys until the next version is released, hoping for something better.

Some negative examples:Halloween 2018 drop: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Evon_Gnashblade_Trick-or-Treat_BagSeriously? I was getting 200-300 bags an hour farming the lab, and they had the same contents.

Zephyrite Festival 2018 drop: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Gnashblade_Zephyrite_Supply_BoxI watched many youtube vids of people opening tons of BL chests, but these bags were also easily obtainable by trading in material to the zephyrite vendors.

Gandarran Stronghold 2018 drop: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Black_Lion_Lockbreaker_KitThis was painful tbh. If you spend any time at all in HoT maps/metas or in Dry Top / Silverwastes, you have these items by the pound.

Distant Visitors 2018 drop: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Black_Lion_Material_Bag:_IstanCrafting materials. Just plain old crafting materials you can find by killing neutral wild life, or opening heavy loot bags in WvW.

Some positive examples:Armored Assault Chest 2018 drop: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mini_Baby_Mount_ContainerWho doesn't like minis? Rather than buying them with statuettes you got them here. Already have it? You can craft the next colour version or sell it on the TP.

Mysterious Etchings Chest 2018 drop: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Black_Lion_Chest/historical#Guaranteed_drops_7See comment right above.

Now let's turn and look at the current guaranteed drop, the Battle hardened chest. It's contents? Food items you can purchase from the provision vendor, potions of WvW/PvP XP which you can earn by completing the dailies in either game mode, and grey vendor items worth 1g or less. Hardly compelling.

Full disclosure, I already have the Wild Magic Backpack and the Kings throne doesn't appeal to me, so I have little interest in this chest anyways; but the reason I have a bunch of keys in my bank in the first place is because after opening a few of the halloween versions, I realized I was getting stiffed on the guaranteed drop because I was farming hundreds of those bags per day already.

Now I'll hold onto my keys until the next chest.

I realize that most people are opening chests hoping for the uncommon drops. I'm more of a realist, and while I like the thrill of maybe getting something awesome, I'm more focused on the two items I know I will get for my key. While doing a weekly key run is hardly onerous, you can only get 1 per week, which in my view makes a key valuable. Same goes for spending gold or real money to purchase keys. So when I open a BL chest, I want to know that I will be getting something that I cannot get just by randomly killing a mob or completing an event.

None of the Common Drops can be acquired as random loot in game (except those Heavy Crafting bags - those need to go too), so neither should the guaranteed drop be either.

MY SUGGESTION: Please insure that future guaranteed items offer rewards that can only be obtained from a BL chest, so at least we feel like we get value from using a key, even if we didn't get a Permanent Hair Stylist Contract.

TLDR: If BL Keys are special, the contents of the BL chests should be equally special. If the potential rewards are grey vendor trash or random crafting items, why bother going through the work and expense of acquiring the keys in the first place.

Thank you

So..not gonna lie, i like the extra guranteed bags. Once upon a time we didnt get them, and the rewards where just as bad, also for someone who doesnt PVP or WvW often, being able to do reward tracks to unlock a few items this way(when i buy keys) is a pretty nice boost too, and ill be pissed if they get rid of the crafting bags, getting some additional tier 6 mats for something i was gonna buy anyways is pretty nice.

Black Lion Chests are little more than advanced gambling, and they are meant to have common "junk" items and rare valuable items, ontop of that different things have different value to different people.

As a fervant buyer of BLC keys, the new guaranteed drop has me wanting for more. A potion of pvp/wvw reward track reward, some food (that you can get better elsewhere) and some sellables worth gold..it's very disenchanting and a turn off.

I would rather have the Dungeon Token/T6 materials/various Keys items than the guaranteed Minis. Those usually become quite cheap on the TP.Thus, again, one man's trash is another's treasure.

@"Dante.1763" said:So..not gonna lie, i like the extra guranteed bags. Once upon a time we didnt get them, and the rewards where just as bad, also for someone who doesnt PVP or WvW often, being able to do reward tracks to unlock a few items this way(when i buy keys) is a pretty nice boost too, and ill be pissed if they get rid of the crafting bags, getting some additional tier 6 mats for something i was gonna buy anyways is pretty nice.

Black Lion Chests are little more than advanced gambling, and they are meant to have common "junk" items and rare valuable items, ontop of that different things have different value to different people.

I completely understand. The common contents will be more valuable to some players vs. others. As a contrast, I have about 400 WvW reward potions sitting in my bank, just because I'm not in any hurry to complete a reward track.

My hope though, is that going forward even the "junk" items you get from the BL chest will be unique to the BL chest. Even it ends up being some novelty consumable tonic, if the only place you could get it was from a BL chest, that's far better than using a key and getting some T5/T6 trophies or grey vendor item. If you open a chest and get a BL Statuette, a Revive Orb, and a Repair Canister, no matter what you think of any of those items, you at least can't get them anywhere else. I think the guaranteed loot item should be as exclusive. (assuming they remove those heavy crafting bags from the uncommon loot table as well...grrr)

Pretty sure you can get Revive Orbs and Repair Canisters from the Gem Store. Or did you just mean outside the Gem Store?You can get a Repair Canister from the Story and Achievement Chests; Revive Orbs from Achievement Chests and Story, as well as from Statuettes (which, of course, only come from BL Chests...still, one can obtain BL Keys in-game).

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:Pretty sure you can get Revive Orbs and Repair Canisters from the Gem Store. Or did you just mean outside the Gem Store?You can get a Repair Canister from the Story and Achievement Chests; Revive Orbs from Achievement Chests and Story, as well as from Statuettes (which, of course, only come from BL Chests...still, one can obtain BL Keys in-game).

In my viewpoint, BL Chests, Statuette Vendors and the Gem Store are linked.

You bring up a good point about Repair Canisters et al being rewards for achievements, but those are really one offs. You can't farm an achievement for example.

And yes one can get a BL Key as a drop, but it's pretty rare, and again, I want opening a BL chest to be something special. You might play for months without seeing a key drop in open world play, so when it does, and you use it to open a chest, everything you should receive from that chest should reflect the rarity of that key. :)

Key-running isn't very rare; many partake. Achievement Chests aren't really one-off; we get them every so often.Regardless, those items are available once per week from the Chest of Black Lion Goods; I have dozens and dozens.

The statuettes are what you should care about. The guaranteed items have always been kinda bad, with some being really trashy like worthless materials or some being pretty decent. The guaranteed key choice one was pretty good, though extremely annoying to open up, select a key for each box. Choosing ornate rusted keys was pretty good, around 2g each at the time.

Worst guaranteed keys in a long time.

Definitely skipping these black lion keys for a guaranteed Potion of WvW/PvP reward? Seriously?

As if the Large PvP potion after obtaining a top 250 rank wasn't bad enough. The food items offered are also junk and not even level 80 food.

I think this was a test by ANET to see if people would still open keys even with horrible rewards. It determines which black lion key openers are compulsive gamblers who will gamble no matter what every month, and those who only buy keys occasionally when the value improves.

The only value these keys will have is to someone that only plays PvE that hates WvW and just wants the Gift of Battle quickly.

For someone like me that plays only PvP and WvW 90% of time, this is absolute junk.

yes i complained before with a ticket about bl chest drops. i wanted zaishen helm skin. uncommon. everyone got it. so here you go, first map completion is few hours work when there were no mounts. i think 2 or 3 hours for sure. then 20% chance. so if unlucky it’s 10 - 15 hours for 1 bl chest key. then the drop rate. 10 - 15 % for a bonus slot. which i never get. then the uncommon slot had 7 items so another 1 in 7 chance to get what you want. or a key run once a week. i work my ... off for a key and then this drop rate feels like a middle finger to the customers (keys only) the customer support is very good!! sure they have to make money but i had some anger long ago with this. i sold a legendary and bought keys and got 2 bonus slots so 8 keys wasted = 1,25 euro each or 35+ gold if buy one by one. i paid 2x5 don’t remember prices. not much motivating this drops. my rng with key drops and bl chests socks so i nearly never go for them. and with those trash loot i also don’t buy with gold. and real life money is only for upgrades and not for gamble. but other side. rng from mystic forge is above average. compared with guildy’s and mount licenses i have luck. so its fine as it is.

Ah yes but the keys are always going to be put off'ish for people. Farmers don't want the t6 stuff. Dungeon players (yes there are still some) don't need the tokens. If you wvw enough and you have the tracks unlocked you will always have dungeon tokens. This set of keys is geared to the people who want a skin, or most likely Gift of Battle....for their next shiny toy... They don't like to WvW, they don't know how to WvW, they don't want to deal with the long wait times (depending on server) some WvW servers are toxic... so this is right up their market. They will convert their gold into keys, they will get 80 or so potions this way and it will be done for them.

I bought some keys today with my gold finished off a pvp track that I have been sitting on for YEARS... literally years since I do not like pvp. I was excited it was over. I am a Pve/WvW player and I see the good behind this key... as all keys.

Ok I have changed my mind. The potion of the mist is not junk, as it can be used for virtually anything you want.

And the random souvenir drop yields on average 1 gold for each key.

This is not as bad as I originally thought. I just wish the potion yielded more than 300 reward track progression.

However, the food offered is still crap and can't even be sold on the trading post. Level 70 food for real?

The value of these guaranteed items is entirely dependent on the type of player buying them, but if you absolutely hate doing WvW to get Gifts of Battle and have money, now is your chance to stock up on them for sure. I don't find it hard but I know a lot of people hate doing that for whatever reason.

I used to have the same argument until they added the statuettes. The way I look at it now is that even if all my pulls end up trash, I've still got at least another statuette to add to my stash which will eventually allow me to choose my reward, add into that the junk you get to sell usually nets a decent profit so I think it's in a pretty good place.

@Turkeyspit.3965 said:

@"Dante.1763" said:So..not gonna lie, i like the extra guranteed bags. Once upon a time we didnt get them, and the rewards where just as bad, also for someone who doesnt PVP or WvW often, being able to do reward tracks to unlock a few items this way(when i buy keys) is a pretty nice boost too, and ill be pissed if they get rid of the crafting bags, getting some additional tier 6 mats for something i was gonna buy anyways is pretty nice.

Black Lion Chests are little more than advanced gambling, and they are meant to have common "junk" items and rare valuable items, ontop of that different things have different value to different people.

I think you're missing the point a bit, it's not what is inside those guaranteed loot items from the BLC, but the guaranteed item itself that is exclusive to the BLC. Look at it this way, could you at any time get any of the following from playing the game itself: The_Evon_Gnashblade_Trick-or-Treat_Bag, Gnashblade_Zephyrite_Supply_Box, Black_Lion_Lockbreaker_Kit, or the Black_Lion_Material_Bag:_Istan...or any of the other BLC guaranteed loot items that have dropped before? The answer is no, those containers are only available from the BLC, now whether or not what is inside of them is obtainable via other methods is an entirely different subject. Also, keep in mind that some people don't want to participate in PvP or WvW(now I personally don't think you should be able to get the PvP rewards without participating somehow, but I don't feel the same about WvW). At least that's how I look at those chests, it's the chest itself you can't get in the game, the contents are a different matter.

How much does the pvp potion give?

@"Lambent.6375" said:How much does the pvp potion give?

250 points. https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Potion_of_Mist_Rewards

@Inculpatus cedo.9234 said:

@"Lambent.6375" said:How much does the pvp potion give?

80 Black Lion chest, 80 Black Lion Keys, hmmm.

nah, kitten that.

@Deimos.4263 said:The value of these guaranteed items is entirely dependent on the type of player buying them, but if you absolutely hate doing WvW to get Gifts of Battle and have money, now is your chance to stock up on them for sure. I don't find it hard but I know a lot of people hate doing that for whatever reason.

This is a really good point which I think deserves another mention: if you manage to collect 80 keys (via gems, map completion, whatever), then you can get a Gift of Battle for a legendary weapon via the WvW reward track.

80 potions can also be used during Wintersday to gain 180 Wintersday Gifts (280 if you take the Generous Wintersday Gift as a bonus), 311 ToTs during Halloween, as well as various other rewards normally open only to people who WvW or PvP.

Like in any free market process, I like my purchasing to reflect my opinion. GW2 embraced RNG way too much and new Legendary Collections seemed a mega "kill 1000 rats" process; I quit spending RL cash on the game. Guaranteed BL Chest items gets too fluffy; I'll wait to spend my gold on the next cycle. Simple I can wait, my preference would be dungeon tokens, but everyone plays their own game.

Typically I don't mind the guaranteed drop.. although the current one is by far the most disappointing.Account bound trash food items?.. come on.

I don't use food items that often because I never need to and when I do use them they are specific ones and it's never for direct buffs to stats like power, vitality etc..I use them for special benefits like heals on crits or healing over time.

These food items i'm getting from the BLC are a total waste to me.. specially since I can't sell them, If it weren't for that cool throne i'd be saving my keys.

I like em, though I didn't need the wvw boost it's nice to get pvp reward track progress...im sure lots of pve main players are overjoyed to know they can theoretically buy the gift of battle while it lasts (i think those players who open 100+ keys every rotation are mad personally but hey, not my money being spent so who am i to argue).

So far as i'm aware, anyone who spends an excessive amount of time in pvp or wvw to the point where you'd consider these useless is a minority, but i don't have the playtime stats so anyone can correct me on that.

As with all things, while a portion of the playerbase is disappointed others are exceedingly happy. The guaranteed item has never been particularly amazing tbh, and I wouldn't except this one to be great either.

The reason for the event-related drops is very likely to promote participation. Players get partial rewards and are encouraged to play more of the festival events to get more. Personally, I LOVE the wvw/pvp track item currently on offer. Saves a ton of time and assures you of rewards that are worthwhile.