Absurdly Rare Odds

This game is a lottery draw most of the time as to whether or not you're going to get some good loot from monsters or chests. Don't get me started on the Invisible Slipper chances -- that has to be nothing more than a joke.

But things like becoming a Skritt with the Endless Mystery Animal Tonic? What's the point in making that stupidly rare?I don't think it's going to encourage people to buy the tonic. There's likely a 1 in 5000 chance of becoming a blue moa instead of a pink one, but I just don't understand why this is a thing. Especially when they can just use the mystic forge to get any animal transformation tonic they want.

I imagine most players will read this and question why it's worth caring about, and you're right, it's not, but I'm confused about it, and would love to be given an explanation for such a strange place to put low RNG odds. Isn't that just a little bit weird?

It's to give the item a sense of personal value - you get a drop of invisible shoes and they mean more of if the chance is 1 in 5000 than they do 1 in 5. It also encourages repeat play for a section of the playerbase. Tends to work better with minis, infusions and tonics as they are a bit more showy and the very epitome of non essential items. The invisible shoes was a bit of an odd one to do it on admittedly

MMO's have used it a lot since their time began. GW1 used it astronomically more than GW2 has to date

@Thundabolt.8541 said:This game is a lottery draw most of the time as to whether or not you're going to get some good loot from monsters or chests. Don't get me started on the Invisible Slipper chances -- that has to be nothing more than a joke.

All the items which are 1k+ gold are not good loot. They are lottery level loot. Getting an item worth 5 -10 gold is good loot. Items which are less rare are less valuable. If the Invisible slippery shoes were less rare, they would not be worth thousands of gold.

@Thundabolt.8541 said:But things like becoming a Skritt with the Endless Mystery Animal Tonic? What's the point in making that stupidly rare?I don't think it's going to encourage people to buy the tonic. There's likely a 1 in 5000 chance of becoming a blue moa instead of a pink one, but I just don't understand why this is a thing. Especially when they can just use the mystic forge to get any animal transformation tonic they want.

Given that people pay the price, people are buying these rare items. Else the price would drop. The value is their rarity. Lucky for you, they are in no way required and as such you can completely ignore them.

@Thundabolt.8541 said:I imagine most players will read this and question why it's worth caring about, and you're right, it's not, but I'm confused about it, and would love to be given an explanation for such a strange place to put low RNG odds. Isn't that just a little bit weird?

It's rare loot. Seems it's works since you are wondering about it. Others are motivated to get these rare items. They are rare, that's the only reason for their existence and demand.

@Thundabolt.8541 said:But things like becoming a Skritt with the Endless Mystery Animal Tonic? What's the point in making that stupidly rare?I don't think it's going to encourage people to buy the tonic. There's likely a 1 in 5000 chance of becoming a blue moa instead of a pink one, but I just don't understand why this is a thing. Especially when they can just use the mystic forge to get any animal transformation tonic they want.

I imagine most players will read this and question why it's worth caring about, and you're right, it's not, but I'm confused about it, and would love to be given an explanation for such a strange place to put low RNG odds. Isn't that just a little bit weird?

Perhaps the team responsible for in game rewards is not very good at doing what they should. That would make it something worth caring about but we also have no idea what went through which team.