Grothmar Rewards

[Bast.7253]

It's a beautiful map and I know they recently adjusted the Charr artifact loot table, but it still feels highly unrewarding.

The events are pretty fun, but it's a little discouraging when the only guaranteed way it seems to get a Charr artifact is to loot the 4 key chest. Do they drop from the individual metas as well? I can't remember.

The metas are so spaced out that, even if they do, that's like 30 minutes just for ONE Charr artifact.

I would also have loved to get more decorations for my guild hall, and it's what I'm currently saving up for, but they take so much currency and are locked behind achievements so there isn't really a point in endlessly farming for something I'd really only want ONE of anyway. I mean, the cannon is.. eh. The tank I haven't gotten yet because of the insane cost, but I'm saving up for it. The helipads are locked behind some 300 target achievement which is also kind of timegated behind event participation and it's really not a decoration I'm stoked for. Would have loved to see some of the beautiful assets on this map incorporated, like the trees or Aurene's branded crystals. The monument is cool, but it's also expensive and I really don't need 30 statues of devourers in my guild hall...

I love combat tonics and always look forward to them, but now we have one and I want it, even though it's just another Charr, but it's locked behind rng of.. a jumping puzzle, right? It must be pretty rare if it's 400 gold on the trading post at all times.

Then we have the map specific chests, which don't drop map currency and only reward you with unidentified gear. I could get that same amount of gear from just grinding mobs in the middle of nowhere, if not substantially more, and especially if I just farmed events.

Then here we have the Charr artifacts, which still have laughable drops, which are essentially the only unique new skins added with this patch right? Or am I leaving off some weapons somewhere on one of the map currency vendors?

I mean I get that you wanted to change up the obtainment method to prevent the content from being rushed and encourage people to keep revisiting the map, but with my luck, it has probably an even more adverse effect for me. I go and chill out in the map or do a few events, and then I'm just kind of... disinterested because I know that I'm not going to get that lucky rng drop of a new armor skin, combat tonic, and definitely not an infusion.

Is there somekind of balance you can strike between these two that will prevent players from unlocking everything the moment the patch drops but still keeps them invested in revisiting? Maybe a way to obtain them outside of rng that still requires effort?

Is the infusion not enough incentive as is without locking the armor and weapon skins and combat tonic all behind this rng? To be honest I'm not overly interested in the skins to begin with, I just think that this is kind of a backwards step in terms of the reward system and really hope that it isn't like this moving forward.

I also don't think I've gotten a Charr artifact from strike missions, granted I've only done them like 5 times so far, but you would think for something that's locked to... 3 times a day?... and supposed to be the challenging new content (which people have pretty unanimously agreed it isn't), that it would have better rewards than a few pieces of unidentified gear and some dismal amount of map currency?

Eh, I think outside of the rewards in this map and the lack of more interesting decorations (which is honestly probably only an issue with me as an adamant enthusiast of decoration and guild halls in general), the map and the events exceeded my expectations.

I just hope there is a different approach next patch, especially for the new showcase Strike Missions feature, which I think in their current implementation won't gain much traction unless you make them significantly more rewarding. Especially if you intend on increasing the difficulty as time goes on.

As far as suggestions go, I think it's good changing the loot table of the Charr artifact, but it needs far more drop sources than what I've seen. Seems like it should be guaranteed from all the individual metas, the jumping puzzle, the grand meta chest, the strike missions, and maybe a rare chance from the map specific chests if you keep their drop chances the same even with the increase. It feels a lot more satisfying opening a multitude of those Artifacts at once than just opening one and realizing that you're probably not going to get another one until reset when or if you even bother to try for another one. Might also encourage people to more regularly revisit the map moving forward in hopes of getting something rare they can sell. I mean, for that matter, I don't think they are so what if you made those artifacts tradeable? It doesn't solve the dissatisfying rng factor, but it at least gives the people more deadest on getting those skins more chances to get them. Sure, if they really want them they'll farm the hell out of the map and keep coming back all season, but I'd say there's far fewer people that would do that than there are people that would rather just farm the latest map release.

And I still think the chests should give map currency, but that would be less of an issue if they had something besides some unid gear or mats.

[Frostfang.5109]

This is a partyzone rather than a warzone. I expected it to be less filled with action and also rewards for that reason.

[Vavume.8065]

The zone is only good for AP, once you have all achievements done it's time to leave the map for good.

[Tukaram.8256]

The zone is for fun. I keep replaying it because it is a fun zone. As an intro to the season I think it is great. And the gold ain't bad either - I make 7 or gold a day just playing around a couple hours (almost 5 gold is from selling sets of keys).