For those looking to farm shiny bauble in verdant brink this week.

[Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267]

I can't confirm if Anet had stealth nerfed the farm, but I can tell you that throughout the time I've been actively farming stoneheads, I've notice that I have had gotten FAR less shiny bauble then I have in the past, and everyone in the map chat also pointed this out. something is wrong here, and I want to hear what other people's thought on the matter before I make facts.

Edited March 4, 2022 by Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267

[Linken.6345]

Dont make facts mate

[ZombieRox.1289]

Nothing official yet but it seems there's a nerf ....

 

I am having mixed feelings regarding this.....

 

This bauble faming in VB been massively exploited by AFK heralds for months now so I knew at some stage devs will do something.

 

but like in every farm when some people exploit extensively , other like us who join in every premeta and help the squad suffers and this is no exception ....

 

bye bye VB and bauble farming.... it was fun till it lasted

 

cheers

 

 

[Hashberry.4510]

Well that’s a shame. I enjoy training new toons on the vets that spawn in the ruins, I guess that will be knocked down as well. Won’t miss the locusts.

[Piteous.4165]

I think it's a shame that this got nerfed, one of the few ways to make gold for me.

[Old Gamer.1462]

I can confirm there is a MUCH lower spawn rate of stoneheads. An average run would yield about 46 baubles: now 17.

If this was an intended stealth nerf to deal with the AFK crowd, this wasn't the answer. How hard is it to require a hit on the mob?

[XiraMint.3162]

I'd rather they at least be up front about it if they're going to make a major change.

If it's really intentional, then people will just move on to debating what is the next "too easy" thing to be removed from content.  

It was an awful lot of time involved to get one little shiny item out of the store, particularly at some of the going prices and with limited availability cycles.  But it made a tiny bit of fashion pursuit much more exciting for those with the hours (more like day or several) to put in.  That was a unique draw for me.  Hope this was a glitch and not permanent or intended.

[Calen Elee.8452]

Es una lástima que tengan que llegar a esto, si esto es una ajuste de parte de los desarrolladores puedo entender por qué lo hacen, considerando que es un negocio y es una forma de subir las micro transacciones y ganar dinero, que es el objetivo. Tiene una parte negativa, considerando la gente que solo tiene la expansión de HoT, era la forma de juntar oro, se la arruinaron. La gente nueva que empieza van a encontrar mapas vacíos y les va a costar disfrutarlo, y como en mí caso, que odio los mapas de HoT, iba esa semana al mes, ahora olvídalo. Cómo dijeron arriba, fue bueno mientras duro. Gracias Karens.... 

[Gibson.4036]

7 minutes ago, Ramiro.6147 said:

Es una lástima que tengan que llegar a esto, si esto es una ajuste de parte de los desarrolladores puedo entender por qué lo hacen, considerando que es un negocio y es una forma de subir las micro transacciones y ganar dinero, que es el objetivo. Tiene una parte negativa, considerando la gente que solo tiene la expansión de HoT, era la forma de juntar oro, se la arruinaron. La gente nueva que empieza van a encontrar mapas vacíos y les va a costar disfrutarlo, y como en mí caso, que odio los mapas de HoT, iba esa semana al mes, ahora olvídalo. Cómo dijeron arriba, fue bueno mientras duro. Gracias Karens.... 

I didn’t google translate, so I don’t understand the bulk of this, but all I really needed to get it was that, “Gracias Karens…”

Truly brilliant. 😄

[dmtnchill.1302]

12 hours ago, Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267 said:

I can't confirm if Anet had stealth nerfed the farm, but I can tell you that throughout the time I've been actively farming stoneheads, I've notice that I have had gotten FAR less shiny bauble then I have in the past, and everyone in the map chat also pointed this out. something is wrong here, and I want to hear what other people's thought on the matter before I make facts.

Just to confirm, drop rates for Shiny Baubles are very much reduced :(

[Blue D Phoenix.7260]

It wasn't intended for afks, it was for all farmers in VB, since it requires low effort and good amount of gold, anet don't like it. 

 

:(

[Gorem.8104]

Another undocumented change? Seems that last patch has many stealth things in it they didn't document, considering we have confirmed a few changes with E-specs that we can still in game, but not in the notes. 

Makes me wonder just how many things were left undocumented. I didn't do this farm, but it was fun to see all the people doing it. 

[Caliboom.3218]

Wait, what got nerfed, was it stonehead spawns or the shiny bauble drop rate? If it was shiny baubles then that means the bauble farm in auric basin is dead as well.

[Nate Anabe.6091]

13 hours ago, Gibson.4036 said:

I didn’t google translate, so I don’t understand the bulk of this, but all I really needed to get it was that, “Gracias Karens…”

Truly brilliant. 😄

I was Bored so here is the translation

 

      It is a pity that they have to come to this, if this is an adjustment on the part of the developers I can understand why they do it, considering that it is a business and it is a way to upload micro transactions and earn money, which is the objective. It has a negative part, considering the people who only have the HoT expansion, it was the way to collect gold, they ruined it. New people starting out are going to find empty maps and it's going to be hard for them to enjoy it, and since in my case, I hate HoT maps, I went that week to month, now forget it. As said above, it was good while it lasted. Thank you Karen... 

[UO Ducks.5614]

I found the nerf story to be true. Been farming VB for 2 years and today got less than half of the normal qty of baubles. In addition, the spawn rate of Stoneheads is also significantly reduced. I participated in meta from the start and in the hour and 15 minutes didn't get enough events to receive the map bonus 2x. Typically 2 bonus' is a given and even 3 if the event counter sets up right and you get the 1st bonus during meta. This is VERY disappointing. Literally everything in game is so kitten expensive (like crafting Legendaries) that this farm was really my only means of keeping pace. It's not hurting anyone to leave it alone. I just don't get it...Bad mojo on Anet.

[Spawncer.5902]

I could be wrong, but it seems like a nerf or bug to the map bonus reward drops. I personally haven't confirmed, but someone else mentioned that they counted and was only getting a 10 stack for map bonus every 80 "full participation" events instead of 40 like it used to be. This adds up to my experience as after 2 runs, I got the same average amount I would get in 1 run (a bit less actually).

Attempts to get Anet to confirm if this is a nerf or bug have only resulted in "we are not aware of a change" continued by them referring us to the Shiny Bauble and Map bonus reward wiki pages. The Map bonus reward page clearly show data stating you should get a 10 stack every 40 events with full participation.

 

Yes, there was an issue with AFK leachers at the farm at times. However, as an active player, should I be penalized for the actions of others? If this is an intended nerf, one of my favorite events is being taken away. I have met people who I now plan on being lifelong friends with at this specific bauble farm. We have formed what I consider the best community I have ran across in game. My guild actually actively runs squads for the VB bauble farm, where we incentivize active pre-meta participation with gold giveaways that I personally run. Not only does it get more people to help, but it's a really fun addition that we all enjoy. I love the reactions from some people when they find out they've won 30g just for helping us do the pre-meta. VB is the entry point to end game for a lot of people, many of which still have no clue how to make gold when they get there.

 

The VB bauble farm is one of the main reasons I got hooked to GW2. Not just the farm itself, but the people I met there. If it were not for that, I'm not even sure if I'd have continued playing the game as long as I did.

 

If this is an intended nerf, this feels like a stab in the back from Anet who I have significantly and proudly supported over the past 8+ months with gem purchases. At the current bauble drop rates, a lot of people feel it's not worth doing. This is destroying my favorite event in the game. I'm even finding it difficult to be excited for EOD or GW2 itself right now. Last night me and the usual squad commander of our VB farm just fished all night, cuz we are so saddened by this and didn't really feel like playing the game. We were supposed to be having fun in the bauble farm with the rest of our community 😞

[DoctorOverlord.8620]

Whether it's a bug or nerf, clearly ArenaNet has clearly taken steps around it.  I can understand the reason - there were people who were getting stacks and stacks of baubles each week and as more people became aware of the farm one could see it unbalancing the gold economy.

I hope people will keep doing the farm since it's still seems like it might still be a good source for karma and XP, but most especially it was the only farm in the game that was relaxed enough to let you chat with others while doing it.  Every other farm has you frantically fighting or running around leaving no time to engage with the people around you.  The bauble farm was one of the few experiences that one could engage in an open-world activity and comfortably chat at the same time.  (Sure there's chat waiting for a boss to spawn, but the conversations don't last that long)

I had hoped fishing would allow that experience, but the mini-game takes up too much attention for one to engage in chat.  WoW's fishing was much better for that IMO.  Not only did it give a better feel of the relaxing nature of fishing but it allowed you the freedom from the UI to socialize with others.  I wish ArenaNet would offer some open-world activities that were more like that.

Whatever has happened, I do wish ArenaNet would be up front about it and let us know. 

 

Edited March 5, 2022 by DoctorOverlord.8620

[Old Gamer.1462]

"I can understand the reason - there were people who were getting stacks and stacks of baubles each week and as more people became aware of the farm one could see it unbalancing the gold economy."

 

While that is true, most of the active players really wouldn't cause an unbalance that much, compared to botters (including any type of AFK farming). All they would need to do is change some code to make event progress require a hit...boom no more afk bauble farming! That would be best solution to offset any gold farming imbalance. Most gold farmers use the gold to buy things like a commander tag (300g) or griffon mount (250g), which are coin sinks: no gold unbalance. Usually a player won't farm as often as they should (based on the amount of gold they need for things), but rather something to do when feeling more lazy. For me, it was a relaxing way to farm without having my old bones cramp up.

 

I ran another bauble to see where the nerf is: both spawn rate is reduced and map bonus cycles 2x slower. The result is about 1/4 the baubles we would get in a run previously.. I expect bauble farming to die out completely, as it's now not worth it at all unless someone new is looking for HoT experience to fill the mastery bars. Some might think this is a good thing, but they'll learn that the active bauble farmers who were there to help on other events won't have reason to go to the map anymore. With even more gone to the EoD maps, they will have even worse of a time finding players.

 

I do wish ANet would respond on the matter.

[Lottie.5370]

I feel like they could have just fixed the event to have a respawn timer of 10 minutes, like a lot of events have. That way the reduced reward wouldn't affect people playing the map normally.

 

But I'm not sad it is nerfed, at all. I don't think people should be getting rewarded for standing afk somewhere doing nothing.

[AliamRationem.5172]

While I'm glad to see the VB bauble farm go, if the solution was to nerf bauble rewards from VB events I think it was a rather stupid fix.  Wouldn't it have been easier to just nerf stonehead spawns or add new spawn points to spread players out and slow them down?  It seems a poor solution to make an already unrewarding map even less rewarding just stop stonehead farmers. 

[UO Ducks.5614]

18 hours ago, DoctorOverlord.8620 said:

Whether it's a bug or nerf, clearly ArenaNet has clearly taken steps around it.  I can understand the reason - there were people who were getting stacks and stacks of baubles each week and as more people became aware of the farm one could see it unbalancing the gold economy.

I hope people will keep doing the farm since it's still seems like it might still be a good source for karma and XP, but most especially it was the only farm in the game that was relaxed enough to let you chat with others while doing it.  Every other farm has you frantically fighting or running around leaving no time to engage with the people around you.  The bauble farm was one of the few experiences that one could engage in an open-world activity and comfortably chat at the same time.  (Sure there's chat waiting for a boss to spawn, but the conversations don't last that long)

I had hoped fishing would allow that experience, but the mini-game takes up too much attention for one to engage in chat.  WoW's fishing was much better for that IMO.  Not only did it give a better feel of the relaxing nature of fishing but it allowed you the freedom from the UI to socialize with others.  I wish ArenaNet would offer some open-world activities that were more like that.

Whatever has happened, I do wish ArenaNet would be up front about it and let us know. 

 

This bauble farm has been going on for over 7 years. It didn't just start and become a strain on the game economy. The AFK farmers get "maybe" 35% of the actives and they don't impact anyone negatively so who cares? The fact that they killed the best way to make in game gold sucks and is BS. Now they need to adjust drop rates and prices for everything so people can actually achieve the crafting of Legendary items. It is so expensive to get there that the farms are the best/only way to do it. Defending this action with some hyped BS about game economy is ill-informed and unhelpful.

[Khisanth.2948]

15 hours ago, Old Gamer.1462 said:

unless someone new is looking for HoT experience to fill the mastery bars

That is exactly what the event was meant for. Although I wonder if anyone has ever actually used it for that.

5 hours ago, AliamRationem.5172 said:

While I'm glad to see the VB bauble farm go, if the solution was to nerf bauble rewards from VB events I think it was a rather stupid fix.  Wouldn't it have been easier to just nerf stonehead spawns or add new spawn points to spread players out and slow them down?  It seems a poor solution to make an already unrewarding map even less rewarding just stop stonehead farmers. 

Or just remove one of the stonehead events. There are something like 3 or 4 all in a tiny area.

Nerfing the map bonus is definitely the wrong approach since that would nerf  rewards for people actually trying to do the map meta. I think a lot of people would agree that VB is already the least appealing of the HoT maps, it did not need to be made even less appealing.

[Piteous.4165]

I guess the HP trains will go next?

[Vargala.5614]

Does anyone know if AB was also nerfed? Im not see anyone really doing it

[Yanosh.2631]

Wait, does that mean the map bonus reward is essentially halved for only this map or across the board? Like, every other map as well?