Drop rate of Freshwater Pearls is ridiculus.

[Odin.3752]

Common Anet. 32 gold for a Exotic Insignia. 257 gold for a full set of Minstrel's exotic gear is a bit ridiculus.

 

Went farming, farmed all maps for Mussels. 52 mussels 2 Pieces of Mother-of-Pearl. Not one Pearl. With 335% MF (Don't know if that effects drops) And a gathering banner.

 

I don't mind farming a bit but you need to see some result tho.

 

Or am i missing something here?

[Svarty.8019]

Maybe the droprate is _supposed_ to be zero?

[The Revenant.4970]

Their selling prices have dropped from 12g to 6g, I'd say the droprate is fine, especially with how many people purposely farm them. I got two drops in a row last week. The first ones I've gotten in probably 8 months or so. I don't farm every day, but at least a couple times a week, whenever I have to go into that map for a daily.

[Odin.3752]

So... if we say 1 every month, farming pretty hard, then it's just under 4 years to farm for a full exotic gear (you need 40). That is not a "fine" drop rate. Well, in my honest opinion at least.

 

*Edit

1 every week is just under a year then. Still not a fine drop rate.

 

[insanemaniac.2456]

park a few toons at the sirens landing jp chest. itll take a few weeks to get a few fresh pearls but its minimally invasive on your playtime.

[Lucas.2974]

I can relate. Making a full set of Trailblazer armor is just as ridiculous, along with Wanderer.

[Sazukikrah.5036]

yea i think the drop rate is fine, you just wanna be able to craft least expensive minstrels set :P , i dont think they should change it . It's fine as it is. It makes it feel like a real treasure when you get one! LIKE WOW YES AWESOME! A freshwater pearl! WOOO \o/

[Ashur.7648]

Just to be clear, we are talking about exotic gear here?

 

Going by what is described in the OP, getting ascended gear with those stats seems easier and cheaper.

[Zok.4956]

> @Odin.3752 said:

> Common Anet. 32 gold for a Exotic Insignia. 257 gold for a full set of Minstrel's exotic gear is a bit ridiculus.

>

> Went farming, farmed all maps for Mussels. 52 mussels 2 Pieces of Mother-of-Pearl. Not one Pearl. With 335% MF (Don't know if that effects drops) And a gathering banner.

>

> I don't mind farming a bit but you need to see some result tho.

>

> Or am i missing something here?

 

If you play WvW you can get exotic gear from the Triumphant armor reward track without extra cost.

You can select type, weight and the stats of the armor (Ministrels, Trailblazer etc are selectable).

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Triumphant_armor

 

 

[Odin.3752]

As i realy do appreciate advices and suggestions. The ridiculesnes still remains.

 

What I am talking about here is minstrels gear. You need 6 exotic insignias for armor and 2 inscriptions. To make one insignia or inscription you need 3 Perals (not 5 as stater earlier by me) that is still 19.5 gold to make one insignia. Or farming for 6 months. That is legendary farming rate not exotic insignia rate (not to be taken literally).

 

The end goal and what I'm personaly going for is Ascended but my point is that something exotic and arguably on a reasonable price costs so much.

 

I'm not raging or anything like that :P Just pointing out a, what i feel, is a bit off in the game.

 

I wouldn't mind having to buy pearls for karma. 1 per day for instance. Or change the recipe to one pearl and/or something you can buy from a karma merchant.

 

As i say, I'm not farming for a precursor, I'm farming for a exotic insignia. :)

[Machaeon.9754]

I've been in level 80 areas for 3 years, gathering essentially everything I come across as I go through the map, not necessarily deliberate farming but more 'gather it as I see it'.

Guess how many freshwater pearls I've come across in that time?

**Two.**

Is that reasonable? I can't make a single insignia yet!

And that includes recent farming: clearing every mussel in the world and opening tons of the chests and boxes you get in the PoF areas that the wiki lists as having a chance to drop them. (well over 80 buried treasure chests at one point... do you even know how annoying it is to get a significant number of those?)

 

 

I'd like to see at least _some_ result in my farming, I'm not asking to get the full set in a day... just y'know, maybe one pearl after clearing all the mussels in the world.

[Voltekka.2375]

> @"Odin.3752" said:

> As i realy do appreciate advices and suggestions. The ridiculesnes still remains.

>

> What I am talking about here is minstrels gear. You need 6 exotic insignias for armor and 2 inscriptions. To make one insignia or inscription you need 3 Perals (not 5 as stater earlier by me) that is still 19.5 gold to make one insignia. Or farming for 6 months. That is legendary farming rate not exotic insignia rate (not to be taken literally).

>

> The end goal and what I'm personaly going for is Ascended but my point is that something exotic and arguably on a reasonable price costs so much.

>

> I'm not raging or anything like that :P Just pointing out a, what i feel, is a bit off in the game.

>

> I wouldn't mind having to buy pearls for karma. 1 per day for instance. Or change the recipe to one pearl and/or something you can buy from a karma merchant.

>

> As i say, I'm not farming for a precursor, I'm farming for a exotic insignia. :)

 

Do VB farming with multiple chars , every hour. Problem solved. I used to farm 30+ daily, at some point. Unless you do not want to farm mussels hourly. In which case, exotic armor boxes from pvp/wvw are free to get at the end of triumphant/legacy/crystal desert reward tracks (crystal desert armors, however, cannot be salvaged)

[Brother.1504]

> @"insanemaniac.2456" said:

> park a few toons at the sirens landing jp chest. itll take a few weeks to get a few fresh pearls but its minimally invasive on your playtime.

 

This. Very easy daily farm.

[Kururu.8140]

It's pure luck and I honestly don't think there's anything wrong with the drop rate, you were just unlucky. In one quick daily farm (20-30 mins) I once dropped 2 pearls and 1 lily, but some times I drop only 1 of either and other times I drop absolutely nothing. Remember to also get the guild gathering buff as well as the banner as that will increase your chances.

[Deihnyx.6318]

There's quite a bit of ascended parts you can buy with tokens that will have the minstrel gear.

Fractals, Raids, WvW, PVP... although I'm not 100% sure fractal has it, there are still ways that are much faster/cheaper to get what you want.

 

If you do exclusively PvE (non fractal) and crafting, you chose the long and expensive path.

[Hyper Cutter.9376]

The freshwater pearl and maguuma lily need to be added to hero's choice chest like black diamonds were.

[Machaeon.9754]

With Fractals and Raids, it takes ascended to get ascended. It's a lot of work that goes into your first ascended set, and with that first one you can eventually get more ascended gear easier.

Trouble is, as a Chrono, in Commander/Berserker gear, you're relying on 1) good group composition and 2) very quick reflexes to avoid getting steamrolled the second you get into a situation that puts out a lot of damage. A Minstrel's set would solve that, and allow for more than just the 'buff bot' role in raids.

 

It shouldn't be this absurdly difficult to get an EXOTIC set of minstrel's armor. Given raids and fractals, yeah it IS easier to just get the ascended set... which I'm working towards. In the meantime though, isn't it reasonable to at least get SOME results for putting effort into trying to craft them? Other exotic sets don't have this issue, other ascended sets don't have this issue... at worst, it's just slightly more expensive to craft them directly instead of crafting the cheapest ascended and stat-swapping.

 

The only real "solution" is to just buy the pearls outright and with minstrel's it's an order of magnitude more expensive than any other set that's commonly used:

* 6x Berserker's Intricate Gossamer Insignia: 35g (8g for vials of blood alone; I have the option to farm this easily)

* 6x Viper's Intricate Gossamer Insignia: 33g (6g for black diamonds + leaf fossils; I have the option to farm this easily)

* 6x Insignia of the Harrier: 33g (9g for pulsing brandsparks + ley-infused sands; I have the option to farm this easily)

* 6x Magi's Intricate Gossamer Insignia: 2g (_Cannot be crafted!_)

* 6x Asassin's Intricate Gossamer Insignia: 32g (5g for vicious claws; I have the option to farm this easily)

* 6x Minstrel's Intricate Gossamer Insignia: **118g (92g for pearls alone; I do NOT have the option to farm this easily)**

 

That's at least three times the price of the arguably more useful and certainly more versatile Berserker's and Viper's sets.

I don't know about anyone else, but I like reducing costs where possible... and with the drop rates where they are, I simply CAN'T reduce costs. Fractals and Raids do give the opportunity to outright buy ascended gear, and that cost is inflexible... whether I have the resources on hand to make a set to stat-swap or not, I'll be shilling out somewhere between 14 and 47 gold on top of other time-restricted currencies that need to be acquired.

That's an option that exists, that's where much of the effort is being put in, I'd just like to have y'know... some choice in being able to reasonably craft the set myself.

[Bloodstealer.5978]

The rate is low but on par with other items like Maguma Lillies.. flax on the other hand goes the other way.. able to farm loads but need so many to make a single linseed means you gotta farm flax continually for oiled stuff, guild hall etc. They are easy to farm but time consuming... but isn't that the intended purpose - to keep us playing longer in the hope we get fed up, buy gems and convert to gold to buy off TP :)

[Obtena.7952]

I don't get this complaint .. just because you want something doesn't mean it can't be worth lots or has to drop frequently.

[ZNICK.8537]

They drop from the auction house 100% of the time. :P

[Malediktus.9250]

Trading post is your friend. Farming stuff yourself is a waste of time.

Also 250g for a full set of equipment is not much, buying 25 black lion keys with gold to gems is over 600g and usually give you much less value lol

 

But you would be better off getting ascended (any cheap stats) and then using those insignias to change the stats.

[Zin Dau.1749]

crafting HoT (exotic) gear is for suckers. sell the pearls and flax, and save up for ascended.

[Machaeon.9754]

> @"Bloodstealer.5978" said:

> The rate is low but on par with other items like Maguma Lillies.. flax on the other hand goes the other way.. able to farm loads but need so many to make a single linseed means you gotta farm flax continually for oiled stuff, guild hall etc. They are easy to farm but time consuming... but isn't that the intended purpose - to keep us playing longer in the hope we get fed up, buy gems and convert to gold to buy off TP :)

 

Fun fact though: I've gotten results with flax. I've gotten results with Maguma Lillies. (Repeating the Caladbolg quest on every character for ascended weapons anyone?)

Freshwater Pearls, not so much.

> @"Malediktus.9250" said:

> Trading post is your friend. Farming stuff yourself is a waste of time.

> But you would be better off getting ascended (any cheap stats) and then using those insignias to change the stats.

 

It is a waste now yeah which is why I said I am putting effort into buying the ascended via raids/fractals. And in the time where I'm not doing that (I do like variety) I'm farming resources... just in general. The fact that I'm clearing all the mussels and getting nothing but mussels is the issue. If it reduces by 1 insignia the number of ascended pieces I have to buy, that'd be nice because I can craft and stat-swap as I've done for the ascended set I already have.

 

The stat swapping is still an issue though because to get the insignias I still have to deal with the pearl problem. My point with the exotic was that it's _exotic_, it shouldn't be so much more difficult than other exotics to get. It shouldn't be more difficult to get the exotic insignias for stat-swapping ascended either.

 

I've made more progress getting **legendaries** than crafting one exotic minstrel's insignia.

 

[Voltekka.2375]

> @"Machaeon.9754" said:

> With Fractals and Raids, it takes ascended to get ascended. It's a lot of work that goes into your first ascended set, and with that first one you can eventually get more ascended gear easier.

> Trouble is, as a Chrono, in Commander/Berserker gear, you're relying on 1) good group composition and 2) very quick reflexes to avoid getting steamrolled the second you get into a situation that puts out a lot of damage. A Minstrel's set would solve that, and allow for more than just the 'buff bot' role in raids.

>

> It shouldn't be this absurdly difficult to get an EXOTIC set of minstrel's armor. Given raids and fractals, yeah it IS easier to just get the ascended set... which I'm working towards. In the meantime though, isn't it reasonable to at least get SOME results for putting effort into trying to craft them? Other exotic sets don't have this issue, other ascended sets don't have this issue... at worst, it's just slightly more expensive to craft them directly instead of crafting the cheapest ascended and stat-swapping.

>

> The only real "solution" is to just buy the pearls outright and with minstrel's it's an order of magnitude more expensive than any other set that's commonly used:

> * 6x Berserker's Intricate Gossamer Insignia: 35g (8g for vials of blood alone; I have the option to farm this easily)

> * 6x Viper's Intricate Gossamer Insignia: 33g (6g for black diamonds + leaf fossils; I have the option to farm this easily)

> * 6x Insignia of the Harrier: 33g (9g for pulsing brandsparks + ley-infused sands; I have the option to farm this easily)

> * 6x Magi's Intricate Gossamer Insignia: 2g (_Cannot be crafted!_)

> * 6x Asassin's Intricate Gossamer Insignia: 32g (5g for vicious claws; I have the option to farm this easily)

> * 6x Minstrel's Intricate Gossamer Insignia: **118g (92g for pearls alone; I do NOT have the option to farm this easily)**

>

> That's at least three times the price of the arguably more useful and certainly more versatile Berserker's and Viper's sets.

> I don't know about anyone else, but I like reducing costs where possible... and with the drop rates where they are, I simply CAN'T reduce costs. Fractals and Raids do give the opportunity to outright buy ascended gear, and that cost is inflexible... whether I have the resources on hand to make a set to stat-swap or not, I'll be shilling out somewhere between 14 and 47 gold on top of other time-restricted currencies that need to be acquired.

> That's an option that exists, that's where much of the effort is being put in, I'd just like to have y'know... some choice in being able to reasonably craft the set myself.

 

Dunno about you, but I farmed pearls rather easily. 30/day. And a lot of others, as well. VB is your friend. Get guild gathering buff, hero/gather banner buff, item booster (multiple strikes +33%), tool upgrade, multiple chars. Farm VB every hour. You should get the pearls in no time.

[thehipone.6812]

> @"Machaeon.9754" said:

> The only real "solution" is to just buy the pearls outright and with minstrel's it's an order of magnitude more expensive than any other set that's commonly used:

> * 6x Berserker's Intricate Gossamer Insignia: 35g (8g for vials of blood alone; I have the option to farm this easily)

> * 6x Viper's Intricate Gossamer Insignia: 33g (6g for black diamonds + leaf fossils; I have the option to farm this easily)

> * 6x Insignia of the Harrier: 33g (9g for pulsing brandsparks + ley-infused sands; I have the option to farm this easily)

> * 6x Magi's Intricate Gossamer Insignia: 2g (_Cannot be crafted!_)

> * 6x Asassin's Intricate Gossamer Insignia: 32g (5g for vicious claws; I have the option to farm this easily)

> * 6x Minstrel's Intricate Gossamer Insignia: **118g (92g for pearls alone; I do NOT have the option to farm this easily)**

>

> That's at least three times the price of the arguably more useful and certainly more versatile Berserker's and Viper's sets.

> I don't know about anyone else, but I like reducing costs where possible... and with the drop rates where they are, I simply CAN'T reduce costs. Fractals and Raids do give the opportunity to outright buy ascended gear, and that cost is inflexible... whether I have the resources on hand to make a set to stat-swap or not, I'll be shilling out somewhere between 14 and 47 gold on top of other time-restricted currencies that need to be acquired..

 

I've been doing a lot of mob drop rate testing and here's a fun observation -

The base % chance to get a powerful blood from a lvl 80 Owl Griffon appears to be approximately 1.25%, or roughly equal to the chance to get a Freshwater Pearl or Maguuma Lily with a gathering buff. Even adding 500%MF only pushes the chance for powerful blood from a griffon up to an apparent 1.8-2%.

 

 

> @"Malediktus.9250" said:

> Trading post is your friend. Farming stuff yourself is a waste of time.

 

Or another way to look at it, assuming a 1.2% chance to get a pearl and a 5-6 gold TP price, each mussel node is worth 6-7silver in pearls alone. Hitting the mussel-rich spots in Verdant Brink of Bloodstone Fen provides competitive gold/hour, especially if you have the glyph of bounty.

 

They also drop from PoF chests and a few other places. Pearls really are not as rare/hard to acquire as people think.