Question about Black Lion Chest

[Biff.5312]

I was going to use a key today but noticed that the first slot is still filled by a Wintersday box. When does that change? I don't want any of the Wintersday stuff.

[Ardenwolfe.8590]

It won't change until the next update patch. When that's coming, we don't know as of yet.

[Biff.5312]

Thanks. I guess I'll hang on to my bundle of keys.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

I'd guess the next change will be with the advent of Lunar New Year.

[costepj.5120]

I was doing story and map completion on one of my alts over the holiday, so got a bunch of keys. I'm sure the contents of that first slot were on average the most valuable of the three.

[Biff.5312]

> @"costepj.5120" said:

> I was doing story and map completion on one of my alts over the holiday, so got a bunch of keys. I'm sure the contents of that first slot were on average the most valuable of the three.

 

Yes because there's a lot of 'junk' items priced for a gold or more. But you also get a lot of snowflakes/candycanes etc. that are no longer useful, and I don't want the wintersday skins, so I'd rather wait and free up that third slot.

[Danikat.8537]

Just so you know that 3rd slot will never be free. There's always an item you're guaranteed to get, it's just what that is which changes.

 

Originally it was a booster. This wasn't as clearly explained in the UI: it was displayed as if it was a normal slot but you were guaranteed to always get at least 1 booster per chest. Since they re-worked the chests there has always been a guaranteed item of some description. Sometimes it's a bundle of items you can use or sell like this (if I remember right some were literally bags of crafting materials) and sometimes items with a specific purpose like the mini green raptors which could be combined to make loads of other colours.

 

But there's never been chests which just give 3 random items from the drop table, and there probably won't be any time soon.

[smsarasin.3468]

I think the only time you can get 3 random drops is when you happen to have a gold key. Then you technically get 4 slots. One of the guaranteed, and then a bonus extra slot (for a total of 4 slots). I think you can get a gold key from some of your story missions (like the level 10 key), or extremely rare drops.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

Actually, even before Boosters, there were Mystery Tonics as the guaranteed item (they just weren't labeled as 'guaranteed item' back then).

Also, the Golden Black Lion Key is only acquired through the Black Lion Chest or the Black Lion Key Set (which is part of a couple of bundles sold in the Gem Store). You can't get them from the L10 Story or drops.

[Ayrilana.1396]

You’ll get more gold from that slot if you wait for the Lunar New Year Festival.

[Inculpatus cedo.9234]

> @"Blude.6812" said:

> > @"Biff.5312" said:

> > I was going to use a key today but noticed that the first slot is still filled by a Wintersday box. When does that change? I don't want any of the Wintersday stuff.

> Yep that is the BS anet introduced to give you less.

>

>

 

You preferred the 'guaranteed' Mystery Tonics? Even the 'guaranteed' Boosters received much dissatisfaction on the forums. I much prefer the rotating 'guaranteed' items we have now.

 

Of course, each to their own.

[Danikat.8537]

> @"Inculpatus cedo.9234" said:

> > @"Blude.6812" said:

> > > @"Biff.5312" said:

> > > I was going to use a key today but noticed that the first slot is still filled by a Wintersday box. When does that change? I don't want any of the Wintersday stuff.

> > Yep that is the BS anet introduced to give you less.

> >

> >

>

> You preferred the 'guaranteed' Mystery Tonics? Even the 'guaranteed' Boosters received much dissatisfaction on the forums. I much prefer the rotating 'guaranteed' items we have now.

>

> Of course, each to their own.

 

Agreed.

 

I suspect most people would like to scrap the guaranteed item. But then I suspect most people would like to scrap almost the entire first tier of items (with a few exceptions, which will be different for each person) and maybe make it so every chest guarantees you 1 higher tier item. Or scrap the RNG all together and let us choose an item (at least until the most valuable ones crash in price and there's no longer any hope of getting rich from chests, because the only thing keeping them valuable is the rarity).

 

But none of that is likely to happen. Black Lion Chests are gambling and as such the desirable items need to be padded out with a variety of more common but less desirable items so most chests won't give anything "good" and people will want to try again for the desirable items. Bearing that in mind I'd much rather they rotate the guaranteed trash drop periodically so if the chest is offering something you really don't want you just have to wait for a better option, and people who open them regularly don't get sick of always getting the same thing.

 

IMO the mini raptors were a really good idea - at their cheapest green raptors were worth about 1g each so you were guaranteed that reward from every chest even if you didn't want the raptor. And I found it fun working my way through the combinations to make the full set. (I didn't open any chests to get them, I just bought them from the TP, providing that 1g to other people.)

 

But you can't do things like that too often or it gets boring and/or overwhelming. I couldn't afford to buy all those raptors every couple of months and I doubt other mini collectors could either, and 'normal' players aren't going to want every set, so if you do something like that too often the novelty is gone, people stop buying them and they stop being valuable. The 1-5g junk items are a good alternative to add value to chests IMO because NPC merchants are never going to tell us they have too much stuff. But it's not nearly as interesting.