Precursor drops without books / volumes ?

[Andreakos.5934]

Hello, pretty sure this looks like a weird question, but is it possible to drop a precursor without owning the books / volumes from this vendor ?

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Grandmaster_Craftsman_Hobbs

 

[Haleydawn.3764]

Only the first generation precursors can drop. No pre-requisites necessary to make them drop or boost their rates of dropping.

It's a low chance. Has been like that since the game released and hasn't changed.

Gen1 droprates and how to craft them are totally unrelated.

[Loosmaster.8263]

I've had one in almost 6 years of playing every day and a guild mate with the same time has had five. Go figure...

[CptAurellian.9537]

Welcome to RNGsus's world. By the way, so far I've had exactly 0 precursor drops since release ;)

[Steve The Cynic.3217]

I cranked through finishing Rodgort (Gen 1 Torch) the hard way, and got Howl (for the warhorn Howler) as a drop. I created my first character in the first minutes of Head Start, when the servers were open before they were officially supposed to be open, but I've still only had one drop. I have an aversion to WvW which is why I haven't actually finished Howler yet.

[Zushada.6108]

@"Andreakos.5934"

The books you linked, are only needed if you are going to start the crafting journey to actually craft a precursor and then legendary. There are 3 stages of adventure and crafting a legendary. 2 stages result in your crafting a "broken" version of the precursor crafted; with the third stage the actual precursor is crafted which is then used to craft the legendary. Should a Gen 1 precursor drop in Open World, you skip the first 2 steps of crafting and you can go directly to the legendary crafting.

 

So, for example my hubs had The Chosen drop and I crafted it to Legendary:

* Gen 1 Precursor drops - go to this stage of crafting for the respective weapon: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Flameseeker_Prophecies

 

However, I really wanted to craft the Juggernaut and I didn't have the precursor:

* No Precursor or a Gen 2 - go to Hobbs and start here: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Juggernaut_I:_The_Experimental_Hammer

 

[altermaven.7385]

That is correct. Any first generation precursor has a very rare chance to drop from mobs, event loot chests (the monstrous/dragon chests, etc) and the Mystic Forge. This is the only way you can begin your path to obtaining a Legendary without investing in the track (which also applies to F2P players -- as precursor drops are the ONLY way).