Black Lion keys worth buying?

[Rauderi.8706]

More valuable than they used to be, but it's still mostly junk. And the "uncommon" items are certainly that! Probably a 10% chance (though other, luckier folks might say differently).

I fully expect keys to take a dive after lootboxes are required to publish actual odds.

[Zaraki.5784]

No.

/10chars

[Glider.5792]

Since the latest patch (LS4 Ep4), i opened 160 of those armored assault chests. It was in a sequences of 75-10-25-25-25. From the first 75 i got ONLY 3 "extra" slots. The next 70 keys had 0!! "extra" slots and from the final 15 (after my gf took over the mouse lel) i got 5 "extra" slots, and the final one was the mount skin (key num. 157 i think).

Prolly the worts opening i had since i started using keys regularly.

 

Conclusion ? You might get lucky, or you might end up like me. If you're aiming at one specific thing (like the new Raptor mount) it is probably better to buy it directly. Some people do get it in like, their first 5 keys, but some might end up needing over a hundred. If you're not aiming at a specific skin, its fine buying them, but if you are, then most likely not. Every skin eventualy now gets available with black lion statuettes so eventualy you may buy the "wanted" skin directly.

[Ardid.7203]

What I would like is to be able to sell more of the things we unlock through BLCs. I have now 2 mount skins I will never use and which other people would love to buy, and like 50 weapon skins in the same situation. I don't really care for the money, but it is sad seeing all those skins just wilting there.

[Gehenna.3625]

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

 

> I can't agree:

>

> P.S. Yes, I opened many, but 1 in 1,000 sounds a little extreme. ;)

 

I don't think it's extreme. If you got all that with say 100 keys then I think you've been extremely lucky more like. I hope you realise it's RNG and your experience therefore by itself simply can't be seen as representative unless many more people would have the same result. And well, if many more people would have such results, I'm sure you wouldn't be able to sell these items for the price of a legendary weapon.

 

Besides, when you add it all up you might be surprised how many keys you've used. People do have a tendency to downplay or simply forget how many such things they've bought and used.

 

[Grim West.3194]

Bought a stack of 25 a couple times and got some cool skins, pets, etc. It was fun opening them up.

 

Not sure they were worth it but I mainly bought the keys to reward ANET for a making a good game.

[phokus.8934]

> @"Ashantara.8731" said:

> @"EpicName.4523": It is always a risky business, as is the nature of gambling. But there are rarely "completely useless items" IMO. Then again, it depends on what you are looking for.

>

> > @"OutOfOrder.3719" said:

> > Super rare just doesn't ever happen. Maybe 1 in 1,000 keys would be that "lucky".

>

> I can't agree:

> 

> 

> 

>

> Also, one Wardrobe Unlock got me this:

> 

>

> P.S. Yes, I opened many, but 1 in 1,000 sounds a little extreme. ;)

 

Considering how few are on the trading post and your story is purely anecdotal, 1 in a 1000 seems a bit low.

[MithranArkanere.8957]

If you have cash to throw away and want something that can only be purchased with the statuettes, yes.

 

If you want something that can be obtained as a random drop from them, forget about it.

If the item is tradable, the cash would be better spent on exchanging the gems for gold, then buying whatever you want directly from the trading post.

If the item is not tradable, the chances are way too low and unreliable.

BL chests do not have some sort of 'weighting' system that lets you pick a possible item or item category to increase the chances a bit every time a key is used, so the chances of getting something are always the same, more keys won't increase the chances, it will only be more rolls with the same chances.

[IndigoSundown.5419]

> @"Lambent.6375" said:

>

> What do you think you should have got instead? They already have it set up so your're gauranteed to get a townsclothes outfit (if yiu want it)after 20 keys plus whatever else you get.

 

I'm glad you brought the town clothes outfit up, as the use of statuettes to get them illustrates the business nature of RNG box/key setups. As a guaranteed result, you need 20 Statuettes to get one. Were you to buy 20 keys, you would pay 1800 gems (best value of 4 x 5 keys for 450 each).

 

Sure, you might get lucky and get extra keys, getting the outfit sooner. However, you might not. I don't buy keys. However, using keys obtained via map completion, I've earned 2 of the town clothes outfits. I got extra keys once, so I used 37 keys. That would "drop" your cost, but you'd have that savings in extra keys, not the gems -- unless you bought the keys one at a time at the higher price.

 

Single outfits are priced at 700 gems. Being able to use Statuettes to obtain some items is a better system than was in use before they were added. However, it's still a consolation prize.

 

Now, I'm not knocking free keys. I am saying that chests/keys -- like all lock-boxes in any game -- are designed to get consumers to spend more on an item than the cost of that item would bear if it were sold straight up. The system is designed to get people to spend more money, whether those people: like the "thrill" of opening the box; have not thought the process through to see what they are likely to end up paying; or are victims of either the assumption behind the gambler's fallacy or the assumption in the sunk cost fallacy.

[Biff.5312]

Although you MIGHT luck out and get some great, valuable reward, the gold value of blc rewards is VERY consistently less than you'd get if you just converted gems to gold. Therefor the latter is a better option. You can buy a lot of the stuff you're hoping to have drop at less long-term cost. Only buy keys if you have money to blow and don't care about the fact that it's a huge waste.

[ScottBroChill.3254]

Not for gold purposes, no it isn't worth. You will most likely get nothing of any value, and I mean completely useless junk like revive orbs or repair canisters which I suppose can sometimes be convenient but they are more a waste of space than anything. But it is fun to open them every now and then. Usually just doing the story mode key farm every couple of months to see if I'm lucky. I've gotten skins and black lion tickets from them which are the most valuable things I've ever recieved. I might buy a set of 5 when the chest contents switch up because I am not a fan of any of the weapons that you can get in it right now.