Greetings Traveler!
Welcome again to my little corner of the internet. Today I am going to talk a little bit about keys. Black Lion Keys to be precise. MMOs have always been inundated with random number generators (RNGs), from the damage you deal or are dealt when striking an opponent; to whether you actually hit the opponent at all; to how much and what kind of loot drops when they die. I suppose this is a reflection of the RNG inherent in tabletop games that use dice. But modern MMOs have harnessed that excitement of loot drops in a way that doesn't even require killing digital sprites: The Loot Box! Guild Wars 2 is no exception to this, having the Black Lion Chest, which drops as loot or rewards.
Welcome again to my little corner of the internet. Today I am going to talk a little bit about keys. Black Lion Keys to be precise. MMOs have always been inundated with random number generators (RNGs), from the damage you deal or are dealt when striking an opponent; to whether you actually hit the opponent at all; to how much and what kind of loot drops when they die. I suppose this is a reflection of the RNG inherent in tabletop games that use dice. But modern MMOs have harnessed that excitement of loot drops in a way that doesn't even require killing digital sprites: The Loot Box! Guild Wars 2 is no exception to this, having the Black Lion Chest, which drops as loot or rewards.
Of course, you can't just open loot boxes, they often have some sort of key. GW2 offers them through the gem store. An individual key is approximately $1.56, but you can get them for as low as $1.05 if you buy 25 (which would cost you $26.25 in gems). I am by no means discouraging the purchase of these keys; however, I have never bought one, myself. On the other hand, I do like occasion getting a key and using it to open one of my stack, currently about 150 chests. So how do I obtain these keys? Through Key Farming. You can obtain these keys several ways in game, some more efficient than others. That link back there has several strategies, but the one I have been using is to create a new character approximately once a week. Scooter has been really busy, so I spend time finding things to do in game to entertain myself without leaving her behind in a significant way. For example, the 4th(?) episode of the Living World Season 1 has been on a backburner for at least a month. But hopefully we'll get to it soon.
There are super efficient speed runs (see again, the GW2 Wiki page linked above), but I am basically going over choices for the personal story that I haven't seen or have forgotten. Most of these characters are just quick starts that I do very little to customize at the beginning. Which brings me to a couple recent characters I spent a little extra time on.
There are super efficient speed runs (see again, the GW2 Wiki page linked above), but I am basically going over choices for the personal story that I haven't seen or have forgotten. Most of these characters are just quick starts that I do very little to customize at the beginning. Which brings me to a couple recent characters I spent a little extra time on.
The first one is Benji, which I based on a RL friend and colleague. He's a ranger; a bit short with a prodigious beard; of the common folk. He always wanted to join the circus (one of the human story options), and finally gets his chance. The drake, he named Chompers.
I had Benji about a week, then retired him in Lion's Arch. I leveled him using Tomes of Knowledge to 40, equipped him, then played through the beginning of the level 40 story. You get akey at the conclusion of the level 10 story chapter. Then, you get a second key right after the Destiny's Edge reunion at level 40.
The Gwen Stacy look-alike at the top is Valeria Solkysten, my current "one-shot." A noble, this Hero of Shaemoor lost her sister when the sister's seraph (Kryta's army) unit was attacked by a centaur raid. I'm still in the middle of this one. Valeria is my fourth or fifth BLK toon just this autumn. I had been running around Cantha getting the elite specialization on all my regular characters. I'm honestly not sure how many keys I've gotten over all. Up till now, I haven't very systematic in my approach to seeing the various iterations of the personal story.
I had Benji about a week, then retired him in Lion's Arch. I leveled him using Tomes of Knowledge to 40, equipped him, then played through the beginning of the level 40 story. You get akey at the conclusion of the level 10 story chapter. Then, you get a second key right after the Destiny's Edge reunion at level 40.
The Gwen Stacy look-alike at the top is Valeria Solkysten, my current "one-shot." A noble, this Hero of Shaemoor lost her sister when the sister's seraph (Kryta's army) unit was attacked by a centaur raid. I'm still in the middle of this one. Valeria is my fourth or fifth BLK toon just this autumn. I had been running around Cantha getting the elite specialization on all my regular characters. I'm honestly not sure how many keys I've gotten over all. Up till now, I haven't very systematic in my approach to seeing the various iterations of the personal story.
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Scooter proofreads almost all my articles before I post them, for which I am very grateful. However, any mistakes are mine and mine alone (unless otherwise noted). If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after publication. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.
Scooter proofreads almost all my articles before I post them, for which I am very grateful. However, any mistakes are mine and mine alone (unless otherwise noted). If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after publication. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.
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