Apologies if this comes across as a double post. I posted something similar hours ago but my post seems to have disappeared into the ether.

I know how loot worked in the beta (first come, first served - with a long time between respawns). Not good. I've heard various rumors about how it could/might/should/will work upon release. Can someone close to the PTS beta (or release notes) clarify?

My own strong preference would be for loot to work similarly (or better still, identically) to GW2. Everyone can access all loot in chests/containers, irrespective of when they got there. Some have suggested other, more complex, mechanisms (like sharing loot between group members, allowing people the opportunity to roll for loot etc.), but I really do think simpler is better. Fighting over loot in PvE simply degrades the overall experience - and reduces the incentive to cooperate, which is at the crux of PvE.

So, does anyone know for sure how it will work once the game launches? Pls tell me that I don't need to brush up on my speedy lockpicking skills to avoid losing out.

I agree with you, but I have not heard of any changes to chest/resource loot. Mob loot is of course instanced to each player.

I agree loot should be instanced, however I do not want resource nodes instanced like GW2.

when you say loot, do you mean locked chest loot? because loot from monster kills is all personal anyway. loot from chests at this stage just goes to the person who opens the chest, to make it instanced would mean that they would have to drastically reduce the number of chests, or reduce the quality of loot found in them. I think it's probably fair to just remove all locked chests from dungeons, and leave them scattered about in the open world where first come first serve is no problem.

Yes, I meant loot from chests. Fine to keep them locked in the open world, but why first come, first served with a LOOOOOONG respawn? Make it instantly respawn. And eliminate the locking mechanisms in dungeons to avoid queues - and being slaughtered by respawning enemies (if that even happens).

In terms of loot on corpses I thought it was always attributed to who actually killed him, but chests yeah I noticed it was first come, hopefully that changes. As for the enemies quickly respawning that got annoying fast, a few times I forgot and went to level up or change my quest focus and the two enemies I just killed respawned and started attacking me again.

well no... what i was saying is they should just remove the chests from dungeons so no one argues about them. The first come first serve is for the open world where they spawn randomly around the world, I like them personally, depending on how populated the area is you might find a few or not very many at all and the loot is always somewhat rewarding. The lockpicking is great and I love that it gets harder and harder as the chest difficulty goes up.

Well, maybe my poor lock picking skills are to blame but I found it annoying that I'd find a chest, break a lockpick and before I had a chance to regroup someone else would ninja in and take the loot. Just make the loot accessible to all who find the chest. Let's not compete in PvE!

Speaking of loot maybe someone can help this MMO "newbie" but at the character creation stage you have the choice of no gear, novice gear and veteran gear... what is the point of that? Just to see what your character looks like in those types of clothes or is it some difficulty setting or? I stupidly looked all over Cold Harbour for the "veteran gear" and realized it might just be a "Hey this is what you look like" thing. Anyway, again what is the point of that option? Feel free to call me a moron for asking.

i hope they fix mudcrabs loot drops, like how do you get leather from a crab shell? and no crab meat?

or killing a sheep and it dosnt give you wool

or killing 5 deers and only 1 gives you meat?

Because you can get very good loot from them(I've gotten blues from them). If they were not first come first server with a long respawn, there'd simply be a much quicker flooding of the market. By making it the way they are they descrease the speed at which the market will fill up.

yeh it's just so you can see the look of it, and get the feel for what armor for you race / class combo might look like at max level

the crab comment is sort of fair. but i cant think of a reason why KILLING a sheep would get you wool, and also welcome to video games, where you don't always get something for killing something, it's called a loot table, and it exists in basically every online game and generally also although slightly differently in single player games

stupied loot table

Thanks.

@Nothv13: they could simply randomize loot in chests. Problem solved and keep everyone happy. Or keep as is, and isolate/upset a good chunk of the player base.

I probably spent a few hours last weekend exploring coastlines and finding chests. I don't think the respawn times are that long. I even had one chest immediately respawn after I looted it.

Not only did I get pretty skilled at opening chests (advanced and one master) I thoroughly enjoyed the scenery. Also, I found one chest along the coast of glenumbra that was rated "impossible". Anyone know anything about that?

The chests were ridiculous. I was unlocking a chest and a monster respawned behind me, I turned to kill it and the chest was stolen by some *bleep* who obviously knew I was doing the chest. This happened several times, so many that I just stopped doing chests completely.

Loot in chests can work as today outside of group dungeons. Having first come first chests in the world is fun, having them in grouped dungeons or other obvious group play generate grief.

Yes looting chests during combat is an very obvious kick+ ignore reason.

WOW was more fun, killing spiders and 1 in 4 dropped legs

Yes it was mostly an outland issue with their outdated quests or optionally that the lead designer for quests was an very hard core masochist.

I found myself wondering where wolves and other critters were storing the armor/weapons they occasionally dropped... but was grateful they did.