It's Back!

[Halciet]

Just attempted my 3rd run of the Graveyard key grind and only 2 groups spawned in the second area. I hope that this is at least a rare occurrence this year.

[helpfulguy1234]

It's not bad getting keys from just questing. Did an epic reaper fens chain, the 3 quests in the 12 and an OOB and ended up with 11 keys just from those.

I pretty much just quest and get them. Don't forget unbound so can get on the AH too.

[Wizard1406]

Key farming is the most annoying part of Night Revels by far. The graveyard challenge is a bore and sometimes only drops 1 key. Glad to hear they drop pretty frequently from quest champs and chest too :-)

[Halciet]

It's not bad getting keys from just questing. Did an epic reaper fens chain, the 3 quests in the 12 and an OOB and ended up with 11 keys just from those.

I pretty much just quest and get them. Don't forget unbound so can get on the AH too.

It seems that since the Mabar champs and key drops are working similarly to Snowpeaks champs that might be the better avenue. However, this does not address the failed spawns in the quest, but avoids it.

Even with the problem happening twice in an hour, I was able to get 30 keys running the quest at 37. Certainly it is much better than the time where nearly 100% of runs did not have enough spawns to progress.

[Tyrande]

It's not bad getting keys from just questing. Did an epic reaper fens chain, the 3 quests in the 12 and an OOB and ended up with 11 keys just from those.

I pretty much just quest and get them. Don't forget unbound so can get on the AH too.

Forget AH. People are charging 50 shards for 10 keys (3 US Dollars!). By today's standards, that's insane even with inflation.

[Eantarus]

Just role 5 more accounts and place 6 characters at once. You'll get tons of keys.

[C-Dog]

Just role 5 more accounts and place 6 characters at once. You'll get tons of keys.

You sure about that?

Seems every year, it changes. One year (several years ago), this was indeed the way - multibox a party, multiply your keys.

Then a couple years ago it seemed(!) that the party would get a key - and it was random between party members (no diff in total keys/minute), which encouraged soloing (don't think this lasted long). Another year it also had a proximity limit - you had to be close to the kill that triggered the key/chocolate to get any reward.

I just ran a 6-box run, and got a total of 1 (one) key. Hardly "statistically significant", but rather than try it 99 more times (so it is), was wondering if there was any more input on this.

[Eantarus]

You sure about that?

Seems every year, it changes. One year (several years ago), this was indeed the way - multibox a party, multiply your keys.

Then a couple years ago it seemed(!) that the party would get a key - and it was random between party members (no diff in total keys/minute), which encouraged soloing (don't think this lasted long). Another year it also had a proximity limit - you had to be close to the kill that triggered the key/chocolate to get any reward.

I just ran a 6-box run, and got a total of 1 (one) key. Hardly "statistically significant", but rather than try it 99 more times (so it is), was wondering if there was any more input on this.

I was largely being factious. I don't actually bother running the event because the key farm is so soul-crushing.

[Tyrande]

I was largely being factious. I don't actually bother running the event because the key farm is so soul-crushing.

I got enough bits and this year its just cosmetics. Guess I should put my keys on-sale and make some shards, eh?

[Wizard1406]

I was largely being factious. I don't actually bother running the event because the key farm is so soul-crushing.

If you play quests, you get keys from chests and champ chest and eventually you'll have enough keys. Or wait until the last week, when keys will most likey be sold for reasonable prices on the plat AH (I wouldn't spend precious AS on them).

[helpfulguy1234]

If you play quests, you get keys from chests and champ chest and eventually you'll have enough keys. Or wait until the last week, when keys will most likey be sold for reasonable prices on the plat AH (I wouldn't spend precious AS on them).

Yeah, I know I always throw mine on the AH after I'm done. I get way more than I need. They usually sell like hotcakes the first week and then the prices drop sharply.

And if you do have alt accounts, don't forget to take them with you in the actual challenges, the ingreds are unbound. Just toss them some keys to get in. I have 5 alt small guild accounts and it's handy to take a bard bot for extra ingreds each run. Saves a lot of time. I can't speak for the key farm quest, but very helpful for the actual ingredient quests.

[JOTMON]

turn that chocolate ding [expletive] off.
The ding every time a party member gets chocolate or a key.. soo annoying... we don't need notification everytime a party member gets chocolate.....


I find that players either solo the Mabar graveyard or run within static groups that pass/share keys.. sucks for those newbies trying to PUG.
The only reason to run that Mabar quest is to farm keys, the red name end chest should be a guaranteed key.
beyond that, the random drop chance for keys killing off mobs is sucky but relatively fair, at least the Mabar keys are not bound.


Mabar quest champs are amped up for survival vs regular champs.. higher saves and warded.. takes more effort to take them out than it should.

[C-Dog]

The only reason to run that Mabar quest is to farm keys, the red name end chest should be a guaranteed key.

THIS.

This has been suggested every year since the change to this format, don't understand why this still not a thing. It's quite possible to get skunked in this quest - that's quite the negative reinforcement.

[rmi]

Keeping the actual fun event, which still is a grind, gated behind a very slow boring grind on which you can literally get 0 progress again and again is TRULY AWFUL game design.

Make players able to enjoy fun content. How difficult is that to understand.

There is no benefit for SSG to make people angry, frustrated and disappointed.

I'm getting less than 1 key on average. That's solo with 4 hirelings.

[C-Dog]

Update

I don't actually bother running the event because the key farm is so soul-crushing.

Was curious if my previous single run of the "Graveyard" (to farm keys) was "typical" - I think it was not.

Soloing it @ +5* CR above level, takes me about 7 minutes, getting an average of ~2-3 keys/run, sometimes +1 if the end chest drops a key (guessing same low % for that as any other chest during the fest**). So something better than ~ 1 key/3 minutes.

(* Based solely on that being the "sweet spot" for rewards quests. ZERO evidence that this is "optimal" for a key run here, but it seems to be working adequately.)

(** uncommon, but not "rare" - ~15-20%???)

I would not call that "soul crushing", unless you just hate repetition - which some do, understandably. Goes faster (literally and psychologically) with a group (but can't speak to whether key % is better).

[Halciet]

Keeping the actual fun event, which still is a grind, gated behind a very slow boring grind on which you can literally get 0 progress again and again is TRULY AWFUL game design.

It would be nice were the end chest to have a guaranteed single key drop so that no one is skunked in the quest specifically designed for people to get keys.

As of now the key grind has become exactly like Snowpeaks (optimize monster champs)