Key Drop Factors

[RumbIe]

I'm just curious what the factors are that determine a key drop. I assume it is % chance on kill, plus some randomness on who in the group gets it I'm sure. This isn't a complaint thread, or maybe just a slightly veiled one, but more curiosity.

So I was in a group and ran for an hour and pulled 3 keys. Level 26-28, full group and all banging out mobs. I figure 3 an hour is meh. Then I run two of the quests. Great exp, but kind of meh again since they are dungeon replicas with undead.

Then I join another group to farm keys since basically like them or not the night quests are needed for the loot. I'm in a group of 6 people for about 30 minutes. No key drops for me. One guy in the group meanwhile pulls 6 in this time. All others get at least 3. Me again? Zero. I'm killing mobs btw, not piking. Then we grow to 12. I run another 45 more minutes and still no key drops for me. One guy who went AFK for 20 to eat (we all gave our blessing because no big deal) got 3 during this time.

So bad luck right? OK I get it. But what are the determining factors here? What programming is in place to determine who gets what and when? I really want to know. Like if I'm in a rut should I drop the group and rejoin to reset my chances? Should I leave the instance and come back in? Is there anything that I can control in even the slightest way to alter my drop rate?

[moomooprincess]

There are a few threads on here. Earlier I thought it was 10 chocolates when I had a smaller dataset, Now......

I posted this in a couple, why not one more....

I earned 641 chocolates and earned 40 keys. No idea how many undead were slain. No idea on how much time I spent or did not spend.

I will go with that.

Every 15.5 chocolates I earn, I should have a key.

[Faltout]

From what I understand:

- Each monster that dies has a chance to generate a "drop". That chance can be calculated by killing monsters solo and exclusively (noone nearby to damage the monster)
- Each "drop" has a chance to go to the "players" that did damage according to the percentage of damage those players did. So, if player 1 from party A does 20%, player 2 from party A does 30% and player 3 from party B does 50%, player 1 has 20% chance of taking the drop, player 2 has 30%, player 3 has 50%.
- When a "player" gets a "drop", the "drop" goes to the "party" the "player" belongs. So, in the previous example, party A has 50% chance to get the drop and party B has 50% chance to get the drop.
- When a "drop" goes to a party, its nature is determined. Is it chocolate or key? The chance to be a chocolate or a key can be calculated by seeing the ratio of chocolates and keys in your inventory. I'd guess it's less than 10% for a key and more than 90% for a chocolate.
- Then the "drop" is randomly distributed to a party member.

I don't know how draught works so there could be something extra in there. But that's how it's supposed to work. Basically, increasing the spawns while decreasing the kill time is good. Whether you achieve that by leeching off large groups (killing large groups of mobs by yourself) or by making a large group and making sure everyone contributes and noone is kill-stealing is up to you.

Edit: Cordovan's answer nullifies all of this. Turns out the devs have gone for a much more complicated distribution.

[Robai]

Tips for Keys farming:

1) Make sure that no low lvl players are near you, they spawn lower CR mobs, from which you'll get nothing (I thought Devs fixed that long time ago, but when a guildmate brought his lvl 20 toon to lvl 26-30 area I saw CR22 mobs, which almost never gave me any matts when I killed them with my lvl 28 toon)
2) The more people are in one place the more mobs spawn (it really helps since often those other players are afk, but still help generating more mobs and you have more fun to kill large groups of mobs at once)
3) The one that kills has a bit higher chance to get the matts (my RL friend had parked her toon and was afk 99% of time, while I was killing and she got about 10 keys, while I got about 20 keys during that time)
4) The one that engages mobs first also has a bit higher chance to get the matts (that's how I steal matts from other groups )

[Faltout]

3) The one that kills has a bit higher chance to get the matts (my RL friend had parked her toon and was afk 99% of time, while I was killing and she got about 10 keys, while I got about 20 keys during that time)

And what about chocolate? Did your friend also get less chocolate than you? Because 10 versus 20 is not a large enough data source.

4) The one that engages mobs first also has a bit higher chance to get the matts (that's how I steal matts from other groups )

How do you know that?

[Robai]

And what about chocolate? Did your friend also get less chocolate than you? Because 10 versus 20 is not a large enough data source.

Notice that I didn't say TWICE. I've said a bit higher chance.
I didn't ask about chocolates since that doesn't really bother me. A guildmate who did a test with 3 accs confirmed this theory (at least for keys).

How do you know that?

This is from my experience, it worked in CC willderness too, and in the old mabar.
This is hard to prove, but with my lvl 15 Morninglord in mabar event last year this method was very effective, I just used Holy Smite SLA on group of mobs and then moved to other group, I barely got any kills, but got lots of matts that way.

[Faltout]

bumping this thread for new info.

I did the first test I listed (killing alone) and the drop ratio is 25%. Killed 129 monsters and got 31 drops (all chocolate btw). 31/129 = 24%.

[Cordovan]

When a graveyard monster is killed, there are a couple of different percentage rolls made, and based on the outcome of those rolls, the Darkest Chocolate or Night Revels Key is distributed. Among the things that make you eligible for receiving an award is being the person who hit the monster first, being the one who killed it, being on the monsters hate list, or being in a party with someone who did one of those things. Additionally, it makes ineligible characters who are massively over the level of the monster. It is possible to get both a Darkest Chocolate and Night Revels Key when killing a mob. The things that make you eligible are not all weighed equally.

[Seikojin]

When a graveyard monster is killed, there are a couple of different percentage rolls made, and based on the outcome of those rolls, the Darkest Chocolate or Night Revels Key is distributed. Among the things that make you eligible for receiving an award is being the person who hit the monster first, being the one who killed it, being on the monsters hate list, or being in a party with someone who did one of those things. Additionally, it makes ineligible characters who are massively over the level of the monster. It is possible to get both a Darkest Chocolate and Night Revels Key when killing a mob. The things that make you eligible are not all weighed equally.

I think the hate list should trump all others in terms of weight. This would encourage group efforts instead of run and gun tactics.

[moomooprincess]

I timed myself this time as I only had one hour.

One Hour of Graveyard Slaying = 16 keys

Chocolate is unknown.

[Dragavon]

When a graveyard monster is killed, there are a couple of different percentage rolls made, and based on the outcome of those rolls, the Darkest Chocolate or Night Revels Key is distributed. Among the things that make you eligible for receiving an award is being the person who hit the monster first, being the one who killed it, being on the monsters hate list, or being in a party with someone who did one of those things. Additionally, it makes ineligible characters who are massively over the level of the monster. It is possible to get both a Darkest Chocolate and Night Revels Key when killing a mob. The things that make you eligible are not all weighed equally.

The key droprate is still not high enough. We ran a raid group with guildies with 8 in group. One of us had 3 keys after 45 minutes. he logged off to do something else than waste his time on the event.......

[Livmo]

Perhaps it was low level peeps in the highest CR.

I only got 3 in an hour.

Would soloing on a toon in a less populated CR get a better return on keys?

If I did this, then I would be the only one hitting and killing in the approriate CR if i stay away from other players?

I did the highest CR in group and my key drop rate sucked.

[dunklezhan]

I'm not going to get chance to play this till Friday earliest I think. But if I can get 16 keys an hour I will be a very happy casual bunny after my "2 key per 3 hour" experience in the preview (that is, 1 key over 1.5hrs at which point I gave up. So I'm extrapolating just to get to 2 keys!).

[MarDeRoam]

I heard about groups not getting much keys distributed so i ran solo for about 2 hours today.
Level 21 druid in instance F (20-25) in a corner where i was alone most of the time.
Ended up with 14 keys.

As Cordovan said, if a mob get's killed the possible drop will go to the group, 1 drop for 2-12 players.
If a solo player kills, he is the only player available to receive the drop. 100% chance over 50%-8% for group players.

Just my observation and i'm sticking to it :-)

[moomooprincess]

I am using a level 16 ranger in the level 12 to 17.

I am the only one in my area, I run around the area of And the Dead Shall Rise.

[Isolani]

The key droprate is still not high enough. We ran a raid group with guildies with 8 in group. One of us had 3 keys after 45 minutes. he logged off to do something else than waste his time on the event.......

Something may be wrong with group drops then. Soloing, the key drops seem significantly better than they were during last weeks preview. During preview I was only finding 7-8 keys an hour solo, only did it for 2 hours, so not a big sample size there, but today I got 11 keys in 40 minutes solo before I had to go to work. So either I got a lot more lucky today, or keys drop a bit more than during preview. Group key drops just sound bad if people are getting 3 in 45 minutes.

[Qaliya]

The same thing happened with the old Mabar. It was always better to be solo than in a group if you were active. Most groups contain people who mostly stand around and they get some of your drops in a group.

My first hour test, level 20 druid in the 20-25 zone: 16 keys, 138 chocolates. That's probably a lucky hour though.

[Seikojin]

In the short time I ran around so far, I got 3 or 4 keys and some chocolates. We were camping a zone to have increasing mob pack spawns. Which happens nicely.

[moomooprincess]

Busier at night. Two instances of 12-17.

More people in my area. So, I moved. Then, the same people came to the area that I moved to. So, I went back to my normal area. They did not follow me there, but a new person joined in the area.

1.5 hours
212 Chocolates
27 keys

Total
2.5 hours
Unknown chocolates since the first hour I did not write what I had started with
43 Keys

I do know that from Friday, the key rate was better today, when I compare chocolates received to keys received ratio. Friday my totals were about 15.5 chocolates per key. I did not keep track of the time spent.
Friday 15.5 chocolates per key(unknown time frame)
Wednesday 8 chocolates per key(I am using the 1.5 hour time frame)

[EllisDee37]

No complaints on the key drop rate for me. It's not great, but it's also not terrible. Pretty close to just right.

I brought out my challenge farmer (16) with my level 15 dual-box opener, who I just parked while the challenge farmer did the heavy lifting. During my roughly 1.5 to 2 hour farming session people gradually joined my group until by the end it was full. Shortly after the sixth person joined we all (levels 14-16) ran a circuit of 21s for max bonus. It was pretty fun.

The 1.5 to 2 hours farming netted my super-active killing machine monk 12 keys, and my literally piking never moved dual-box opener got 9 keys. heh. But who cares; keys are unbound. That means I got 21!

Actually, it really means I got 10. I'm running both accounts through the challenges so I can make my augments twice as fast. BTA ingredients, but they create unbound augments. Two for the price of one.