Just finished hours of champ hunting all over Tyria with GAF. Some of the most fun I've had in game honestly. I have a whole lot to say about this patch (and honestly haven't even seen half of what it has yet) but for now I just wanted to share some preliminary info we've pieced together with regard to champion loot drops and the the things we might uncover.
I will say though, like the Feb. patch before it, ArenaNet has once again quietly changed the available pool of in-game activities for the better by introducing a new set of guaranteed extrinsic rewards. Just hopping all over hunting for new champion types, I made about 3g literally from just the silver- not selling a single mat or anything but a handful of blues whenever there was a merchant handy. But the real reward was a side effect... in chasing leads all over the world, literally every single one of us in the group saw something at least once which we had never seen in the game before. We're talking people with 1000+ hours of play, easy. Certainly not the most efficient or lucrative way to play, but a ton of fun and still totally relevant.
Anyway, here's the initial stuff we learned:
Families: Champion families are really broad. First off, high-level categories such as the dragon minions (Icebrood, Destroyer, Risen, Branded) take precedence over subtypes. So Risen Megalodons, Risen Drakes, Risen Humans, and the Eye of Zhaitan are all just Risen. Other types of monsters with similar traits are also grouped together in families even if they seem like completely different types, like Trolls, Ogres, Giants and Ettins. Finally, it appears that there are a number of groups that simply don't have a box that makes any sense tied to them and have nothing in common- Icebrood, Destroyers, and Ghosts (at the least) drop "Gilded Strongboxes." I suspect this is the generic loot box for families of champs that haven't had their own introduced yet.
Drops: All Champs, regardless of zone, level, type, etc., have a high chance of dropping an Exotic version of their loot box. These can contain T5 and T6 mats, cores, lodestones, Scrolls of Knowledge (account bound skill points), loot at your level (blue-exotic), and of course very rarely, unique weapon skins. You can also get a version of the box with a different rarity, from Common to Rare, based on the level of the zone you're in. Whites in 1-15 zones, Greens in 40-50 zones, etc. These have materials at the equivalent tier to their rarity, and can still have loot tied to your level up to at least Rare quality.
We didn't get any skins in our hunts, so I don't have the data I really want yet- if skins are tied to certain bag types. Conceptually it seems likely, though. If you get a drop, please make a note of the kind of bag you opened for it!
Types: We identified 14 unique kinds of loot bags, all clearly and consistently tied to mob families.
These are the bags we found:
- Aetherblade, Inquest, Dredge: Deluxe Gear Box
- Pirate: Embroidered Coin Purse
- Flame Legion: Elaborate Ritualist Bag
- Quaggan, Krait, Largos: Shell Pouch
- Destroyer, Icebrood, Ghost: Gilded Strongbox
- Branded: Branded Strongbox
- Risen: Gilded Coffer
- Centaur/Warbeast: Embroidered Saddlebag
- Troll/Ogre/Giant/Ettin: Oversized Rucksack
- Skale/Spider/Karka/Wurm/Shark: Fallen Adventurer's Backpack
- Grawl: Tribal Satchel
- Hylek: Beaded Pouch
- Ooze: Slime-Covered Strongbox
- Harpy: Embroidered Belt Pouch
There may be more, as there are definitely a few types we didn't get to try... namely: Drakes, Plants (Oakhearts/Mosshearts), Imps, Jotun, Elementals, Insects, Minotaurs, Moas, Raptors, Skelk, Skritt, Nightmare Court, Wind Riders, Devourers, Bats and Dolyaks... damn. However, it's definitely possible that no Champions whatsoever of these types exist. Please let me know if you do see and kill any, though!
