Gear Farming Needs to Change

Feedback and Suggestions
61

I was going to say the same thing. The game has over 300 uniques/set items and how many are actually useful?

Anything can drop for any class too. While I love the D2 style inspiration to build an alt around a good item, it does make farming harder. I’m currently leveling a summoner because I got an LP3 Aberrant Call, but it was on a pally. I’ve had no luck getting Tome of Elements, let alone one with LP, because it’s in a pool of 15 common relics. I could target farm a dozen times and never see one.

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62

Everyone’s experience is different. I’ve gotten several Tome of Elements, have an LP3 sitting in storage. But I can’t get the low chance LP items I need. In a cycle that’s limited in time, and in the case where I like to play multiple characters it would be nice is they would up the LP chances for some items. Would going from a 1.5% chance for an LP2 to a 3% or 5% chance really ruin the game?

Karpo

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63

I was originally playing three 100 level characters fairly equal in performance. Then I came up my current build and it’s so vastly superior it’s difficult to go back. I do still play the others a bit, but they would need much better gear to even approach my current main character.

Karpo

64

Only reason I’m against and don’t think it needs an improvement is because the next upgrade in terms of power slots doesn’t help you progress to any new/locked content. Like if this power helped you discover the next act or boss, then yes, it could use some help.

Every increase of chance in drop rates will just hurt the economy, not that it’s already in a good state… There are more bigger things than a small increase of drop rate you suggest that is far damaging to the game and its economy then this, such as CoH materials not being locked.

TLDR, unleashing the BiS that does nothing in terms of play (new areas/bosses/etc.), should just belong in offline mode, test servers, etc. imo

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65

In games like this the pursuit of gear plays a huge role. I’ve already had most of my friends playing LE quit because they don’t like the gear grind. Since I don’t really want to do a ton of arenas the pursuit of gear and higher corruption is the end game. If I spend weeks of actual play time and fail to progress in either I will just quit. What’s the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. By the end of the cycle I would like to upgrade all my gear. At this rate I’ll be lucky to get one piece upgraded. Maybe I’m in the minority in how I view this game, but by nature these games are grindy and if the grind produces no tangible results what’s the point? It’s not that I’m asking for LP3s and 4s to drop all over the place, but a few LP2 pieces would be nice.

Karpo

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66

I understand your point. But 1800+ corruption is way beyond the scale the devs expected and its the 10 lucky players (grinding for hundrets of hours) out of the 10000 that copied that build playing there. You were not among the lucky ones, sadly. Of course you only hear from the 10 lucky ones and not from the 9990 who are stuck like you.

And i think you know that there is no solution for your problem. If you find the gear, than its a higher number on corruption but the same problem again: extremely rare drops to improve again. And what then? Increase the drop rates again because now it would take you 80 hours of grind?

That’s why i wanted to offer a new perspective. I grind empowered monoliths for a while and when i get frustrated (i to haven’t found any improvement in equipment for hours) i play my hc chars or start a new one if one dies. Make the best of what you are offered.
And i don’t play any optimized builds from the internet, so no expectations what corruption i should be able to clear.

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67

And even if you find it, at LP2 there is randomness in the slam.

I agree really low drop rates are too streaky to be good for games when it’s the only thing players have to do. Besides rerolling which is my usual strategy. A lot of the players on the wrong side of the binomial curve get angry/sad and walk away. At 1.5% a string of 100 failures is not uncommon. (Calculator says 22%. Ouch.)

There are a lot of patents around Markov and Bayesian modified rolls in games. A lot are around gacha boxes but Blizzard uses them for loot and quest items as well. In D3 you’ll always find a few uniques leveling because the probability of finding one increases the longer you go without a drop. I don’t think Blizzard did that with the D4 uber uniques and that whole Duriel boss loop drove a lot of players away.

68

When there’s 300+ uniques, our experiences will indeed be different.

As other folks have said, at some point the power curve has to really slow down because it’s basically the end of the content. That said, LP2 seems kind of early.

69

Oh, I’m not expecting 1800+ corruption. But at this point in the cycle I do feel I am being limited by my gear. I’m not asking for literal BIS, but a few LP2s would be nice. And after I get that and I get higher corruption I can hope for more of the same with better roles. I’m not expecting to get all LP2, then all LP3, etc. because I know that’s not going to happen. I just don’t think at this point in the cycle I should be limited because of drops. And if I’m being honest I’m almost at the breaking point. It’s either quit or play another character, because the constant lack of upgrades is wearing thin.

Karpo

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70

I remember the early days of D3. They had the same issue with the scarcity of good loot drops. They realized it was killing the game and upped it to ther point where if you play an entire season you can get pretty good loot in that game. I don’t know how far we are into the cycle, but it’s way too early for loot progression to stop.

Karpo

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71

Did you play D3 at release? When they rationalized the awful drop rate by saying that they couldn’t make it high because it would ruin the marketplace economy? It was so tone deaf. I quit after Inferno Act I when it took buying and selling $1 items to even progress. I still have 50 cents on my battlenet account, which was my net profit. :rofl:

My fear is that EHG is backing themselves into a corner with MG. Drops are somewhat targeted to classes, but with 3 subclasses it’s still much easier to find something to sell than something to wear. They say they want CoF to be comparable but I can’t see how that’s going to work. Here’s hoping they thread the needle.

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72

I did play D3 at launch and the loot drops were horrendous. I quit after Season 4 because of that and didn’t come back until they’d fixed it.

Karpo

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73

Yes, the pursuit and grind for gear plays a huge role but it has to have the effect for you to want to chase and accomplish something… The drops are there, just not favoring you when you are looking for something… Ever hear of the saying of something like, "when you search for something you cant find it but when you least expect it, you will?

The result of a higher corruption is just pointless and not that attractive for most vs if there was something such as PvP, a fun working economy where you can have a goal to get rich or just straight up collecting every item in the game…

The thrill and excitement just isn’t there for most for item finds where its like “wow, let me call my friend and tell him immediately and/or talk about it for days and weeks”.

Drops are a lot more than you think, just not when you are looking for it. My example of twisted hearts were one of them. People with hundreds of hours talk about not finding any 2 LP or barely any while I have found hundreds of them with over a bunch of 2 LP which I can show you and insane amount of 1 LP. :stuck_out_tongue:

If you played other grindy games, which i’m sure you have, you would know how near impossible it is to ever find an BiS item that you will be keeping for a long time, especially in this state where it is still new.

If you find that 3/4 LP item, you are pretty much set and using it for a long time, probably the rest of the season depending on how long the cycles will last, which i’m guessing 3-4 months but maybe longer for the first cycle.

Unless you are playing MG, you will probably never since it’s near impossible to fully BiS gear completely from affixes to perfect rolls but the most important thing is we are able to clear all current content with every character which we can up until around 500-600 corruption which is a good spot spot, imo.

Pushing an never ending corruption level or such is just a self challenge, instead, it should be something the game does to promote its players to push for a higher corruption.

Don’t get me wrong, better drops is cool and could be done if there were more further endgame to push or PvP, giving us more of a “need” to upgrade vs “want” and imo, the bad part is your reason will have more impact on the game then help it. It will destroy the crappy trading aspect for the economy more than it already is.

At the current state, there is no point in doing so on increasing the drops just to make everything even easier than it already is. Do you think the other thousands of players are pushing to higher corrupts only because of bug abusing/rmah or such? Maybe a bunch but I can assure you, the highest corruptions are pushed from party play and not solo but 1000+ corruption is acheiveble while < 500 corruption is too easy.

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74

Well, my reason for chasing the gear is to see how high I can go on the corruption scale. I compare that to D3’s greater rifts. If that’s not the end game (aside from Arena), I don’t know what is. I guess you can try to get several characters to 500, and for some builds that might be challenging. But what else is there to do? It’s either corruption scaling or Arena. If it’s corruption scaling then I don’t know how to get there other than by getting better gear, changing my build, or improving my skills.

I don’t know much about the economy because I don’t trade. Checked it out for about an hour and that’s all it took for me to say no thanks. But putting gear in the game that helps drive a build, and then limiting your ability to constantly improve that gear seems pointless.

Also, I don’t know what you mean by the game is already pretty easy. It’s easy in the sense that you can play a lot of builds and kill all the bosses, but I don’t know how that all scales with corruption. The game has to reach a point where it’s not so easy to beat. All I’m saying is to reach that point, when you are probably something like midway through the cycle, doesn’t make a lot of sense. Because what do you do next?

You make a lot of good points, but given the current state of the game I see no other endgame than pushing corruption as high as possible. And to do that you need to slowly improve your gear.

Apparently you’re limited to a specific number of posts on your first day so this is it for me. This is a reply to the post below.

Sorry, but this makes no sense to me. The whole idea of this type of game is to improve your gear. If not all gear would be the same and you’d be done once you got it. The only reason to farm is to improve your gear. Is the idea to get better gear in D3 also pointless because you can kill the end bosses without it?

It’s endless to a point. Once you farm really good gear, then based on your skill level there is a soft cap. The point I keep trying to make is that we are no where near that at this point. Playing several different characters and getting them to some meager corruption is just boring. You need progress goals to motivate you.

More drops means a greater supply. Not sure how these messes up the economy. From what I’ve read and heard the economy is already pretty messed up. Every person I played with when this game came out has quit because they find the grinding to be a waste of time. I think that might hurt the game more than a change in the economy.

Karpo

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75

You know how high you can get on the corruption scale, it’s where you’re currently “stuck” at. Are you really stuck at or just having trouble? Are you to the point where you do no dmg to the enemies? I’m sure theres more to why you cannot advance besides your gear.

There are players that last 5-10x the duration with a boss, just to kill it because they never get hit and mastered the mechanics while others just can’t survive that long on a boss because they didn’t learn and master the mechanics, so again, are you hard stuck where you cannot kill any enemies? Where there is no dodge mechanic whatsoever to avoid attacks and/or refuse to switch up your build? I’m guessing most are just having trouble advancing from other means such as bad/lazy play and not being able to dodge a boss for 5 minutes or not wanting to do less dmg or play more carefully to do longer runs.

Yes, easy in the sense where you can explore all areas and kill all bosses in the highest difficulty. Unlimited levels is an exceptional or else once you get max capped items, even perfect, you will eventually hit a wall.

Basically, what i’m trying to say is, at the current state of the game, yes, there is nothing much to do once you completed all content and had your fun with a character. I suggest try another one. You can grind for upgrades and push higher corruption but its pointless, imo. The reason to chase is only for self but they have to make a decision altogether that benefits the game as a whole.

Pushing corruption as high as possible is endless so the reason for you chasing gear to push higher and wanting a easier way to push higher is bad… With upgrades, of course you will go higher on the corruption scale… If there were gated stuff to unlock with higher power requirements then yes, this would make more sense.

The trade off for improving things such as higher drop rates messes with the economy, more then helps the game.

I understand your reasoning but as a whole, it just doesn’t do good for the online perspective for a massive multiplayer arpg.

Better off implementing such in offline mode.

76

D3 is a downgrade of a game from their masterpiece. I haven’t played D3 enough to comfortably and confidently comment on that comparison. They just keep ruining the franchise, D3, Immortal, D4. Hoping D4 S4 will start changing the direction.

Yes, the idea for this type of game is to improve your gear which you do by playing more , having RnG on your side and/or take part of the market which is provided for us. Yes, you will get to a point where it will seem like its impossible to upgrade your gear. You can only improve your gear so much where it will get more and more difficult. You’re no where near impossible if you’re still working on 2/3 LP gear. Wait till you get to all 4 LP gear.

Endless to a point? What is really good gear? Corruption is endless, upgrades is endless. There is no end. Higher corruption doesn’t mean more fun. It really just means more sexy loot. More sexy loot tho might mean more excitement to drops but more or less, it won’t because the economy is bad. If we had an economy, finding loot will be more exciting. Good Market = higher corruption = higher loot = higher excitement=able to get “impossible” gear through market from players who find stuff they dont need for their build.

If you see the market, there is a surplus of supply already, at least for t2 and under. As for T3/T4, those items do go on the market but it usually is quickly bought. Yes, the market is crap but you’re asking for something that will only make it worst, instead we need to help it.

You can argue that but from what I see and believe, grinding is a waste of time if there is no economy. Most people won’t care to push corrupt for the same content and like you said, lack of progression boost but progression to get stronger for no real reason is pointless which is what im saying. Higher corruption doesn’t do anything besides just help you see a higher level. Of course you will push higher progression with upgraded items. The challenge should be you grinding for those items. Tired of finding it? Try switching to MG and trying to buy it. That alone might be another challenge for you.

What we need is content, newer and harder ways to help motivate us to want and need progress. We don’t need item drop rate increase, maybe some better ways could would be possible to help increase our ways to progress that doesn’t harm the economy.

Very last, I am not really so against having that small drop rate increase, just don’t think it’s that big of a problem as you make it sound and definitely not something that should be on the priority list to help the game.

77

I think part of the problem is the devs never expected players to play at 450 corruption at this point. If they had planned for the majority of players to play at this high corruption, thea had implemented higher drop rates.
And i bet: No matter how good a player you are, you are not playing at 450 corruption with Shaman or Forge Guard. The limit is luck and class design, not skill.
But having “broken” builds around raised the expectations of the players.

Edit: I don’t want to say skill doesn’t matter, of course it does. But items are more important for general progress.

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78

LP2 chance: 1%

LP2 chance: 1.35%

LP2 chance: 1.35%

LP2 chance: 7.24%

One might say it is too difficult to win lottery. Game is balanced around drop rates. If you increase drop rates of LP2/3/4, then you just get to higher corruption and you are back to square one. Higher LP items are just there to be a highlight. Perhaps you make a new build, if you get one. But you don’t play game of dice expecting to roll 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 in order to win - it is nice when it happens, but nothing you hope for. Otherwise you are just disappointed forever.

79

People need to stop looking at those stats and just play and feel the game. It’s all RnG.

The bigger picture is that when it drops and you get the item, it means so much more.

You getting items easier to upgrades and then what? The problem isn’t getting the upgrades right now, it’s having nothing done differently once you get those upgrades. It’s the same argument as repetitive grinding.

D2 made it work somehow, finding that ber rune and shako made you excited and happy. That is what excitement mfing and repetitive grinding should do. Do we really want to lower that excitement in exchange to just do the same thing over again?

Twisted hearts drop rate .65% for 2LP, i have found a dozen of them. Drop rates defintely feel a lot higher than it shows.

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I have seen LP complained about more than anything else that I can remember thus far in LE. Something’s got to give. I think it could go a long way if in slamming an item you could guarantee 1 affix to transfer. A lot of these guides I see with LP items really are only looking for 1 affix to make the item above and beyond, but a 25% chance to not brick your Unique can fry ice in h3ll with that mess.

I haven’t even slammed an item myself yet. I keep reading these horror stories of bad results just say why bother? I’m doing fine right now with baseline Uniques and am going to see if the system gets tweaked by EHG in the near future.

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