Old item drop rates and difficulty

[krimsonrane]

Gotta get a couple more pali lives so I decided to try out a charisma based acid pali build. I looked up items I'll need and the sands bramble set looked great. Then I remembered I don't have any and have never pulled any in 14 years. So just for gits and shiggles I ran the prequest and raid on elite using my capped EK acid sorc. Two things. 1- In neither quest on leet solo did a single named item drop (with 2 rerolls). 2- The demon queen is a stronger boss at level 20 than nearly every level 32 quest boss.

I can handle her but it was somewhat of a challenge. As far as bramble caster stuff goes, I can forget about it. If I never got them in all this time I never will. And I'm not interested in banging my head against the wall in a massive useless time sink.

[WargamerIV]

Gotta get a couple more pali lives so I decided to try out a charisma based acid pali build. I looked up items I'll need and the sands bramble set looked great. Then I remembered I don't have any and have never pulled any in 14 years. So just for gits and shiggles I ran the prequest and raid on elite using my capped EK acid sorc. Two things. 1- In neither quest on leet solo did a single named item drop (with 2 rerolls). 2- The demon queen is a stronger boss at level 20 than nearly every level 32 quest boss.

I can handle her but it was somewhat of a challenge. As far as bramble caster stuff goes, I can forget about it. If I never got them in all this time I never will. And I'm not interested in banging my head against the wall in a massive useless time sink.

I pulled a Bramble- Casters a few months ago (in March I think) so it does drop. You can also buy it using Runes from the raid.

[Eantarus]

My understanding is Sands should conform to the 10/15/33% drop-rate chances as all modern content(when it was updated with the recent loot pass). Of course I would love to see confirmation of this.

[krimsonrane]

I pulled a Bramble- Casters a few months ago (in March I think) so it does drop. You can also buy it using Runes from the raid.

You can just buy them outright? No more having to farm?

[krimsonrane]

I pulled a Bramble- Casters a few months ago (in March I think) so it does drop. You can also buy it using Runes from the raid.

I'm ready to TR in a day or so. If I don't have it now I won't get it. But someone mentioned you can just buy sands named items. Not sure how that works.

[rabidfox]

You can just buy them outright? No more having to farm?

The epic version of the raid drop raid runes now; 10 epic elite runs will provide enough runes to buy 1 raid item of your choice.

[boredGamer]

Gotta get a couple more pali lives so I decided to try out a charisma based acid pali build. I looked up items I'll need and the sands bramble set looked great. Then I remembered I don't have any and have never pulled any in 14 years. So just for gits and shiggles I ran the prequest and raid on elite using my capped EK acid sorc. Two things. 1- In neither quest on leet solo did a single named item drop (with 2 rerolls). 2- The demon queen is a stronger boss at level 20 than nearly every level 32 quest boss.

I can handle her but it was somewhat of a challenge. As far as bramble caster stuff goes, I can forget about it. If I never got them in all this time I never will. And I'm not interested in banging my head against the wall in a massive useless time sink.

I tried to argue that all packs should up frequency of drops such that a ten year old pack basically drops named items like water.

Of course they didn’t do that, but then they just put a bunch of named items on sale instead.

It’s very weird their approach to the whole system.

[Annex]

I am sorry, Krimsonrane. I looted a pair of Bramble Castsers yesterday morning in a Heroic Elite run of Zawabi's Revenge. My Paladin fed the Bramble Casters to her sword as I had no idea she could use such a thing. My Great Crossbow Rogue one shot Lailat during that run which was a first for me. I had no idea such a thing was even possible.

Zawabi's Revenge goes very quickly for Epic Characters of modest ability running Heroic Elite. It takes perhaps 5 minutes and you still have a 33% chance at a drop. You lose the Raid Runes though. For me, it is an easy decision.

[krimsonrane]

I am sorry, Krimsonrane. I looted a pair of Bramble Castsers yesterday morning in a Heroic Elite run of Zawabi's Revenge. My Paladin fed the Bramble Casters to her sword as I had no idea she could use such a thing. My Great Crossbow Rogue one shot Lailat during that run which was a first for me. I had no idea such a thing was even possible.

Zawabi's Revenge goes very quickly for Epic Characters of modest ability running Heroic Elite. It takes perhaps 5 minutes and you still have a 33% chance at a drop. You lose the Raid Runes though. For me, it is an easy decision.

Heroic elite huh? I guess I could run 3-4 of those on various characters.

[krimsonrane]

I am sorry, Krimsonrane. I looted a pair of Bramble Castsers yesterday morning in a Heroic Elite run of Zawabi's Revenge. My Paladin fed the Bramble Casters to her sword as I had no idea she could use such a thing. My Great Crossbow Rogue one shot Lailat during that run which was a first for me. I had no idea such a thing was even possible.

Zawabi's Revenge goes very quickly for Epic Characters of modest ability running Heroic Elite. It takes perhaps 5 minutes and you still have a 33% chance at a drop. You lose the Raid Runes though. For me, it is an easy decision.

First I went "heroic leet?" #Facepalm
Then I pulled out my few raid timer passes, a +5% named item boost, and by the 3rd run I pulled my first bramble casters. Took less than ten minutes.
https://i.ibb.co/B4KRV94/Screen-Shot-2022-05-08-232416-0.jpg

[Annex]

Yay! I am very happy that worked out for you and so quickly. :)

[Weemadarthur]

First I went "heroic leet?" #Facepalm
Then I pulled out my few raid timer passes, a +5% named item boost, and by the 3rd run I pulled my first bramble casters. Took less than ten minutes.

Gratz

[Wizard1406]

Grats!

The hardest part of the raid line is actually Chains of Flame for me .... I have literally zero sense of orientation at all and alt-tab to wiki or looking at cheat sheet every time is tedious and I still get lost *sigh* Any tips?

[Weemadarthur]

Grats!

The hardest part of the raid line is actually Chains of Flame for me .... I have literally zero sense of orientation at all and alt-tab to wiki or looking at cheat sheet every time is tedious and I still get lost *sigh* Any tips?

This is one of those quests where if you run it often enough it becomes quite simple but it can be a complete pain to learn. The best advice I can give for starting out is stick to the left wall as most of the times you have to go right the left path will send you to a dead end pretty quickly. Over time you will start to spot those occasions where taking the right path is the quicker option and it will all start falling into place.

[krimsonrane]

Grats!

The hardest part of the raid line is actually Chains of Flame for me .... I have literally zero sense of orientation at all and alt-tab to wiki or looking at cheat sheet every time is tedious and I still get lost *sigh* Any tips?

Repetition was how I learned it. I just did it so many times that it finally stuck.

[Cantor]

My understanding is Sands should conform to the 10/15/33% drop-rate chances as all modern content(when it was updated with the recent loot pass). Of course I would love to see confirmation of this.

I think this is probably correct. I ran it a few times with timers to get epic tokens. With three of us 1 or 2 items dropped like every run, I think we did elite, maybe r1 if we weren't too high.
On the queen being too tough that's laughable, unless you are soloing as a melee. With any ranged or casting support she is crazy easy.

[Wizard1406]

Thanks, Weemadarthur, I'll try sticking to left next time.

krimsonrane, yeah that's the problem, I wasn't active when either heroic or epic Sands was part of endgame and run very often. Have to run it more often to learn it.

[droid327]

This is one of those quests where if you run it often enough it becomes quite simple but it can be a complete pain to learn. The best advice I can give for starting out is stick to the left wall as most of the times you have to go right the left path will send you to a dead end pretty quickly. Over time you will start to spot those occasions where taking the right path is the quicker option and it will all start falling into place.

I found the same thing on Roll Call - "turn left" is a good way to make it through that maze, since the left turn is usually correct, and when its not, its only a minor sidetrack

I'll have to try that next time since I usually just skip that quest entirely unless I need to flag on that life

[Eantarus]

I think this is probably correct. I ran it a few times with timers to get epic tokens. With three of us 1 or 2 items dropped like every run, I think we did elite, maybe r1 if we weren't too high.
On the queen being too tough that's laughable, unless you are soloing as a melee. With any ranged or casting support she is crazy easy.

I've never actually done the raid. Once I get my latest round of TRs done and my main back to normalcy as a sorc, I'm planning to start running it. Looks like fun.

[krimsonrane]

Thanks, Weemadarthur, I'll try sticking to left next time.

krimsonrane, yeah that's the problem, I wasn't active when either heroic or epic Sands was part of endgame and run very often. Have to run it more often to learn it.

Run it twice or more a life. heroic and epic. leet and reaper. that should embed it in a few lives. the xp is decent at level.

Maybe this can help?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5CxJkj-yhA