New 3rd end rewards question

[Forzah]

/signed, ran wizking on various difficulties over 50 times on my first arty before getting the runearm, got every imaginable loot possible except runearm until getting lucky

The advantage is that you can just buy it though

[Sarisa]

The advantage is that you can just buy it though

Fine for most of the Gianthold flagging quest, Tor, Sands, and Orchard gear. Though not possible for the Tor Runearms, Dampened Frozen Plate, Dampened Cacophonic Verge, Twisted Talisman, which are all BtA on Acquire, and can be a major grind to get.

For two of those, along with two other base items in the Fens, you CANNOT get them on Epic difficulty. Instead of doing the quests on its highest difficulty level, you have to go back on a capped character and grind out easy low level content, repeatedly, to try to find the base item.

[Fomori]

Instead of doing the quests on its highest difficulty level, you have to go back on a capped character and grind out easy low level content, repeatedly, to try to find the base item.

That is pretty standard practice for any BtA item that you would want for a twinked character. If you happen to get it while running it naturally through the levels then I would say its a bonus.

While I agree that there should be some chance to get in on all difficulty levels, I disagree in your premise that it should be more entitled to you on epic. I think there should be a lowered drop rate for base items on epic. Sure, you may feel like you need to go "slumming" in elite but you already get the opportunity for scroll and shard/seals to boot in epics. They should give rewards but not be the 1-stop shopping for getting everything you need from the chain.

Also, having you run those quests on elite means it opens up the grouping pool to try and get the base item... if it drops in chest that is. That promotes more potential social interaction.

[Eladiun]

While we are talking quest chain end rewards have you also fixed the bug for Sentinels and Carnival that populated the end reward lists with Korthos gear?

[waterboytkd]

Red Fens:

Most end reward lists with named items are at the end of a quest chain, rather than an individual quest.

In contrast, each individual Red Fens quest already has it's own End Reward list. These end reward lists typically have just a few named items, each with a 50% chance of showing up when you complete the quest.

So each individual Red Fens quest has it's own, individual 3rd completion end reward list, where the named items that normally show up on that quest show up 100% of the time instead of 50% of the time.

Vesuvium, if there's no intention to add Twisted Talisman, Dampened Fullplate, Robe of Dissonance, et al to the 3rd completion rewards lists, could I make a suggestion?

Make them drop on epic difficulty. Maybe you're new, and if so, ask one of the older devs, like Genasi or MadFloyd, about the rage surrounding Devil's Assault and how the special-material weapons, like Wraps, only dropped on hard for a long time, and how much happier the player base became when the change was made to make them drop on epic as well. It really sucks to run this stuff on epic, get all of the scroll/seal/shard, then have to grind out low level content on your epic characters just to get the base item. Especially something like The Last Stand. It's more or less a timed mission, and very very boring on non-epic difficulties on your level 20.

[Vesuvium]

While we are talking quest chain end rewards have you also fixed the bug for Sentinels and Carnival that populated the end reward lists with Korthos gear?

That is not a bug. It is intended. They are in addition to the Phiarlan or Sentinels loot, not in place of it.

[Sarisa]

While I agree that there should be some chance to get in on all difficulty levels, I disagree in your premise that it should be more entitled to you on epic. I think there should be a lowered drop rate for base items on epic. Sure, you may feel like you need to go "slumming" in elite but you already get the opportunity for scroll and shard/seals to boot in epics. They should give rewards but not be the 1-stop shopping for getting everything you need from the chain.

Also, having you run those quests on elite means it opens up the grouping pool to try and get the base item... if it drops in chest that is. That promotes more potential social interaction.

Why should the highest difficulty have lower rates. All raids, except for Epic DQ, have equal or higher drop rates for everything on the highest difficulty level. It's a system that works well.

Note that the devs adjusted Devil's Assault to include normal/hard's Handwraps and other boss beaters chances so they drop on elite/epic as well.

I don't see why I should spend a large amount of time grinding level 9 (Fens) or 12 (Wiz King/Chains) content for base items when I (and my guild/groups) are perfectly capable of running the quests on epic. We already have social interaction, and would pass base items to those who need them. Requiring elite runs for epic base items is an unnecessary time sink, and does nothing but increase boredom and frustration.

[waterboytkd]

That is pretty standard practice for any BtA item that you would want for a twinked character. If you happen to get it while running it naturally through the levels then I would say its a bonus.

While I agree that there should be some chance to get in on all difficulty levels, I disagree in your premise that it should be more entitled to you on epic. I think there should be a lowered drop rate for base items on epic. Sure, you may feel like you need to go "slumming" in elite but you already get the opportunity for scroll and shard/seals to boot in epics. They should give rewards but not be the 1-stop shopping for getting everything you need from the chain.

Also, having you run those quests on elite means it opens up the grouping pool to try and get the base item... if it drops in chest that is. That promotes more potential social interaction.

Remember when silver wraps only dropped in Hard DA? Remember how awesome that was? Oh, right, it was the opposite. NO ONE liked it, everyone complained about it. Running effortless content over and over and over is really really boring. Grinding is already a negative-play experience, but one that's a necessary evil for an MMO. Making that grind extremely boring and frustrating to boot is just downright poor design. Making them drop on epic with the same drop rates as the other difficulties is the right thing to do because you don't want to force your player base to do boring stuff. You want them to keep doing stuff (read: grinding) but you want them to have fun doing it.

As for opening up grouping...what we have now is that we're forced to run non-epic Red Fens for a few base items. No one puts up an LFM for a non-epic Last Stand with their level 20, outside those who want to run it for favor and want an elite opener. If you're grinding for a TT, you're doing it by yourself right now. Restricting an item needed for end-game gear to non-endgame quests, especially when said quests HAVE an end-game difficulty, is just a needless negative-play experience for the players, and does not promote social interaction at all.

[madmaxhunter]

Nice post Saka. Guess you'll have to continue farming IQ. I'll run with you when I get to the appropriate level and we can roll for it if it drops.

Who am I kidding, we'd just race to the bag, click and "oops! That bag was the eardweller? Sorry!"

[MrkGrismer]

There are a couple of exceptions, such as the Ioun Stones in the Dreaming Dark, but those are called out specifically in the release notes.

I did not see this exception called out in the current release notes...

[somenewnoob]

I did not see this exception called out in the current release notes...

The Dreaming Dark

Completing the final quest in this series three times (and every third time thereafter) will offer players a single random Ioun Stone, crafting items, and random loot from its end reward list.


http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=206066

[MrkGrismer]

The Dreaming Dark

Completing the final quest in this series three times (and every third time thereafter) will offer players a single random Ioun Stone, crafting items, and random loot from its end reward list.


http://forums.ddo.com/showthread.php?t=206066

Yeah, I was looking in the other spot were the 3 times stuff is listed out. I see it now, my apologies...

[somenewnoob]

Yeah, I was looking in the other spot were the 3 times stuff is listed out. I see it now, my apologies...

I know, I went to go copy it and was like "where the eff did it go, I know I read it here somewhere"

[Havok.cry]

[QUOTE=madmaxhunter;4287161]Nice post Saka. Guess you'll have to continue farming IQ. I'll run with you when I get to the appropriate level and we can roll for it if it drops.

Who am I kidding, we'd just race to the bag, click and "oops! That bag was the eardweller?

Lol ill pick it up then let you invite you to come loot it, when you finally get there ill be like sorry you took too long.

[sephiroth1084]

That is not a bug. It is intended. They are in addition to the Phiarlan or Sentinels loot, not in place of it.

This then begs the question:

Why are level 1 and 2 items dropping on quest chain end rewards lists for a level 5 and a level 7-8 pack? Are you intending players at level 8 start equipping Korthos gear?

[Eladiun]

That is not a bug. It is intended. They are in addition to the Phiarlan or Sentinels loot, not in place of it.

You might want to recheck that. I've seen Carnival end list with only 2 or 3 Carnival items.

[Havok.cry]

This then begs the question:

Why are level 1 and 2 items dropping on quest chain end rewards lists for a level 5 and a level 7-8 pack? Are you intending players at level 8 start equipping Korthos gear?

It is a nice way to have that stuff banked for a TR, especially with the gem of many facets. You can normally only get 1 set per life (2 with vet status) and this speeds that up.

[Eladrin]

This then begs the question:

Why are level 1 and 2 items dropping on quest chain end rewards lists for a level 5 and a level 7-8 pack? Are you intending players at level 8 start equipping Korthos gear?

Vet Status characters may be interested in certain Korthos items.

[Aelonwy]

This then begs the question:

Why are level 1 and 2 items dropping on quest chain end rewards lists for a level 5 and a level 7-8 pack? Are you intending players at level 8 start equipping Korthos gear?

I think they put the korthos items on those lists for the Gem of Many Facets, from Chronoscope. Chronoscope being level 6-7 on normal, Phiarlan Carnival being level 5-6 on normal, Sentinels being 7-8 on normal made sense at the time as an alternate way for at-level players to pick up items to wear with Gem of Many facets without touring the island again. Correct me if I'm wrong but the amulet is the only one from Korthos that you can't get a second time unless you TR right? Ppl should be prepared for their Gem by now. Do we really still need these Korthos items to drop on the higher lists? IDK.

[Redicular]

yes we still need those dropping in higher level (and most importantly shorter) quests

misery's peak, while an interesting quest the first few times, becomes a MAJOR slog on your 4th or higher alt, particularly when, due to veteran's status, there is no threat of danger while running the quest.