Loot frequency: raids, difficulty, gems, etc.

[Backley]

I need help finding out some specifics. First, what I already know:
Non-named loot is affected by:
A1. Level of quest (as modified by the difficulty you run the quest on).
A2. Loot gem you are currently using (other party member's gems do not affect you)
A3. Chest's level modifier (some chests in the same quest are better than others in the same quest)
A3. Ransack timer on chest (number of times over 7 you opened it in the last 7 days is how many levels the chest is reduced by, down to chest level 0 = empty)

Note that some random items only drop on specific difficulty levels, so you may need to run this level 16 quest on Hard or Elite (or use a loot gem) to get to the needed "chest level 17" for a chance at a +2 Tome dropping.

Named loot in normal quests is affected by:
B1. Chest (named items only come from 1 or a few specific chests)
B2. Ransack timer (if you have opened this chest more than 7 times in the past 7 days, you get no named items from this chest). This rule doesn't apply in some cases where the name item is ALWAYS in the chest (runes in the Reaver's Refuge quests for instance).
B3. Difficulty you ran the quest on (for quests in IQ and newer). For example: the best types of Dream Edge only drop on hard/elite Mindsunder runs; Eardweller drops more often on hard/elite.

Named loot in raids is affected by:
C1. Chest (named items only come from 1 or a few specific chests)
C2. Ransack timer (if you have opened this chest more than 7 times in the past 7 days, you get no named items from this chest).
C3. Difficulty you ran the raid on: normal has a the lowest chance of raid items dropping, hard has a higher chance, elite has the highest chance.

Myths:
X1. Diplomacy, Charisma, who opens the chest first, inherent 'luck' of a specific character, etc. has no effect on chests.
X2. Other people's loot gems do not affect your chance at loot.
X3. Other people's loot pulls do not affect your chance at loot (the chest could give us all +2 Tomes at once)
X4. Loot gems have no effect on named items dropping, only on the level of random items.

Anything I missed?
Can anyone offer dev quote or other proof of the above, especially C3?

[Matuse]

C3. Difficulty you ran the raid on: normal has a the lowest chance of raid items dropping, hard has a higher chance, elite has the highest chance.

For the two raids where it is available, Epic has a MUCH higher drop rate on named stuff than Elite.

[Renzokuzen]

B3 Seems to get at what I was trying to search for on the forums today.


My question is simply this:

If the named item I want is level 13, and the quest is level 11; would it only drop on elite?

[Rodrak]

C3. Difficulty you ran the raid on: normal has a the lowest chance of raid items dropping, hard has a higher chance, elite has the highest chance.

This is true for all raids except Tempest Spine. Specific chances for non-epics (% n/h/e):
VoN6: 16/20/25
Titan: 16/17/18
Queen: 16/18/20
Reaver: 16/17/20
Abbot: 16/20/25
VoD: 15/20/25
Hound: 15/20/25
ToD: 18/22/26

[Rawel_San]

This is true for all raids except Tempest Spine. Specific chances for non-epics (% n/h/e):
VoN6: 16/20/25
Titan: 16/17/18
Queen: 16/18/20
Reaver: 16/17/20
Abbot: 16/20/25
VoD: 15/20/25
Hound: 15/20/25
ToD: 18/22/26

Not to sound picky, but where do these numbers come from? Was there a dev post on this?
Thank you for answer,
Rawel

[Lorien_the_First_One]

C3. Difficulty you ran the raid on: normal has a the lowest chance of raid items dropping, hard has a higher chance, elite has the highest chance.

This is a fact. When the changed the raid loot system from 2 drops per raid to random drops they spelled it out as 1/6 on norm (with the idea that gave you the same average 2 drops per run as the old system if you ran raids with full parties), scaling up as high as 1/4 on elite, depending on how much that quest scales in difficulty. (In other words raids that aren't much more difficulty on elite than norm won't get as good as 1/4)

This is true for all raids except Tempest Spine. Specific chances for non-epics (% n/h/e):
VoN6: 16/20/25
Titan: 16/17/18
Queen: 16/18/20
Reaver: 16/17/20
Abbot: 16/20/25
VoD: 15/20/25
Hound: 15/20/25
ToD: 18/22/26

Are those your guesses? I've never seen such exact confirmation by a dev.

B3. Difficulty you ran the quest on (for quests in IQ and newer). For example: the best types of Dream Edge only drop on hard/elite Mindsunder runs; Eardweller drops more often on hard/elite.

A slight correction on DE. The better combos are more likely to drop on hard/elite but any combo can fall at any level from what I've seen and read.

[Rodrak]

Not to sound picky, but where do these numbers come from? Was there a dev post on this?

Nope. These were read out of loot tables. Feel free to ignore it.

[Backley]

Nope. These were read out of loot tables. Feel free to ignore it.

Wow, thanks!

Looking at Rodrak's other posts, he seems legit.

Finally something semi-concrete to point to when people claim Hard is better loot than Elite for DQ/Reavers.

Care to comment on Epic drop rate?

Also, question for anyone that understands the mechanics:
Is there any advantage to running DQ or Reavers (or other you may think of) on Hard v. Elite? Are +3 Tomes more likely on one or the other?