Player's Choice Summer Sales Event

[Fomori]

When I took the poll I noticed it said +35% heroic xp.

If thats true then it wont help destinies or 20-25.

Just something to ponder as well.

[fco-karatekid]

While I do know every detail of how these function, it is not my place to tell you. There's no fun or thrill of discovery if every detail of the behind-the-scenes mechanics is handed to you on a platter.

If you want to believe that something is broken, I won't stop you or correct you further. Time and other players' experiences as they learn how these function, and document it for others, will demonstrate otherwise.

Go forth, test, discover, and enjoy.

I fully support and agree with not revealing what's behind the curtain; but what leads to this kind of curiosity (which grows over time to anger at not knowing a given mechanic) is when we are trying to determine if there is a bug of some sort.

Example: Currently, there are occasionally chests at level or one ABOVE me that drop ONLY one item and some gold or a renown thingie. I don't know whether to report these or not, because a baseline of understanding about how much should typically drop where is unavailable.

When things like this happen a lot, people start dying to know what "normal" is supposed to look like.


EDIT:
Maybe a better way to look at it: is there a fixed number of items that should drop? of those should two always include (for example) one pile of currency + one ranged or ammo. Chances at renown thingies are added to the list or can replace? Given CR and loot gem behavior you cite; will those mechanics change the _number_ of items that should drop in a chest? Is there (like PnP) an overall plat value range (ex: between 200-380PP is norm for a level 5 quest) that would help us know if a chest bugged out?

[Expalphalog]

Currently, there are occasionally chests at level or one ABOVE me that drop ONLY one item and some gold or a renown thingie.

Oh I hate those chests. Opening a chest and finding only a single piece of vendor trash and 100 gold is akin to getting up Christmas morning only to find socks and underwear under the tree.

[Aelonwy]

Since I like mythbusting,

As of Menace of the Underdark:

Chest level is equal to the quest's Normal CR, -1 on Casual, +1 on Hard, +2 on Elite, +any current global or personal loot boosts.

Treasure tables go up to chest level 31.

Above 25, lower level things on the tables begin to be cut out.

I've seen incontrovertible evidence on the live game servers that treasure tables above 25 are being properly referenced when they should be.

Okay... I'm confused what is this exactly incontrovertible evidence of?

The original poster of said evidence prefaced it with:

(found in vendor second great find this month)

Which means we do NOT know from which quest this dropped, if it dropped in a chest or on end reward, what level said unknown quest was, what difficiulty the quest was completed on, whether or not a loot gem was being used, whether or not this piece of loot was spawned during a bonus loot event. Without such information how do we have proof of anything? The critical question is whether or not loot bonus events mess up the level of loot spawned in 21+ level quests on the higher/highest level difficulties? I fail to see how this one piece of loot that showed up in a vendor is incontrovertible evidence that the treasure tables are working properly.

The only thing that comes to mind is if loot like this will only ever spawn on the current highest level quest possible on the highest difficulty possible with the highest loot gem possible during a bonus loot event.

[Galeria]

Oh I hate those chests. Opening a chest and finding only a single piece of vendor trash and 100 gold is akin to getting up Christmas morning only to find socks and underwear under the tree.

[mystafyi]

its 100% verified high end end rewards get messed up, and chest likely get some problems.

LOL, dont you realise yet that turbine has abandoned its old playerbase. Its all about casual or solo players that love mediocrity

[fco-karatekid]

LOL! and THAT^ is about half the time in lordsmarch and harbinger, ladies and gents.

[sirgog]

Since I like mythbusting,

As of Menace of the Underdark:

Chest level is equal to the quest's Normal CR, -1 on Casual, +1 on Hard, +2 on Elite, +any current global or personal loot boosts.

Treasure tables go up to chest level 31.

Above 25, lower level things on the tables begin to be cut out.

I've seen incontrovertible evidence on the live game servers that treasure tables above 25 are being properly referenced when they should be.

Two things on this.

Firstly, does this include challenges? I've run a large number of 2-3 star two chest level 30 challenges and a moderate number of 6 star (two chest) level 30 challenges and have seen pretty ordinary effects (Steam, +6 stats, etc). Among these have been ML 22/23 caster stat sticks.

Secondly, are the +4 unbound tomes random loot or are they Elite only drops in very specific chests?

[Veriden]

any one know what the score is for the poll?

[blametroi]

Then i had a really odd streak of luck.

Ransacked Giants Vault (Level 19 Solo) for reknown during the last +2 loot bonus period with a +1 gem running. Almost all items in chest were ML 14 items.

Ran it a week later with no loot boost running and no gem and almost all items in the chests were ML 16.

I was curious about the loot level in Giant's Vault under the new system, so I was watching it pretty closely. Only one data point but it was a full Ransack cycle with 5 chests per run each time, so I'm still pretty suspicious.

I don't run this one as much as TPICKRELL does, but it's a good quick way to churn up some plat and kill time while waking up. I did a run this morning on my 21 monk, she should be off ransack timer. One run, here's what I pulled:

End options

+4 aligned hand wraps of backstabbing (sneak attack +3) +10 ml18 7,200pp
+7 fire guard outfit of improved acid resistance +11 ml20 8,010
Legendary Victory

Chests

20 +5 anarchic bolts +7 ml12 784
Elixir of major mnemonic enhancement ml9 3,000
1,261 gold pieces

+3 glaciation hand wraps of spell penetration IV +8 ml14 5,600 (+9 universal +72 cold)
138 platinum pieces
Scroll of destruction
Scroll of mass protection frm elements

+5 sonic guard docent of lesser acidresistance +8 ml4 aml10 5,605
10 small hard rods
Scroll of chain lightning
Scroll of flesh to stone
Scroll of repair moderate damage, mass

+4 metalline quarterstaff of righteousness +8 ml12 rr halfling 4,800
973 gold pieces
98 platinum pieces
Heroic deeds

+3 devotion light crossbow of ice lore +7 ml12 4,803 (9 universal, 66 healing)
971 gold pieces

no loot gem running, no ransack,d 8:30am or so eastern US time, Wednesday the 8th.

[Veriden]

I have 2 quick questions: I fear the results of the poll are based on the fact that many believe the +3 loot boost would break high level chests and therefore many voted otherwise,

and second, I'm a big fan of the +3 loot boost. If it does not win this vote does that mean it will not be present at all?

Would it be possible for all 3 choices to be available at one point or another, so that everyone is satisfied. Perhaps the poll would govern which comes first or somesuch?

I'd hate to think that my DDO enjoyment is subject to the opinion of the majority! One of the reasons I play fantasy games online is to escape the majority in RL

Please forgive me if this is not the appropriate place to ask these questions, and I do thank you very much for offering us these deals.

Many people I know have tr'd recently, and I can say that loot boost is meh when compared to xp. I had heard of this but misunderstood it being a poll. I was told it was a coming xp boost. I'm hoping the xp wins so I can get my last arcane life over and done with so I can return to melee and divine lives for completionist.

[Feather_of_Sun]

Firstly, does this include challenges? I've run a large number of 2-3 star two chest level 30 challenges and a moderate number of 6 star (two chest) level 30 challenges and have seen pretty ordinary effects (Steam, +6 stats, etc). Among these have been ML 22/23 caster stat sticks.

Chests in Challenges are capped at CR 25. That's intentional. We didn't want Challenges to be the only viable way to get loot, which they would have been if you could get CR 30 chests in challenges, but only up to 25-26 from quests. To get the really special stuff, quests need to be run on Epic Elite, with loot boosts.

Since it seems I was too vague with my hints yesterday, I'll try again. =)

There's a whole bunch of special prefixes and suffixes that have not been discovered yet, because they can currently only be found in endgame Epic Elite content while a loot boost is active.

Thus, it was no surprise when some turned up during the last global loot boost event.

This is just a continuation of how the game has always worked. As you get into higher level treasure tables, new things become able to appear.

Secondly, are the +4 unbound tomes random loot or are they Elite only drops in very specific chests?

Both. They're in random loot in very high level tables, right where you'd expect to see them given the interval between +1, +2, and +3 tomes- they continue that same pattern.
Then they're also in Forgotten Realms non-raid quests on Epic Elite difficulty as bonus treasure that will occasionally appear.
+4 tomes are in the raid, Caught in the Web, on any difficulty, while Epic Elite also has [REDACTED], which I'm sure many of you have already guessed.

Regarding people using Raiding the Giant's Vault to gauge treasure tables: Bear in mind that the two side chests at the end of that quest were intentionally given negative modifiers by the designer of that quest. They're lower level than the quest level. That's one of very few places in the game where chests don't match the quest CR.

[Yan_PL]

IS it too late to change my vote in poll from +35% xp to +3 loot level?

[oradafu]

There's a whole bunch of special prefixes and suffixes that have not been discovered yet, because they can currently only be found in endgame Epic Elite content while a loot boost is active.

I've not used this term in the forums before but isn't this the definition of "Pay to win" here?

[Alavatar]

So ... no way to view poll results after voting?

[Eladrin]

I've not used this term in the forums before but isn't this the definition of "Pay to win" here?

You can throw a dragonmarked half-orc (or human) at the problem, or use a Pirate Treasure Map. They provide loot boosts. Or both!

[FuzzyDuck81]

while Epic Elite also has [REDACTED].

A special encounter with SCP-682 as a secondary raid boss?

[flaggson]

You can throw a dragonmarked half-orc (or human) at the problem, or use a Pirate Treasure Map. They provide loot boosts. Or both!

sometimes they have loot boost weeks or weekends as well...

[bbqzor]

There's a whole bunch of special prefixes and suffixes that have not been discovered yet, because they can currently only be found in endgame Epic Elite content while a loot boost is active.

Are there any plans for these item affixes to become regularly seen in the immediate (say U15/16) future? If not, they may as well not be there. Simply put, generating one, having it be amidst a useful combination, and then getting it onto the right character (as I'm sure it will bind like all the other higher mods) is too great a chore given the huge pool random loot is pulled from. It would taken dozens upon dozens of ransacks... thats just not sustainable.

Rather than be taken as a complaint, I'd simply like to again reiterate that named loot with some manner of comparable modifiers is a necessity. Doubly so in a game like DDO where it is quite a common occurrence for people to be looking at gearing up two, three, four or more characters on a regular basis.

While rare loot is okay (and DDO has a history of plenty of rare items, from the ERoSS to ESoS, original EMariChain, and beyond), and on some level even desirable to have present, random rare items that aren't even available 24/7 are essentially a non-factor for the general player base at large. They are simply not accessible, reliable, or repeatable to acquire. While it may be possible to "win the lottery" once or twice per account, for anyone with even 4 characters looking for 50+ pieces of gear between them, spending all that effort for 1 item won't really provide progress.

Please ensure that named, static-modifier, non-random loot in U15/16/etc works hard to fill the unbelievably massive vacuum in itemization. Some builds have virtually nothing to wear atm, and while checking the AH 2-3 times a day might eventually help its certainly not as appealing as hunting down named items to gear up with. Nor does it allow parity between different characters, as effects pairings fall to the mercy of the RNG instead of catering to controlled combined groupings of effects. Again, please allow us the chance for feedback to U15/16 loot, and please try to ensure as much of it is named/static as possible, over a wide variety of things. Thanks.

[Bindox]

Its forever...... Until you TR at least......

It is still forever.. because you would not have gotten to the next life without earning it prior to the TR.