Voidwatch Drop Rates/Loot Distribution

[Kuraudo]

My linkshell has been doing Voidwatch for a while now and so far the drop rates we've seen are horrible. What's the point of triggering the NM's weakness and obtaining max alignment with 18 people if we keep getting petrified logs most of the time?

In Abyssea you get control of your drops when you proc that nice blue !!! weakness and the majority of the time you get the drop you want. For Voidwatch it's the same thing. You have control of your drop rates by procing certain alignments. The only difference with this system is you don't get treated with the same drop rates. Why are we going backwards and not forward? These drop rates make Sea Torques look good.

Not only are we treated with horrible drop rates, but we get one of the worst item distribution systems in the game. It seriously is horrible. Tonight we did Celaeno 9 times and not one of our BRDs obtained a Langeleik (Harp). Wanna know who got a Langeleik? All the damage dealers got them. I can't tell you how angry I would be if one of my members who has already obtained a Anhur Robe/Fazheluo Radiant Mail/Mextli Harness got one of those again! We should be allowed to trade these items to our alliance members so they go to the proper person and don't go to waste.

I'm sure the majority of the players who participate in Voidwatch can agree that the drop rates and loot distribution system are terrible.

Developers, I beg you… please consider changing this. If this is the new endgame then make the rewards plentiful and the loot distribution smart instead of complete and utter garbage. (Also, why did we get Abyssea seals in our loot pool? We don't need anymore of that. Let that stay in Abyssea please!)

[starfxcker000]

It's very infuriating seeing these pieces go to people who can't use them, or even worse, to mules. I would be happy if we could at least decide who gets the piece, that way the proper people are getting geared. Look at Salvage... The drop rate sucked for how long? But when that shiny 35 appeared in the pool, you bet your ass it was going to someone who could use it. Something needs to be done about this.

And why the hell are we getting seals in the chests now? If I wanted seals, I'd go to Abyssea. If you can't get seals from Abyssea for whatever silly reason, I highly doubt you have the means to do Voidwatch.

[Arylias]

Come on SE, it is a slap in the face when you take 20+ minutes to proc full alignments, then get the shaft, every time, for 5+ hours straight.

We aren't asking for 75-90% drop rates like Abyssea, but come on, it's less and a 1% drop rate on the bodies off the tier IVs. With full lights it should be at least a 5% drop rate, so that more than 1 person can get a drop per 7 hours. I understand you don't want us finishing end-game in a day like in Abyssea, but seriously, this is ridiculous.

Also, what's the deal with sphere effects not working on yourself?

[ThaiChi]

I agree with this, this event is very interesting to me, but all in all, frustrating -- especially when we work really hard on these NMs which are not easily held because of AoE standard attacks, Weakness inflicting special attacks, Encumberment infliction, debuffs that cannot be removed, Tier 4 High element AoE spells and -jas.

These admittedly provide a very big challenge to our LS and that in itself is enjoyable, but oftentimes we're holding the our Tier 4 Voidwatch NM for nearly 30 minutes trying to use the proper weaponskill, reload our blue magic, land appropriate enfeebles and (hopefully) doing everything right and what we're supposed to be doing for this battle system, yet at the end of the fight we are rewarded with craft items we just give to an NPC for gil anyway. It seems like giving us this weakness targetting system has revolutionized the way we play FFXI, but in this, control of the treasure has been taken out of our hands again and just given all to chance.

I got an Irrwisch Ring without trading any cells, and just from quickly killing the NM that dropped it. It didn't feel any different than getting my Strendu ring with full spectral alightment and a full proper battle. I have a fellow LS member, who may very well be posting in this thread, that has gotten around 7 Strendu Rings -- maybe even more. Its pretty upsetting seeing that someone who needs that not be able to get it but someone who has one (or two or three or seven) have to drop one to the floor.

[DAngel]

I concur. That is all.

[Runespider]

It's very infuriating seeing these pieces go to people who can't use them, or even worse, to mules. I would be happy if we could at least decide who gets the piece, that way the proper people are getting geared. Look at Salvage... The drop rate sucked for how long? But when that shiny 35 appeared in the pool, you bet your ass it was going to someone who could use it. Something needs to be done about this.

Guessing the dev team took offence to all the people selling drops RMT style, the method they chose to try counter it was terrible though.

[Quartett]

I couldn't agree more with what have been said about voidwatch. When viodwatch first came out, it's fresh and interesting to most of my LS-mates including myself. But after a while, especially when the whole LS spending an entire week doing nothing but viodwatch and seeing the drop rate been so bad and random, it's very discourage.

Every time when we ran voidwatch we always tried our best to proc the full spectral alignments, all we seen were logs.. gems.... random crafting items..... and more logs. But when the gears finally dropped, it either went to a person who doesn't has the job that can wear it or someone's mule.

I can understand that SE wants all the participant to has some form of reward, but with the way it's drop system works now, it's just frustrating and discouraging. And lastly, please consider remove the seals that might be taking up the possible gears or items spaces that drops from the chest. What's the point of putting random seals in voidwatch? If we need seals we can low-man them from abyssea, there's no reason and point of dragging more than 15 players just so we can get some random seals from voidwatch.

[Mr_Agnol]

I have just finished reading the first few posts in this thread and I am sad to say that I too share the same exact sentiments as my fellow adventurers. It is truly disheartening to attend a linkshell event, that lasts more than 5 hours, to only finish said event with only a single body having dropped to a linkshell member.

Tonight i decided to not trade any of my cells to the planar rift in any of the 9 fights that my linkshell and I participated in and I received one of the tougher items to get. My linkshell and I achieved full lights in just about every fight yet we only saw one body armor tonight. With 18 people in a full alliance doing the tier 4 nm 9 times each, that means that the treasure chest was opened 162 times with only 1 person receiving the item that everyone wants. Would someone please tell me how these odds are fair? I would really appreciate some feedback on this.

I know that the Voidwatch system has been somewhat tweaked from its original inception to allow for more items to be dropped and this is noticeable to an extent. I think the Voidwatch system now needs a total overhaul. For Voidwatch to be called the new "endgame" it is truly sad. I love ffxi and i enjoy spending time with my friends and having fun and getting new gear for everyone but we aren't having fun anymore and we definitely aren't getting new gear. If nobody is able to receive gear from Voidwatch part 1 then what is the point of introducing Voidwatch part 2?

My linkshell has done everything there is in this game and then some. When Voidwatch first appeared it seemed fresh and new and very bold and also exciting, until we realized that we weren't getting any items. Most of the items that we do find in our treasure chests are items that we no longer need. The fact that we are finding random Abyssea seals without a predetermined job is just hurtful. Voidwatch isn't a cakewalk and by no means are the tier 4 nms pushovers. If you still need seals for your jobs then you don't need to do Voidwatch, you should be finishing Abyssea. My linkshell does Voidwatch to get items that are Voidwatch specific. Seals should stay in Abyssea, that is where they belong.

I beg of you dev. team, please fix the issues with Voidwatch part1 before you tease us and waste my time as well as my linkshell's time by showing us gear and items that we will never EVER receive.

[Brehn]

So, Voidwatch......... How many Strendu Rings do you need?! Right now I think I've gotten enough rings for each finger, toe and well lets just say everywhere else you can put a ring.

Not being able to distribute unwanted loot into a common treasure pool (alla abyssea gold chests - thanks for that one) takes this event from being fun and a wee bit challenging, to down right frustrating at watching the other people in your alliance get the same rare/ex item (the one you're dying to have) over and over again while you're left with a green rock, or worse yet, an AF3 seal you could have solo'd in about 1/4 of the time (as if anyone who can actually do VW can't manage an abyssea seal NM lol) And god forbid you covert one of the bodies - you have more luck of winning the lottery and being struck by lightning in the same day~

I'm all for drops being rare and hard to get, but not like this. Initially I was excited that the dev team was revamping the drop system, until I realized that revamping simply meant adding AF3 seals. Seriously, people complain that they are to hard to get, so they are added into Voidwatch? I could see the humor in that if they were additional to the pool instead of replacing the junk that you NPC for at least a little somethin' somethin' at the end of the night lol.

That other LS's are posting drop rates of 3-4 bodies per run further proves how random and thus fundamentally flawed the drop system is in Voidwatch. There is no reward for the effort put in. Why spend time refining the proc system if at the end of the day it actually means nothing, because drop are 100% random?

Right now, our LS averages one body every ten or so fights (if you do that math on that that's 1/180 treasure pools which is more than a little ridiculous) but even then we could stomach it if we could see that the body went to someone that could actually use it. Hell, even equip it would be a major plus.

This really needs to be fixed.

[Bigboy]

I've been participating in Voidwatch since it was added to the game and while there have been minor improvements, such as seeing who procc'd what, and making Treasure Hunter do something, the whole system is fundamentally flawed. We've all been trained to believe that triggering a monsters weaknesses leads to a favorable result. Maybe not everything we want, but something is guaranteed. Now we've been given a system that is a little more intricate and requires alot more work, only to have it spit logs in our face all night. Personally, if the goal was for Voidwatch to replace all forms of HELM, then it has done a great job! Mission accomplished! There is no way a group of 18 people could mine and harvest as much stuff as we get in 30 minutes.

Unfortunately, I don't think this was really a requested addition to the game. I would prefer a similar styled battle system with gear rewards instead of crafting supplies. On occasion, someone gets a piece of gear out of their crafting box, and that is always nice, but I think just having the gear drop into the pool to be divvied amongst the group would be more appropriate. It sucks when you are really looking forward to that darksteel ingot and get another Strendu ring you can't hold instead. That spot in the chest could have been something I could sell!

In short, please just put my crafting items in the chest, and don't let the gear take up that spot. It can go in the treasure pool for some other shmuk.