hey SE, will you be increading the drop chance for zodiac dungeon items?

[Blazen]

Since there isn't intelligent RNG, the drops over time look like a bell curve. A very small percentage will get drops very fast. The overwhelming majority in the percentage of the drop rate. A very small percentage will get drops very slow. Then, there are even smaller percent of people. A very very small numer will get there drops the first time in the dungeons. However, for each person that gets the drop the 1st time, there is a person that NEVER gets the drop. THAT is why you need some intelligent RNG behind the drops. THIS is also why we hear some many people unable to get the drops. They eventually give up.

This is not fun and I give up. The only thing we can do to show displeasure is to withdraw our dollar. Otherwise SE believes everything is ok. So that is what I have done. I encourage anyone else that is bored or not having fun or "just waiting for Heavensward" to show how you feel with you money.

Otherwise I wish you all luck and hope you find fun that I have lost.

[Culfinrandir]

Since there isn't intelligent RNG, the drops over time look like a bell curve.

Otherwise I wish you all luck and hope you find fun that I have lost.

FINALLY, someone else who understands the statistics and the relationship with RNG in the game. I keep trying to get people to understand that unless the "percentage" shown is 0% or 100% you cannot, at all, predict the outcome due to RNG. Some people will experience 99.9r% and get drops like crazy whilst others will experience 0.0r1% and effectively never get the drop they need.

[moudoka]

So, sorry to say, but you're doing it wrong. Zodiac weaponry isn't nearly as prestigious as Dreadwyrm or even Ironworks weaponry. It's just a glorified grindstick. Just let it go.

Sorry to say, but I'm doing it wrong? Pray tell, how is that? I can't influence the RNG aspect of this game, otherwise I would exert control over it. To me, dreadwrym stuff is pointless, as it's dungeons that are built around the elitist players who hate anyone who makes a singular mistake that wipes the entire party. No thanks.

[Synestr]

So, should I or shouldn't I start my Zodic? I have two jobs in mind. My PLD (goto tank) and BLM (goto DPS). Currently I have one (1) atma....yes 1.

Is the road so long that I would run out of gas before hitting the end?

[Riepah]

The Zodiac step is by far the worst kind of filth. I tend to run dungeons together with my friend, and she'd have her Zodiac done twice over by now if she didn't help me re-run the dungeons that drop her item before my own. It is absolutely disgusting that some people are so lucky that they get each drop within their first 3 runs of a dungeon, while others can run the same damn place over 10 times and leave empty handed.

Please quit the unfair RNG bullcrap. Give us a proper, honest, straightforward grind - tell us to run each dungeon 5 times. Tell us to run each dungeon 10 times, even, but make it fair across the board. Same effort should yield the same reward. As it is, some can put in over a dozen times the effort of others who get their Zodiac and get absolutely nothing for it.

[Callinon]

So, should I or shouldn't I start my Zodic? I have two jobs in mind. My PLD (goto tank) and BLM (goto DPS). Currently I have one (1) atma....yes 1.

Is the road so long that I would run out of gas before hitting the end?

Starting from a full atma weapon, I finished my zeta weapon in about six weeks. I figured that if I were to start a new weapon from the zenith stage (where you are), I'd probably need another 3-5 days for atma drops depending on drop rates.

Keep in mind that this was some seriously hardcore relic farming I was doing. Like... 8+ hours a day.

The biggest stumbling blocks for me were the atma farming (pre-nerf), the alexandrite farming when the rng gods just spent a day pissing on me (tried to average 10 per day.. some days got 6, some days got 20... 8+ hours a day), and the soldiery farming for the zodiac step.

If you do decide to start now, I have some recommendations for you:

- Buy your Bombard Cores early. I had mine before I was done with my Novus step. With all the book farming and FATE farming you end up doing you get more than enough seals to completely trivialize this step.
- Don't bother with tier IV materia. Buying all the materia for my Novus cost me about 2m gil. I got some of that back selling back leftovers I didn't end up needing.
- Bookmark this reddit live thread: https://www.reddit.com/live/tlfmtjl4fteo this thread tracks which pieces of content are in their bonus window for light farming. This applies to both nexus and zeta farming.
- Have capped soldiery (2000) at the end of your Nexus step so that you can immediately buy a Sacred Spring Water when starting zodiac farming. This lets you open extra dungeons you can farm for drops right away and removes a bunch of the soldiery farm from this step. Two of the four quests for the Zodiac step require you to throw Spring Water at them right away, so being able to satisfy one of those immediately is a great time saver.
- The Zodiac step ended up costing me about 1.7m gil in vendor mats and crafted mats.

[Synestr]

Thank you very much for the info, it will definitely help. I have decided to go for both PLD and BLM. So looks like I have something to do while waiting for heavensward to pop.

Again thank you for your input.

[MicahZerrshia]

I must say I have built 3 of these and am working on my forth and although yes sometimes dungeons can seem like they never want to drop an item....ever (hello 40-something runs of copperbell and 20-something satasha just on my first) it really isn't all that bad. Especially considering that once your first relic is complete if you are working on another, you can get at least half of your lights from farming the drops and get the needed soldiery for this stage, basically doing two in one. Which, when you do a second, makes it not seem so bad. However a select few of the dungeons seem to hold out, I would say a majority of them gave up their drop in around 4-5 runs. Considering these weapons are supposed to be "fun" and have easy-ish to get equivalents its not so bad. The worst thing they did was put 2 pre-lvl 50 dungeons on the list, AV and DD should never have been added, it was a poor poor decision on whoever thought this quest up to put lvl 40 dungeons in the mix.

Personally my first one made me hate relics, all those parties farming garuda over and over for endless hours then bashing my head against a wall running dungeons again and again and again. But when you move on to your second, its really not so bad since you can complete stages ahead of time while making progress on your current stage. The biggest bottleneck at this point is defiantly alexandrite imo. Nearly everything we have so far outside mahatma, can be done as a single quest. Novus-nexus-zodiac, its 3 stages in one basically. And you can get atma and alex, bombard cores, spring waters, crafted items, materia, all ahead of time while doing other content. It all fits in quite nicely.

I would definitely say, never stop farming items for relics, cause if you decide a couple months down the road that you want to do another, oh look you have your atma, and alex, and materia, dungeon drops and everything else. With the dungeon quests always able to be active, you can get your drops by doing things like high lvl dailies, relic book runs, helping fc mates and so on. Poof your relic appears with just farming light holding you back. Its actually smart in its design.

And frankly I would much rather run the same dungeon 20 times than farm fates for the equivalent amount of time.

[Zophar]

Same boat with this guy. Started my 4th recently. My last one, had the most appalling drop rates of my 3, to the point where I'm genuinely shocked that I actually started a 4th. My longest dry spell was about 84 runs without a drop. Even taking that into account. I was finished, from zenith to zodiac, in less than a month. Granted, this was with 27 alex pre stored, and I also did lights and zodiac dungeon drops simultaneously, but still, a month is really not a lot of work for such a weapon, especially if you compare it to how long it takes to get similar ultimate weapons in other MMO's.

And if I'm to be honest, it shouldn't take less than a month to get a weapon like this. Your alternative of course is dreadwyrm, which, for the mass majority, will probably take longer than that to clear from t10-13, and then you're praying on yet more rng hoping that your weapon drops this week.

Bottom line, if it's not worth the effort, don't do it. Do coil instead. And if you have no interest in doing coil... what do you honestly even need a 135 weapon for any way?

[ThirdChild_ZKI]

Speaking from a perspective of one who opted out at the Animus stage (I did the original Atma grind and hated it all the way), for those who chose the raid route, the joke's on us. If you cleared T9 just before Nexus was added AND got your weapon drop, it became inferior to the relic just like that. And again now with Dreadwyrm. We knew the relic would be the best, yes. But that effectively means choosing a harder (but not necessarily shorter) path. And all for a weapon that's still inferior in the end. So I ask, by that logic, what option do we REALLY have?