Grounds of Valor / Brown Casket Feedback

[Byrth]

Well, first off I'd say that you were lucky to get level 5 Casket detection. I spent about a week in CN's basement and only got it to Level 3, while some of my other buffs were level 11. It seems to level up about as quickly as Attack speed.

Secondly, they *are* that rare. My week in CN probably had 30-50 brown caskets a night, and I never saw Cocoon Band. It took me about 6 hours in R.Pass to get a Grapevine cape, which remains the only brown casket item I've gotten. I'd be surprised if the drop rate was higher than 5% per brown casket, likely between 1 and 3%.

Not very promising, considering I'm about to confine myself to Bost. Ob. (lolthat place) for Melaco Mittens. I'd just buy them, but there aren't ever any on AH.

[ShadowHeart]

ya but some things like fisherman's torque are ex/rar can't buy them ..... they need to fix drop rates or items in chests lol

[Seriha]

Well, after going dry in Zeruhn and then trying Oubliette for Melaco Mittens and going try there with level 6 Casket Discovery and a full signet's worth of active killing over a couple days of logging on and off, I can quite comfortably say drop rates on these things blow.

As a level 90 plowing through mobs 56-60, I don't really need things like the HP buffs, skill up boosts, and so on. It probably took about 8 hours to get to the level of CD that I did, at which point I stopped doing regimes and focused steamrolling the 8-10 Werebats leading down to the Bloodsuckers. Sometimes I'd still go a while with no chests at all, but I certainly saw my share of garbage loot and probably got enough Errant Slops to outfit the server.

Overall, the default casket rate needs to improve, as well as more of them added to the DATs if its a crowded time (which happened on occasion). I'd also propose prowess buffs be changed to a system of spent points that exponentially grows per level of a given category. So, for every clear you would get one Prowess Point. You can then spend that point on level 1 Casket Discovery. To get the next you'd need 2 points, then 4, then 8, and so on until max or your desired level. Thus you avoid the garbage buffs or even the times you get no buffs at all.

Eventually I just caved after my signet wore, warped back home, and bought the stupid things after seeing someone I'd seen EXPing got them to drop. Lucky them. Random junk maybe paid for 1/4 of it, but it's still pretty sad to have dumped 15 hours into actively hunting for a drop just to not get it. I'd almost rather camp old school NMs where it's either a case of focusing on PH or just waiting for free spawns. At least then you know the chance to get is better once the mob is in your claim.

[ShadowHeart]

took me 43 hours of compiled playtime without leaving zones to get the item i was after .... and trust me if i could buy them i would but few of them are ex/rar and there isn't the option.... at least increase the ex/rar drop rate ones its bs lol SE dropped the ball again with crap items in the chests and after 9 years they think they would make them useful at least...

SE increase ex/rar drop rates already

[Rosina]

they changed the mobs in the outer ruins near giddeus. b4 mobs checked ep-dc at 10. now are t and up. that tower was a good solo place for 7-14. Now its ruined kinda trying to find a new solo location

[Kraggy]

My second issue would be that we still can't spend merit points in the field. I've had 20.999 merits and capped buffer for the last three days.

Because the time taken to warp home, spend the limits and then port/ride back is sooooooooooo long.

/rolleyes

FFS, it's like 15 mins 'lost time' every few hours, is that really, really a problem?

Really?

[Aequis]

Because the time taken to warp home, spend the limits and then port/ride back is sooooooooooo long.

/rolleyes

FFS, it's like 15 mins 'lost time' every few hours, is that really, really a problem?

Really?

Then you'd lose whatever prowesses you'd earned, and if one of those is Casket Discovery at a high level, you don't really want to start over again. Especially if it's taken you over 30 hours to get it that high.

The rare item drop rate in caskets is pathetic, and it does need changing. No doubt about it. Some of them aren't worth the time it takes to potentially get one, so the entire system as it stands right now is skewed.

[Karbuncle]

Because the time taken to warp home, spend the limits and then port/ride back is sooooooooooo long.

/rolleyes

FFS, it's like 15 mins 'lost time' every few hours, is that really, really a problem?

Really?

prowess is lost when you zone.

I imagine if your goal is brown caskets, and you're sitting at level ~5 or higher casket discovery, the last thing you want to do is leave the zone.

Beyond that, bad design (I.E only being able to spend merits in your mog house) is Bad design, It shouldn't be like that regardless of how long its been like that. You should be able to spend merits on the fly if you desire.

[Khrnos]

Ah, the dreaded casket hunting. The horror stories I've heard and experienced myself... There definitely are some tweeking that needs to be done in regards to obtaining the rare items. There are quire a few aspects of of treasure caskets is just entirely too random from the appearance of brown caskets, the hints (not so bad but still pretty random), the prowess, and finally the items. There are just too many possible "junk" items and it's really diluting the chances for the desired rare items.
And with too many random aspects, it's either get really lucky and get the item really fast or horribly unlucky and spend hours to days to even weeks straight doing the same thing over and over and walking out completely drained. I doubt it was intended for this game to be taxing on it's players.
Thing like this are taking away time from doing the other things in the game that are actually fun.

Some suggestions:
-Some have already mentioned having more of a choice when it comes to prowess.

-Removing many of the "junk" items.

-Revising the possible prowess such as removing the useless "Increased crystal yield" and possibly adding some that increases the "quality of caskets" increasing the quality of items inside the caskets. As how it is with lights and the sturdy pyxis in abyssea.

-And as with abyssea, perhaps allowing players to view whats inside the chest before opening them.

-Or just plain and simply increase the drop rate for the "rare" items.

[ShadowHeart]

spent 6 + hours yesterday in maze of shik. got chiken bone, iron ore, potions.... u get idea best item was a crap nugget and when doing book 7 and 8 its a 10 minute run back and forth to even get a page... and make sure to take care leeches link like ...... but yes 6 hours which i dont mind spending if there was half a chance or a job i had use to do in there... all 20 jobs at 90 and merited so its only one reason to enter but to spend the next week in there for items like a neck, belt u might need for crafting etc is crazy but u know that there will be us out there who will do it really needs to be fixed though