Provenance Watcher~

[Mahoro]

I assume you are aware of the irony of using the very type of personalized argument in your third paragraph that you highlight in your second paragraph. I was intentionally trying not to personalize my own drop rate (which is fairly good) but instead use the general trend of anecdotes from people.

In any event, yes, Kirin and Odin have higher drop rates for items and abjurations. Sure, perhaps not the most DESIRED ones (W. Legs, E. Body), but higher drop rate of stuff nonetheless. Odin has guaranteed loot slots for abjurations. Prov Watcher's loot table is just as big, if not bigger, than Kirin/Odin etc. But most of those items have the exact same low drop rate. As for your other example, JoL farts out an earring 100%, it's just a flip of the coin whether it's a Novia or Novio. Your personal experience is irrelevant to my point because although it took you time to get DKP for a Novio, OTHER PEOPLE in your group were getting either Novias or Novios every kill. That isn't happening here.

Granted it does take longer to get popsets for other endgame content bosses, but I guess people can decide for themselves whether a 1-5% drop rate of an NM that takes 6 Caturae kills and a Dragon kill evens out with an NM like Odin that takes 9 chamber kills spread out over a larger time period and a horsey kill.

[Yinnyth]

I assume you are aware of the irony of using the very type of personalized argument in your third paragraph that you highlight in your second paragraph.

I can see why people would think that, and I suppose that's my fault for not better outlining my argument. I wasn't trying to say that basing it on personal experience is bad. Personal experience, after all, is all we have to go on for this. It's just that you have to keep in mind there are a vast number of personal experiences we choose not to, or are unable to consider. I told no one in my PuG when my kalasiris or my boots dropped, so for all they know, the drop rate is uber crappy. Though to be fair, 4 other people actually admitted to getting fajin boots (one of them claiming to get 3 pairs).

My point is this: people have one bad experience and then they hyper-focus on it, ignoring everything else. But they forget that they got omphalos bullet on their first set of akvans (even though they might not play cor). They neglect to mention that they got brego gloves while they were just doing one kill to tier-up. They choose not to pay attention to the fact that 7 people in their group got the item they wanted from the kill in one set of 4 kills. The luck swings back and forth in VW as it does in any event. It averages out to be a better drop rate than Einherjar, Sky Gods, Sea Gods, Land Gods, and Zeni NMs.

You will spend less time killing Qilin for a sparkle dagger than you would spend sitting around dragon aery and waiting for claim, then waiting for drops, then waiting for your turn to finally get ridill. (yes, I know the system has changed now, I'm talking about the way it was when Ridill was shiny). But since people only pay attention to the big items they want, and they only pay attention to their own loot pool, and they see 0 drops, they begin to think to themselves: "0% drop rate = worse than 5% drop rate on defending ring", therefore droprate is worse than King Behemoth. Which is untrue. It won't be long before there's more Adamas' on each server than defending rings.

True, you could get unlucky and wind up going 1/100. But in that time, you'll probably get half of Provenance's other drops, and it's still no more ridiculous than the drop rates of old.

[Aequis]

But they forget that they got omphalos bullet on their first set of akvans (even though they might not play cor). They neglect to mention that they got brego gloves while they were just doing one kill to tier-up.

It's really difficult, because I agree with so many things said on here but vehemently disagree with others. The above, very true. When you're chasing those one or two specific items, the race becomes all about that goal.

I don't agree with the next comment though. It's irrelevant whether someone else in your group gets their item because it doesn't impact on yourself in any positive way (due to individual chests). In fact, with the way the system works, every time that happens the situation takes a turn for the worse. Fewer people are going to be shouting for that NM, any shout will take longer to fill, people get impatient and leave, thus the overall chance of you getting that item diminishes.

It's unfair to compare VW now to Sky 7 years old.

Oh, I agree. Was just pointing out that when Square Enix "update" content they merely half-fix it, so it's somewhat better but still has gaping problems. Sky and sea are still huge timesinks, even when you can kill an NM in three minutes. I just get the feeling that no matter what we ask for, SE are not going to change VW beyond the scope of, "Oooh, let's change BST procs because some of them can miss the target right now." They're failing to see the point. By virtue of "updates" of that nature, either SE are incompetent or blatantly ignorant.

Although I wouldn't mind seeing Prov Watcher shit out an abjuration or something 100%, I actually wish all Voidwatch mobs had similar loot mechanics to this dragon: individual loot pools AND direct drops. This is one trend I like, and I wish they retroactively applied it to prior VWNM's. The individual pools would reward the PUGs, and the direct drops would reward the DKP-based LS's.

We already have Prov shout groups that lock the loot pools (where this false sense of entitlement comes from, I don't know) and I feel it could only get worse if this happened. To even see a body/piece of Rubeus/Ogier's/Athos's is very rare. To see it, then get outlotted by someone who is lotting "for the lolz" or because they might level a job that can use it in future ... no. I don't even want to go there.

I understand how that seems paradoxical of me to say, but I don't want to be a part of a linkshell "waiting my turn" either. I want to set my own paths and achieve things at my own pace; not battle a R.N.G every time I do a VWNM.