1% or less drop rates and how they hurt the game

[Welsper59]

As someone who has played all the FF games (besides XI) I knew what I was getting into going into this.

The grind. The endless grind.

I had buddies who warned or just gave me the heads up, and I was fine with that. If you can't except the grind, I feel bad for you son. You got 99 items, and a mirror ain't one.

That's traditional RPGs in general for yah. The MMORPG genre just kicks it up a notch because you're dealing with other people while you do it.

Grinding is a fact of life in MMOs. Having said that, I think the drop rates on the mirror and the mounts are too low to serve what I imagine their purpose is - getting hardcore players to farm said content, thus keeping the dungeons more active for newer players to find groups, as well as to improve the odds that the newer players succeed by having experienced players assisting. The problem is that the items are so rare, that most hardcore players don't bother, negating those benefits.

If on the other hand, they just wanted to have something extremely rare for the sake of having something extremely rare, then they succeeded.

The problem with raising % chances of drops happening is that it becomes systematic. Once people can actually EXPECT something to happen, it becomes a part of the "required" process and no longer serves the intended feel of having it. Levi Ex isn't required content (so to speak) that makes farming mirrors mandatory, as they'd essentially be seen as the better alternative to Weathered coil weapons if drop rate was higher. That being said, what then happens to those weapons? They become pointless, which makes even less sense given that this is gear that comes from progressing through your absolute end goal as a raid (Coil).

[Arkista]

That's the crappy thing about RNG, You could get what you want the first time or it could take you 100s of tries. Honestly the people who put in all the time to get one mirror(if you have bad luck) could have used that time to farm up Atmas.

[Zarzak]

That's the crappy thing about RNG, You could get what you want the first time or it could take you 100s of tries. Honestly the people who put in all the time to get one mirror(if you have bad luck) could have used that time to farm up Atmas.

Well to get a equivalent weapon to the mirror it would be Atmas + 13k myth. Which yea they could still prolly do in about the same time. Unless they have a organized group and are guaranteed to get the mirror when it drops.

[WingsofWar]

I like the idea of progression on certain items like collecting broken mirror pieces and then transforming them into a single mirror for upgrade. Thats pretty cool, since its not exactly necessary to have a levi weapon for end game content. Most people use it for vanity or just to have. However every MMORPG does need a rare super item with a .01-1% drop rate where you can grind 1 million times and still not get it. That is a given and for a game such as this. IE; How many people will get the golden ticket after x amount of wonka bars, that shit is pretty exciting even though actually doing it is horrible, boring, and tedious with a chance you will never get one in your life.

[Gardes]

Mirrors were "balanced" with the atma/animus quest in mind and the t7 unid stone (+3 weeks of soldiery) which is behind a one week lockout.

It would kinda be awkward for the mirrors to be a higher drop rate since it gives a i100 weapon (although a deadend) considering how long the other options take when they were first released.

It's not balanced at all. Time taken could potentially be the same but the amount of effort to get a tome weapon versus an animus is astronomical. Winning T7 once a week over 3-4 weeks to distribute tomes around 4 dps and then getting 1300 soldiery, versus grinding almost a thousand fates, 13500 myth, 900 enemies, 27 dungeons, waiting for 27 fates that go into double digit hours, 27 leves. No contest, the former feels like a walk in the park compared what I have to go through for animus (I'm doing both).

[Zarzak]

snip

Agreed 10000%.

Stuff like the weapons I feel should have some system like this because... At how rare they are they will be replaced by better weapons before someone can reasonably be expected to acquire them. Hell even for alts if your a raider (or come 2.3 have a pulse) you will be able to get a weathered weapon for a small fraction of the effort.

Now if mirror weapons were uniquely superior in some way (such as bonus damage to primals or something which would actually be pretty cool.. Levi weapon does bonus to fire etc etc) then sure make it rare. But atm there are 2 other ilvl 100 weapons available and one of them is unquestionably easier to obtain. The other.... eh depends on luck from both sides. And since Levi is not useful for anything else it just isn't worth having

[Vaer]

It's not balanced at all. Time taken could potentially be the same but the amount of effort to get a tome weapon versus an animus is astronomical. Winning T7 once a week over 3-4 weeks to distribute tomes around 4 dps and then getting 1300 soldiery, versus grinding almost a thousand fates, 13500 myth, 900 enemies, 27 dungeons, waiting for 27 fates that go into double digit hours, 27 leves. No contest, the former feels like a walk in the park compared what I have to go through for animus (I'm doing both).

That's the point. T7 should feel more rewarding because it is harder content.

Animus can be done by yourself on your own time without needing the logistics of managing a static and having the requisite skill level to clear it every week. It's an alternate for people who can't do coil and does not require the skill level needed for Coil or even Levi EX for that matter.

[Airget]

An idea that comes to mind that could be the fairest way to do it, is add a 2% chance for a personal chest to drop for each win that has an increased drop rate for the mirror/weapon/mount and of course it would go directly to the player.

At least in this concept there wouldn't be a sense of a player saying they should be privileged to lot on the mirror because they have less shards etc.

There would in theory be less fighting over items because players that group together are fighting for the same cause in a sense, of course they all have fair game on the chest that always drop but if their personal chest drop it's all their's and the % drop on chest doesn't reset until the player touches the chest, so if a player worries about d/cing and their chest appearing they won't have to worry cause it will only reset upon claiming the chest.

[TheCurls]

I don't know about all you people complaining, but I fight Leviathan because I enjoy the fight. But I guess I'm weird.

The only reason I should be playing is to get the gear? Huh...

[Bushido_Brown]

Make players get a broken mirror piece every time they win a levi ex fight. Collect 20-30 of them and bring them to someone (gerolt?) to fix it and turn it back into a whole mirror piece. Take it to rowena's lackeys like usual. Back in 1.x, players can defeat garuda 10 times to get an item every time to exchange it for a garuda weapon of their choosing.

But yea, mounts kinda dont need to be tweaked (I dont have them btw).

This right here... we don't mind the grind when we know what we're working towards.
I would gladly defeat Lex 100 times and get a mirror than win 100 times with still only a ~60% chance of even seeing one drop, only to then have to loot against the rest of the party -_-

Another suggestion would be to give a drop rate bonus % when all party members are using the wave weapon they have already acquired (and stop dropping weapons that no jobs are even present for).