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

[Hiruke]

There are several items that appear to have a 1% (or less) drop rate:

Mirror of the Whorl
Nightmare
Enbarr
(other primal mounts)
(probably the weapons from Ramuh, as well)

You could have literally 100s of wins on Leviathan and never see a mirror. You could have similar problems with mounts.

People need real, achievable goals. Planning to defeat Leviathan 1,000 times because it will probably take you that long to see enough mirrors for you to get the winning lot is not a real, achievable goal. This is a punishment you might hand out to yourself.

If the dev team feels level 100 weapons are too good to "just hand out", lock them behind a more difficult fight, not make them a mythical item that never drops. It's really not that hard to get a level 100 weapon from Coil. Which you can then make a level 110 weapon by beating the next turn in Coil. And then you can get a level 115 weapon. Ideally people would be wanting the animus or the tidal weapons to make Coil easier, but honestly it's easier/faster just to get the Coil weapons, which is absolutely ludicrous.

I just want a mirror for my weapon(s) for the vanity skins. I'll want Ramuh weapons for the same reason.

I don't see what it proves, beating primals thousands of times for mounts and low level weapons. I could be the best player ever (I'm not) and I could still never get these weapons or mounts, just because the drop rate is so awful.

I understand the dev team wants to extend the "life" of the game by making stuff take a long time to get, but this is a really poor way to go about it. For "mainstream" and "casual" players, even beating Extreme Primals to begin with is an amazing feat. I regularly watch people wipe Ifrit EX even though it's super easy, much less Titan EX or Levi EX. Are mounts and level 100 weapons only for the "hardcore"? Because really if you legitimately want to get this stuff and not just have it be pure luck if you happen to find a PT that wins and happen to see it drop and happen to win lot, you need you and 7 other people who are SUPER into getting this stuff, and just farm. For days. Weeks. Whatever it takes.

That sounds like a huge waste of time. Just like PvP. No one does PvP for real. Even doing win trades, where you hop in and murder the other PT, then do it again and let them murder you, it takes over 130+ hours to get to rank 40 to even wear the like 3 sets of level 100 PvP gear you bought along the way. Playing legitimately would probably like like 10 times that long, once you factor in waiting for queues, having to actually fight, and like, probably not winning that often. We're talking like half a year of dedicating 8 hours a day to that "super awesome" PvP. Seems good, right?

Almost everything is like that. Animus quest. Novus quest. PvP. Primal mounts/mirrors. Is this content just not meant to be done? It's not like any of that stuff is particularly difficult (except I guess EX primals, if you're not "hardcore"), it just takes forever and isn't fun.

You can try to force people to do really boring stuff and make it take forever, and for a while it might work. Getting people to play your game longer because they have "things to do", but eventually everyone's going to wake up and be like "Ummm. Why am I wasting my life? I'm sick of this. I've beaten Levi EX 567 times, seen mirror like 3 times, and lost lot every time. And a lot of the game is like this. Screw it. I'm out!" Especially after watching someone who dies every time win lot on mirror or something. Or people who just got the achievement, because this is the first time they even beat it. And they did awful. Amazing. I feel so rewarded! Right!?

It's annoying to even get accessories off something like Titan EX using DF or PF, because people are clearly awful and can't dodge mechanics. It took me forever just to get Tremor Earrings. Think I'm going to continue farming just for a stupid yellow horse? I mean, I want that stupid yellow horse, but it's hardly worth the misery. It would take me even longer than getting PvP gear for vanity.

[Vahlnir]

Yeah, I would wholeheartedly disagree with you on this. All I can really say is: Welcome to the world of MMOs, where rare items are usually rare and grinds are aplenty. There is also content meant for the more "casual" crowd and other things for people who are a bit more skilled at playing. That's just the way it is. :P

[RygaenYuui]

Yeah, I would wholeheartedly disagree with you on this. All I can really say is: Welcome to the world of MMOs, where rare items are usually rare and grinds are aplenty. There is also content meant for the more "casual" crowd and other things for people who are a bit more skilled at playing. That's just the way it is. :P

More like, WELCOME TO JRPG LOGIC.

to the OP: Get used to it, because you'll be sitting in that seat for a good bit; While you're sitting, I'd like to tell you of a story Circa 2004 FFXI where LV Limit Break items to exceed the level cap dropped at less than 1% drop rate and were in very dangerous areas at the time. You'd be lucky to get a drop that same day.

I would say be grateful, but seems like this may be your first time with something like this. So condolences are extended to you while you learn not everything is handed out to every person and that not everyone's work/effort is counted as equal in the world of an MMOJRPG.

[chococo]

More like, WELCOME TO JRPG LOGIC.

to the OP: Get used to it, because you'll be sitting in that seat for a good bit; While you're sitting, I'd like to tell you of a story Circa 2004 FFXI where LV Limit Break items to exceed the level cap dropped at less than 1% drop rate and were in very dangerous areas at the time. You'd be lucky to get a drop that same day.

I would say be grateful, but seems like this may be your first time with something like this. So condolences are extended to you while you learn not everything is handed out to every person and that not everyone's work/effort is counted as equal in the world of an MMOJRPG.

what? those items dropped in around 1-2hrs pf farming typically, and you're done with it forever.

In FFXIV, you probably spend way more than that farming mirrors, and probably don't get it either.

[skho01]

Yeah, I would wholeheartedly disagree with you on this. All I can really say is: Welcome to the world of MMOs, where rare items are usually rare and grinds are aplenty. There is also content meant for the more "casual" crowd and other things for people who are a bit more skilled at playing. That's just the way it is. :P

I wholeheartedly disagree with your disagreement. Each of the weapons and weapon upgrades are supposed to be progression for casuals. Yet they're locking that behind pure rng.

[Codek]

Why post a wall of text with not a single suggestion for a means of improvement?

Why???

Cause I would love to hear your idea for how to keep players playing a game while excluding the grind (without the call for 'more content').

[Gardes]

Why post a wall of text with not a single suggestion for a means of improvement?

Why???

Cause I would love to hear your idea for how to keep players playing a game while excluding the grind (without the call for 'more content').

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.

Grant players an atma affinity every time they finish a fate and not get atma. Effect keeps stacking until they zone out or get an atma. After 30 or so fates, players will have 15% chance of getting an atma in that zone. If they are unlucky they can keep going and keep doing fates to increase the drop rate even higher.

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

[Zarzak]

Grant players an atma affinity every time they finish a fate and not get atma. Effect keeps stacking until they zone out or get an atma. After 30 or so fates, players will have 15% chance of getting an atma in that zone. If they are unlucky they can keep going and keep doing fates to increase the drop rate even higher.

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

Speaking of the Atma specifically I'd have much preferred it be a "do every fate in the zone once" type quest or a "hey theres a new lvl 50 fate thats really rare to kill"

1st one because then you have measurable progress (which generally frustrates people less than spending 3 hours farming and having no progress to show for it even if it takes just as long)

2nd one because I find it VERY VERY stupid that I'm doing a level 5 fate to get a top end item

[Pyretta_Blaze]

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.

Grant players an atma affinity every time they finish a fate and not get atma. Effect keeps stacking until they zone out or get an atma. After 30 or so fates, players will have 15% chance of getting an atma in that zone. If they are unlucky they can keep going and keep doing fates to increase the drop rate even higher.

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

I like your suggestions. Keeps people farming for the big payoff with a low drop rate but still see progress if you are unlucky.

Non-equipment drops like rare mounts should stay rare. (I don't have any either)

[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).