Tomes vs random drops

[Ghastly]

I have seen so many good mmos die to rng for gear and upgrading.....

[Reptiletc]

What about this? Tomestone gear set to randomly drop from an instance, and if you get one you can't use, trade it in for a different one so long as it is 0% soulbound and of the same type (body for body, feet for feet). Considering that raid gear is truly the best, this would allow everyone else to gear up in good time without excuse.

The glaring problem here is that everyone would be geared up within a day and the added content would be null and dated on release.

[Naunet]

I prefer a mix, with random drops (from dungeons or raids - not "any mob in this entire zone") being primary and some kind of farmable system meant as a supplement. When gearing becomes a matter of just grinding through a checklist, it becomes a little mind-numbing.

Now, this only applies if a loot table is not obscenely bloated wherein the chance of any individual item dropping is super low.

What about this? Tomestone gear set to randomly drop from an instance, and if you get one you can't use, trade it in for a different one so long as it is 0% soulbound and of the same type (body for body, feet for feet). Considering that raid gear is truly the best, this would allow everyone else to gear up in good time without excuse.

The glaring problem here is that everyone would be geared up within a day and the added content would be null and dated on release.

That's what loot lockouts are for.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

Tomes please. Grinding anything with no guarantee of useful rewards is the absolute worst. :c I got sick of it after spending 10 hours straight farming a 30 minute boss in Monster Hunter for a 1% drop chance, especially since I couldn't always land enough damage to break the required limb for a shot at the loot I needed.

[Ophie-Mio]

I prefer the idea of RNG drops but I remember playing XI and it being locked behind luck and Linkshell politics that basically made you show up for three months and slave away for nothing because no one ever had more points than the top five. So yeah, it's a mixed bag for me.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

I prefer random drops. In games where there are random drops, I enjoy running dungeons over and over for the hope that my item will drop. In games where there are tokens, I don't enjoy running dungeons over and over, as there is no hope - it's simply a chore to check off my to-do list.

Unless those drops are capped the same way 24-man Raids do it, people will simply farm dungeons until they're geared and have no reason to go back. Regardless, I prefer having tomes because it's guaranteed progression in lieu of luck. I had to run A9N 20+ times one week to get the bolt I wanted. By the 15th, I just stopped caring.

[Magic-Mal]

The relic taught me this is not a good idea.

Also PotD sacks.

[Chalbee]

Considering that it took me about 2 months of running Sohr Khai/Hullbreaker Hard 2 or 3 times per day to get the Panegyrist chestwrap, I'll take the tomes. By the time I actually got the damn thing, I didn't even want it anymore. And I was only after it for glamour, I would have been even more upset if I actually needed the gear for progression.

[JunseiKei]

I prefer the token system. Doing Coils, it was incredibly annoying getting the same drop three times in a row, being locked out at once a week until the lock out lifted. It's also incredibly annoying to be held back in gear simply because RNG decides it wants to mess with you. Considering you can still get the items before you hit the amount of tokens needed, I find this a decent mitigation on RNG.

We had the Midan Belt of Fending drop six times in a row. We've also gotten double healing accessories three times in a row in the Alexandrian tier. Our poor monk has only ever gotten his gear through tokens (it really hates him!); I can only imagine his rage if it had the same loot system as Coil.

EDIT: Nope, wait. I was wrong; he got the striking headpiece through a drop.

[Kaurie]

Unless those drops are capped the same way 24-man Raids do it, people will simply farm dungeons until they're geared and have no reason to go back. Regardless, I prefer having tomes because it's guaranteed progression in lieu of luck. I had to run A9N 20+ times one week to get the bolt I wanted. By the 15th, I just stopped caring.

I understand your concern for sure. My concern is that I stopped caring about all instanced content in this game completely a long time ago. I no longer play for the content, I play for my friends.