Tomes vs random drops

[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.

[Phireblast]

WoW's latest expansion pretty much convinced me that the random drop system can work if executed right.

[HyoMinPark]

I don't like either, but tomes are definitely the lesser of the two evils.

Take for example, my ninja I am currently leveling. I'm leveling it the old-school way of actually doing the leveling HW dungeons and not PotD (what is this?!). I still have a level 50 necklace, and a level 52 body piece and belt. I ran the Vault three times so far, and I have only gotten one piece of gear (earrings) from there. I had a Dex ring from back when I was doing story on my BRD.

This doesn't really change that tomes are more of a chore for me (I honestly haven't capped scripture in four weeks since I already have all the pieces I want for BRD and DRK), but RNG is cruel. (Because now that I actually need scouting gear, it's nowhere to be seen!!!)

[Kosme]

I guess for me it'd be a balance of the two, but I think tokens work better for a more casual game like this that throws rewards at players for little effort, and trains players to want things quickly (and possibly for little effort). Instant gratification tokens.

Both tokens and random drops have their ups and downs, but I think in this day and age you're more likely to keep people playing with a token system.

[Averax]

Tomes are a slow monotonous guarantee. You get there as an eventuality of all your work, but the road is a tedious and boring one.

Random drops are a spontaneous and exciting uncertainty. RNG can favor you, or hinder you. You could get the best drops, or never see them.

I prefer the chaos of the latter, honestly. It's a better carrot on a stick than grinding a currency for me.

Though there's nothing that says both cannot exist at once.

[Bourne_Endeavor]

Tomes are a slow monotonous guarantee. You get there as an eventuality of all your work, but the road is a tedious and boring one.

Random drops are a spontaneous and exciting uncertainty. RNG can favor you, or hinder you. You could get the best drops, or never see them.

I prefer the chaos of the latter, honestly. It's a better carrot on a stick than grinding a currency for me.

Though there's nothing that says both cannot exist at once.

I think where this may work is in Eureka. Keep weekly lockouts to prevent grinding and you'll essentially be able to gear two jobs equally. Granted, it does allow people to gear one just exceptionally fast. So that could be a problem.

[Yeol]

I've had a discussion with my friend about this few days ago.

So far we have:
- iL 225 dungeon drops (Expert).
- iL 250 from alexander normal.
- iL 250 crafted gear.
- iL 260 by exchanging tomestones.
- iL 270 from Alexander Savage.

Would be nice to have other way to get iL 260. For example finish expert dungeons in under 10 min.
This could drop 2 chests at the end with iL 260 accessories only! If you finish it within 15 min then you get 1 chest instead of 2.
Meaning you save your tomestones for your left side rather than accessories.

Even with this system it will take a player around 10-13 weeks to get complete iL260 on left side (Including weapon, not including belt).
This just makes dungeons more rewarding rather than just a way to farm your tomestones.

[Reynhart]

So far we have:
- iL 225 dungeon drops (Expert).
- iL 250 from alexander normal.
- iL 250 crafted gear.
- iL 260 by exchanging tomestones.
- iL 270 from Alexander Savage.

We also have iL 230 by exchanging Lore tomestones. What I'd like is another way to get i230 gear...like putting i230 in Expert dungeons, sinc i225 is basically useless.
For i260, since it's weekly locked, you shouldn't be able to get that ilvl with an "unlocked" way.

Back to the OP, why should we have to chose ? We can have both for each tome ilvl. Ex dungeons = uncapped tome gear, 24-man raid = capped tome gear.