Tomes vs random drops

[Kaurie]

It is, however, nearly identical. In the case of rng based loot drops, your progression is wholly and entirely dependent on RNG to give you the item you need with the stats you want to progress. Similarly, having levels increase based on RNG is, again, leaving the entirety of your progression up to the whims of the Desire Sensor. Why is it OK for one form of progression to be rng locked, while another form isn't?

No, it would be identical to randomly gaining tomestones, not randomly gaining gear. If you want an equal comparison, the RNG experience system would give you a level when successful. Talaren also added in "at a very low rate" which is not a requirement of an RNG system, but was a requirement for the comparison - further differentiating the analogy.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

No, it would be identical to randomly gaining tomestones, not randomly gaining gear. If you want an equal comparison, the RNG experience system would give you a level when successful. Talaren also added in "at a very low rate" which is not a requirement of an RNG system, but was a requirement for the comparison - further differentiating the analogy.

But what do tomestones have to do with a purely rng based loot drop progression system? The system you're proposing has no tomestones, so progression is wholly linked to rng. How is that any different from gaining levels at random when you complete content? It isn't.

[NolLacnala]

Both are junk. Random plus token like ex primals best!

[vp_cmc]

But if we use leveling analogy for tomestones, it means, that you can only have fixed amount of exp per week. Say, 15% per week. It's not like it is now for leveling also.

[Frowny]

We have this system. It is A9-12.

[Thunda_Cat_SMASH]

An rng system without low rng won't do much to keep people playing, so it's an entirely natural caveat to make, if one that doesn't need to be explicitly stated. I personally can't even think of someone that doesn't equate rng based systems with low rng. As for the analogy, exp in a system when levels are obtained at random are completely arbitrary. The crux is that the progression is locked behind an RNG wall, which isn't something everyone enjoys. As for frequent small upgrades... what's the difference between tomestones and your suggested high rng system, besides forcing players into content they might loathe doing for the sake of a 1 in 10 chance to win a bit of progression?

[Brill_]

I'd be fine with tomestones if it was more interesting. The only efficient way to farm tomes is expert roulette. Running the same 2 dungeons over and over is boring. More fun ways to grind tomes and I'd be ok with it. RNG can be unforgiving. In alexander normal, needed 1 more bolt last week to finish off my set. Rolled a 95 on my first run and lost. Rolled on 9 more bolts and didn't get anything higher than a 14. Then there's the 24 man raid option, but again, due RNG, the same item will drop over and over instead of a variety. Good chance you'll never see the item you want even drop.

[Kaurie]

I'd be fine with tomestones if it was more interesting. The only efficient way to farm tomes is expert roulette. Running the same 2 dungeons over and over is boring. More fun ways to grind tomes and I'd be ok with it. RNG can be unforgiving. In alexander normal, needed 1 more bolt last week to finish off my set. Rolled a 95 on my first run and lost. Rolled on 9 more bolts and didn't get anything higher than a 14. Then there's the 24 man raid option, but again, due RNG, the same item will drop over and over instead of a variety. Good chance you'll never see the item you want even drop.

Indeed, I'd like to see the personal loot system that WoW has added adopted here. For reference:

Under personal loot, players do not directly roll on items; instead, the server chooses a number of players (based on group size) and awards them a random item for their spec. Mounts can also be won via this method from bosses that drop them. A window will appear telling all players what items dropped, and who received them. Gear awarded in this manner is not tradeable. [this gear is tradeable for a short time, actually - not sure why the wiki said that]

The Bonus Roll system, also introduced in Mists of Pandaria, uses this loot type as well. Players in possession of a specific token, such as a [Mogu Rune of Fate], when they kill a boss in the associated raid will be given a chance to spend the token for another try at loot from that boss. This can be done on any difficulty as well as on world bosses. The chance of obtaining loot from a boss drop is currently theorized to be approximately 15% (equivalent to an average of 3.75 items from a 25-player kill), but this has not been confirmed.

[Berethos]

I typically prefer random drops (more accurately, loot tables specific to dungeons/bosses) for stuff I can run as much as I want, and tomes (or a similar eventually you'll get a thing system) for things with longer lockouts - mostly because I spent 9 straight months trying to get an item in a raid in another MMO that dropped off a final boss (with like 8 or 9 required bosses to get there) without seeing it drop at all, much less win against others trying to get it.

I admit I'm a bit biased against random drops in once a week content style situations due to that, even though it's been years since that happened.

[Zojha]

At the end of the day, when I have run a certain piece of content X amount of times to get item Y, I want to have item Y. No ifs, but buts, no maybes, no 99,999% probability - certainty. This is why I value token systems over RNG. And no matter how the loot system is set up, this is what I would like to see in all content, be it dungeons, 24 man raids or whatever. After putting in an appropriate amount of effort, I want my just reward. Plain and simple.

The rest, well...I don't really care that much, truth be told - the important thing is the insurance. I've simply made nothing but bad experiences with RNG, luck, chance, fate or however you wanna call it and loathe it like the plague.