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.

Quote Originally Posted by Reptiletc View Post
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.