Your friend should have played during HW raiding then.
I remember I went a month without my SMN Book dropping from AS12 while my whole static had their weapon.
Or in SB when the same gosh dang nin gloves kept dropping every week and we didn't even have a ninja in the group.
Is that better? I don't think so.
At least we get books and you always have a chance to roll on something so nothing is ever useless to you.