So it seems a lot of thread have been popping up with drop rates as the key theme and I wanted to do something special with my 100th post. So here it is. I'd like to see an open discourse on this topic under this thread instead of spread out over so many others.

Before we begin I'd like to address something up front. There have been two main camps in the aforementioned threads. One camp likes to characterize the other as a bunch of casuals who want full sets of loot to drop in their inventory the first time they see a boss chest, much less 5. They in turn like to characterize the other group as a bunch of basement dwelling masochists who are so devoid of a personal life that content must be run a thousand times so their epeens are protected. Do not do this in this thread! This thread is for people who believe that a reasonable compromise between these two positions can be found. If you do not believe this then I would ask that you post somewhere else. I would like to see suggestions that come out of this thread that if implemented would make the game more rewarding and enjoyable for all to play. Getting bogged down in petty insults and arguments will not accomplish this. Thank you for your understanding on this matter.

With that being said lets jump right into the heart of the matter. Drop rates in this game are low. I don't mean kind of low, I mean it's like Death Valley and below sea level. A lot of players are saying they want to see skill > luck or guaranteed progress for downing bosses. I feel that both of these ideas are flawed and here is my reasoning.

Skill > Luck
Lets face it, there are a lot of skilled players (even though people love to claim otherwise). If skill were the primary determining factor in obtaining rewards then a large portion of the playerbase would be running around if full Darklight for any job they cared to wear it on. A player should be both skillful and lucky to obtain the best rewards in the game. Luck should be greater than skill, however skillful play should increase a players luck.

Guaranteed Progress
A great idea on it's face. Give players the ability to see definite incremental progress for completing content. A goal that players can set and see themselves fulfilling as they play. Dress it up as points, tokens, or whatever, the end result is the same. Clearing content gets you a certain percentage down the road to your reward. The downside to this is balancing it out. A currently in game examples to illustrate what I'm talking about here. The first is Garuda. One win = 2 headresses. So when an exploit in the boss AI was found the playerbase swarmed to it and spammed the exploit for their guaranteed progress before it was fixed.

The second example is Toto-Rak seal farming. The FF community loves to take efficiency to a whole new level. The pro and cons of this debate I'll leave to other threads, but the important thing to our discussion is that it exists. If completing content with method X is easier and safer then method Y, the community will flock to X. If method X gives the same rewards in less time than method Y, guess what the community will be doing. If AV takes 2 and a half minutes less to clear than CC and provides the same amount of points or tokens, no one is going to be running CC other than for achievements.

I have a proposal I think would solve these issues I'll post in a bit, but this one is getting a little long winded and I'd like to hear some of your thoughts too.