Convince me the drop system isnt broken

General Discussion
1

The drop system is completely broken. By broken, I mean it doesn’t make any sense and needs to be fixed, not that it isn’t functioning as intended.

Please convince me otherwise, I am open to it.

Why I know it’s broken…

I leveled a Sorc with 200 MF from 1-99 and I was hoping to come on here and say that the highest rune I found was a Gul, but low and behold, between 98.6 and 98.7 I managed to find a Cham and an Ohm. But think about that. That means up until then, a point where most people never reach in a ladder season, I found up to a Gul. In fact, I can count the rest of the idividual decent runes I found on one hand. 2 Gul, 1 Mal, 1 Ist, then the Cham and Ohm. Thats it. I also had a 93 Pally, so thats with both characters and all the hell forges.

Not only that, I can count the rest of my GG items on one hand, and they also came late in my lvling process.

3/19/19 SC
DF
Tal’s arm which I split
Skulders (if you even consider that valueable)

And a handful of PLAIN mostly useless GC’s

In 20 years of playing this game (granted some years not at all, some for 6 months straight) I have not once found a single Ber rune, Lo rune, or a tal’s ammy. Thousands of green ammys Id’d, not a single tals ammy. I joke that it doesn’t actually exist and you have to buy it from JSP where someone hacked it.

Without a proper trading system, JSP or RMT sites would be the only way to obtain an enigma to be able to even try and compete in the top of the ladder with TZ’s or any other fashion of leveling. Collecting items worth 10 and 20 fg and selling enough of them to finally buy a Ber and Jah are the only way to go. The way the current game is, it would be impossible for 99%+ of the player base to obtain an enigma in a season. The drop rates need to be fixed, or there needs to be a marketplace type trading system and a currency.

I love this game, and I’m not a complainer, so don’t tell me to stop playing because I like playing this game. I am fine to grind for 10 hours a day and I do. But 1-93 and 1-99 and the nothingness that I found shows that there is a problem. I literally found nothing else of value other that what I listed above.

Please, convince me otherwise.

13 Likes
2

IMO the drop rates are low for a couple of reasons:

1: Most importantly IMO, you don’t NEED the top tier items in order to play the game. The game can be beaten in all three difficulties by all classes with random gear found during regular non-repetitive play. No it’s not very fast, it’s definitely more challenging, but yes, it can be done.

2: If your goal is to obtain all of the top tier BiS items for your character, this is where the “loot grind game” takes hold, and the low drop rates provide you an activity that takes plenty of time to achieve. This IMO is the “end game” activity that Diablo 2 offers.

If the drop rates of top tier items are significantly increased, it will reduce the longevity of the loot grind end game Diablo 2 offers, making it quickly stale to the masses. There are still three items I have never found even though I’ve been playing the game since 2001.

Now, I will say there are a couple of things worth noting…

1: Low level gear doesn’t drop enough in Normal difficulty, but it drops TOO MUCH in Hell difficulty. It’s basically impossible to find a full low level set with your first character and it be useful to that character by the time you find all of the pieces.

2: The ladder seasons have been shortened significantly over the past several years. They used to run 12 to 18 months, then they were reduced to 6 months, which is what the original game currently runs. Now they are wanting to reduce them down to 4 months in D2:R, which the low drop rates significantly hinder the ability to gear up with BiS items unless you pour your every waking moment into the game.

Post questing, the game is literally a glorified slot machine. Sometimes you win, most of the time you don’t.

7 Likes
3

Nope. You are right.

4

You are lucky man you found a Cham. There is nothing to complain about.
Drop system is perfect.

13 Likes
5

That’s why JSP deserves some credit, because that’s actually a highly effective way for a social ARPG like this to be played.

I imagine if you found IK boots or IK gloves, you would go to the Barbarian section of the forum and very easily find someone who would take them for 10FG.

Trying to trade those through game rooms is a pain in theAss and it would be more stress relieving to just toss them on the floor and keep moving.

The problem is there is no widely accepted community currency for D2R. It should be Pgems but those take work to put together (and they don’t even stack in the inventory) and then someone might not even want them in the first place.

That’s why SoJ was a great currency, because it was accepted among the entire community and sought after. Those were the golden years of D2 and it was all because of duping :smirk:

1 Like
6

I just don’t have the same experience. I have gotten Enigma 2 ladders in a row using only lobby/in-game trading. When the game first released my Enigma was entirely self found.

But I have never found SOJ, so there’s that.

1 Like
7

fixed that for you

I found a Jah on my playthrough in Hell act3 lower Kurast at around lvl 70.
I also found a Ber on cs runs with lvl 6x from a chest.

All you provide is stories. That doesn’t proof that drop rates are broken.

That shows me that you aren’t doing it right. But I know you will tell me that you know what to do and that you are exactly doing what any guide tells you to… Which is a lie.

I’m 99% sure that you are wasting time and farming inefficient. You get frustrated and stop doing the things that might bring you the loot and you do start doing something else for a “change” of scenery…

D2R isn’t rocket science.
Kill fast, don’t waste time.
Town is lava.
Lobby/loading screens are lava.
Mobs that don’t die instantly are bad and should be skipped.
Choose an area you want to farm, get the correct character for the task and do it fast and on repeat. Don’t switch chars/builds, just focus on getting some muscle memory and improving your run times…

You don’t need to be 95+ to get good drops. You just have to farm efficient.

6 Likes
8

Here is the fundamental question loop all AARPGs fall into:

  • What is the goal of the game? Kill enemies to find loot, to kill stronger enemies to find better loot.

  • How do you keep players engaged if they find all the loot? Make the best loot difficult to find and add rewarding game play content to the end game.

  • How can the game play be both “rewarding” and the loot be “difficult to find” at the same time?

It’s that last question where it all goes awry. It fractures like the Soulstone under the Smith’s hammer. There are many wildly different opinions about how to solve the problem that have been tried, ranging from D3’s “let the loot rain from the skies, while having nigh infinite difficultly scaling rifts” to D2’s “make the loot scarce and the endgame be all about the loot hunt”.

So is D2’s drop system broken? No, it’s simply one solution to the problem. Many find it a much better alternative to D3’s solution to the problem.

1 Like
9

Drop system is perfect the way it is.

There are 1000s of other games with a drop system you prefer - don´t try to kill the only one game out there that handles it differently.

7 Likes
10

All anyone has are stories. What would you consider to be proof?

And I did explain what I meant by “broken”. The Sunder charms and cold sorcs are broken. Yes, I understand they work as intended, but they are still broken. For someone that has posted so much on here, you should be able to read between the lines. Hell, you didnt even have to, because I explained what I meant.

I can play hundreds of hours on a game and level 1-99 which only 350 characters have done so far and find the junk that i listed above, the best of which was found in the last 99% of my leveling.

That doesn’t make sense.

Now, I don’t know that I have the solution, and if they had a proper trading system in game that would allow a player to get some of these items that are so impossible to find, then I would argue that it is more balanced and does make more sense. But the current system is broken. “Broken” being meant the way I said above.

Yes, i know how to farm, and cleared chaos at quick speeds, many many many times. Cleared current TZ zones, at quick speeds, many many times. I’m not going to engage anymore into that argument.

No on is doing a good job at convincing me…

Answers like “its functioning as intended” means nothing to me because I already acknowledged that.

I also agree that JSP deserves a lot of credit. It would be nice to have a real currency in the game that worked and a proper trading system. SOJ’s did work, but it’s no longer needed because the dupe problem isn’t there anymore.

1 Like
11

lvling != item farming. So unless you lvl’d to 99 in solo cs runs, which you didn’t, you did the wrong thing for the goal of achieving loot.

It’s not broken because you do it wrong.

Trading ingame is awful. Yes. The developers never implemented a currency system, that’s why the solution around duped sojs or FG were popular and successful. But you still need to find items to trade them. So no matter how good a tradesystem is, you still need to gain the currency and the value of items is bound to their rarity + usefulness.

Because it’s a lie you tell yourself.

Nobody cares about convicing you.

D2(R) isn’t designed to shower you in loot or xp. TZ already reduced players that loved the xp grind, because they get bored fast. There is nothing left to do if you have all the gear and all slots on 99. They also made PvP worse, so that’s pretty much off the table too.

You are basically just crying for highly increased drop rates and you are trying to hide it behind your sob story.

1 Like
12

You aren’t intelligent enough to understand things so it’s really hard to have an intelligent conversation with you.

I have ran CS thousands of times over the years. Have not found anything decent. This season I KILLED FAST lots and lots of things in WSK and TZ where the monster lvl is high, and the chances of HR’s and decent drops is as good as anywhere. Hundreds of hours of lvling = lots of chance to find stuff, yet that did not happen.

I created this thread for someone to convince me, so don’t post here then.

This isn’t a sob story, and I didn’t ask to be showered in loot or xp. I simply said that it doesn’t make sense that someone could play hundreds of hours and level 1-99 with the drops that I posted above.

Kindly stop posting in this thread. I will simply report it as spam.

BTW, farming CS solo is worse chance at loot than with full games, so I don’t know where you are getting that nonsense from.

3 Likes
13

If you didn’t want people responding, specifically in opposition to your views, then you shouldn’t have posted such a controversial and hotly debated thread topic. Posting “Prove me wrong” and “Convince me otherwise” threads is literally begging for counterarguments.

3 Likes
14

He posted nonsense twice, and accused me of saying things I didn’t say. I told him to convince me the current system is broken. He said “no one needs to convince you of anything”

So yes, I told him to stop posting in my thread. But I would like someone to convince me, so others who have some valid points, please post.

If you aren’t smart enough to see nonsense that he posted, I would ask that you also stop posting here.

2 Likes
15

You are very likely one of those people that can’t be convinced, no matter if someone provides the most compelling convincing argument possible.

I get it, you want items to drop more often. Unless that happens, you aren’t convinced. Your way or the highway.

It’s not worth the time or effort to convince you. You either like the game, or you don’t… It’s as simple as that.

2 Likes
16

Yeah… that’s it. I can’t be convinced.

When people respond saying “the system is fine as it is” and expect me to be satisfied with the answer… but it’s me thats the problem.

Tell me why a system where a person can play the game for 20 years, and never find a ber rune is not broken.

Tell me why you can spend 200+ hours lvling a character from 1-99 in a ladder season and find but 3-4 good items is not broken.

I don’t want more drops, I want a “more” balanced system.

If you dont want to have an intelligent conversation, don’t post here.

2 Likes
17

Funny, seems like I hit the nail right on the head.

Rofl. You really have no clue. Rookie numbers boy.

Public forum. Public topic.

Sob story and wanting loot shower comfirmed.

Wahwah… the stranger hurt my feelings by saying the truth…wahwah… make it stop…

Comfirmed that you are the one that’s lacking intelligence here.

18

The scope of what a “good item” is varies from person to person, and is mainly dictated by experience. I’m betting you in fact found more than what you claim.

19

Drop rates are supposed to be bad, nothing is broken unless you’ve become so numb from all the instant gratification modern games experience… Getting all the best items in this game is not normal, it is supposed to be one of the final challenges that is actually a significant challenge if you play SSF. So you have a couple options…

  • play a different game- d3 is great if you REALLY want end game items and/or you don’t have a lot of time to play to collect them
  • have zero expectations about finding items, appreciate the journey of using budget gear… as mentioned, nearly every build can clear this game on p1 with yellows/rares… keep in mind PvM doesnt really become more enjoyable with the best items, all those end game items are much more viable to compete against the strongest in PvP…
  • trade with players. This is the easiest way to achieve all the items you want. You’re complaining about rune drops but I have hard time belieiving there weren’t plenty of drops that are worth something. I have a feeling you are a noob so there are probably a lot of drops you missed out on. Just go trade on D2jsp…FG is by far the most convenient and useful system for trading. REAL not fake SSF players deserve respect but anyone who whines about d2jsp is a cry baby who need to just move to mars

This ladder season I found Gul, Ohm and Zod. My Hydra Sorc is barely hitting 90! All 3 were found from random mobs lol.

2 Likes
20

I levelled to 95 without a single Baal run and I found wayyyy more than you.

You don’t find much grinding Baal runs over and over with a party.

1 Like