Ethereal Drop Rates

PTR Feedback
22

I just made a seasonal toon on my second account, and did not use Djank Mi’em to get any of the items, but the armor for the wd that I was running with, I now have that toon at para 127.
I now have 2 ETH, 1 is THE OCULUS, got it just after I got to lvl 70 (remember the toon is a WD not a wizard) and the second 1 I got is a THE GIDBINN that Kadala gave to me, think it is a bug because it looked like yellow weapon. Wish I could post the pics I got of them.
was trying to run it like I was on live!

ok just got another THE GIDBINN that is a ETH, after doing a t8 rift, and it is useful too.

23

The drop rate is spot on. I was thinking that legendaries should drop like ancients, and ancients like ethetials.

24

Impossible at it’s base meaning suggests it is incapable of being achieved. I completely disagree. It would appear very difficult, but I think that’s the point.
If people mean it might take as much as two months of the three to get them, that sounds about right and a good thing too. The amount of excessive complaints for a long time, that the season becomes boring after guardian because there is nothing left to do, has more than likely prompted this level of difficulty.

If it was possible to get all 21 ethereals within one week I know some people would be completely bored, based on a lot of threads over that last years. I am sure botters will probably get them all sooner but that’s not my problem or anyone who does not cheat’s problem. My comments are based on those of us who do not cheat. I think it’s a welcome change instead of the usual grind, to have a grind that still reaps new rewards heading towards the end of the season.

25

Let’s put this a different way. Suppose the season had only 1 set change, no new items and a 4th cube slot but you only got the 4th cube slot in the last month. Who would play it for 3 months?

26

It’s probably worth mentioning that there is a further randomness in the randomness. You could say have a Barb that gets three ethereal drops moderately quickly. It would be luck to start with and even more luck if every one of those three was not the same weapon transmog with different skills or stats on it.

27

I can see that because of the drop rate people will be done with the season Journey before they get a drop, as I said above I’m now at para 530ish and I’ve got 2 more ETHs but the thing is to get the first one AFTER the leveling and be a weapon for another class is not good. This is coming from someone that is a pure soloer.

28

Honestly only botters and group players who play the game over 6-10h day can be happy about the current Ethereals drop rate…

There’s nothing more discouraging than hunting for items that you won’t even get to keep after season ends with such ridiculous drop rates and RNG on top of RNG…

Even on PTR where you can get ethereals easy just from bag of fortune or weapons, it’s still takes a while to find the one that is best for the build you’re currently playing…

If the drop rates won’t be changed to what NightRaven has suggested (same as ancients or even legendaries) most people will probably just finish season journey and quit, cause finding any ehtereal even before you hit level 70 will be impossible with the current drop rate…

Honestly I highly doubt devs will listen, cause they never do as they always ignore almost every suggestion that would improve the game and only listen to ridiculous nerf threads that make more people leave the game…

There has been countless of threads that has been ignored with suggestions that might improve the game that are years old.

There are skills from each class that hasn’t been “touched” (changed for beter or buffed) from 2012 or when RoS came out.

There hasn’t been any updates to legendary gems for YEARS, most of them are only good for caldesans.

I highly doubt we will even see any more items added to the emanate list for followers too…

29

It is absolutely going to be possible to get all 21 within a day or two of season start. That’s part of what makes all of the drop rate complaints seem so off-base. These items are still very accessible, and even “very casual” players will be getting them and using them. Getting a “perfect” one will be difficult, yes, but getting a “usable” one will be relatively quick and easy. Getting a “perfect” ancient (let alone primal) weapon has never been easy.

I’m not sure why “3+ BiS item chances per hour” seems so insurmountable to you. Do you get 3 Ancient (whatever weapon your class uses) per hour currently? I’m going to guess probably not. A “good” Ethereal will probably be easier to obtain than the “good” Ancient weapon you’re replacing. For example, are you currently getting 3 Ancient Deathwishes per hour? 3 Ancient Little Rogues? 3 Ancient Dawns? Etc?

Most players play almost exclusively in Seasonal, and the items not carrying over to NS is absolutely no concern. Don’t believe this? Go look for public games in Seasonal versus Non-Seasonal. Non-Seasonal is absolutely dead, and has been for years.

It’s a seasonal mechanic. It’s temporary. If everyone didn’t quit when the 4th cube slot disappeared, they’re certainly not going to quit just because a weapon disappeared and they had to re-equip their old one.

This is such a ridiculous idea. Can you imagine how frustrating it would be if you had 2-12 ethereals dropping per rift (every 2-3 minutes)? It would be absolutely draining. Even just looking at the rolls to see which affixes it contained is already mentally exhausting and gets old very quick.

Go play PTR, open up five Bag of Fortunes, and tell me how much FUN it is to sit there and ID and examine each item. Hint: It’s zero. Zero fun.

The items being “rare” is what allows it to remain exciting and interesting when they do drop.

Should every item that drops be Primal, as well? Or can you acknowledge that rarity does, to some degree, increase excitement?

Getting an Ethereal while leveling will, indeed, be very rare. And even if you did get one while leveling, you would need to find another one to replace it with at max level. Literally none of your Best in Slot gear drops while leveling, and the leveling process takes most players between 1-4 hours on season start. “Chance to drop while leveling” is absolutely not a concern or consideration for the 3-4 month season mechanic.

I’ve never found a Primal Deathwish while leveling either, and I haven’t quit yet! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

1 Like
30

I wouldn’t be surprised if the dominant strategy to acquire the feat of strength is low level ethereal farming. They seem to drop almost as if by design at very low levels.

1 Like
31

:ok_hand::sparkles: Gold star. I am sure someone will get them all quickly without any sleep. I am not one of those people. Nobody can now say they did not attempt to do something that might take most of the season to achieve, instead of the usual “I have guardian and there’s nothing left to do” comments.

32

Hmm haven’t thought about this and just assumed ‘oh that’s just the 2000% buff’ but I did notice getting much more of them 1-40 than 40-70. Could be these were seeded low on purpose not only to say D3 weapons are the next tier to D2 weapons, but also to get us the seasonal power quickly without waiting to start GR farming.

This might be the way. As for regular grinders not interested in the transmog completion I’ve come to conclude arguments about drop rate being fine as is might be more of the opinion I’m leading toward.

Could it use a minor bump up? Sure…but if not, probably just fine. The speed runs are absolutely crazy now, which are going to lead to more drops and more ethereals.

1 Like
33

Could be they are trying to get D3 players used to the idea of finding items that make builds rather than making builds then finding items that make them better? (In prep for D4 maybe?)

It is more how POE does it (hate talking about that game here), where you have to find the item that makes a build.

In this case if you were playing barb with Wastes, maybe you find a random ethereal that you can build around (change set like IK instead, etc) that would push you a bit farther in GRs.

The gameplay loop would change where you don’t just get a six-piece set (wastes in this example) and sit on it. You actually switch builds depending on the items you find while farming.

This is the only thing I can think of. If that is the intention, it is indeed interesting and would require a large portion of the D3 player base to change how we think about items we find.

Those that compete at the top of the leaderboards will indeed be frustrated though as RNG can 100% dictate where you end up within the top 10 players, etc.

34

Drop rates are fine, no need to increase it or remove useless leg powers. I dont need ez mode in this game anymore.

35

No.

To do that they would need to re-scale the game. T16 alone has about 14 million% monster health. That’s what has created this plug and play playstyle because only certain items have the absurdly high multipliers to make this work.

Ethereals themselves are not the problem with their randomness its just not how this game is designed. I certainly hope D4 is not designed around such steep item requirements and gives the player the flexibility rather than the item designers.

36

I’d wish they’d use the PTR to test optimal drop rates, and I dont know of any evidence that they are. I’d adjust it to 1/50 first and then tweak it up or down from there.

37

But we know the drop rates, via GR farming (where the +2000% Magic Find buff is inconsequential), and the drop rate seems pretty good at 1/100.

1/50 would be a Legendary approximately every 8-12 minutes during GR farming. This would be too much, in my opinion.

How long would it take you to find an “acceptable” Ethereal if they were dropping so frequently? How excited would you be each time one dropped, if you already had an “acceptable” Eth, and another one dropped?

The excitement and value of the Ethereals goes down drastically the first moment you get an “acceptable” Ethereal. For many players, this may be a few hours or less once they get into a farming build. Then, after that, Ethereals bring very little to the table.

The rarity IS the feature. The rarity is where all the excitement is. The rarity is where the “content” is. The people asking to be handed a perfectly rolled, Best In Slot, weapon less than a few hours after hitting level 70 are unknowingly trying to rob themselves of the whole point in this feature…the motivator to keep farming.

It’s currently 1/100, and that seems reasonable. But it would genuinely be better for the game to move to 1/200, or even 1/400, than to move to 1/50.

5 Likes
38

Well then, I wish you to get only useless Ethereals for the long of the season minus 10 minutes. Then get a perfect for your build one.

I can say I am a dedicated player, I play only D3 and a personal shooter. I am retired and I am at my PC more than 10 hours a day. I played theese last seasons hc also above 800 paragons, and I play all the characters I can free from “Normal” play mode. BTW I am desperately needing TABs and character slots.
During all this I 've got dozens of Primals, but only 2 playable in builds, and both with Stats/Rolls worse than the plain legndary I already have
The problem I see with the RNG based drops in this game is that you may get the same bad stats even if you get another item of the same type. IMO Myriam should be retrained to be able to replce all slots on an item. There will not go agains grinding if the already steeep increase price of the operation woul be factored by the number of slots replaced. People will need gold for it, so they’ll grind.

But as it is now it is really frustrating for those who, that like myself. are educated in the occidental “hard work =high reward” spirit rather than the oriental “fate will take care of you anyhow” spirit.

As for the complete collection, the only way I see is : Let them be traded ( not sold. bought). Otherwise one can get mad geting doubles at the 14 different items he already has.

39

Everyone complaining about Ethereal drop rates have no idea how easy item finding is in this game. I can’t wait for D2R with real RNG while all you whiners keep playing D3 where it only takes a weekend of gameplay to find every item for your class of choice and complain about not getting perfect rolls on the first drop. D2 is impossible to find every item in a season that you want without trading unless you play nonstop or run bots. I don’t care to play a game in which everyone runs the exact same builds every season (whirlrend) because it’s so easy to find everything for the best builds in a weekend which is all I play D3 seasons now. How about a challenge that actually gives you a sense of accomplishment and takes more than 1 weekend to achieve? Something that challenges the same old builds that are always the top 100 on the leaderboards every season with potential to shake things up based upon the few Ethereals you get? Or are you so used to getting stimulus checks you expect a handout in every aspect of your life while ruining everyone else’s?

40

I didnt say we didnt know the drop rate. I’ve posted many times what the drop rate was. That’s why I knew to select 1/50 as the new test because it gives headroom to adjust the rate in both directions. I very much agree that the drop rate shouldnt be too high, but I’m entirely unconvinced it is currently where it should be. The math just doesn’t add up, especially after the last patch that made some class ethereals more skill specific.

I completely disagree. Were this a longer event, I’d probably agree more, especially if they were permanent. But a 3 month limited time event to actually use the item? No. Maybe we play differently, but I dont farm until I get what I want and then stop playing. For me the entire point of this system is it allows us to play in ways we dont normally get to play.

41

The smart thing to do with a PTR is give PLAYERS the control over drop rates etc. You have a static 5x/3x/50x of anything, there’s no true testing on finding items or how fast you level up etc. Considering they are forcing the players to test everything, they should allow the players to have control of the PTR, not the other way around.