I donât think completely deterministic is necessarily the answer, howeverâŚ
I do think thereâs a fair argument to be made about certain items for each respective spec that ends up being a coveted piece in the current WoW we exist in. BIS lists are datamined and mathed out by SIMC folks and weâre all working towards those, to some end. Now, of course, the BIS items are sought after because they provide the best opportunity gear-wise, for us to reach our highest potential.
Part of the problem is, the vast majority of the population acquires these items post Progression kill, or have them on a lower tier from the previous difficulty, if that. There can be an argument made that WF guilds are better equipped to kill mythic bosses with less than ideal gear, let alone outside of BIS.
Now, I didnât make note of exactly who had what, but I did notice there was a lot of talk amongst the âCastersâ of the RWF insofar as this or that guild doing splits for, of course, The Jastor Diamond and/or the more powerful trinkets, Mugsyâs Jug or Eye of Kezan for spellcasters, not sure as much for melee. But they make it a point to tell the listening audience that one of their goals in doing those splits is get as many people those items as possible prior to pushing their last few mythic bosses. So, the point being, that even they seek BIS items.
As such, it follows that as I mentioned previously, it would probably serve the general population more good to have a bit more âaccessâ to those items earlier than later. For guilds that work half the season to get AOTC only, the better items only come into play on a reclear for the most part not during progression.
Being part of a smaller guild, with a bit slower progression, though I still havenât cleared the last 2 on heroic, Iâve cleared LOU every week and only this week saw my first Mugsyâs Jugsy, two of them dropped in normal last night, but I lost both rolls. Not once has it shown in vault, though a normal Jastor has, which I took of course.
Likewise, I have a warlock friend who ran over 80 Mists last season trying to get either a heroic track Unbound Changeling, or a Myth track one from vault (not sure of how many weeks that was). He did finally get it, but like a couple weeks before season end and too late for the pushing that we were doing at that time.
Trickle-down economics exists as a means to encourage repeated participation, which is totally fair, Iâm not one to get an item and then be like, well Iâm done with that⌠no you take the item and then perform as good or even better than you did the last time, just like youâre always trying to do, but I digress. There should be a better balance between those two goals.
I donât think itâs unreasonable to have 2 deterministic items, maybe even leading to a player choice when it comes to having 2 of 3 or even 4 of the âbest in slotâ items. For a great many theyâll be capped at a heroic track Weapon, or a crafted one slightly higher that competes with mythic track one, some semblance of BIS trinkets and maybe one cantrip item.
Both systems inflate the loot pools so large (M+ and Raid) that you spend a great deal of the season either with the luck of getting one early or the bad luck of not getting one until later, if at all.
I remember doing ICC for 15 weeks before Dislodged Foreign Object dropped, even once and I certainly wasnât the only one that wanted it.
If Blizzard was a lil more transparent with their loot algorithm and be willing to adjust THAT, not having deterministic loot might be palatable for the majority, if the algorithm is robust enough on the back end; looking at you Vault. Now, I also like to point out how I often obtain some BIS items via the weekly quest(s) granting a raid cache (usually of the Heroic variety). I received Spymasterâs Web last season that way and Iâm pretty sure I got some in Dragonflight that way as well, which is a nice feeling when it happens, but when you get another cloak or wrists, or some item or SLOT that isnât coveted at all, you feel like the system is bloated a bit.
Now if you could just choose that reward once in a great while throughout a season, that would really give the players some agency. They work at their own individual pace in their desired content and if theyâre not lucky with drops/rolls, over some weeks, they get what theyâre after in a reasonable time frame.
Now whether or not a dinar system or whatever should grant fully mythic track upgrades isnât my decision. Like I said, 2 items I donât think is unreasonable. I donât think it would propel a great many guilds to a tier theyâre not already doing anyway.