Thoughts on the current loot drops from Dragon Soul -
After several weeks of raiding I have gotten a feel for how the current amount of loot drops feel. Both in 25 man and 10 man raiding. I would like to start by saying I think BOTH are lacking compared to previous raid tiers. I will list off the current issues I have with loot acquisition in DS below in the order of bummer they give me. I would like to keep this topic about loot overall and not turn into a 10 man vs 25 man debate if possible btw.
- Shared boss loot - This is one of the main complaints I have about Dragon Soul, I raid in 6 raid teams each week, some 10 man and some 25 man, I have seen a handful of shared boss loot on 25 man raids (less than 5!) and in my 4 10 man raids I have seen literally 1 piece of shared boss loot, that being the tank trinket. The reason I mention this is because those odds seem incredibly low and even if it is just “Unlucky” it feels incredibly bad. Caveat each of those raids cleared full 8/8 bosses and some 8/8 heroic since first week.
- Tier acquisition - Tier feels especially rough this patch, although there is LFR tier to allow 4 pc quickly I do think an omni token akin to phase 1 of Cataclysm would be very welcome. Especially to combat the unluckiness of seeing an overabundance of tier tokens your raid may not need, this is definitely more of a 10 man focused complaint but even in 25 man, 2 tier tokens per tier boss down from 3 in previous tier is unwelcome and unnecessary in my opinion.
- Tier boss /off-piece loot - Tier bosses also hold some of the important off pieces for many specs, In my experience we have seen 2 valid upgrades in my main raid from those bosses so far in 3 weeks of raiding 8/8H each week. Yorsahj / Zonozz / Ultraxion / Hagara / Warmaster are the bosses I’m talking about. These bosses also drop weapons that are often times not even competitive bis IE rogue daggers / caster weapons or you get the dreaded leather boomkin item in your 10 man for the 3rd time with no caster druid.
This rate of gearing feels extremely sluggish and I am aware that there is big bad RNG boss but I can’t help but feel like voicing these complaints to maybe be recognized going forward into MOP and also maybe get some love in the current tier. Here is the best ideas I could come up with that would be interesting.
- Allow shared boss loot to drop without eating the current piece of gear on the boss. Almost like a little bonus that you are happy to see. Shared boss loot items are some of the most sought after in DS and making them a happy little bonus on the boss would be like looting an super rare item and add some excitement without also killing your chance of your boots dropping!
- As I said above, I think an omni token dropping off of Madness would help solve the tier feelsbad we currently have. I also think 25 man should probably get 3 pieces of tier per tier boss as well.
- As for the tier bosses I think the off-pieces should drop 2 at a time at the very least in 10 man and on 25 man should add one more piece to these bosses if not giving additional tier tokens. This is on par with Firelands for very similar loot system. I also think if you don’t want shared boss loot to be a “bonus” then you would at least see an increase in drop chances on this change alone.
I know the common push back to this kind of complaint is to point to RNG, “get gud”, and remind us that this is how it was back in original Cata. I would like to counter those points straight up.
RNG - Although healthy RNG is a part of the game, I think WoW classic has a chance to just relieve some of the rough patches that don’t necessarily add to the game, The heroic + dungeon system is a great addition and helps ease the catch up and alt pains of older expansions, this is an example of the type of change that can happen and the above loot changes would not even be close to that level of change.
“Get gud” - I think this is just immature obviously but the truth is I feel like I have taken a pretty big picture look at this topic, I have raided in week one full clear raids as well as full normal pugs all throughout Cata. It isn’t productive to pretend like I’m just whining for more loot. I genuinely think the game could just be made substantially better with some minor tweaks, These changes would help everyone with no real down side.
Original Cata - I am well aware the current loot system is what was in place in original Cata, I made a post on the PTR feedback forums before DS ever released raising these concerns as well. I do think there is room to make some cool changes that make logging in for raid that much more exciting each week.
As with all things this is a specific complaint I have! Of course there are other parts of the game that should get attention, maybe PVP or bugs in dungeons. If you respond to this please keep it on the topic of this discussion!