So it seems like an almost consensus in the forums that loot is horrible and that every player is getting way less loot than before. But is that really true? Lets look at the facts.
So here are the changes:
- 1/3 less loot at the end of timed keys
- 1/2 less loot at the end of untimed keys
- Item level from end of M+ lowered by 3
- 1/3 less loot from each raid boss
- No random loot from pvp
- Doing 3/7/10 raid bosses unlock 1/2/3 choices on the vault, where it previously didn’t do anything.
- Doing 1/4/10 dungeons unlock 1/2/3 choices on the vault, where it previously only dropped 1.
- Earning 1250/2500/6250 honor unlocks 1/2/3 choices on the vault, where it previously only dropped 1.
- Pvp now drops a currency that allows you to buy specific pieces. This currency has a cap that increases each week.
- PVP and M+ now share the same end of the week chest.
- Titanforging was removed.
- Highest vault reward in M+ now drops from a 14 instead of a 15
So who are the biggest winners?
Raiders that don’t full clear the highest tier in the raid and don’t do M+ now get up to 3 times more loot than before. If they for example do 3 mythic bosses, they will get 2 items from each boss and a massive 22 items from the third one averaging out in a bit less than 9 items per boss, divided by 20 players.
Even while doing a full clear they still get an average of 4 items per boss, with 3 choices in half of them, which is higher than before.
PVPers as a whole could also be considered the biggest winners because of how insanely better their loot system is. Even with all the anti synergies between modes, they still get out on top.
Also winning but not as much are M+ players that can’t kill more than 2 mythic bosses and do more than 4 dungeons each week. The extra choice they get in the vault massively reduces the chance of repeats which now makes it possible for them to get fully geared with 226s at the end of the patch, which was arguably impossible in previous expansions. This benefit however is only at the second half of patches since at the start, choices are way less relevant and because the transitional gear got nerfed in power and drop rate.
But who are the biggest losers?
Raiders that do full clears and do less than 3 M+ dungeons and don’t do PVP at the first half of the patch seem to be the biggest losers. Since M+ is extremely vault oriented and more than half of the gear from raids are on the vault they basically cancel each other out. So while they get more choices on the vault, which tends to be more relevant at the second half of the patch, they get less transitional gear and less loot overall.
M+ exclusive players that do less than 3 dungeons are also losing since they don’t have extra choices on the chest and they had their transitional gear nerfed. This is slightly mitigated by change from 15 to 14.
Raiders that don’t do full clears, don’t do pvp and and do 1-3 M+ dungeons are also experiencing a reduction in drop rates.
But what is the logic behind the changes (in my opinion)
-
PVP players hated the old system with a passion and the new system basically gave them everything they ever asked for, they seem to be super happy with it right now.
-
The transitional loot from M+ (aka the end of the dungeon one) was nerfed because it was a massive infinitely farmable source of heroic level gear. What used to happen is that players had no reason to do heroic raids or lower because of how good M+ was as a source of loot.
-
Raid loot was too good for players who full clear but really bad for players who couldn’t go far into it.
-
The chest for M+ at the second half of each patch was basically repeats week after week and was an incredibly frustrating experience to try and get a full mythic level set.
-
Doing M+ was almost mandatory for raiders since +15s were very easy to complete compared to mythic bosses.
-
Titanforging was removed because it created a scenario where the the only way to get an upgrade was with a titanforging proc, and this meant that players would spend extremely high amounts of time in frustrating grinds hoping for those procs.
-
Gearing up at the second half of the patch was excruciatingly slow and very rng heavy and got heavily buffed in the new system.
Conclusion: what system is better?
That is for you to decide.