First, I love the idea of clicking a Briny for a reward window with spell choices. Though it loses the "quest" feeling, it is convenient and, at this point in the game, that is nice. I hate, hate, hate how rare these Brinys are. If you won't increase the drop rate any further, then please add an option to downgrade the Briny Essence in the reward window. There is precedent for it and it would help ameliorate the stagnant drop rate.
Yeah... I'd be okay with keeping the drop rate if downgrading was possible. It would be better than nothing. The inconsistency with downgrading between expansions makes little sense to me but who knows. Prices in the bazaar illustrate the lack of a "downgrade" option since the 'middle of the road' Essences are the cheapest, whereas both other extremes are most expensive. Should be a clue when Minors are second in price to Glowing (at least on BB). Obviously Glowing will be pricey but yeah... OP, prepare for the onslaught of posters who will say you're asking for EZmode with your request though. Apparently because we have a year to get our spells that's justification for the current drop rate and distribution of Briny. Maybe that broken record finally found the way to the trashcan though!
I thought when this came up last expansion it was stated that it's always something they add in and it's programmed to be unlocked (aka included) a certain number of months through the year long expansion. We're barely 6 weeks in (and that's for early access).
I didn't realize it was supposed to be a "time-locked" mechanic. If that is the case then I'm still not sure how that makes sense regardless of how long we've had the expansion. It's beneficial to the health of the game to shuffle out people from the open, lower zones (where the lower Briny drop) so if I want a Minor from a Tier 3 spell drop how does that negatively impact anything? The only rationale goes back to conspiracy theories: 1) it extends the lifespan of a small content release, and/or 2) encourages the sale of Kronos (person who doesn't buy Kronos buys a Krono to get insta-plat via barter to buy an essence). And I actually know quite a few people that had/bought Kronos to do this. People don't necessarily "need" the Rk. 2 spells but ever since they added the rank system into the game they've engrained in peoples' minds that Rk. 2 is the new Rk. 1.
I'd love to see the option to downgrade. For my fleet of 105s, I use very few 103 or 102 spells/discs. Yet those are the briny that tend to drop the most. My useful spells are very slanted towards either 105 or 101 with 104s trailing a bit. The 101 briny seem to be the rarest (could also be that I spend almost no time in Katta or TT as those zones are a huge waste of time). I do try to spend 15 minutes (at least 5 of which are hailing/waiting on scenes) a day to do the Katta mission and that chest typically has the 102s when there is a briny. Between the drop rate and not being able to downgrade, I'm guessing I'm still about four months from having all the rk IIs I need. Went through all my characters the other night and found out I still need 87 briny to get all my used spells/discs upgraded. On the bright side, it does look like the spell guy knows what spells people actually use. Nearly none of the two/three for one briny rewards yields more than one useful spell.
The reason every year they say they won't do it initially is because they want people to play the content. After a period of time (not sure if it's 6 months or what it is) then they have added the downgrade option.
