So, most modern hotzones have an augment available, (some very old hotzones have special gear or mechanics instead) but I find them to be highly inconsistent. Hotzones have been added and shifted many times over the years, and many of the augments still are available, and useful. Some drop in multiple zones, a feature I assume was added when the zones started shifting automatically. And while the drop rates on some are questionable, what concerns me more is that some don't seem to drop all the time, while others do. For example, the HZ aug from Temple of Cazic Thule seems to drop all the time, be it a hotzone or not. (Older augment.) So does the augment from Noble's Causeway, despite its very rare appearance. But, not long ago, my friend suggested to me the aug from Gyrospire Zeka, a nice piece that he said he rotted many of when doing dailies. I wasn't quite high enough yet, and put it off. When I got there, I couldn't find one. He ran in a higher character, and we (he) cleared the zone a few times... nothing. At the time, we assumed it simply wasn't dropping because it was no longer a hotzone. Enter January 1, where the hotzones changed again, and there's Zeka on the list. So I go clear a few respawns and... nada. My friend comes in again, clears the zone out a few times, nada. I've run into this issue in several zones at this point, Zeka, MMM, Kaesora Library (also an older hotzone), and possibly Silyssar, though the low mob population if you haven't done progression makes it hard to say for sure. So, are we right that some augs only drop when a zone is hot, and if so, does the zone or server have to come down before the aug starts dropping? Or is this just massive luck at both ends of the scale? Do we know what augs, if any, are limited in this way? Or even which augs have overlap between zones? (Foundation was recently a hz, and the only aug we could find in there was the dragorn fang from when OBF was a hotzone. Can't even confirm if Foundation has its own aug or not.)
Well, to start with you do know the hot zones can change whenever the server resets or is taken down for a patch? Not just the 1st of the month but it for sure is supposed to happen then. Per the calendar Also each server can get a different hot zone. They rotate around and often a server will get the same hot zone a few times in a row. So the point here is what server are you on? Perhaps you have server issues. Hot zone augs do not stop when the hot zone bonus stops. They stay in the zone and you can still get them. From old archives: (back when Sony started hot zones) "Every time Sony makes a zone into a Hotzone they add an aug that drops from there." "even though the zone this drops from is no longer a Hotzone this aug still drops and most likely always will drop from that zone. Sony has never gone back and removed a hotzone aug before" I think it is more the RNG ...I cant even trip over one mob in Fear Itself or the Gyro one without getting the aug from there but other zones are much less generous.
All previous hot zones continue to drop the augs, whether they're currently a hot zone or not. If you've cleared the zone multiple times, and not seen one drop, I'd suggest you /bug it. If they research it and find that it should drop, then you can blame the RNG. If they find it's broke, they should fix it.
I have cleared Fear Itself multiple times but couldn't find any aug. I suppose some of the zones do require to be on the HZ list (check Franklin Teek) in order to make HZ aug droppable.
