Oh damn you went and put decorating junk in the loot tables didn't you!! And now I'm going to have 1/3 of my guild yelling at me that we Have to go do the Arena.
tbh you shouldn't expect anything that you wanted. between EM and HM loot from the instanced avatars? you are thinking way to big
Time to go kiss up to a cool raider or 12 I mean..if you were serious which I suspect you're not. Just commenting there are other options other then rage-quitting Blarg, tongue in cheek doesn't always work in text. you know what I meaaaannnnn.
The problem is that each of the 7 helms seem to have an equal chance of dropping with different amount of classes on a pattern. So with RNG it is not unlikely for some patterns to drop 6 times on a server while others drop on twice. Some servers luck out getting more for the scout/mages and some don't getting 6 druid helms. CB has 6 druid, 6, shaman, 5 plate healer, 5 brawler ( all 2 classes per pattern) and 3 and 2 mage helms.
I'm thinking representative of their challenge. I would rank their challenge between EM Bosses and the lower CM / early PoW mobs. With some being harder, some being easier.
This content was DESIGNED to be contested content and there is VERY little of it. There is more Solo/Duo content. There is more Group content. There is more instanced raid content . They have bent over backwards and given the ability to learn the strats for these mobs on a silver platter. Now people can learn the strats with an advantage over those that went out and hammered them out by their own pulls, by observation or a combination. Then if they want the gear they get out there and CONTEST them otherwise they need to run the content that better suits their playstyle. Usually I find you pretty rational Atan but I just don't get where you are coming from here, I really don't.
With the limited slots we are providing and the loot level we have planned for Arena of the Gods, we feel confidently that it will be acceptable for those on both sides of the fence. The normal raiders who participate will find stuff they will use and those who are at top end should not be offended. That is the plan.
An ambitious goal and a good one at that. Hopefully it comes to land on the mark. You already have stated that the gear will be substantially under the real Avatar's so that should keep the high-enders happy.
Unfortunately I think the way they look at it is one server gets very little, other gets a lot = ~50% drop rate. They really need to adjust drop rates and the RNG in general to be influenced right down to the individual players. This opposed to checking the accuracy of drop rates by looking at statistics globally. There is a HUGE difference between a 10% drop rate for one guild or one server and 10% drop rate for the entire game.
I will agree that the luck factor on the avatar loot is what is driving most guilds to monopolize... or attempt to monopolize the kills. We've seen 1 brawler helm, 1 fighter ear, 3 plate fighter helms, 3 scout helms, and 2 scout ears since November (that's serverwide btw), whereas there have been 4-5 priest ears, 5-6 mage ears, maybe 6 mage helms, 7 or more cleric helms, 5-6 shaman helms, 7-8 mage helms. Other guilds have had a completely different, yet equally obnoxious distribution. Has Butcherblock disco'ed the mage ear yet?
Players are starved for content they feel is enjoyable and rewarding. There are a great many players who feel SOE has lost site of what is fun content to play. Most players ring SG distinctly not fun and think soe was out of their minds in just how annoying the content is. 90% of my raiders that can make kills in this content simply don't want to. I recently lost players more than capable due to just how 'not fun' the content we've been getting is. I would prefer instanced avatars not come into the game unless there are rewards represent I've of their challenge as to too many players seeing more content brought in that isn't fun or rewarding would just be one more nail in the coffin of their eq2 careers. In honesty I feel SOE has been so out of touch with delivering content that is entertaining, that I almost wouldn't have been surprised with housing items. Why have I been involved in this thread? Two reasons. 1) There are a lot more players looking for competitive content than there are players interested in contested, I feel this model is dieing and SOE should start looking into other avenues and 2) these fights are content that can and would be fun and entertaining for a larger player base as it represents a challenge level more respective of your average eq2 raider. Alternate instanced versions gives bored and frustrated players a bone to chew on for a while longer. The biggest question being what rewards should be available, and that's a question that shouldn't be hard to answer. Something between EM and PoW is what I would peg, but I think it might also be very cool rto have one contested avatar level item (non rare) available from an achievement for killing them all. I think I if we saw something like this we would see a renewed passion from your larger base of raiders who are currently feeling very disenfranchised with DC and/or SG. I have not advocated removal of contested, I have lobbied that in the future they consider different types of competition that would involve a larger player base as I feel this current system is waining in interest to what MMO players today are really interested in.
