So its the weekend and here I am hoping to do some M+, push the score a bit and maybe get a decent item.
Did 4 runs. 3 timed, 1 not timed. With everything included i think i spent around 3~hours and the reward I got is Crystalized Droplet, a disgusting Crit-Vers ring as a Demo Lock lover.
I can not describe how discouraging this run was. It actually made me decide not to get KSM this season.
The reason I am writing this is to give some sort of feedback on the bad, maybe worst, sides of RNG loot. There has to be SOME amount of deterministic gearing process. Its just my humble 2 cents.
There is one, whether it’s adequate enough is another question. The work order / crafting system.
Every run above 9 you get a primal focus, and every run above 15 you get a concentrated primal focus. Doesn’t matter if you time it or not, you’ll always get one. You can use 10 of these, alongside some amount of primal chaos to make a reagent that increases the ilvl of a spark crafted item by 13 or 26 ilvl (26 for the concentrated one). You also get these items from raid bosses (regular from heroic, concentrated from mythic).
We currently have 3 sparks and will get our 4th next week. This means by just doing M+10 or higher dungeons you could have 4 ilvl 405 items with whatever stats you want, or if you do +16s you can upgrade / make them at 418 ilvl.
Check my gear right now. I have a 418 ring with a socket and my two best stats, as well as a 418 neck. There’s also a 418 weapon in my bag that I’ve since replaced but you get the picture. All of those items are made with the guaranteed reward from M+ 16 keys.
I’m being completely sincere and serious when I say:
If the RNG nature of WoW’s loot progression bothers you, find another game. Because this is one of the cornerstones of blizzard’s player retention design and it’s so deeply embedded into every aspect of the game that there’s zero chance they can change it even if they wanted to.
Call me casual, call me entitled, but I’ve been here for almost 14 years and I think the idea that you beat a challenge or kill a boss for the chance of maybe getting something that might be an upgrade, is just stupid.
The only people with a brain are the RWF teams. They unlock all the gear necessary to clear the content immediately through credit cards and split runs. In the meantime losers like us spend months collecting scraps and each time we add another mythic boss to our farm list, we need to kill it half a dozen times until everyone has enough gear to kill the next…
Correct me if I am wrong; this sounds really bad? I feel like it sort of incentives you to not spend your sparks till you start doing runs above 15s?
I came back from GW2, hoping things have changed a bit. It seems such is not the case. One other aspect that gave me hope was the solo Qable ranked PvP; with it being 3v3, a shuffle system and with 25 minute Q times, i stopped playing that too.
You can, as Dej said, remake any crafted item you already have for significantly reduced material cost (And no spark). This process lets you change the ilvl, stats, and embellishment. My neck started out at 403 ilvl because I made it with 10 foci, then when I got 10 concentrated foci I remade it (Without using another spark) at 418.
You could go make a 392 ring, neck, and whatever else right now using your sparks and other crafting mats with whatever stats you want and guaranteed sockets.