What style of gear RNG do you prefer?

[Xath]

Extended Kanai's Cube.

Static iLvl
Titanforge but only tertiary stats (can roll 1-3 tertiary stats)
reforging
Roll corruption as current

Purging an items corruption effect allows you to "collect" it (the effect and rank) you can then spend momentos to apply it to your gear.

Ah but see that would allow players determination over their gear.

[justandulas]

Static gear where the only question is "did it drop" or not.

This is why I prefer classic over retail

Imagine having to farm ironfoe in m+ brd season after season, after season. Gross

[endorus]

Ah but see that would allow players determination over their gear.

Indeed, outrageous thinking.

[Onikaroshi]

I actually never minded the mop-wod version of forging, six ilvls, no more, no less, it was just a bonus, you didn't NEED it.

That said, they should return permanent sockets to gear.

Tertiary's can be taken or left, they don't really do anything unless you're stacking avoidance in the WF race.

[ZazuuPriest]

Static with reforging and tokens where you can buy off pieces to fill the gaps from WotLK

[Cainium]

Wanting to be constantly searching for something in a video game is like wanting to buy a hooker to get you 90% of the way there, but never letting you finish.

Well the point close to "finish" is the most awesome. I would pay a hooker endless amounts of money if she would be able to hold that state on forever.

I think the bias against systems like the corrupted has three reasons:
- The inital balancing was bad, so people "think" the system is bad
- People "think" they have to grind for every percentage they can get 'cause world first players do so.
- People just don't understand how things work and can't read statistics (like warcraftlogs/sims) correctly.

Espacially the last point is is proven by the poll results. "Only drop rng" is the absolute worst of all available options. For raiding it comes down to ONE chance per week for an upgrade. If that chance is missed for ANY reasons, it's another week waiting just for the "chance". If the guild isn't good enough to have that particular boss already on farm, than even the "chance" is in the clouds.

The most complains I've seen about the corruption system was that some people got BiS-OP-Traits in week 1, and others didn't. People tend to say "fuck RNG", So without that system, that major complaint wouldn't change, just it's source would change to drop rates and bad luck can hit the player way harder than bad corruption-rng.

[Relapses]

Your timeline is a bit off. Titanforging was introduced in ToT and remained the way it was through the end of WoD. For this period of time, TFing was limited to a maximum of 6 ilvls. It wasn't until Legion that we got TFing that could go all the way up to Mythic ilvls. I personally feel like MoP -> WoD was the best version of gear we had.

[thilicen]

I think the bias against systems like the corrupted has three reasons:
- The inital balancing was bad, so people "think" the system is bad
- People "think" they have to grind for every percentage they can get 'cause world first players do so.
- People just don't understand how things work and can't read statistics (like warcraftlogs/sims) correctly.

I can read Infinite Stars accounting for 15-20% of a player's damage in some cases just fine. And for some reason that thing remains untouched to this day after multiple balancing rounds.

I understand having to sit out progression raids because other players have had their corruptions drop that allows them to do more damage.

The corruption element itself, I actually quite enjoy it. But the distribution is -dogshit-.

[Onikaroshi]

Your timeline is a bit off. Titanforging was introduced in ToT and remained the way it was through the end of WoD. For this period of time, TFing was limited to a maximum of 6 ilvls. It wasn't until Legion that we got TFing that could go all the way up to Mythic ilvls. I personally feel like MoP -> WoD was the best version of gear we had.

WoD was when we lost guaranteed Sockets though, so I think that's what they were shooting for.

- - - Updated - - -

I can read Infinite Stars accounting for 15-20% of a player's damage in some cases just fine. And for some reason that thing remains untouched to this day after multiple balancing rounds.

I understand having to sit out progression raids because other players have had their corruptions drop that allows them to do more damage.

The corruption element itself, I actually quite enjoy it. But the distribution is -dogshit-.

If people are getting sat because of corruption NOW that's just silly, Infinite stars isn't THAT great, even single target a lot of people aren't seeing near 20% from it, out of the top 10 ranks on Warthion (that are readable) only 1 has infinite stars doing top damage, a few of them don't even HAVE it. so if you don't need it to rank, why is it even that big of a deal?

[TickTickTick]

Option first with primary stats being flexible depending on class and spec (like it is now).

That loot system was simply the best, but way too much loot went to waste, for example leather with int drops, but none of int users really want it, a rogue would love to take it but it's int, so...

[Monolithi]

Titanforging is my favourite. I like RNG and it keeps me playing for longer.
Corruption not so much.

[Zephire]

Proc damage corruption effects will trigger no matter how well you're playing. This can potentially carry bad a player's dps over that of a good player in a way which would be impossible for stat increasing corruption effects. The class imbalance issue i'm talking about is unique to corruption. Mages and DH for example can take their corruption much higher than other classes due to their surplus of defensive and mobility options, granting them a significant advantage.

Right, yeah, seen that. A hunter with the mindflay tentacle corruption did insane damage when it proced for 60% of his damage, that was just an insane luck streak (the hunter in question is a really good player as well). The other hunter in the raid (equally as good if not better) was pretty down Before we realized that was a one time thing :P It's fun when it happens though!

I don't know about class specific corruptions though, what's that?

[Pakheth]

This over anything, I miss having a BiS-list that I could work towards, and tier-sets!

I agree so much.
Ever since WoD gear has meant nothing to me. Gone is the time you could see a cool item and fan over the stats/socket/equip effect and actually try to go for that item. Now it's just random, random, random and there is to me nothing to look forward to because it's just random. No anticipation. And if it does drop and it doesn't suck I feel relieved and I hope I am not switching it out with a new item soon with slightly higher ilvl but worse stats...

I want to know my hard work doesn't go to waste and that I am not on the altar of the RNG gods.

Give me back static loot. Well planned/designed loot we the player can drool over and wish for to drop from that specific boss and we will either love or curse that boss until we get that item.

- - - Updated - - -

Static with reforging and tokens where you can buy off pieces to fill the gaps from WotLK

Also this. I really miss badge/Valor gear. It made me work towards a goal and hence made me play more.

[Niwes]

the result will be obvious. ppl do not like other loot systems than the normal static classical one. why ? because fluent game design should not be done through the gear path. every grandma developer/game designer and their mothers should have learned this the last 20 years. because its shit and not fun.

ppl want work towards stuff, with „calculatable RNG“. RNG on top of RNG, complex gear systems or „surprising drops so ppl have reasons to still do lower content“, or „insert that funny EA statement here“ is something .... ppl DO NOT like.

so, here is my message to blizzard and ion hazzikostas, mr. entertainment himself:

Invest your money in better/more content. Not in more complex gear systems.
Pin complexity on content. Not on gear.
Success.

[TheFirstOnes]

I prefer no gear RNG.

[Zantera]

The main issue I had with how gearing used to be before the days of WF/TF was how quickly you got your BiS gear and then how 'empty' (for lack of a better word) things felt after that. I remember a lot of raiders who would just stop showing or start slacking because they wouldn't benefit anymore from raiding, whereas the 'carrot on a stick' approach of Legion or BFA seems to work better in that regard.

However personally I would say the optimal system would have no TF but a WF capped at +5 or +10 ilvl, NO rng on sockets (either they come on the item OR they don't, and it's 100% decided) because sockets are too broken and I'm fine with things like leech/avoidance being a bonus thing you can get too. What killed gearing in Legion was LFR gear rolling up to HC or Mythic level, what killed BFA gearing is the RNG-ness of sockets on Benthic gear and the Corruption lottery of not only getting the right corruption effect but also the right tier of it.

Honestly most of these systems had strengths and flaws. The completely flat static gearing of the past was why people ended up with 10 alts, the RNG and crazy TF lottery of recent times is why mythic raiding doesn't feel as meaningful anymore, and so on and so on.

[Evolixe]

Can't say I'm surprised by what the current results show tbh

[Kalisandra]

I would like a return to the 'old way'. Customisation should be dealt with not by going after every piece of gear possible until the RNG gives you the right combination of stuff, but by adding enchants and gems. Pieces should have sockets like in BC-MoP. Greens would have no sockets, blues would same a few to many depending on source, and epic would have a generous amount, especially raid gear. The sockets should be properly budgeted, and have the old-style bonus for matching colours, etc. If this is too much for the devs to balance (somehow), reforging would be a substitute.

A small amount of WF, say just the +5 ilevel step would be okay, especially if it's limited to gear from instanced drops only.

However, to go with all this, we need the old Hit & Expertise stats back, so there are caps to work around, rather than just dropping all the gems and enchants on whatever secondary sims highest.

Oh, and bring back purchasing some PvE gear with currency, and being able to buy PvP gear with currency. It worked for years and years - not broken, didn't need 'fixing'.

[TEHPALLYTANK]

Multiple layers of RNG suck when it comes to acquiring gear.

[Craaazyyy]

I would like a return to the 'old way'. Customisation should be dealt with not by going after every piece of gear possible until the RNG gives you the right combination of stuff, but by adding enchants and gems. Pieces should have sockets like in BC-MoP. Greens would have no sockets, blues would same a few to many depending on source, and epic would have a generous amount, especially raid gear. The sockets should be properly budgeted, and have the old-style bonus for matching colours, etc. If this is too much for the devs to balance (somehow), reforging would be a substitute.

A small amount of WF, say just the +5 ilevel step would be okay, especially if it's limited to gear from instanced drops only.

However, to go with all this, we need the old Hit & Expertise stats back, so there are caps to work around, rather than just dropping all the gems and enchants on whatever secondary sims highest.

Oh, and bring back purchasing some PvE gear with currency, and being able to buy PvP gear with currency. It worked for years and years - not broken, didn't need 'fixing'.

i agree with pretty much everything you said

i guess the reason why they changed that stuff is because they had to keep players playing the game, because they broke the game itself.. the game started to go downhill before they introduced these insane layers of RNG and completely broke the gearing system.. Blizzard hate actually fixing stuff that they broke, they love to use stupid bandaids instead that in the long run make the game worse. Or they just remove stuff that they think is broken(and if it is broken it's usually because they broke it themselves by trying to change it for no fucking reason)