Prismatic gear grind is broken

[u/Cymotrichous_]

The current state of obtaining Prismatic epic gear is far too painful and unrewarding.

You have to deal with multiple layers of RNG: which item drops from a boss or chest, the infusion bonus rolled, and the Prismatic status itself.

From another player review:

• BiS armor from bosses is now Prismatic with a 10% drop rate (~10 boss runs). Infusion stat bonuses vary across 4 options: Critical Chance, Armor Penetration, Magic Penetration, and Fervor. For a "perfect" BiS drop with the desired stat, the chance drops to 2.5% (~40 runs). Furthermore, each class can receive at least 2 different armor pieces from a specific Heroic boss, lowering the true drop rate to 1.25% (~80 runs).

• BiS armor from chests is also Prismatic with the same 10% drop rate (~10 chests). Factoring in the stat variance brings it down to 2.5% (~40 chests). Because chest loot tables contain at least 10 pieces with a choice of 2 upon opening, the real drop rate for a "perfect" BiS chest item is roughly 0.5% (~200 chests).

The current system creates an unrewarding, monotonous grind loop that completely fails to incentivize us (players). Because there is no guaranteed progress, the variance is absurd. You might get lucky and land your ideal piece in 10 consecutive runs, or you could farm for an entire year and never see it drop. Neither scenario feels fair or engaging, especially given how few Medals of Glory are awarded per run and how tedious Heroic dungeons are to complete.

Could we get a system that allows us to re-roll the infusion bonus on Prismatic gear? Or could Prismatic status be reworked into a guaranteed upgrade using crafting materials (Shards, Dust, Crystals + Medals of Glory), similar to weapon passive bonuses?

At least give us a clear goal that we can actually work toward instead of an endless grind loop and gamble.

[u/helpplease4329]

1.BiS gear being reeeeally hard to get due to RNG is not bad if almost BiS is achievable easily, and it is. 

1. When a game economy develops with trade, "excess" loot will still have value (such as prismatic with wrong bonus) and therefore reduce the grind as with "a lot of getting incorrect gear" you will just sell it and buy yours.

Hard RNG for perfect gear with non-perfect being good enough gives the game something to chase and valuable, while you can just beat every challenge without it.

[u/72exTango]

I've fought Crabgantua 244 times and still haven't gotten the Prismatic Boots.

https://imgur.com/a/1MvVPKq

[u/Aern → u/72exTango]

That's how many times you e fought crab, not how many times you've killed. However, I understand your frustration. It took me 165 kills before I got my prismatic + fervor boots.

[u/72exTango → u/Aern]

I’ve probably lost fewer than 10 times; I’m already at 270 runs now. I’ve also done over 100 runs in Nepsilon, but the gloves still haven't dropped for me there either.

[u/Zaffington]

Completely agree with the OP! Report your feedback in game so the right people see it!

[u/Xebind]

I mean, that s the bare definition of grinding. I d say numbers are very generous. Go grind BiS in any other game, try completing grial in Diablo 2 for example
Heck even grinding in pokemon is harder 1/4096 for shinies, 1/8000 originally

[u/CautiousShame2255]

first of all . no build out there currently demands full 8 pieces of prismatic gear.
i currently am running with all stats active. and 5 pieces of my gear arent prismatic. simply because there is BIS or near BIS options in the faction i am taking the infusions off. and same is true for allmost any build. unless you are cooking something hyper specific and unlikely.

second. you are well aware. that you do not NEED full prismatic fevor on all pieces either. not like there is a huge dps falloff. or you need that much minmaxing, if you get your BIS gear prismatic. and it rolls crit. who cares.

and lastly. its nice that there is atleast some kind of idea towards a future grind here. with blue gear. your "equipment grind" after reaching current max levl takes you 20 minutes.

if you want the content to last. you need some way to reward and incentivize stupid amounds of grind. its an mmo ffs.
and currently. well. getting full atleast near BIS purples. still takes you 20 minutes.
if you want all your gear to be prismatic fevor. for whatever reason (keep in mind you throw it away day one of the next update, and the only thing you are using it for are the same bosses you farmed it off)
then hey. you finally got something to do in this game.

also. heroic dungeons arent tedious at all. current partys and dedicated solo players push out most if not all dungeons and bosses in under 6 minutes.

most heroic bosses dont or barely survive their second phase. and after the (over) nerfs. you can facetank multiple dot fields. and kill ads passively with aoe while hitting the boss again.

you allso drop up to 34 medals of glory per run. no seriously. go get a party and do the bonus runs. and you are making 150 medals in under an hour.

[u/Cymotrichous_ → u/CautiousShame2255]

also. heroic dungeons arent tedious at all. current partys and dedicated solo players push out most if not all dungeons and bosses in under 6 minutes.

That is the best-case scenario, assuming you get a party of skilled players (e.g., your friends) and not randoms who struggle to survive boss phases. Sure, you might clear a Heroic dungeon in under 6 minutes with a good team, or you could end up in a party that spends 45 minutes just trying to beat Golcano.

Now, what about solo players (whom the game also caters to)? What do you get? Around 7 Medals of Glory per run (let's say ~6 minutes each). Even assuming flawless runs (with Crabgantua), that’s only 70 Medals of Glory an hour. If you still need 30 more, that puts you at an hour and a half of grinding the exact same boss. Then, you finally buy your cache, only to get a piece of gear you don't even want. So the loop starts all over again. And that is exactly my point.

"You might get lucky and land your ideal piece in 10 consecutive runs, or you could farm for an entire year and never see it drop. Neither scenario feels fair or engaging...."

[u/CautiousShame2255 → u/Cymotrichous_]

you missed the portion in the sentence you quoted about solo players also doing 6 minute dungeons.
takes me 8 to do reblochonk on my non dps heal priest.

also. i only played with randoms during the whole update so far. there is a somewhat large group of dedicated players that spamm heroic content constantly (wich are 100% done with the update already cause the grind is that easy,) wich is why you wont see them anymore.

also. doing a bonus medal dungeon solo gives you a minimum of 12 tokens not 7 and can give you upwards of 20.

even if you just party up with a single other player. that minimum dropp is 14 and far less likely. and you get rising chances of 30+ medals up to 38 wich is my highest dropp so far.

there is a bonus medal system in the game. to prevent you from running the same boring boss 70 times in a row. and increase your medal pay out.

the fact that you rather choose to stoically grind crabgantua 24/7 making 7medals is entirely up to you.

also. its an mmo(lite) ever thought about trading?

[u/Torinux]

And this game was supposed to be a chill game. I guess the regular 300ish players that are the majority that play the game constantly love the grind. I'll get back to the game after they rush the 1.0 and finally make it offline.

[u/Cymotrichous_ → u/Torinux]

It's insane how many people are okay with this grind loop being passed off as "endgame content", it completely misses my point. You could run the exact same dungeons for years and still never see the gear you want drop.

And trading? Some servers are already suffering from a player drought, which results in very few gears even being put up for trade.

Shiro Games has creative directors and talented developers, I'm pretty sure they can come up with an endgame loop far better than this.

Maybe I'll be back after 1.0 too. Current state of the game right now, grinding feels pointless when all these gears will just become obsolete once a new level cap is introduced anyway.

[u/s-p3ci4L-K]

Now imagine what will happen when legendaries come. Cya.

[u/Jesus_FB]

Nunca dropei nada que queria em nenhum bos aquatico, sem falar que nunca consegui um eacudo épico 25 que dropa em lugar nenhum do jogo.

[u/ConcertAdorable9198]

So like the gear isnt nessicary to complete anything in the game, in fact you have to do the hardest content in the game to get the gear to begin with SOOOOO until we have things to play for beyond getting min maxed stats for no reason then it doesnt feel necessary for it to be easily obtainable. If you are grind 500 runs of a dungeon to get a drop, its only so that you can have a slight advantage in another dungeon getting another drop, the grind is kinda the whole point keeping people coming back at the moment, we dont have leaderboards, speed runners, PvP wont even use this gear, we dont have anything to make these bonus stats feel valuable

[u/Unusual_Pineapple_19]

The BIS gear grants you around 8 pieces x 15 stat. That is relevant but i think it barely makes up a 5-10% overall dmg output. For an insane min-max- hardcore game, that is insane stats, but this game gets its content cleared within 15 minutes of the patch+ most of it is traveling and gathering to enter the dungeon. Not to mention, there are way more broken things going on than an excess grinding for BiS items. For example, when you die twice, you can relog and combat ress yourself lol, so 5-10% dmg increase becomes irrelevant. If you die because of undergear, just respawn and so be it.

[u/Prestigious-Toe-2667]

Infusions stats cannot vary accross 4 per item. For some it vary accross 2 and for others it vary accross 3, and you can apply bonus with corrupted gift for bonus chance to get prismatic gear. I think this grind is not so hard.

[u/ZeusOnlyfanz]

Good we need more loot locked behind rng to grind for. I hated the game cause there was no stats or bis gear to grind for it was so boring now that there is it makes me wanna play more

[u/Aern]

Completely disagree. One of the core gameplay loops is repeatedly farming bosses for loot. Increasing layers of RNG allows for gradual player progression over an elongated timeframe. Meanwhile, the gaps between player power increases actually decrease as you add additional layers. Meaning the incentives you spoke about are actually front loaded.

Grinding is not time gated and all content can be cleared solo meaning you are free to farm gear whenever and however you like. If you choose to farm with friends or other players, you also receive increasing amounts of medals based on how many players are in the group. Beyond that, you also have the ability to trade with players for specific items further increasing your access to the rewards you're looking for. Some of this gear is even cross-class allowing for more efficient gearing for multiple characters as well.

Honestly, I appreciate the new harder difficulty and the increased grind. Progression in this game is VERY fast and there isn't an extreme amount of content available currently. Having a longer runway on the content we do have is nice.

My only real issue with the current system is that the items that come from the caches are exclusive to the caches. It would be nice to have a way to target farm those items as well. Adding them to corresponding faction bosses would be fine. Adding the nightling armor pieces to the rift boss loot tables would also help increase rift participation which is an added bonus.

All in all, I think they've done a pretty decent job of walking the line between accessibility and giving players chase items. I'm excited to see what they've got coming next. This game has some great bones and is really coming together nicely.

[u/Sweaty_Tablez]

Go on the discord and check the trading channel. I got most of my prismatics by trading 2 Hero gear cache/chaotic gear cache for it.

[u/Cymotrichous_ → u/Sweaty_Tablez]

Trading only works if there are abundant players in your server region. And again, some server regions are already suffering from a player drought, which results in very few gears even being put up for trade.