Feldon 
One thing that made it into yesterday’s Update was a change to how loot drops in the Chains of Eternity Advanced Solo zones. Previously, after killing flattening laying to rest the boss of each zone, 1-3 Mystery Crates would be granted to the player, containing either Legendary jewelry, Fabled armor (very rare), or consumables like Research Reducers, temporary Adornments, or Food. Because the items were in a Mystery Crate, the items could not be traded to other players, even if you had done the zone with 2 players (rather than 1 player and a mercenary). Players reported a very high incidence of receiving items that they could not use for their class.
The bosses of all the Advanced Solo zones (except Wurmbone’s End HM) have these loot rules:
- 100% chance at two (2) Advanced Solo gear items — 50% Smart Loot
- 10% chance at a third Advanced Solo gear item — 50% Smart Loot
- 10% chance at a solo-level Spirit Stone
- 5% chance at a group-level Spirit Stone
Wurmbone’s End (HM) has these loot rules:
- 100% chance at four (4) Advanced Solo gear items — 50% Smart Loot
- 10% chance at a fifth Advanced Solo gear item — 50% Smart Loot
- 10% chance at a solo-level Spirit Stone
- 5% chance at a group-level Spirit Stone
Everything now drops in a standard chest, so items can be traded between group members present. With 50% smart loot, there should be a much better chance that players will get items that are class appropriate. Consumables such as Research Reducers, Temporary Adornments, and Food were removed from the loot table. Overall, it seems to be a big improvement in my opinion. The one bummer here is that Sleeper’s Tomb Advanced Solo was brought in line with the other zones above, rather than dropping 4 items if 2 players were present like before.
I should add that Smart Loot means a percent chance that you will get an item your character can equip. If you are a scout, that could mean a 1-handed item with Wisdom/Stamina. In order for Smart Loot to really work well, each item has to have its applicable classes restricted to just the ones that would benefit from it, and EQ2 loot is not set up like that these days.
Back By Popular Demand!
Kander responded to the discussion thread on this issue seeking player feedback and based on that, will be adding back some items that were lost:
Temp adorns and research reduces are going back in. By popular demand! They will be on a separate table so they will not take the place of loot. Soon.
What about Ethereals on the advanced solo loot table? They have been dropping since day 1, and seem to have picked up a tad since this loot change yesterday. I don’t see any in the possible loot drops though. I just looted the chest of all chests in Dreadcutter adv solo: Scout primal chest, wisdom ethereal hammer, group legendary adorn, and a legendary wrist.
Are you sure it’s not the “1/10000” or whatever chance that Ethereal weapons will drop worldwide?
Probably. My Bad. 🙂
Hey I could be wrong. I haven’t seen the data.
Any mention on those “speedy feet” totems? Or do they fall under the “Temporary adornments” heading?
i am SO glad that they included this in the update notes for this morning. I mean why are the update notes so off and incomplete so often.
I assume this new loot system only applies to COE’s [AS]? or also to SSs?
Does the advance solo gear items list still include fabled pieces of armor ?
Looking at my guild loot yesterday it seems the same few items dropped all day. Might just be chance and it’s only one day…
I had fabled druid gloves drop from Fear Wednesday; I have no druid toons.
Norlac,
It’s 50% smart loot. Not 100%. And the game doesn’t look at your alts lol.
@Norlac well you could have sold them in channel, given to a guildie that does or just muted them. I’m not really sure what your point is.
I don’t see how players can’t be happy with these changes, well yea I really do but the point is is the loot from these zones the way it is set now is far more rewarding than almost every other chest from every other mob in this game at any level, and the quality of the loot vs the difficulty of the content there is simply no comparison.
These changes are better and in the long run are far, far better than what you had before the regular chest drop.
@Lempo of Everfrost my point was to share my experience of what dropped as loot since the change. Maybe you forgot this isn’t flames ?
Should do what I did when my SK picked up two pieces of fabled gear for Inquisitor/Templar. I levelled my 25 Inq up to 93 to be able to wear them 🙂
So, semi-smart then.
100% smart loot (assuming all gear was marked for just the classes that can benefit, like agi/sta being scout only, int/sta being mage only) would mean you could never get gear for Alts from Adv Solo zones.
So what happens when you’ve got like 5x copies of all the 160 gear? I’d like to have more solo advanced stuff, because I don’t really have the time to form groups to do heroic.
Well, you COULD get gear for your alts if it was 100% Smart loot, you’d just only be able to get stuff for alts of the same archetype (scout/tank or caster/healer)
I dunno … still seems borked. Since the changes, my necro has had either defiler/myster or templay/inquisitor fabled drops in three exquisite chests. I am using a paly merc, so it has nothing to do with that skewing the results — and in the last one, NONE of the items were equippable by me.