More from Doctor Brainstorm:
So here are some clarifications:
* The majority of sets are available exclusively through defeating enemies. This means that all the pieces of the set are attainable by beating up things.
* Some of the sets (the rarer ones), have parts of them that are only attainable by completing a Story Arc.
* These same sets also might have a part of them that require you to finish a Task Force.
* These same sets also might have a part of them that requires you to complete a Trial.
* This makes 4 pools from which recipe rewards can come from. Pool A is enemies, Pool B is Story Arcs, Pool C is Task Forces, and Pool D is Trials.
* There are different pools every 5 levels, to conicide with the recipes that are available at those levels.
* Not every level has all four pools (early levels don’t have Pool D, the Trial pool)
* No specific anything is tied to doing anything specific. This means that completing ANY story arc in the level 20 to 25 range can get you a random rare recipe from Pool B. Defeating ANY entity (no matter if its a minion or a boss) can get you a random recipe from Pool A. This is done this way to ensure a more even distribution of recipes from that Pool. If defeating Archvillains always dropped a Rare, then someone would pull the old “farming AV” trick and suddenly that Rare is more common than Generic Damage
Enhancements.* Giant Monsters don’t drop recipes so they are not farmed for recipes, causing camping issues we are actively trying to avoid. As for reasons to fight Giant Monsters… well the Hive and the Abyss now contain very good reasons to defeat these guys.
Now I hear you guys… you all seem to dislike the Story Arc aspect of this system. I’ve had some discussions with the team yesterday about what we could do instead, and still keep the flavor of the four pool system, because having the extra three pools allows us to not only reward risk/reward, but time/reward as well. Takes longer to do a Task Force? Here’s a nice bonus you can’t get anywhere else. Finish the Respec trial, but already have all your Respecs? Here’s a nice reward that carries with it some good
inherent value.Now again, I must stress, the majority of sets, including entire complete sets come from simply defeating enemies. All the costume piece and temp power recipes come from defeating enemies. There are Rare recipes (ones that have a worse chance to drop than others) in Pool A (the defeating enemies pool) as well.
We also will be actively monitoring datamining on every aspect of this system through all of Training Room and into Live.
After having looked at my comments on the previous post on the subject — I realize that my initial reaction has been directly addressed by this. I have no problem with a few, select sets (or elements thereof) being rewarded for special actions. If someone couldn’t hit 50, or couldn’t … something … without doing that One, Big Set, that would be wrong.
But otherwise, what we’re talking about is no different form Accolades, which provide a nice little boost, but require certain story arcs and activities. You can survive without them, but they provide a small QoL boost. If there are a minority of Sets that require a bit of other activity, i can live with that — especially since, as noted, the recipes can be sold in the auction houses to those who really want them.
Im slowly coming around to the Idea myself. One of my online pals pointed out to me this is the closest thing we’ll have to customized Alts. As an example, he pointed out to me that his AR/DEV blaster, Anzac, was really no different than another pal’s AR/DEV blaster, Ric O’shea (other than Ricks,really, really bad costume.) Now, with the different drops, one could increase his sniping potential while the other would do something else, blah blah blah. Makes sense to me, especially if my Rad doesn’t have to grind through all the Tf’s again. Getting TF commander the first time was hard enough.
Agreed — more nuanced variation beyond primary/secondary, power selection, and slotting, can only be a good thing.
What I find amusing/astonishing is the number of folks who feel Absolutely Entitled to Get Access to Every Single IO Around, regardless of whether they’re playing at 2 or at 50 (hence the firestorm over task force-related IOs). It’s like the people who pitch fits because a new badge has been created that their character can’t get any more.
I’m curious about pool C vs pool D……… can i get clarification on this in regards to hamidon……. the rewards (recipe) would be of pool D since it’s not a TF (pool C) as an event….. but since it’s an enemy…. does it not fall under pool A as there are no contacts relating to activating the event as a trial???
Another thing….. recipes tied to each pool category….. does that mean it’s actually worth going through the challenge of hami in that the reward is greater than say the STF trial where your recipe drops by pool category have some limits or some exclusive to that pool or event? In other words….. I’m needing to clarify that if i continually run STF’s is my reward equal to or the same as if I were to complete a hamidon raid?
Also, if hamidon is part of the trial section and it’s recipe reward is of pool D category and I can claim it once in 24 hours does this mean that since the STF is a task force section that I can still claim a recipe immediately after a hamidon trial? (i’m thinking that we could since you could but haven’t done this myself to see).
thx
I honestly don’t know.
I suspect the folks on the official CoX forums could speculate wildly about it, though. 🙂