It's not the idea of rare drops that people hate (not the main thing anyway) but the way that it's tied to quests I think. That coupled with the sheer NUMBER of rares make the whole thing a gigantic pain in the ass.
I agree.
I don’t have a problem with rare loot existing in general or in DDO. It can be really cool to have hard-to-get drops, like cosmetics or legendary items. But for that kind of system to feel good, the reward needs to match the effort. With cosmetics, the payoff is showing off to other players. With gear, it should be about getting something better than the regular options.
The issue in DDO is that rare loot doesn't feel special. There are a few unique cosmetic ones like the fish weapons, but mainly it seems that most weapons/shield and armor from MD onwards are now rare. However, there's a few random trinkets, gloves, bracers, cloaks, rings and helmets. Their stats are equivalent to the non-rare loot - the stats are just different from other options - so were they just chosen at random?
Even for cosmetics I'd much rather have them be like "Love at First Sight" where the method for obtaining them is unusual, still requires extra work, but is feasible.
The mythic helmets in Epic Necro 4 were the original rare loot and they actually made sense. They were an upgrade over the regular versions, but you could still get the normal helmets to complete your gear set. The mythic ones were just a nice bonus with better stats. That’s how rare loot should work.
The golden weapons in MD are reminiscent of this, but their stats aren't better, they are just different - which depending on what you're after might be better or worse.
Feytwisted items are somewhat in-between. Some of them at least offer unique or rare effects, so the rarity feels somewhat justified - especially considering they're much easier to get as they can drop from any quest, and every party member gets a piece. The chests also can't be ransacked. (Also, seeing the chest is exciting because then you know beforehand that you got something rare).
Another big problem with DDO’s rare loot is that much of it shares a chest. I was trying to get Moonlight Slinger from The Darkness and the Light which has 2 other pieces of rare loot in the chest.
Since it's rare loot it means that I first have to hit the rare drop table and then I only have a 33% chance that it's the piece I want. As it only drops from that one quest it means it's easy to ransack, so I have to farm it on alts that I don't want to play.
I ransacked the chest on 5-6 characters for several weeks and didn't see any rare drop. At that point the item might as well not exist to me.
DDO has a lot of gear Tetris. Sometimes a single item is what makes your entire setup work. If that one piece is locked behind ridiculous rarity, it just makes the whole process frustrating and, at least for me, not worth the trouble.
