Wipe wrote on May 10
th, 2014 at 7:01am:
It can be, in healthy "amount".
It's a mmorpg, the loot should be huge carrot, and as a reward for doing harder stuff and playing better.
Tor ? I would still do EE for a chance to get some nice helm, optics or whatnot. Even for selling or trading, at least it's something.
Trial/ Cabal, still nice to get EE Cloak or Quiver.
It's not much but it's still there, especially when at cap when all you get is a chance to maybe help/play with your friends and some little outdated loot.
Jesus even those items icons are old, who's in charge of the loot ? Some student on a spring break ?
I understand that grind is an important psychological motivational mechanic.
But calibrating it is important too. ESOS, ROSS, and even +4/5 tomes in the new loot tables are unbelievably rare.
You cannot work towards them - they are barely above dumb luck chances. Maybe that is right for some uber items, but you would want to make sure they are uber and stay useful.
I realise that there has to be a balance too - if you can acquire any treasure thru repetition, some will have it within days of release and the proverbial carrot disappears.
I think they have the calibration about right on Haunted Halls stuff. It's not uber, but it is decent if you get it to drop. TOR runs are still good too. Rarity of the helms and optics helps them to hold their value. Although it is annoying to have a very rare helm drop with stat +8 on it now. The insight +3 should be on the very rare table and the stat +8's made more accessible for those mid 20 levels.
But there are other elements where the % is too small and you level past it's usefulness before you get it.
It would be nice to have an incrementing loot chance for many items in the game. The 20th run list is something like this, but only for raids. Particularly useful class items - where you can work towards it.
Just my view.