Harrower loot is bad

Mervyn

why is the harrower loot so bad? It should be comparable with shadowguard, you have to slay every champ boss (which even those you get the odd legendary from).

The harrower is definitely harder than the shadowguard roof bosses. 

CovenantX

I agree the loot should be of higher quality on the Harrower than anything else in the game...

it takes the longest to "key" for than every other encounter in the game, as well as being more difficult to "farm" because of it being exclusive to Fel.

Shadowguard, Zipactriotl & Myrmidex Queen should be 2nd tier (only to the Harrower) based on difficulty & time to complete,  All Keyed or Quest Encounters should have a minimum loot quality of Lesser Artifact... Cut the total items in the corpse from mobs by 50-80% (with a hard-cap on bonus items generated based on players who've earned looting rights.), but increase the quality of the loot to a higher minimum level, which could then be increased by luck.

a Hidden benefit of that = Less reason to use a "Loot Script" to only pick out the good stuff due to so much trash-loot it wastes a lot of time checking/moving it out of the way.

If the Devs hadn't changed the way Negative properties were generated and worked when they rolled out Global loot... People would still mostly be using Reforged/Imbued items, as the negatives were just that "negative", Unfortunately this is no longer the case, and Powercreep is out of hand.

However, at this point cutting the power of items is just going to upset the player-base, because it's been this way long enough that it has become the new norm. The next best thing is to balance the quality of loot between as much of the more difficult & time-consuming content with each other, so people could truly do the content they want, instead of doing the only thing that drops the best quality & quantity of loot.  -Shadowguard.

Max_Blackoak

absolutely in favor of this! +1

Slayvite

ALL loot is bad now, you can litterally find lesser artifact junk just lying around on the floors these days. Mostly mob fighting is pointless now also as the junk that comes on the body is just....meh!

Mervyn

Well I’ve stated before a solution to power creep, simply return brittle to what it was (75 durability) 

They made a mistake in the first place by raising it to 255 as brittle was new and people wrongly thought it made armour lose durability faster than normal so requested the raise.

Now that we are better informed, I’m sure a lower durability is now welcome. 

Urge

Mervyn said:

Well I’ve stated before a solution to power creep, simply return brittle to what it was (75 durability) 

They made a mistake in the first place by raising it to 255 as brittle was new and people wrongly thought it made armour lose durability faster than normal so requested the raise.

Now that we are better informed, I’m sure a lower durability is now welcome. 

Completely disagree until 1)imbuing and crafting is increased or 2) there is a chance at increased loot from everything.

You can kill anything below roof and exodus all day without getting one remotely decent piece.

crunchnasty

The Harrower is definitely supposed to be the ultimate champ, and yet you are correct. It isn't rewarded as such. In fact I've seen massive guild wars over a harrower, and you have to kill several hard champ spawns just to get to the harrower, this is at least comparable to the roof, if not more so. 

@kyronix its true that power creep has gotten out of hand, ppl just toss artifacts on the ground like trash now. Artifacts are a dime a dozen, and so are major magic items. Just saying, power creep is part of the reason crafters are so marginalized. 

Lieutenant_Dan

The most recent content will always give the best stuff to entice players to upgrade their accounts.  Marketing 101

While I do enjoy the new content this strategy doesn't bode well for overall gameplay in a platform as complex as UO's. 

crunchnasty

What they should do is make the newest content loot different or unique, not 'better' so that theres a reason to go to both.

Slayvite

Unfortunatly they are thinking in terms of "modern" MMO's when it comes to loot in this game. The thing they forget is this aint a level driven game where every 12 months they poop ot some new expansion and "up" the loot to a higher level for content.
This is a classic MMORPG and what's happening is a loot divide where loot is increasing so to "even it out" they make the mobs have harder to compensate but this doesn't help the lower level player who now has to find arti quality loot to be able to stand a chance in "group" fights or PvP.

It was a BAD design choice and dare i say, a lazy one at that but this is what we have now so we are now at the point where you give a new player an outfit of "lesser artifact" and they are like "what?...can i even wear this cheap thing, you not got any legendary stuff?"

DJAd

I made a thread about this on stratics before. I totally agree. When you consider the “risk” the reward is terrible. Yes you get stat scrolls but most players have had these on their characters for years. Give harry an uber loot bump and make fighting over it a big deal again. 

LordGandalf

+1

Maximus_Neximus

I agree that it needs a bump. Give it the loot of the roof encounter with a couple of new artifacts that could drop.

Cookie

+50.

crunchnasty

I got a cameo and a hawkwinds robe in a single roof run lastnight, not to mention a ton of artifacts... way easier than harrower or fighting all the champs.

CovenantX

yea, and you could easily do all the champs and a harrower (if no one raids) and there's a very high chance you won't even see any legendary items in the loot on any of them.

The_Higgs_1

Along with the loot needing upgraded they also need to update the harrower itself.  I think the harrower is too easy to kill right now.  I know its supposed to be more about the pvp, but there are people who run them on dead shards and farm them up.   I posted about it before, but update the harrower so it can not only move in both forms but also spawn more tentacles then just between forms.  Just my two cents.

cobb

I agree. Harrower should drop the best loot in the game, not Shadowguard.

Larisa

I think stat scrolls is pretty good loot..that's why we do the Harrower, isn't it? Not for loot..for stat scrolls..which you can't get anywhere else in the game....if you want loot go do something else...my opinion anyway, sorry I'm the odd man out here

cobb

Stat scrolls have lost most of their value and don't sell for much. Regular power scrolls are way more expensive than stat scrolls now

Larisa

With new and returning players they might need those stat scrolls you know?

Mervyn

You cannot give stat scrolls to pets so they have remained low value. 

psycho

Since pets can now use powerscrolls I suggest add statscrolls to them also.

+5 = 50points for your pet to use

+10 =100 points for your pet to use

+15 = 150 points for your pet to use

+20 = 200 points for your pet to use

+25 = 250 points for your pet to use

Can only be used once on a pet, and +5 and +20 wont stack to a +25.

If you really wanna bump the reward on stat scrolls you could make the +20 = 2000points

and the +25 2500 points to distribute on your pet, now thats like a whole new follower level and people would go crazy to get them.

I also  suggest the following change:

Harrower can not be spawned two hours before and after server down.

Or if the total server population is less than say 50 players.  (farmers go cry)

Cookie

 I'd back up your concept Psycho.

crunchnasty

If we add stat scrolls to pets, then the Devs would have to increase the stats or difficulty of many different monsters to compensate for the increased power of the pets. 

Pawain

crunchnasty said:

If we add stat scrolls to pets, then the Devs would have to increase the stats or difficulty of many different monsters to compensate for the increased power of the pets. 

There are pets that already go to caps with 120 scrolls.  They are not over powered.  You probably dont know which ones either.

Sliss

People are acting like power creep is an ultimate evil. It's not.  Without power creep, there would be no need to keep playing once you get all the best stuff. Every good MMO has it. Every great MMO has it calculated and planned.