BioWare gave us, the Anthem Community, a second chance to experience what it would be like if the chances for good loot to drop were increased “through the roof”. This article combines an overview of what happened shortly before the May 9th Update, the current situation after patch 1.0.3 was released and a mix of a few personal thoughts on what Anthem’s loot system is, could and should be.
It seems BioWare repeated one of their worst mistakes since the release of Anthem on February 22. The second big client-side patch dropped on March 9, a few days ahead of schedule, in fact! It was planned for March 12. Like with the previous one, a mistake was made and loot drop chanced were increased to what most of the Anthem community believes should be the normal levels for the game.Shortly before the 1.0.3 update, a server-side patch was applied, apparently. It was that one that brought the “broken loot chance”. For a few hours until the client-side patch landed and everyone updated their clients, the chances for Masterwork and Legendary loot to drop was higher.
I personally was playing Anthem for about three hours on that Saturday morning (for me it was morning) before the patch. I saw nothing different in terms of loot drops. Bad luck, eh?! D’OH!
A redditor under the tag u/RealSeltheus has done an interesting calculation in an attempt to showcase how small the chance to get a high quality item with the “good” inscriptions is. The chance to get, as he describes it “a god roll” is so incredibly small, it’s a little disheartening to look at it, heh. In his post he writes:
So here is where the psychological manipulation of the mind comes in.
You’d have to win the lottery to beat the odds of EVER getting that so called “god roll”. Impossible? No. Mathematically extremely unlikely? Yeah.
So what is an increased droprate actually gonna do for you? In the greater scheme of things? Almost nothing. What does it do for your mind? Everything you need to keep you going.
It manipulates you into perceiving the odds as higher as they factually are and therefore tricks you into thinking you got “a chance” at your god roll, despite the possibility being next to none.
Min-maxing your gear and build is no easy task in Anthem with so many random elements introduced into the gearing process. RealSeltheus reaches the same conclusion through math and calculations. He then concludes what an increased Masterwork and Legendary drop rates would do for you as a player and the community as a whole:
[…] An increased droprate has nothing to do with getting the ultimate gear, it’s about tricking your mind into perceiving the odds as more favourable than they factually are. It makes you feel like “shooting for that god roll” is a possibility and therefore keeps you engaged and keep on trying.
THAT IS WHAT PEOPLE ASKING FOR INCREASED DROPRATES REALLY WANT. Not free handouts…
The bottom line is, are you happy with your experience in Anthem? Is your luck working for you or against you?
Even since before Day 1 of Anthem, the dev team behind the game has been hard at work to fix the game’s issues, correct some mistakes and improve the experience of us, the players. This is very clearly visible even if you are not a fan of the game. It is true that nearly twenty days after Anthem’s worldwide launch, there are problems to solve and bugs to eliminate. In regards to the loot, though, Chad Robertson, head of live service at BioWare, was perfectly clear. He confirmed on Twitter yesterday that the studio is not yet happy with Anthem’s loot systems and the devs are still looking for the perfect balance between playtime, effort and rewards.
We appreciate all the feedback from the community on the game. We love the passion and share it. We’re not yet fully happy with the game’s loot behavior either.
— Chad Robertson (@crobertson_atx) March 9, 2019
Now, let me tell you what my personal experience has been and what I would like to see changed. I have been rather unlucky when it comes to getting good loot out of the tough content. Farming Strongholds in Grandmaster 1 with 600+ Power ranked javelins has become a joke and a snooze fest since the 1.0.3 patch.
While I don’t have first hand experience with other looter shooter games, I cannot stay neutral to the crazy low ratio of time spent vs meaningful rewards earned. And I’m not even talking about the silly rewards you get for completing some of the hardest and longest challenges in Anthem. I am focusing on the loot drops. I was (I guess) unlucky with my rolls during the second “broken loot period” before the 1.0.3 patch. And I did not play the game at all when the first mistake happened – that happened in the middle of the night my local time and BioWare fixed it before I came back from work and could play. D’OH!
So, yesterday in that sunny Sunday afternoon I did some Freeplay events plus random mob farming for about 2 hours or so. I got one Legendary and a five of Masterwork items in total. In the evening we ran the Strongholds and in about two and a half hours (including breaks etc) I came out with four Masterwork items. It goes without saying that I kept nothing for my main Ranger, thanks to the RNGods.
We moved to GM2 for good. As you know, not all Strongholds in Anthem are balanced in terms of difficulty. The Tyrant Mine is the longest, but easiest by far, while the Monitor’s third stage in the Heart of Rage is quite challenging for many players. I have been enjoying farming the Strongholds (and wiping once in… :P) a lot. GM2 is quite a challenge for my Ranger and we ran them with two Rangers in the team. The fun was even bigger!
My wish for Anthem’s loot system is to start rewarding our time spent. We cannot craft Legendaries. That is fine by me. It will likely become possible in the future. That’s fine with me as well. I believe a guaranteed Legendary for a completed Stronghold run would be fair. In a similar way how Masterwork Components are granted for a successfully completed Legendary Contract, there should be a 100% guaranteed Legendary. To remain fair to the hardcore players and to increase incentives to spend a lot longer in GM2 and GM3, I would like to see 50% chance for a Legendary to drop from the final Stronghold boss in GM2, while in GM3 it will be 100% guaranteed drop.
Anthem is currently starved for content, but this is not the game’s biggest issue. The gameplay, stunning environments and especially the flying experience are so awesome that it’s easy for me, and I am certain most of you too, to forgive and forget the fact that the game launched with only two real Strongholds and a third one, which is a copy-paste from the final mission in the main storyline.
BioWare should not hand out free loot and gear to everybody. I hope they don’t. I’ve seen this happening in the last few years in Star Wars: The Old Republic. There is a special feeling when you play long and hard and earn a piece of gear that you have been working on for quite some time. This is what I miss the most in Anthem. It could be just my RPG and MMO mentality messing up with my mind.
What do you think? Would you like to see increased loot drops in the highest difficulties? Are you happy with the changes BioWare made with Update 1.0.3 and the snooze-fest that has become GM1.
ANTHEM Strongholds Guides
This guide is dedicated to the Tyrant Mine Stronghold – one of Anthem’s end-game re-playable instanced group-based missions. Here you will learn everything you need to know to perform a smooth run – objectives, places, items. And, of course – the final boss tactics!
This guide is dedicated to the Temple of Scar Stronghold – one of Anthem’s end-game re-playable instanced group-based missions. Here you will learn everything you need to know to perform a smooth run – objectives, places, items. And, of course – the final boss tactics!
This guide is dedicated to the The Heart of Rage Stronghold – one of Anthem’s end-game re-playable instanced group-based missions. Here you will learn everything you need to know to perform a smooth run – objectives, places, items. And, of course – the final boss tactics!
This guide is dedicated to the The Sunken Cell Stronghold – one of Anthem’s end-game re-playable instanced group-based missions. Here you will learn everything you need to know to perform a smooth run – objectives, places, items. And, of course – the final boss tactics!
