I think the droprate is too low. After doing some TONG runs and wasting keys I got not even one enchanting stone. I know a lot of other people who have also done 10+ runs without getting one.
You will need roughly 90 Ultimate Enchanting Stones for upgrading your whole character from R13 to R14 but you can't really farm them. There is too much RNG. If you would get every 5th run 1 Enchanting Stone you would need 450 runs (each 30-40min; 250+ hours). You should get at least every 2nd tong run 1 Ultimate Enchanting Stone.
The only possiblity to ever get full R14 is the AH. No one has so much time to farm tong and the resources for legendary keys.
Nero - Palacetamol - Essence of Aggression
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I think they have basically said "Ok look, people are getting to BIS within weeks of new content. Lets ratchet that up to a few months for the top players".
As it stands, I don't think many players will even bother with R14. Upgrading enchants has always been a poor way of increasing power (low ROI), and making it so extremely annoying to do isn't enticing for a small upgrade.
TWO.
Assuming you change a weapon enchantment maybe once etc, you need over 90 PER CHARACTER (I run three now, it was four but my SW is now shelved ... ). That means if we think positive and assume the drop rate is 1/10 ( our data indicates so far its more like 1/15) thats 900+ TONG Runs per toon at 30 minutes a good run (more otherwise) for a minimum of 450 HOURS of running TONG. For most people a LOT more.
This does not seem like good design. Up the rate for now, once people start selling THEN think about dropping it for long term market sustainability. Or add these to other places. Cause this is not cool guys, not at all.
Add to that the horrible drop rate of stones from the lockbox artifact packs (i opened 67 and got Zero and that was the experience of most people n my guild) and... um... its just super depressing.
HELP.
https://www.theholycrusaders.com/
Is that in line with what others are seeing ?
This is low enough to be demotivating, and considering that I actually don't *need* R14s, maybe I'll just stop chasing them altogether - spend less time and less money on the game, and stop chasing the "BiS" status.
Is this worth 20 uMOPS (2M AD) AND 30 superior stones (currently 30M AD)? NO!
It's kind of funny and sad to see people torturing themselves over this. I personnally this it's a good move from Cryptic to keep people from being "absolutely BiS" and encouraging them to continue playing, but looking at this rationally IT'S A TRAP!
(Which actually is not so different from "real life", is it?)
I fully agree - the benefit of being full rank 12 was only minimal over full rank 11. Rank 13 is really not that much of a benefit over 12...you can get the same benefit just hitting a potion before combat (yes, I know, hitting a potion and R13 is better...i get it).
At this point, I'll slowly work towards R13s but I'm not going head over heels for it. I haven't tried TONG yet since 12b but I assume if I can still do that, what's the point in spending millions for a pittance?
However, groups that previously were struggling or took over an hour to complete ToNG might now be unable to finish. The primary bottleneck would be the first boss - if you cannot bring Orcus down before the TempHP of the person handling the balls runs out then you will simply wipe...no question.
A second bottleneck exists with the last boss - a group that has a problem taking down the souls in a timely manner will find the bar filling up and that will result in a wipe.
Quite frankly, I don't think a group barely meeting the requirements has any chance of finishing ToNG, but a 15+K IL group should not have any issues....the run will just take a few minutes longer.
and this is what i dislike most about our world in neverwinter -- though it's not specific to this game...
i stupidly oppose against it
on and on!
it's our drive to a distorted, unsustainable world...
edit: in real and unreal life
But yeah, same joy-killing experience at MSVA, although at least here you can't end up with 12 of the wrong kind of mark (like I have!)