So just using one factor here however; there are plenty of other examples I could use in the game. But for sake of length and annoyance factor I am only going to use the new mod 16 weapon sets.
The Alabaster set is acquired by running a Master Expedition and awarded once the quest is turned in by RNG chance. So you have 3 chances per day to get the set. The MEs are easy, take a bit of time but fairly easy even solable on one or two runes, but I am sure there are a few who have soloed on 3 rune runs.
The Watcher set is acquired by running a Master Expedition with a chance that a "puppet" spawns allowing you to give it an essence to spawn a new boss. The problem here is that to acquire the essences you must have completed the Lair of the Mad Mage at least once before they start being rewarded in the end chest. This means prior rewards before you can even begin this task. It doesn't stop there, you must also have a decent party who are able to handle and defeat the new spawned boss. Then on top of this if you were successful in defeating the boss, there is a One in Five chance (5 party members) that you will be rewarded with a watcher weapon drop. However; it gets worse, you have a One in Eight chance that the weapon you got is for the class you want it for (meaning your main class).
So clearly the second weapon set is much harder to obtain but when you compare the two weapons they are so similar in what they do that the extra that the Watcher set "might" give is so negligible that its not worth the effort. The pay off for trying to obtain the Watcher Set is not enough for what is involved in getting it.
This is The Cloaked Agency and Storm Kings Thunder all over again. If you have playing during these campaign releases you will already know where I am headed with this argument. But if you are new, you wouldn't know the grind and the insane requirement to restore the artifact weapons from these campaigns that were immediately rendered obsolete when the next new mod was released. In some cases to restore just one piece of the set would require six weeks of grinding and another six weeks for the other piece. A total of three months just to get a set that becomes useless in a few months.
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"...to acquire the essences you must have completed the Lair of the Mad Mage at least once before they start being rewarded in the end chest."
I get the essences and have not completed the Lair of the Mad Mage. Tried but not completed it. I believe just entering the dungeon gives the flag you need. I know minor point but other than that, back to your key points....
I'm not going to buy the way overpriced Delver's Expedition Pack, and i doubt even with the changes mentioned here
https://forum.arcgames.com/neverwinter/discussion/1248907/undermountain-owlbear-patch-notes-nw-110-20190519a-2
many other players will consider buying that pack, so could we pretty please with cream on top get a less frustrating way towards a decent weapon set before the next module with another new weapon set comes around?
Yes, i got the Alabaster set on one character within a few ME runs, but i also have some characters with only one or even none part of it after several "9 relics collected" ME runs too...
Hamster may be the profanity and i may throw it around jokingly but i am not a Hamster in a wheel, running for the amusement of an on looker.
sure my gear is sub optimal but if i am gonna play it is gonna be for fun, not stressing for poultry chances at rewards that may not even be of use to me.
I wish they would just focus on fun again and not what ever Mod16 has been doing.
I too wish to be recreated, and to be loved long after my death.
Run MEs to get Mountain Seals, but get better drops from in MEs than you get from Mountain Seals.
Alabaster is RNG walled.
Mountaineer Set is pay walled.
Watcher Set is triple RNG walled.
Only the Burnished Set is practically obtainable, if you can run LotMM to farm it.
Multiple Artifacts are locked behind RNG.
All of this is made worse by the fact that the majority of the gear on offer is worth nothing anyway.
If the weapons were not so much ahead on base damage they wouldn’t be worth getting at all. (And if LotMM didn’t have 2 DPS checks they still wouldn’t be.)
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
3x ebonized maces
2x Alabaster swords
0x shields
on my paladin this far, and no way to exchange them in any way either.
Oh and on my lesser geared toons I have used Ebonized weapons while farming Alabaster.... but you seem to have missed the point.
Obsidian Oath - Warlock
A whole lot of other Obsidian toons as well.
Wait, they did just that with what is going to pre-view and soon it will be released. The problem right now with this update is that players on PC already have made enchantment swaps and can't redo this and now will have to buy or make other enchantments. That is another bad customer experience in this game.
Seriously Cryptic, are you going to add back the merchant for enchantment exchanges for the PC players, if not you are really hurting them.
I want to point out I was one of a few players that grinded out day one of Omu to get the Tyrant set and it was inferior to the primal set. I spent more time and AD getting the Tyrant set than others did getting the primal.
The best set should have multiple RNG and should do around 5% more damage than the 2nd best set. Second best set should come from a vendor or should be fairly easy to obtain in the game. The 3rd best you should be able to purchase and it should be very similar to the 2nd best set. And there should only be 5 sets with the last two being crafted and the set awarded after completing a campaign. The crafted set should be designed for support characters and fairly cheap with the campaign set simply providing some type of stat boost for a short period of time or something along those lines.
I liked how Omu weapons were introduced and how most of them worked. The only issue I had was with the Tyrant set basically being inferior to the primal.
This has been SO annoying for me. Whereas RNG may work for SOME people (the 'lucky' ones), it does NOT work for everyone. I have heard SO many people complaining because of the duplicate Alabaster sets that they are getting, when I have not even gotten a single drop as of yet. I have been running MEs now for about 3 weeks, on TWO chars, and have gotten NEITHER piece on EITHER char. I have tried running 1, 2 AND 3 rune runs, and even solo up to 1 rune and NOTHING. What I DO keep getting, is the 882 pieces of gear or 909s that I already have. So to summarize, I am almost tire of the daily grind for nothing. Awesome for all of you that have already gotten your Alabaster set or even one piece and have to SUFFER with duplicates. Must be nice. Im about done with Cryptic, just like I rage quit WoW.
In fact, I think you should be incentivized to chase a good weapon set after campaign completion, as your "next thing". It shouldn't be any of the top tier sets, let alone the Alabaster.
I'm not asking for getting the top notch items being handed to me on a silver platter for just logging into the game... but for fudge's sake the time to get something good should be within reason, and that's currently not the case in oh so many ways.
At the end of the day it's still a game, so playing it should be fun and rewarding.
Not to mention how laughable it has become to get from level 70 to 80 by doing Stronghold quests... i had a level 73 alt. character handing in one old Stronghold quest and i reached 80 instantly. The magic of scaling... i guess i'm going to get all my other alt. characters to level 80 before this is changed again too.
Anyway, i'm not against giving some players their 1% carrot to go after, but there should also be something usefull around for everyone else.
Although in one way I agree with you, that effort should be put in for the reward but when its ridiculously tedious behind multiple layers of RNG it no longer becomes fun or a goal. It's just one big annoyance factor.