Originally Posted by
TrickDempsey
Sorry for the magical disappearing post... Now posted from my dev account!
Aside from some errors which were patched out shortly after release, enemies will never drop legendary weapons. (There may be some rogue loot table out there which does, these things happen, but it is not intended.) We always want to encourage players to seek out and complete events. As such, legendary weapons only come from lock boxes and from large events which reward gear. Major arkfalls are the obvious events to do this, but sieges do as well. Eliminating high level gear from random drops prevents some kinds of undesirable play (such as farming an infinite spawn) and prevents very valuable items from plummeting into locations a player cannot reach. You have not seen rage like when a legendary falls between two crates.
Now, for a peak behind the curtain regarding Zoranth’s clever experiment:
Not all enemies are created equal, and, particularly, the biggest difference exists between “weenies”, “grunts”, and “elites.” After that, there are varying levels of elites, but the distinction between these three is most important. Weenies are enemies like skitterlings, drones, and mongrels. They do not drop valuable gear. Ever. They primarily drop ammo, scrip, and salvage.
Grunts are a little different. They have a chance of dropping gear, but that gear is capped at green. These enemies make up the “meat and potatoes” of any combat encounter with an enemy group. Since killing one of them is never a particularly significant event, they similarly never drop exceptional-quality items. Enforcers, Mattocks, and Blasters fall into this class of enemies.
Elites are a bit special, and they can drop higher-quality weapons, but they still never drop a legendary.
Okay, peek over. Shoo.
Zoranth’s experiment was clever, and I’m thrilled to see someone doing SCIENCE! to our loot drop system. However, due to the target he chose, the experiment was also flawed. To get a better idea of our loot distribution, you should do a survey which uses a full event as the test environment. Enemies which spawn repeatedly in a single event, particularly infinite spawns, have reduced loot tables. (Specifically, you should have found a lot of ammo.)
One of the major systems we are working on going forward is to make this distinction more obvious and to make the methods of earning awards more concrete and explicit. We’re going to be calling out enemy classes with HUD elements and other serious quality of life improvements. That promise does not help you optimize your play right now, so I’ll give you a bit of optimal play advice.
1. Complete events – ark keys are the quickest way to earn lock boxes, and they can be earned in arkfalls, coop maps, sieges, and conflict sites. (The repeatable combat areas featured in most missions.)
a. Also, MOST experience comes from event completion, and that is important to know for folk who have not reached max EGO rating.
2. Focus on elites and other large enemies – these are the ONLY guys who will drop rare gear.
3. Complete major arkfalls – that equipment you get at the end IS a lock box. (They are special lock boxes, but lock boxes none the less.)
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