A Crafting Token system for reducing player fatigue in item drops.
I don't propose removing the existing randomness in the game, merely adding a stopgap measure to prevent unnecessary wasted time and energy.
Creating a challenging task while minimizing player fatigue can be hard. A Crafting Token system allows the ability to create extremely difficult drops, while creating a clear path forward that removes randomness and uncertainty from drop rates, and rewards dedicated players for their commitment.
This system unlocks at Legendary Crafter, which is basically the last point in the game where you can finish a crafting set without worrying about hidden drop rates from bosses / mobs.
I have been on both sides of the coin, where Player A gets what they're looking for in a few runs, while Player B finishes hundreds of runs and gets nothing.
The implementation would be as follows: for every run completed on a specific boss or crafting slot, you get a specific Crafting Token that can be redeemed after a certain number of runs, for any items that have a pseudorandom (very low) drop rate and that can't be found (or are basically impossible to find) in the bazaar.
Drop rates must be calculated as the % chance of finding a SPECIFIC item that a player is looking out of 100 runs. Certain item drops may be common, but the specific variation of that item that one is looking for is usually not common. (Looking at you, crafted / dropped jewels, certain latter-world reagents like Pure Aethyr, Amber, Darkmoor gear, and TC like Potent Trap / Sharpened Blade etc.)
I propose an interface like the current Bazaar (the Crafting Token Bazaar) that shows every potential drop, segmented into tabs like our current Bazaar interface: Robes, Hats, Athames, Jewels, Reagents, etc.
The cost can be merely redeeming a certain amount of Crafting Tokens, or a combination of crafting tokens and other items, such as gold / reagents. (It's important that the reagents also be craftable by this same method, else this defeats the purpose).
For Bosses: Add an additional tab within the Second Chance Chest, for use with Crafting Tokens only.
For new bosses whose drops may be at first unknown, every drop in the Crafting Token Bazaar would be a question mark, unless the drop has already dropped for your character.
At first, both the name and stats of the drop would be hidden, then as time goes on, just the stats of the drop are hidden (until that item drops for your wizard).
Players would have to be forced to use an external compendium, if they wanted to figure out by name which drops are the best, but that forces people to have already had the boss drop that item for them and upload it, which preserves the mystery of new bosses for at least a few weeks.
For items crafted via Crafting Tables: Add an additional 'Token Tab' within crafting tables that lists every specific craftable item. As I said, the worst offenders of this are specific jewel stats, high-level gear and high-level treasure cards.
Re: A Crafting Token system for reducing player fatigue in item drops.
Your describing the catacombs ( like) crafting method. Painful, but you craft exactly what school gear you need, most important items first, with unique reagents(tokens), so you always made forward progress on aquiring your gear. Yes and it removes the frustration of getting an useless item for your school. So all you need is a recipe vendor.
