Rare Item Rewards In Merciless

My face when the random rewards for a duelist dont even have a one hand sword

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but I have made a lot of characters in the entire time I have played PoE.

I think I may have gotten 4-5 useful items ever from quest rewards.

If we keep quest items, maybe at least make the items come with linked sockets, say up to 4 links on everything and 3 links on one hand stuff.

This could make a meh item even better.

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CanHasPants wrote:

I believe that frustration should instead be resolved via better normal/cruel reward schedules.

I think this is a good point of discussion all by itself because sometimes I feel like, oh just these same gems, again.

Why not let the item rewards be pre-identified? Then we would actually be able to select the one item with the best mods?

Just like we have to make a decision with skill gems.

I too got a nice quest rare once, I believe a gloves or boots... but that's 1 good item vs 300 garbage ones. These rewards are just like drops in the wild: totally random, mostly garbage.

One thing would be to have these rares a higher chance for higher tier affixes.

But a real solution, imo, is: all quest can give either gems or gear. You first pick the category (gems or gear), then one item in it. A first char in league would prob. always pick gems, in subsequent replays you might pick gear... (disable gear for races)

Rares are too likely to suck to be good quest rewards.

Give me a removes bleeding flask or an off class gem. Or a 4-link. Identified magic resistance jewelry with preset mods for resists and life. Anything but a coin toss on uselessness.

I'd much rather get gems. There are many that classes don't get that would be suitable candidates. Case in point, Scions never get Flammability (used not, not anymore since 1.2). Various of the normal and cruel rewards are overloaded with gems as so many new ones were added. These could be spread out to merciless.

But there are also gem quests I wish I could substitute a rare reward instead because I don't need any of the gems. At least the rare is some alt shards!

I think this mainly comes down to only being a problem for self found characters or only during the start of the league.

GGG has done quite a bit to help gem issues:

increased gem dropped rate (at least it seems much more common from open beta times)
added gemcutter boxes (these are awesome pinatas of gems)
added more quest, mainly this is from act 3x, when dominus was added (library quest)

So in all reality the first play through you might want gems or gear it really just depends, thats why you get both.

Hmm maybe a good compromise would be taking the pre-identified rare idea, but also throwing in some gems in the mix as well, so you might get a really good rare and miss out on an off class gem or pick the a gem if the rares arent too great.

^ I think 99% of the time I would prefer a nice fresh white 4L to work with. Honestly I'd rather an iLvl minus 10 4L on the white base of my choice, to throw an alch at, than to hunt through other characters to find the appropriate leveling rare. I'm also an altoholic, so my leveling rares are often in use, and my opinion in this regard might not necessarily reflect consensus..

I think the important thing to remark, though, is that I am 100% fine with RNG in the quest rewards, but "just +1 drop" is bland. I can run into any zone, especially by merciless, and find another shit rare item in considerably less time than running off to a side zone for a side quest. There should be something more to separate quest rewards from regular drops than "you get a chance to pick a good base for your shit rare to spawn on."

If anything, I think it's a combination of that underlying sentiment, coupled with a few really frustrating gem reward schedules, that motivate the occasional thread such as this.