When the Iksar Betrayer drops my pipes the first time I was attempting to complete the monk epic. Raster was a horrible camp but not actually difficult, just tedious. The Iksar Betrayer on the other hand was deep in a very challenging zone at a hard to hold camp (I think a Topor shaman could hold it for some reason but otherwise required a full group).
It was one of the final pieces of a very long quest chain when you consider the belts and headbands as the beginning. After that it was just triggered raid fights.
Normal boss drops just are not that memorable as you have not personally done a lot to earn it, just got a lucky roll on a lucky drop where you contributed a very small percentage. Drops are much more meaningful when part of a greater effort.
Shawl of awakenings off of the Emperor ssraeshza EQ
I played three "main" characters religiously. From 1999 to about 2005 I played 30 hours a week - every week. and then for years-long stretches I didn't play or then played 10-12 hours a week.
I made a quick calculation and estimated I have about 10,000 hours of RL time played and about 20,000 hours of character time with my alts and bots.
I've had *so* many important drops that I honestly can't pick one single drop out as "most memorable".
I remember the (literal) month I spent camping Coercer T'Valla for a tome.
My most memorable acquisition was when I scroungeds, tradeskilled, hunted, looted and bought-and-sold to save up the money to buy a pair of (very-unknown) T-boots for my enchanter. I remember pausing my RL friend group in LOIO to go sell a jewelry-made item and a looted item then running over to buy my T-boots before returning to my group.
I'm going to give 2. 1 "bad" memory, and 1 good memory. The funny thing about both is I have no idea what the items were called anymore, I guess the item isn't what ended up mattering.
1st - I was hanging out with some friends in a dungeon but their group was full so I was just chillin, helping out here and there, and chatting, etc. One of the named mobs dropped a no-drop item that no one in the group needed so they told me I could have it. Since there was a timer on the mob to loot I had to wait, right clicking from time to time to see if the timer was up. After a little while I noticed another person standing there staring at the corpse as well. I mentioned in chat that the group told me I could loot it, and he just stood there not responding. I got a little nervous so I began right click spamming. After 30 seconds or so the corpse vanished and the guy ran off. Yeah, I was mad. I guess that's a "bad" memory because I had the emotion of anger during it. But I can easily say now, years later, that the possibility of getting angry in a game is one of the requirements for making it a worthwhile game. If there is no risk of ever getting mad or upset then there's also nothing worth being proud of.
2nd - I farmed Wiltin Windwalker (ranger pants quest) and his placeholder for about 40 hours straight. I wasn't even really high enough level to solo him, but I couldn't get anyone else to stay with me that long lol. I could take a quick bathroom break every few hours but I couldn't leave the screen because back then I didn't know if the spawn time was random or fixed. After killing who knows how many placeholders he finally spawned. I had to kite him all over the island and watch out for cyclopses or the whole thing would have been a waste. In the end I finally got the quest item. That was back when I was 20 years old though, I don't think I could ever do that these days, lol. My wife and kids would disown me I'm sure :)
fazool said:...My most memorable acquisition was when I scroungeds, tradeskilled, hunted, looted and bought-and-sold to save up the money to buy a pair of (very-unknown) T-boots for my enchanter...
I didn't really consider this but my actual most proud/memorable loot item was actually through a trade, not from killing a mob. I worked hard buying/selling/bartering items to raise enough plat for a sharkjaw cutlass, haha. I was not high enough level to go farm the mob (although that didn't stop me from trying over and over again!!). But I was high enough level to work the economy. When I finally got it I was so proud I ran around towns showing off how cool it was.
For me, probably in EQ getting my Monk's idol from the Raster for the epic. Sad part is I got the Raster to spawn and someone KS'ed me after about 1.5 days of waiting. Had to wait another 1.5 days and got it again. That was a long weekend.
I think the most memorable items that I have ever looted were the ones that were labeled NO TRADE, NO DROP, LORE items because it always sparked the question of "Who do I take this to?" and "What is this item for?". They always promoted the need to ask someone more experienced, or do some research and find the answer online.
I agree with others, in that there are soooo many amazing drop stories & hours of effort in certain MMORPGs that it's hard to pull one out as a favorite, per se. However, I will never forget the day a family friend dropped her (soon to be) ex-husband's toon into the Hole in early EQ. She gifted me his golden efreeti boots. There was no glory in it, but my low level druid was overjoyed when he said to keep them. They were my prize possesion for a very very long time. My friends eventually got back together and we spent many weekends LANing our way through the world. I'm hoping to lure them into Pantheon. Who knows what I might end up with if they have another row?
In Service to the Realm,
Trill
It was way back in the early days of EQ, I was a level 53 Shaman running around working on my Epic items when I get a tell from a Raid Leader asking if I wanted to tag along for a raid on Nagafen, it was about 11pm and I thought sure why not, I never did a raid before this would be fun and should be quick.... Well, I was the only Shaman to show up, so as you could imagine I was used directly for buffs, debuffs and light heals... After many wipes we finally killed him, and as I was about to log off for the night I get a tell from the Raid leader he dropped the Shaman only item Blight, Hammer of the Scourge. Now back in the day that hammer was awesome and one of the first really cool NO-Drop items I ever recieved; I'll never forget the excitment... Hoping Pantheon brings this type of feeling back to the players...
Rint
arazons said:It wasnt one single loot drop, but it was my collection of clicky illusion masks that I spent a few years collecting on EQ1.
This is really something I hope is brought back into game with Pantheon is the collectables.... I spent years acquiring anything that was a Clicky and built up a huge inventory of a lot of collectable Clickys, as the years went by many of these items became irrelevant but the effort to obtain them and the pride I still felt for owning them were awesome. I really want to be a collector again as it really gives players other things to do in game when they tired of grouping, raiding and what-not…
Rint
I killed Phinegal 43 times before I got the piece I needed for my wizard epic. I could swim from the zone in to the ledge in record time after all the attempts as well as all the times I needed to check to see if he was up. I felt I was eternally doomed to never get it until that one magical day.
My most memorable loot wasn't something that dropped of a NPC, but one day while playing lineage 2 I starting getting attacked by a level 4 character. I was a level 32 warrior so this level 4 was more of a annoyance than a real threat. A few minutes of this went by and I unequipped my swords and backhanded the little twat.
This turned out to be a big mistake because it killed the Lvl 4 character, turning my name red and flagging me as a free kill and immediately after a group of characters much higher than me came out from the shadows and killed me. Upon my death my swords dropped as a reward to the victors. It had cost me millions of adena (Game currency) to build those swords, so I was beyond furious.
I had been in the guild voice chat as this went down so a guild mate heard my frustration as I left the chat for a few hours to cool down. Later when I finally felt a Little better, I logged back in to discover the guild had pooled together to buy me new swords. I was stunned at such generosity, but that it my most memorable loot.
For a season or so, the giant bronze statues of monsters and warriors found in the center of every town in Dereth would periodically come alive and run amok, killing as many players as they could. It would take a group of very high levels -which I wasn't- to kill one, so all I ever did was run or hide (or die). One day, I got back to town to find that an organized group of players had been on hand and killed a number of the statues. Of course I ran around looking for one that hadn't been looted, and happily found one. They never had anything of great value on them, but each statue had a giant bronze weapon that the statue had been wielding. Picking one up left any player at maximum overbuden, steadily loosing stamina while standing still and walking slower than a snail if he could move at all. But I happily kept it displayed in my house and wielded it during social occasions for the rest of my time in AC.
Played a barbarian warrior from 1999 to 2006. Was in Light of Harmony (conq) and allied/friends with Convergence (figre) on Seventh Hammer.
Left work early one afternoon. Got home booted up my PC firing off EQ. The midi tune is playing and I hear multiple /tell "dings" even before the EQ screen appeared. They knew there might be a chance I'd be arriving home around this time. My work hours were flexible to a degree at my job at the time.
So ...turns out my guild and our friends Convergence downed IIRC Zlandicar and a quick vote was taken to let me loot the key or item I needed for a Sleeper's Tomb Key. I get in game, druids are flying out to find me, porting me / rushing me out, I get into the zone and the area to see all my friends + guildies, of both guilds, lined up along the wall all allowing me and wanting me to loot whatever it was I needed for the Sleepers tomb key. I also remember a weapon dropped and everyone wanted me to take it as I was being groomed from being Main Tank #3 to MT #1. Both our MT #1 and #2 were running groups + raids and just didn't have time to do both.
40+ other people ... I may not remember the exact details but I do remember how selfless everyone there was.
As a huge fan of loot, it is almost impossible for me to name a piece of loot I was most excited about. I can go into items I was excited about for transmogs, I can go into mounts, I could go into rare drop bags… the list is endless. That said, there is one piece of loot I will never forget about, and that is The Turning Tide.
I had just left my guild of many, many years out of frustration for leadership and direction. It was a hard decision, but I joined one of the biggest, original, guilds of Icecrown – Keepers of the Vault. They were a very experienced group of players and had a long history success. I was able to find my way onto their raid team very quickly and joined them for conquering Naxx during WotLK. At the time, I was maining a Holy Paladin, which at the time were incredible healers, if you had the right amount of crit, as critical heals refunded mana. I had fairly good gear, but this weapon here was the holy grail for Paladin healers at the time.
The guild ran a DKP system, which allowed members of the guild to bid themselves negative, and upon joining, which was my first raid with them, I was at 0 DKP. Most of the night I just sat back and healed, and out of respect for the guild I did not get involved in any loot bidding etc., because I was simply happy to be there. So then, the end of the night, this bad boy drops off the end boss, Kel’thuzad. The guild leader and officers immediately whisper me and say – “You need to roll on this, it’s best in slot for you.” I was reluctant because I didn’t want to rock the apple cart, but what was explained to me was that there was a lot of debate about the DKP system they had in place, and if they were going to stick with it, then it would be only fair that I, within the rules, rolled on the item as the highest carrying DKP person in need of the weapon… at zero. This set off quite the argument, and I was more than happy to step out of the bid, but the leadership, to make a point about their system, demanded that as a best in slot, I be given the item via the rules of DKP. The next week was quite the storm of discussion on this, but everyone was cool with me knowing I was willing to pass it up. The item was great, and huge in my healing setup, but it had such a unique story that it will live on forever for me.
+36 Stam
+50 Int
37 Crit
48 Haste
520 Spell power
Level 80 1h Sword
My most memorable loot drop takes me back to vanilla WoW and finally getting my Tome of Polymorph: Turtle to drop off of Gahz'ranka in ZG.
Nobody needed that boss for any actual progression loot. Nobody. Yet we ran it week after week. Why? Because my guild knew how much I wanted it. The Tome was fairly rare at the time and the mechanics to spawn the boss involved a little questline and fishing (which was cool).
What's especially funny about the whole charade is that I was GM of the guild at the time and if/when this dropped, any mage was allowed to roll (a free roll item), and every time when it would drop, I would lose the roll. Every. Single. Time. You know that mage that was part of a different (but friendly) guild that you used to fill in whenever you couldn't get enough together? Yup, I lost the roll to them too! You know how hard it was for me to ML that to someone not in the guild?? It makes me laugh just thinking about it now.
It became a weekly guild joke that they couldn't wait to see what crap roll I was going to have when the turtle tome drops again this week. A meme before meme's were a thing, I guess.
All that being said, it's memorable to me because my guild was the one wanting and hoping it would drop just so I can get this stupid cosmetic thing that wasn't necessary for anything at all. They wanted me to be happy and for my quest for the missing tome to be put to rest. Mostly, it reminds me of the comrodery and the great times we had. #CommunityMatters
Mine would have to be the Yin-Yang Robe in FFXI.
As a summoner main whose pets cost a constant MP drain to keep out, every point of MP shaved off that drained made a world of difference. The YYR not only gave me better MP management overall, but also allowed me (once paired with some other key items) to maintain the earliest pet with a small amount of MP regen as well.
Of course like most things in Gen-1 MMOs, this was a non-guaranteed drop off a rare spawn with a variable respawn timer starting at 18+ hours from the last time of death.
To make matters worse, the rare spawn in question spawned invisible (and there was no see-invis). Rangers could track its location, but it ran wildly around the zone at sprint speeds, meaning once it did spawn you were chasing it all over while other competing groups were doing the same. And because it was invisible, the only way to aggro it was by casting spells as it would aggro anyone using magic, but so would every other enemy in the zone.
Suffice to say, it was a lot of effort and RNG and competition and I don't necessarily miss all of that, but the negatives were certainly mitigated by the fact that the gear was probably viable for a period of years rather than being immediately invalidated by the next inevitable item level increase.
I didn't get any drops at the time, was hoping so hard for a Gnome illusion mask, but when we woke the Sleeper since the top guild on the server had locked everybody out of the zone. We had to do it secretively since it was a pvp server. So much so, even our own guild didn't know we did it until the tail end of the Sleeper's rampage. It directly led to guilds besides the top one to get primal weapons which was a big deal for us at the time.
RichardNixon said:While all of these responses are great, the king of all memorable loot drops has to be the first drop to have a list waiting for the camp. The Flowing Black Silk Sash has defined what a camp is ever since its founding.
Speaking of which...
When the fabled items were new (maybe the second year they did fableds?), everyone pounced on it and there was a waiting line and a list of names and whoever was next in line maintained the list, they got their turn and handed the list to the next player. Everyone was so well-behaved and so cordial and selfless. It was amazing. An annual event with incredible loot and a group of strangers suddenly band together and create an ad-hoc system to keep it fair. And the wait was over 24 hours!
I normally keep my home and personal info out of games, except for RL friends. I did get friendly with a couple guys from my guild way back and they joined my RL friend group a couple times.
I remember one night , like 3AM my cell phone rings and I groggily (and a little worried) answer it "hello?" while my wife is trying to figure out what the heck is going on.
I hear an older man's voice meekly say "ummm this is Squim"
A retired couple (Squim and I forgot his wife's name) were very prominent players in our guild. I must have given Squim my number to keep tabs on our turn in the loot line and watch out for each other. Well his turn came up at 3AM and no one was around to help him.
That was such a shock but I mumbled "guildie" to my wife, got out of bed, logged in and helped him kill the mob - it was a fabled female dark elf mob that dropped a robe I think - I can't remember details but I remember the dropping.