The most memorable loot drops were the ones I never received after playing religiously for over 5 years straight... which is what ultimately lead to me quitting. Spending 100's of hours trying to get an item only to see someone else get it after 5mins was fuckign infuriating.
The most memorable drop(s) for me were being able to solo most of my wizard alt's epic as my 70 SHD with the help of a druid and cleric friend to kill Cazic Thule in PoF (even though I couldnt get his (lvl 55) epic until he was 75 SEVERAL years later) ... otherwise solo'd the wiz epic as a SHD... solo'd most of my Bard's epic as my SHD with the exception of the dragon scales. When I did finally get my SHD epic was after coming back to the game when everyone else was lvl 100 and I had a mage help me for like 20 mins to do the fights I could never get help with.
After doing Angerforge and arena runs on classic wow about 500 times, HOJ finally dropped only for the hunter to roll need on it when the tank had reserved it and everyone said they were fine with that and ofcourse the hunter won the roll.
My most memorable loot drop that I won was that out of a 40 man raid, I won the roll for Ring of Spell power from MC the first time it dropped for our raid team. Was a good night.
For me it is The Ring of the Ancients from Ancient Cyclops for the Journeyman Boots in Everquest.
Not really that fond of a memory, because it took so friggin long to get it. I was unlucky with the spawn rates and spent some 40 hours altogether, mostly 1 or 2 hours after getting up in the morning.
But in the end I was super happy.
The ring was the hardest part in a quest for the boots, which offered a substantial increase in run speed when this was still special.
I've got 2, and both are rather mundane, but really made me feel like I my character had "become" my class/Monk.
First one is Flowing Black Silk Sash, from Lower Guk. This bad boy drops off of the Fabled Frenzied Ghoul (named) and/or (I think) any random frenzied ghoul, along with a super rate drop rate, and the spawn is "always camped", the camp typically has a decent waiting list. Apart from getting this "must have item", I got lucky and after spending a week, camping it as time permits and rarely having enough time to group, and not getting it to drop when we killed the named mob, when I did get it it was an easy, log on, get on list, 10 minutes later, get invite, then in less than an hour WHAM, and YAY !!!!
The second one is Tranquil staff, from Karnor's Castle. This bad boy drops The Falbed Skeletal Warlord (named), and the drop rates again isn't very high. My main recollection here is that when the spawn pops he was WIELDING the Tranquil Staff. So, you have to kill him endless times, before it drops, but once he pops WITH the Staff in HAND, it's the most rewarding type of kill, because you KNOW your getting your weapon.
Those are my stories for getting 2 early game "must" haves for a monk and I'm sticking to them...unless of course, I'm misremembering them.
My most memorable loot would be the Robe of the Bonecaster. I had my Jboots and even the Necromancer Epic but the robe was what stood out to me. It was right after the Plane of Growth was opened and I was doing a pick up raid. We had just killed a pull and I got up to get my clothes out of the dryer. I was the only Necromancer in the raid so when I got back everyone was screaming at me in chat about looting and congratulating me. I was really confused about what was happening until the raid leader told me to go loot. I was physically shaking when I opened up the corpse and looted that robe. I was the second Necromancer on Xegony to get it and I have to admit, I haven't had many experiences like that in video games since. It was very memorable.
The Fused Mnemonic of Khati Shah.
First of all, it sounded way cool, and it was the only clicky Spirit of Wolf castable item that was not a raid item like the boots from Seru. Najena's boots had already been nerfed and this was when Jboots were being MQ/bot farmed by people that didn't "get" the whole idea,I had a pair of Jboots that I earned for myself, but SoW (pronounced, soh, not like the female pig) was a bit faster. It needed a fairly complex set of triggers but once each step was completed, it could be sectionalised and put on hold until the next step. At this time the dynamic started to change for the worse, people liked being shuffled into instant dungeons with their private friends- leading to isolationism, and expansions were geared towards isolationism instead of groups, anbd people started to get alts and Boxes , it became harder and harder to find groups. We said it was bad then, the people that loved it, are saying it is bad now. Those people owe me something or need to give up those years form their life in a faustian like bargain, Faust by proxy, you've heard of Munchausen by proxy? well in Faust by proxy they give their souls but I get my youth , and the hot SO , so that I will have influence on the world and their influence earased - anyways- it took me 3 years to get to a point where I was at a point to continue and a good level to attempt without the items going trivial. There was a hiccup in the quest, a 50/50 chance it could fail on one try. We made it through one attempt at the initial steps leading up to this 50/50. My first time leading and the group needed to be split. I did a dry run solo because we had increased in levels from when I started it was almost soloable to get th mechanics. Would have been better as a challenge when younger. it was tough but managable- no discord or teamspeak- second time we did it but PuG patience was running thin, already the social dynamic was changing to one of being not social generally speaking. I kept reminding them I didnt want any loot, just the one lore drop and that seemed to assuage them. We get to the 50/50 and although I tried to keep their interest saying it was like the classic logic puzzle of the guards where one always tells the truth and the other always lies and you have to ask one question to find out who tells the truth? it was not so clever, and we failed the RNG on the 50/50.
A year later, and higher levels, I got another group together, some guildies and we tried again-the 50/50 went in our favor and the door opened! and it worked! Khati shah was there! I was so nervous coming in. Tthere was a bridge that fell into lava but if you pressed a lever it came back up. We had a iksar monk who i warned to be careful and he dropped, I paniced and raised the bridge and saw him dead. I became sad and said he could run back and I would try to get him rezzed later because I thought he died in lava, then he popped up from being FD. It broke the ice - haha! I was so nervous not to mess it up after so long. They all got the loot and were happily suprised, I got the piece and now could cast SoW on myself!
Then in the next expansion they came up with AA's that granted SoW like run speed like 3 months later so, would have been more uber years earler, but I didnt spend AA's on that until I was full everywhere else- lol- because I had the ring.
I have a few from my EQ Monk. First Nagafen raid and winning zero weight bag. MANY steps to the epic. LGUK and my first FBSS.
But I still remember my first "important" drop. I use to sit in Ecomms watching stiff for sale. Summer of '99. So very few things even sold for over 100 plat. I was dirt poor and saw Rahoteps Sword being sold for 500 gold and it went fast. I remember thinking man. If I had that much gold. I was level 12 at the time. So I spent time in Oasis of Marr. Well running thru Sro at night, I came across Rahotep. I freaked out. Gained aggro to keep anyone else from getting him. But I knew I couldn't solo him. So I shouted for help and eventually somebody came over to beat him down. Told the guy I'd split the funds with him. So I added him to my friends list. Sold it for 600 gold that night and gave him his 300 a couple days later.
I felt rich as could be and bought 6-7 things to fill empty slots I had.
My first MMO was EQ2. I joined a little after launch but before the first adventure pack. I remember grouping with some randoms in Stormhold. I got a loot drop but had no idea what I had. I was always keyed up and nervous when grouping so a lot of times I didn't check out my loot until after the run. A veteran player in my group sent me a tell along the lines of "You may want to check out that sword you got". I checked it out and it spoke to me. Not metaphorically, but literally! The sword's name was Berik, he wanted revenge, and needed my help...
Easy... Guise of the Deciever... Got it pre nerf as a half elf Ranger... A year or two later people couldnt understand how a ranger could be a dark elf.. LOVED IT!
Sadly they added it back in a future expansion in some gambling game thing that allowed any class to use - I stopped playing the game soon after. Not just because of that but partly for sure.
I'd have to say my turtle mounts from WoW. I had spent literal weeks-months farming up my turtles while getting mats for fish feasts for raids. At that point, the turtles were the only +speed water mount in the game. They only went +60% in water, no bonus on land, so they were mostly fun and flavor - something to show off your fishing prowess in a stupidly-cute package. When Cata hit, every single player got a +280% water mount for free about 3 mins after loading into the new zones. My turtles never got their speed adjusted/scaled, and that just felt like a major slap in the face. I had been looking for an exit for years at that point, but negating any rewards for all that work put into the previous expansion felt abysmal. I asked myself, "Do I really want to do all of that over again... this time in these terribly-made underwater zones with poor verticality/navigation/mapping - and me without a turtle? Do I really have nothing of permanent worth in this game despite years of effort sunk into it?" Vertical progression that erases previous gains just to herd people onto the rides at the new water park... no thanks. Screencapped my turtle, did a /rude, and logged out one last time.
I'll always have my turtles. I'll just never log in to see them again.
Oh, also my Super Simian Sphere. That rare lewt drove me cah-razy when it dropped - and then I won it!
And for those wanting more of an EQ-based response - Reed Belt/Pearl Kedge Totem from Bilge Farfathom in Dagnor's. That was my first major camp in any game ever. Weeks later, my buddy and I gated/walked away feeling like kings.