Kinda funny but...I have now completed all 3 factions and have 6 of 8 UA pieces (chest,legs,hands,1 wrist,arms,feet) and sitting at a PB kill 960/1000....seems the epic count is still too high to have all 3 factions a majority of the UA complete and still be S.O.L. on an epic.....On a positive note I have all the esse's/Master esse/EoN required for the next UW once I get done with 40 more PB kills........
This had me agreeing that PB count still seems high even after the changes. I myself havent played T10 pre-change so i am interested to see where i end up when done with my 3 factions (which to me seems like the point you should either be done or have been done with the epics). I am finishing my first faction and sit at 130 PBs, so i fully anticipate falling way short on PB when done with the 3 factions. I was actually chatting about this with Raygan and together we brainstormed an idea that is worth floating on the forums.
Leave the PB quest at 1000, but offer an alternative route to getting your epic. The alternative would be a super boss you could spawn by giving the roaming gnome 5 souls (of any kind) after you have completed ally and obtained your chest piece. This boss will straight up take a full raid to kill. It should have high HPs/regen to require a level of DPS that even a top of the line solo player with 12 UWs could still not solo. The idea is for you to need to band together with friends/guildies to pick and choose your best boxes to bring to the table. The Ramp is deadly enough that you need an offtank that is somebodies elses warrior (not some box warrior).
Thats the core of the idea and we had some further details we would like to see but also would like to get input from the community.
Other details could be that there is a guaranteed sun shard drop that could be randomed off to encourage folks to help each other out. If you wipe, he despawns and you need to go farm another 5 souls to get him to respawn. each boss is linked to the person who spawns it. I understand the value of sun shards and not creating an endless way to farm guaranteed drops, so perhaps the mob is linked to the person who spawns it. Once the mob dies, that person has their task updated and can never spawn the mob again but now can cash in for their epic. Perhaps the sun shard drops from a chest that spawns after the person cashes in for their epic. Also, perhaps if you hail the roaming gnome and he will give you a bane damage buff based on the number of UA pieces you have. 0 pieces = 0 bane damage but a full set would give you enough bane damage to make a difference.
Thats what we brainstormed so it would be great to hear others thoughts.
I think T10 is fine as it is. Akkadius and Rent did a great job refactoring the content. The PB count while high is not insurmountable. For example, I just rolled new toons, finished Sarnak Ally in 3 days or so and have a count of 233 PBs on the new toons. That does not include even doing the mini. Add the mini into the mix every 2 days and they are sitting at 250. So that is 250 pbs in 3 days = 1000 pbs in 12 days played. That is not bad at all.
You guys can "raid" existing content and speed up your PB counts. I team up with other peeps to speed our kills. What I see is people just soloing in T10 and not teaming up as is. The pb count the first time going through does feel high, but have to say it is gratifying when complete.
I do not think any additional changes are required for T10. Think outside the box, team up and the PB count will come. Maybe once T11 comes out and there is a back flag bottleneck it could be looked at.
I do not think sun shard drop rate should change at all.