The first Iron Banner of Season 11 is here and it brought some higಞhly desirable loot. Unfortunately, it's nea💫rly impossible to get the gear you actually want.
A Destiny 2 player called @wvardythefourth on Twitter did the math breaking down the probability of getting specific items with specific stats, and the probability if depressingly low. What makes ꦓit worse is the fact that there are no repeatable bounties and no consistent way of earning Iron Banner tokens.
There are 13 items in Season 11's Iron Banner loot pool. 5 of them are new armor pieces with higher than normal stat totals and Arrival mod slots, making them highly desirable (if you can get the right stat roll). The 🙈rest are weapons, and while many of these ꦏweapons are powerful, the most sought after gun by far is the Forward Path
Poor Odds For Good Rolls
The Foward Path is an updated kinetic Auto Rifle that can roll with so really incredible PvP perks like Dynamic Sway Reduction and Eye of ওthe Storm. While a Forward Path is awarded for completing the Iron Banner quest (along with a Fool's Remedy sidearm) it comes with a static roll of Pulse Moni꧙tor and Iron Gaze, which aren't ideal for PvE or PvP.
Assuming that each item in the pool has an equal chance of dropping (which is not confirmed) there's only a 7% chance it will drop. The chance it will roll ꦍwith a perk you want is arou🌺nd 1%. The chance it will roll perfectly is around 0.005%.
There are plenty of grinds in Destiny 2 and there isn't anything inherently wrong or unfair about a rare chase. The problem in this specific case is two-fol൩d: it's very hard to earn Iron Banner rewards and Arrival's introduced and much more reliable 🐓system for farming loot, which makes it feel so much worse.
Farming The Hard Way
Iron Banner comes around for just 1 week out of every month. During IB, there are 4 weekly bounties you can complete to earn a pinnacle reward and 50 Iron Banner tokens (200 total). Of course, you can complete the bounties with every class, so if you maintain all 3 characters you can earn 600 tokens this way. Outside of those 4, non-repeatable bounties, you earn 4 tokens for a win and 3 tokens for a loss.Rank-up packages from Lord Saladin cost 20 Iron Banner tokens. The initial 200 you earn by completing the weekly bounties are worth 10 rewards (or 30 if you do it for all 3 characters). After that, it will take 5 wins (or 7 losses) per reward. We're realistically talking about 3-4 rolls a night for the average player. Considering how low the chance of finding a God Roll are, that simply not enough rewards for meaningful grinding.
An Era Of Customized Drops
The other big problem is that the vendor rank up system is fairly antiquated across Destiny. While you still earn tokens for Vanguard, Crucible, and Planet vendors, more sophisticated systems for earning loot have been introduced, and players have responded enthusiastically to them. [caption id="attachment_725506" align="alignnone" width="1920"]
Via: GosuNoob.com[/caption]
This season, the Prismatic Recaster and Umbral Engrams were introduced to make farming for specific gear a more engaging and satisfying experience. By ranking up the PRismatic Recaster, players can focus their Umbral Engrams into a loot pool with only 2 weapons, or focus an armor piece that favors a specific stat.
The players love this system because it offers a way to be proactive while farming and a better chance of earning the rewards they want the most. Whatsmore, Umbral Engrams drop from almost any activity. No matter how you spend your time in Destiny, you can always be working towards the rewards you want.
What Can Iron Banner Do Better?
Obviously, the Umbral Engram system wouldn't work Iron Banner. IB is a limited time PvP event with valuable loot, so it makes sense that it would be rarer to some extent. If Iron Banner loot was easy to farm it would make other loot less valuable and may even discourage players from pursuing gear when Iron Banner isn't active. Unfortunately, one drop every 5-7 games simply isn't enough to encourage me to get on and grind Iron Banner.
On thing Bungie could add to help out is daily bounties. Even if they only offered an additional 2 tokens per bounty, the XP bonus would definitely make Iron Banner a more worthwhile activity to grind. Daily bounties for tokens could be a solution for Trials as well, as some players are suggesting, as Trials is another pinnacle PvP activity with rewards far to difficult to obtain for any but the most dedicated players.
Ultimately, if all they did was increase the number of tokens rewarded per game from 4/3 to 5/4 it would help a lot. I want a God Roll Forward Path as much as the next guy, but at this point I'm just going to wait for the next Iron Banner and cross my fingers that the 10 rewards I get from the weekly bounties are lucky.