"Grey Crafting Item" drop rates.... Where are they?

I'm a methodical sort of player. (Been playing since Abyss.) I'm not a content-skipper or speed-running. I usually have two characters in a League, maybe three if I bork one up or get locked behind a "gear availability wall."


I'm now in Act 4 after starting five minutes after Xbox release for this League on Monday.

I have no Sharpening Stones.

I have no Armor Scraps.

I have a bare handful of Identify Scrolls.

I have about thirty Portal Scrolls left and those are jealously guarded... (YOU NO TAKE SCROLL!)


I used what handful of Sharpening Stones that I had on trying to get some quality on a Rare and then the last three from that on a non-magical item to try to get it four-socketed. So, whatever I had there is now gone. I used the very few armor bits I had on a Rare and sold some to get what Sharpening stones I used above... That's it. That's what I have gotten to drop up to Act 4 in play. By Act 4, I shouldn't have to worry this much about those items... (I used ZERO up to that point. I normally don't bother with a "gear check" until midway through Act 3 or the beginning of Act 4 and never use any of those until then.)

I have only identified a few in each batch of vendored items I've brought back and those few items I felt worth checking for upgrade potential. I have, however, converted some Portal scrolls to Identify, here and there. I tend to go back to town full of vendor loot when I uncover a new Portal or get full of Rare drops. So, twice a map at least.

I am not playing any differently than I normally do. I see the whole map, clear all/most of it (League mechanic forces this as well as Einhar, for the most part) and I am not a "speed running" nor do I skip any of the quests/content for my first character in a League.

I don't ID everything, maybe just half of what I turn in if that. I can't afford to, not even having reached Act 4. I couldn't do it if I wanted to. There wasn't one time in the current run that I've had a "stack" of 20 Identify scrolls all at once... not even counting the few I get converted from scraps in my stash.

What gives?

Is anyone else experiencing this? This isn't just about the drop-rate for gear that's not tied to League events - That's poor as well. But, I'm not complaining about that right now because this "grey drop" problem is a bit more worrying.


Anyone else?

It's worth noting that, thanks to League drops and seeing more spawned Chest encounters than I'm used to seeing by this time, I've seen more Jeweler's Orbs and Fusings than I'm used to. But... you can't get these low-tier "grey" crafting items without direct "exchanges" of their class of item. (Div cards not included.) I can't get a sharpening stone without an armor scrap or a Identify Scroll without a Portal Scroll. If those sorts of drops were nerfed as a class, together, then the impact is twice as much as they would have intended, I would think.

OR, PoE uses a seed mechanic generated on character creation and I have just gotten a bad seeded variable-multiplier for... friggin' grey drops? Yay me?

Well, if I get a great rare that drops some vendor is going to be very happy with it... I'm behind the "Paywall" of Identify Scrolls and, as far as basic crafting mats to improve gear, I am behind the paywall of Armor Scraps to get access to Sharpening Stones...

I am going to have to farm the friggin' LIBRARY. WTF?

(That's my complaint thread for the League, for now... I know what I know and my play experience this League, thus far, is much different than anything previous in terms of these drops. Not. My. Fault. If it's RNG, it's the most absurd coincidentally consistent RNG I've experienced thus far... which means a terribly untutored and weakly coded RNG modeling scheme.)

"

I have no Sharpening Stones.

vendor a single weapon that has a 20% quality or multiple weapons that have a total quality of 40% or higher

"

I have no Armor Scraps.

vendor a single piece of armour that has a 20% quality or multiple pieces or armour that have a total quality of 40% or higher

"

I have a bare handful of Identify Scrolls.

I have about thirty Portal Scrolls left and those are jealously guarded... (YOU NO TAKE SCROLL!)[/quote]

vendor the portal scrolls to get scrolls of wisdom, also vendoring misc items gets you scroll of wisdom scraps that get auto converted to a scroll of wisdom for every 10 scraps.

Loot seems weak so far I agree.
But I'm just getting to Dominus and I have no doubt it is coming soon.
I think I will run lab first, I just unlocked it.
I also just got my 4th Toxic Rain totem. Izaro... let's have a chat about my ascending.
I've watched a lot of endgame fights so loot is still dropping in the game.
I am doing slightly better on PC than PS4.
I noticed my wisdom scrolls were lacking, but before logging off last night I saw I had 30 again so yeah, the loot is coming.
Don't get too impatient, I think you are starting to realize why everyone races for maps. There ain't a lot of loot in story!
Especially for full content clearers that can't leave a chest unlocked or a barrel unbroken. I can't even have a gray corner on a map!
I ain't dying so I accept that my time is coming.
Three hour acts with this Tane guy, I gotta pick up every organ too!
Can't stand the thought of missing a rare organ!
I'm happy to have two 3 links and a quiver at this point!

I AM SEEING A LOT of Chaos and Alchemy drops (Thanks Tane), waaaaay more than normal.
But I have had maybe 4 Augmentation orbs to this point.
I even rerolled a rare already!

"

shadowwraith_666 wrote:

...
vendor a single weapon that has a 20% quality or multiple weapons that have a total quality of 40% or higher
...
vendor a single piece of armour that has a 20% quality or multiple pieces or armour that have a total quality of 40% or higher
......
vendor the portal scrolls to get scrolls of wisdom, also vendoring misc items gets you scroll of wisdom scraps that get auto converted to a scroll of wisdom for every 10 scraps.

Thanks for the info...

However, I hope you understand that I am aware of basic gameplay mechanics having played on console since Abyss. I know of what you speak. Several builds every League, pushing the end-game content in the League and/or the Atlas, etc...

I'm simply saying that my experience thus far has been of a lack of these drops and the ability to acquire them as I have in previous playthroughs in the other Leagues.

For instance, I could just gather up all the drops and spend most of my time running back to town or, if I'm lucky, using a Portal. But, that is not what my experience was in past Leagues.

**

Anyway, I figure I really don't care anymore.

/shrug

Just started looking for some chase items for one my current planned build runs and figured out their appearance in the Marketplace is going to be "unlikely." (Close to "LOLZ NO.") Guess I should put even more hours into trying to second-guess the XBox economy for PoE... (I tried, but I missed an item since nobody commenting on the build seemed to care much. They didn't play on XBox, though...)

So, the heck with it.

GGG can do what they like with PoE. I'll play it or not. I'll buy skins to dress up electronic dollies or not. (Mostly not. Most of the latest stuff is pretty unappealing.) I've bot all my stash-tab specials and all that jazz so now it's just cruise-control.

PS - I seem to go through this with all the latest Leagues. I guess the more I try to push the end-game and succeed, the more it becomes obvious there's a lot of GGG and "XBox" playing against me.