f13.net forums - I cancelled after 4 years (or more on the new expansion)

After about a month of this new expansion, I have to rate it as one of the best except for one thing: loot. Keep in mind that while this might read like a sharp criticism, it is the only weakness of the expansion. The instances are fun and challenging, providing tons of variety and a re-invigoration of PUGs.

The primary reward for running instances are void shards which can be traded in for/crafted into class armor sets. Even the lower (of two) tiers of this armor (4-11 shards per piece at a minimum 2 shards per instance completion) is comparabe to the Fabled sets from RoK. The void armor has lower mitigation (speaking from a tank's perspective since it is the only class I play) but it is easier to achieve the set bonuses (at 2, 3 and 5 pieces out of 6 vs 3 and 6 out of 7) because you could farm the easiest 3 instances each once a weak and get the armor while the RoK Fabled pieces were spread across the 3 raid tiers. With 2 pieces of tier 1 void armor and 2 pieces of RoK raid tier 1 armor, I am at the point of diminishing returns for mitigation (55%) already so mitigation isn't really an issue. Add on the fact that TSO mobs can critical now and the critical mitigation found only on TSO shard armor and raid drops means that RoK Fabled is really obsolete.

But apart from the void armor, the loot that drops from the mobs is quite lame for someone who casually raids Kunark tier 1. A group of players for which the Legendary drops in these instances would be an upgrade will have a tough time beating even the easiest one - until they accumulate shard armor which then makes armor drops moot. There are good jewelry and cloak drops, though.

For weapon upgrades beyond Fabled epics, you still have to raid and I have seen nothing from the Shadow Odyssey raids that come close to the Mythical epics. In fact, without Mythicals it will be hard to beat TSO raids and then those raids don't drop weapons superior to Mythicals. They drop other gear (Fabled class set pieces). So you still have to raid through the RoK content to get Mythicals to then raid TSO which won't upgrade your weapon. A strange twist on progression and a tacit admission that Mythicals were probably overpowered for when they were introduced.