I keep hearing Streamers and YouTubers talk about how terrible the drops are for Iron Banner and while that's all great and good, they don't ever say [b]why[/b] it's terrible. Zero reasoning. Zero elaboration. Just OMGBUNGOYUNODROP?!?! This is super detrimental to the community's general morale as their words carry more influence than they think and this sentiment can proliferate throughout the community because their audiences will echo their stance because reasons. Not to mention that it's horrendously low-quality feedback for the Bungie Devs as well. Granted, everyone's drops rates are different and some people are blessed by RNGsus, but just saying that something is patently terrible without backing it up is irresponsible and benefits no one. [b]Bluntly, it adds to the salt for the sake of being salty. [/b] To balance some of this out, I'm posting the data I collected playing IB this last week for everyone to see, and add to if you're so inclined / like-minded. I hadn't planned on putting this out there since I didn't get in as many games as I'd hoped and I didn't track a mess of metrics that I should have so my data's generally incomplete. [i]Disclaimer[/i]: I am fully aware that this is not a large sample of data and my Titan's percentages would be [b]far[/b] more accurate had I played more than 20 games on him. I only have Sunbreaker leveled up (OMGNOOB) and I am not a fan of the super or the neutral game so there was only so much I could stand before throwing in the proverbial towel. [b]How I Ranked Up [/b] * Warlock to Rank 5 * Hunter to Rank 5 * Titan to Rank 5 * RNG farming on Hunter (current main) [b]Warlock Data[/b] * Character LL: 301 * Games Played: 44 * Number of Drops: 6 * Item Drop Rate: 13.64% * Drop Avg LL: 293 * Number of Upgrades: 1 * Upgrade Rate: 16.67% [b]Hunter Data [/b] * Character LL: 308 * Games Played: 62 * Number of Drops: 15 * Item Drop Rate: 24.19% * Drop Avg LL: 299 * Number of Upgrades: 1 * Upgrade Rate: 6.67% [b]Titan Data[/b] * Character LL: 302 * Games Played: 20 * Number of Drops: 4 * Item Drop Rate: 20% * Drop Avg LL: 300 * Number of Upgrades: 3 * Upgrade Rate: 75% [b]Holistic Drop Metrics [/b] * Total Drops: 25 * 280-290 LL: 8 (32%) * 291-300 LL: 8 (32%) * 301-310 LL: 5 (20%) * 311-320 LL: 4 (16%) [i]Side Note:[/i] All ghosts. Zero weapons or armor. * Avg LL: 297 * Armor: 22 (88%) * Weapon: 3 (12%) * Number of Upgrades: 5 (20%) * Number of Downgrades: 20 (80%) [b]Personal Conclusion / Grain of Salt Time [/b] Based on this small-ish data sample, drop rates aren't the problem. The [b]quality of the drops[/b] are. If the gear that dropped was at a usable level, i.e. a respectable LL based on the activity and our characters' LL, it would be a [b]far more rewarding experience[/b] than what we're getting right now. If you look at any other online loot based game (read: MMOs), drop rates are in the single digits, sometimes the [i]low[/i] single digits. For anyone that spent time raiding in WoW, you know the struggle of waiting for that one specific item to drop and then having to compete with others in your role for it when it does. I went months and years without getting certain items because of how rare they were. With this in mind, I am [b]totally[/b] fine with a ~20% drop rate from IB as this basically gives you one piece of gear for every hour you play. This is a pretty decent carrot on a stick (IMO), but that's only, and I stress [b][i]only[/i][/b], if the quality of drops gets a [b]serious[/b] re-evaluation. The RNG drops having an average LL of 297 is [i]sincerely[/i] disappointing. (That average LL drops to 293 if you factor out my ghost drops.) Yes, infusion is a thing, but it requires you to have higher LL gear that you're [i]willing to sacrifice[/i] in order to bring those drops up to a competitive level which, as we all know, is a super important for future IBs and the weekly ToO push. [i]Infusion Disclaimer[/i]: Out of all of my drops, only the Ghosts had the int / disc rolls I was looking for. Everything else was predominantly int / str with a couple disc / str so despite the low LLs, I still didn't get any worthwhile gear that I could infuse because they weren't the rolls I needed. [b]Recommendations to Bungie [/b] * Improve quality of drops to be guaranteed > 300 light. * If the quality of drops aren't improved, crank up drop rates to 11 (read: 40%+) for more opportunities of RNGsus smiling upon us. * Boost weapon drop rates so they are in line with armor drops. Their only being attainable at the highest ranks means less chances to get them so they need [b]absurd[/b] drop rates. * Pull ghosts from end of match rewards and make the guaranteed rank 5 package ghost be 320. Artifacts don't drop @ the end of the match, neither should ghosts. * Rank 3 package contains a guaranteed 310+ item attainable at rank 3. * Rank 5 package contains a guaranteed 310+ item attainable at rank 5 (heavier odds given to weapons) I hope that this was useful. Links to my data bank and my profiles are below. I hope that there are others out there like me that tracked their data. I know that HeyFitzy was going ham collecting data too (just found the [url=https://www.reddit.com/r/DestinyTheGame/comments/48fsos/iron_banner_is_over_im_back_once_again_301/]link[/url] for those who haven't seen it yet). [b]Supplemental Links and Whatnots[/b] [url=http://bit.ly/1Qmugiv]Google Sheet Data Bank[/url] [url=http://guardian.gg/en/profile/1/Kilo%20Echo%20Niner/5]Kilo Echo Niner on Guardian.gg[/url] [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Profile/1/4611686018437947270]Kilo Echo Niner on Bungie [/url]