Anthem buffs some loot drop rates, plans to improve more

BioWare have now officially and intentionally improved loot drop rates in certain Anthem activities, following weeks of griping from players that the looter-shooter is too stingy with the goodies. BioWare had previously unintentionally buffed loot rates twice, at which points players seemed a lot happier grinding for gear, then both times BioWare stepped in to say "Oh whoops that was a bug, sorry, we've fixed it now." Third time's a charm, though the weekend's changes didn't go far enough so BioWare do plan more improvements for the future.

Friday's server-side update (no download required) brought, BioWare explained, improvements to loot drop rates "in specific scenarios." This was not a game-wide change, and might not even be that big a change.

"Masterwork & Legendary drop rates have been increased for Grandmaster 2 and Grandmaster 3 difficulty levels," BioWare said. "Masterwork & Legendary drop rates have been increased for harder enemies at all difficulty levels. This includes: Legendary Ancient Ash Titan, Elite Ancient Ash Titan, Legendary Fury, Legendary Ursix, and Legendary Luminary."

So, like, better chances for some stuff in some places. Not in some places many had hoped.

"No, the changes made today do not affect bosses at the end of Strongholds," community manager Jesse Anderson said in response to questions after the changes went live. "Is this a problem? Definitely. Are we going to be changing this? Yes!"

That's part of BioWare's plan for wider loot changes.

"In the next few months, we're expecting to make significant changes, but we're starting with some incremental ones so we can better navigate that evolution," Chad Robertson, BioWare's head of live service, tweeted earlier in March.

A looter-shooter launching with bad lootering is pret-ty bad. A 'live' game can come back from this (Destiny 2 has massively improved since launch) but that's little comfort when it's just kinda bleh in the meantime.

"I want to want to spend more time with it, because there are bits of it I really enjoy," Alice Bee said in our Anthem review. "But it needs more than the world map to change a bit, or have seasons, or better social interaction. It needs changes to how it actually works, which is a lot to ask. But the biggest fight I've had with Anthem so far is against Anthem."

For the record, I came up with the review's ha-ha-hilarious "Anthem? I hardly knew 'em!" tagline and I still can't believe that's not the go-to joke.