It's interesting in some ways how people frustrated with finding legendary #4 parallels emotions and feelings felt by people who have yet to find a legendary. It's interesting because the two groups are often at odds when discussing loot. Group with legends often says "if you really want it spend hours and get lucky", the group without wants some sort of relief like maybe a spot that gives out El Patron or Silver Freeze considerably easier so they can at least experience a legendary weapon regardless of how others view the weapon as a negative to get.
I struggled with not finding a legendary for a long time and felt like I was wasting my time after completing all the quests and weeks looting obnoxious amounts of time. When I got one though, it was a massive emotion of accomplishment and I've felt a similar rush for the following legendary I have found. Without hints and building "maybe ___" cases in my head and going to various bosses is fun. It's like doing the BP quest again where you get frustrated like "why do I have to get these chickens to recruit this other person" but it feels, to me at least, like it's doing something beyond camping and being constantly frustrated knowing it drops essentially nothing you need other than the specific legend. I think a lot of people have all the cursed famed and have seen all the rare cursed. The drops get unexciting for weeks or months. Then you go somewhere maybe in pursuit of legend four, but no one knows, and you start seeing even commons you havent seen in months and find yourself reading them and going like "oh EITC Mercenaries Cutlass is OP for a common" or unexpectantly coming across a famed you don't find on RC or Tormenta. I get that doesn't change with a revealed location and you can still loot where ever, but it's kinda nice searching and moving around the map.
With the amount of time I've spent at a lot of these bosses, if I get El Patron or SF I'm going to be excited that the time paid off in something even if Patron 4 or 5 isn't valued in the community it would be a personal trophy for spending time looking at the location and getting something. I don't want two from the same boss, and I feel for people like Bort who pull an excessive number of them, but there are a lot of weapons people can pursue that they don't have that are dropped from known bosses. I think having a mystery one adds another level of excitement. I hadn't killed Bone Rattler since the quest guided me to until I was like "maybe legend 4 is Heart of Padres literally at the heart of Padres?" That's something I wouldn't have otherwise done. Now you can occasionally find people at Devil Root, Jacques, and Tomas. Before you almost never ran into people if you were there. When I'm at General Hex I still only really come across lower levels that join for a short time while doing other things, but it's fun. Even occasionally you'll be able to get 10 or so people, a number of which have Silver Freeze, join together to fight Foulberto for a couple hours. Hadn't seen that happen before there was a mystery. I've even seen groups on mat runs do a BP lookout with a couple questioning if maybe the boss ship could drop it.
The game is repetitive and often frustrating a lot of the time. Revealing or hinting that essentially narrows it to a reveal (ie. Legend 4 is a Throwing Knife, or "Silver Shot wouldn't be effective") isn't ideal either I don't think. Like how long before frustration wins out and the people that have given up give up again? 800 kills? I bet a lot less. An El Patron from one more boss that could maybe be within the hint? Who knows, but if you are frustrated you can look for Ruby at Cicatriz, Onyx at Crash, Sapphire at Jimmy, loot any of the non-bosses at Tormenta or RC for Emerald Curse, World Eater Blade, Abyss, Thunderspine, or Behemoth, Krakenslayer at Koleniko, Yore from Drench or Drizzle, Leviathan from Palifico, or one of the three other from the set in Jack's Blade at Darkheart, Mercer's from Remington, and Becketts from Neban. That's a lot of options for "do I want it, I'll go here". Want a chance at being first? Go look for it. Get frustrated? Go look for one of the others that are found.
I think the solution that a lot of people wouldn't like that have given up is a general increase in legendary drop frequencies. It would increase the discovery speed of new legends in theory, while also giving hope to those that play months or years without ever getting a chance to use even El Patron. What's the downside of increasing legendary drop frequencies? Someone who plays an extreme amount may actually get everything in the game? People that play a lot might get 4 or 5 legendary? They feel less legendary? Feels less legendary probably isn't the end of the world in a multiplayer game that is mostly a social thing. I don't feel like my very good sabre is less special when 3 others are also using it at a boss. It's kinda cool and we can talk about how excited we were. What is less fun is discussions like "please don't quit the game [or looking for a specific item], ___ will come eventually". If legendary items are like that chart from POTCO states with something 1 in 1,300 Loot Skull Chests, would it be the end of the world if it was reduced considerably more? Like even if it were halved 1 in 600 or 700 or whatever that would be like getting a 4 of a kind in 7 card poker. How many of those do you see? It's still rare it's just not insanely rare. It's still a heck of a lot more than a 1 in 40 skulls for a famed.
I'm still actively looking for it and all the others I haven't found. Hint or no hint I think the issue is general frustration with a lot of people. I think increased chance is a better solution than hints. On double loot weeks a legendary still felt legendary. If you got one in that time frame I doubt you view it as less worthy. I think that's the best solution for the most people. What good does a hint do other than get solved as a riddle quickly and then someone in a mob that hasn't invested time into search gets it within a day or two? Is that how the first one found should be? How does that help the people that play daily and can't seem to get a single legendary? Why cater to one group but not the other? Increased loot chance would be a solution all around, and those that have more legends in the more difficult to find it still brag they got it when it was even longer shot to get it. I feel like if this game in beta was released as a full release with the current loot frequency the vast majority would stop playing before ever experiencing a legendary. If it were better odds though, perhaps they or their friends gets one or two and they keep going. Keep going for 6 months and don't get one and its a lost potential member of the community as they quit feeling like the game is rigged. There's definitely a happy medium in odds between too common and too hard and I think it's currently too hard. If odds were made better maybe there would be the elite lucky frequent players that get everything, but I doubt they'd quit. If you enjoy the game that much you just make a second account and do it again. I almost quit after finishing all quests and looting for months only getting famed that people called "trash". I got lucky and got a legendary and kept going. I think increased odds would make that experience more frequent for more people that would become involved in the community and stay for longer amount of time.
