Loot is any item generated by AC's random treasure system. Is also used as a general term to describe all items dropped by creatures and chests including non-tier items such as trophies and rares.
Loot items generated by creatures and chests are controlled by treasure profiles.[1]
Each profile has general parameters that control treasure generation including: number of items, item type, occurance and the Loot Tier. [2] There are three general profiles types that are distributed among the creatures and chests in the game.[3]
Generic Items - Basic items that do not mutate at all (similar to trophies).
Mundane Items - Mutated items that do not have magical spells.
Magical Items - Mutated items that possess magical spells and mana.
Creatures are "stamped" with the name of the profile and the same profile can be used by other creature types.[4][5]
Each loot tier has tables for item selection and tables for the possible mutations that a selected item can receive.[1]
A generic item such as a Peerless Healing Kit cannot be mutated as one type of healing kit is always the same. However, an item such as a breastplate can be selected from the treasure tables and then mutated with varying mundane properties such as material (salvage) type, value, armor level, wield requirement and so on. If the item is magical, it will also be mutated with spells (see also: Spell Distribution) and mana properties.
While mutations generally get higher in value and more powerful with each tier, some types of item are not available at all until the higher tiers. For example, a chainmail girth is available from tier 1 right up to tier 8 (with much better mutations) but a piece of Lorica Armor will not appear in loot at all until tier 5.
Loot Tiers
Loot tiers are generally linked with a target level range of creature and sometimes location as is the case with the highest tier 8 creatures (found only in the high level hunting grounds).
* Creature levels and corresponding loot tiers are part of an ongoing creature rebalance. Some creatures may not currently be dropping the correct loot for their level.
Additional Properties
There are also other special properties that can affect the quality and/or amount of items that are generated.
"Luck"
Creatures and chests that have luck applied to them have an increased chance of generating items with better mutations.
Specifically, items dropped by chests and creatures with luck will have[6]:
Slightly increased chance of cantrips.
Increased chance of better Ratings applied to armor, clothing and jewelry.
Much better chance of reaching maximum stats for damage, variance, modifiers and armor levels.
"Group"
A creature or item with the group property will always drop a larger quantity of loot than normal. Many boss creatures and tougher creature such as the Gold creatures on Vissidal have this property in addition to the luck property.[7]
Most creatures can drop their own trophies in addition to separate tier loot. For example, a Platinum Golem drops tier 6 loot but it can also drop one or more of its four possible trophies such as an Ancient Empyrean Trinket.
Trophies can have fixed or random drop rates and are generated as a creature spawns, with loot being generated on the creature's death.[8] With the advent of the Black Marrow Reliquaries, certain chests can now also drop random trophies.[9]
Trophy lists can be found on every creature/creature class and chest page.
Rares are powerful items that can appear with loot on a defeated creature greater in level than the player character who killed it - or on any creature over level 100.
There are six tiers of rares ranging from the most common tier 1 rares, which consist of volatile skill buff gems, to the least common tier 6 rares consisting of weapons for each class. Rare armor and weapons can also be levelled up to cast more powerful spells on the wielder.
Loot tiers have been referred to as "Loot Levels" and "Wealth Ratings" by past developers.[1]
Prior to the Ancient Powers event, Asheron’s Call had only six wealth ratings. When the game first shipped, only the first five were commonly available to players. The lowest wealth ratings were assigned to the low level creatures; wealth rating 4 was assigned to the high level creatures; and wealth rating 5 was assigned only to very special creatures like Olthoi Nobles.[1]
There are currently 8 loot tiers and although not really seen, there is technically an 9th tier as many creatues do not generate any loot at all (tier 0). They may, however, still drop trophies.
In the first 3 years of AC, when a creature was killed and loot was left inside the corpse, the body decayed immediately leaving the leftover loot on the floor. This feature was removed in The Iron Coast event to increase server performance. See Item Decay for a list of other similar changes made.
Certain thrown weapons--such as throwing axes, clubs, daggers, djarids, darts, javelins, and shokens--will no longer appear as treasure (now found at town Bowyers).
SIK chests should now provide slightly better treasure.
Loot no longer appears on the floor when a corpse decays. Monster corpses now remain for five minutes--a much longer period than they currently do--but when they decay, any unclaimed loot that remains on the corpse will also decay.
Creatures no longer drop their pitiful unmutated weapons.
Missile weapon ammunition (i.e., arrows, crossbow bolts, and atlatl darts) no longer drops as loot.
Foods now only drop at low treasure levels. At higher levels, food has been replaced with potions. This does not affect special food drops, like fire auroch meat or spices.
More types of scarabs (e.g., lead, iron, copper) drop at lower levels of loot. At higher levels of loot, scarabs have been replaced with scarab peas.
Weapon damage, variance, offense and defense modifiers, and speed now mutate more often. In addition, weapon burden can now mutate as well.
The armor level and burden on armor mutates more often. In addition, the elemental protection of shields can mutate.
Jewelry now has a chance to be generated with heritage requirements.
Loot should no longer spawn with Racial Requirements. Pieces that would have racial requirements are instead generated as "exceptional" pieces that have lower Arcane Lore requirements.
Armor/Damage/Elemental Damage/Percent Damage can drop at new higher level in all loot tiers.
Minors can now drop from the lowest loot tier. Majors can now be found one tier earlier than before.
The rate of cantrips in tiers 1-6 has been increased.
Creatures that drop tier 7 loot (mana forge level of loot) have been adjusted to drop better loot more often.
Mana Forge chests have had luck applied to them.
All types of non-covenant armor can now drop with the top AL as opposed to only certain types of armor as it has been in the past.
There is now a max damage(elemental damage/percent damage) difference between the top and second to top wield on all weapon types.
Epic loot with sets will now drop with a level restriction of 150 instead of 180.
Broken Mana Forge Keys now have a 24 hr lifespan that is removed upon fixing the key.
Epic Spirit Drinker is now more effective.
Epic skills/attributes are now more effective.
Epic Hermetic Link now exists.
Summoning skill boost has been added to the Wise set.
Pristine Mana Shards will no longer drop in loot. Existing shards can still be turned in for keys. All creatures that previously dropped shards now have a chance of dropping a broken key.
Loot tiers and creature levels standardized (part of an on-going creature rebalance)
