I give up. My friends have moved on to hard mode. They all have 1 or 2 level 30s. Our same group has done the raid together every week yet somehow I have only gotten the raid gloves so the iron banner didn't even help me. I get the random drops. I've played plenty of MMOs like FFXI and WoW. But the fact that its so random that I can no longer play with my friends while they have gotten gear multiple times is ridiculous. I can no longer effectively play with and be useful to my team even though I've put in the same (and more than some) effort. Which means its a social game that I can no longer play with my social group. Mission failed.
You said you wanted everyone to have their own epic story. Mine is this: I put 328 hours into the game. Tonight the last one of our group who has put in 200 hours got the cuirass and can now hit 30. I quit.
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*knocks on something lucky* My 3rd raid ever I found Gloves of Hezen and that was right after grinding the banner for the boots, I was happy. The rest of my raid team seemed a bit salty for a moment. That was a awesome raid I walked away from that raid with corrective, praedyths, hezen gloves, and glass minuet. I figure it was the RNGesus awarding me for my solo banner grind.