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.