A few questions about drop mechanics

I think I know how basic drop mechanics work. If something dies it has random chance to generate enhancements, recipes, etc. and if a team killed it it randomly goes to a member. What can be generated is determined on the mob end, not the player end. Purples are a bit different though, in that as far as I know they only drop for lvl 50 characters. My basic question is, does it work the same in that it checks to see if a purple drops, and then assigns it to a valid team member? If so, it would obviously have the effect of giving 50s a reason to farm with lower lvl toons who can't receive purples. Alternatively, it could assign a recipe drop to a player, and then determine what it is, which would be everything it normally drops, and if the character is a 50 add purples to the drop table.

Does anyone know exactly how the drop mechanics work? Thanks in advance. For what it's worth, if they work like I hope, I'd be more than happy to help other people level and increase my rate of earning purples at the same time, heh.

^^^ trounced by the speedy Zombie man!

I believe your understanding is wrong. Drops are calculated based on the mob killed and not anything to do with the character played. You might be thinking of the fact that purples can only be slotted by L50 characters.

A purple can drop to anyone, but the mob must be capable of dropping a purple. For example, I can run an ITF at L50 and invite my L43 friend. If a mob generates a purple when killed, my L43 friend has the same chance of getting it as I do, even though he is not 50. If he had run the ITF, nobody would get any purples, because the mobs would spawn at or about L43, and therefore be incapable of dropping purples.

Thanks for the quick responses, that clears it all up.

No kidding?

I was wondering the same thing this weekend. I too was assuming you had to be level 50 to get a purple drop. That's really good news.

Nope, any level can get a purple. I got my first one while playing a level 36 defender.

The purple issue seems to have been cleared up, but the comments about player level not affecting things is wrong. Player level affects the level and probability of Enhancement drops. Take a level 1 char into a farm with a level 50 Fire/Kin. The Fire/Kin may get a couple level 50ish Enhancements for the entire run. The level 1 will fill up on level 1ish Enhancements fairly quickly.

Similarly, when fighting an AV, the reward is usually a level appropriate SO Enhancement.

The thing I want to know is how did I generate a level 41 training origin hold enhancement?

I wasn't paying attention when it dropped so I have no idea where or when it happened.

Sounds like the drop from the Intro to Midnighters arc. That arc seems to always drop only a training enhancement.

My only purple drop on my now L50 DM/SR stalker happened just after he hit level 50, while fighting against level 49 and 50 enemies. I soloed him entirely from 46 to 50, and got one stinking purple. Not bitter about that, BTW, but mention it for the "I got 3 purple drops just last night on my L50!" folks to point out not everyone has the same good fortune. Almost like the drops are random or something.