Windfalls... Not impressed.

I used one of my Vet Reward windfalls on an Underground Trial I did on the 18th:

Code:

Date				Item
2/18/12 6:33 PM	Incarnate Thread.
2/18/12 6:36 PM	Hamidon Goo.
2/18/12 6:36 PM	Kinetic Weapon.
2/18/12 6:36 PM	Incarnate Thread.
2/18/12 6:37 PM	Chaos Theorem.
2/18/12 6:38 PM	Regenerating Flesh.
2/18/12 6:39 PM	Psionic Threat Report.
2/18/12 6:39 PM	Ruby.
2/18/12 6:41 PM	Grace of Joule.
2/18/12 6:41 PM	Incarnate Thread.
2/18/12 6:45 PM	Catch a Breath.
2/18/12 6:45 PM	Temporal Analyzer.
2/18/12 6:45 PM	Temporal Analyzer.
2/18/12 6:45 PM	Incarnate Thread.
2/18/12 6:45 PM	Uncanny Insight.
2/18/12 6:47 PM	Temporary Power: Stun Grenades.
2/18/12 6:50 PM	Dramatic Improvement.
2/18/12 6:50 PM	Ceramic Armor Plate.
2/18/12 6:50 PM	Temporal Analyzer.
2/18/12 6:51 PM	Silver.
2/18/12 6:52 PM	Silver.
2/18/12 6:54 PM	Pangean Soil.
2/18/12 6:54 PM	Incarnate Thread.
2/18/12 6:54 PM	Silver.
2/18/12 6:56 PM	Incarnate Thread.
2/18/12 6:57 PM	Kinetic Weapon.
2/18/12 6:57 PM	Nevermelting Ice.
2/18/12 6:57 PM	Power of Grey.
2/18/12 6:57 PM	Nevermelting Ice.
2/18/12 7:00 PM	Incarnate Thread.
2/18/12 7:01 PM	Incarnate Thread.
2/18/12 7:03 PM	Power of Grey.
2/18/12 7:04 PM	Hydraulic Piston.
2/18/12 7:04 PM	Mathematic Proof.
2/18/12 7:04 PM	Temporary Power: Envenomed Dagger.
2/18/12 7:04 PM	Shield of Hermes.
2/18/12 7:04 PM	Fortune.
2/18/12 7:04 PM	Hydraulic Piston.
2/18/12 7:04 PM	Incarnate Thread.
2/18/12 7:06 PM	Incarnate Thread.
2/18/12 7:10 PM	Uncanny Insight.
2/18/12 7:15 PM	Demonic Threat Report.
2/18/12 7:15 PM	Incarnate Thread.
2/18/12 7:17 PM	Take a Breather.
2/18/12 7:17 PM	Invention: Damage (Recipe).
2/18/12 7:17 PM	Sturdy.
2/18/12 7:18 PM	Fortune.
2/18/12 7:18 PM	Uncanny Insight.
2/18/12 7:19 PM	Incarnate Thread.
2/18/12 7:20 PM	Hydraulic Piston.
2/18/12 7:21 PM	Fury of Joule.
2/18/12 7:21 PM	Ceramic Armor Plate.
2/18/12 7:24 PM	Good Luck.
2/18/12 7:24 PM	Nevermelting Ice.
2/18/12 7:26 PM	Awaken.
2/18/12 7:26 PM	Destiny.

Code:

Totals:
1	Awaken.
1	Catch a Breath.
2	Ceramic Armor Plate.
1	Chaos Theorem.
1	Demonic Threat Report.
1	Destiny.
1	Dramatic Improvement.
2	Fortune.
1	Fury of Joule.
1	Good Luck.
1	Grace of Joule.
1	Hamidon Goo.
3	Hydraulic Piston.
12	Incarnate Thread.
1	Invention: Damage (Recipe).
2	Kinetic Weapon.
1	Mathematic Proof.
3	Nevermelting Ice.
1	Pangean Soil.
2	Power of Grey.
1	Psionic Threat Report.
1	Regenerating Flesh.
1	Ruby.
1	Shield of Hermes.
3	Silver.
1	Sturdy.
1	Take a Breather.
3	Temporal Analyzer.
1	Temporary Power: Envenomed Dagger.
1	Temporary Power: Stun Grenades.
3	Uncanny Insight.

Inf Earned: 6,455,101
Prestige Earned: 10,344
Drops: 56

Overall, I'm not impressed by Windfalls.

Edit:
Here are the results of 3 other random Undergrounds where I didn't use windfalls, since the 11/10/2011 patch.

Code:

1	Benedict Tech Stasis Regenerator.
1	Ceramic Armor Plate.
1	Demonic Threat Report.
1	Energy Weapon.
2	Enrage.
2	Focused Rage.
1	Hydraulic Piston.
1	Incarnate Shard.
9	Incarnate Thread.
2	Insight.
1	Kinetic Weapon.
2	Nevermelting Ice.
1	Portacio Ind Internal Munitions.
1	Portacio Ind Subdermal Plating.
1	Regenerating Flesh.
1	Temporal Analyzer.
1	Temporal Tracer.
1	Thorn Tree Vine.
1	Titanium Coating: End/Res (Recipe).
1	Titanium Shard.
1	WetWare Eng Adrenal Gland Booster.

Inf Earned: 3,146,963
Prestige Earned: 7,989
Drops: 33

Code:

1	Awaken.
1	Catch a Breath.
1	Ceramic Armor Plate.
1	Demonic Threat Report.
1	Dragon Rage.
1	Dramatic Improvement.
1	Energy Weapon.
1	Focused Rage.
1	Gold.
14	Incarnate Thread.
2	Insight.
1	Invention: Endurance Red. (Recipe).
1	Keen Insight.
2	Kinetic Weapon.
1	Luck.
1	Mathematic Proof.
2	Military Encouragement.
1	Military Healing.
1	Military Speed.
1	Nevermelting Ice.
2	Regenerating Flesh.
1	Respite.
1	Ruby.
1	Rugged.
2	Spirit Thorn.
1	Unquenchable Flame.

Inf Earned: 3,842,343
Prestige Earned: 9,232
Drops: 44

Code:

1	Break Free.
2	Catch a Breath.
1	Ceramic Armor Plate.
1	Chaos Theorem.
1	Demonic Threat Report.
1	Destiny.
3	Enrage.
1	Essence of the Furies.
1	Fortune.
18	Incarnate Thread.
2	Luck.
1	Mathematic Proof.
4	Portacio Ind Internal Munitions.
1	Respite.
2	Rugged.
1	Sapphire.
1	Spirit Thorn.
1	Sturdy.
2	WetWare Eng Cyberheart.

Inf Earned: 2,672,772
Prestige Earned: 7,518
Drops: 45

For the windfall run:
Inf Earned: 6,455,101
Prestige Earned: 10,344
Drops: 56

Edit 2:
Found something I shouldn't have, Mutation: Heightened Speed. Removed and adjusted totals.

And further breakdown (yellow column is the windfall stats):


Edit 3:
All four runs took 1 hour each.

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

A UGT probably wasn't the best place to use the power.

I also used a windfall yesterday during a UGT in hopes of an enhancement catalysts and I got one so I was satisfied.

Of course, a single trial run, that doesn't even bother to compare the average drops of the same trial without a windfall, is enough to make an accurate judgement...

Where's the tally of a UGT run without Windfall? It's hardly scientific to evaluate something that boosts your odds without checking both before and after.

Windfalls give a pretty direct increase in influence, shards, and threads, primarily because those all have high drop chances to begin with. Recipe drops are so low to begin with, though, that you can still go an entire hour without seeing an orange or purple. Still, a 1.5% chance is better than a 1% chance.

As DreadShinobi alludes to, the best places to use them are TFs and trials with high concentration of enemies. The ITF is pretty much made for Windfalls, and trials like BAF are pretty good too.

I share your lack of enthusiasm for Windfall. I had heard of others getting one or two purple drops on smash all ITFs so I reserved them for such an outing. After 5 runs with windfalls I hadn't had any valuable drops. Random is random, but I hate random.

Pro-tip: use windfalls when solo and set map for x8

Windfalls are so hit/miss, i bought a few when they were on offer a while back and [with the superpacks too] i have about 16 left i think.

On an ITF a week or two ago both me and a friend popped one on an ITF and both of us got hardly anything [i dont mean value wise, i mean we literally got next to nout apart from a lot of shards]. Then another ITF i pop one and get about 700m worth of items.

I've only used a windfall on incarnate items 3 times and twice i had next to nothing but the 1 time i did get a purple. The only iTrial i'll be running a Windfall on in future though will be a DD trial with all those enemies.

[Unless the chance increase is raised i dont think i'll ever buy another windfall for such a huge hit/miss to be honest]

What difference would it make with the drops he actually gets when using windfall solo or team? I though the windfall only affected the person using it and not the team? Not following what is being said about that power regardless of setting as I thought it only affected the person individually.

For those that asked for comparisons, I've updated the original post with 3 other Underground Trial runs that did not use a windfall.

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

Now that's something to chew on. Thank you for pulling the info.

Looks like you certainly got less in the way of threads, but a little more than 1.25x the drops, and more than 2x the influence. Obviously to folks who use the market on a regular basis, an extra 3 mil inf is peanuts, but to some it does matter.

It'd be interesting to break the drops down by type, but I'm not going to do that nor would I ask you to. The smaller the sample the less consistency, in any case. It's a 50% increase in drops, we know that. It just happens that some drop chances are pretty damn small.

Found something I shouldn't have, Mutation: Heightened Speed. Removed and adjusted totals.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bosstone Now that's something to chew on. Thank you for pulling the info.

I do love using Excel for this, as that was easy to do. Far easier than pulling the data out of the logs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bosstone It'd be interesting to break the drops down by type, but I'm not going to do that nor would I ask you to.

And further breakdown (yellow column is the windfall stats):

Couple oddities. I got an Incarnate Shard, probably from inside the hospital on one run. One run I didn't get any recipes.

Triumph: White Succubus: 50 Ill/Emp/PF Snow Globe: 50 Ice/FF/Ice Strobe: 50 PB Shi Otomi: 50 Ninja/Ninjistu/GW Stalker My other characters

A shifted random number generator is still a random number generator. Since the RNG has things of such a rarity that they only drop once a week, it is hard to get the full effect of windfall from a single run. However, since the windfall run produced around twice as much INF as non windfall runs, I'm not exactly sure what the problem is here.