Loot doesn't feel earned when you do 4 raid bosses, followed by 5 M+ and receive 35 anima from each. It feels like a complete slog and a battle with RNGesus to even get a piece that may or may not be an upgrade.

Sure, I don't think we should be getting a piece of loot from everything, otherwise it doesn't feel even remotely special or rewarding. Anima is, generally, an arbitrary and borderline useless resource, so 35 doesn't feel bad, but you get more from doing world quests that take a fraction of the time.

I'm afraid doing multiple pieces of content and NOT being rewarded actually takes away from any feeling of reward or satisfaction from getting loot. Again, it shouldn't be guaranteed, but right now its so far removed from that it doesn't even feel remotely rewarding. If anything, it feels punishing. I agree about gear bloating and agree with the sentiment of how it was in vanilla, but the game is so dumbed down from that time. There needs to be a marked improvement on how they want to handle the system and what other methods or alternatives are available.

Christ, just look at the missions as another example. That's another slog-fest levelling up companions so they can take part in a 4 hour mission that rewards gear below HC dungeon level. That doesn't feel rewarding and if anything it actually feels completely pointless as the majority of the playerbase would likely have HC dungeon gear way in advance of being able to slog their way through the mission table.

Gearing and rewards, as a whole, is in an absolute state at the moment and I think its important they address it soon. It needs to at least be tuned to some degree and they need to have other options in place. If they don't touch it, then we'll absolutely end up with the likes of titan-forging and gear bloat all over again.