What causes this? I mean, a limited item is over its limit...?

So I've gathered something I rather liked from the source mob itself a while back. Haven't died in a while and then I go do some exploring in a dangerous spot, wanting to be sure I can't go a way that looks like a trap just to be sure, thinking I'll at least get my equipment back if I die. Then my stuff goes up in flames. What the gives?

Seems pretty lame that things can be over-limited and then something I've had for a while, gotten myself from the source mob, and held onto goes poof because of a game glitch or some form of cheating going on?

How is it even possible and why does it happen? Can I assume it's going to be an illusion now if I go check on it?

So I checked it and it's an illusion.

Pretty sure there's two of these out there and I know who has the other and we've both had them for weeks or longer. Plenty of re-boots have happened, died since getting it and it didn't go poof.

So what I'd like to know is how's something suddenly just become over-limited? I have to say I'm fine with someone looting stuff--it can be painful but it's part of the game-- but to have things just burn up is pretty damn annoying. Especially nice things that are central to the way your gear is set up.

As CF's population fluctuates, so do a lot of item limits.

And then I can go get it back?

Really, you can't help but feel like you got screwed when this happens. I see the logic behind it, but there has to be a more fair way to go about it. At least some kind of warning flag so you know to be more careful or begin to find something as a replacement. Like see an echo when you die, that flames form around X item but then it doesn't actually burn until the next death.

This got me thinking a little bit and in some ways it would be more fair and kind of interesting if many (or even most) pieces of the better eq in the game eventually crumbled. Like after a hundred hours of gameplay, a piece of gear starts (flickering) or something, and then eventually it goes up in flames. Then you have a means for circulating gear around a little more and random incidents don't happen to people out of nowhere while others get to continue running around with the same piece of gear.

Either way, I guess it's just part of the game and doesn't seem to happen often. So I can accept it. But it's still pretty lame and often seems to be some of the better stuff when it happens, which makes it extra annoying.

Legendary awareness for example gives an indication of how rare something is.

You'll see some items that are item limit 1 (legendary) all the time. You'll see others that fluctuate between famous/infamous (infamous is the same as famous, just flagged evil far as I have seen) (item limit 2/3) and legendary based on player counts. Elemental maces are a good example, usually legendary these days, sometimes I'll see them as famous though. So if you see it is on the mob, and famous, there is a chance you may get it, and that it will poof not long after when you next die.

It means counts may have been high enough for it to be at 3 when you got it, then counts dropped to make the limit 2. Most high end gear tends to be famous/legendary, the famous ones seem to have more occassional variance between 2/3 count. The Legendary pieces are nice in that once you have them, they won't poof in chromatic flames when you die. They'll just get looted instead

Once that flux happens, and the item goes overlimit, the first person to die with that item will have it go up in the flames.

Having gear crumble is sort of pointless, as the person who has the gear would know when it crumbles, and could usually just go get it again.

At the end of the day, CF is large enough and there is enough gear that pretty much no one or two pieces really make a char. You don't need a set of legendary stuff to be tough in CF. I've never had strange bracers for example (Well, I did. On a Battlerager- Sacced them to Tahren after a while, that happened a few times), but I still do alright. Really nice gear is better viewed as a perk, and a temporary one at that, rather than a necessity. Hell, sometimes, the nice stuff is worse, since if you die, you know you're losing it and have to regear. Above average stuff usually is not an improvement for a lot of people, and so there's that perk too.

To the last question, it is possible it is not an illusion if the mob hasn't been killed recently.