Epic reality
 

Which is the least likely to happen for a random person who raids Bard Epic or Mage Epic and by how much is the difficulty that separates them? NBD was just thinking about it lightly. I know they both show that your guild loves you, but which one means more?

Bard Epic is easier to get by a good margin.

White Scales can drop off of two raid targets instead of one. This means your guild is more likely to get at least one Gore or Vox kill per week.

The drop rate on White Scales is higher than Earth Staff as well.

Magi P'Tasa can spawn more than once per week because he is a Hate Mini-Boss. However, Magi P'Tasa can be farm crewed with a single group or less, so you aren't just competing against guilds. This can make competition higher for Magi P'Tasa.

You are also more likely to find people selling White Scales in EC. Earth Staff is much harder to find on the market.

Mage Epic is hardest.

Auld Lang Syne kept an ordered list of every epic we ever got for our members, dated. The order people got their epics and the total count per class follows closely with the consensus difficulty for how hard the epics are to achieve. Here's when the first ALS member of each class got their epic, and how many of the 83 epics ALS has came from that class:

1. Jayya, Rogue: Ragebringer - 17 July, 2017 [9/83 Epics]
3. Tywyll, Ranger: Swiftwind - 30 July, 2017 [6/83 Epics]
4. Teslacoil, Monk: Celestial Fists - 17 September, 2017 [12/83 Epics]
6. Winnifrid, Druid: Nature Walker's Scimitar - 28 November, 2017 [6/83 Epics]
7. Hatefull, Cleric: Water Sprinkler of Nem Ankh - 28 November, 2017 [13/83 Epics]
8. Ulgromm, Shaman: Spear of Fate - 10 December, 2017 [7/83 Epics]
9. Zorvyn, Enchanter: Staff of the Serpent - 21 December, 2017 [8/83 Epics]
16. Kaikuxai, Necromancer: Scythe of the Shadowed Soul - 25 February, 2018 [4/83 Epics]
Tywyll, Ranger: Earthcaller - 29 March, 2018 [3/83 Epics]
21. Artelius, Paladin: Fiery Defender - 23 April, 2018 [2/83 Epics]
30. Ragguluk, Shadowknight: Innoruk's Curse - 28 July, 2018 [4/83 Epics]
32. Bale, Wizard: Staff of the Four - 22 August, 2018 [5/83 Epics]
48. Kushida, Warrior: Blade of Strategy/Blade of Tactics/Jagged Blade of War - 3 January, 2019 [2/83 Epics]
60. Nonon, Bard: Singing Short Sword - 8 April, 2019 [1/83 Epics]
72. Vanenia, magician, spell: Summon Orb/Orb of Mastery, September 13, 2020 [1/83 Epics]

ALS faded significantly after Green launched; we could have potentially had more bards epiced if we had more active bards, as we get a white scales drop on average every few months. On the other hand we have an active non-epic magician with enough DKP to get mage staff, there just have only been like 3 mage staffs for the alliance ALS has been part of since 2017. If Vanenia had not been present at that kill we easily could have never gotten an epic mage in ALS.

Aronian still soldiering on.

Mage epic is the only epic on p99 that you are unlikely to ever get no matter how hard you try.

It's doable, but most guilds don't try hard enough for magi, and if you want to try hard for magi on your own, you need a farm crew which excludes you from any legitimate guild (stupid rules) and you'll need to come to an agreement where they let you have a hyper expensive item.

Last chance, is buying the Staff mq with plat and for any sellers out there, I paid wdh + 700k or so for my mq roughly like 1.5-2 years ago, and I haven't seen another for sale since.

Every other epic is easily obtainable with a few friends or within any raid guild on the server via dkp / welfare help