In discussing the Plane of Hate Epic pieces with other players, specifically the Shatter Emerald and Earth Staff.
It is a common perception that these items were not as rare on live as they are on P99.
In reviewing the dicussion surrounding the mini bosses in plane of hate (see link below),
https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/...6&p=3#comments
It was mispercieved that the staff dropped everytime. Oftentimes mages would get the staff on their first run of going to Hate and Killing Magi.
A couple post do confirm that it does not drop everytime, with one unlucky Soul having to kill 6 Magi's to get it to drop. However the overwhelming portion of the dicussion and attitude was that it was pretty common to get the staff in 1 run to Hate.
https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/...3&p=3#comments
When reading the discussion regarding the Orb of Mastery quest, it became apparent that the primary bottleneck of the Magician epic quest was actually the Pegasus Feather Cloak.
https://everquest.allakhazam.com/db/...0&p=4#comments
This reading is consistent with my firsthand experience of assisting my friend achieve his Magician Epic. We spent 2 or 3 days chasing Quillmane on live, in era before getting him his cloak. The next night his guild scheduled a Plane of Hate raid and he recieved his Earth Staff.
Additionally, in examination of the Shattered Emerald of Corruption, it is apparent that while the individual drop rate of the Emerald was somewhat rare, when you included the fact that all minibosses (including Maestro & Magi!) had the chance to drop it, it became much more common.
It is my belief that the P99 drop rate of the staff & emerald are artificially nerfed and non classic and should be increased to reflect the actual drop rate that was experienced on Live.