Have drop rates gone up?

One of the things I love most about it is you can actually go hunt your own gear and find it in a reasonable amount of time. It might not be godly, but at least you finally have something to use. I was planning to go hunt level 100 blades, but decided to go hunt griffey/manon first. Ended up finding a level 80, level 70, and 2 level 100 blades from kents/griffey on the free x2 drop buff.

This, before this patch it would be completely unthinkable for you to try to go find you own set of gear. Now, you can usually find 1 of each equip in an hour from a monster. Last night I was killing Homuns for the level 60 Katara, not only did I get what I needed, I got 5 of them as well as some nice 6 Luk clean earrings (potential'd). This patch has given a new light on this game, hunting for equips is actually FUN for me now, especially with the chance of hitting rich with Potential items.