Ok, I’m writing this, as I really see many unskilled people hunting high-end mobs, and then complaining on why they are having no returns.
I have made a drawing of what I believe to be a generic loot curve, for any mob, to represent it’s loot pool.
https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/gallery/files/3/6/4/1/LootCurve_386305.GIF
The y-axys represents the percentage of returns when hunting a certain mob.
The x-axys represents time.
The “x%” represents the maximum percentage you can have back, when hunting a certain mob.
The “y%” represents the minimum percentage you can have back, when hunting a certain mob.
Let’s compare two types of mobs:
“1” would be a low-end mob.
“2” would be a high-end mob.
The loot curve for “1”, would have a “x%” and a “y%” close to the 100%. Thus no matter when you decide to hunt that mob you will get very close to breaking even (considering you hunt efficiently and with the appropriate equipment for your skills). That’s without counting globals and HoFs. Those count as annomalies in low-end mobs. They are also much less frequent in low-end mobs because of that. The effect of globals and HoFs for the loot curve of mob “1”, is much bigger than for mob “2”.
When hunting mob “2”, both “x%” and “y%” would be farther away from the 100%. The bigger the cost to kill the mob, the farther they are from 100%. That’s what causes the “casino effect” on PE. You have to be lucky enough to be hunting the mob when it is on the profit period, or there is a considerable chance of losing a large amount of money. In high-end mobs, globals and hofs are a key-factor to breaking even, since the profit period is shorter, but the “x%” is higher. It is also more frequent to global and hof on high-end mobs, since the cost to kill them is higher, and thus their loot reward is proportional to the cost of killing it (or at least should be 
). They also drop better items, which helps in getting higher loots. Better items don’t drop as often though, thus reinforcing the idea, that the profit period is thinner on “2” mobs.
Hunting “2”, rather than hunting “1” is much more of a gamble, since there’s a big chance of losses, but a small chance of much bigger rewards. That causes the large numbers of unskilled people complaining about loots when fighting mobs that are too strong for their skills. Also, the unskilled people that do get lucky hunting high-end mobs, usually think they are doing well, hunt said mob again and again, and end up losing more than what they gained in first place.
I’d rather hunt a weak mob over and over again, getting very close to breaking even (profitting or losing) all the time, hoping to hit a high-loot eventually, than hunting a high-end mob, losing frequantly fora slightly bigger chance of scoring high. Of course, the probability of scoring as high in a low-mob, as peopple usually do on high-end ones, is much lower, but that’s just how I do it myself 
.
I hope this has helped some people understand why they are losing so much money .
P.S.: All of this is based on the fact that mobs have loot pools. If MA by any miracle managed to put a 100% random system in a machine, where loot has absolutely nothing to do with the mob you are hunting, then all of what I wrote is rubbish.
