Out of the mounts currently in the game, ~70 are buyable (with appropriate rep and/or currency) and 23 can be farmed from raids, instances, dailies, and holidays. 7 can be "achieved."
This does not include the mounts available from professions or class mounts.
3.1 brings us 4 new event mounts, 3 new horde mounts, 1 new flying mount, 1 fishing mount, and 2 achievement mounts to replace the 2 we're losing.
What does this mean for you, the player? Do you have to suddenly take up tailoring or engineering or even fishing to make your numbers?
Well, that's up to you.
I believe that Blizzard will increase the number of mounts available over time to make the 100 mount achievement more attainable without having to farm mounts that drop maybe once a year (1 try a week, 2% drop rate, 1 drop in 50, 52 weeks in a year).
The current problem isn't that there aren't enough mounts, because I expect more to arrive over time, just like they found a way to put in more pets with the Argent Tournament. The problem is that, right now, the people most favored to reach the 100 Mount Achievement are the unscrupulous.
Think about it. The best way to get this achievement for now is to cheat others. It will take forever to see one of the raid/instance mounts drop, even longer to see it and win the roll. The only way to guarantee your success and minimize your grinding time is to ninja the mount from everyone else.
Blizzard has created an environment around mounts where stealing is the most economical and sensible use of time management. People who hate fishing force themselves to fish, people who always made fun of holidays get involved. And people in instances maneuver themselves into the best possible position as Master Looter, sometimes as a sneaky ninja, sometimes with the more upfront "You can have anything except the mount if it drops."
Instead of mounts rewarding the people who have long loved tailoring, engineering, fishing, raiding, or holidays, the aficionados are imposed upon by others who hate being there, who are greedy and selfish and perfectly willing to complain to anyone who will listen, and who only talk about getting what they want.
The solution to all of this is not to make the farmable mounts easier to get. I'm against removing things forever, not against difficulty. The solution is that we need more easy mounts. Soon. The driving force here seems to be the achievement -- an achievement that is utterly impossible right now without winning multiple mounts from group activities. People need to be able to reach this achievement through nice, clean solo activities (yes, this includes professions) so that they rely less on group farming.
People enamored of this achievement, of collecting mounts, will get as many mounts as they can eventually. But I truly believe that having the achievement rely on rare drop mounts (as it does now) is a huge mistake and can only encourage people to act badly.
My solution is allowing the collectors enough choices so they can more-or-less solo the achievement. This way, the rare raid and instance drops are a bonus -- as Blizzard intended them to be.
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Amen. I've been following wowinsider's guild drama column and lately, all it is is ninjas... Especially, for some reason, the mammoth from Vault of Archavon. It's nuts.
ReplyDeleteThere are some nice people about though. Level 80 Tauren Prot Warrior named Barack. Im on the EU realms so it's unlikely to be the man himself ;)
ReplyDeleteHe was Master Looter, VoA 25 Mammoth drops. He gets people to roll on armour first and then we roll on the mount. He goes, '1 sec will just check the rolls for double rollers / cheaters'. Then he goes 'Ok well, *name* you didn't do the 100-100 trick but you rolled 100 anyway, so congrats :D.' He gives loot, achievement dings, then everybody swarms the player outside as they mount up to take a look. Unfortunately I rolled a 3 >_> Talk about not-saving your good rolls up.
Totally agree with the drop thing though despite this more comforting story. :)
That is a great story. I know any IVV-led run would go pretty much the same way -- though depending on the loot master, he or she might get duped by 100-100. But then, there's a bunch of people willing to mention it, too.
ReplyDeleteBut any non-IVV-led run really depends on the leader. If it's someone in an established and respected guild (Cubicle Commandos come to mind), I've never heard of anything even remotely ninja-esque. But there are a few lesser known guilds I'm not sure about.
One nice thing on a small server, IVV players who lead Arch raids are getting us a reputation for fair loot distribution alongside CubComs and other respectable guilds. This makes me happy.