Another commenter said:
holiday mounts should be purchased with that holiday's currency.
Which made me think. I'm not sure that I 100% agree, but I'm drawn toward the idea of a reachable goal.
On the one hand, holiday mounts would be less rare.
On the other, no one said they had to be cheap. I could get behind a currency grind that lasted more than one or even two years. And maybe add some other requirements, such as a BOU drop sellable on the AH that starts a quest chain (like the Battered Hilt, only mount-ish).
Just something to help the players who don't want to grind the whole week only to lose the roll to some random pugged moron.
At the very least, if they were to hypothetically put the mounts out as available for currency, grinding the marks for one should prevent a player from doing anything else for that holiday (and they should make that hurt by, like, offering cheaper collector's items that people trying to stack their numbers would prefer).
They could also, since they like putting new things into holidays, work on Super-Meta achievements with the mounts as the prize. Brewfest would be weird, but whatever -- it's brainstorming, not rocket science.
In the end, I like it for me because I like the holiday mounts and my alliance characters can't con 5 people into giving me their, like, 15 main and alt summons like my horde characters can. And even if I could on alliance, I couldn't ask after they helped me with the phoenix. They'd help, but I'd feel greedy.
Also in the end, changing the way you get holiday mounts would kind of suck for the people who already got them.
Of course, we hate those people because they have holiday mounts and we don't.
Ah well. There are plenty of debates to be had on the "rare mount" front, but I'm not particularly interested in arguing. I just thought it was an interesting, thought-provoking comment and wonder if you think the same -- could there be a more generous way to offer these mounts without handing them out like candy? Also, do you think Blizz will up the holiday mount drop rate with everyone clamoring for it?
Personally, the stress levels involved in grinding every day and hoping I win a roll isn't worth it, even once we get the holiday bosses in LFG. The only way I'd have a shot is if they changed the way you get these things. Thus, I'd support a change for myself and won't pretend it's anything more charitable than that.
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Anything that takes more than one year won't work because people will start complain that they can't do it this year. See "brew of the year".
ReplyDeleteAnything that makes it impossible to get everything in one year won't work because people will start to complain about that. See the hotfixed extended brewfest duration last year.
People want their stuff NOW. Without work. They want to finish WoW although the goal of WoW is not to be finished but to waste time.
And about the battered hilt. That was one of the biggest bullshit moves Blizzard did. They invested quite some time in creating an interesting quest line, which 99% of the players will never see. How stupid. Sunwell all over again.
The correct way to do it would be to make it a 100% drop in an instance. Everyone can start the quest chain. Then, the last part will ask you for [Vendor Item Something] which a vendor in Dalaran will charge you 10k gold. (That item could, in addition, also drop in a heroic with a very low drop rate.) Yes, the weapon would still be a little bit special as not everyone would be able to afford one for every alt.
Advantages:
- Everyone interested could do the quest chain without paying 20k on the AH.
- No more grieving like vote kicking the non guild members when it dropps.
Ah, on topic, I would love to buy this stuff.
ReplyDeleteEspecially the pets like the slime thing and the Scorchling which I didn't get.
That's another thought. Holiday currency plus 10 or 20 thousand gold. That would definitely keep them rare.
ReplyDeleteGot my Violet Proto-drake with my last Elder this year, and while it tides me over, I'm still pissed that over 100 kills of Hummel resulted in a grand total of 0 drops of that damn mount and 0 drops of the pet. And I'm not someone with 10k gold to throw around.
ReplyDeleteI'd rather they increase the drop rate ever so slightly so that I can see it if nothing else. I don't have to win the roll (though that would be nice), but I want to see it drop if I'm going to spend that much time killing the same guy over and over again.
I think it's awesome that there are things in the game that are nearly impossible to get. It makes getting them a big deal. I mean, I don't mind that there are varying degrees of difficulty. Some things maybe requiring grinding a profession to 450, getting an exalted reputation and 15K gold. Other things requiring just a very low probablity RNG drop, others maybe a higher drop rate. How to maintain the balance between "getting cool stuff" and "keeping cool stuff special" must be a continual headache for Blizz.
ReplyDeleteI do think the trend to handing out mounts as rewards for activities players engage in just as a matter of course as they do their thing is tipping towards "meh, another mount." But at the same time, maybe it's just that I see all these potential mounts people could be racking up and it looks like a lot. Personally, as someone who hasn't raided regularly, the only "special" mount I have is the bronze protodrake. So how would I really know? Maybe most of them are harder to get than I give credit for
And I never use my Bronze Protodrake. The flying carpet is cool. I fly that on various whims. Otherwise, I'm in bird form. :)
ReplyDeleteThat's the other problem. All these mounts mean nothing to druids.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't say they mean nothing, exactly. Like I say, I use my flying carpet because I think it's cool. If I were to get a cool enough mount, I'd use that instead of bird form. There aren't many that cool though. Ashes of A'lar. That's about it.
ReplyDeleteSpeed is worthwhile though. Since epic flight form speed is increased if you have one of the super-duper fast mounts, getting one would be awesome for a druid. Even just stabled, it makes flight form better. It's the main reason I'm going to get the violet proto-drake.
And land mounts move faster than druid forms, so rare land mounts are awesome. And there are a lot of rare land mounts that are more cool looking than travel form.
My druid had the Netherwing reputation at max but I only got a drake month later when I needed "any" flying mount to do the Ogri'la bombing run for the x-mas achievement where you have to do it from a reindeer. I was up and noticed that you can't turn the crow into a reindeer and I didn't have a single flying mount.
ReplyDeleteThe epic druid flight form is so awesome, I never used anything else.
A week ago I got the violet proto-drake and flight form should now be 310%. Why would I use that drake?
And if the travel form would be 100% speed increase, I would stop using my winterspring tiger.
But of course, if you prefer a flying mount, that's fine with me. :) Let me change my statement:
That's the other problem. All these mounts mean nothing to MY druid. :)