I hope this post finds you well. I wanted to share my recent experience and concerns regarding a particular aspect of the game that has been bothering me. I’m currently on a quest to obtain a rare mount for a solo world exploration role-playing experience.
The gameplay involves a rather tedious process of being AFK for 40 minutes at a time, waiting for a sound notification, hitting a button, re-logging to another character, and repeating. With a mere 0.2% drop rate and a respawn timer ranging from 20 to 60 minutes, this translates to a staggering 266 hours of AFK time – all the while competing with countless other players.
While I appreciate the challenge presented in obtaining the mount, the current method feels not only arduous but also unhealthy. If we were to consider the Achievement and Gameplay as a feature in a new game, it’s hard to believe any game designer would intentionally implement such an experience.
My concern lies in the fact that this seems like a flawed design, justified solely by the notion of “it’s like that because it always has been.” What surprises me even more is the apparent lack of complaints on these forums about this issue.
I would like to pose a question, perhaps more directed towards the Support/Developers: Is this the intended gameplay for your paying customers? If not, can we expect this problem to be addressed or prevented in the future?
The response to this question will greatly influence my decision on whether to continue my subscription, as I feel somewhat exploited for investing in my character. I believe open communication about these concerns is crucial for the betterment of the WoW community.
Thank you for your understanding and consideration.
I honestly wouldn’t recommend new players to become collectors at this point, literally almost two decades of stuff to collect to very low drop rates locked behind daily/weekly chances at… and as you mentioned the long respawn times for “Rares” for a chance of such drops.
It’s literally beyond overwhelming.
Instead I recommend just focusing on what you like the appearance of, and what you want to get.
I don’t mind low chances for stuff, but I do draw the line of “Rares” [people are so fixated on that word ‘rare’…] having very long respawn times AND low drop rates. “Rares” [Let’s call them Unique mobs…] shouldn’t have a respawn time of more than 10 minutes tbh… just the idea of paying to literally idle waiting for things to spawn is beyond absurd.
Yeah, give up on collecting unless you have no life beside the game. last time it was possible by playing “normally” to get all mounts / achievements in the game was during WotLK, after that AVs and mounts etc. just exploded and became impossible to “complete”. You just need to pick what you really like and go for that, otherwise the game will only cause you stress.
How the loot system works in general is rather frustrating. It’s not just raremobs and mounts, even gear has a low drop chance - you can either be lucky and get it first try or be unlucky and “never” get it. They should switch the direct drops to a currency that actually is the same for everybody and let players purchase “loot” from a vendor, but I’m afraid that will never happen because all of the “luck” junkies who can only see their endorphine rush when they actually get lucky for once.
I disagree. Here is a fabulous great big collection you can work on as and when you wish.
I recently had a guildie come to me wanting to start collecting. You don’t start a new player off on the long afk wait spawns which are frankly beyond boring. You let them start on the easier farmable stuff first.
I haven’t even done some of those awful long afk get lucky farms. Never put me off collecting on the whole though. There has been a reasonable amount of criticism with the long rare spawns. They aren’t fun.
Let’s take Breezebiter for example (or whatever he’s called):
1-2 hour random respawn timer
Spawns at what’s now the Dig event in Azure Span
3% chance to drop the mount
Like, the chances of obtaining this thing are ridiculously low.
And yes, I’d love to get my paws on it for roleplay purposes, but being realistic, the chances of this happening are basically zero.
I’d rather have the mounts hidden behind quests, achievements like finding all rares in a zone or some quest chain that requires you to collect stuff, e.g the Otto mount and the other slyverwing are great examples on how to do these mounts correctly.
Some games are designed with collector gameplay where you’re supposed to be able to get everything because the collectibles are limited. Others are designed to give a much wider range of collectables with a variety of methods of collection. WoW is the latter type - you’re not supposed to collect everything.
I appreciate your thoughts on collectibles in games. However, I want to clarify that my goal isn’t mere collection; it’s driven by a desire for a role-playing experience with a mount that perfectly suits my character. To emphasize, think of it like this: What if it were a stunning grand new zone instead of a mount, accessible to only 0.2% of randomly selected players.
My concern is centered around the unhealthy AFK gameplay involved. The current method, akin to a gambling/lottery approach, feels counterproductive. I believe challenging gameplay can be achieved without promoting extensive AFK sessions.
I’m not advocating for an easy acquisition but rather a more engaging and healthy gaming experience. Let’s discuss how we can enhance the gameplay for all.
Yeah, camping and having a low chance shot at drops is a horrible, unfun gameplay - don’t do it - it’s that simple.
It’s designed to keep bad players busy (as well as some good players during downtime). It’s not a main source of WoW entertainment - it’s also toxic and frustrating.
It’s literally there to keep you occupied with this vibe of lootboxes etc. Just don’t.
What I do on mounts that are on a rare spawn timer (currently Nerissa is the project) is simply load up another game and have WoW up on my 2nd screen while playing the other game on the main screen. Both Football Manager and Rimworld are excellent here as they take minimal pc power and can be paused easily for when I need to switch to WoW.
If you didn’t notice, most of WoW content is basically gambling with bells and whistles. You want gear - play the gambling drop from bosses/GV game. You want collect something - same gamble from rares/bosses/other activities. Even most of currencies are dropped with a random amount. There is very few 100% determined stuff in the game. Random is the very core of the game.
I understand your point about randomness being a core element of WoW, but my concern specifically addresses the tedious nature of the AFK gameplay in pursuit of particular goals. While tradition is important, it shouldn’t be a justification for maintaining a gameplay experience that feels outdated and unengaging.
I agree, AFK gaming is not a good design. But it is very rare AFK. If you hunt some rare - you do realm hopping, army of alts on different servers and so on. Sometimes rares have some schedule under the hood, which is researched by community.
As an example, in DF mount are dropped by two rares - Breezebiter and Karokta. I did Breezerbite within 2 evenings with realm hop. Do a fly around the area with target macro spam → apply for auto invite group in group finder → another fly with macro → leave the group and go into another → rinse and repeat. Karokta have a very defined drop schedule - could be looted only once in 4 days. Every killing day it was very easy to find rare killing group in group finder or do another realm hopping and kill it in 10 minutes. For her I needed around 40 kills to get the mount. I believe chance on wowhead is not counted right, because data polluted with kills without waiting drop “reset” every 4 days.
I collect many things - I have the 500 mount achievement after all. I’m not saying collecting isn’t important, just that not everything should be easily collectible.
WoW has RP elements and they are important, but it’s not an out-and-out RP focused game. If it was, we wouldn’t run dungeons / raids more than once, or kill the same World Boss every week. And we’d delete every character that died.
What you are asking for is WoW to be a different type of game to the one it is. That’s a legitimate position to take, but to quote the wise one “that’s just, like, your opinion, man”.
I agree that this game design is degenerate so I don’t participate.
I have Invincible and Ashes (still running Dragon Soul every week for that Blazing Drake that seems impossible to get - been doing this for years). But I feel like I’m playing the game when I run an old raid. I stick on a Podcast and run through it, DS takes me ~45 mins as I alt tab out during the RP and browse the forums.
I don’t have Sha mount nor any of its ilk. I don’t feel like I’m playing a game waiting for a respawn.
I am doing the Going to Need a Bigger Bag achievement though, I plant an alt on Timeless Isle and log in to it a few times a day. Currently killing a rare called Jaka-something or other for an item I can’t even remember just now - I know it when I see it.
I cope with this level of farming as I just log in, if the rare is thare I kill it, if not I log out and go do something else.
The problem with the Sha is I can’t do this as the Sha dies almost as soon as he spawns so the chance of him being there when I logged in would be so close to 0 that it isn’t worth trying this approach.
I would suggest that if this gameplay does not fit with your playstyle even with podcasts or netflix then you probably shouldn’t do it. None of these mounts are so uniquely special as to be worth it. The Sha drops a cloud serpent and tehre are a bunch of those that are basically the same.
