Useless mobs?

WoW Classic WoW Classic General Discussion
1

I’ve often wondered if there are any mobs in the game that have no use at all. I’m not talking about unique mobs that may have been for unfinished quests, but mobs like a boar or wolf that roam an area in numbers.

Are there any mobs in the game that have no use at all? They drop no trade items, no notable worthwhile items, aren’t a quest objective and drop no quest items? Mobs that are just there as filler?

I’m sure there must be at least one that has no use…

2

That is a very interesting question. What do you mean by “notable worthwhile item”? As in a white item that has some purpose other than vendor and can be sold on AH?
It is rather easy to think of mobs that don’t participate in any quest and don’t drop any “high value” item. But I can’t think of one that drops nothing useful at all, outside of some unskinnable critters.

1 Like
3

Any mob has a chance to drop green items, except of lowlevel critters

4

Only critters, but that’s probably not what you mean. Every non-critter at the very least they give you XP at level. And as Businkaa says:

This also includes bags and the Red/Green Winter Hat during Winter Veil :wink: … and other zone- or world drops.

5

This is an interesting question. We are looking for a mob that:

  1. Is in the open world
  2. Is not a direct objective for any quest and isn’t spawned because of a quest
  3. Does not drop gold or expensive grey junk at a rate that would make farming it even remotely reasonable
  4. Does not consistently drop profession items
  5. Does not consistently drop useful consumables, like Blasted Lands mobs / Winterspring Eko
  6. Is not used by any class for specific purposes (e.g. hunter pets, rogue pitpocketing)
  7. Is not a critter (which are by definition cosmetic)
  8. Is not a “minor mob” (I am talking about small mobs that give [almost] no exp, have little health and usually accompany bigger mobs as pets)
  9. Appears in large quantities and is not rare / unique
  10. Does not yield reputation

This automatically excludes almost everything because each creature category always drops something valuable:

  • humanoids drop gold and cloth
  • beasts drop meat and are usually skinnable
  • dragonkin drop gold / cloth / meat or can be skinned, depending on the mob
  • mechanical mobs drop engineering mats
  • giants are either unique mobs or elites that drop valuable loot
  • undead drop cloth / gold / food / bait. If an undead is not humanoid, it usually drops other stuff (ooze bags from oozelings, meat / skins from plagued mobs)
  • demons are either of the “humanoid” type and therefore drop gold and cloth, or they are “beasts” (felhound) or “minor mobs” (imps)
  • elemental mobs drop baluable profession items on high levels

Luckily, WoWHead has a useful tool for this. Only a dozen non-unique/rare/boss entities from the open world that are not quest objectives drop no gold:

  1. Uncategorised:
  • Wavethrasher: lvl 52-53 unspecified mob in Azshara. This hydra drops clams and fish and is also skinnable. :x:
  1. Undead:
  • None :x:
  1. Mechanical:
  • None :x:
  1. Humanoid:
  • Scarlet Trooper: level 58-59 elite from Eastern Plaguelands. However, still can be pickpocketed; also escorts the scarlet courier quest mob :x:
  1. Demon:
  • Burning Blade Nightmare: level 40 demonic Horse in Desolace. Does not drop anything, gives normal experience, cannot be skinned. Looks like a candidate, but only exists in 1 secluded place in relatively limited quantities. Whether or not it suits your definition of “useless”, you decide :+1:
  • Infernal Sentry: level 52-53 infernal in Felwood. Drops various profession mats and demonic runes :x:
  1. Dragonkin:
  • None :x:
  1. Beasts of unspecified type:
  • Sand shark: level 12-13 elite that only drops grey items and 1 white fish. However it clearly surves a purpose of scaring players away from swimming far into the ocean in Durotar, so I wouldn’t call it useless :x:
  • Sky Shadow: the lvl 55-56 Deadwind Pass vulture. Not skinnable and technically not a bird, but still drops bird loot :x:
  • Captured Stallion: a mob entirely similar to Burning Blade Nightmare :+1:
  1. Elementals:
  • I manually checked them all and they always drop profession materials :x:
  1. Giants:
  • None :x:

I have searched a lot. It is possible that I skipped something, but it seems that your best guess is the Desolace horses

6 Likes
6

Sky Shadows was actually my first guess from the top of my head when I saw this thread. But I checked it drops usual bird loot like wings and eggs and plumes which technically serve a purpose. Hence why my first reply was about what constitutes a “worthwhile item”.

Anyway, what an excellent effort post. Thumbs up.

1 Like
7

From Horde perspective. The giraffes and hyenas in Barrens come to mind? Raptors in dustwallow around the cave for cortellos riddle are just in the way. The ogres in burning steppes on the mountain where you find I forgot her name’s remains are just in the way as well. Most of the animals in Desolace are just filling. Although most animals drop items you can cook so they might not fit the list, not giraffes tho, as far as I know they drop nothing usable other than random greens/blues that every mob can drop, ignoring that they can be skinned :slight_smile:

they were rumored to be part of a questline for the warlock mount but were dropped in the end, so made pointless :slight_smile: it’s a nice area to discover, has a weird atmosphere

1 Like
8

I didn’t know that. Makes sense since they’re precisely level 40. I guess it doesn’t qualify then since it’s a mob associated with a removed / unfinished quest

9

U? That was from chatgpt…
Or did chatgpt also say that he searched a lot? :sweat_smile::joy:

10

Yeah trolls on gnome airport beside ironforge. 0 exp and loot😅

2 Likes
11

I can’t think of any.

There are plenty of mobs that don’t feature in any quests and just serve as wondering threats or flavour - but all have at least some minimal functionality, even if it’s just some meat that they occasionally drop, or can be skinned, drop a few coins, or can serve as Hunter pets.

12

I believe i have a contender:

"Ghoul"s in the Moonbrook graveyard in Westfall. They are a part of no quests, have no useful drop table. They occasionally drop healing pots and greens but no more than any other mob - they have the absolute basic generic drop table that any other mob would have. There is no real reason to kill or farm them.

They are only there temporarily at night time, and were likely added just as a flavour mob.

2 Likes
13

I have one, there is a quest that is given by Chromie in WPL. You need to go to the house near Araj and click a book. When you click the wrong book, a Ghoul will spawn like the one you posted. It drops absolutely nothing, not even lootable. It even puts a curse on you if i’m not mistaken.

1 Like
14

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.