drop-rate
Latest
Lei Shen will always drop Titan Runestones
WoW Insider posted yesterday about one PvE loot-related hotfix that didn't make the main list for the most recent server restart, and now we have another to inform you of. Blizzard Community Manager Rygarius posted the following over on the official forums: Rygarius Hello there. We agree and feel that Titan Runestones drop too rarely. We are going to make some changes to Lei Shen. For players that are on the legendary quest line, Lei Shen will now always drop a Titan Runestone. This is similar to what we did with rare drops in the past and will help players that have been experiencing really bad luck. This change is still undergoing testing and is scheduled to take effect next Tuesday with the raid resets. source Keep in mind that this Titan Runestone 100% drop chance is in addition to the drop chance from all the other bosses, so it's not simply a case of farming Lei Shen for the number of Runestones you need. You could get lucky! What's not clear is whether Lei Shen will drop one in both LFR and normal/heroic raids, so whether players could guarantee two Runestones a week by killing him on both difficulties. It seems relatively likely that that might be the case, but that's no guarantee.
The Daily Grind: Bow to the RNG
If you were ever pressed to come up with three letters that defined MMORPGs more than anything else (other than, y'know, "MMO"... or "RPG"), chances are you'd be dithering between "PUG" and "RNG." Man, we gamers like our acronyms, don't we? Just one more step toward that militaristic online state! The RNG -- random number generator -- is that tiny unseen subroutine that basically decides whether you're going to get phat lewts or not, whether you're going to hit a mob or miss, and whether the game will have downtime on the one day that week during which you have free to play. Some people swear fealty to the RNG, bowing to it above all. Some curse its very existence, for it has driven lesser people mad from its fickle nature. So when have you been royally worked over by the random number generator, even though statistically you should have succeeded long before? When did the RNG gods favor you by dropping a major blessing in your lap on the very first try? And what games are you certain have a mean-spirited RNG that try to do everything in its power to drive players insane?
Drop rate of Big Love Rocket not a bug
Some concerns have been expressed recently over the abysmally low drop rate of the Big Love Rocket. The drop rate was thought to be lower than 1-2% and Bornakk chimed in on the forums to confirm it. I'm not much of a big mount fanatic myself. The only rare one I have is the Obsidian Drake mount from Sartharion with 3 Drakes up. Now that I think about it though, I have yet to see anyone in Dalaran ride around with one of these rockets. As it stands, the drop rate of this rocket mount will not be raised anytime in the near future. Heck, even if they did, I know with my luck I would never see one of these. If you're curious, as of today, there have only been 74 players with the Big Love Rocket Feat of Strength across North America and Europe. North America has seen 17 Big Love Rockets compared to the 54 for European players. if you want to read more about drop chance and probability, check out Brian's post about it back in January. It's guaranteed to make your head spin!
Drop chance probability
Probability is a greatly misunderstood area of math that impacts most areas of WoW gameplay, but none so intensely debated as drop chances. You don't have to be a math expert to want to know how many times you need to kill a boss to have even odds of seeing that drop you're seeking. Unfortunately everyone seems to be saying something different about how probability works. If you hope to get the rare Deathcharger's Reins mount from Baron Rivendare for example, we know that it has a 1% drop chance. That means that every time you kill the Black Baron you have a 1% chance of getting the mount. 1% on the first kill, and 1% on the 100th kill. However, over the course of 100 kills, you have a much higher probability of getting the mount. But not 100%. Never 100%. Join me after the cut where we take a friendly and gentle look at understanding probability, and give you a cool tool to automatically calculate drop probabilities for you!
Shadowfrost Shard drop rates are actually pretty good
People who were worried that creating Shadowmourne, the legendary two-handed axe, would be double the grind that Val'anyr was might want to relax a little, as the official WoW Armory just clued us in as to where and how often the Shadowfrost Shards necessary to craft it drop. As per the quest The Splintered Throne, you're required to collect 60 of the little buggers, and from the site, it appears that they're around a 25-50% drop rate off of all bosses except Arthas in the 25-man version of Icecrown Citadel on normal mode and a 50-100% chance off of the Heroic versions of the same bosses. All in all, not bad. It'll still be a, well, legendary process to get your axe crafted, but at least you won't need to suffer through awful drop rates to make it happen. Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
The long wait for a Green Proto-drake
The WoW CMs continue their polling of rare and hard-to-find items: first, we got queried on Mr. Pinchy, and now the forums have a poll about that more recent bounty, the Reins of the Green Proto-drake. As you probably already know, you have to first get revered with the Murloc faction of the Oracles, and then you have to buy a "Mysterious Egg" once every seven days from their quartermaster... that probably hasn't yet given you the mount you want. Personally, I've gotten plenty of Aged Yolks and quite a few noncombat pets, but not my Proto-drake.And my experience is hardly singular -- according to the poll, a full 55% of respondents have not yet opened up their Cracked Eggs to find the mount. 4% found it on their first try (bastards -- that number seems incredibly high), and almost 14% went for the joke "Oracles?" answer, or maybe just have no idea what the question is about. Obviously this is hardly a scientific poll, so we can't calculate drop rates or anything like that (most database sites put the drop at around 2%, which means on average 50 eggs to a drake, or almost a year of farming), but it's pretty clear that the Proto-drake is a supremely rare commodity.
How to get the Turtle mount
We're listening in to your replies on Twitter about what you're all planning to do when you log into 3.1 for the first time, and an astounding number of people are planning to go for the fishing mount. Yes, despite the fact that everything Blizzard has told us points to the Turtle mount obtained via fishing being extremely rare, lots of players are after it anyway. We've decided, then, to wish you luck. And to help you out, we'll give you a few tips that just might help make the almost assuredly long, boring, clicking grind bearable.1. Learn to fish (and cook). If you're going to be fishing for the mount, you might as well learn to fish and cook while you do it. The mount itself drops from fishing pools in Northrend, so if all you're doing is going for those, it'll take you a little longer to level than just sitting in Stormwind and leveling fishing (which you can definitely do), but you might as well up your profession while you do it. El's Angling is the guide of choice -- follow it closely and you'll be 450 Fishing/Cooking in no time.2. Find Fish. If you follow El's guide, you'll figure this out along the line, but even if you've already leveled fishing, you'll definitely want to make sure you've got the Find Fish ability, obtained from the Weather-Beaten Journal, which you get from -- you guessed it -- fishing. This will help you find fish pools on the minimap tracker, and since you need to fish in pools in Northrend to get the mount, it'll be a huge help, if not invaluable.
Seeking the Time-Lost Proto Drake
I don't know if we've mentioned this before, but even if we have, it's interesting enough to put out there again, I think. There is a dragon in the expansion that can be soloed, and drops a epic flying mount at 100% drop rate -- all you've got to do is find him. A few people have already nabbed the mount, and lots more are on the hunt right now. The mob in question is the Time-Lost Proto Drake: it's a rare elite spawn (but as I said, it's possible to solo it, especially at level 80) that shows up every six hours or so flying around the Storm Peaks. Unfortunately, none of the usual suspects have maps of where he's been seen yet, but we're hearing it's around the southern part of the zone. When he goes down, he'll drop the mount, a good chunk of gold, some Frostweave, and a random enchantment Talisman.An interesting tactic on Blizzard's part -- on the one hand, this is definitely a big change from the huge questlines and rep grind from the netherdrakes: just kill this one dragon and you're guaranteed the mount. On the other hand, the rare spawn rate, and the fact that it is a 100% drop rate means there'll be a lot of competition, at first anyway, for the kill. But the good news is that the odds will only get better -- if you're willing to do some dragon hunting for a few hours and have some keen eyes for what's in the air, you could pick up one of the coolest flying mounts yet.
Buying your way through raid content
There's a new game in town, and Artirius of the Aerie Peak server has noticed it, and admittedly, so have I. With attunements gone, it is now possible for any level 70 to go in and see tier 5 and 6 content whenever they want. Of course, they don't generally have a prayer of actually downing bosses unless they have 20-24 well geared people to help them out. That's where gold comes in. With a few thousand gold, you can buy your way into a tier 6 group that doesn't need the tier 6 armor and go along for the ride. A few hours later, you come out on the other end with Illidan dead and a few shiny new drops, even if you've never set foot in Karazhan. It's not just people trying to buy these slots in the trade channel either. As Artirius observes, many raid groups are actively soliciting for buyers for their raid slots. On my own server, one Horde group is trading tier 6 runs for large quantities of certain herbs, promising that all but a few select drops will go to the people who buy their slots with stacks of Netherbloom and Ghost Mushrooms. So what's causing this?
Bornakk: Next Blizzcast to include talk on the status of badge loot in WoTLK
One of the biggest and most successful features of Burning Crusade has been the inclusion of Badges of Justice. Especially in 2.4, these badges have allowed even relatively casual players to get their hands on gear that comes close to the same stuff raiders are able to pull out of end game instances. While the system seems to have been mostly a success, there's still some question as to how it will evolve in WoTLK. The current 2.4 badge loot seems to have been created in part to allow a smoother gear transition between BC and WoTLK for both casuals and ubers, with badges dropping out of 10-man instances and the most powerful badge gear yet. But the question is, will this continue in WoTLK? Will we see badges off of Naxxramas' 10-man version (perhaps earning it the name Badgeramas)? Will we see loot purchasable from a Dalaran vendor that will be comparable to what raiders are pulling out of Icecrown Glacier? Or will they dial it back, or maybe not even include the badge loot system at all?
Killing ogres and feeling like a jerk
I wrote about dropping Mining to take up Enchanting, and I'd like everyone to know it's going fine. I'm now at 357, being patient with the last few points to 360, opting to sell enchantments and save what little money I have after blowing quite a bit on all the materials up to 300+. Of course, now I feel somewhat compelled to acquire Enchanting formulas just so I have more options to use as I level up. The tips are a nice bonus.Anyway, one of the formulas I wanted to go after was the Formula: Enchant Bracer - Spellpower, which drop off the Bloodmaul Geomancers in Blade's Edge Mountains. So off I go to kill these ogres, I figure it'll take maybe an hour of so of farming. Easy, right? Well, what I didn't expect was that these ogres still paid fealty to me after I completed the chain of quests to unlock the quests in Ogri'la. I didn't make much of all the yelling those fatties did when they made me king, but since I didn't bother going around Blade's Edge much after that, I didn't notice that the Bloodmaul had turned yellow, or neutral, towards me. So it took me by surprise that upon killing these ogres, they say mortifying things like, "Me honored, King kill me," or "King <name>, me die now."Thanks a lot, Blizzard. Now I feel like a total jerk. These ogres consider me (and I'm sure millions of other players... but anyway...) their king and now I'm cutting them down like some maniacal despot. They also reference Ogri'la, which is kind of like paradise to them and a Blizzard reference to the Utopian haven of Shangri-La. It's heart-wrenching when they keel over saying, "King really think... there is... an Ogri'la?" or "Me go to... Ogri'la." It's like having some distant friend with Down Syndrome die in your arms with dreams of shiny, happy places. It's tragic. I know, it's a silly video game, and I'm not even on an RP server. But still, you have to wonder how you can keep killing those who consider you their king. After a while of killing and not getting the formula to drop, I called it a night and took a break. I probably shouldn't feel so bad. After all, if I'm truly their king, why don't they just hand over the stupid formula?
The Truth About Drop Rates
If you've ever participated in a raid, you've heard countless theories about what rules over loot drops. Perhaps the drops are decided by the class of the first player who enters the instance? Or the raid leader? Well, every time such rumors are posted around the forums, Blizzard denies that there's any system to it, saying that loot drops are completely random. Kylindra of Cenarion Circle server has put together a good write-up on drop rates and explains that "random" drops and fair drops aren't always the same thing.
