Cross realm is horrible for mounts...

[Vasaru]

Just because it phases random people into your game doesn't make it social.

Volitar gets it. Spot on, mate.

[Nelaphim-EX]

CRZ gives you the downsides of a high population server (Competition for resources, mobs, rare spawns, etc) without any of the benefits (easier to recruit for guilds, healthier auction house, more PUGs).

[Coconut]

Have you ever thought that maybe CRZ isn't the problem, but rare spawns themselves are?

Camping for rares fails to engage the player in any way. It's a boring, soulless experience that encourages and rewards unhealthy gaming habits, such as being up at night when there is less competition or camping for extended periods of time, lying to other players about spawns and timers to make them go away (happened to me in Cata while hunting Poseidus, although the guy was very transparent) and trying to game the system by logging after server restarts or abusing the group finder tool.

It's a source of frustration when you just barely miss the tag/kill, and it's short-term addictive without being a good motivator to resub.

It's really the sort of gameplay/world building element that looks cool to a designer or non-invested observer ("omg, it gives such depth to the world"; "hmm, but it is cool to have things that are mysterious and rare!"), but it's horrible to experience. Blizzard toned it down in MoP: Alani had a much more invested skyshard farm, the Warbringers were a competitive hunt with a much less frustrating spawn time (and world pvp around them strongly encouraged grouping), and Huolon had a short spawn time with a low personal drop rate, which kept the mount rare for a while and the rare interesting for longer and more people. I don't know what came over them choking us with rare spawns this time around.

If they like the idea, they should at least make them into bosses, so grouping is actually required. And they should make stuff like the Edge of reality personal spawns around the player (triggered by zone or activity), in a similar way to the Mage Tower runes - the idea and experience (which many players actually miss through realm hopping, having the mount simply mailed to them) is nice, but the camping simply sucks.

[TacoCatt]

Have you ever thought that maybe CRZ isn't the problem, but rare spawns themselves are?

Camping for rares fails to engage the player in any way. It's a boring, soulless experience that encourages and rewards unhealthy gaming habits, such as being up at night when there is less competition or camping for extended periods of time, lying to other players about spawns and timers to make them go away (happened to me in Cata while hunting Poseidus, although the guy was very transparent) and trying to game the system by logging after server restarts or abusing the group finder tool.

It's a source of frustration when you just barely miss the tag/kill, and it's short-term addictive without being a good motivator to resub.

It's really the sort of gameplay/world building element that looks cool to a designer or non-invested observer ("omg, it gives such depth to the world"; "hmm, but it is cool to have things that are mysterious and rare!"), but it's horrible to experience. Blizzard toned it down in MoP: Alani had a much more invested skyshard farm, the Warbringers were a competitive hunt with a much less frustrating spawn time (and world pvp around them strongly encouraged grouping), and Huolon had a short spawn time with a low personal drop rate, which kept the mount rare for a while and the rare interesting for longer and more people. I don't know what came over them choking us with rare spawns this time around.

If they like the idea, they should at least make them into bosses, so grouping is actually required. And they should make stuff like the Edge of reality personal spawns around the player (triggered by zone or activity), in a similar way to the Mage Tower runes - the idea and experience (which many players actually miss through realm hopping, having the mount simply mailed to them) is nice, but the camping simply sucks.

This is so true. The MoP world mounts were a great concept, and the WoD ones are good as well seeing as more than one person can tag when it spawns therefore it's more 'social' I guess since people tend to make groups and get people the tag rather than snagging it and teasing others that had camped it.
I think the world boss mounts are also good seeing as they have eliminated people ninja'ing them (even though their drop rate is so absurdly low).
CRZ is still a problem though even with the Wrath/Cata mount rares. It's even affecting the MoP world bosses now that with CRZ it's made it so if you want to tag Gall or Oon you HAVE to camp instead of being able to form a group when it spawns so that has become a lot less social since no one makes groups any more.
Also, if anyone wants proof of how CRZ has made the game worse than changing it for the better, make a Night Elf and quest in the starter area until you get the quest to kill the guy in the cave. Have fun competing with like 10 other people for a 5 min + respawn, with people constantly coming and going :/

[Coconut]

I think the world boss mounts are also good seeing as they have eliminated people ninja'ing them (even though their drop rate is so absurdly low).

I agree about the world bosses. I like the system, but the drop rate is absurd. Rewards ultimately exist to draw players into running the content. If the drop rate is so prohibitively low, most are just not going to bother (I have friends who won't even go after 1% mounts because they think they don't have a realistic chance of getting them, if I mention stuff like Sha it just makes them laugh). And there's nothing so special about an open tag world boss to warrant making its mount so rare. A higher chance would do a better job at keeping people invested and excited about that boss.

It's even affecting the MoP world bosses now that with CRZ it's made it so if you want to tag Gall or Oon you HAVE to camp instead of being able to form a group when it spawns so that has become a lot less social since no one makes groups any more.

I still find plenty of groups, but they're very rushy, often pulling as soon as they queued. You have to be prepared for them (CM teleports help, as well as having HS in Shrine), and be ready for disappointment if the group is more than 1-2 minutes old.

Also, if anyone wants proof of how CRZ has made the game worse than changing it for the better, make a Night Elf and quest in the starter area until you get the quest to kill the guy in the cave. Have fun competing with like 10 other people for a 5 min + respawn, with people constantly coming and going :/

Again, this is a problem with the quest mob, not CRZ. Spawn timers and/or tag system should account for more players being around. They do in new content, and will from now on. I'm sure this mob was a problem in early Cata as well, with players checking out the new old world quests, even without CRZ.

The system is not bad, as long they design content around it (Voidtalon is a major flub in this regard, the other rares have both positives and negatives with CRZ).

[TacoCatt]

You find groups because you are on a US or EU server (EU even has troubles as well), as I have stated before Oceanic people get two CRZ, one PvE and one PvP. We can't server hop like anyone else, we have to actually sit there and camp.

So for Oceanic people, where we literally have two instances, CRZ has affected us majorly and the lack of changed mobs makes everything much harder for us than other regions.

I wish we had more instances, I would love to be able to realm hop and cheese rare spawns/mounts. I hear all these stories of US people realm hopping to find mount rares and getting them within 30 minutes.
If only Oceanic people had it so easy

[Coconut]

I'm on EU, but it sounds like you have it rough. I totally sympathize. It might help looking for them later in the week, perhaps most farmers would have already finished with their kills by then (if you have the patience).

[Deleted]

Yes, its pretty messed up

[Xtrm]

And while this camping days upon days for a mount system seems to be the least popular, they brought it back for WoD... with like 6 mounts, yayyy?

[Justin-Sane]

And while this camping days upon days for a mount system seems to be the least popular, they brought it back for WoD... with like 6 mounts, yayyy?

Except that they've improved it and made it a million times easier. For instance, everyone that attacks the mount drop rares gets the mount and as for the voidtalon, once you have the mount, you can't enter the portal again. Not to mention with the group finder, you can hop realms to increase your chances. It's much easier to obtain the WoD rare mounts than the previous expac ones.

[ulethrsearch]

Very much. I can see how that would be frusterating.

[Kavoo]

I know that feel. Every single time I try to farm it all I see are little fuckers from other realms uuunnngghhhhhh

[Notes]

i think cross realm actually helps, by trolling the group finder ive been able to find all of WoD's rares except poundfist this week.

[Mosotti]

People complaining about spending a lot of time on a mount called "time lost"... Makes you wonder about the future of our species...

[TacoCatt]

People complaining about spending a lot of time on a mount called "time lost"... Makes you wonder about the future of our species...

People are complaining about the fact they have to spend more time that was originally intended for "Time-Lost" since instead of people from one realm there is now people from 10+ realms.

[goblingirl]

The best time to do these things is late in the xpac when most of the people on your own server have lost interest.

If you wait for the next xpac, they *will* instantly make the zones CRZ and the population level will increase 10x from what it was during late expansion.

In other words: anyone who wants the Voidtalon ought to be working on it later this year, instead of blowing it off until WoD is replace by the Next Xpac.

[Deleted]

That's why I don't even bother with TLPD and Aeonaxx. I never will as camping rare spawns for hours on end like you described isn't very compelling gameplay. In fact, that's like the worst gameplay possible. Even ET on Atari 2600 is more fun than rare mount camping.

I'm more concerned about Blizzard design directions in this expansion. They added 8 of those fucking camp mounts in WoD and they apparently embrace this idea with open arms. The idea of keeping your character hostage for hours and promoting unhealthy gaming habits.

I'm fine with losing out on 1-2 mounts like this per expansion. But God forbid them from making every nice mount to be a campfest. Please, this gameplay is fucking horseshit.

[goblingirl]

Esubane, I do some camping for things, but it's always while I'm working. I work in a home office so having my toon logged in on my other PC, stealthed and waiting for NPCscan to ding is no big thing. Meanwhile I am happily working away, just sometimes I forget to hit the spacebar periodically and find myself accidentally logged out for inactivity.

I honestly don't know how anyone can stand it otherwise. I know some people watch tv/movies or read books while they camp, and that could keep one busy. I could never just sit there and stare at the game though, I would go absolutely insane.