Vanity rewards from Island Expedition

[Zyrinx]

This feature is hopeless, as implemented.

Weekly RNG + Island RNG (invasion) + super duper hidden loot chance RNG.

With the clearest path to "victory" actively reducing your odds.

That there is some ace design. Garbage.

[Jodmos]

This feature is hopeless, as implemented.

Weekly RNG + Island RNG (invasion) + super duper hidden loot chance RNG.

With the clearest path to "victory" actively reducing your odds.

That there is some ace design. Garbage.

Can't argue with that. I stopped my recurring sub (Still a couple of months for them to fix this for me) as I've gotten bored with this expansion really really fast (I don't raid or PVP). This would seem to be something aimed at me as a pet/mount/transmog collector but I'm not paying for something were the frustration levels for not getting anything over and over far outweigh any sense of accomplishment from actually getting something. And it will only get worse as more and more is added. I don't mind grinds but these are far too random. If I kill LK I know I've a chance at the mount I want. Do an Island expedition and you have practically no chance of even seeing a mob that drops the mount you want unless it's the main mob for an island that week and even then odds are against you getting that island

RNG - What island (appears to have some affect on some loot drops)
RNG - What main mobs is
RNG - What other mobs are on island
RNG - What rares are on island
RNG - What the invasion is
RNG - Whether you even get loot (dubloons and rep/quests aren't loot)

[Daveon]

This feature is hopeless, as implemented.

Weekly RNG + Island RNG (invasion) + super duper hidden loot chance RNG.

With the clearest path to "victory" actively reducing your odds.

That there is some ace design. Garbage.

I did a whole bunch of them the last few days. At least it seems that most people now understand that mining azerite deposits is bad and that killing rares, humanoids, and uncommon animals gives you a better chance at loot than just killing everything in sight.
Most people I was randomly matched with appeared to be trying for loot (or just "followed the leader" and attacked what they did).

There are still a few people that go straight for the azerite elementals when they spawn, hopefully Blizz will follow through and have varied spawns at that point instead of always the azerite.

But yes, I don't understand how they could have designed it so that the best way to try for loot is to delay the victory as long as possible to get the invasion to spawn and be able to kill as much of the invasion as possible.

[Zyrinx]

Can't argue with that. I stopped my recurring sub (Still a couple of months for them to fix this for me) as I've gotten bored with this expansion really really fast (I don't raid or PVP). This would seem to be something aimed at me as a pet/mount/transmog collector but I'm not paying for something were the frustration levels for not getting anything over and over far outweigh any sense of accomplishment from actually getting something. And it will only get worse as more and more is added. I don't mind grinds but these are far too random. If I kill LK I know I've a chance at the mount I want. Do an Island expedition and you have practically no chance of even seeing a mob that drops the mount you want unless it's the main mob for an island that week and even then odds are against you getting that island

RNG - What island (appears to have some affect on some loot drops)
RNG - What main mobs is
RNG - What other mobs are on island
RNG - What rares are on island
RNG - What the invasion is
RNG - Whether you even get loot (dubloons and rep/quests aren't loot)

I agree with you 100%. I play (played? not sure if I play anymore...) just like you. Islands should have been our content, man! But no - they royally fucked up the implementation and are actively fucking up the easy solution to the first fuckup (8.1's stupid implementation of the dubloon vendor).

Who the hell is deciding this shit over there? It makes me wonder.

[Jodmos]

I agree with you 100%. I play (played? not sure if I play anymore...) just like you. Islands should have been our content, man! But no - they royally fucked up the implementation and are actively fucking up the easy solution to the first fuckup (8.1's stupid implementation of the dubloon vendor).

Who the hell is deciding this shit over there? It makes me wonder.

The funny thing is if they kept it as is but dropped more dubloons and put everything on vendors for reasonable prices (1000 for a mount is way to much at current drop rates if everything else was also available) this would pretty much solve the frustration as you KNOW that you can get what you want with perseverance.

Their fix doesn't fix anything other than making people more annoyed at them for not even understanding the complaint.

[Coconut]

The funny thing is if they kept it as is but dropped more dubloons and put everything on vendors for reasonable prices (1000 for a mount is way to much at current drop rates if everything else was also available) this would pretty much solve the frustration as you KNOW that you can get what you want with perseverance.

Their fix doesn't fix anything other than making people more annoyed at them for not even understanding the complaint.

The drop rates are the ultimate issue here. The hidden loot rules could be viewed as clever and encouraging exploration, and actively farming something can be more engaging than grinding currency up to a certain point. But the low drop rates are so discouraging it hardly seems worth pursuing. Here's hoping the rates are decent in heroic/mythic and the change to events in 8.1 will make it possible to see invasions there.

[Nathure]

Based on this https://wow.gamepedia.com/File:Islan...e_Menu_(2).jpg it seems we could have Mogu themed island.
Anyone remember if we had it at some point already?

No, we never had one islands with mogu being native, but they can appear as natives in the ice island (dread chain). Just as sauroks can appear at the rotting mire but they never made it.

If anyone is interested i keep track of islands rotation, here what he had so far, only one week missing info:

Week 1 (14~21 August):
Skittering hollow with kobolds
The dread chain with kvaldir
Un'gol ruins with quilboars

Week 2 (21~28 August):
Rotting mire with jinyu
Verdant Wilds with keepers of the grove
Whispering Reef with murlocs

Week 3 (28 August ~~ 4 september):
Molten Cay with trolls
Skiterring hollow with kobolds
Un'gol ruins with quilboars

Week 4 (4~11 September): Can't find the archive
Skiterring Hollow with nerubians ?
?
?

Week 5: (11~18 September: drops buffed
Dread Chain with ice trolls
Whispering reef with nagas
Verdant Wilds with druids of the claw

Week 6 (18~25 September):
Molten Cay with witherbranch trolls
Rotting mire with jinyu
Un'gol Ruins with hozens

Week 7 (25 September~2 october):
Dread chain with kvaldir
Ungol Ruins with quilobar (?)
Rotting mire with pirates

Week 8 (2~9 october):
Molten cay with ogres
Verdant wilds with druids
Whispering Reef with murlocs

Week 9 (9~16 october):
Skittering Hollow - kobolds
Dread Chain - kvaldir
The Rotting Mire - pirates

Week 10 (16~23 october):
Molten Clay with trolls
Un'gol Runs with pygmies
Whispering Reef with nagas

Week 11 (23~30 october):
Skittering Hollow with troggs
The Rotting Mire with jinyu
Verdant Wilds with keepers of the Grove

Week 12 (30 october ~ 6 november):
The Dread Chain with ice trolls
Un'gol Ruins withpygmies
Whispering Reef with naga

Week 13 (6~13 november):
Molten Cay with Jungle trolls
Skittering Hollow with kobolds
Verdant Wilds with furbolgs

Week 14 (13~20 november):
The Rotting Mire with jinyu
Un'gol Ruins with hozen
Whispering Reef with murlocs

[Jodmos]

The drop rates are the ultimate issue here. The hidden loot rules could be viewed as clever and encouraging exploration, and actively farming something can be more engaging than grinding currency up to a certain point. But the low drop rates are so discouraging it hardly seems worth pursuing. Here's hoping the rates are decent in heroic/mythic and the change to events in 8.1 will make it possible to see invasions there.

Drop rates are definitely bad but I know any luck I have will inevitably drop me an item I just bought. I found the same issue with dungeons when they changed to personal loot (before the legacy fix). You just felt what's the point when nothing dropped. Before the personal loot something drop, so there was something tangible from the boss so it actually felt like killing the boss did something.

For drops (and given how many there are) they could easily set it so winning guaranteed a drop from the pet/mount/transmog loot table (not affected by islands or mobs - just one thing take at random from the table, even with same rates for all drops) and I doubt anyone would ever get everything from that method.

[Zyrinx]

The drop rates are the ultimate issue here. The hidden loot rules could be viewed as clever and encouraging exploration, and actively farming something can be more engaging than grinding currency up to a certain point. But the low drop rates are so discouraging it hardly seems worth pursuing. Here's hoping the rates are decent in heroic/mythic and the change to events in 8.1 will make it possible to see invasions there.

This MIGHT be true if they removed ALL trash mobs (perhaps excluding packs around Rares) and mining nodes from the Islands.

[Coconut]

This MIGHT be true if they removed ALL trash mobs (perhaps excluding packs around Rares) and mining nodes from the Islands.

The drop rates need to keep into account "wasted" tries, of course. Even if the mobs you want are the main inhabitants of an island, you can still land in one of the other two, and even if you get in the right one, the number of spawned elites varies and some of them might get tagged by the opposite team.

Blizzard should extract some averages and adjust drop rates accordingly. Assuming you understand what to do and actively try to maximize your chances, it should take you on average X island runs overall in order to get a mount, and X should be low enough that it doesn't baloon too much if you are unlucky.

A low but still reasonable overall drop rate would be 1%, which means more like 3-5% per run if we only count the islands with appropriate natives or invasions. For mounts such as the Yeti, where you can't trigger an invasion, the drop rate should be higher. It should NOT be normal to run 1.000 expeditions and only get one mount, that is for sure.

[Torvald]

I keep waiting to see if they're going to say more about their plans to adjust how they handle the drop rewards, but it's starting to seem like they won't be doing anything on that for 8.1, given how little they've talked about it. Them having only hinted at changes combined with nothing announced or found on the PTR makes it seem like 8.2 would be the earliest the place would be addressed on that issue.

My thread on the WoW forum got some good responses (https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/...9539248?page=1), but sadly no blue acknowledgment. Of course blue acknowledgment is never something you can really count on with any forum post and generally you can expect any thread is just going to disappear into the ether. Maybe a bit more literally this time, since I hear the official WoW forums are getting re-done fairly soon.

Hoping that somewhere down the line though, the Blizzard's devs responsible for this stuff will have heard somewhere that, no, the doubloon vendor's list of some additional consolation rewards really doesn't address the primary complaint people have had about the island expeditions rewards, and that addressing that problem really requires Blizzard to engage in changes to how the primary loot table is handled.

[Azerate]

I have pretty much given up now. I do a couple expeditions every week while leveling alts, but the chance to get something is so unreal that I can't really be bothered to do it. Maybe if I didnt have any other mounts to farm I would devote my whole life to it, but I still have mop world bosses and paragon caches from legion, as well as a couple raid mounts to get. I'd rather focus on those, especially if there's a chance the abysmal chances to get stuff from expeditions will somehow get adressed. Worst case scenario, it will get easier with gear and I imagine eventually they will let us just solo the islands in 9.0 or so.

[Jodmos]

I have pretty much given up now. I do a couple expeditions every week while leveling alts, but the chance to get something is so unreal that I can't really be bothered to do it. Maybe if I didnt have any other mounts to farm I would devote my whole life to it, but I still have mop world bosses and paragon caches from legion, as well as a couple raid mounts to get. I'd rather focus on those, especially if there's a chance the abysmal chances to get stuff from expeditions will somehow get adressed. Worst case scenario, it will get easier with gear and I imagine eventually they will let us just solo the islands in 9.0 or so.

Just to help a bit with the paragon...

If you've a character below level 110 (level 100 up) there is an item (Nathrezim Tome of Manipulation) that increases rep gain that drops from Vagath in Argus. This gives you lots more rep for each token and lasts for 2 hours. If you time it with a rep buff (like DMF and/or human) you can get 10000 rep really easily (a 1500 token with all the buffs gives over 5000, bit less with only the item and dmf) by funneling rep tokens from other characters. Save up tokens, use the rep item and blow through your tokens

[Zyrinx]

I have pretty much given up now. I do a couple expeditions every week while leveling alts, but the chance to get something is so unreal that I can't really be bothered to do it. Maybe if I didnt have any other mounts to farm I would devote my whole life to it, but I still have mop world bosses and paragon caches from legion, as well as a couple raid mounts to get. I'd rather focus on those, especially if there's a chance the abysmal chances to get stuff from expeditions will somehow get adressed. Worst case scenario, it will get easier with gear and I imagine eventually they will let us just solo the islands in 9.0 or so.

Yep, these are officially Dead To Me unless I actually decide to level an alt thru them again, but I can't see that - it's just too god damned frustrating. Even the terrible repeat questing experience has to be better at this point.... maybe. Both are so so bad, maybe the Incursions thing will be the answer.

[Torvald]

Yep, these are officially Dead To Me unless I actually decide to level an alt thru them again, but I can't see that - it's just too god damned frustrating. Even the terrible repeat questing experience has to be better at this point.... maybe. Both are so so bad, maybe the Incursions thing will be the answer.

A lot of people have told me that they view island expeditions as 9.0 content for future solo'ing when they out level it, which is a nice way of saying they view it as failed BFA content.

[Deleted]

I will add my statistics to the pile. Leveled my Warlock purely through islands and ended up with the Surf Jelly mount and 7 pets with one duplicate. The rep items are very, very rare still and I got about 5 through the journey. Got about 160 Doublons while leveling.

I hope blizzard will add leveling gear to the islands, because my lock did almost nothing at level 116 onwards.

Killed 20+ Mogu/Twilight and got no mount. Sad drop rate.

Worst part is that you cant stay on the island after winning. Oh the times where there were Mogu/Twlight invasion rares left and my teammates ended by harvesting too much azerite........

[Deleted]

Done 562 Island Expedition so far and have gotten 2 mounts and almost all pets. Tired of it :|

[wysimdnwyg]

Just to help a bit with the paragon...

If you've a character below level 110 (level 100 up) there is an item (Nathrezim Tome of Manipulation) that increases rep gain that drops from Vagath in Argus. This gives you lots more rep for each token and lasts for 2 hours. If you time it with a rep buff (like DMF and/or human) you can get 10000 rep really easily (a 1500 token with all the buffs gives over 5000, bit less with only the item and dmf) by funneling rep tokens from other characters. Save up tokens, use the rep item and blow through your tokens

This is the way to go, especially if you can do it on a human for the diplomacy racial. That said, I’ve been doing this for over a year with multiple alts feeding my human rep tokens, and I’m still hunting the Highmountain mount.

[Jodmos]

Warcraftdevs just tweeted that the Coldlight pet hasn't been found because the Murloc tribe it drops from hasn't appeared on islands yet. (And coldlight murlocs have appeared so that makes sense. )

I seriously think they are now just making it up as they go along.

[Voltsmasher]

I have successfully convinced myself that I enjoy island expeditions as a relaxing feature.

I find this to be critical in farming the drops because it becomes more of a one day it will just happen and that will be awesome and exciting. But if you only do it for a chance at the drop you're probably going to hate yourself a little bit more after each island