Has the RARES mechanic devolved, just like the Mission table?

[Kalisandra]

I think what the OP is saying is "If every mob is rare, then no mob is." For Vale/Uldum, a very large portion of the 'rares' are only there for the daily quests to kill three rares, and ironically enough even some of the non-rare event mobs count.

And some that show as 'rare' don't count. Good Job, Blizzard.

From my perspective, I've given up mostly on collecting mounts/pets because they add so many bloody new ones each patch that I get tired from trying to farm them all. You basically need an army of alts or multiboxing to have a feasible chance of obtaining all the mounts/pets. It's similar to how I used to get every achievement in the game, until WoD when they added that insane amount of archeology achievements that just seemed to be there to make you do archeaology 20 times longer than necessary, so I stopped bothering after that (and this is coming from someone who did the Insane in the Membrane achievement the first month it originally came out). None of it feels special anymore, as everything feels like more of an chore than an experience/achievement. That's the feeling the OP seems to be describing: killing a rare used to feel special/meaningful, now it's just a chore and a daily quest.

I think making rares part of any sort of quest or quota was a mistake, and it makes them mundane. MoP's rares were about as common as I'd want rares to be - they respawn on a slowish timer (1 hour to many hours) and stay until killed.

Also, from WoD onwards most rares (but not all) have guaranteed drops of their stuff, which I also think is a mistake. MoP's non-guaranteed drops and unlimited looting worked better.

Oh yeah, and the other thing is that rares (and loot chests) should go back to giving decent XP to levelling characters.

[Kehego]

Let's see the numbers then:

In Mechagon we have 36 rares.
2 of them drops nothing.
If we don't count blueprints as a worthwhile drop, then 23 drops "nothing". Fair enough, that is quite a big number. But I'd argue, since it is still something you can "collect" that blueprints counts as a worthwhile drop - Especially since many of them can create pets and/or toys.

In Nazjatar we have 40 rares
9 of them drops nothing of real value. Ie cannot be collected, or gives a fairly large reward in gold and/or rep
If you don't care about that and only want collectible things, then 17 of them drops nothing of value.


So Mechagon has ~5% mobs with no worthwhile drops
Nazjatar has 22%-42% mobs with no worthwhile drops

So once again. Say that "Most drop a toy or pet or mount" is still true. More than 50% of the rares will drop something that can be collected one way or another.

I wouldn't include zone only content in the argument but whatever. if it doesn't add a +1 to mounts/toys/pets I 100% don't consider them
Its like Antorus vs Broken shore. Some zones have bountiful rares, some don't. it's not some sort of grand conspiracy

[Zantera]

I think the way rares have evolved makes sense considering they want to cram pets and mounts into their loot table. I really like the old rares where you might see a blue-ish raptor among the normal purple ones and instantly know it's a rare - and maybe it spawned once every 8 hours (or less) but the droprate would only be one boe item that's most likely green but maybe blue. Having rares on ridiculous spawn timers like Soundless that also has a slim chance to drop a mount is just cruel. On the other hand I don't like the WoD "rare" of having 100 rares in a zone that are all basically useless because they're always up.

[Powerogue]

I'd rather that than still be looking for the Time Lost Proto Drake around a decade later.

Some people are still there. Thank goodness I gave up quickly.

[Rinnegan2]

this is a very good observation @OP

I feel the same way. rares should go back to 3-4 per zone with an incredibly long respawn timer. they shouldn't be tied to any quests etc. it should be like that rare lion in the barrens that drops a unique belt or like the time lost proto drake that drops a cool mount. having a quest that says 'slay 3 rares' is not that amazing to be frank.

[FelPlague]

as someone who sat for months trying to get the timelost protodrake and only got it when i randomly was in the zone years later looking for a battle pet.



AND STILL HAVE NEVER SEEN VYRAGOSA, the last rare i need for the acheive? nah fuck off.

I spent years in wotlk and there was so many rares i never saw, until like years later acheive hunting

[msdos]

It's not a mystery. When I see a rare in classic, I actually get excited and rush over to immediately tag and kill it.

In Retail I straight up ignore silver portraits and when you level, rares are just wandering around in packs (Swamp of Sorrows). The game is watered down, period.

[Bryan Adam]

Well, if they don't drop anything special then I don't think it's worth having them being called rares. In these days where respawn right away after being killed isn't even close to being rare at all.

[thottstation]

_

ARATHI HIGHLANDS:

Swift Albino Raptor

Skullripper

Witherbark Direwing

Lil' Donkey

Highland Mustang (H)

Highland Mustang (A)

Nine Battle Pets,
Nine toys.


DARKSHORE:

Ashenvale Chimaera

Caged Bear/Blackpaw

Umber Nightsaber/Captured Umber Nightsaber

Captured Kaldorei Nightsaber

Frightened Kodo

Nine Battle Pets,
Nine toys.


Whole lotta' farming.

[Tyris Flare]

what you describe is just the backward effect of a game that is getting cheaper and cheaper. thats the simple reason.

in past they invested more, you get more. the details you list is called quality. more investment = more quality. since they invest less and less while time goes on, you have exactly this effect.

simple as that.

The problem with this analysis is that Blizzard invests far more man-hours and resources into the game now than in the past. WoW has a huge team and high costs. It is not "cheaper"

[TickTickTick]

Idc about rares almost at all, but there's one thing that bothers me though: that rares have become an objective of daily activities that are a means for a progress.

It still fucking blows my mind we regularly get daily quests for 3 rares in vale/uldum. I mean, it was recognized as a dumb idea back in 8.2 and nerfed to 1 rare only.

Then they decided it's a good idea to reimplement 3 rares daily. In two zones even. And depending on a zone and invasion combo, it can be quite tiresome to complete it. What's worse, the reward is the same as for other dailies.

Just stop making rares an objective.

EDIT: and yeah, they shouldnt even be called rares anymore.

[Beatman]

Hunting MoP rares (not timeless isle) was a lot of fun. Reasonable respawn times, difficulty and rewards.

[Nevcairiel]

Rares haven't been rares since several expansions, not exclusively anyway, there are always some mixed in. The concept really didn't change in BfA any further.

This applied to all zones in WoD and Legion, both in level-up zones as well as end-game zones (Tanaan and Argus, for example). BfA is just a continuation of that system without really changing it. We should just start calling them "named" enemies or something.

For mission table followers - yes, the system basically devolved, however that is what players wanted. There was a lot of complaining about the WoD system, so they greatly simplified it.

[Georg Von Vitzthum]

im pretty ok with the rares now, i hate the time lost and voidtalon mechanics, have all of then by mere luck, if it wasn't by then i doubt i would get.

Im ok with long waiting camps as long as we can have then, the time lost rng spawn is awful

But i have to say i fucking hate the Soundless mechanic, only saw the motherfucker 3 times and the chance is like what, 0.2%, that is bullshit

[Andonais]

I hate rares they are scheduled mobs that pop up and offer nothing just another change to the game away from the old.

[Broken Fox]

Long respawn rates can fuck right off. I ain't paying the game to idle, that is the most ludicrously retarded concept that needs to fucking die.

And then you got the most stupid one thus far; Soundless mount, long spawn time AND obscenely low drop rate...

Short respawn timers to daily low drop rate chance works fine for me.

i agree, but people are dumbasses and will still do it

[Zyky]

They actually listened to player-feedback for once about the rarespawns.

Imagine if every rare was like TLPD or Aeonaxx, mmm that'd sure be fun yeah?

I'd rather have a long respawn for a guaranteed mount than a short respawn that I can only do once a day with a terrible drop chance. I have well over 300 kills across several toons on both mount rares in Mechagon and haven't gotten either of them. That sure is fun yeah?

[Kuja]

I hate the new mission table. It's so garbage that I've totally ignored it, besides the mission after island expeditions. I thought there could be some gold to be made if I equipped the followers with rods or something else, but I haven't seen any return of investment from those. Not even close!

As for rares, I enjoy the more easily found rares. It's more fun moving as a group and hunting them together than having to compete and waiting for hours.

[kaminaris]

Hunting MoP rares (not timeless isle) was a lot of fun. Reasonable respawn times, difficulty and rewards.

They were garbage mobs just scattered across map not giving anything worthwhile so nobody "hunted" them. With the exception of those lords or whatever and 4 big ones that dropped mount.

[infinitemeridian]

Remove non-group tagging from rares and buff them significantly while keeping the spawn timers the same. That will give us back the Zandalari rares, which required a group, had good rewards and a decent spawn time, and couldn't just be zerged down in 10 seconds.