i for one, am completely perturbed as to how this change will benefit players, specifically (pet) collectors. unless of course... this change actually means that we will have access to the holiday bosses all year 'round instead of only during a set amount of time..? (this is unlikely though)
anyway, the basics behind the change to seasonal bosses:
- you may only access the boss within the specific dungeon through the dungeon finder tool. using any other method will not allow access to seasonal bosses.this is ridiculous considering the droprate of vanity items such as pets and the length of each seasonal in-game event.
- you will only have one chance per day, per toon to receive vanity items off of seasonal bosses. think of it like random heroics and frost badges; the first holiday boss kill per day will reward you with a "holiday loot bag" that may or may not reward you with a vanity item. note: only the recipient of the loot bag may receive the contents of the loot bag, making "ninja'ing" impossible. (think of the new occulus loot bag)
- you may kill the boss multiple times a day, but only your first kill will reward you with the chance of a vanity item.
- you cannot summon in alts or friends to "farm" seasonal bosses for the vanity items anymore.
take the scorchling for example. this pet drops during the midsummer fire festival which lasts about 2 weeks. the pet has an estimated 1 in 65 chance (warcraftpets.com) or 2% (wowhead.com) to drop, yet the event only lasts 14 days. does this make sense? with such a low droprate and such a short window of time to get the companion, how is there any chance to receive the item?
unless blizzard plans on upping the droprate of vanity items such as the toxic wasteling and the scorchling (who, may i add, drop exclusively off of the seasonal bosses) OR allows access to holiday bosses throughout the year, i don't see many collectors being very pleased.
hell, i already managed to nab both companions and i'm still upset about this change. for all the pet collectors who may feel that this change won't affect them, think again. this will have adverse effects on existing holiday encounters as well as future holiday bosses.
this greatly limits the prospect of new pets dropping off newly implemented seasonal bosses. there are still some in-game holidays that do not have corresponding bosses, such as nobelgarden. this event lasts only ONE week. should blizzard decide that it's time to implement a boss for this holiday, plus a new vanity pet that drops off said boss, players will only have 7 days (which equals to 7 attempts) to try and obtain it.
luckily, most major in-game holidays last roughly about 2 weeks. however, this still translates into only 14 chances for any new rare noncombat pet blizzard goes live with. FOURTEEN. for any die-hard pet collector, such a small number of chances is absolutely infuriating. it was already relatively difficult to get a companion pet to drop off the holiday bosses WITHOUT the limited number of attempts.
also, what about those who do not have the luxury of logging in every single day during an in-game seasonal event? let's say they can only log in a few times during the holiday, but on those days they have the ability and man-power to "farm" the boss for that special item that they're seeking. basically making up for lost time. however, with the "once per day" system combined with the limited amount of time and low dropate, this could effectively cut some people's chances at vanity items, pets, and achievements in half or even more. how is this fair to them?
yes, i do recognize that there are pros to having a system such as this. no one can "ninja" an item, and attempts for summoning the boss won't be "wasted" in situations where people turn in the summoning quest at the same time, a dc, lag, etc. as a collector, though, this significantly limits my ability to enjoy my hobby; the negative results outweigh that of the positive in my eyes.
the only way to counter the cons in this situation would be to up the droprate of vanity items that drop exclusively off of seasonal bosses OR create a system where the vanity items not only drop off a holiday boss but are also sold from seasonal vendors. another solution would be to grant access to seasonal bosses through the dungeon system all year 'round. if there are other solutions, please blizzard, make them known to us! until then, i will be shaking my head in disgust at this change.
the direction of the game over the past months has become that of a more casual one. "let there be XYZ for all" in a sense. yet suddenly blizzard decides to throw a fastball and declare that no, select (fun) things are still meant to be extra rare? sounds like mixed messages to me.
