Tuesday, August 12, 2014

WoD Beta: Shiny Birds and Hoping to Love the Hatespark

Three new pets were added in yesterday's beta patch, two of which I'm fairly excited about and the other... well, it will depend on how we obtain it.




The first two pets, Firewing and Stormwing will both be drops from a Big Sack of Pet Supplies. This bag hasn't been implemented yet, so it's still a mystery where it will come from. With a similar name to the reward bag from current trainer dailies, the big version could be Draenor's trainer daily reward.

We have yet to see any dailies or PVE battles (other than wild ones) outside of the garrison, though. If new NPCs are placed around the world, traveling around Draenor on foot/mount might prove to be a time-consuming problem. New trainer dailies would be a great steppingstone from Pandaria's trainers and Celestial Tournament to the garrison menagerie challenges, so perhaps the pros of new Draenor battles would outweigh the cons. We'll have to wait and see.

Wherever they come from, I'm excited to collect them. They look super shiny. Both share the same model as the bird used in the Quintessence of Light pet NPC so... they kind of hit a soft spot in my heartspot. :P


The third pet, Hatespark the Tiny, is currently listed as a drop from Ragnaros the Firelord in the specially revamped version of Molten Core (anniversary edition). With the recent announcement of a special 40 man LFR style MC, it makes me wonder how this pet will be distributed. Depending on what the droprate is, it might become my new pet peeve or pet perk.

Currently LFR rewards are all personal loot. Each week your first kill of each boss has a chance to yield a piece of loot, and other chances can be obtained if you gather tokens to use as bonus rolls. There's no telling if the anniversary MC loot will be implemented in the same fashion, but I hope yes and no.

While I agree that Hatespark should be from personal loot (because 40 people and LFR -- you get the point), I can't say I'd enjoy seeing the pet be treated in the same way as LFR loot is currently distributed. The anniversary festivities are scheduled to last for two weeks, and should the anniversary MC function the exact same way as current LFRs, this would mean collectors would only have two chances (one per week) to obtain the pet. This is, of course, assuming that Hatespark will not be 100% droprate from Ragnaros, much like other LFR pet loot.

On the other hand, if players had multiple chances each time they killed Ragnaros, that would balance out a low droprate. If this is the case, I know I'll be running the anniversary MC LFR loads until I get this pet. I'm not a fan of LFR at all, and I do truly wish the special version of Molten Core could be accessed with just a smaller, personalized guild group, but I'll suffer through it all for this pet lol.

Another possibility (and this one is probably ideal for collectors) is that players will only need to defeat Ragnaros once and the pet will be a guarantee reward. For those that won't have as much time to play during the two anniversary weeks, this would be great.

The limited amount of time to obtain this pet really needs to be considered and factored into how this pet loot is awarded. I still cringe at the thought of limited availability/time pets with low droprates, back in the day when they were soulbound and not cageable. It was not a fun time and was more panic-inducing than anything.

I'm really eager to learn more about this pet's droprate; I'm also really nervous and anxious as well. Worst comes to worse, it's exactly like LFR loot and only your first kill each week has a chance to yield the pet (and it's got a low droprate). Best scenario would be 100% droprate on your first kill and each Ragnaros kill thereafter has a much lower chance (but still a chance!) to drop the pet for you.

Currently Hatespark is flagged as cageable, but that could change as the beta gets refined and cleaned up prior to WoD's release. If it remains cageable, those that can't log at all during the festivities will at least have a chance in the future to collect one of these little elementals. It might cost them an arm and a leg but at least the option will be there (if this pet remains cageable).

So what it all boils down to, for me, is how this pet will be obtained. If it's in a balanced, fair and fun way, great! I will be singing this pet's praises, afterall it does look pretty cool hot. If not, I will likely be ranting about it for a while. As always, I'm ok with keeping things "rare" or "unique" but I'm also a huge advocate of keeping things balanced and fun. When loot distribution doesn't take into consideration the many factors of the situation, it starts to feel pretty un-fun.

Crossing my fingers Hatespark won't be a pain to collect and good times will be had by all!

2 comments:

  1. I had the same tentative reaction that you had when reading about this pet. Hopefully it will be like the vampiric batling during the pre-Wrath event. Everyone on the raid gets one. Considering the short time window, it makes sense to do this. It's still exclusive enough going forward (since the event goes away never to return) that it doesn't need to be made rare at all during the event. This should be a fun event where a reasonable effort to acquire this pet should result in success.

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    Replies
    1. @Anonymous: I agree completely! I'd like to enjoy myself during the anniversary, rather than stressing over the pet.

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