Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Nerf to Draenic Pet Battler Achievement

Blizzard announced a surprising decision today through their official developer Twitter account.
"Blueprint-unlocking Achievement "Draenic Pet Battler" now requires 150 battles instead of 500. Tooltip updated to match next patch."
For those that have yet to grind out the Draenor pet battles for a level 3 Menagerie, congrats! It should be quicker than ever now. :) And if you were in the process of grinding out the previously required 500, you might now meet the requirements for the blueprints. Hooray!

It's likely that some will be upset over this "nerf" to the achievement, having spent the time and energy to complete the 500 pet battles. And it's only natural to feel upset. No one wants to feel like they wasted their time on something. How you express that frustration is what matters.


The original achievement from WoD beta

Me? I'm ok with it, although I'm pretty shocked that the devs would lower the requirement yet again. Originally, 1000 Draenor pet battles was necessary to unlock the Menagerie 3 blueprints on the beta. After some discussion and pleas from the community, that number was halved to 500, just as WoD was released. This new value felt more on par with other level 3 garrison building blueprints, and I felt it was a solid compromise between 1000 and a free upgrade heh.

I can't help but wonder, why drop it down to 150 of all numbers? Why not halve it to 250? Or lower it only slightly to 400? What was the decision making process behind this change that eventually led to settling on one third of 500 pet battles? I'm curious to know because it feels like an arbitrary number. It may also affect how we, the players, view future pet battle achievements and grinds (but that's yet to be seen).

In the end, I'm happy for those that will have a much more manageable Menagerie experience now. I'm still somewhat in a state of disbelief so I can't say much more than that.

I think Lio summed it up best, "[...] I'm all ????? tho bc I didn't think 500 was too bananas & most of the angst I've seen is over Unlock quest."

Yup. Dat unlock quest lol.

9 comments:

  1. That unlock quest is still kicking my butt. There are more and more people now in the same boat. Submitting tickets does nothing as we just get canned responses to check wowhead for the guide, or to go to quest checker to make sure we actually completed it. Submitting bug reports in game and on the forums has gotten no response either. =(

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    1. @Rhapture: That's truly frustrating. :(

      Have you tried Tweeting any of the developers on Twitter directly about the issue? It's inconvenient to have to go through a third party channel, but it might be better than having your tickets read by Customer Support (who probably don't fully grasp the issue).

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  2. Good for me at least. Think I've made it to 50 so far? So woot. But for those who've already beat the 500 - not wasted, just more chances at the pets sooner, and of course, progress towards the monument! :)

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    1. @Jaedia: One thing that I can understand, though, are the frustrations of those who feel like they've wasted their time. Time spent completing those now extra 350 battles for the level 3 blueprints -- that energy could have been used elsewhere such as gearing up, leveling an alt, etc. It's understandable that some, especially those with only a limited amount of free time to play WoW, feel marginalized.

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  3. If by unlock people are referring to the pests you've to beat, I don't understand. Anyone who pet battles should be able to beat them. They're not hard. The issue seems to me that those stuck don't have enough pets to deal with them correctly.

    Now it's been a while so I may not remember this right (I'm also not great at remembering attack names).
    Rat was easy. Zandalari raptors kick his butt
    Hippo was also easy. Think I used 3 moths (I'd say easiest of them all)
    Carrot is more difficult but Water Skimmers/Eternal Striders beat him easily. Use cleansing rain, and pump and use your normal attack until you use pump when going to die. Should be able to outdamage it's heal. Also, because you aren't dotting or dropping a geyser etc you can get free hits when he uses his cleanse ability.

    Nothing hard to get to beat them (maybe the zandalari but if you've a menagerie you've a 100 and then they're just a matter of time as the mobs should die easily).


    Given that I got Stormwing before WoD I have a lot of pets (all rare) so that may have made it easier but as most battlers know a lot of those pets aren't that good. I also don't get duplicate wild pets, only drops so I can't overload with a good counter.

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    1. @Anonymous: The problem is that it's not only players who are interested in pets and pet battles that want to unlock the Menagerie. Others also want to get rid of the exclamation mark on their mini-map, or even just complete the achievement of fully building their garrison. For them, the unlock battles will likely be a struggle, especially if they're behind on pet collecting/leveling.

      Not to mention that the main draw/goal of WoD so far is to reach the level 3 Menagerie for the "greatest" rewards, which often places less avid battlers in a position where they may not be ready for the unlock quest but have a go at it anyway. It's only understandable that they will wind up frustrated and turned off from pets, which is a damn shame IMO.

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    2. I see your point. If I recall correctly I seem to remember them being level 20 at some point during the beta.

      I will agree on one thing though. It's not conducive to getting players interested in pet battles that weren't before.

      I don't want to sound condescending but I still believe that it's relatively easy to get counters for them but that may require some browsing to find out what (and I'm a firm believer that going to 3rd party sites shouldn't be required to play the game).

      The issue I do have is that it is a lot steeper difficulty than opening up the other predetermined garrison plots. Killing 8 racoons is hardly comparable and for most people getting those herbs would be a lot more important than the pet battles.

      For info my pet gripe so far is Hatespark. Limited time fine. limited droprate fine. Both together NOOOOOO.
      Plus I think the mining/herb pets drop is a bit on the low side but they'll end up low price, though I do prefer to get pets myself directly.

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  4. My menagerie was fixed today! A GM finally read my ticket instead of auto responding and logged onto my toon to fix the bugged quest. When I logged back in my menagerie was built and the quest and daily pets were there. I am so relieved I don't have to keep submitting tickets any more!

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