Many of the elements here could and probably should be applied to other aspects of the game, i.e. transmog items, toys, and pets, but to keep this post “short” I will restrict this to thoughts, ideas, and discussion on and about mounts only.
Daily rares
These would generally be categorised as a rare mob with a moderately short spawn timer (30 minutes to one hour) that you can kill on a daily basis and has a low chance to drop a mount >1%.
Good examples
- Junkheap Drifter (Rustfeather) and similar rares in Mechagon: Mechagon as a zone was quite approachable and the zone-wide alerts for many of the rare spawns was a good feature.
- Waste Marauder (Rotfeaster) and similar rares in Uldum and Vale of Eternal Blossom during the Vision of N’zoth assaults: Similar to the warfronts rares, although with a daily chance when the assault is active, these work quite nicely.
- Endmire Flyer (Famu) and similar rares in Shadowlands (Patch 9.0.2): The non-covenant specific mount drops had decent spawn times and accessible farms compared to their respective drop rates.
Bad examples
- Soundless: A daily rare spawn with a low drop chance and a very long random spawn timer. On top of this, it is also a hunter tamable pet, and has been the cause of much abuse in chat and whispers.
- Garnet Razorwing (Reliwik the Defiant) and similar rares in Korthia: The random spawn rotations make it rough for players to identify what is available on a daily basis. You could potentially run into not seeing them for long periods of time if you are unable to play or log in on a daily basis.
- Hopecrusher Gargon (Hopecrusher) and other similar covenant specific rares in Shadowlands (Patch 9.0.2): The covenant specific mount drops was cause of much confusion and frustration, and seeing as how difficult it was to change covenants initially, was not the best design. The mount journal, at the very least, should have reflected or hinted towards the requirements to get these. Having these drop for any covenant, but not being able to learn it unless you were part of said covenant, might have been a better solution?
Dungeons and Raids
Overall, the mounts available as rare drops from dungeons and raids seem to be tuned just fine, i.e. drakes in Cataclysm dungeons or Sharkbait from mythic Freehold, as well as the mounts you can get from raids, like the Abyss Worm or the mythic end boss mounts (that you can subsequently farm after the tier/expansion has ended).
Achievements and Meta Achievements
Generally, the game has moved more towards mounts being random world drops rather than awarded through achievements and progressive gameplay. While both has its place in the game, perhaps focus should be more on the latter rather than the former?
For example, adding new milestones for mount collections is past due. Many collectors have passed the 5, 6, and 700 mark, and the last achievement was the 400 collection mark, which was added back in Legion.
Good examples
- Awake the Drakes: An amazing mini-collection in a collection achievement. More stuff like this, please.
- Naz’jatar: Although time-gated, this was a sort-of linear progression system that you could work towards daily and weekly.
Bad examples
- Glory of the Raider (25 player) and the Black Proto-Drake: The reward for this 25-man meta (and the 10 player equivalent with the Plagued Proto-Drake) was removed far too quickly and was met with a big backlash from the community. It felt unnecessary and unjust towards the many players that fought hard to finish the achievements, but simply failed to do so in a timely manner. Adding only one of these to the Black Market Auction house later on was also just a weird step.
- Mechagon: Horrible randomised systems layered with rare spawns, rare drops, and daily or weekly quest rotations. This was not fun for the average player and required daily visits without a fault. Large portions of this should also have been progressable account-wide.
Reputation
Mounts at exalted level are generally overpriced, i.e. Captured Swampwalker for 90,000 gold, Rustbolt Resister at 431,340 gold, etc. Spending a large amount of time and effort into reputations only to be met with a giant gold sinkhole feels rather unfulfilling and just leaves you with a rather empty feeling inside (your pocket).
Paragon
Callings and emissaries provide a decent amount of reputation towards the majority of reputations introduced. However, there are factions with a generally poor reputation structure, i.e. Uldum Accord, Rajani, Death’s Advance, Archivist Codex or Ve’nari, and in order to make any meaningful progress towards these, you are required to log in daily to do quests and kill rares for several hours.
Generally, the idea of having mounts in paragon boxes is “okay”, as long as this is coupled with some bad luck protection.
World Bosses and other “weeklies”
Good examples
- Son of Galleon (Galleon) and the other Mist of Pandaria world bosses: Although the drop rates are incredibly low (and probably deserve a slight increase), these mounts fit the bill quite well; coupled with the coin roll as an added bonus.
- Lil’ Donkey (Overseer Krix) and similar rares in Arathi Highlands or Darkshore, available during the Battle for Azeroth warfronts: A fairly well-balanced system with good accessibility and spawn rates.
- Mollie (Dunegorger Kraulok): Relatively high drop rate on a six week rotation seems just about at the edge of where it might tip over to being bad, but is something you can work towards at a more relaxed pace.
Bad examples
- None spring to mind
Events and Anniversaries
Mount rewards associated with events or anniversaries should generally be obtainable through participation in the activities or through the seasonal vendors with the currencies you acquire. The currencies especially should be transferable to next year’s event, so you can keep building on your past efforts and purchase mounts you missed out on previously.
There are so many exciting features to these events, and being stuck inside a small scenario day in and day out in the hopes for some randomness to go your way takes away all the fun that is happening out in the real world (of Azeroth (and Draenor (and Outlands (and Shadowlands)))).
Good examples
- Swift Lovebird (Love is in the Air): Something you could obtain relatively easy by doing daily activities either as part of the event or by killing mobs to craft additional love tokens.
- Grumpus (Winter’s Veil): A daily box or something you could be fortunate enough to get gifted from a friend. Also something you could buy from other players if you had misbehaved too much that year and Santa didn’t pay a visit to your house.
Bad examples
- X-45 Heartbreaker (Love is in the Air): This is probably the worst offender in respect to availability and drop chance. It promotes an unhealthy behaviour where you feel forced to level up more characters to get more attempts done every year to counteract the random act of getting the mount. In general, the drop rates for mounts during the seasonal events feel unrewarding and keeps you away from the other elements that are typically associated with the event itself. Perhaps these could be moved to the vendors and cost an amount of event currency, perhaps not attainable for a single event, but over a couple of years, and you can build towards this along with participating in the event activities instead.
Unicorns and puzzles
Long hours camping, steadfast determination, or sheer force of will, you find it, and it’s finally yours! This portion is devoted to those rares or in-game puzzles that reward you upon completion.
Good examples
- Time-Lost Proto-Drake: A great long rare spawn coupled with a placeholder for the most determined collectors. The old version with first man to the punch was both exciting and rewarding, although the new party-lootable version is highly preferred and promotes grouping and social interaction on a different level. Good stuff!
- Aeonaxx: Another long rare camp with a placeholder spawn, however, finding it is not only a thrilling experience but also instantly gratifying with a guaranteed mount if you are the first one there.
- Poundfist, Silthide, Nakk the Thunderer, and Gorok: Great mount camps for the sturdy collectors. Each with their own short or long spawn timer and you are justly rewarded with a mount on the first kill. Poundfist in particular, although rather rough initially with the many server resets that didn’t let it spawn for a long time into Warlords of Draenor, was a very fun camp that brought together many players in Gorgrond.
- Other mentions could be Voidtalon of the Dark Star, Grey Riding Camel, Long-Forgotten Hippogryph, Fabius, Frightened Kodo, Springfur Alpaca, Blanchy, etc.
Bad examples
- The Hivemind: This was a great puzzle, and worked really well at the beginning. Needing a group for it made it hard and thus became a massive boosting demand. As time moves on, this will be increasingly difficult to obtain for many players.
Unobtainables
Mounts lost to time, but quite possibly deserves a way back into the game. Here are some and ideas how they could make a return:
- Re-introducing old expansion mounts through the different Timewalking events, i.e. Pandaren Phoenixes from Mists of Pandaria silver challenge modes
- Elite Vicious Saddle obtainable as a new secondary item; like the current Vicious Saddle. You progress towards this with arena wins past 2400 rating and can use them to buy gladiator mounts from previous seasons.
- Adding more unobtainable mounts to the Black Market Auction House, i.e. Black Proto-Drake (since its Plagued cousin is there), Amani War Bear, etc.
- Trading Card Game mounts re-introduced in digital card packages, perhaps through a mini in-game Hearthstone duelling system, or actually as rewards in Hearthstone itself (take your pick).
x over. Content should never be removed and remain accessible. FOMO content is atrocious and deserves to be destroyed with a mana bomb.