Rip, last one I needed for Plains. Guess I should’ve been as committed as Recon is and woken up in the middle of the night 
1 Like
snow plains just spawned
its flaming spam this time
Is it just me or is the Wowhead tracker unreliable?
1 Like
It’s not readily available on the dot, every fresh cycle, it takes about 5-15 minutes to update proper. Worst case, 20+ minutes, which does suck.
1 Like
WowHead probably has some intern log into the game a few minutes after the scheduled change, look at the map, update the tracker, and let whatever automatic push update the visible content.
15 minutes after the fact would be just about right.
2 Likes
For the love of god…please put this back to the original 2 spawns at a time! Event is depressing when it is Azure Span 50%
3 Likes
I agree with reconbravo’s take. These achievements have been available since the expansion launched, just because there wasn’t a reward that made it exciting for you to do, doesn’t diminish he’s point.
I’m at the point where I need firestorm in ohn’ahrn and thal, so I’m fighting the RNG as well. I’ve also sporadically farmed the storms all expansion just trying to get the elemental lariat pattern, and didn’t have more than 1 of the achievements for 200 mobs, and of course that was in azure. I also had done nothing in Forbidden Reach and I have almost no rep with the azerothian archives. All of it will take time. One thing I do for the storms is every 3ish hours I check wowhead.com front page. It tells you exactly which storm is up and where. while I do wish that one, the storms were more predictable, thematically it makes sense as primalists and storms are unpredicatable.
That said, having azure span with 3 spawns, waking shore with 2 spawn points, and thal and ohn with 1 spawn each is in my opinion poor design as it is, especially with those spawns being equally weighted in their RNG. I also do wish they still had 2 storms up still like they did in 10.0 but alas, this is the hand we are dealt. There are several months to get this achievement done. There is no reason it has to be done RIGHT NOW!
I mean while we are at it with regards to making things “achievable” I have the scepter of the shifting sands sitting in my bank that I didn’t turn in before Cataclysm was released because I didn’t realize I needed to go ring the gong because the quest that told you to do that was removed when it was originally done to open the AQ gates.
This game has always been a fight with RNG, it is one of the core philosophies that has kept the game populated and people coming back for more.
1 Like
Look, I’m on the side of things saying that this storm problem needs a fix. I’ve been farming these storms since we got the meta achievement. Is the grind a slog? Yes, it is and I am more than fine with that. What I’m not fine with is the gamble upon a gamble you have to fight with for the one storm you need. Yes, I am fully aware that as you complete the Storm Chaser achievement, it gets harder as you go from needing 16 storms, down to 1 storm.
If you are a fresh start, the achievement is “easy” as you’ll likely need any of the variety of storms that come are up every 3 hours. But, once you get closer and closer to the end, that’s when the issue starts to arise in my eyes. I do not advocate for “every zone needs to have a storm up” or “have the storms be on a set rotation”, that does remove the challenge as all you need to really do is wait for the right time.
But, the frustration lies in the fact that the spawn rates are skewed. Probability and numbers aside, Azure Span does always weigh heavier cause of the 3 spawn zones. But in the same regard, and PLEASE, someone give me the numbers on this. I cannot confirm or deny this claim, but with the aid and data from others, I don’t think, since 10.2.6’s launch, we’ve seen a firestorm in the Plains.
Would I like to get the achievement done? Yes. We all want the Good Boy Taivan mount, but one fact remains and that’s accessibility. I do not believe any of us should ruin our sleep schedule or work-life balance. That is just inconceivable. We cannot dedicate all hours of the day to this game. Some of us can only play a few hours on an evening/afternoon, the weekend, etc etc.
The one solution I vehemently agree with is just bring back 2 storms. Keep the 3 hour cycle, just do 2 storms again. You still have to combat the RNG elements, and it’s still likely that even with storms up, you won’t see the storm you need. And like currently, there’s the possibility that the Azure Span has a storm up all the time.
7 spawns
4 elements
3 hours
That’s exactly 84 hours, half the length of a week.
The solution is to have every storm spawn twice a week and only twice a week. An 84 card deck of cards that only reshuffles when there are no cards left.
That way you’ll know it’s up some time in the week instead of waiting months.
While it may be a little early to cry wolf about the achievement since many of us have just been hyper focused on it for two weeks there is also nothing in place that would ensure a person starting today would see each and every storm by the end of the expansion. With only a single storm being active the achievement has essentially turned into a rare mount farm which was likely not Blizzard’s intent when they added it. Even if previous meta achievements took extended amounts of time, they seem to have been predictable for when you might complete them. The last one this RNG I can remember was the patterns for Mecha-Done which people also had issues with.
Since Blizz has already removed the Seething Cache from the current meta achievement I don’t see a compelling reason why they should not make some change to this achievement as well. Hopefully they do as you and others have suggested and just re-enable the second storm. Maybe that satisfies those that think the RNG element should stay while also increasing the likelihood that people, no matter their real-life schedule, would have the opportunity to complete it. The bigger issue is how difficult that kind of change is to implement. It’s easy for us to suggest just going back to how the storms were initially or to change them to a rotation, but that’s not as simple as them just removing X criteria from the achievement like they did with the cache.
2 Likes
If I’m reading what you wrote correctly, it seems like you’re still missing or at least avoiding the point of what I and others have been arguing here, but I also appreciate that it’s probably easier to go for the low-hanging fruit of “not everyone deserves X by default” when challenged on an idea. You’re not alone in defaulting to that kind of idea, and a lot of people with your perspective jump to it as a shutdown point when a conversation like this gets away from them. I get it.
And while it’s true that we can disagree about whether or not my arena analogy applies fairly and it’s true that we can have differing opinions in general, it’s also totally fine and maybe even likely that one of us is wrong, regardless of the fact that we have different takes. Using a shade of your own argument maybe – people don’t deserve to be as correct as others just because they have their own individual opinion. Objectively speaking, my arena analogy really isn’t as extreme an absolute as you’re suggesting, and it’s probably true that a lot of people agree with it.
At the same time, it seems that your argument is in favor of extremes anyway, that it’s ultimately fine if this meta achievement has wide-swinging and prohibitive RNG that has increased in scarcity over time in a way that has formed a clear qualitative/quantitative difference between what someone is achieving now versus someone earning the achievement outside of understanding the meta in 10.0. And again, you aren’t alone; plenty of people argue in favor for outrageous challenges regarding achievements, gear acquisition, etc. that really have nothing to do with skill or planning. Just know that you’re arguing for a grind that’s potentially worse and less guaranteed than Ravenholdt exalted, I guess…?
1 Like
I’m officially waiting for 1 storm and done with the meta. While I wish an ohnarahn firestorm would come up during the time of day I’m awake, I’m at least pleased it’s been flipping between waking shores and azure plains
1 Like
same brother, I am also waiting on Plains Fire, but the last time its been seen was patch day and it hasn’t come up since
On the one hand, I’m relieved I didn’t miss it. On the other hand, what the funk.
WTFUNK exactly brother. i just want my goodest boy mount, so i can move on. but i don’t see that happening unless we get a change to how the spawns work
1 Like
Oh the CHALLENGE of looking at Wowhead every ~3 hours! So crucial to The EXPERIENCE.
5 Likes
Sandstorm Waking Shores twice in a row. Ridic. I guess more time to Plunderstorm. Meh.
1 Like
Dupe earth storms in Waking Shores
1 Like
They should rename Storm Chaser to Work From Home since those are the only people that are gonna complete it anytime this year