To make my point, there is a very small amount of players actively searching for this pet and providing feedback / concerns.
This is definitely not valid. There is a very large amount of players actively farming this pet and using any methods they can. It is a constant topic on the wow secrets discord channel for island expeditions. There is an entire website dedicated to the people who obsess over collecting pets (and I am one of them, currently being #42 on the warcraftpets.com). I have been part of groups that killed nothing but the creature in the water that do not drop azerite, groups that used any "see spirit" potions/trinkets/etc we could think of, etc. Every single place that this pet is listed or discussed there are tons of feedback and concerns. Search for it on here, and there are dozens of threads asking about this pet. Just because you don't see the large amount of people actively searching for this pet and trying crazy things to "unlock" it... does NOT mean that we do not exist. It should also be noted that I check daily to see if anyone has seen this pet, and as of right now there have been seen exactly 0 times in game.
Undermine Journal does not show any listings for this pet for that server ever - could it be possible that it wasn't tracking the AH early on in the expansion?
I'm not saying this is proof that the Surfrunner is available, but it's possible that it was only available under the conditions during week 1 of the expansion. Since most were not max level, running IEs, and knew how to go about increasing chances for loot (killing stuff vs. looting Azerite nodes and so on), maybe we simply missed out on that island rotation.
Maybe if we wait long enough, the right island + mob combo will appear again? If the "right" conditions don't appear again before 8.1, I think Blizzard should investigate and address this.
This is definitely not valid. There is a very large amount of players actively farming this pet and using any methods they can.
I didn't make myself clear. I took into account all those individuals. I was speaking in general population terms. With only a sub section of the whole of WoWs population even interested in specific pet collecting there is such an abysmally smaller number working towards this pet and this one alone. How many people in total with giving every generosity to the amount are working on finding where this specific pet drops from? I'd wager far less than 1,000. My statement is as accurate then as it is now.
I'd wager far less than 1,000. My statement is as accurate then as it is now.
Based on one source alone, which means it is a low number, there are about 161,000 pet collectors tracking this one pet that have at least 2 of the elemental pets (which, I included in my search to weed out those who are not doing that many island expeditions), and 342,000 who have at least 1 elemental pet all of which have 0 coldlight surfrunners.
That doesn't mean there is anywhere near that many players actively searching for the Coldlight Surfrunner. Just because I run 100s of Expeditions and kill most every type of mob in various succession doesn't mean I'm among those people searching for it. It may be on the list of pets I need to collect everything or to finish an achievement that still doesn't make them apply.
It doesn't matter how many people are actively looking for it or not.
If it drops, it will show up for SOMEONE in the expedition and end up on the auction house.
Barnaby showed up almost instantly once it started dropping.
Why? Because everyone, regardless of if they are pet collectors or not, are doing island expeditions to level alts, their weekly azerite, etc. and they will inadvertently kill the triggers.
If there is a secret trigger for this one pet in particular, then yes, 200-300k people searching for it is indeed a ton.
Like I said, we won't know 100% until next week if it's bugged or not, but if it doesn't show up by Wednesday next week on the Auction House, then we know it is bugged.
The Secret Finder Discord has been searching for it for weeks, and they find stuff that's hidden OFF THE WORLD MAP in a matter of days.
If they can't find something hidden in an instanced island, it's not there. That means it has to be an actual drop. Which means it 100% either drops from Old God minions which start next week, or it's outright bugged. So if 24 hours pass with Old God invasions and none pop up on any Auction Houses, we know it's bugged.
There is literally no way that the secret finder discord would not find something that is not meant to be hidden.
So if it doesn't start dropping next week, EVERYONE needs to start @Muffinus about it. Be nice about it though, don't rage at him, point out that we waited patiently for 3 months for Old God Minions to start spawning to make sure it was bugged, and now we know for sure it is bugged, and it still isn't dropping.
I don't usually like promoting calls-to-action, but I'm feeling like this situation warrants it.
IMO if everyone submits a ticket inquiring if the Coldlight Surfrunner is actually available in the game to collect right at this moment, it might prompt Blizzard to investigate.
Not asking how to collect this pet, simply inquiring whether or not it's actually in the game and CAN be collected at this time.
If enough people submit a ticket, out of all of those we're bound to get at least one GM that actually responds with a legit answer (and not just an automated response).
If the answer is yes, it's in-game and collectible, then it's on us to keep looking/trying. If the answer is no, then it's an oversight on Blizzard's end and hopefully they'll address it soon.
I actually put in a ticket about this. The response wasn't very long, but I doubt blizzard gives their CMs a lot of information and tools to use, probably not their fault. All they said was that they have no information if it's in the game or not. Not that it is and we haven't met drop requirements, not that it is but isn't dropping as it should be, and not that it isn't. They have no idea. Again, not the CM's fault, but the fact that they can't access that basic information means someone screwed up somewhere.
First, thank you for taking the time to contact us, it was a pleasure to investigate this for you! ^. ^
I understand that you are curious about the Coldlight Surfrunner, wither it is bugged or just really rare. We don't have a whole lot of info on this one, looking over community sites and discussion forums about, there isn't much info out there, though some folks suspect there is something not quite right about the drop rate.
I will send this up as feedback to look into it and see if there is an issue. May be a good idea to start a discussion on the bug forums as well to draw some light on the issue and see if it is a bug or if it's just super rare.
I guess we should start a discussion on this possible bug in the Bug Report forums as well. If enough report/submit tickets, they might look into the Coldlight Surfrunner sooner.
If someone else wants to start a thread in the Bug Report forum, please do. If not, I'll probably create one either later tonight or tomorrow.
Thanks for sharing the DM's response, but this makes things...difficult to investigate. If none of us are able to get a pet to drop, are we to assume that it's rare or that the system is bugged?
And how big a sampling do they need before they determine that something is bugged or just rare?
This whole method of obtaining pets is just so messed up.
It's kind of disturbing that even when multiple people put in tickets, no one is able to get a real answer, as if no one at blizzard knows what's going on with this pet.
It's kind of disturbing that even when multiple people put in tickets, no one is able to get a real answer, as if no one at blizzard knows what's going on with this pet.
It's possible that the GM/CMs just aren't privy to that information. IDK how they handle secret or obscure data, but if their bosses don't give them the details or access to it, there's not much they can say. Maybe if a more senior representative had responded, we might get a clearer answer.
Anyway, looks like someone already made a thread on the Coldlight Surfrunner in the Bug Report forum:
The only thing I can add to this discussion is my experiences this week.
Whispering Reef seems to pop up every third IE for me this week so far, regardless of character, and I have 6 max level toons running 5 heroic IEs so far, so around 30+ IEs this week.
Every third one is a Whispering Reef, but only 1/2 of those are filled with coldlight murlocs, the other times was regular murlocs.
I was lucky to get my groups to hunt down all coldlight murlocs anytime they popped up, but on normal murloc spawns not so lucky, PUGs tend to focus on rares and quickness instead of exploration.
That's really all I have to offer is persistence in this search, it's only 1 of 2 pets I need now.
In case anyone missed it, someone received an actual response from a GM confirming that the Coldlight Surfrunner is indeed bugged at the moment.
Weâve received conflicting information from GMs before, so take this with a grain of salt, if you will. Iâm just glad to hear a response thatâs not âwe donât knowâ or a generic automated reply.