Making it available in LFR basically turns it into an LFR mount. You get everything checked off the list at day1 of the ID. There will be less incentive to do normal and upward for it.
25 Likes
See the last part of my last post.
As it stands now, there’s zero incentive to run LFR, and will be even less in season 4.
One of the most popular themes in the threads I linked and the others is they were hoping it would revitalize the interest in LFR.
Though it is somewhat worrisome you think most guilds won’t clear fated raids the first week they’re available.
41 Likes
As someone that suffers from Psoriatic Arthritis and have for a number of years, doing organized raiding content isn’t really something I do anymore.
The achievement stated for the longest time that the mount would be obtainable in any difficulty level, so I’m quite perplexed that the decision was made to exclude LFR as an option to attain the mount.
I’m okay with exclusive content for higher difficulties, but this mount doesn’t represent a Mythic raid type mount. This is a mount that should be attainable by anyone that puts in the time to do these raids regardless of what difficulty they are on.
I don’t feel like performing these tasks on LFR is a hand-out or asking for anything for free. You still have to put in the time and effort to do the raids. It just doesn’t require you to use Discord, a headset, organize a set time aside to coordinate with a group of other individuals to accomplish your goal.
By removing this option, it absolutely will dissuade me from trying to attain it.
I do have the free time, but I choose not to be a burden on anyone due to my disability. Playing LFR gives me a chance to experience the content on my own time, my own terms without the need to bring down the DPS of an organized group. Sure, I have friends, but I don’t want a carry or have to ask for a spot, it shouldn’t come to this.
This is something that should be available for every type of player skill level. This is a special season 4, it’s under unusual and special circumstances, this isn’t your typical AOTC mount or Mythic raid mount that turns into .01% droprate when the expansion ends.
Very disappointed in Blizzard’s stance and decision on this. It doesn’t fit their motto of, “listening to player feedback”, this new mantra they’ve taken on for Dragonflight.
107 Likes
Kinda insane they can continue to make the same mistakes when it comes to mounts.
72 Likes
In my guild, we also had that discussion of “it says any difficulty, will that include LFR?” And the universal answer to our own question was “no way it’s gonna be LFR, it’ll be normal and up.”
We were so certain that one player in our guild who is casual and does not raid outside of LFR, spoke up and said the Slime Cat was his dream mount, so he wanted to raid with us in Season 4 just for the mount. We’re now organizing dungeon groups to get him geared up so he can join us for his first normal-difficulty raid.
I’m not even positive there will be LFR-difficulty Fated Raids (with the affixes enabled).
5 Likes
My stance on this is mostly neutral at the moment, though I think I could be convinced one way or the other depending on the details.
Scenario 1 – Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) Scheme Applied
In this scenario, the Slime Cat is removed from the game in 10.0. Personally, I feel like the FOMO tactic is unnecessary and potentially adds a level of stress for some players. Also, if we are being honest when it comes to difficulty, the most difficult thing for most guilds progressing on Normal difficulty is recruiting enough people for their raid. While this is funny to some, this is a very real challenge for others. Adding a time limit to the situation seems unnecessary here – especially when Season 4 will be 3 - 4 months and access to a third of the requirements cycles every 3 weeks. Therefore, while I really don’t like the FOMO tactic, if developers insist it is necessary, then the Slime Cat should probably be available via LFR.
Scenario 2 – No FOMO is Applied
In this scenario, the Slime Cat is not removed from the game, and the Fated raid mechanic continues indefinitely. Here, the pressure to get the mount by a certain time is removed. This means the Fated raid mechanic continues into Dragonflight. While it may take 10 – 25 players to complete the content throughout the rest of Shadowlands, it may become manageable by 7 – 8 people by Season 1 in Dragonflight. Maybe a well geared group of 5 can complete this by Season 2 or 3 in Dragonflight. Maybe in 2 -3 years it can be soloed.
In other words, as time goes on it requires less skill. However, players unable / unwilling to put in the time and effort will simply have to wait longer in order to gain access to the Slime Cat. Therefore, in this scenario, I think keeping the Slime Cat at a Normal difficulty level would be fine. Though, if enough people wanted it to be included with LFR, then that would probably be fine too.
Now if they chose to keep the Slime Cat for Normal difficulty, maybe a nice consolation prize for completing Fated LFR difficulty raids could be offering one of the following rewards:
- Recolor for each armor type from one of the raids (this may incentivize more activity to collect all 4 armor types)
- A pet
- A cache of Maw-themed weapon transmogs that didn’t make the original cut into the game
- Slime-themed transmog (Cosmetic category) to match the Slime Cat
Gearing up to Queue for LFR
Finally, currently, you can get an ilvl that exceeds current LFR ilvl via content in Zereth Mortis. Naturally, this takes a little time and consistency, but it can be done. With Sandsworn Relics becoming BoA, maybe it would be a nice option to use them to upgrade Sandsworn Relic gear to ilvl 265 (I think this is the ilvl of Fated LFR gear). Perhaps, 200 Sandsworn Relics bumps the gear up 5 ilvls at a time. The numbers here are just place-holders, but I thought the concept might be worth mentioning.
8 Likes
Its def not impossible to hit normal and full clear it with LFG but leaving LFR out seems kinda lame
13 Likes
Who cares if it’s an “LFR mount”? Others getting it on LFR doesn’t diminish your achievements in higher difficulties. If your argument is that people only raid for the mount and it should therefore be difficult, why are you not advocating to lock it behind mythic only?
There’s no reason to not make a mount available on LFR if it’s also on normal, see GMOD for example.
If this mount would be the only reason people will raid, then there’s no gain from adding it only to normal and higher.
LFR is as much part of the content as anything else.
58 Likes
I mean, we’ve been told why they’re doing it.
I understand that I never had the intention to get this mount from LFR. But. If Blizzard’s intention is to have players need to socialize and communicate to get this reward I genuinely think that is a good thing.
LFR and LFG have the same issue these days… no communication or true socialization. Can you pug into a Normal/Heroic/Mythic raid and never say a word, absolutely. But that is the norm in LFR.
11 Likes
Not everyone wants to socialize and communicate with others all the time. If the mount is available on normal, there’s no reason to gatekeep it from people who play LFR only for whatever their reason may be.
45 Likes
I 'm so done with raiding… It just sucks… people are picky as hell and then play like they never seen any of the bosses and fail the easiest mechanics.
This is one of many reasons i stopped raiding in SL… it’s just no fun.
I am very sad, that you can’t get the mount in LFR difficulty. It forces me into normal raids, with the people mentioned above which will probably drive me insane.
But atleast boosters will be happy and increase their amounts of gold…
55 Likes
The way I read the announcement was that the slime cat was ONLY available in Normal. Heroic rewards a title and Mythic rewards sonething else (I forget what it was…). There is no feat of strength or associated reward for LFR.
For solo players there is Honor PvP gear and LFR gear, both of which are not very compelling. I had really hoped that the Dragonflght PvP gearing system would be tested out for S4 but doesn’t look like it.
S4 is in 4 days. Nothing is going to change between now and then so save your breath.
The only real decision left for me as a Solo player is if I’m going to keep paying to play this game for 5 more months. Even with access to the Alpha and having an outsized platform to communicate my thoughts on the game I’m honestly not sure if I will. Five months is a very long time to live with the results of my feedback on this period of time being almost completely ignored.
16 Likes
I run an AOTC guild and we’ve been trying to figure out what to do in this unusual season where there is no new raid and no AOTC to earn. We polled the guild asking what people’s goals were for Season 4 and the response we heard over and over again was “slime cat,” so that is what we’re targeting as a guild this season. So while we’re normally a heroic progression guild, this tier our goal is just finishing all three raids on normal difficulty, and maybe we’ll do a bit of heroic for the currency, but the “we win the tier!” button for us is going to be slime cat.
If the slime cat becomes obtainable in LFR, I think we’ll lose half the raid team. There’s no new raid content and no AOTC, and for many of us, the dopamine does not flow if there’s no goal to aim for. I think a lot of people, especially those whose WOW experience centers around raids rather than m+, would get the slime cat on day 1 of week 3 from LFR and then unsub until pre-patch.
The mythic+ folks will be fine, as there’s plenty of new content for them. But for the people who are here to raid, slime cat is it.
I am sympathetic to those who don’t have time to raid outside of LFR, or have social anxiety or disabilities. I have a disability myself and it does limit what I can do in game. I think where Blizzard dropped the ball was not communicating this in a clear and timely manner. But if the slime cat mount is changed to be obtainable in LFR, it’s not like that won’t hurt anybody. I think that change would cause many AOTC guilds to skip this season entirely because they cannot field enough raiders (and don’t want to go crazy recruiting right before Dragonflight hits and everyone comes back and you have too many raiders and have to split into two raid teams. Been there, done that, hated it!). I have no idea how the change would affect mythic raiding guilds.
For those who really want the slime cat mount and don’t usually raid normal, consider joining a guild. I know for some this is very intimidating or they’ve been burned by toxic guilds in the past, but there are a ton of really nice and helpful people playing this game. There are also some great cross-server communities if you want a raid team without joining a guild. You may just have to put in a bit of effort to find them, as usually these folks are not real vocal in public channels. Look for guild advertisements on reddit or wowprogress or wowguilds. I personally would avoid guilds that recruit by spamming trade chat. An application process for joining, while intimidating, is a good thing, because when used properly it keeps the mean people out.
9 Likes
I’m actually quite surprised that no one from Blizzard has addressed this topic in any fashion whatsoever. It’s actually quote disappointing to see zero communication from them on this subject. I don’t get a sense that they truly are listening to player feedback, as this is one of the hottest topics and debates of the summer. Normally I stay away from these, but this one I actually agree on.
The wording on the achievements will override anything anyone tries to comeback with and explain it away as far as I’m concerned. It says on any difficulty you can achieve the new Slime Cat mount. It’s a decision I see no merit behind and cannot understand it under any circumstances.
Disappointing.
49 Likes
I’m going to bet that the moment you get the slime cat, people will stop anyway. I still don’t see how making it available in LFR would change that. Whether they quit after 1 day, or 1 week because you’ll steam roll through normal as AOTC guild.
Such a shame many people are okay with LFR raiders being caught in the crossfire.
26 Likes
I’m not sure what Blizzard could even say. They’ve explained why they wanted it from normal already and LFR has from my memory never rewarded unique cosmetic rewards tied to achievements so the precedence is there. There’s also a chunk of people who’ve from wording believed the mount was from normal since mythic has portals heroic has a title and normal would have the mount.
I think there is room for a discussion on if things like this are good or bad. Most people I spoke to are looking forward to getting together for 3 weeks and clearing the raid for the mount.
Blizzard also made it significantly accessible. Mythic gives portals that will see no use since the seasons out for 4 months. Heroic is a title and normal is a sick mount. So the amount of the reward for effort is extremely player friendly. It’s very disheartening to force single player design on a cosmetic mount in an MMO. There’s a lot of solo player content and this isn’t even a content patch it’s a rehashed season.
6 Likes
Except every PuG normal I’ve ever joined has less socialization than LFR.
I’m sick of Blizzard and non-casual players acting like LFR is just something people ignore and afk through - a lot of people enjoy it and enjoy socializing in it, and this was something a lot of people were looking forward to reinvigorating LFR. (NOTE: Socializing =/= Coordinating. I enjoy having casual conversations with people in the LFR, as do a lot of people.)
The ironic part, is probably 90% of the people I See afking in LFR are the endgame players who think it’s below them, and if you call them out they bring up how high their ilvl is.
Then you’d lose half the raid team the first time you clear normal.
At that point, it’s not even supporting socializing, it’s supporting using your friends to meet your goal - which should not be something that Blizzard supports.
How about adding incentives to raid Normal and LFR, instead of yoinking a nice treat that was incentive to do the raid in any difficulty, and then claim it was always meant to be Normal only?
Then they should have made it clear THREE MONTHS AGO when wowhead and many others reported it as any difficulty - we know dang well the devs read these sites, so they KNEW players expected it from LFR.
At this point, the only acceptable compromise is either telling us it’ll be available from LFR later in the season or outright adding it back to any difficulty, including LFR.
To reiterate - the issue is the devs knowingly let us expect it for the last 3 months only to yank it out from beneath us less than a week before the season started.
This is the issue. Not the fact they want something special for Normal. The fact they knowingly let us believe it would be in LFR for 3 months. They had 3 months to tell us it would be Normal Only. They didn’t.
57 Likes
I don’t disagree there was a very serious lack of overall communication about season 4 from the start. But it wasn’t just the LFR group that assumed things. There’s a chunk of players I even spoke to who thought it came from normal so I wouldn’t go to far as to say Blizzard knew and purposefully made everyone believe this when it wasn’t really a popular belief until this moment when people jump on a bandwagon.
My circle of friends is definitely different but I also have a lot of people I know who take this game more casually and even they thought it came from normal. I don’t think blizzard sat there watching people believe something because for all we know it was a very small portion of the playerbase who expressed and believed that. That being said their communication was poor.
1 Like
I agree with your purpose. As a casual player, it’s hard for me to find a guild or a group do to raid in different difficultes (but I do LFR for all raid). And I was disanpointed when I learn that the Jelly Cat will not be abeld wit LFR fated raid…
I find that not fair for casual players.
22 Likes
I’d like to point out that someone being a “Solo” player does not necessarily mean that they are a “Casual” player. It just means that for whatever reason they either can’t take part in organized regular group content or have what is likely a very compelling reason why they choose not to.
As an example I’ve collected all 13 class sets and weapons from Sepulcher LFR. Thats 13 level 60 toons all running at least 8 bosses every week for at least a few weeks until toons can start to drop out as the collection is fleshed out. Ive also collected all 4 armor type sets for the prevous two raids along with weapons for all 13 classes, as well as all 4 of the covenant sets for all 4 armor types. BTW, there are no achievements for accomplishing that during the current seasons but if there were I would have them.
The point is that LFR isn’t casual content for everyone that does it. If you think what I’ve listed above is easy to do give it a try some time.
Running 3 weeks of LFR, 3 weeks of normal, 3 weeks of heroic or 3 weeks of mythic is just 3 weeks to get the reward. Groups that are already clearing it at whatever level they do will at least be pretty close to that. It took me over 12 weeks to collect everything from just sepulcher…
I’d love to hear what some of these “elite” people would have to say if there was a highly desirable reward gated behind an achievement for doing any of what I’ve listed above.
31 Likes