I always assumed this was the way it was supposed to be. I thought it was random/variable what would happen. Sometimes it seems to spawn azerite adds, sometimes it seems to cause azerite nodes to burst out of the ground, and sometimes it seems to just sit there and passively siphon small amounts of azerite to you until the horde finds and destroys it.
They could be bugged for all I know but that’s what I thought was happening.
I suppose the island expeditions are better now. But islands aren’t a fun idea to begin with. They remind me a lot of MOP scenarios. I don’t like warfonts either. It’s annoying when there’s a good reward (AP quest for islands or 385 gear for darkshore) and players feel like they should do them if they care about progression. I think I’d be happy if I could just farm M+ and not feel like I was missing out. But even the BFA M+ isn’t as fun as Legion (mostly just because the classes aren’t as fun to play).
According to the Rarity Addon I have done 647 heroic IE’s on this character – another 250 on 6 other characters. I have done about 250 since the patch. Sadly, I cannot split out the drop rate from before and after patch. Having said that, the drop rate for items has improved. The terrible drop rate is NOT the point – the reward system is flawed. I am a world class grinder and I find IE’s the single greatest mind-numbing camp in the history of WoW.
According to All The Things and 897 runs: Rewards 77/154, Item Sets 20/57, Mounts 4/9 (3 dropped and 1 purchase of the Albatross), Pets 32/38, Weapons 16/45. Ohh and this is probably not even accurate as you added even more stuff - #$##%#%#^#!! Would anyone do 300 IE’s for a chance at 1 of the mounts or God forbid a duplicate – I doubt it?
We can all blather on about “gameplay” but what it really comes down to are rewards vs effort vs “fun”. The concept of hiding 157 items behind RNG where the player has ZERO control has to be the single greatest failing of this expansion and perhaps WoW itself. It took me 142 attempts of clearing Ice Crown to get Invincible… but I felt like I had “control” irrespective of the RNG. I knew it was there and I knew it would drop. I CANNOT say that for the Parrot Mount. Is it there, yes, will it drop… it doesn’t “feel” like it to me nor do I want to do another 900 to hear a “no”.
Bags still seem to be dropping at about 33%. My rough calculation shows Dubloon’s overall drop average seems unchanged at about 2 per run. Dubloon dispersal is jacked. You can get anywhere from 1 to 26 (that is my high). Why is the RNG stacked (roll dice on getting a bag, roll on type of bag then roll on contents) for the common currency to purchase item’s? My guess is that it is your way of hiding the actual abysmal drop rate of dubloon’s. All of this just infuriates players. The negative emotion of getting 1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 (99% of the time) far outweighs the elation of 26 – basic psychology. Despite the outrageous cost of the Albatross, you stumbled upon mediocre success by providing a clear path to attain the item.
Let me be clear – I am not a proponent of getting “all the things”. Rarity of items is a good thing for the community. Having said that, I am immensely dissatisfied with not being able to target and work towards a SPECIFIC item. I couldn’t even imagine doing 5 per week and expecting anything less than utter failure and disappointment. I had a run yesterday where I did 11 in a row and got nothing, that is 2 weeks for some folks.
More than a decade and a half of WoW design experience and the basic concept of reward is still lost on you. Provide a path to an item and let the player decide if it’s worth it to pursue.
So much to type here…
-The dubloon vendor was NOT a fix to the reward system, because all of the items added to the vendor are new items. The old items, especially the mounts, are still way too rare and soul-crushingly random to obtain. The low drop chance, combined with the weekly randomized islands and inhabitants, along with the randomness of what actually appears on that island, just makes this whole system a terrible headache for anyone who enjoys collecting things.
-Those with alts now have competing priorities. The weekly quest and treasure map encourages you to run islands on several different characters, while the dubloon vendor encourages you to run all your islands on a single character.
-Dubloons seem to have a lowered droprate. We really should be guaranteed to get at least a few each island.
-The new azerite mobs are horrible with way too many abilities to make them difficult to kill… CCs, shields, disorients, etc. These guys need a nerf in some respect, at least on non-mythic difficulties.
-Because of the above, the extractor that you have to click 3 times to summon waves of mobs is never worth doing, yet many players are unaware or don’t pay attention to the differences between the two extracters. The extractor that works on its own is fine, but it would be nice if the NPC AI didn’t always cause them to run directly to it after you activate it.
-Healers don’t have a clear role in the island system. Many of the dangerous mob abilities are one-shots or close to it, so having a healer in the party doesn’t really let you pull many additional packs. Generally if I’m queued into a group with a healer (or forbid, 2 healers) I know we are going to struggle to finish ahead of the NPC team.
I do appreciate the better mob grouping and feeling free to loot chests and nodes again, but overall there is still a very long way to go in order to make islands feel like a good system.
3 dps islands feel like being put in a 5man dungeon without a tank or healer & Blizzard say “good luck staying alive”… shoot, even with a tank, it feels like that.
i dont understand why the damage is so high. Islands arent even fun in the first place, so if were constantly dying, it makes it even more frusturating.
And then there are those people who always wander off on their own making it harder to stay alive & do enough damage. I could complain for hours about how much I hate Islands. Its the worst feature ever made in WoW in my opinion.
Gah, I had a big write up on the old forums that I can’t seem to find with recommendations. Unfortunately I cannot find them. If someone can find them and post them here that would be amazing!
One thing I would like to add since the recent changes is…
BORING!
GRINDY!
The old version had an objective. You would work as a team to hunt down rares and hope for a prize. Now, you just kill anything and everything. It isn’t nearly as fun or engaging as the old method. It feels much more mindless now that you can get prizes from killing anything. Is it nice that you can get loot from everything? Sure. I like that, but now they just feel like a chore instead of an actual mission.
Found it: https://us.battle.net/forums/en/wow/topic/20769387562
All of these should still be implemented.
I leveled my alt pre 8.1 through island expeditions (many runs), and have done probably a similar amount of islands after 8.1.
How have the changes felt? Feel in the right direction - I am having fun with the new islands, and more frequent ‘invasions’. I prefer the removal of the Azerite eruption so far, as the invasions focus on more rares and loots.
I have noticed my teams on normal/heroic can easily outpace the competing teams. Less ‘nail-biting’ finishes. I am not clear if this was intentional.
Have things improved? I have enjoyed the changes (clumping, more rares/more frequent drops + more dubloons) as I feel like I am working towards both something to buy, and getting random rewards along the way.
**Have things gotten worse? **The extractor change though - hasn’t improved the islands, and is net neutral to my play experience. Most of my runs we skip it in favour of loot dropping mobs.
I have resorted to using an Addon “Ahoy” to get insight into which mobs drop what items. I agree with someone else that maybe some of the drops should be added to the vendor.
What rewards have you been getting 4+ pets (6 total, w/repeats), 1 x-mog gun, 1 x-mog armor (mail, not for mages) lots of dubloons. No mounts.
For my opinion its the right direction so far.
I ddi two normals on two toons.
One got 7 doubloons.
The other got 2. 2 doubloons. Oh and a 110 g repair bill.
The droprates arent even consistent.
^THIS^
This would be amazing.
> How have the changes felt?
Slow, clunky, too many caster mobs, there’s an azerite mob that spams a shield on itself that knocks you back and deal massive damage, there’s no DR on CC from AI so you could end up being perma stunned/snared/incap, the AI is also collecting azerite too quickly so IE are still in constant panic mode.
> Have things improved? Has anything gotten worse?
Nothing has been improved with the launch of 8.1 in fact everything feels worse. Can’t make massive pulls and nuke because of the increase of caster mobs, really punishing any group without a Blood DK. Some mobs are over-tuned nuking 300k tanks, AI are still obnoxious
> What rewards have you been getting?
The rewards are basically non-existant, we’ve been screaming since day 1 to buff the rewards, buff the rewards, BUFF THE REWARDS. Like seriously, I don’t enjoy the current IE and everytime I end the event and get nothing just pushes me even further into quitting the game itself, this is an xpac “feature” but the reward structure sucks. I net 1 dubloon per run, that makes vendor items obnoxious to get. The current reward structure is ruining this mode. I hate everything about this.
Really don’t care for this type of content at all. It’s all about speed and hurrying. We need less GOGOGO content in this game, not more.
Alright, I posted earlier but I have more to say.
There seems to be a disconnect between what Island Expeditions are supposed to be and what they are for many of us. The developers have said Expeditions are supposed to be the most lucrative source of azerite for us, but azerite itself isn’t a compelling reward. Most players either have all their traits unlocked or are working towards the unexciting ones.
The most immediate rewards for Island Expeditions are dubloons and cosmetic items. Dubloons are also a poor reward, as they are only redeemable for a small number of items and a random selection of powerups (which, by the way, means no one will use them for powerups as long as there are items they could buy with them). That leaves the cosmetic items (transmog items, pets, mounts), which are historically a very good incentive to do content. The trouble is cosmetic are exceedingly rare and pulled from a random pool of loot based on many factors outside of player control (which islands are available, which enemies are on the island, which enemies invade the island). There are also so many cosmetic items, it is nearly impossible to grind for the ones you want (especially since you can get transmog items for other armor classes).
The end result is that the rewards for Island Expeditions are so minuscule, or so rare, that most of the time you feel like you are getting nothing. In the last few weeks since the update I have done 5 or more Expeditions on multiple characters and gotten 1 new pet, 1 pet I already had, and a leather glove transmog. From my treasure maps I have gotten Titan Residuum, gold, and a dagger transmog. I personally don’t care about pets, or Titan Residuum, or the leather gloves (I’m a shaman), so I don’t feel like my experience has been rewarding.
How have the changes felt?
Pretty bad, to be honest. I use islands a lot to level my characters for the fast exp, but the content feels relatively the same. It’s just grabbing as many mobs as possible and hope to just AoE them down while avoiding the same 3 mob abilities.
Nothing is exciting for these islands, it feels way to much like dungeons… except without the unique boss encounters, and loot, and challenges. For me personally, there’s not climax to it. There’s no villain, no foe, just 45 crocs doing the same frontal cone attack.
Have things improved?
Again, not really. I tend to just maximize my time in efficiency more so then looking for rare mobs, or exploring the island. Similar to above, it hasn’t improved because the changes haven’t been great.
Has anything gotten worse?
I believe the over all style of islands has gotten worse? It’s just a trash pack grind fest with no face. Mindlessly press buttons and hope to get out as soon as possible.
What rewards have you been getting?
There’s rewards? Where? Guess I’ve been unlucky. ![:frowning_face:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/frowning_face.png?v=6" ":frowning_face:")
Although I did get a Squid pet, that little guy’s kindof cool.
But no, the RNG rewards are just to sparse, having some rewards be a little more controlled would be nice.
Tips:
1.) Make a Kong Island full of Bosses. I don’t want to continuously fight trash pack mobs, there’s a reason why most of that has been phased out of raids even. Let me fight Arthas and Onyxia at the same time. Something more than “Don’t stand in front of the crocodile’s mouth, hurdur…”
2.) Make a few rewards based off time and competition vs the NPC/Enemy players.
Monkey Captain Jack is heading for his boat, race the other team to his treasure!
Treasure can include more controlled things such as a Banana Mount or Jolly Roger Flag toy.
Dragons flying away, saving the princess, etc etc, Timed races that challenge your ability to navigate the island quickly.
3.) Bigger islands. I know that it’s hard to design these levels and you don’t want people to spend to much time on these things, but after doing these islands like twice I feel like I’ve “explored” all there is to see on these things. This makes it feel very underwhelming and results in a “Path A” is the most efficient root.
Oh yeah, also, the power-ups suck. Some weeks just favor certain specs more then others and it feels horrible to go to an island with 2 disc priests and a resto shaman and have no options to buy something for assistance.
Every week should have something for every spec to basically “carry” an island run. Maybe make the effect of items reduce with Island difficulty so that the Mythics still feel somewhat hard, but pugging some of these normal’s at lower level is just awful.
You hit the nail on the head.
Hey Bornakk , me and my buddies got into Island Expeditions because of the secrecy behind them , we enjoyed farming the islands until we worked out that the loot table was dependent on what you killed , my monk friend was after the transmog from the Hozen , so we farmed that for him . which was super fun.
The 8.1 changes to islands look very promising
However the new changes to islands with all the unstoppable , no dr timing cc or pretty much all mobs made us want to avoid islands , you added a bunch of one shot stuff and mechanics that slowed the island right down , from around 5-8 minutes to 10-20 minutes for a normal, these feel too long and drawn out due to fighting one mob at a time . From my experince the “fastest” way to do these in 8.1 is send a tank around the island to gather everything he can while the other 2 mine until the tank dies .
Before the islands were fun and engaging now they feel super bad , you get an island week full of casters with hard cc ? bad luck
Thanks for taking your time to ask the community their feedback - Förecast
They feel much better but the Islands still revolve around killing lots of trash. I would prefer if there was actually less killing and more actual exploration. A good example would be some of the portals that take you to the bosses, maybe turn those into a small little maze with a nice azerite reward at the end.
It feels like you re-tuned Islands for 8.1 and based it on the assumption we have Battle for Dazar’alor raid gear, which is fine but I feel like that should have happened at the same time you re-tune everything else for the new season.
The new azerite spider adds with the shields and blinds are insanely annoying. Not to mention some of the portal bosses (such as the earth elemental) are literally unkillable as a melee. They just spam ground effect 1 shot abilities around them that its impossible to actually do any damage to them as a melee DPS. We did a mythic with a blood dk, myself as a frost dk and a boomkin. the boomkin soloed it because the boss literally does zero abilities that harm ranged but is the anti melee mob I’ve ever seen in my life.
The azerite extractor is terrible. The one where it has to be clicked to spawn mobs is absolutely not worth doing, it takes forever to kill them and the rewarded azerite is not worth the effort. I’ve lost games because my group would not leave it alone and the alliance caught up because the azerite gains are just not worth the time it takes to clear all the waves. Anybody who knows what there doing just avoids it.
The transmog greens and blue’s seem to drop more often as I’ve noticed they’ve all tanked in prices on the AH. Pets seem to be rewarded often enough, I get one every 5 or so Islands. Mounts still seem to be nonexistent. I’ve run over 300 Islands and I don’t have a single mount, its a bit ridiculous as a mount collector.
It would be amazing if you would just add all Island items, mounts, transmog, pets etc to a vendor for a set dubloon cost so we can target the things we want if we are unlucky.
Treasure map is ok. Just feels like a weekly chance at rng island loot or gold, AP, residium. Nothing much to say, I mostly just pray i get a transmog item thats worth a lot or a mount which I’m sure is what everyone’s hoping for.
Dubloon rewards seem to have gotten worse for wins. i used to get 8-12+ dubloons from a win every 3 ish Islands, now I get a whole lot more 1-3 from wins. Makes going for the vendor rewards a huge pain.
Overall 8.1 made Islands much better but there’s definitely still room for improvement.
It feels like it would be much better as solo content. I feel like at the moment being in a group just ends up holding me back since it’s much less structured than dungeons. I want to explore and interact with the island, and I can’t do that since I have to stay with the group instead and zerg everything.
I enjoy doing my weekly islands to get the treasure map reward each week. I usually do 3 mythics, then a normal or heroic to fill in the gaps.
I have two major issues with how islands are right now.
1.) The mob tuning is all over the place at the moment. Regular snake mobs have a cone spit attack that does massive damage with a 1-2 second cast. Frost trolls have a casted frost bolt that also do an absurd amount of damage. Some melee mobs, on the other hand, hit for almost nothing. I think a tuning pass on the individual mob packs needs to be done.
2.) I am all for the treasure maps providing an extra weekly reward. However, I am not a fan of the Green/Uncommon quality transmog items being a potential item for the missions. It feels underwhelming compared to the other possibilities (gold, AP, mounts, etc), which have a greater impact on character progression/prestige. If some rewards are more likely to drop from killing certain themed mobs, perhaps these transmog items can be moved over to that loot pool instead? Maybe even have transmog sets available from the dubloon vendor like in the Trial of Style?
The islands are definitely better than their first iteration this patch. For me, these couple of tweaks would be highly desirable.
I enjoyed islands before the changes, and I still enjoy them.
However, the drop rate for rewards is still terrible. I’ve leveled multiple alts entirely in islands and have 5 characters running them weekly. I have yet to see a single mount drop from an island. The coin drop rate is ridiculously low as well.
I enjoy using islands to break up the monotony of leveling, and the rewards are an extra incentive, but I honestly can’t tell the drop rate was increased.