I agree with Soul here. The achievements say “any difficulty”, they’ve always said “any difficultly”. Unless they hotfixed it to cover their backside it says “any difficulty” right now in Live. People made plans for this. People came back for this. Blizz, you need to follow though with what you stated in the game. Even if it’s a mistake, it’s a mistake you left up for months with plenty of eyes on it, yours and ours. Pulling the rug out at the last minute is not it.
This is a very short season. Lots of guilds are on break. This is the worst time to lock one of the community vote mounts behind limited time content. Given the state of things, the Slime Cat would have been a great “Hey, thanks for actually still playing right now” reward that people could obtain in a way that fits their schedule, playstlye, and ability. It would also haven given casual players something to work toward in a season where they get exactly nothing.
And don’t give me that “friendship runs” stuff. Moose was one boss. This is 30. How many non-raiders whose guild is on vacation, or can only play in short intervals, (or any other reason) are going to be carried though 30 bosses out of “friendship” from strangers? Some, sure. Most? No. Casual players like this are either ooked out of the mount or have to pay real money by way of WoW Tokens to get carried. And just so we’re clear, this is after the achievement says, and has always said, “any difficulty”.
Choice is yours, Blizz. You can do the obvious right thing here and honor what the achievement has always said, or you can exit Shadowlands under a cloud of controversy and disappointed players and the appearance of doing it all for WoW Token sales.
Right? Even if I find some people who will carry my dooker though 30 bosses for free I’ll never not be salty that I couldn’t do this on my own time and my own ability level, like it said I could.
And they wonder why people are having a hard time believing them when they say they are listening to feedback and want to make the game better for everyone in Dragonflight. This is exactly why people show doubt towards Blizz despite the Blizzard white knights parroting Blizz and their claims of changing their ways.
Not to nitpick but I do believe early on it said it needed Sanctum on Heroic, and the other two on Normal. I remember reading the tooltip even.
And to be fair, PTR is always subject to change; THAT SAID… this was a silly oversight to change it last minute after the crowd that wanted the slime cat mount resubbed or what have you to realize they’ll need to pug or whatever.
It’s a 'slime’y move BUT at this point I’m not invested in it, just one of many reasons I don’t care for this team of devs to do anything meaningful and fun going forward in DF.
I don’t think Blizz is worried about their image at this point. They moved past that point once everyone destroyed D:I but they still made $50 million per month (for 2 months so far, and that’s not counting China money)
Plus the many many other controversies that they never addressed.
On this note, part of me wonders that maybe the reason they may not want to follow though is because they don’t want a precedence set that future Fated LFR will give mount. Which would be annoying.
Yes, I said I found it early on that it stated it different for a short period before changing to the ‘any difficulty’ part. I am not the ‘‘LFR isn’t raiding’’ crowd. Just remember reading it very early on, on WOWhead before it was changed to ‘all difficulty’.
All other achievements are very clear about the raid level required and always have been. That’s why we believed them when they said “any level” with these. The precedent being set here isn’t LFR getting mounts, the precedent being set here Blizzard not honoring what it says in the game.
Yes but my point is if they honor what they said then any and all future LFR fated raid might have the expectation that they will need to have a mount for LFR. Rather then what they want as the current precedent that only normal will do so.
And just so we are clear I am 100% in favor of slime kitty being in LFr.
OK I’ve been pretty uninterested in this whole deal until right about here. You’re telling me for real people have to kill 30 Normal + raid bosses for a mount that was going to be free at one point?
Blizzard, if you bone me out of a caterpillar mount when that finally comes around with this level of SLAP TO MY FILTHY CASUAL FACE I will be forced to stand outside your offices with a rather strongly worded sign informing you fully of my displeasure.
I am sorry though, slime kitty enthusiasts I will stand and be outraged with you all from here until the slime kittens ooze from every LFR pore!
yeah, haven’t cared much about this, but gave me pause too - the blink - lol 30 bosses for anyone no matter how well they play or how connected is ridiculous.
I mean lfr has never granted any mounts. It also never should grant mounts. Handing somone a mount for doing content you can literally afk for would be a stupid move on blizz. At this point if someone cant just go kill a few bosses a week in normal, then your problem is there. The bosses have been out for a long time. Mechanics should be known by now. If theyre not then thats on you. You should also have the gear to do it by now… and again if you don’t that’s on you. This is the CORRECT call by blizzard to make sure the typical “whining” (yall said it first, not me) casuals dont get their way with everything. Mounts and unlockables should NEVER be hidden behind LFR
It’s not even about PTR, it’s in Live as well.
Just look for it on Live servers:
Dungeons and Raids > Shadowlands Raids > last ones near the bottom.
Notice how the meta achievs are named.
We have:
Fates of the Shadowlands Raids Heroic: Fates of the Shadowlands Raids Mythic: Fates of the Shadowlands Raids
The first one that grants the slime cat doesn’t have: Normal: Fates of the Shadowlands Raids
Now, you can also look at what they require.
You’ll see that the ones for the cat say “any difficulty”, for the other 2 it says their respective difficulty specifically.
“It was an oversight. We were not planning to have the mount in LFR difficulty. But since we were not clear this time, we’ll allow the cat mount in LFR this time only. Other mounts will be from Normal to Mythic”.
If anyone wants to be upset after this, it’s on them.
Honestly, this feels like obfuscation. It’s not about the mount: I think that, ultimately, their goal is to completely phase out both LFD and LFR, permanently.
For whatever reason, this development team seems to believe that they can get people manually forming groups and running to dungeons/raids again full time. They also seem to think this will end up fostering a stronger sense of ‘community.’ That’s my take on it, anyway.
I like LFD and LFR, I wish more care were taken for both. Normal and Heroic have been rendered pointless thanks to M+. LFR awards ilvl below world content and still doesn’t feel properly tuned for world content players. I don’t understand why there isn’t a proper path of progression for ALL players, why there aren’t incentives to run auto-matchmaking content. I don’t understand why ilvl doesn’t soft nerf the content.
We don’t even know the game play loop for DF yet, everyone is distracted by DRAGONS and what basically amounts to a glorified Wintergrasp vehicle turned into a glider. Really? This is all it takes? No, this is all obfuscation.
I don’t believe they’ve changed. Wrath is already doa (imo) thanks to removal of LFD and I think they’re gonna try it in retail as well. Well, if they want another Pathfinder debacle, then by all means Blizzard, soldier on. I won’t sub if LFD and/or LFR are removed/made obsolete and I doubt I’m the only person who feels this way.
It’s not about the mount, it’s about the open disdain the company has for people who enjoy the deliberately neglected parts of the game who are treated as less than human.
I will stand and be outraged with you all from here until the slime kittens ooze from every LFR pore!