Loot for leaders

World leaders should award heirloom items when killed.
They should also be massively hard to kill. Not just in a “let’s fly in here and kinda overwhelm them” kinda way - in the sense that every city is a raid you can fly in into. Each district has a guardian, it’s own loot tables - but it’s beyond overtuned.

Take Stormwind for example.
What if the Gryphons flying over the city has observable blind spots that would rotate every time the world leader is killed? Ones that you can fly through to group up at a point in the city. The in-world “entrance” if you will. For this example, it’s the dead end road to the Southwest of Stormwind Park.

From there you plan your route - how do we get to Turalyon?
Genn Greymane patrols the Park - and he’s on par with Turalyon. You could start that fight - but a town crier will get the Stormwind army on your back.
So instead, you head through the mage district.

There, the heads of Stormwind’s Arcane Academy, Susanne, Janey Anship, and Lisa Pierce, wander the South District, while Jarel Moor, owner of the Slaughtered Lamb, is the first person any wandering warlocks in the district go to.
You don’t want to deal with being disenchanted Varian style, so you take on the mages in the corner of the district next to the Staves shop. It’s a tough fight - the spell they’ve been working on mutates every 30 seconds and has wildly catastrophic results if you don’t counter the effects.

Nevertheless, you lay them low. Enchanters and tailors get some rare recipes, you all get good gear, you carry on.

BUT WAIT! A town crier has seen your band of invaders! He rushes to ring the alarm and -
Your hunters and mages put a stop to that.

You creep down the tunnel to the Trade district - this is where things get rough. Along with the mass of Alliance champions hanging around the bank and auction house, a number of high-profile NPCs with some complex mechanics crowd the streets as well. Your leader opts to take you around the canals, with your rogues chain-casting Shroud of Concealment to keep a low profile.

There’s a couple choices now:

Head to Old Town, and risk alerting Matthias Shaw and the class orders for the chance at some legendary rogue gear, and a chance at tier tokens and crafting recipes.

Detour to the Cathedral District, and face off with Lord Grayson Shadowbreaker. His silver hand recruits are a tough bunch - many of them survivors of the Broken Shore. As a paladin on par with Turalyon, you’ll have to use every dirty trick in the book to win, and wipe the church coffers clean of gold and holy artifacts.

The Dwarven district too has resources - namely crafting mats and crafted gear you can loot from the tradespeople filling the district. Getting too close to the deeprun tram though will attract the unruly, inebriated attention of the brawlers guild, tough fighters who’ll test your mettle. Beat them and steal their winnings and trophies.

Or skirt around all of them, sticking to the canals and heading straight to the Keep.

Mind you -

  • Other than the marked blind spots on your map, any mounting up will alert the Gryphon Riders. There are extraction points - places to fly out or places to skip town. You could set up escape boats by the Park to jump down through, or rally spots by the blind points to end aggro long enough for a flying mount up.

  • If I crier manages to ring the alarm, it’s a lot tougher. Gryphon riders will change their flight patterns, the Stormwind guards will gather and become a targeted force, and a platoon of Stormwind Dragoons will rush to your last known position. Feel feel to use this to your advantage.

  • You’ll also be dealing with players. Bring your spray bottles and Doritos.

Finally, there you are. The gates of the Keep. An army between you and the death of a king. Slaughter them all, and break through the gates. Force your way into its deepest halls and coat the alabaster stone in Alliance blood. Reach Turalyon, and end him before he can summon any remaining commanders to his side.
It’ll be hell to go through - but worth it. A share of the gold in Stormwind keep, the plate off Turalyon’s back, achievements, titles, all the glory you can think of and more.

So whaddya say?

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Your challenge-to-reward ratio is completely out of whack imo. Heirlooms are not going to be enough of an incentive to get the kinds of players you’ll really need to be able to accomplish this.

The reason that the faction capital bosses are so easy to kill is that, generally speaking, the players that are still looking to do this kind of content are pretty casual and undergeared or not even max level, and those kinds of players aren’t looking for a challenge in this game.

Furthermore, while heirlooms provide a kind of evergreen reward that players can attempt at any point and the overall value isn’t entirely diminished, I think this overlooks how WoW players consume content: immediately and all at once. It’s the reason, despite the current meta-achievement for killing all the faction capital leaders rewarding a mount, basically, no one is looking to do the run, because nearly everyone that has played the game for a decent amount of time has the mount, some of us have had it for over a decade.

I totally get what you’re looking to accomplish here, and I think it’s not valueless; however, I just think this solution is a tad simplistic.

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