Ok so let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room- whether or not you’re in the camp of gatekeeping exclusive polygons or not to maintain their prestige, reality is hitting hard when I say it’s been a literal decade since the MoP sets came out and 6 years since Legion. Coming from someone who has a few of those sets/weapons and believes the “value” factor is still important, a system like this would open the door to new and old players alike while still preserving scarcity by making it very challenging to obtain.
Much like how the original “You had to be there to get it” Naxxramas sets eventually found their way to the Black Market Auction House, everyone’s fears were quelled when they realized that getting each individual piece costs a fortune, appear very infrequently for your class, and pit you against other players to obtain them. Those who were worried that their “I was there” prestige would go away found their sense of accomplishment tightly secured while still allowing the chance for others to get the sets.
The reason I suggest the Challenge sets and Mage Tower weapons for the trading post instead is for a few reasons:
- Trading post is keeping the game and the world alive, and that’s obviously a very good thing
- For the CM sets, having each piece appear at a max of 1 per month at random (specific to your class) at a cost of 2000 tokens puts the minimum required time to collect the entire thing at 8 months. That’s 8 months if the player buys nothing else AND caps out their tokens every single month. There will be a staggering amount of people that give up after the first 1 or 2 months. Guaranteed.
- For the weapon appearances, same thing. They would appear at random, specific to your class (not spec) and only appear as certain colours, valued at 2k each. Same logic applies to this as my previous point
- You will get some months where on top of getting some really cool item offerings, you may also get a month where you’re offered 1 CM set piece and mage tower appearance at the same time. Now you have to choose. You can only freeze one, remember? The large price tag for those sets or weapons will undoubtedly serve as a giant deterrent for most, and just like how obtaining the Challenge sets and Mage Tower weapons were a grind back then, placing them in the shop will also be an immense grind that most people will likely give up on, preserving said scarcity.
- Consider the fact that people won’t always be capped at 2k tokens, because other things will pop up that they’ll want too. Using basic median calculation, an active player who caps out their tokens every month would take a minimum of a 11 months to obtain all 8 CM set pieces + 4 mage tower weapon appearances, would also need perfect luck on all pieces appearing consecutively, and would need to pass up on 11 months worth of other trading post cosmetics. In a more realistic scenario where some months offer 0 new CM/MT pieces, and other months have cooler items the player would prefer, you’d most likely still take between 1.5 - 2.5 years to accrue it all, and that’s if you were dedicated enough to still cap out your tokens every single month.
In Conclusion:
History has proven that just like the Naxx Tier 3 sets being available but still very difficult to obtain, the possibility of getting “rare” items for all doesn’t actually ruin the prestige for those that have it (also they wouldn’t have the literal achievements, so that can always still remain your true flex, just saying). I think it’s important for new and old players alike to feel they can grind or aspire to get something, it becomes a drive to play the game, even if they literally never end up actually getting it. Much like in real life, being told “You’ll never get this” vs. “One day, I could get this” can make a world of difference. A decade is 1/8th of most people’s lives- isn’t that enough time to have your cake and eat it too before finally sharing?
I say all of this as someone with plenty of challenge sets and mage tower appearances already under my belt. I’ve had my fun, had people whisper me mog compliments, and I’ve also had people bummed out when I tell them it’s impossible to get now. And as someone who has seen countless threads on issues like this regarding the CM sets, Mage Tower weapons, and Trading Card Game mounts, I ask you this;
Is this method I’ve suggested not a fair compromise? Or would you rather these items be obtained from a random twitch drop in a year or two that absolutely everyone could get? (coughs in feldrake)
