Rares and their Respawn Rates. Changes are needed

Community General Discussion
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So… I can’t be the only one that likes to farm rares for the nice things they drop, right? However sitting for 2-3 hours for a rare to spawn just to have the disappointment of time wasted when said thing you’re eyeing does not drop. I am not talking about Breezebiter but ALL rares this expansion in general.

There are rares that are not labeled as such that do not show up on the minimap, that don’t announce they have spawned, to which we must wait 2-3 hours for a respawn.
I want to know who decided that from beta to live, the change in rares from a very good 30-40 min respawn to this 2-3 hours cessfest would be a good idea.

ALL these rares; with the exception of Breezebiter, have daily loot lock outs so why make them such a long respawn rate? It’s insane to me that you would do this for those of us who enjoy farming rares for doing the things we enjoy doing; collecting.

Every day for the past week or so I’ve been sitting at just two rares trying to get the Highland Drake: Ears customization where I have waited 5+ hours for a spawn on both of them combined. By the time they spawn and refuse to relinquish their drops I question the devs decision to make these respawn rates asinine.

Why did you go one step forward with 7.0 and 8.0 rares being pretty much instant then take 5 steps back with Shadowlands and Dragonflight when these rares already have a daily loot lock out to begin with? It makes Zero sense.

Some people don’t have the luxury of sitting here waiting for a single rare to respawn since it’s last kill and will likely go months of being unlucky to not even seeing it, only for the .01% chance that they happen upon it untouched, kill it, and do not get anything worth of note. Thus the cycle repeats itself.

You might be asking: “Ravij why are you waiting? You don’t have to.” Well let me tell you; when I see something I want, I will do everything in my power to get it, even if it means sitting here in an unhealthy manner trying to stay put so I dont miss the spawn and have to waste another 3 hours waiting for it to respawn.

Blizz, you’ve been doing good with this expansion so far but the rares and the rates at which they respawn compared to beta is a step FAR beyond the wrong direction. As I said, this is a design decision that benefits no one and is a highly unhealthy choice by the devs.

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A necro but we can’t communicate wtih Council and since this thread already existed.

Keep pushing for less “idle” time, I won’t like to see more rares in this game with big respwans unless it has maybe the timeloss protodrake treatment (100% drop) and event that option is a massive time sink, during the first patch of this expansion a lot of collectors spent countless hours with WoW open in a second monitor while playing other games / watching anything else just waiting for a rare spawn, that’s not content since not even the rares provide gameplay, its better if Devs do something like SL rares that were summoned by using an item, so at least you can grind the item with other players. I didn’t see any update for Breezebiter and Karokta has similar issues between rotation / drop rate, I hope Devs change this point of view for the next expansion.

Thanks for your post Ravij

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Continuing the discussion from Making Rare farming more Accessible:

While this may be a small point to the overall conversation. I respect a player that gets something like Breezebiter, immediately. I understand what they went through for that.

But Breezebiter doesn’t have a daily lockout. Plus it’s completely fine to occassionally have ONE rare that holds a special cosmetic item in his loot table and doesn’t spawn so frequently. But instead of an exception it’s more become the norm.
It’s even worse when these rares all have a daily lockout, a long respawn timer AND a low dropchance. At Blizzcon there was big talk about “respecting players’ time”, but rares and all those cosmetics show that it’s not really true, more the opposite.
I’ve farmed the rares in the regular zones for so many months now just to get all the dragon customization and it’s not fun anymore because some of them won’t drop at all - and it’s often the case that I’m looking out for some rares the whole evening and sadly can’t find them. It’s so time consuming and gets really annoying that I’m investing so much time and get nothing back.

Because it’s cosmetic there’s no reason to put so many limitations in place. I would understand it if there was player power involved or some crazy valuable items. But it’s not.
I liked how Mists of Pandaria did it. The rare mounts were locked behind world bosses and the rares had a clear defined timer of 50 minutes. Some of them carried a toy with decent drop rates but overall they just had some nice bags with crafting material and some gold. I loved farming those because they weren’t overfarmed, had predictable timers and there was a bit of gold to be made.

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I agree but if the drop rate % is really high, because usually when there’s a rare spawn for an item that you want with a long respawn, you spent that time afk in a point waiting without doing nothing else, you can’t queue any content because you’ll miss the respawn. the game should focus in providing gameplay.

True but usually Devs just refer to seasonal content and forget that there’s all this “casual” content like the Holiday events that had a “fix” but there’s still a lot of players farming a pet in the last hallow’s end without any result to show their progress at the end of the event.

Agree, current reward desing for some items its just a frustating experience because there’s a bad approach between drop rate % , attempt ratio.

Even MoP had the Zandalari scouts for mounts, I hope Devs change this practice of big respawns, I’d prefer if you can grind an item in order to summon the rare, at least that way you can acquire some raw materials…etc meanwhile you look for the rare spawn item, also you can do it more social for players, but it could lead to a frustating experience too if the item drop rate is low with a bad respawn for attempts.

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I knew I’d made a post about this on the general discussion! Made before I joined the CC. Sad it never gained any traction but now that you’ve found it I’ll use this thread to discuss with fellow players.

Like you said, the way rares have been working the past few expansions after legion is a huge disrespect of the players time. I mentioned this many moons ago but Legion and the start of BFA was the pinnacle of how rares in this game should work. Quick respawn with a daily loot lock out. You don’t have to increase the drop rate, you could even decrease it if you wanted. But Daily loot lock out and quick respawn rate is the perfect way to respect players time.

People have been complaining about Breezebiter for the pure fact that no one wants to sit there and camp something all day every day for a mount. He needs to be made a true rare with a daily loot lock.

I mentioned this in my CC thread that people will say “Then don’t sit there all day and camp it.” and I will repeat; Any collector worth their salt will sit there so they don’t miss the next spawn just so they can attempt to add something to their collection.

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They already did that in the Forbidden Reach. A great approach that they should keep, but probably won’t.

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This isnt necessarily true. You can just as easily have a macro on your keybinds to check the the rare every time you are in the area for any number of reasons over a week, month or two.
You can spend 10 minutes shard hopping in custom to kill 2-10 breezebiters in under half a hour and then move on.
There are alternatives.
Personally I would say that sitting there afk is a colossal waste of time.

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A macro doesn’t tell you when the rare was last killed. A macro doesn’t tell you when the rare is expected to respawn.

This has become less viable as the expansion wears on and will be an obsolete option after the expansion is done. What if a fresh new player joins the game after dragonflight? They will be stuck farming it the way we have mentioned: Spending hours sitting at the spawn point hoping and praying. This is how it is currently for Late BFA and Shadowlands rares and this is how it will be when Dragonflight is done and War Within is the new expansion unless something changes.

Alternatives that once again will not be viable as new patches/expansions come out.

You’re right. It is. So why not support a better alternative than making us sit there for 2+ hours and support the right for more frequent spawn rates that keep their loot lock out and loot drop rate?

I will repeat this because you’re not understanding from a collectors perspective. Collecting IS the point of the game for us - not to be top DPS on the meters in raid or become unstoppable in PvP - it’s collecting everything and anything the game has to offer from appearances, mounts, pets, toys, and yes achievements. The only thing we try hard to do is collect what we want and move on to the next thing on our list to collect.

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Because it’s an MMO. If everyone got everything they wanted in 2 weeks, they would stop playing, (or go whine on the forums), and that’s contrary to the way these kinds of games works. TBH I don’t know why these sort of threads keep popping up. It’s not a difficult concept to understand.

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I think you’re just trying to sway what I say to fit your narrative.
I truly don’t mean to say this to brag or for ego.
I was ranked top 5 world for account collections for years. I am currently 7th. I have done every grind possible in the game, almost.
That perspective you don’t think I have. IS a large portion of what and how I advocate for things.

When I say things on the forums relating to the game. I do so from the vantage point of having done it all. My experience with every quest, every hidden quest trigger, every achievement and variations of them all.

I understand your point of view towards the rares. I agree is relavent. I’m telling you, there are other ways of accepting and doing the content provided that isn’t using descpriptions in so many threads that speak for everyone. Many things you have considered to be issues, while maybe not wrong.

I don’t agree with.

Many people don’t. So the conversation while it should be open and accepted communication. Is not right or wrong, or “you don’t understand”. I promise you I do.

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Because its an MMO there will never not be anything to do. It would be such a shame if a players time was actually respected. How crazy would that be? There’d be less whining on the forums to begin with.

Somehow I feel you’ve missed something.

TBH I don’t know why these types of responses keep popping up. It’s not difficult to understand that this was how Legion rares operated for the entire expansion and everyone liked that. How many people complained about how rares worked in Legion? Find me a thread. I’ll wait.

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Are rares really rare when you make them more accessible and common?

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I have collected every dragon riding script that is dropped thus far by a rare so I too am speaking from a point of having done a grind. I don’t see how I’m twisting anything to fit a narrative when you can take a look at my collection, while not as vast as you say yours is, and say I have been there done that.

I have done the grinds and put in the hours just as you have and I speak from a point of being tired of having something along the lines of the workings of Legion rares and experiencing the best collecting process and then having it torn away come the first major patch of BFA.

I am NOT asking for easy loot, I am NOT asking for higher drop rates. I am asking for the respect of players time, my time, and the time of people who only get a few hours a day to play the game.

Unlike you or I, some people only get an 1-2 hours max to play a day before something more important pulls them away. They may NEVER see an item they want and that in itself discourages people from playing at all.

I want a system that encourages people to play and actually have fun collecting not wasting hours sitting there because something they really want is on a 2 hours spawn rate.

With Legion rares and how they spawned it fostered a better mindset in people who didnt get the drop that day.
“Oh the rare I want on Argus is up today! Going to go kill it! Oh darn didnt get the drop, I’ll just kill it again on an alt and try my luck!”
Less people got upset because they could try multiple times a day even if they didnt get the drop they wanted.

Like I’ve been saying you do NOT need to make the drop 100%, you can LOWER the drop rate for all I care. The fact is the time of the player base is being wasted because someone thought it was a good idea to lock over hundreds of cosmetics being 2+ hour respawns.

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Ask yourself why they respawn in the the first place if they’re “rare”.

Rare in the MMO world is not a designation of like a hardly never seen creature. Should we just use “Silver/Gold Dragon border Mob”? Rare is just a shorter term for a monster that drops unique loot. That is all.

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It loses it’s uniqueness as you make it more common. You want it because it is unique but the changes you propose will it common.

You are destroying the thing you want in order to possess it.

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If you played the Legion expansion and early BFA at all this was how rares worked. They respawned more often. You are not destroying a rares identity if the unique drops associated to it are kept at a low drop rate. The only thing is you will get more chances in a day to attempt at that unique drop.

I will reiterate as I have possibly hundreds of times already, the time of players who cannot play as long most is not being respected.

WoW devs have demonstrated their want to innovate the game to fit a more modern approach. Look at account wide everything finally making it into the game come next expansion after all these years. They have said they do not want players to waste their time anymore than they have to. This brings me back to Rares; the way rares work in the past WoW may have been acceptable at the time, but to keep up with an evolving market they need to change it to better promote a healthier game play. Because as I have stated a majority of collectors WILL sit there and wait for a rare to respawn because they don’t want to wander off on the off chance that it spawns and they once again miss the kill.

As newer players trickle in they will find it harder to get a drop from a rare in past expansions because they have to compete with other people also doing the same as the higher level a player is the more likely they are to one shot it as soon as it spawns.

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If everyone has something, is it really unique?

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I’d be happy if they would beef up certain legacy mobs like Sha to make them last longer so more people could tag them.

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I feel like you’re not reading anything of what I’m saying thoroughly.

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Ever played a hunter, specifically a BM hunter and tried to tame some of the rares out there? Their spawn rates are FAR lower…

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