Rich Thorium is bugged

WoW Classic WoW Classic Bug Report
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I’m working on a detailed list but I think this deserves its own thread

Rich Thorium is 100% bugged. After about 5 days of on and off mining, I found about 50 RTVs. Of these, I got a grand total of 2 gems, 1 star ruby and 1 diamond.

That’s it. As far as arcane crystals, I have gotten a grand total of 1 my entire time in classic, with well over 100 RTVs mined.

Rich Thoriums are not only bugged by routinely having only 2 hits from them, but gem drops are far too low.

It has gotten so bad, that Arcane Bars have hit almost 60g ea on my server. Crystals alone are going for almost 40. Alchemists are advertising constantly not because people don’t need transmutes, but because even people farming full time cannot get them. It’s super disheartening when you see a Rich Vein and don’t even get excited anymore, because not only are you expecting 2 hits, but because you know there won’t be a gem in it.

I did some research on RTVs and found out the 3% drop rate for ACs that blizzard is most likely using is wrong. RTVs do drop ACs at a 3% rate, however, this is per hit. Meaning, averaging a 3% chance, and considering each event is independant because there are reports of multiple ACs in a single RTV, the math would be for 3 hits

1-(0.97^3) = 8.73% chance per vein of getting an Arcane Crystal

For 4 hits it would be

1-(0.97^4) = 11.47%

Meaning my 50 veins, averaging 3 hits per, the odds of not getting an arcane crystal is

(0.97^50) = 21.8%

Which seems possible, but then you add in the percentage of the other gems, and how only 2 dropped. The values definitely seem off.

When I talk to other miners, one who mined for 8 hours straight said he never saw a single arcane crystal. Reports on thottbot show drop rates as high as 1 in 3.

Arcane crystals are exceedingly rare, and there are reports that blue sapphires aren’t even on the loot table which is obviously a bug. All the blue saphs I have gotten have been from small thoriums. In fact, the majority of my gems have come from small thoriums. Rich thoriums aren’t rich at all.

As a miner, I actually am going to give up on making my Breastplate of Bloodthirst because of the Arcane Crystals. That is absolutely insane.

I should be able to farm them myself, but after what I’ve seen that is basically impossible. You would spend a solid month to have a chance at 5 bars. Next to nobody can afford 60g each for arcanite bars, can you imagine trying to make any sort of decent weapon on my server?

I just want it to be known that rich thorium is bugged and needs to be addressed.

Arcane crystals are probably the most important resource in the entire game and when you have miners giving up on farming them that is not a good sign at all

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I don’t know exactly how many veins I have mined as GatherLite does not keep track of that, but after mining 778 ore from Rich Thorium Veins, I have gotten: 25 Arcane Crystals, 13 Azerothian Diamonds, 5 Blue Sapphires, 3 Large Opals, 6 Huge Emeralds, and 5 Star Rubies.

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You could divide it by 3 to get the count. Yours seems normal, but my experience is nothing like yours.

TBH you sound like the exception not the norm. Every miner I talk to has a similar experience as I do.

Conservatively I’ve mined 300 thorium and with your rates I should’ve gotten at least 5 arcane crystals. I’m nowhere even close to that.

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Nah not bugged I think you are just unlucky. My experience has been very similar to svengii’s.

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If and when you can even find thorium. I have been on at all hours of the day trying to find the best time to mine. Even with only 2 other people in Sithilius I am lucky if I can average 20 ore and hour. Eastern Plague Lands seems to be better at the 5 am hours. However they are definitely not using the 1.12 tables or spawn rates/locations.

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Idk how many veins I’ve mined, but I’ve farmed about 300 thorium since i hit 300 mining (which I can’t even sell, a stack is worth less than 4.5g on GROB rn.) and I’ve gotten a total of 3 arcane crystals. I know that some of that has come from lesser thorium, but ive got every rich vein location in winterspring on my map. i check constantly, i go out there to farm 2-3 times a day for an hour or more, i even scrub Darkwhisper clean- the other night I found 3 rich veins down there in one go and only got thorium/dense stones.

It’s not actionable data I know, no set numbers, but I feel like i should be getting more crystals than this. despite thorium being so cheap, the crystals can fetch for as low as 50 and as high as 70g

at least I can make a billion Thorium Grenades though, woo.

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This is the general experience of players on all realms. The odds of getting some gem from veins is like 7-10% per strike when added together. Even after DME comes out, even 2 manning jump runs I still think mining won’t be worth keeping. We’ll see, but if this 2 tap RTV meme keeps up I’m dropping this meme skill for herbing and making some actual gold

being conservative at a 6% chance at a gem per strike. even a 2 strike RTV should have a ~ 12% chance to drop a gem

1-(0.94^2) = 0.1164

3 strike

1-(0.94^3) = 17%

4 strike

1-(0.94^4) = 22% chance

Obviously we don’t see anything even close to this

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IDK why I can’t include links in my posts, but i’ve got photos. both are imgur links, just add them at the end of the main URL.

/a/Tt4czDc - PRICE OF ARCANE CRYSTALS.

/a/WKVfUoL - PRICE OF THORIUM.

thorium is worth so little in comparison to arcane crystals its almost laughable. i can spend 5 hours a day farming thorium and come out with ~40, due to competition- and its worth so little its almost not worth the profit. The only reason I keep mining is be cause of that chance for arcane crystals, but its so abysmally low that I almost want to give up.

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Yeah and that was exactly my point. We don’t need to prove anything through math. The market speaks for itself.

There are hundreds of miners farming full time for crystals. Something that is, obviously, a natural byproduct of farming and should be expected.

Except it isn’t. When I’m farming RTVs I’m not even expecting an AC. Hell, I’m barely expecting thorium.

When you have hordes of people farming an item, and no matter what supply cannot keep up, it’s a clear sign that they aren’t farming anymore, they’re gambling.

Farming implies actually getting an item if you put enough effort into it

Perfect example: I had a Pristine Hide and was planning on making my Breastplate of Bloodthirst. But I gave up after I had mined over 150 RTVs and gotten 2 ACs since launch

I realized that just getting a lousy 5 arcanite bars, something which should, as a miner, be the easiest part of the quest chain to do, would involve a minimum of 2 weeks of farming 4+ hours a day, and more likely a full month.

Again. A miner gave up on an item that involved farming arcane crystals.

That’s all I really need to say

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I don’t think it’s just rich thorium veins. I think it’s all thorium. Have you ever got a 3 tap on a small vein? You should occasionally but you NEVER do. It’s almost like there’s a .5 coefficient or divide by 2 somewhere in the number of taps on ALL thorium.

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Only getting 2 ore sometimes from rich veins and not seeing any gems or crystals

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I just did my first DME. Was the only miner so 3 RTVs to myself.

Got 6 thorium off 3 veins. No stone, no gems.

Now granted that’s only 1 run, but that’s pretty much exactly what I expected for this patch.

Why do you hate us so much Blizzard?

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Thank you for your images

ACs actually hit almost 70g ea on my server. I don’t know what the price is now that DM is out, but I seriously doubt it’s moved much at all. As I said earlier, the amount of RTVs being farmed isn’t really a factor. It’s all just luck.

Seems to me like mining is a useless profession. I would be 100s of gold if not 1000s richer with herbing and a guaranteed drop over this literal gambling profession

my heart goes out to those poor souls who actually rerolled mining after seeing the price of gems and ACs thinking they could actually get a few