Spark of Ingenuity drops are so non-existent, it sucks! So why bother? "I quit!"

Community General Discussion
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LOL, well not quit, but definitely let my subscription lapse and see if the next content patch wins me back.

I’m not hardcore raider or Mythic+ fanatic. I fly solo, just chillin’ and grinding away on rep and other little out of the way offerings this game has. But I’m coming up to the end to all that DGF offers…

I love the profession feature in DGF, but it could use some fine tuning in the way players should farm for knowledge better.

…but my real issue is getting more Sparks after doing the gated questline that said I would be able to farm for more of them.

I really hope it’s something I don’t have to raid for, but I have been farming dirts and bags, epic world quests, world bosses, Cobalt grinding. I do LFR for the Xmogs, no desire to commit to harder stuff, but I guess it’s “raiding” nonetheless. I run Heroics only for completing quests when needed. …and never any sparks drop…

I heard it drops from open world content, but why is the rate so low? I’d imagine the rate is higher doing raids and mythic, but how is that fair, much less redundant since if I wanted high gear from doing raids/M+ then I’d do that instead of grinding away solo on building up my professions with knowledge, building the right tools, with the rights stats, using missives from my alts professions, and ultimately building my own high end gear going the long way around… but I can’t…

…because the drop rates for these Sparks suck, and if they aren’t dropping, then what’s the point of this whole “revolutionary” profession system, when the drop is set purposely low to get people into raiding if they really want those sparks. See the dilemma?

Maybe it’s all about bad luck on my end, but really I have spent two hours straight one time digging dirt and finding bags, I should’ve have at least gotten a spark in that time.

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It does feel like the drop rate is absurdly low, honestly…I haven’t seen one drop nor has anyone on my friends list. :man_shrugging:

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I mean, I wouldn’t expect a crafting material for 392s to be handed out like candy.

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they were handed out for free every 2 weeks prior to this, and we’re later in the content patch where loot is generally relaxed so not sure how its hard for you to understand why people would expect it to be better.

right now i’m getting less sparks (aka none) than we did when it was timegated. its a bad system. idk why forum andys feel the need to stan blizzard all the time but i wouldnt expect any less from a body type 2 elf named prettiness

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Considering all you have to do to ensure you can craft 5-star 392 gear…no, it’s not like candy, it’s steak.

As I’ve said, I’ve spent hours scouring the Dragon Isles, for dirt and bags, and clearing the map of all world quests., and not one spark drops? Where is the return investment for players like me who spent that amount of time like that?

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With the set expectation that they would be very rare after the fact.

Completely expected, especially as it was 1 per 2 weeks and we’ve yet to reach 2 weeks since them releasing them as drops.

I don’t know why people expect gear that’s likely going to stick with them the entire expansion to be handed to them on a silver platter. But I expect nothing less from Classic posters.

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Nobody is asking for it to be “handed out like candy”, how ever you want to define that in reality. Have you seen people doing hours and hours of content, hundreds of dirts, several dozens of dungeons and raids with no drops? That’s more than what people do in weeks / months, especially for the targeted casual players.

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Such is the nature of RNG. It sounds like the people who spam a single dungeon 50 times for a single drop. It’s possible, but you’re fighting numbers. It’s been expressed that sparks would be quite rare after receiving our last one from the quest. Good news for those that do dungeons and raids is that they can still get a spark every two weeks just as before if they find them to be that valuable. As for casuals, well I don’t know what you mean. I play quite casually. If you mean those that only do world content, the rarity of the spark seems even less relevant. Capped gear from world content, which can be obtained by now, is 389 plus 398 Dragon Cloak and 4-5 slots of crafted 392 (Unless you’re a fury warr) which includes two embellished pieces, likely a weapon, and a statted ring. The prospect of getting items that let you replace slots of the lower 389 gear with 392s seems like like a very fair long term goal. The sparks have been released as drops for less than two weeks. We still likely have several weeks of this season. It’s the same as the M+ runners looking for specific pieces at max rank from the vault; or raiders who continue to run after completing the raid to do the same.

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It’s just like Legion, everyone’s favorite expansion. What’s not to like?

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I like candy!

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I imagine the spark would taste like some sort of sour fizzing hard candy with a slightly metallic hint.

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There’s a large number of such numbers, obviously anecdotal so make it of, what you will. I’m putting it into perspective, that these numbers far exceed what “regular” or “casual” players would do in weeks or months, more so than the regular schedule biweekly handouts.

Using your vault rewards to grab a spark is not a comparable route, since that has an opportunity cost tied to it.

By casual I mean world content, or even people who do a couple of dungeon runs / raid kills per week for vault. It would take them more than 2 months to achieve the same numbers that people have without getting any sparks.

I also don’t see the point of introducing confounding factors of subjective opinions about replacing gear as a goal. The fact remains that the numbers, or at least those we have access to, shows that sparks post quest is nigh unobtainable, for more than the 2 week schedule in the past.

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Blizzard literally states you wil average one every 2 weeks and people are crying because they dont have one after 9 days.

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I got one dropped from mythic+

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And the Bottled Essences have been stated to have a drop rate in accordance to seeing one every 1-2 weeks. And presumably with bad luck protection to ensure that stays mostly on course for an average player, especially since they equated them to Legion legendaries.

See, the thing is, we know this is a lie. You got a guaranteed spark last week. It has not yet been two weeks without a spark that would break the previous cadence.

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That’s assuming people are equally active. Those who farmed for 9 days have activity far beyond natural 2 weeks, and definitely far beyond that of the regular player.

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Ive done all lfr/normal raid this week, a few 18+ dungeons world boss, hunt/feast/siege, rares and WQs.

Have yet to find one either…

418* ive been looking for the spark to craft my final 418 piece. Thats probably why its so rare, pretty much a BiS piece at this point.

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What data do you have on these ambiguously termed “regular” and “casual” players that Blizzard does not to state that the drop rate is too low for an item we expect to see every two weeks only nine days into it’s first cycle.

The forums are awash in people spouting “facts” on things they know literally nothing about.

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I guess my chances of getting another spark are as high as my chance to get the sha mount. Which is to say Not Happening any time soon.

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You’re assuming playing everyday even matters. How do you know the algorhthm isnt something that inceases significantly after every day you dont receive one.