Hellfire Ramparts, ninja paradise (or is it?)
by Mike Schramm 
Feb 1st 2007 at 10:06AM
Ok, so I finally get into Burning Crusade (this was a few weeks ago, when it first came out), and the first thing I head for is, of course, the new 5man instances. We get a group together and run Hellfire Ramparts. We goggle at the new bosses, are excited by the new challenges, and gape at how much Blizzard has ramped up the loot. Finally, we down the last boss, Vazruden and Nazan, but he doesn't have any loot on him. Where's our loot? Oh, it's over there... in that chest that anyone can open.Yup, the very last boss of Hellfire Ramparts seems to be an open invitation to ninja-ing that loot. Just like the Cache of the Firelord (another notorious ninja location), a chest spawns after the boss dies, and anyone in the group can step on over, open it up, and grab everything in it. Pookybear (nice name) has noticed this too, and Blue answers: It probably won't happen.
It's kind of a weak answer, but then again, when I think about it, I haven't had it happen to me yet. But all of the Ramparts runs I've done have been guild runs (where we all know each other), and I'd imagine most of the runs on all the servers are people leveling up together who know each other-- as we see more PUGs come through, this might be an issue. Have you guys seen a ninja after Nazan? It's hard to believe it will never happen, but the community has been doing pretty well at casting ninjas out of guilds and such. The first time I saw that chest, ninja is the first thing I thought of, but maybe Blizzard just doesn't see it as a problem. Has anyone seen a ninja in Ramparts? Why doesn't Blizzard just turn the loot into, well, loot?
Filed under: Items, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Instances, Bosses
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Jusk Feb 1st 2007 11:06AM
It used to be just loot, for a long time in beta. But apparently there was a problem with looting vazruden. you would loot his body, get the need/green window for the items, and it would announce the winner and SAY they got the loot. But there was no loot.
I assume thats why it is the way it is now. Though I cant imagine what the bug could possible be to force them to use this work-around.
freehugz Feb 1st 2007 10:22AM
Never had anyone ninja. Actually I've had the reverse happening. The loot drops, nobody needs it and they hearth out without green rolling it.
One thing I was curious about and never tried was:
If a pally item drops, can i kick someone from my group. Invite a pally from the guild and have him come in and loot?
utope Feb 1st 2007 10:23AM
I read somewhere that they changed it to the way it is because people were able to farm the loot off of him initially. They would kill him and get the loot, then die to his dragon and when you came back in he would be respawned. It's the same way in DM north, not sure how many people ninja that box.
Zuuler Feb 1st 2007 10:30AM
I ran Ramparts with a PUG and there was no problem with the loot. A druid staff and a healer ring dropped, so the druid we had tanking, and the priest we had healing, got those items. Me personally, I didn't get anything from the whole instance. Only 1 cloth item dropped and it wasn't all that great anyway. The quest rewards for this quest were well worth it though.
Blizzard could fix this to make looting the chest like looting a mob and force people to roll or pass just like any other loot, but so far this has not been a problem for me (considering I only ran the instance once and probably won't run again until 70 and can get heroic mode)
liz Feb 1st 2007 10:31AM
I've had it happen, its sucks and at lvl 60+ you'd think you'd be safe from those idiots.
Jorane Feb 1st 2007 10:32AM
@#2 That makes sense, but why not just make the loot drop off the dragon, rather than the guy? That'd solve both problems, wouldn't it?
As for myself, I haven't had anyone ninja anything off him either, so for me it's a non-issue (so far).
priest Feb 1st 2007 10:33AM
Never had a real (deliberate) ninja experience in my WoW life, TBH, not on this chest either.
To 2.: The chest doesn't spawn till you take down the rider *and* the dragon
Jp Feb 1st 2007 10:52AM
I've run ramparts at least 4 or 5 times. Each time was a pug. Each time, we handled the chest fine.(not that anything good ever dropped from it)
utope Feb 1st 2007 11:07AM
@6. I know that. If you read my comment, I said that initially the loot dropped off the guy which meant you could farm the loot off of him by killing him, looting, and then dying to the dragon.
Kwobby Feb 1st 2007 11:16AM
To #2 and #7: The loot used to appear on the corpses. People would kill the rider, get his loot, and wipe to the dragon. Then when they all rezzed the rider would be back, and able to be killed and looted again. They changed it to a chest that drops when both bosses are killed.
I don't understand why Blizzard doesn't make ALL loot drops subject to the rolling system. Including normal chests, special boss chests, and green/blue/purple tradeskill drops. I've seen the Pristine Hide of the Beast cause drama as well.
Ekimus Feb 1st 2007 11:27AM
Agreed, I really don't understand why this isn't subject to a roll.
Whenever we down the boss, we decide who will open the chest. Or I run to it and /party "Not ninja looting, will link loot", as a show of good faith.
For me, the honor system works in this instance.
Heyasuki Feb 1st 2007 11:34AM
@ Jorane:
You could just farm the dragon then; the dragon drops down around 40% of his masters health at which point you could just kill the dragon and all die, rinse & repeat :P
Smithra Feb 2nd 2007 1:03PM
Different servers and, to some extent, different level characters tend to have different looting rules. On Lothar, it's pretty standard to agree to all roll need or all roll greed on BoE greens and to pass on anything blue or BoP. With a system like that, it's at least as easy to ninja off a greed roll as it is to run up and gank the chest.
I do a pretty even split of guild runs and PuGs and it's never been a problem. I've had waay more issues with people who can't heal/pull/hold aggro/other incompetent behavior. I think that, in most cases, the social karma keeps people in-line. If it doesn't, then warn everyone in /g /1 and the forums, then move on with your life. There'll be better loot down the road.
Frederik Feb 1st 2007 1:01PM
Yeah, it was like utope (#2) said in the beta. We wiped against the dragon after killing him, and got his loot twice.
Cat Feb 2nd 2007 12:45AM
IN UR INSTANCEZ, NINJAING YOUR CHEST
wowinsider.qsh Feb 1st 2007 1:59PM
I'm not sure he was "farmable" in beta, but I do agree they could have just moved all the loot to the dragon... in fact that's what I thought they had done, I've only been on one run and we didn't take down the dragon.
In beta this is what happened to me: we killed the orc, he droped a ring or something... we all roll, someone wins and recieves the item. We wipe on the dragon. Come back, kill the orc again, the EXACT SAME loot drops off him. New rolls are made, a different player wins, and DOES NOT receive the item.
It was all very odd, I don't see why they can't just put all the loot on the dragon, he's the hard part anyway... the orc's just a pushover. And he does still drop that note, so you can get a quest done without killing the dragon.
Wasyl Feb 1st 2007 3:59PM
If someone wants to try to ninja something at this stage in the game and completely ruin their reputation on the server, I really don't have a problem with it. The ensuing forum drama will be well worth the loss of a blue item you'll replace in the next dungeon.