Rare mobs in classic, BC, and Wrath
by Eliah Hecht 
Aug 20th 2008 at 1:00PM
Rare mobs are one of my favorite unexpected pleasures in WoW. It's such a thrill to be questing or grinding along and see that silver dragon; it adds a lot of flavor to what could otherwise be some boring runs through out-of-the-way zones. In fact, that's an upside to the current depopulation of Azeroth: I find many more rare mobs, since no-one's been by to kill them in an hour or two. Fun fight, interesting mob, automatic green.
However, when Burning Crusade came out, it was discovered that all the Outland rare mobs were also elite. There was a blue post around the time that defended the decision as allowing them to put better loot on the mobs, making them walking treasure chests (BC also has no world treasure chests, sadly Thanks; I guess there are still new things for me to learn in BC) . But it did make them basically unsoloable, which takes a lot of the excitement out of spotting one, at least for me: by the time I get four more people to come help me out, I don't really care any more.
Back in patch 2.3, almost all elites outside of instances were nerfed down to non-elites. This made many more quests and mobs soloable. And I just found out that all the Outland rare elites were included in this as well. Their loot may have been toned down a bit (I'm really not sure), but I think this is a great move. I'm now looking forward to scanning for rares while flying around Outland.
The question now is: will there be rares in Northrend? This was asked by a tipster whose character name I'm not going to reproduce here, because it's naughty. As of right now, no rares have been implemented in the Wrath beta, so we don't know for sure what they're going to do. My guess is that there will be rare mobs, and that most or all of them will be non-elite. It seems like it would be a step backwards to make them all elite like they did when BC was launched; Blizzard has learned a lot of lessons from classic WoW and from BC that they're putting to work in Wrath.
Filed under: The Burning Crusade, NPCs, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Ktok Aug 20th 2008 1:03PM
"BC also has no world treasure chests, sadly"
Um... yeah it does... all over the place. They're just smaller and tend to blend in with the grass.
Maana Aug 20th 2008 1:13PM
Glad I am not the only one thinking this. While getting silk and mageweave has been a major annoyance the occasional khorium from fel iron bound, and adamantite bound chests is nice. There are tons of places to find these chests, and yes, as Ktok said they blend in VERY WELL! Whether it's in the swamps of Zangarmarsh near the broken, grassy ogre huts in Nagrand, or in the dark areas in Blades Edge Mountains and Shadowmoon Valley, they are real, they are there, and while most are disappointing ( 3 silk and a lvl 45 water in my last one) they are worth keeping your eyes open for! ( Ore, Leather, herbs and one blue gem)
Arlendor Aug 20th 2008 1:10PM
http://www.wowwiki.com/Fel_Iron_Chest , for clarification.
Grock Aug 20th 2008 1:51PM
Note: While there are chests *now*, they weren't there when BC first came out. In fact, I think it wasn't until the first Dailies were released that Outland got chests.
Xetan Aug 20th 2008 4:16PM
as grock said all chests in BC were introduced a good bit after launch. Before they were all in instances.
Thander Aug 20th 2008 6:03PM
They decided to remove at BC launch because gold farmers had farmed them in the past for easy greens and sometimes blues. When they finally added them, they no longer dropped good stuff. They just drop trade skill item junk and maybe a little silver.
JDM Aug 21st 2008 6:23AM
@Grock
They were always there from BC launch, they just had old-world loot (like level 40 crap). Much later they decided to change the loot to be outlands-level items.
peagle Aug 20th 2008 1:04PM
I'd like to see rare mobs back in instances too, at least heroic so they can't be farmed. Magister's Terrace for example - the Orb that turns you into a belf, that should have been on a Hearthsinger type rare who was a lucky spawn.
Jane Gray Aug 20th 2008 2:25PM
YES!
Farming old world instances for stuff is made marginally more interesting by the occasional rare spawn lighting up my day.
Raaj Aug 20th 2008 7:34PM
I'd be fine with that, but only if whatever loot they did drop was Bind on Equip. That makes it useful to anyone lucky enough to see the rare spawn! :)
Ken Aug 20th 2008 1:06PM
There are definitely chests in Outlands.
Valentine Aug 20th 2008 1:07PM
Yup, its true. a Notable one is on the horde/alliance towers just above the deathforge in SMV.
Those ones spawn randomly and drop potions and stuff, every time you fly to BT its best to stop off and pick up the free raid consumables it drops.
Cosmix Aug 20th 2008 1:08PM
Yeah, get gatherer and the wowhead database and turn on the treasure chests. I farm ore, herbs, and chests in Netherstorm and get dozens of chests per night. A lot of times I get a chest in an area that someone else just cleared. I'm tempted to whisper them (if I see them in the area still) to let them know that they missed it, but I figure, nah, I'll keep my little secret. The fewer people on Kul Tiras who gets chests in Netherstorm, the more that are available for me!
Siggy Aug 20th 2008 1:09PM
"No world treasure chests in BC..."
http://www.wowhead.com/?object=181798
http://www.wowhead.com/?object=181800
http://www.wowhead.com/?object=181802
?
Melissa Aug 20th 2008 3:23PM
http://www.wowhead.com/?object=181802
http://www.wowhead.com/?object=181804
http://www.wowhead.com/?object=181800
(There's another that still contains lvl 40 items, but WoWInsider restricts URLs to 3.)
I may be misremembering, but I seem to recall that they made the Outland rares elites to be "walking treasure chests" in the beta, then decided to add (bugged) treasure chests after all. It was only later, with 2.2, that they fixed the chests to contain level-appropriate items.
Blayed Aug 20th 2008 1:21PM
Sometimes when I'm bored (prot spec warrior - a LOT of boredom), I hop on my roflcopter (see Turbo-Charged Flying Machine) and fly around SMV and Netherstorm looking for chests. I've gotten to memorize a lot of their spawn points, so it's not total guess work. If you don't know where they spawn, just look inside ruins, tents and buildings, usually surrounded by mobs.
As opposed to the big "cartoon pirate treasure" style chests, they're small brown boxes, about as high as your knees (or forehead if you're a gnome).
Blayed Aug 20th 2008 1:26PM
As an addition, Blizzard forgot to make unique loot tables for all of the outdoor Outlands chests, so they all share a loot table with the chests you would find about level 50-60 Azeroth zones.
No real point in looking for them, unless you're like me, and take joy in opening things >.>
jbodar Aug 20th 2008 5:51PM
Heavy Fel Iron and Adamantite Chests certainly have good loot tables with TBC items. Only regular Fel Iron have the gimped loot tables.
http://www.wowhead.com/?object=181800
http://www.wowhead.com/?object=181802
Marcelo Abans Aug 20th 2008 2:37PM
Can't solo them? I don't think I've ever had an issue with that..
Gareth Aug 21st 2008 10:26AM
Rare mobs in outlands are were not soloable at all, they used to be at the difficulty of a dungeon boss or above and certainly needed at least 3 very well equipped people.