Scouting around with the Crashin' Thrashin' Racer
by Mike Schramm 
Jan 5th 2009 at 3:00PM
Cabinetsanchez over on LJ has documented something that I saw in action yesterday while running a few instances -- while it's a ton of fun to run my Crashin' Thrashin Racer around (I'm undefeated since I picked up the achievement the first day I got the toy, by the way), players have found a few extra ways to make the Racers work for them. Yesterday, I saw one of my group members using the Racer a few times to scout the instance ahead and see what pulled with what, and as CS says, it worked great: while the Racer will aggro enemies, they won't tag on to the rest of the group -- they'll just reset after they destroy the little car.CS also says that the Racer takes no falling damage, so you can send it exploring off of cliffs and platforms, and he says that though the car is considered level 60, its aggro range is pretty small (I can attest to this, as we were driving it pretty close to enemies yesterday without it registering on their radar). And he's got an even more devious use (some might say this is an exploit): bosses aggroed by the racer will sometimes despawn after they conquer it for up to 30 seconds or so. That seems like a hotfix waiting to happen, but I haven't personally tried it, so it may not be as useful as it sounds.
The downside of this is that the Racer was meant to be a fun item, and if it really does lead to behavior that Blizzard considers exploiting, they might have to think twice about including great items like this in the future. We'll have to see what their ruling on this is, but hopefully no matter what happens (I'm guessing a quick hotfix, maybe even shrinking the range of the Racer's controller), this won't prevent Blizzard from giving us more fun toys later on.
Filed under: Cheats, How-tos, Fan stuff, Instances, Bosses, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Grakaron Jan 5th 2009 3:10PM
Engineers (and anyone we sell the controllers to) have already been doing this with Steam Tonk Controllers for over a year. Old news.
Wakleon Jan 5th 2009 10:41PM
It just means that their is another obsolete Engineering item. Thanks Blizz. Give everyone else our cool items.
On another note the racer does not take damage from lava. I found this out when I was messing around in OS. I drove through the lava and proceeded to aggro Sathiron. Thank God it doesn't pull for group, but everyone still ran out just in case.
Brad Jan 5th 2009 3:14PM
Of course there are downsides to using the racer in instances/raids. I wasn't there, but some friends from my guild were all playing with their racers and even though the boss won't aggro from the racer to the group, the boss chain aggroed on the racers and got close enough to the group that one person aggroed it and it wiped the raid (sorry, I know that's a huge run on sentence). Explore with them, but be sure to explore carefully. These racers can be your demise.
hub Jan 5th 2009 3:19PM
you can also destroy the frogger slimes with the racer...makes it a little easier to get across there.
hub Jan 5th 2009 3:20PM
....in naxx i mean =p
Deadly. Off. Topic. Jan 5th 2009 4:27PM
They have their uses in Naxx. :)
Rioriel Jan 5th 2009 5:27PM
Ooo, great idea!
infection Jan 5th 2009 3:18PM
3.0.8 Patch Notes:
General:
All forms of remote vehicle have had their range reduced to 15 yards.
I CAN SEE IT NOW
WNxSajuukCor Jan 5th 2009 3:20PM
The boss despawning is a gameplay feature added since for a while now. When you wipe on certain bosses they will despawn for a bit so you can raid recovery with a soulstone or the such. Since a boss will destroy the racer it sees the party that was tapped to it all dead and thus resets.
Philip Jan 5th 2009 3:22PM
Holgresh Elder Beads
Autumnn Jan 5th 2009 3:27PM
Ah memories.
FlameFlash Jan 5th 2009 3:24PM
I've been seeing it a bit in the BGs. Makes for a great scouting tool there, and it's small enough that people sometimes don't notice it.
Or amusingly enough will kill yours with theirs. :p
FlameFlash Jan 5th 2009 3:24PM
Ah, but not everybody is an engineer and this is a free gift item.
FlameFlash Jan 5th 2009 3:26PM
Stupid reply didn't work right... this was supposed to be for Grakaron's comment.
Stephen Jan 5th 2009 3:43PM
The steam tonk controller is not restricted to engineers.
hold up Jan 5th 2009 3:35PM
Someone brought their racer into OS the other day and after dropping a feast and flasking up their racer wiped us.
-5000 DKP.
Ilnara Jan 5th 2009 3:42PM
Yeah, the laws of aggro still apply.. if you're dumb enough to aggro something with the racer and drive it back to where you are close enough to draw aggro yourself, then yeah, you're gonna wipe.
That friends, isn't the racer, it's the racers operator, and chances are that won't be the only time the idiots wipe you during the run.
lol
Candina@WH Jan 5th 2009 3:49PM
True that.
Stupid is as stupid does.
Aderynn Jan 5th 2009 3:50PM
Now this has me wondering if you can "explore" around the world with it...like send it into the little nooks and crannies you don't quite feel like getting close enough to yourself.
Lazy, yes, but also could be a bit on the entertaining side (and mostly a moot point on my main...but could be more beneficial on a lowbie alt).
Gimmlette Jan 5th 2009 3:55PM
Spectacular Death did a Molten Core run on Friday and Saturday. Naturally, those wide open spaces between mobs were hugely tempting to a couple guildies. Friday night, right before Magmadar, one guild member tried to steer his car through two packs of Core Hounds. You know those. You have to down them within 10 seconds of each other or they respawn continuously. Although we had emphasized this to people, with the amount of dps produced by level 70+ characters, they didn't quite get it, until the racer pulled two packs. At least people we laughing through the wipe.
On Saturday, approaching Sulfuron, the brother of the guy who pulled the Core Hounds gets out his racer and before we could say, "That's not a good idea", we had Sulfuron charging into the middle of us. No wipe that time, but we decreed no racers where mobs are.