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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsPlagued and Black Proto-drake rewards to be removed
by Zach Yonzon 
Feb 26th 2009 at 4:00PM
With Patch 3.1 already on the PTR -- although without Ulduar yet -- the clock is ticking for aspiring drake riders. All hope isn't lost, however, as Blizzard is introducing two new reward mounts to go with the 10- and 25-man Ulduar raid Achievements. Pictured above as mined from the PTR files by MMO Champion is the Ironbound Proto-Drake, which I suspect is the reward for the Heroic Ulduar Achievments. There's also a Rusted Proto-Drake, which is likely the reward for the 10-man meta-Achievement. For those of you working towards the Plagued and Black Proto-Drakes, you don't have long now! Hop to it and don't die!
Patch 3.1 brings us Ulduar, dual specs, significant changes to all the classes, and more! We've got you covered from top to bottom with our Guide to Patch 3.1.Filed under: News items, Raiding, Mounts, Achievements
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 8)
Kakistocracy Feb 26th 2009 5:52PM
(first, consider the analogous situation presented by the ZA mount, it didn't leave when sunwell came out)
Now, consider the reverse situation of what you present (essentially), If the point of these "trophy" mounts is to show off accomplishments, why should a mount from a earlier content raid still count as an accomplishment? Raiders should have to continue to progress to stand out. X mount is cool for a few months, but you have to start doing Y for Z mount, the new impressive one.
Blizz has compared the holiday mount to these raiding mounts, and I assume they plan to leave it in past this October, yet every seasonal event, more and more people will get it.
Manatank Feb 26th 2009 5:54PM
"Raiders should have to continue to progress to stand out."
Well that is one point of view that I don't necessarily disagree with. I'm just trying to support Blizzard's apparently unpopular decision to recognize achievements in some real way. How they do that isn't really important to me.
Saregos Feb 26th 2009 7:48PM
I'm sorry.... What?
"I'm just trying to support Blizzard's apparently unpopular decision to recognize achievements in some real way. How they do that isn't really important to me."
They're... recognizing achievments in some real way... by removing the only real way they recognized achievements.
WTH. How can you even justify that this is meant to "recognize" achievements? It's Blizz basically saying "well, we're adding a new raid, so Naxx is insignificant now. No, don't even go back and try naxx. No, don't try to learn the fights. No... Unless you need gear from there, we have no reason to have you going back into the old raids".
The point of those achievements, in my mind at least, was to ensure that in the future people will want to return to old raids and try them again. Pulling these mounts is basically repudiating that, and replacing it with a mindset of "well, I'm geared for Ulduar, I'll never set foot in Naxx again".
Without achievements, without the tangible reward of the drake, Naxx, OS and VoA will become ghost towns populated by newly-80 toons only so long as is required to get the minimum gear for Ulduar. And I don't see how that should be ok with anyone.
Manatank Feb 26th 2009 8:13PM
"And I don't see how that should be ok with anyone."
Lol, you probably went back to old world raids for those silly achievements too didn't you? It's only really an achievement if you overcame some sort of difficulty. Otherwise it is really just filling out a checklist.
seanfury Feb 26th 2009 4:28PM
SUCH BS.
Fozz Feb 26th 2009 4:37PM
Please remember that the "1%" of the population is the one that participates most in the forums and yells the loudest, so this is blizzard's way of throwing them a bone.
The hardcore raider's ego is fragile and requires a regular diet of energy drink, hot pocket, and smug.
Drago Dracini Feb 26th 2009 4:31PM
BULLSHIT BLIZZ >.< Damn you!
Dightkuz Feb 26th 2009 4:42PM
Will have to find a random Undying PUG then and try to get into my guild's next 10man 3D...
Can't be that hard to atleast obtain the Plagued then, its like 2 months til 3.1 anyway.
d503 Feb 26th 2009 4:42PM
So rarely do we get to taste the tears of the casuals these...I support this fully...some things should represent skill...
T Feb 26th 2009 4:57PM
Agreed. And I am a casual player. And I resent the incessant bitching the hardcore raiders constantly spew about how the endgame should only be for them. Thankfully, Blizzard has listened to the casual players and has made the endgame instances more accessible.
However, in this one case, I'm going to agree with the hardcore raiders. These mounts, and certain other rewards, should be left for those that have the skill, time and dedication to do it. These should not be things that some PUG Naxx group should be able to obtain. Sorry, but not everything in this game should be available free of charge. Some things need to be worked for. And hardcore raiders need something to make them feel superior; the alternative is hearing them squawk more about how casuals are ruining their relig...game.
Kakistocracy Feb 26th 2009 6:59PM
d503, I'm sorry so many people are rating you down... Readers of wowinsider should learn to recognize satire, because any claim of "Skill" in this game clearly is such.
juanshue Feb 26th 2009 4:43PM
explain how one walks right through older content in amazing gear from the new content, if one has not yet gotten through that older content?
should there not still be rewards for the people who are still working though progression? I personally don't expect to be ready for ulduar when it comes out, so I won't be getting Ulduar quality gear to go back and do Naxx and EoS, etc. It certainly would be nice for people like me, who work hard but are PuGging our way through progression, to have our efforts rewarded just like the full guilds who made it through already.
In short, stop taking cool things away from us. If hardcore players need to feel good about themselves, then give them new toys. Let the rest of us earn ours too!
R055 Feb 26th 2009 4:48PM
Makes perfect sense to me. They have those as prizes for accomplishing something difficult. Not for all the people that think they accomplished something by getting an "Explorer" title or something equally brainless.
If you want something nice you have to work for it. Don't have the time to be in a raiding guild? Too bad, its just a freaking mount. 310% mounts have always been reserved for the higher echelon players anyway.
They've already dumbed down raid content in general so the casuals won't piss and moan. They make achievements like this so the hardcore players won't piss and moan. Since it can't be both ways they are trying to please as many people as possible and I think they're doing a decent job.
Elchemist Feb 26th 2009 4:50PM
I see this as a bad thing and not only because i want the mounts. think if the amani warbear had been taken out in sunwell patch because of the level of loot in there trivializing the run, most people woundn't have gotten theirs, and it really didnt trivialize any of the encounters for most because most guilds couldnt even get in the door to sunwell.
I still don't see the point of making all content accessible, if there's no reason to do the previous tier. I'd think there would be a lot of guilds stuck at the Naxx 10 level through Ulduar, or guilds at Ulduar level who still cant get the undying.
It seems to me a good compromise (if its technically possible) is to lower the speed of mounts obtained after the patch, that way the hardcore raiders get something rare they can show off, and those of us with more time spent outside the game still have an opportunity to get the really cool looking mounts, and have a reason to take bosses on in different ways.
Ezlo Feb 26th 2009 4:52PM
What they really should do is change the mount from 310% to 280%, that way the hardcore get their extra kick to the mount while the casual still have something to work towards.
Jay Feb 26th 2009 5:05PM
People would still complain that the hardcore raiders get the better toys.
Ivoryhoof Feb 26th 2009 4:51PM
I see a lot of good opinions and a lot of bad ones, but in my own personal opinion this is really really REALLY not needed, especially so soon. Of course people who have gotten it or are in really high end guilds don't care, they aren't concerned with the lower tier guilds and all that, only with themselves. But the mentality that they should take two of the mounts that many people want out because of this is just ludicrous. There are people still aspiring to get it, and taking it out before hand and just inputting new ones is stupid in my humble opinion. They should have made a separate category for the new mounts-and yes, some people want to make note that these are rewards for the better players. There are far more people who play this game who aren't part of the major raiding circuit then there are people who are ALL WAYS raiding. And even then some that raid aren't even interested, and in the long run, you are not going to get that many of these mounts compared to how many people actually PLAY on a server at any given time. SO trying to say that they are trying to keep them happy is redundant, since they are just a minor percentage of the actual WoW gaming queue. This is, suffice to say, a horrible thing for them to do this early in the expansion. At least the bear was around quite a bit longer I believe, its been so long I can't even recall. I really hope they don't take them out as soon as the new patch hits, or else there are going to be many, MANY pissed off players-myself included. I honestly could care less about the "people who worked hard and got it before everyone else" reason, as i'm sure quite a few other people are in the same mindset. This isn't about them, this is about the hundreds of thousands and millions of other players who are NOT them and probably will be upset by this news, just like when they removed the Amani War bear and anything else Blizzard has mucked up because stuff becomes too "easy" for the "superior" players of their gaming world.
Solex Feb 26th 2009 4:52PM
I'm only a few away from my black one, I'm an officer and just told my guild... oh boy. Its nothing but achievements until 3.1 goes live. We did 3 drake and the 21 or less ones, we just need 6 minute maly and the immortal.
With regards to the "casual guilds" if you're in a casual guild you probably don't have the time to worry about achievements and you're probably not really all that close to it. No ego just honesty.
That said while I was breaking my face and my guild was spending 5k a night learning to do 3 drake why should you be able to go in 5 months or a year later and faceroll in your t9 gear? This has nothing to do with the harcore being thrown a bone, its that this is supposed to be CHALLENGING content, its like the Black War Bear, I did it at 70 with sunwell geared tanks and a 3 40 man raids, it was hard and they were getting slammed, now everyone goes in with a group of green machines and come out with the mounts. Am I butt hurt? Probably I ride my mechano hog now but it meant something to me.
Your first ever raid boss kill? It was special to you, that moment where for once you realized that you could stand on your own two feet and play this game, your class and do it well enough, if you were like me you were nervous and you might not have done well, but damn you did it. People complaining about the drake removal is like the equivalent of you working on content, tough content for your first time on say Reliquary of Souls, you learn the interupts the phases the tanking and then after the nerf someone who got in sheerly because the nerf happened and you saying "Yeah it was tough but we finally got the interupts down and I got my ring I wanted." and the nerfed content player saying "Lol what interupts? I was just trying to get my epix." Suddenly all of the work and time you put in feels kind of trivialized doesn't it?
Deadly. Off. Topic. Feb 27th 2009 1:24PM
Erm. How is it trivalized? That person in that higher tier... do you suppose he just got it handed to him? Did he just skip all the prior content just to get GIVEN that gear. Really.
It's funny how people whine and complain "But I had to work for it," and NOT once think that the person who comes in later didn't WORK for it? Oh, it's just a higher tier so that means he "face rolled it"... right.
I'm just amused at all the excuses used to keep other people from getting mounts.
If we go by EARNED achievements.. lottery and chance at drops are NOT earned... that's winning the lottery... and yet people call them achievements. It's just funny how everything has an excuse to it.
Neodarkmatter Feb 26th 2009 4:52PM
Why would they only remove the raiding achievements and not the dungeon one? The dungeon one would be the easiest once everyone got Ulduar gear. I could still see raids having difficulty getting the raiding achievements even in Ulduar gear.
Why not just add a gear limit to the achievement? Everyone must have gear that is item level 213 or lower?