Ulduar proto-drakes will get one-month warning for removal
by Eliah Hecht 
Jun 22nd 2009 at 1:00PM
The roller-coaster of "will they or won't they remove the Ulduar raid drake rewards" seems to have come to a definitive answer. The rusted and ironbound proto-drakes will be removed, but they will give us "about 1 month of warning" so you can make a final push if you really want it. The drakes are rewards for completing Glory of the Ulduar Raider (and the 25-man version).
Bornakk points out the parallel with the Arena mount rewards, and says that this is no accident: these are supposed to be rewards for the "top tier" of raiders, and letting people earn them with more powerful equipment from higher raids would defeat that purpose. Therefore, he says we should expect it to go this way in the future, as it was with the Naxx drakes.
As a side note, he says they may be removed when patch 3.2 comes out or some time after. This suggests to me that they think there's a decent chance patch 3.2 will come out less than a month from now. If they knew it was going to come out later, they'd just give the one month warning a month before they expected the patch to drop.
Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!
Filed under: Patches, News items, Raiding, Mounts, Achievements
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
epsilon343 Jun 22nd 2009 1:03PM
Seems like the easiest solution would be to just put in the iLevel restriction like they did for one of the Algalon achievements...
Mark Jun 22nd 2009 1:09PM
"This suggests to me that they think there's a decent chance patch 3.2 will come out less than a month from now."
No it doesn't.
Bornakk's post says:
1) We'll give you a month warning.
2) We might allow you a smattering of gear from 3.2, but don't think we are going to let you farm the Coliseum and still get the rewards from Ulduar.
He then doesn't say anything to the effect of: "So get a move on those drakes." Nor does he even vaguely hint at it.
If anything, it's a lot more likely that when the patch gets closer, they'll say: "Drakes to be removed in a month", letting people that are close finish and perhaps -- and this is hardly gamebreaking -- get a piece or two of extra gear in order to do it. Such a change would satisfy the vast, vast majority of us who are feeling the tightness of the time schedule and yet understand that the rewards are going to be scarce. (And, yes, my guild got both from the Tier 7 cycle, when the 10-man one was arguably similarly hard, unlike now.)
I could read his post and say, "It shows they don't have any clue at all when 3.2 is shippping". My interpretation feels a lot closer than yours. And, regardless, isn't wishing thinking but more a, "history backs up what I'm saying' kind of thing.
Nick Jun 22nd 2009 1:32PM
Damn Mark a little harsh don't you think? I agree with you and with what Bornakk says but did you have to present it that way?
I'm all for proving your point if your view is contested but you didn't even present it in a way to give anyone a chance to say you were wrong. Lay off Eliah he was just reporting what he read and then voiced his opinion. he didn't say it was a fact.
wow Jun 22nd 2009 2:08PM
@Nick Wwhen someone says something as stupid as Eliah did, what do you expect for a response? Saying 3.2 will drop within a month is dumb enough, but then trying to justify the reasoning with 'If they knew it was going to come out later, they'd just give the one month warning a month before they expected the patch to drop.' is just idiotic.
Hendrata Jun 22nd 2009 4:50PM
There's another good reason why it won't come in a month nor why it won't be removed soon:
None of the guild, not even Ensidia has that achievement yet, as far as I know. Some of them are very VERY hard. Sure Ensidia might get that achievement next week, but Blizz surely wants more than just one guild to get it. Heck even if they want 0.5% percent of WoW population to get it, we're still talking about hundreds of guilds worldwide. So yeah, they're not taking it away soon.
The Claw Jun 22nd 2009 6:04PM
I think the reason why Mark was probably so harsh is that wow.com / WoW Insider has a long, long, long history of making crazy statements predicting that patches might come out far earlier than is even remotely possible.
Eventually you go from saying "uh, no, that won't happen" to being a little harsher.
Hardrive Jun 22nd 2009 1:13PM
/sad faceeee
impurezero Jun 22nd 2009 1:12PM
My vote is still for the drakes to just be nerfed to "Clown makeup drake" and "Sissy pink tutu drake."
Tridus Jun 22nd 2009 1:25PM
They probably looked at it, realized that the number of people who have hte 25 man drake is so miniscule as to be a rounding error, and decided people need more time.
Good call.
Barinthos Jun 22nd 2009 1:45PM
Instead of removing them entirely couldn't Blizz have just made an achievement reward for the drake only possible with certain iLevel gear and lower?? It seems a waste to remove the drake entirely.
That way the whole
"...letting people earn them with more powerful equipment from higher raids would defeat that purpose."
Solve itself. If you have iLevel higher than what was meant to be used in Ulduar during the normal progression of the raid, no drake for you. There's already a number of achievements that have this kind of stipulation.
Karilyn Jun 22nd 2009 1:51PM
I would be HIGHLY surprised if this doesn't ultimately become the solution Blizzard takes on this.
Personally, I still think that they should keep all the drakes in the game until the level cap is raised. That way, a few people will have T7 Drakes, less people will have T8 Drakes, and nobody but the best will have T9 Drakes.
Sorta give that sliding scale of "Hey I'm pretty badass" that has been a part of WoW for such a long time.
...
It will change, the question is, how long people complain before they finally change it to one of the two systems?
Barinthos Jun 22nd 2009 2:21PM
It's the most logical solution IMO. There would be no room for bitching from either side. If you have gear too high for the achievement to count, don't bitch about not getting the drake. Do it right and you'll get it. And people that do it right have the bragging rights that come with the achievement.
Radiophonic Jun 22nd 2009 1:51PM
Removal of achievement rewards is getting pretty old, imo. What's next, the red protodrake? Wouldn't that be even easier to earn considering the newer gear that's coming?
Abbadon Jun 22nd 2009 2:19PM
This is what I'm wondering about... With heroics giving EoC now (instead of EoV), a lot more people will start running them again, and this will make it easier to find groups willing to work on some of the achievements. So unless they are removed as well, I foresee a lot more people getting red proto drakes soon.
I really wish Blizz would follow a previous suggestion to leave the raid drakes in and enforce iLv restrictions. The biggest complaints I could see coming out of that would be people fussing over bag/bank space to keep items or people upset that they already vendored/DEd their old equipment.
Or another suggestion, nerf the drakes instead: leave the same skin but change the name slightly and knock them down to 280% speed.
I'm a mount collector, but unless I leave for a more progressive guild, I'm never going to see these raid rewards if they keep removing them.
Ringo Flinthammer Jun 22nd 2009 2:52PM
The toughest Glory of the Hero achievements won't be much trivialized by better gear, since they require better brains to do.
Level 90 is more likely to trivialize them. Hopefully the drake can't be acquired after level 80.
Radiophonic Jun 22nd 2009 3:30PM
@Ringo
Ulduar hard modes don't take brains?
Slyght Jun 22nd 2009 4:57PM
Blues have said that the Red Protodrake will not be removed because it is a 280% mount, whereas the Glory-related protodrakes are 310%
Copernicus Jun 22nd 2009 1:55PM
Putting together three different pieces of information-
1. The Colosseum will have one boss unlocked each week.
2. The "heroic" version of the Colosseum will not be available until the final boss is defeated in the normal version.
3. Proto-drakes will have a one-month warning on when they expire.
QED - They'll kill the proto-drakes after 3.2 comes out. There won't be enough loot from the Colosseum normal-mode to matter, especially since it won't be better than hard-mode Ulduar25.
Algearond Jun 22nd 2009 2:11PM
Just wait, the fail whiny ass losers who got their way with everything else being nerfed in this game will get their way on this too.
turkeyspit Jun 22nd 2009 2:45PM
Essentially what Blizz is saying here is that getting all the Ulduar Hard Modes done is harder then they anticipated. This way people can accumulate more gear to enable them to down the bosses and/or Blizz will nerf them again and again.
Only 2 Hard Modes away on 10 man, and 5 away on 25 man, but I'll take all the extra time I can get.