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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsUlduar 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 2 of 2)
Deadly. Off. Topic. Jun 22nd 2009 4:46PM
The one thing I don't understand is people claiming that the "top raiders" deserve this over any other raider.
The way I read that is the raiders with the most time and connections - i.e. people who have enormous amount of free time and can raid 24/7 - get this. I don't see it as earning it so much as being able to put in a time investment during the lock out phase for how long the protodrakes last. Obviously this is a reward forcing people who want the achievement to raid non-stop... the fact that not everyone has it should say something about the mentality of the this kind of rushing reward.
We don't want you rushing through the content, but we want you to rush for the reward gain because tomorrow it may be gone. It just doesn't sit well with me. Rewards should be acquired by doing REGARDLESS of gear.
The Claw Jun 22nd 2009 6:08PM
It's funny how it's always the people who simply aren't very good players who always like to think that the good players aren't very good either. Oh, they just have more time than me. Oh, they just have better gear than me. Oh, their class is OP and mine needs a buff. Oh, Blizzard loves horde/alliance and hates alliance/horde. Oh, they're sponsored by an Arab Emir.
Get over it. 99.9% of the rewards in this game are available to everyone. Just DEAL with the fact that there are a couple of things (raid achievement mounts, arena season gladiator mounts, server-first kill titles..) that only a few people will get, you CAN'T just get them by plugging away a year later.
Azhoul Jul 17th 2009 4:44PM
The thing you need to ask yourself though, is will it matter to people E-peen wise a year later to show how 1337 they are?
Probably not.
Will it matter to the guy who wants to have something epic but forgotten, and a good sense of nolstalgia when the game starts to stagnate?
You bet.
I've recovered my enjoyment of WoW by going into old-world content and farming some of the cool stuff that dropped there. The Baron's Mount, The Piccolo of Flaming Fire. I've even been doing my Dungeon Set 2 quests. Yeah, it's alot easier now that I'm 80, but seriously? No one really cares E-peen wise. I can't go "I'm so leet, I have old outdated gear! Woot! Go me!" But it's still really fun. If those things had been removed because "Only the people who got there first deserve it", then I'd probably have quit awhile ago to be honest.
The "Only the truly dedicated- blah blah blah" is just idiotic to me, because there's no reason it should add up like this. The fact that you obtained it before anyone else should be enough without throwing in the "Now no one else can have it" on top of things. It's just greed, and a feeling of "Now I'll always be awesome no matter how much I suck down the road." What happens if a good player can't play for a couple weeks? Bam. No mount. Ever. Oh well, too bad, go QQ. That's just the pathetic egotistical competition that makes raiding guilds poach eachother's members. It needs a better fix, because the current set-up is pathetic IMO.
TL;DR: WoW is too competetive. Old content should not be removed, because it's still fun.
Slyght Jun 22nd 2009 4:57PM
PTR's typically last 6 weeks, give or take a few days. I expect the PTR to go up tonight, so optimistically we're looking at 3.2 going live early August.
oldmike Jun 22nd 2009 5:35PM
as some one comeing back to wow after a 2 year brake
(got the battle chest but not loged in or any thing)
can some one tell me some good severs thinking of going RP and horde
Draim Jun 22nd 2009 5:59PM
I disagree about the 3.2 date from this. I don't think there saying that at all (possible but I doubt it) I just think they aren't sure if they will remove it with 3.2 or wait for a while before they do that. In the end it will likely depend on how many people they think are going to get it, which at the moment is probably to low for what they want, so they want to hold back on a date.
XionFyre Jun 23rd 2009 2:07PM
I dunno... as a hunter this just brings up memories of the Ghost dog that they said they were going to give us advanced warnings before they removed it.... then they said they weren't going to remove it... then they removed it with no warnings at all. GG Bliz.
Azhoul Jul 17th 2009 6:13AM
It just bugs me when Blizzard removes content from the game. I mean, if you purchase the game, then continue to pay, stuff gets pulled out for the sheer reason that "It's too early?" What if the tier 0.5 quest lines suddenly vanished because they're too easy now?
Gods. It's like what they did with Naxx. "We're taking Naxxramas out of the game. You'll need to purchase WotLK if you want it back. Oh, and there's stuff you won't be able to obtain ever. Oh well!"
If it's the "too easy" arguement, put a restriction on level or ilevel of gear. Stop making everyone rush in a frenzy to enjoy aspects of the game because it's too much work to maintain. What happens with the people who join the game later on? Even if they end up being top end amazing wickedsauce, it doesn't matter, because they didn't get there first.
And is it really fair to the people paying for the game to constantly have bits of content like this getting ripped out of the game when we've paid for it? Just doesn't make sense. Next we'll see entire zones vanishing from the map. Dungeons and whatnot just POOF! Gone. 'Cause you didn't get there fast enough. Oh wellz.