Ulduar drakes not being removed (yet)
by Allison Robert 
Oct 26th 2009 at 9:00AM
What I always found interesting about the wording on Blizzard's policy is that they don't "currently" have any plans to remove the drakes at all, but they're keeping an eye on things. It makes me wonder if there's an ideal percentage of guilds or players they'd like to achieve the drakes each patch, and that numbers were short in Naxx and still short in Ulduar. The Naxx-era Glory of the Raider (heroic) was certainly uncommon and, for a competent guild, hinged almost entirely on their ability to get past the RNG-riddled and sometimes-buggy Immortal, then said to be the rarest raiding achievement in the game. For Ulduar, my guess is that achievements like Firefighter are probably the biggest stumbling block, although fortunately the achievements required for the meta are more dependent on skill and less dependent on RNG than Immortal. We'll keep an eye out for you, but for the moment, raiders, keep plugging away at those drakes.
Filed under: News items, Raiding, Mounts, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Shizzle Oct 26th 2009 9:06AM
Word... yup
Finally
I
Really
See
The Light
BrilicXicotlDesteni Oct 26th 2009 9:12AM
Be less obvious next time.
Mordockk Oct 26th 2009 10:30AM
@shizzle
First
U
Can't
Knowhow
Your
Overly
Underperforming
kooda Oct 26th 2009 11:51AM
@shizzle
Fail
And
Ignoramus
Land
Rachel Oct 26th 2009 9:13AM
I finally got my Ulduar 10 drake. :) I've seen so many of them on my server, I wonder if they are waiting for more guilds to get the 25 man version. Or they just want more of the population to get these than the Naxx version. Either way, go Blizz!
Tovo Oct 26th 2009 9:15AM
I am very surprised that they are letting the drakes still in the game even after 3.3. I mean that is 2 tiers of gear disparity to receive something that is supposed to be a reward for the current, most difficult, content. I don't mind it too much, I am just confused.
flawless Oct 26th 2009 9:28AM
Currently only about 2% of guilds worldwide have completed Glory on 25 man, and about 12% on 10 man (not strict, ofc).
Tovo Oct 26th 2009 10:07AM
So does that mean they are waiting till a certain % of guilds have the drake? I just don't think this is the right way to go about it. I dunno. I could be wrong.
Eternauta Oct 26th 2009 10:43AM
I agree with Tovo.
flawless Oct 26th 2009 11:13AM
That's probably what they're waiting for, yes.
I know that Firefighter and Yogg+1 are the encounters preventing most guilds getting the Glory achievement, and Firefighter is probably the harder of the two given gear levels now.
Arch Oct 26th 2009 9:26AM
I think they're leaving the drakes as a reward because the ulduar achievements are more dependent on skill, rather than gear, or as mentioned in the article, the RNG (god).
On the other hand, look at Naxx. we're two tier levels above loot there and it's way too easy to get all the achievement there. (aside from, say, "The Safety Dance" and "The Immortal")
Of course it could be that I'm just a tad biased because I've yet to get mine :)
Columhcille Oct 26th 2009 3:31PM
Granted that most of the Ulduar hard modes aren't really hard at all. Yogg and Mimiron are rly the only two that take much working at to get. Mimiron was flippin' fun!! Actually a challenging fight on hard mode and such a rush toward the end and when you finally down him. On normal mode now, you almost have to say just wipe it up and start over again on hard mode. i feel guilty fighting Mimiron on normal...like I have an unfair advantage when he's on normal lol. he's completely gimp on normal.. like the boss turned half-mentally-or-physically impared on normal mode. Hard mode it is!! so much fun!! woooo!
giuliaboliac Oct 27th 2009 6:52AM
ce faceti bai nebunilor sunteti niste prosti
Cedrich Oct 26th 2009 9:45AM
My Druid needs one more achievement to finish Glory of the Ulduar Raider (25 Player).
That achievement is Crazy Cat Lady. I don't currently have a 25-man raiding guild.
This fact brings me to tears every time i think about it.
PeeWee Oct 26th 2009 10:09AM
Just pay another guild for it, 5-10K should suffice, just like people paid to get the ZA bear mount.
Meg Oct 27th 2009 8:05PM
That is awful! :( Good luck in getting it soon.
Cyrus Oct 26th 2009 10:10AM
"It makes me wonder if there's an ideal percentage of guilds or players they'd like to achieve the drakes each patch, and that numbers were short in Naxx and still short in Ulduar."
I wouldn't be surprised. Ulduar is a much more challenging raid than Trial of the Crusader, I think. Gear levels aside, 13 boss encounters take longer than five, and Ulduar's trash takes time. My guild killed Anub'arak the week he was released, and yet we still haven't killed 25-man Yogg-Saron, not even on normal mode. I think Yogg is a bit more complicated than Anub'arak, but I'm sure the main reason is motivation - hard to get people to show up on raid nights when the gear is the same ilvl as or lower than what we get in the Crusader's Coliseum. But whatever the reason, it's annoying. I want to kill an Old God.
As for drakes, I'm glad for this "one month warning" policy. I still need just one Heroic five-man achievement for the red proto-drake, but I'm sick of trying to get a PuG for Oculus that knows what they're doing, so I don't mind putting it off until the last minute.
Methuus Oct 26th 2009 10:18AM
They're probably going to leave the heroic dungeon achievement red proto-drake in the game at least until Cataclysm. This talk of proto-drakes being taken out of the game refers to the Ulduar ones.
My guess is that Bliz is leaving the dungeon proto-drake in because a) it's regular speed, not 310%, so it's effectively just a cosmetic item with no game impact; and b) it gives the non-raiding players something challenging to work towards.
Tovo Oct 26th 2009 10:29AM
Yeah they've said for a while now that they online ones that will be removed will be the 310% mount.
Cyrus Oct 26th 2009 10:29AM
"They're probably going to leave the heroic dungeon achievement red proto-drake in the game at least until Cataclysm. This talk of proto-drakes being taken out of the game refers to the Ulduar ones.
My guess is that Bliz is leaving the dungeon proto-drake in because a) it's regular speed... and b) it gives the non-raiding players something challenging to work towards."
Yeah, I know they're only talking about the Ulduar drakes in the original post, but that reminded me of where I am. And you're probably right about the non-raiders thing, but it could have gone either way. When 3.0.2 was released, the best gear non-raiders could get was ilvl 200, from heroics. Now, ilvl 219 gear drops in the five-man version of ToC and Emblems of Conquest can be used to buy ilvl 226 gear. That should have made those achievements easier.