Blizzard: Run Oculus, win fabulous prizes
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Jan 5th 2010 at 2:00AM
But they're not removing it from the system. Instead, they're incentivizing it -- or, if you prefer to be a bit more pessimistic, turning final boss Eregos into a loot pinata in the most direct way possible. Zarhym's announced that those who happen to get Heroic Oculus with the random dungeon finder and stick it out to the end will find their own personal loot bag in Eregos' cache. The bags will contain two extra Emblems of Triumph, rare gems, and a chance at the Reins of the Blue Drake, formerly the rare mount drop from 10-man Malygos. To make up for the switch, the Reins of the Azure Drake will have a chance to drop from both 10-man and 25-man Malygos.
Will this staunch the exodus from Oculus? Will the lust for yet another pretty dragon mount inspire people to tough out the dreaded vehicle mechanics? Or will people just tough it out until they get their drake and start group dropping again? It should be fun to see what happens.
Filed under: Items, News items, Instances, Bosses
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 12)
beta671 Jan 5th 2010 2:04AM
Nice
sean Jan 5th 2010 3:51AM
Can we do the same to culling of strat? ...and random the Frozen Orb already!
zweitblom Jan 5th 2010 3:59AM
The only thing CoS needs is an option to skip the lore. The instance itself is just fine.
GreenNight Jan 5th 2010 5:13AM
Really nice. One of my favorite instances and better loot now? Gimme gimme!
It was my first random normal instance in the new LFG tool as a freshly dinged 80, and it was fun for me. I don't really care explaining people what to do, and I like the abilities of all the drakes (personal preference green>red>amber). Having not found utter morons who don't know back from front I have only wiped twice in all the times I have run it (it was in the same run, one of them due to a dragon attacking us while we were on foot).
I love it.
Banic Rhys Jan 5th 2010 6:39AM
I'd rather it be a 100% for getting the make it count achievement.
Boz Jan 5th 2010 8:15AM
"People will always want mounts and non-combat pets. I could offer a repeatable quest to slap a handful of kittens and people would do it if I gave them a little pet for it. And they'd drop the kittens off a cliff for a mount."
-Tirion Fordring
jtrain Jan 5th 2010 8:50AM
Please remember that the extra loot comes ONLY if you queue up for a RANDOM HEROIC and happen to get Oculus. You can't just queue for heroic Oculus and get the extra gems, badges, etc. I see quite a few posts both here and on the general forums where I don't think people understand this.
Teringus Jan 5th 2010 10:09AM
well, if it's the case that you only get the extra loot from getting it on random, then no mount for me most likely. i have not once gotten occulus on any of my toons while using the random dungeon finder, even though i'm usually running 10-15 randoms per day. :(
Teringus Jan 5th 2010 10:13AM
/facepalm
.....oculus, rather than occulus
K Jan 5th 2010 10:22AM
Nice doesn't even begin to describe this.
This is HUGE.
Nick S Jan 5th 2010 12:40PM
For people (like me) who already didn't particularly mind this instance, this is definitely a nice change.
I wish that they'd done some tuning of the trash packs instead, or added clear directions to help people find their way up the instance. But this'll work.
Efrain Jan 5th 2010 1:37PM
When people already get the drake, it should change to drop a single frost emblem to keep people interested.
Roland Jan 5th 2010 2:17PM
It's kind of appalling how many players shy away from anything that might actually be challenging right now. As much as I appreciate how Blizzard has made raids more accessible (as someone who got only as far as 4/6 ZA and 2/4 TK in BC), there's just this attitude of "if I don't get immediate gratification, it isn't worth it." Think about it - is Oculus really that difficult in T9+ gear, which is obtainable by everyone, compared to H Magister's Terrace in Kara gear, or even in Sunwell Badge gear? Or rather, are we all so spoiled by ilvl 200 heroics being a /faceroll that we are simply unwilling to deal with it?
Anyhow, I got Oc last night, and the only reason we didn't get "Make It Count" is because the healer disconnected right after the Mage. But hey, I'm as guilty as anyone - when we killed Eregos, it was only the second time I've bothered to do it, in the entire year Wrath has been out.
Psyc Jan 11th 2010 8:15AM
It would appear this only works if your have a pug in the group, we did a guild run random dungeon got oculus, completed it and got no extra goodies. :(
Kylenne Jan 5th 2010 2:06AM
Screw the drake (after this expansion I never want to see another dragon mount again, srsly), the extra badges and gems are enough incentive for me. I've got heirlooms to buy.
jcoastie81 Jan 5th 2010 2:06AM
Oh yeah it will increase the amount of people playing it... but after they and thier friends/guild get the mount its back to drops-ville.
Mordockk Jan 5th 2010 10:04AM
ya its funny how people will actually do it now because they get a drake.
But in actuality people hate doing it because of the drake mechanic(irony!): trying to follow people around on a 3D axis, and all of a sudden you land and someone pulled a drake and u just sit there and let it kill your member and hope it flies away. then mounting and dismounting is so goofy and clunky..........and with all the random crap in my bags and random gear sets I have to find and rightclick that stupid drake button in my bags.
also have no idea why people drop old kingdom..........i wind up doing 2 bosses and and skipping 80% of the trash in that place.
PodPeople Jan 5th 2010 11:42AM
I agree, once people get the mount or they get tired of trying to get the mount they'll start dropping the dungeon. extra emblems only goes so far, they would go further if they were Frost, but they seem to be going all cheepo with it. and a rare gem? pssh, yeah that's not incentive either. the only thing that is really incentive is the drake. real, longer lasting incentive would be Frost emblem(s) and/or epic gems, plus a chance (it's probably ~1%) for the drake.
EZ Jan 5th 2010 12:54PM
True, but if we can do this to other dungeon's as a community then it won't matter when everyone has their blue drake. That way we can all start skipping and crying about HoS and/or OK, and we can get a rusted drake and a bug mount!
Think of the possibilities, once everyone adapts to occulus we just need to mobilize as a community and QQ really loud about 1 thing until Blizzard gives us something cool. This day is a success indeed...Ah, the joys of being a spoiled wow-nerd.
Zanathos Jan 5th 2010 5:52PM
Assuming the mount is at all a rare chance from the bag, and it probably is, i imagine people will be running oculus for a while to get it. I'm thinking that will be enough to show the mildly intelligent that Oculus is a quick and easy instance to complete, and no worse than any other random. People hate it because they've done it once with people who didn't know what they were doing, still think of it in terms of it's release state, or just have avoided the instance and never done it because of all the QQ surrounding it.