Rare mobs in classic, BC, and Wrath
Rare mobs are one of my favorite unexpected pleasures in WoW. It's such a thrill to be questing or grinding along and see that silver dragon; it adds a lot of flavor to what could otherwise be some boring runs through out-of-the-way zones. In fact, that's an upside to the current depopulation of Azeroth: I find many more rare mobs, since no-one's been by to kill them in an hour or two. Fun fight, interesting mob, automatic green.
However, when Burning Crusade came out, it was discovered that all the Outland rare mobs were also elite. There was a blue post around the time that defended the decision as allowing them to put better loot on the mobs, making them walking treasure chests (BC also has no world treasure chests, sadly Thanks; I guess there are still new things for me to learn in BC) . But it did make them basically unsoloable, which takes a lot of the excitement out of spotting one, at least for me: by the time I get four more people to come help me out, I don't really care any more.
Back in patch 2.3, almost all elites outside of instances were nerfed down to non-elites. This made many more quests and mobs soloable. And I just found out that all the Outland rare elites were included in this as well. Their loot may have been toned down a bit (I'm really not sure), but I think this is a great move. I'm now looking forward to scanning for rares while flying around Outland.
The question now is: will there be rares in Northrend? This was asked by a tipster whose character name I'm not going to reproduce here, because it's naughty. As of right now, no rares have been implemented in the Wrath beta, so we don't know for sure what they're going to do. My guess is that there will be rare mobs, and that most or all of them will be non-elite. It seems like it would be a step backwards to make them all elite like they did when BC was launched; Blizzard has learned a lot of lessons from classic WoW and from BC that they're putting to work in Wrath.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
8-20-2008 @ 1:03PM
Ktok said...
"BC also has no world treasure chests, sadly"
Um... yeah it does... all over the place. They're just smaller and tend to blend in with the grass.
Reply
8-20-2008 @ 1:13PM
Maana said...
Glad I am not the only one thinking this. While getting silk and mageweave has been a major annoyance the occasional khorium from fel iron bound, and adamantite bound chests is nice. There are tons of places to find these chests, and yes, as Ktok said they blend in VERY WELL! Whether it's in the swamps of Zangarmarsh near the broken, grassy ogre huts in Nagrand, or in the dark areas in Blades Edge Mountains and Shadowmoon Valley, they are real, they are there, and while most are disappointing ( 3 silk and a lvl 45 water in my last one) they are worth keeping your eyes open for! ( Ore, Leather, herbs and one blue gem)
8-20-2008 @ 1:10PM
Arlendor said...
http://www.wowwiki.com/Fel_Iron_Chest , for clarification.
8-20-2008 @ 1:51PM
Grock said...
Note: While there are chests *now*, they weren't there when BC first came out. In fact, I think it wasn't until the first Dailies were released that Outland got chests.
8-20-2008 @ 4:16PM
Xetan said...
as grock said all chests in BC were introduced a good bit after launch. Before they were all in instances.
8-20-2008 @ 6:03PM
Thander said...
They decided to remove at BC launch because gold farmers had farmed them in the past for easy greens and sometimes blues. When they finally added them, they no longer dropped good stuff. They just drop trade skill item junk and maybe a little silver.
8-21-2008 @ 6:23AM
JDM said...
@Grock
They were always there from BC launch, they just had old-world loot (like level 40 crap). Much later they decided to change the loot to be outlands-level items.
8-20-2008 @ 1:04PM
peagle said...
I'd like to see rare mobs back in instances too, at least heroic so they can't be farmed. Magister's Terrace for example - the Orb that turns you into a belf, that should have been on a Hearthsinger type rare who was a lucky spawn.
Reply
8-20-2008 @ 2:25PM
Jane Gray said...
YES!
Farming old world instances for stuff is made marginally more interesting by the occasional rare spawn lighting up my day.
8-20-2008 @ 7:34PM
Raaj said...
I'd be fine with that, but only if whatever loot they did drop was Bind on Equip. That makes it useful to anyone lucky enough to see the rare spawn! :)
8-20-2008 @ 1:06PM
Ken said...
There are definitely chests in Outlands.
Reply
8-20-2008 @ 1:07PM
Valentine said...
Yup, its true. a Notable one is on the horde/alliance towers just above the deathforge in SMV.
Those ones spawn randomly and drop potions and stuff, every time you fly to BT its best to stop off and pick up the free raid consumables it drops.
Reply
8-20-2008 @ 1:08PM
Cosmix said...
Yeah, get gatherer and the wowhead database and turn on the treasure chests. I farm ore, herbs, and chests in Netherstorm and get dozens of chests per night. A lot of times I get a chest in an area that someone else just cleared. I'm tempted to whisper them (if I see them in the area still) to let them know that they missed it, but I figure, nah, I'll keep my little secret. The fewer people on Kul Tiras who gets chests in Netherstorm, the more that are available for me!
Reply
8-20-2008 @ 1:09PM
Siggy said...
"No world treasure chests in BC..."
http://www.wowhead.com/?object=181798
http://www.wowhead.com/?object=181800
http://www.wowhead.com/?object=181802
?
Reply
8-20-2008 @ 1:21PM
Blayed said...
Sometimes when I'm bored (prot spec warrior - a LOT of boredom), I hop on my roflcopter (see Turbo-Charged Flying Machine) and fly around SMV and Netherstorm looking for chests. I've gotten to memorize a lot of their spawn points, so it's not total guess work. If you don't know where they spawn, just look inside ruins, tents and buildings, usually surrounded by mobs.
As opposed to the big "cartoon pirate treasure" style chests, they're small brown boxes, about as high as your knees (or forehead if you're a gnome).
Reply
8-20-2008 @ 1:26PM
Blayed said...
As an addition, Blizzard forgot to make unique loot tables for all of the outdoor Outlands chests, so they all share a loot table with the chests you would find about level 50-60 Azeroth zones.
No real point in looking for them, unless you're like me, and take joy in opening things >.>
8-20-2008 @ 5:51PM
jbodar said...
Heavy Fel Iron and Adamantite Chests certainly have good loot tables with TBC items. Only regular Fel Iron have the gimped loot tables.
http://www.wowhead.com/?object=181800
http://www.wowhead.com/?object=181802
8-20-2008 @ 1:30PM
brent said...
"put better loot on the mobs, making them walking treasure chests." Chests full of small/large prismatic shards. Yuck.
Reply
8-20-2008 @ 1:44PM
deviationer said...
funny that there is chests in Outland because I have never seen one. EVER. I'm a miner too.
Reply
8-20-2008 @ 5:10PM
Faar said...
They're most certainly there, if you think to look for them... They're much smaller than the Azeroth chests, look quite a lot like Rogue footlockers actually which if you aren't a rogue might be the reason you've missed them. They contain total junk though, not found even one worthwile drop in one of those chests, except for maybe some ore. Mostly it's old-world crap; cheese, cloth, mana drinks and such.