Tuesday, September 3, 2013

WoW Weekly: The RNG gods smile upon me


WoW Weekly is a biweekly-ish, self-absorbed look into the things I've been doing -- or not doing -- in the game. From auctioneering and pet battling to mount farming and raiding.

Earlier this week, I learned something about the instance cap players will undoubtedly encounter when farming old dungeons for a chance at mount drops. See, I'd thought the game allowed players five fresh instances (dungeons or raids) per hour, per account until some sort of internal reset took place. While this is partially true, it's actually five fresh instances per hour, per realm, per account. During a heavy farming session, I'd max my instances on one realm, then do the same with a toon on another realm. Rinse and repeat for non-stop dungeon farming.

I've been running Stratholme with some irregularity ever since I realized I could solo it for a chance at the Deathcharger's Reins. I honestly don't know if I've run through more than one-thousand times. It sure seems like I have, not to mention the hundred or so just in the last several days. 

But lemme back up first.

Late last week I'd decided to head into the Stonecore to kill Slabhide for a chance at the
Reins of the Vitreous Stone Drake. I hit my instance cap two or three times that day, but on the third set of five runs, it dropped! I bragged to a friend/guildie/fellow mount-collector, and once he'd finished cursing and congratulating, now emboldened I informed him I'd be heading to the Vortex Pinnacle to try my luck at the Drake of the North Winds.


To my utter astonishment, it dropped after just a handful of runs. While I had those two drakes on my list since they were introduced in Cata, they weren't the real prize. However, their acquisition provided me with enough fuel to hit Stratholme once again, and hit it hard. Thus, around 1am after a bout of insomnia on Sunday night, this happened:



3 rare mounts in approximately ten days. I think my work here is done. Well, almost. Since the last WoW Weekly, I've also managed some other small feats:

  • Purchased a Jeweled Onyx Panther off of the auction house for 80,000g. Now I don't need to bother gaining Exalted status with the Order of the Cloud Serpent with my jewelcrafter. Plus, given the cost of materials and time to make it, the price tag wouldn't have been significantly lower than that. Plus, I'd like to craft the other four mounts myself...
  • ...of which I've crafted the Ruby Panther thus far. I'll need to save up some cash for the other three orbs, as my jewelcrafter and wealthy banker are on separate realms.
  • The Thursday Night Emerald Dream raid didn't run. We've lost a couple of the original members over the summer due to life happenings, but our biggest problem is recruiting, and really, recruiting people who actually show up when they say they will. That said, the core of the group is awesome, and patient.

See you next time.



4 comments:

  1. Massive gratz on all those mounts!! You were uber lucky :) Recently I've put the instance farming for mount drops to one side but I feel inspired to start doing it again now :)
    I find the price of Jeweled Onyx Panthers on the AH quite interesting (as weird as it sounds!). On my server they're significantly to buy than craft - my boyfriend got his for ~60k which is awesome. If you only consider the cost of the orbs (18k each) thats a saving of 12k!! I think 80k's not bad though.

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    1. Thank you!

      I too had pretty much abandoned the mount farming for the better part of MoP. Then my main was no longer raiding and had progressed in PvE as far as he could, so I started doing it casually again, and with a bit more intensity these last two weeks. When one drops it provides a great deal of fuel to go after the rest.

      The Jeweled Panther prices were interesting---a while back I remember them being advertised for between 40-60k gold...which is wayyyy cheaper than the cost of materials any way you look at it. At the time there were allegations of duping---I don't know what happened. But definitely interesting. I was wondering if Panther prices would still be that low, but it looks like the cheaper ones have been bought up on ED.

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  2. Wow, you have had a great streak of luck :) Grats on all your new mounts. That is pretty cool :)

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    1. Thanks! Still a couple I'd really like to get my hands on---Ashes for one...but who doesn't.

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