Mount and cosmetic collecting may be changing forever in World of Warcraft
Judging from the PTR, some rare drops could be flipping the game on its head.
A small selection of players are playing around on the World of Warcraft public test realm (PTR) right now, trying out the upcoming Dawn of the Infinites dungeon set to launch with Patch 10.1.5. in July. In doing so, they've picked up some loot that may change the world of mount and cosmetic farming forever.
Collecting rare mounts and cool looking gear has always been of the biggest draws to World of Warcraft over the year, whether it's the sinking the time and gold for Thunderfurry, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker back in Vanilla WoW, or farming the Mists of Pandaria World bosses on repeat every week for a tiny chance at a fancy new dragon or dinosaur to ride around on.
But the rarest stuff has always been the loot you can no longer get your hands on! Over the years, several pieces have been removed from the game as content has shifted and evaporated from live servers. In a Dawn of the Infinites run posted online by UK content creator MR GM, the party was able to get their hands on Quantum loot, which when used provided gear and mounts from prior expansions.
This opens the door for some interesting possibilities. For the average player, this would be just a quirky new item with a touch of nostalgia for those who've been around the block a while. However, for the dedicated collector with a mount tab packed full of different horses, dragons, and so on, this could potentially open the door to those few missing steeds that would otherwise be locked away.
"This is trash," writes user Azeida on Twitter, in response to MR GM's post. "Items have worth based on 1. Rarity and 2. Aquirability. Adding old items back now makes it worthless. It removed value from those that had them, AND those who will get them, as the value is solely based on the items being removed from game. Example: store helms."
While perhaps a negative perspective, it touches on the core concern among some in the community that these Quantum pieces have the potential to devalue the only remaining source of prestige from the game. With raid and PvP boosting common throughout the game, you often see removed transmog or mounts held up as the last way to truly flex an account or character. Sure, there are titles and feats of strength, but nothing catches the eye like a big dragon.
You saw a similar wave of complaints when the Fel Drake was given out for free as a Twitch drop with Dragonflight's release. That mount, once a TCG exclsuive, had its value drastically reduced to the agonising cries of some collectors.
The counter argument to these gripes, however, are simple and convincing, being shared among the vast majority of players. Who cares! For the common player, the opportunity to get their hands on a rad new shoulder piece their friends don't have is enough to get them hyped over the dungeon. "Wait, wait, wait... maybe this way is an option to get Zulian Tiger without paying gold cap on BMAH? Sign me up if that's the case!" writes Avar the Rare Hunteron Twitter, one of many watering at the mouth at the chance of a valuable payout from the reins of the Quantum Courser.
With all this being said, there are a lot of question marks attached to this exciting new development. The main one is exactly how the loot works in collaboration to your pre-existing collection. Does the Quantum Courser give you any mount from the past, even if you've already collected it? If so, wouldn't it suck to get the low % mount drop, only to be thrown some random horse you already bought eight years ago? Does it give mounts from across different types of content like raids or PvP, or just dungeons?
Until we get an official word from Blizzard, we just don't know. Depending on how these work, the Quantum loot from Dawn of the Infinite could either be a quirky new dungeon, or another weekly farm for the hardcore collectors out there. It could very well altar the landscape for rare loot farming in WoW forever.
Let us know where you lie on this! Would you be cool with someone walking away with, lets say, the Legion Mythic raid moose? What about the Corrupted Ashbringer?