This is a SYTYCB submission from Crutch who made it into the top 7.
“Of course,” I sigh as I pick up my badges, trying to ignore the other loot as it taunts me with its very presence. I walk away, moving on tothe next boss, just a little disappointed.
I’ve been running full Karazhan clears every week since the beginning of February. I’ve downed this boss 29 (TWENTY-NINE!) times, and I’ve only seen it drop once. And that time I lost the roll!
“I want this nightmare to be over!”
It seems like everyone has a story about some piece of loot that just won’t drop for them. That elusive item that you’ve hunted for hours, weeks, months, maybe even years, and it still hasn’t dropped. You’ve farmed this item so long that the anticipation of clicking on the corpse is just a little painful, even as fighting the actual monster is trivial. You know all of its tricks, you just want that little icon to appear when you click on the corpse. As the mob loses its last percent of health and it falls over dead, you’re torn. Do you pray the treasure would finally just drop already, or do you try to keep yourself from believing, hoping to avoid the feeling of disappointment when it inevitably doesn’t?
Maybe you’re a prot paladin, running Shattered Halls well past the point of getting Exalted with Thrallmar, all for a Figurine of the Colossus. Maybe you’re a hunter in yet another pug, praying that Gruul will finally drop your Dragonspine Trophy (and, while you’re at it, that you’ll beat all the other hunters, rogues, and fury warriors on the roll!) Perhaps you’re the rogue on top of the DKP list for your guild, and you just want Illidan to drop his Warglaive of Azzinoth. It might be that you’re running Black Morass for the 20th time looking for Hourglass of the Unraveller, or maybe you’re just hoping that those Scarlet Spellbinders will finally, finally give up the Enchant Weapon – Crusader.
Me, I’m a holy paladin. Our guild is 4/5 MH 4/9 BT, but I’m still running Karazhan every week, and not just for badges. No, every week, as we kill Illhoof, kill the four spell shades at the top of the next ramp, and turn to those cursed library doors, I think to myself “Ok, Nielas Aran, are you finally going to give me my Pendant of the Violet Eye?” I spend those two or three suspense filled, excruciating, boring minutes dodging blizzards, not moving on flame wreaths, dodging arcane explosions, healing a little harder through the elemental spawn. Long gone are the days where we worry about him running out of mana, and having to bubble through a pyroblast. The accursed Shade drops, and I drink, waiting for our raid leader to announce that maybe, this week, it dropped. But, no, another Saberclaw Talisman and Shermanar Great-Ring to shard later, and we’re on to Netherspite.
“I’m not even sure I want it anymore!” I yell at the screen, frustrated.
Maybe I should get in on an SSC pug and get Sextant of Unstable Currents, or TK for Fel Reaver’s Piston. “It’s not that good,” I mutter angrily, trying to convince myself that what I have is>enough. And maybe it is “enough”… but it’s not what I want.
So next week, I’ll go down that familiar hallway past Curator, past Illhoof, to that ill-fated progenitor of Medivh for the 30th time.
Will it drop?
Or will I sigh, loot my two badges, and leave again, just a little more disappointed?
Tell me, oh readers, of your tales of RNG woe and let us commiserate together.
I used Soul Wand of the Aldor through Council. You know, the blue wand from Shadow Labs.
I think everyone has a loot horror story to tell. Sometimes they make me laugh, other times…well, good luck!
You know since you wrote this post, it’ll drop now. Or did I just jinx it? :X
*Sydera rubs hands together* Poof!
There, now you have my loot luck. I am very, very lucky with loot drops, and sometimes I’ve been able to chant a bit and do some voodoo and pass it on to someone else. However, our shadowpriest is still looking for a Ring of Ancient Magic, and no amount of hopping on one foot or counting backwards has helped. Maybe you need some lucky fuzzy dice for your desk? Works for me!
What I normally use is the chant
“If you kill him…It will drop”
Seems to work about 60% of the time and you have to say it before the pull.
The gear you always have wanted drops after you spend some badges/honor on the slightly worse replacement.
Kals last blog post..[Druid] The 2.5 patch – bear/generalist talent build edition
@Kal: So true… we had a joke about it last week on Shade of Akama, who finally dropped the Praetorian’s Leggings for our MT/Raid Leader. “Did you finally spend the 100 badges?” Thankfully he had not.
@Jen: I’m definitely gonna try it. I’m about at that point. 😉
@Sydera: The funny thing is, in almost everything else I have good luck! I usually win gems or motes in my SWP trash runs, or win bop patterns when I need them… perhaps this is just my karma going against me. ^_^ I do think everyone has one of these.
@Tulani: What did you finally replace it with? o_O The badge one doesn’t seem bad, but… it also doesn’t seem like a strict upgrade. =\
I replaced Tier 2 helm when we were working on Azgalor and Gorefiend with… Season 2 helm…
…still using that hat….
“The gear you always have wanted drops after you spend some badges/honor on the slightly worse replacement.”
Truer words have not been spoken.
For a best in game piece, you just have to keep your fingers crossed, and use whatever loot mojo appeals.
A frustrating situation is when it finally drops, only to have something unexpectedly better drop right after. My hunter ran SL many times, trying to get Murmer to part with the Sonic Spear. Finally, it was mine. I spent several hundred gold to get an AP enchant put on it. Then, the next night, Legacy dropped in Kara, and the Sonic Spear has sat in my bank ever since.
The day I see the Blue Diamond Witchwand drop from Kara, I think I’ll cry. And the day it does, I’ll be on my druid…
Weeks and weeks I tried to get that thing, before giving in and getting the arena one…
@Dae – I totally did the same thing…stupid stupid wand!
I’ve run Karazhan on my shaman to the point where I could probably heal it in my sleep and I have yet to see my precious Triptych shield drop… I’m running 4/5 MH and 5/9 BT with the Crystal Pulse – which I love dearly but am so sick and tired of seeing…
The triptych is possibly one of my favourite shields in the game in shape and skin and it seems like every single Paladin and Shaman I see has one! One of our warriors even taunts me with his…
One day… one day…
/hug
/vanish
Auriks last blog post..Druid – Epic Flight Form Questline: A Guide
Nice write-up. 🙂
Pre-TBC the item that would never drop for quite some time was the Drake Fang Talisman from Blackwing Lair. An item I really wanted for my rogue. It didn’t drop for quite some time, and when it did I had to drop 1,000 DKP on it, to beat our raiding fury warrior at the time.
Fast forward ..
In TBC the item that took countless runs was for the Shard of Contempt in hMGT. I was absolutely excited when that finally droped and I was able to pair it with my DST! More recently; having been to all our Mt. Hyjal runs for the summer – the non-dropping Blade of Infamy has continued to elude me and probably will until I hit 1.8k rating via Arena for S3 or we drop Illidan.
I supose Blizzard could implement a full scale token system where aside from tier tokens there are general boss tokens that you turn in for X loot at a vendor (kind of like the way Sunwell drops Y loot that is tradeable via Sunmote for Z loot). But depending on who you talk with, some would say they enjoy the “lottery” style of the loot and is a driving force behind the replayability. Its definitely intentionally designed this way for the players! 🙂
But *everyone* can relate on such a universal design aspect.
/cash register
Adios,
-Karr
Quags eye!
I have run heroic SP about 35 times now. I have seen it drop once.
I lost the roll to a shaman.
a SHAMAN!
like the OP, I’m not even sure I want it anymore, blasted thing.
zupas last blog post..Want!
When I rerolled horde to join my friend’s guild, I hit 70 right around the time they were starting tier 5 content. So I ended up getting my t4 set pretty fast since most other people had theirs already.
I think that ate up all my luck for the next 6 months or so.
I remember, even after I *finally* managed to scrape up healing jewelry and boots/belt/etc. from Karazhan, that I was still the weirdo with the blue BoE healing shield and mace in SSC.
Thank goodness they put in more badge loot.
I keep telling myself that “enchant bracer: spellpower” doesn’t exist…..
When will those wretched two headed siamese science project Bloodmaul Geomancer’s finally give it up!?!?!
Ohh and that Shadow Labs kick myself in the ass blue healing wand (can’t bring myself to call that wand by its real name)….That kara wand doesn’t exist either! 🙂
For my Shadowpriest, this item was the Shadow-Cloak of Dalaran. On our Moroes firstkill with our guild, that darn thing dropped. Although I previously did the raidleading, that evening I was on the sofa because I had a terrible headache. My boyfriend cried out from our home office when the butler finally hit the ground and I was just in time to witness the cloak go to a WL who shortly afterwards respecced fire-destro and turned out a really disloyal officer.
I ran Karazhan for about half a year, every week. It never dropped. I was famous for complaining about this fact in our group. 😉 I already thought about spending those 25 badges to replace my blue cloak, when finally it dropped.. After a loud scream on vent the people in our group who knew me just congratulated me, the lootmaster shoved the thing in my pocket and pug’ed WL present didn’t even dare to complain. 😉
I’m probably going to get the Nethervoid cloak on my first evening in MH (if I ever go there). 😉
@Everyone: Thanks for all the comments… I’m glad (but also sad!) that it’s not just me. I hope you all get all the loot you want. o_O
@Aurik: I don’t think I’ve ever seen it drop, either. o_O I got lucky in ZA myself, I ran Crystal Pulse for a loooooong time. >_<
@Karr: Yeah, while the token system sounds really nice… I unfortunately think it would make me require too much suspension of disbelief. I can make myself believe, somehow, that random wolves are carrying greens, blues, and occasionally purples. Believing that all the bosses carry tokens around would kind of make me scratch my head.
@Zupa: Oh man. My g/f’s mage has wanted Quag’s eye forever. She’s run H-SP almost as many times as I’ve run Kara. ^_^;; She’s got something in there to make up for it for now, but she still runs H-SP occasionally, praying for it. o_O
@Myna: I’m glad it finally dropped for you. ^_^
This post is silly, I’ve always gotten what I wanted out of this game the 1st or 2nd time I tried…rumble…rumble…”wakes from a deep peaceful sleep” 🙂
Dam, if I don’t remember months and months of BWL runs trying to get my T2 Shaman shoulders to complete the 8/8. Probably loads of tales from folks with one half of the Thunderfury book I’m sure. I remember one of our guildie’s never had any luck and when the dust finally settled on TBC and we had all hit 70 and raided will in to Kara early on we put together a “fun” run in to MC to do one of those lets see what Lvl 70 means and sure enough the missing half dropped. Lot’s of fun at the time but I’m sure that person was like “SURE! Now the friggin thing drops”
Good post, sure stirs up memories, which for a computer game is a testament in itself.
Superb contribution to the SYTYCB, I really enjoyed this entry and am looking forward to more fro mthe author.
My worm-on-the-hook was the Scarab of the Infinite Cycle, I’ve never chased any item as hard as I did that one. I ran BM until it was a chore- doesn’t sound like much until you realise BM is my favourite instance in the game. Finally, on a run that went well past my pumpkin hour, it dropped.
A few short weeks later, it was upgraded out by a drop in Kara.
O Scarab, I hardly knew thee…
I’ve seen the triptych shield of the ancients drop once, after 5 months in Karazhan – and won it.
And the price I paid for winning was that my shaman, who is well into tier 6, is wearing a badge cloak for healing, because I’ve never seen Prince drop the healing cloak.
For awhile, I was healing in a Brute Cloak of the Ogre Magi. No joke!
My hunter farmed Zul’Gurub for 7 months? at least? twice a week, looking for the main hand weapon that drops from Hakkar. It dropped twice. Once I was told that I was to pass it to a fury warrior (who had all the mats for a thunderfury in the bank, and used it for all of 2 weeks), and the second time it was ninja’d. /bitter
Annas last blog post..Why I love Lore
Great entry! 🙂
My husband has been coveting the Red Riding Hood Cloak from Kara for a loooong time now. When we started Kara it seemed to drop every time we had BBW to the point that every single healer (and 1 really poorly geared dps caster) had it. When he started joining in with his little priest we had BBW for 6-7 weeks straight and it NEVER dropped. We now never mention this item of equipment – flags and bulls anyone? 😉
There’s plenty of pieces out there I’ve literally never seen, and plenty more that I didn’t see until it was literally too late.
The healing pants on Netherspite? Running Kara for literally a year almost every week between multiple characters, I’ve never seen them drop.
My feral druid can never get the ticklestick, though I see it on my priests all the time.
Healing bracers off Rage? They’ve dropped, like, once for my guild.
I really enjoyed this post!!
I killed Laj 17x, in regular mode, in heroic mode, in PuG’s, in guild runs – for my D3 shoulders. On try 18 they dropped! Then proceeded to drop the next 6 runs. Oh what a cruel sense of humor those programmers have.
Fortunately for me, I have everything I need from my raids, but I know a mage that ran Moroes several dozen times before getting the mongoose enchant.
Great read. I think we have all had the miserable items we have ran something for.
I ran Bot a billion times for my Bangle.
@Everyone: Again, thanks for all the wonderful response. ^_^
@Ody: OMG I know! I haaaaaate that. I hate to say this, but the Figurine of the Colossus example was me, before I became enlightened to the ways of the holy paladin (what can I say, I’ve always liked healing)… and then, it dropped 4 out of the next 5 times, or at least it seemed that way. Disenchanting it made me ;_;
@Tufva: Mum’s the word on the cloak~ I had a similar difficulty with the cloak off prince, but I think it dropped after 5 or 6 times for me. >_<
@Joveta: The… ticklestick? o_O
I have to agree with the commenters who said they gave up on the blue diamond witchwand and just gave in and got the arena wand. I did the same. I rarely even see crone, and have never seen her drop her dang wand.
Ticklestick = squid-onna-stick. The tasty feral drood staff that drops from the satyr dood.
I’m totally failing at names tonight, and too lazy to look ’em up.
I am a hunter. I never ever won (or in some cases saw): DST, hourglass of the unraveller, abacus of violent odds or the sonic spear.
Ironically my druid got the hourglass the first time she saw it.
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