Shadowfrost Shards Update

[stani325]

Hi everyone,

Hope you are well.

I wanted to see if anyone knows more info about the shadowfrost shards situation as it does not seem consistent.
We have been raiding ICC25 - 8 bosses out of 12 were on HC. The trend I'm seeing is, most raids we only get between 0 and 2 shards. Which to me sounds absurd. Shards should have 50% chance on Normal and above 50% chance on HC to drop. That is not the case here however. I am sure many people will support me on this and agree that something is wrong.
LK should drop a shard 100% of the time. Welp. That is wrong. We have had a few raids where that has happened.
We have also had raids with 7 shards drop (2 times to be precise and both were before

So, my point with this post is, if someone has more info, can clarify what is happening, why is it so low, is it a bug or designed like this? I tried looking up more about this but posts date to 3 years ago and I doubt the situation is the same (I hope i'm wrong.)

Anyways, thank you for reading and replying.

[Kovachut]

1) warmane =//= official servers

Regardless if you play on Icecrown, Lordearon, or in the lich king phase of Frostmourne (which will last 4 months), you'll experience a low drop rate of the Shadowfrost Shards. It's not an unintentional bug - it's a design choice made by the devs. The reason for this? Unlike on the official servers, patch 3.3.5 is "frozen" for all eternity (i.e. until warmane shuts down its servers), so obtaining the legendary weapon with retail drop chances would have been extremely easy. The weapon would have lost its uniqueness, and it might have disrupted the pvp scene more. At least, that's what Obnoxious said in a past post.

2) I don't know what the actual drop chances are. If someone else knows more, they can fill us in.

I couldn't find the thread, where Obnoxious said all of those things, but here are some links where this topic has been brought up as well.

https://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=431152
http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=400101
https://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=431408
http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=351280

[stani325]

Yeah i've seen those posts in my search for an answer. The first three are not on Icecrown where this post is, so they are irrelevant. Last one is quite old.
I understand that warmane and official servers are different however here it is advertised as: As close to blizzlike as possible.
Idk if its just me and i got the wrong impression but yeah.. was just wondering and curious to see.

Thanks ^^

[Kovachut]

That's my point. The same coding is used for all wotlk-related realms, so the first three posts are indeed relevant. I quote:

How long you farm for something is irrelevant. Your chance doesn't increases for each time you do it. If something has a 0.1% chance of dropping, it will have the same 0.1% chance of dropping each time you run the instance, it won't add up in any way to increase chances. The loot tables and drop chances are the same as in Icecrown, without any sort of tweaking, the same that have been used for years - that's information I personally confirmed.

&

I wasn't talking about "Blizzlike," just that there are no special tweaks or lower chances on Lordaeron, the database used is the same as on Icecrown.

http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=400101

Also, since in season 2 of FM, the double ID reset feature was removed, people wanted more items to drop from the raid instances. This suggestion was denied, so this is another proof why the drop chances of Lordearon, Icecrown, and Frostmourne are the same and why the three Frostmourne related topics are relevant for the other two realms as well.

---

I understand that warmane and official servers are different however here it is advertised as: As close to blizzlike as possible.

I understand where you are coming from, but neither of the realms are 100% Blizzlike. Some have features, which make the game experience closer to that during retail wotlk (boss difficulty on Icecrown, the 1x rates on Lorde, the seasonal progression on FM), but it's still different. There are some quality of life changes - 7x XP rates* (1xXP on Lordearon), 3x professions (1x on Lorde), 3x rep (1x on Lorde) - point (Icecrown)/coin shop, transmog, soloq, mercenary mode. Only the drop rate of the SSF shards and the Val'anyr fragments have been nerfed - everything else gear-related stays the same.

*Note - For the sake of accuracy, currently we have different multipliers for the XP rates, but on Lordearon the 1xXP is not exceeded.

[edit] Also, this:
http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=436484
These custom events occur on Icecrown on a weekly basis. Lordearon and Frostmourne also have them, but only during the warmane's special Christmas event.

[Atanathar]

1) warmane =//= official servers

Regardless if you play on Icecrown, Lordearon, or in the lich king phase of Frostmourne (which will last 4 months), you'll experience a low drop rate of the Shadowfrost Shards. It's not an unintentional bug - it's a design choice made by the devs. The reason for this? Unlike on the official servers, patch 3.3.5 is "frozen" for all eternity (i.e. until warmane shuts down its servers), so obtaining the legendary weapon with retail drop chances would have been extremely easy. The weapon would have lost its uniqueness, and it might have disrupted the pvp scene more. At least, that's what Obnoxious said in a past post.

2) I don't know what the actual drop chances are. If someone else knows more, they can fill us in.

I couldn't find the thread, where Obnoxious said all of those things, but here are some links where this topic has been brought up as well.

https://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=431152
http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=400101
https://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=431408
http://forum.warmane.com/showthread.php?t=351280

Well, pvp is already disrupted by the sheer amount of Shadowmournes, WOTLK pvp wasn´t designed to have this many people wielding them.
I know servers have to be maintained, and even i contribute to it when i can, but i noticed that there are quite more smournes around than there where when this was molten wow, maybe more people invested in them, maybe the server has even more players, but it has caused quit an inbalance which i´m not sure how to deal with.

[Thorbjorn]

but i noticed that there are quite more smournes around than there where when this was molten wow, maybe more people invested in them, maybe the server has even more players, but it has caused quit an inbalance which i´m not sure how to deal with.

It's because trade was introduced aswell. Usually, you'd need to spend 150 € or whatever to buy it. Now you can donate 10 €, sell in-game items or characters through trade and rank up easy coins.
It's has it benefits and disadvantages. It's definitely easier for people from poorer countries to compete with others now. 150 € is like a third of minimum wage in some countries..

[Kovachut]

Well, pvp is already disrupted by the sheer amount of Shadowmournes, WOTLK pvp wasn´t designed to have this many people wielding them.

Yes, the pvp scene is affected by it. In my previous post, I used the adverb "more" coupled with the subjunctive mood of the verb "may". But if you want to claim that the pvp scene wouldn't have been disrupted more as it is right now, had warmane kept the original drop rates, then that would be a different topic. I don't participate in any pvp activities, so I am not able to respond to a such statement. As I've said above, I paraphrased Obnoxious' words.

It's true that possessing Smourne isn't a rare occasion nowadays, due to the following reasons:

- If we trust the numbers on the homepage, we can conclude that many people try to farm the SFSs. Since warmane has been online since 2015, it's inevitable how the number of Smournes would increase naturally in the game (especially on Icecrown, where bosses aren't buffed);
- Seasonal players may return to wow, and if they had obtained SM in the past, you'd still see them wielding it;
- The following regards the pvp environment: to my knowledge, there's a quest chain on Blackrock, which grants you SM as the final reward;
- And there's the option to donate 150 coins for it.

I personally think that you see more Smourne-wielders due to the third case. Blackrock is a pvp-only realm after all, and as such it liberates the players from the burden of doing raids if they don't want to or don't have the time for that. That's the reason, as least from what I have read on the forums, why some people want Blackrock to be separated from Icecrown and Lordearon. Once again, I'm not a pvp player, and I don't have a personal opinion on the matter - I just repeat what other people said in the past.

[edit] Thanks, Thorbjorn, for your post. I forgot to mention that here. I agree that the trademarket made it easier for us to obtain coins, which is yet another big reason why we see more Smournes in the game.

[Atanathar]

Yes, the pvp scene is affected by it. In my previous post, I used the adverb "more" coupled with the subjunctive mood of the verb "may". But if you want to claim that the pvp scene wouldn't have been disrupted more as it is right now, had warmane kept the original drop rates, then that would be a different topic. I don't participate in any pvp activities, so I am not able to respond to a such statement. As I've said above, I paraphrased Obnoxious' words.

It's true that possessing Smourne isn't a rare occasion nowadays, due to the following reasons:

- If we trust the numbers on the homepage, we can conclude that many people try to farm the SFSs. Since warmane has been online since 2015, it's inevitable how the number of Smournes would increase naturally in the game (especially on Icecrown, where bosses aren't buffed);
- Seasonal players may return to wow, and if they had obtained SM in the past, you'd still see them wielding it;
- The following regards the pvp environment: to my knowledge, there's a quest chain on Blackrock, which grants you SM as the final reward;
- And there's the option to donate 150 coins for it.

I personally think that you see more Smourne-wielders due to the third case. Blackrock is a pvp-only realm after all, and as such it liberates the players from the burden of doing raids if they don't want to or don't have the time for that. That's the reason, as least from what I have read on the forums, why some people want Blackrock to be separated from Icecrown and Lordearon. Once again, I'm not a pvp player, and I don't have a personal opinion on the matter - I just repeat what other people said in the past.

[edit] Thanks, Thorbjorn, for your post. I forgot to mention that here. I agree that the trademarket made it easier for us to obtain coins, which is yet another big reason why we see more Smournes in the game.

Yes, Blackrock shouldn´t be paired with Icecrown, when you go with furious glad gear vs relentless geared and wrathfull geared people is not really a match now is it? At least that´s what i´m noticing, i´m farming my gear except trinkets, like everyone else, and normally when i´m vs Blackrock, normally it´s a 100% loss.