Blizzard briefly disabled loot and reputation gains from all of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight's rare mobs in the Dragon Isles after players discovered they could take advantage of a bug to get better loot faster and more often.
As the developer explained in a blog post last night, rare enemies such as Cinta the Forgotten, Windseeker Avash, and Drakewing briefly didn't offer any reward for beating them while the team worked to squash a bug that caused drops to disobey daily loot lockout.
If you missed the loot gold rush, players found out they could exploit the loot tables on rare world bosses to ensure a steady flow of high-level gear, with the Spellforge Brute over at the Forge of Arcanum proving particularly popular. All you needed was a large group stuffed with higher-level players you could trade amongst, as you can still do that even if you get a good piece of gear you can't personally equip. It's complicated, though you can find a full breakdown here if you're interested.
Regardless, oodles of players took advantage to get ready for the first big Dragonflight raid faster or simply enjoy their new and shiny loot. And it worked, with many players gaining some serious power level on their gear.
Blizzard turned the drops back on a few hours later, though some players report that the drops have been nerfed too hard. There's also the ongoing discussion on the forums over what Blizzard should do about those that took advantage of the bug, as plenty feel there's a power disparity in the MMO's community now.
Blizzard has yet to comment on what it'll do about players' ill-gotten gains, though the first big raid is set to open on December 12, so if anything does happen, we'll likely hear about it soon enough.
Aside from the loot snafu, Dragonflight has been going down a treat for World of Warcraft fans. The main story and subtle sidequests have been met with affection, primarily because it's nothing like Shadowlands. Then there are the sidequests that send you to a centaur-only dating club. Truly something for everyone.
Meanwhile, World of Warcraft's pacifist panda has returned to hit Dragonflight's level cap without actually playing the expansion.
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