[GameSpot] - WoW's Infamously Hard To Get Holiday Mounts Might Become Easier To Earn

[343iBot]

World of Warcraft's holiday themed mounts, like the X-45 Heartbreaker, have long been a thorn in the side of many completionists and mount collectors, boasting insanely low drop rates on top of only being available for a limited time each year. According to Blizzard, that could change soon.

In a forum post where players complained about the abysmally low drop rate for X-45 Heartbreaker mount available only during WoW's annual Love is in the Air holiday event, WoW developer Chimes, uh, chimed in on how the experience can be frustrating for players and what Blizzard is looking to do about it. Currently, the mount is only obtainable from an item chest earned from completing a special event dungeon once per day.

"Right now, if you want to maximize your chance of getting the mount, it's in your best interest to repeat this event every day on as many characters as possible," Chimes wrote. "That's…mathematically correct, but not a great experience. We hear this frustration and the good news is that we're discussing this issue amongst the team and evaluating possible solutions for holiday events in general."

Chimes goes on to write that while changes are in the works, they weren't ready for this year's Valentine's Day event. The easiest answer to the problem would be to simply increase the drop chance of the mount, but it remains to be seen if Blizzard will take that route or offer some other solution.

Still, the fact that Blizzard is reevaluating the situation is good news for players who have tried for years to obtain rare mounts like the X-45 Heartbreaker (recently renamed amidst the WoW team's recent efforts to make the game more inclusive) or The Horseman's Reins mount from the game's annual Halloween event to no avail. According to data from Wowhead, the X-45 Heartbreaker has a drop rate of around .03%, while The Horseman's Reins boasts a .4% drop chance. Other earnable holiday event mounts, like the Great Brewfest Kodo or Ram, have around a 2-3% drop chance.

WoW's next big patch, Eternity's End, is slated to arrive February 22. The patch will culminate in a final confrontation with the main villain of the game's Shadowlands expansion, the Jailer, in the new Sepulcher of the First Ones raid. Patch 9.2 and recent design changes come at a time when Blizzard seems to be rethinking many past assumptions about WoW, including cross-faction play, in the wake of ongoing sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits and investigations at Activision Blizzard.

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