Why Rare Mobs In World Of Warcraft Classic Are A Lie (mostly)

An examinaton of World of Warcraft Classic's rare mob system, mainly of the precious few that actually drop rare blue BoEs - and an attempt at explaining the reason behind it. Join me, as I answer an MMO-related question you (probably) haven't asked!

Please let me know in the comments if you are aware of any that I've missed out on, or if you have any other suggestions/constructive criticism. Thank you so much!

Give some of my other videos a watch if you enjoyed this one:

[tylerbenjamin]

I cannot explain how much happiness it gives me to stumble upon a rare mob. Even if the loot is crap I just love it. Great video 💖💖💖

[GreenBee-qzxn]

That's like everything about World of Warcraft, they had big plans and then had to get realistic. great, informative video btw

[billbadson]

Way back in Vanilla I had an alt permanently parked in the Hinterlands, and his only job was to farm Mithrethis every single time I could catch a spawn. I ended up getting four Chan’s Imperial Robes. Kept one, gave one to a friend, and sold two more. At the time, it was probably the best looking dress in the game (better than any of the alt colors imo)

[supaonyxian]

Rememer the 33 defense proc means when being attacked you are treated as being 6 levels higher for the time its up, that is pretty cool

[domacleod]

That is probably the case, but they could have at least recycled warcraft 3 items to put them as random blue drops with unique names from those bosses. A ring of protection +1-+5 (depending on mob's level), a crown of kings, mantle of intelligence, cloak of shadows, etc. Those were after all also items on the random drop table for "rare" enemies in warcraft 3, the high level head honchos guarding gold mines. Even consumables would have been nice as a drop from rares, a wand of illusion that temporarily creates a mirror image that taunts the target enemy, lightning wand that puts an aoe around you, etc.

[nickrottine]

Nice video. I had a look into all the BoE drops across the zones myself before and I also noticed that particularly the human and dwarf/gnome starting zones are filled with both rare and non-rare mobs that drop gear items unique to those mobs whereas this is extremely rare in most of the Kalimdor zones. So yeah it's probably something they did a lot in the early days but later abandoned it for the most part which would also explain the rarity of this in the high level zones.

[jimbobimbo]

First video I've seen from you. Great job! Subscribed!❤

[ChiragPatel-ymdr]

You should also check out the rare mobs in Duskwood- I think every single Duskwood rare has at least one unique drop, and there are six or seven of them. One of them even drops an item that you can use from your bags to summon a felhunter that will fight for you.

[JeremySteinWolfe]

I returned to WoW a bit over a year ago (WOTLK classic) and accidentally stumbled upon the first two rare mobs of the list while farming deviate hides in the same cave. The initial bar was set really highly when both dropped blues and that sparked my initial interest in hunting rare mobs! Now, admittedly, I feel like Blizzard did a really fine job (at least for the first few expansions (I never played past MOP)) expanding on the rare mobs, both the loot tables and the model variety! WOTLK rares guarantee a satchel drop that can contain northrend mats and some extra gold, as well as a blue (or in one case, a mount (as well as the achievement “Frostbitten” which isn’t game-changing, but it’s nice to be recognized for my niche of rare hunting)). I loved this video and the structure which you used for describing each mob! It brought me back to seeing trigore on my first (new) character last year and it would definitely be cool to see some more videos branching out to cover rare mobs from different expansions

[patrickday]

You forgot Digmaster Shovelphlange roams the caves infront of Uldaman. Drops the expert goldmines helm. Probably one of the few level 33 Blues sought out and used by level 60s

[remyllebeau]

I was always disgusted by how many items had spirit or other weird stats on them. Or no stats and a useless proc.

[Wallcraft_Official]

My project just updated all rares to drop a unique world boe blue, and it's the only source of that specific item. Players have been frenzying to hunt rares all week, very ironic this video came out at the same time.

[Notpoop]

There is two types of "Rare mob" in Classic. There's Rares, then Elite Rares. The Elite Rares are the ones that drop blues. Most people aren't able to tell the difference because they don't use the default blizzard UI and frames but a Rare mob will have a silver dragon frame, and an Elite Rare will also have a silver dragon frame BUT wings on the dragon.

[Murlockingqc]

I love how I've seen most of these named mobs :)
And I also found few of the items you are listing.
What a fun game back then !

[melorate]

Nimar the Slayer (Arathi Highlands) is missing. Rare mobs give additional xp, that's satisfying enough😅

[Lucy-dkcz]

I like that they drop uncommon. Uncommon should still feel rewarding. In retail if it isn’t purple it feels crap.

[leifdarkwood]

while some rares only drop greens some do have unique greens or vanity pets on their drop table. about as cool as a rare and in some cases just as valuable

[Magoflipante]

You are so wise and full of ancient knowledge. Thank you for this video.

[soundslikeaudio]

Absolutely loved this video! Noticed you didn't include the level of the mobs which would be helpful info tho.

[Adam]

Early into WoW's release these rare mobs were fairly easy to farm if you knew where to find them. I would make my rounds and kill General Fangferror, and Lord Darkscythe practically daily at one time. While they weren't guaranteed to drop their rare items, the drop rate was high enough that you would get their rare unique item roughly every 3 kills. Fangferror was practically always up whenever I would check due to his isolated location. I amassed quite a few Joonhoo's Mercy's and Songblades. My knowledge of these rare spawns as well as farming mobs that dropped certain rare patterns is one of the reasons that I was one of the first on my server to obtain an epic mount. Ahh the good ole days.