Ivory Hawkstrider - is it really this bad?

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Wain
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Ivory Hawkstrider - is it really this bad?

Unread post by Wain »

To access the grind for the Ivory Hawkstrider you have to: complete at least one Falcosaur mount chain, involving gaining the minipet and performing 14 different quests for it over a couple of weeks. This chain is pretty cool.

But then you have to speak to Aviana who sends you on a PvP grind for reputation for her new faction. At Exalted you can buy the Ivory Hawkstrider, which is now a very old model. Don't get me wrong I'm really happy they're adding missing old mounts to the game but the requirements for this one seem incredibly excessive.

To grind the rep tokens you are given an Ivory Talon. You have to use it to transform and then kill players in PvP World Quest and Falcosaur areas, much like the Timeless Isle censer was used for the mushan grind. However:
- each token awards 100 rep
- you have to be lucky enough to get the killing blow on the player. Tagging them isn't enough.
- if you die you can't use the transformation for another 15 mins. So, you transform, enter the area, die to a group of players in seconds, and it's all over for another 15 mins. Assuming you or your group are no better or worse at PvP than any other player present you will lose every second combat. So, assuming you are lucky enough to be the person present who gets a killing blow every win (yeah, right) then the average will be 100 rep every 15 - 20 mins. You need to earn about 41,500 rep, which is 415 tokens, which is over 100 hours of PvP, half of which is from a restricted source, for this mount.
- if you're on a PvE server you're really not going to encounter many hostile players in falcosaur or warden tower areas, you're probably only going to see them in the special free-for-all World Quest areas. And even in the latter, a large number of players just kill the NPCs and try to avoid PvP at all cost. It's not like Timeless Isle where it was all concentrated, it's very diluted this time. At Honored you can get a new item that allows you to harvest rep in Battlegrounds at least... providing you get the killing blow and don't die, of course. It has a 10 min cool down!

It seems like this mount is designed to encourage either (i) slow-grind kill trading with a friend in a discreet location, or (ii) finding a PvP group large enough to flatten all opposition without you dying, but with enough of a ratio that you'll luck a significant number of killing blows.

Am I missing something or is it really this awful? :/
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Dewclaw
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Re: Ivory Hawkstrider - is it really this bad?

Unread post by Dewclaw »

Sounds pretty awful to me. :|
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Shinryu Masaki
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Re: Ivory Hawkstrider - is it really this bad?

Unread post by Shinryu Masaki »

Extremely awful. I wouldn't have minded if it was a new mount model, but for this old one? Add the fact that it's 10k gold to buy (does the rep even reduce the cost of it?), and that the vast majority of players don't even notice a graphical difference with the White Hawkstrider, yeah that grind is pretty insane. I think they should have given us this one as a freebie for unlocking the Aviana faction, and then place a new one at exalted that's not an old model.
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Re: Ivory Hawkstrider - is it really this bad?

Unread post by Lupen202 »

It is that bad. The bloody coins from MoP also required the killing blow.

I did it completely solo, albeit on a pvp server. I'd pick off the lower geared players, or those low on hp at the falcosaur WQ areas. I also had the fishing pole artifact, so if an angry mob formed I'd swim off and hide. It sounds scummy, but I absolutely did not want to wait that 15m cool down while they lost nothing by dying. There are also some leaves that heal you, that you can purchase at neutral from the Talon's vengeance vendor. (consumed on use, so buy as many as you can)

At honored though it's ridiculously easy. Just buy the ivory feather, queue for AV and kill npcs in the mines. Wouldn't be surprised if this is hotfixed soon though; admittedly surprised it isn't already.

Another word of advice; do NOT use your marks of prey in the falcosaur WQ areas or any other pvp ffa area. They will be consumed but will not award reputation.

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Wain
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Re: Ivory Hawkstrider - is it really this bad?

Unread post by Wain »

Oh, so the Feather at Honored allows you to kill NPCs in BGs. That's cool. The Talon at Neutral requires you to kill players, making it very difficult to get anywhere.
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Re: Ivory Hawkstrider - is it really this bad?

Unread post by Lupen202 »

Yeah, neutral -> honored is the only difficult part at the moment. At honored when you can buy the feather and queue for Ashran/Bgs it picks up considerably, because while you're supposed to only get marks from player kills still, the npcs in AV/ashran are also awarding them... Even critters were. Which is why I'm expecting a hotfix any day now.

Still a hellish grind, but not nearly as bad as it could've been I suppose.

Edit: I saw this on reddit, and while I didn't try myself as I didn't hear about it, maybe it'd be of use to someone here.
"Actually I've been hitting up a PvP area and when I die I just queue for a skirmish which resets the CD. You can leave if you want but I play it out. The only downtime is waiting 1-2 mins for the skirmish to pop and it's way more fun now."

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Re: Ivory Hawkstrider - is it really this bad?

Unread post by Castile »

wow that does seem like a lot of effort for a not so awesome looking mount...It's probably easier to run MgT until your eyes bleed tbh for the slightly nicer looking one :lol:

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