Holiday Rare Drops are Bad. Here's Why
With Love is in the Air being the fourth holiday in Dragonflight to add a rare cosmetic drop, it is time to talk about rare holiday drops and why they aren't healthy for the game.
Contextualizing Manuscripts
Before looking into them, it is important to contextualize the most recent additions to this category. While manuscripts are new to Dragonflight, they are, generically speaking, collectibles. Many players consider manuscripts another category of collectible alongside pets, mounts, achievements, etc.
Dragonriding manuscripts are «pieces» for dragonriding mounts. Dragonriding mounts are customizable and can have a plethora of different features changed on them, like tails, scales, colors, etc. Not all of these customizations are unlocked by default, requiring you to obtain a manuscript to unlock a given customization.
While not the most common collectible, many players have dedicated their time and effort to acquiring all the manuscripts. This, for the most part, has been a typical experience since most of their sources mimic pets or mounts. With Patch 10.2, Blizzard recognized this role as collectible, adding achievements to the game to mark when you've finished collecting a group of manuscripts like Renewed Proto-Drake Scales and Patterns.
Unlike other expansion-specific collectibles, like Soulshapes, Blizzard intends to carry manuscripts forward in some capacity, as The War Within already has at least one mount that will use a similar system.
Holiday Manuscripts
Throughout Dragonflight and the holiday revamps, Blizzard has added a few dragonriding manuscripts as drops from Holiday events. These are:
- Renewed Proto-Drake: Brewfest Armor
- Windborne Velocidrake: Hallow's End Armor
- Highland Drake: Winter Veil Armor
- Renewed Proto-Drake: Love Armor
Their common trait is their abysmal drop rate, which increases for the first character of the day in your account.
Parallels with the Past
While manuscripts are new, this isn't the first rare drop from a
