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Why don't Butterfly Wings & Torchbug Thoraxes always drop?

ErianaSagewing
All torchbugs have a thorax and all butterflies have wings - so why is the drop rate so low? Why is there a drop rate at all? If I got to harvest a flower, I always collect the flower. Why is it different with insects?

Best Answer

  • Alinhbo_Tyaka
    Alinhbo_Tyaka
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    I look at it like I do other resource nodes. You always get the basic wood for your level but only occasionally get heartwood for furnishings. The same goes for the other base resources. In the case of bugs they always provide insect parts for fishing and occasionally wings or thoraxes for alchemy. Why fishing and alchemy? Beats me I gave up on trying to apply logic to many of the game's quirks a long time ago.
    Answer ✓
  • redspecter23
    redspecter23
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    You need to pluck them with precision. It's a delicate task. Not every wing or thorax is taken properly. If not in pristine condition, they are worthless and just considered insect parts instead. You do always get insect parts.
  • ErianaSagewing
    This is a very good answer and I had considered this possibility - however, if this were the case then surely as one's alchemical proficiency improved, the drop rate should also increase? After all, as a Level 50 alchemist with all skill points maxed out, I would expect my character's precision to be greater than a Level 1 alchemist with no skill points.

    Alas, I have not tested this to confirm that there is no statistical difference between the two. In my anecdotal experience my drop rate at max level is approximately 1 in 10. Is this any different to other people's experience?
  • SeaGtGruff
    SeaGtGruff
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    You need to pluck them with precision. It's a delicate task. Not every wing or thorax is taken properly. If not in pristine condition, they are worthless and just considered insect parts instead. You do always get insect parts.

    I guess that reasoning works with Medium Armor "nodes" as well-- that is to say, animals. It bugs me that when you harvest a Woodworking, Blacksmithing, or Light Armor node you always get the corresponding raw materials (unless some thoughtful player took them ahead of you and left the other materials), yet when you kill an animal you (1) don't always get to loot the corpse and (2) don't always get leather scraps.
    I've fought mudcrabs more fearsome than me!
  • Sylvermynx
    Sylvermynx
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    Ditto with Mudcrab Chitin of course....
  • Elsonso
    Elsonso
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    All torchbugs have a thorax and all butterflies have wings - so why is the drop rate so low? Why is there a drop rate at all? If I got to harvest a flower, I always collect the flower. Why is it different with insects?

    World of Warcraft® loot rules. Sometimes you damage the merchandise. :disappointed:
    PC NA/EU: @Elsonso
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  • cynicalbutterfly
    cynicalbutterfly
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    In my anecdotal experience my drop rate at max level is approximately 1 in 10. Is this any different to other people's experience?

    For me it's normally about 1 in 8. Depends on the area though. I never get any thoraxes in Murkmire. Quite literally spent a few hours running around grabbing torchbugs and got zero. I spend the same amount of time in Skyrim and walk away with almost a stack. Same with butterflies. Some areas I have more luck getting them and others are super hard to get.
  • phaneub17_ESO
    phaneub17_ESO
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    Have you tried plucking a butterfly in RL? You monster.
  • AcadianPaladin
    AcadianPaladin
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    Any particular flower - let's say cornflower for example - has a 100% drop rate because cornflowers are not that common. There are places, however, where you could literally harvest 100 torchbugs in 10 minutes. Almost the same with butterflies.

    I think you'll find (continuing this example) that if you are farming cornflower or torchbug thorax, your results will be somewhat similar.
    PC NA(no Steam), PvE, mostly solo
  • deleted221106-002999
    deleted221106-002999
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    I always found the whole "pull the wings off butterflies" a tad disturbing.

    "come and play our game - embrace your inner nasty child and pull the wings off bugs, later you can graduate to murdering people..."

    :|

    Of course, slaughtering everything else is fair game, particularly if they monologue megalomaniacally.
  • Path
    Path
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    I love chasing Flutterbyes. So pretty! Must touch.

    (Hence I gather many wings. I am a butterfly hunter. Need a perk for that!)
    Fairy Tales Really Do Come True...Kinda.
  • Fennwitty
    Fennwitty
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    If they dropped every time, they'd be worth as much as paper.
    PC NA
  • ApoAlaia
    ApoAlaia
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    Fennwitty wrote: »
    If they dropped every time, they'd be worth as much as paper.

    If they dropped every time no one would need to wonder what they are worth.
  • Starlight_Whisper
    Starlight_Whisper
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    There's a place in shadowfen where Torchbug Thoraxes always drops
  • Xuhora
    Xuhora
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    it goes in the same category as "sewer rat drops ruby inferno staff occasionaly" its just the way games work. it does not have to be as real as possible, something have to be altered and thats fine.
  • JKorr
    JKorr
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    An even more irritating event; okay messing up grabbing a torchbug , getting too slashy slashy stabby stabby on smaller critters I can understand, that would ruin the mats. But really, no hide scrap, or no meat from a *mammoth*? Unless its killed with an "enemies explode" type of spell a mammoth should give you something.
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