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

ErianaSagewing · May 2021

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?

Alinhbo_Tyaka · May 2021

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.

redspecter23 · May 2021

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 · May 2021

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 · May 2021

redspecter23 wrote: »

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.

Sylvermynx · May 2021

Ditto with Mudcrab Chitin of course....

Elsonso · May 2021

ErianaSagewing wrote: »

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.

cynicalbutterfly · May 2021

ErianaSagewing wrote: »

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 · May 2021

Have you tried plucking a butterfly in RL? You monster.

AcadianPaladin · May 2021

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.

deleted221106-002999 · May 2021

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 · May 2021

I love chasing Flutterbyes. So pretty! Must touch.

(Hence I gather many wings. I am a butterfly hunter. Need a perk for that!)

Fennwitty · May 2021

If they dropped every time, they'd be worth as much as paper.

ApoAlaia · May 2021

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 · May 2021

There's a place in shadowfen where Torchbug Thoraxes always drops

Xuhora · May 2021

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 · May 2021

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

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