I am just wondering, the loot that drops off a mob; is that randomly selected loot on the NPC from the moment it spawns or is it randomly created once the said NPC dies?

I am curious on the answer to this, though it is impossible to figure out from my small role as a simple WoW player. This question has occured to me when a rare/epic drops and I am laughing at my luck. It is not an all too important question, will not revolutionize anything, though the knowledge of the answer would be one step closer to knowing everything in the universe. Blegh.

An example of a similar question, is "Does the refridgerator light keep on even after its door is closed?"

The answer is no, no it doesn't. There I have enlightened your mind with a useless piece of knowledge. Ta-da.

It is my (unfounded) belief that loot is determined when the corpse is spawned.

I always wonder what happens when I kill a monster, and it ends up dead on some slope that can't be reached. Is there any loot before actually looting? I don't think so.

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Q u o t e:
I always wonder what happens when I kill a monster, and it ends up dead on some slope that can't be reached. Is there any loot before actually looting? I don't think so.

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Often I would have killed a mob that runs up an unreachable slope, I curse at it and despise its very pixels because I know, that one mob has a 500 gold epic. But then again, I will never know. NEVER! Same with those annoying locked chests. >.<

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Q u o t e:
It is my (unfounded) belief that loot is determined when the corpse is spawned.

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unlike diablo2 (whereby the drops were determined when the enemy is killed) WOW bosses have their loot determined when they spawn, this helps bliz identify items that were unable to b looted before a server crash for instance

Loot is determined upon spawning for all mobs. I'll do a blue tracker search later, but this was clarified on the forums.

Update 2:
HAHAHA...I was right and you were WRONG!!!

j/k

<3 at Tseric

Anyways, though - I was never able to find the post that I seriously, seriously remember having existed at some point. So, maybe it actually never did exist and it's just my supreme powers of perception that led me to the right answer anyways.....I like that theory. Honestly, thank you for confirming whatever it is that actually happens Tseric - even if it was through a Wizard (those shifty wizards >.> <.<

Update (see post 72):

OK, this is the only thing I managed to find so far:

http://blue.cardplace.com/cache/wow-general/3534165.htm

This indeed does make it sound like loot is decided upon the death of a mob....and this is from Eyonix.


The only thing that doesn't sit well with me about this post is that it's from June 05......I didn't start playing even until December 05, yet I specifically remember seeing a post on the forums about this shortly after it was made......


I'm going to continue doing more research for this.....Tseric, is there any way you're allowed to look into this question on your end and bring back the responce from the devs?



I'll keep looking into this.....either my schizophrenia is acting up again....or a post on this actually did exist at one point.

Woot, thanks for the responses.
So now I suppose possibly somewhere out there, is a lonely mob carrying the Hand of Edward the Odd just waiting to be killed. Gargahgsadhasdf

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There I have enlightened your mind with a useless piece of knowledge. Ta-da.

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All knowledge has a use.

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Hmmm...I would be interested in seeing the results of that search.

From what I know (and I have seen hard data on the matter) the loot is calculated at the time of the creature's death. In the logs it will show who dealt the killing blow, then list the loot.

While loot is somewhat predetermined because of the loot tables, specific loot drops from those tables are determined after the death of the creature.

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What about that bug where humanoids had equipped what they dropped?

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Q u o t e:
Loot is determined upon spawning for all mobs. I'll do a blue tracker search later, but this was clarified on the forums.

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I'm almost absolutely certain this isn't the case.

Thank you titan.

Tseric you're wrong. There are humanoids in the badlands that if they spawn with a weapon drop, they have the weapon equipped. Like if they normally wield a sword and they are wielding a dagger instead, then the dagger will drop. Therefore, loot has to be determined when the mob spawns.

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I'm almost absolutely certain this isn't the case.

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And I'm almost certain it is, at least in instances. When you run BRD 20 times in a row, you eventually figure out that certain patterns of mobs mean you will get that silly wand again while another pattern gives the staff.

If you think about it, it would be undue stress on the server to have it spawn on the mob when the mob spawned. Not only would it have to query the DB for the loot, but it would have to track and store that.

It makes a LOT more sense, logically and technically, to have the loot populated when you click on the mob to loot it OR at time of death.

EDIT: Not only that, but the loot being populated during the looting process would also give a clear indication as to why a mob with nothing on it still sparkles and is lootable.

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Q u o t e:
An example of a similar question, is "Does the refridgerator light keep on even after its door is closed?"

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The fridge light DOES go out! Now let me out of here!

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Q u o t e:
Tseric you're wrong. There are humanoids in the badlands that if they spawn with a weapon drop, they have the weapon equipped. Like if they normally wield a sword and they are wielding a dagger instead, then the dagger will drop. Therefore, loot has to be determined when the mob spawns.

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I got a flurry axe that way :q kinda nice to see it coming