You’ll have to be at least level 98 to farm the Big Love Rocket this year

It was a fairly big deal last year when the annual Love is in the Air event for World of Warcraft had the level requirements for the Crown Chemical Co. dropped to level 16. After all, the Big Love Rocket mount from the event is one of the rarest and most sought-after mounts in the game. In fact, the top Wowhead comment for the mount uses crazy witch math to point out that it would take between 80 and 4,000 years — for 50 and 1 characters farming per day, respectively — to “guarantee” the mount would drop. In short, farming on lower characters meant increased (if still abysmal) chances of seeing the mount.

I say all of the above to illustrate why mount farmers might be upset — or perhaps relieved — to learn that you have to be a much higher level to farm the mount this year: at least level 98. According to Wowhead users, if you’re below level 98 and queue for the Crown Chemical Co., you’ll receive the Heart-Shaped Carton instead of the Heart-Shaped Box. The former does not have a chance at the Big Love Rocket, while the latter does. If this sounds somewhat familiar, it’s because the same system was used back during Hallow’s End for players farming the Headless Horseman’s mount.

Now, even though the math makes receiving the mount look more or less impossible, this is still is a nerf to your overall chances, assuming you planned to take advantage of the former level-16-and-up requirement. Personally, I did — but I’m also a crazy person who says phooey to the odds!

There is, however, a part of me that’s also… kind of okay with this. I drove myself crazy last year farming this thing, and even with stupidly fast queue times, I still spent over an hour each day just toon-hopping and running the encounter. Not only was it time consuming, but it was also pretty demoralizing. I mean, I’m still totally going to farm on as many characters as possible this year and likely drive myself just as crazy… but an added limitation still softens that a bit.

More to the point, however, with the introduction of Allied Races — which start at level 20 — players would have been able to run the instance to the detriment of their health. Again, I don’t necessarily exclude myself from that group. So is this a good change? Yes, I think so. Will it make everyone happy? Probably not — but then again, what does?