Stoneoak shield - not available from COTF raid vendor

The T1A raid tank shield - Stoneoak Tower Shield - isn't available on the raid vendor in Ethernere Tainted West Karana.

Is this intentional design, or an omission? Apologies if the question has been answered already!

I was curious about this as well... dev input please

The ultra rare raid loot doesn't generally get put on vendor, unless in some situations when it is unlocked via achievements

Yeah just like a few rares in RoF you couldn't purchase on the raid vendors unless you had all the raid achievements done. Now not sure if you do all the raid achievements in CoTF if the same thing will happen or not.

But I can say I was dissapointed that it wasn't on the vendor either, but i'll live.

They just dont like Sk's this expansion.

First your spell vendor and now your shield!

there is also a really nice dps caster belt from Neriak that isn't on the vendor, and i would assume that both DH and WK have something as well, though whatever it is our guild has yet to see it.

These items are intentionally not available on the merchants as they are special loot.

Locked behind achievements that are nigh on impossible to beat.

which is fine and cool, but ppsssttt... up the drop rate a bit =P

Any chance they can be marked as special non vendor on the loot somewhere? I passed on a chance to bid on one thinking I could buy it at the vendor only to find out it was considered rare and I have to wait till the next one drops.

This is great imo, I really like the rare chase concept (except heartguard...forget that evil, evil thing!). It's just odd timing wise since all of the t1 slots aren't unlocked and there isn't a cotf alternative (yet).

They are not locked behind any achievements, AFAIK. They are just ultra-rare drops. In RoF there was Burden of Truth. In CotF there are Bloodstained Shoulders plus archetype-specific drops (so far, a tank shield and a caster belt; expect a healer and a melee dps item in part 2). There are only 4 raids that can drop them at the moment, making them look even more rare. When more CotF content is released, they won't be quite as rare.

Could you please add these items to the vendor at a premium price and locked behind the raid achievements like the rare drop clickies/special items were in ROF? I don't understand why you would stop doing this after you did it in the last expansion for the exact same type of items. It made way too much sense to give an incentive for raids to try to attempt the sometimes extremely difficult raid achievements. Please reconsider this.

They've already proven several times that they can't get those achievements right. Unrealistic, sadistic, impossible without exploiting, impossible because of bugs... No need to try that idea again, thank you.

The 'rare' items should be linked to a vendor based on having beaten ALL the raids not all the raids conquests imo (and that should retroactively apply to RoF imo. For tier 1 they could even make it so you have to beat ALL of tier 1a and all of Tier 1b raids for the rare items to be unlocked (this would keep the current items super rare for a few months but make them very accessible after a delayed amount of time.) Allowing them to remain 'chase' items.

How is that different from simply putting these items on the raid vendor? The challenge of beating previous content? That's not a challenge at all.

I'm all for adding a chase rare item or two, so long as standard upgrades aren't put into this category. As far as I know, there are no other shields dropping, so I assume the standard shield upgrades will come with the next release. It'd be very weak design if this rare-as-hell shield is the only upgrade that a tank might see (I mean if standard shields aren't added next release). Likewise, the good caster belt should remain rare, but I'd hope they have a standard alternative. I still think they should be put on the vendor at some point at a ridiculous cost.

It's merely a template that they should have followed, because while this expansion may be easy mode some raids may not end up in the future as being quite as easy mode.

I just was listing it as the universal template they should have used- beat all raids in the tier and unlock that tiers raid items to a vendor. It seems fair + accessible. Unlike RoF that required people to beat some ridiculous challenges (for an assortment of reasons) or unlike cotf that doesnt offer these rare items on the vendor at all.

Fat chance. The raids are getting easier and easier, and will continue to get easier. The devs are saying that they no longer tune them for the top guilds. The whole definition of a 'top guild' is getting downgraded as more and more guilds are able to beat new content quickly. And then the raids are tuned for those who can't beat them even in the current easy mode. Looks like the goal there is to have every single raiding guild to be able to beat the raids in each release before the next one, i.e. within 3 months. They are not going back to challenging raids. Anything locked behind the plain progression is not locked at all, it would be the same as regular raid loot, slightly more rare because you'd need to buy it with the currency.

I can see and understand why it is rare and not on the raid vendor, but what I want to know, why does it look like a big coffee table / sled?