The Future of WoW Raiding

[WoRBot]

An editorial piece on the future of WoW raiding, starting with patch 3.2. Blizzard is once again reshaping the way we experience raids.Read More

[Deployed]

To be fair, it's a reverse Keal'thasesque encounter. He's actually gotten stronger after death. Nice contrast considering the theme.

[Kody]

Originally Posted by Deployed

To be fair, it's a reverse Keal'thasesque encounter. He's actually gotten stronger after death. Nice contrast considering the theme.

This is true. It's nice to see that he gets his chance to be something more than a dungeon boss.

[Brakkyn]

Let's face it, Blizzard has about two choices: create a totally new boss with next to zero lore behind it, or reuse an old boss with lore behind it. It's a double-edged sword--either way, they're going to get cut by some swing-happy player with a bone to pick.

By the by, players have three choices: pay and play, skip it and sulk, or cancel and cry.

[JonnieLaw]

we actually get to fight in two rooms, not one.

i'm all for blizz slapping together something so close to a large content patch while we wait for the big brawl in Icecrown. it's kinda like a simple mid-course that teases you before your entree.

[Kody]

Originally Posted by JonnieLaw

we actually get to fight in two rooms, not one.

i'm all for blizz slapping together something so close to a large content patch while we wait for the big brawl in Icecrown. it's kinda like a simple mid-course that teases you before your entree.

Yeah I wanted to mention Anub'arak's area but felt the article was getting a little wordy already. :P

[Jaymz]

I think, difficulty has a lot to do with whether an instance is "epic" or just "normal".

Just remember back in the old days - every point of an instance had a history. Remember the difficult trash at Temple of Ahn'Qiraj beyond the Twin Emperors? Or maybe the annoying "penis tunnel" in Blackwing Lair? People had to learn the whole instance, not just the bossfights and this made the whole thing "epic".

Since LK, this kind of PvE progression has faded. Tanking and healing has become very trivial and DPS was spreaded to many many classes. There are no trash packs, where you may wipe your entire raid, the bosses are mostly reduced to Tank&Spank and various difficulty levels have been added to the game.

I think it is up to you if you are willing to beat the hard content just after a patch release and wipe many hours or just relax 3-4 weeks and enjoy the whole instance with your friends. These items don't last long enough as it used to be, so it is very difficult to forecast which instances shall be fully cleared. I guess Colliseum is just another filler, Icecrown will mark the end of this addon and give us some superior items which will be probably replaced by leveling items -_-

[rhorle]

I'm fine with a boss being re-used, why? Because it fits with what arthas is. All of arthas and the scourge is about re-using things. When something dies, bring it back more powerful. We saw it with SFK and grizzly hills, we saw it with UP and etc etc. In this case re-using fits, not like kael'thas where it seemed more like after thought.

It fits with why the scourge and arthas are so powerful, you kill them once they rise up again. You kill the twice and now your dead are rising with the original attackers.

[Xentropy]

Originally Posted by rhorle

I'm fine with a boss being re-used, why? Because it fits with what arthas is. All of arthas and the scourge is about re-using things. When something dies, bring it back more powerful. We saw it with SFK and grizzly hills, we saw it with UP and etc etc. In this case re-using fits, not like kael'thas where it seemed more like after thought.

Considering the very first Kael kill, long before the Sunwell patch, ended in turning in an item in Shat where it was revealed he was only playing dead in the first place, it was far from an after-thought. It was planned that he was still alive after Tempest Keep from the start. That he was reused as a 5-man boss instead of showing up in Sunwell as a raid boss again may be a disappointment, but it wasn't an afterthought.

[Arcano30]

I like the idea that you use a token for all 5 tier pieces, but they should get rid off the class specific token once and for all, its an out dated mechanic. since RNG is not doing any good for guilds...
an example is my guild, last week we cleared Ulduar as usual and get only 1 conqueror token, we run naxx on sunday and not a single conqueror nor protector. so far this week we are only missing gen, yoggy, mimi and thorim. and we only got 1 conqueror.

[awktane]

Arcano - Although that would be lovely I highly doubt that'll happen any time soon. They have to have some mechanic in the game to slow us down from gearing up too quickly and staying interested until they release something else. The only other possibility is make tier easier to get but then make gear that's better than tier. Doesn't end up fixing anything.

[Kys]

It would just be plain boring Arcano, a rpg needs some random things in it, they are removing it from way too many things already in my opinion.

[unknownhero]

I think this is a good idea but I prefer raids like uld and naxx, where theres a variety of trach and 14 bosses, I'm hoping that Icecrown Citidel won't be just a single fight against the Lich King I wanna see other bosses, maybe some unknown characters and Frostmourn