AT World of Warcraft Thread (Cataclysm, Where do you play, General BS and all that)

[blurredvision]

Someone want to c&p that wowhead link, doesn't work on the mobile.

Here:

A commenter named Ron over at WoWInsider pointed out something we missed!

A little while ago in the Azeroth Bulletin which we reported here, this was posted:

Bulletin said:

Speaking to a small conglomerate of various Alliance representatives, Mekkatorque pointed out that the time to strike is now. After all, Thermaplugg has eluded death for years to keep his reign over Gnomeregan; and with the fall of the Lich King, the last great threat to the citizens of Azeroth, the chance of any cataclysmic event taking place in the foreseeable future is "less than 12.7%," Mekkatorque's leading combat medical advisor Doc Cogspin purported.

12.7%? 12-7? CURSE YOU BLIZZARD FOR RUBBING IT IN OUR FACES!!!

 

[lupi]

I'm guessing the loot system will stay the same for ICC and RS though instead of the new "same but less" from cata raids.

Having no firm knowledge of this, I can guarentee that is the way it will occur.

 

[lupi]

Ah, it's that thing someone posted earlier. It is a rather clever play on words there.

 

[Cookie]

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=27026324753&sid=1

Almost six months ago we announced that Cataclysm raids were being redesigned to make both raid sizes the same difficulty, drop the same quality of loot, and exist in the same lockout. This evolution in raid philosophy is built on the belief that the size of your raiding group should be a choice based solely on what's more fun and enjoyable for you, and that you should not have to complete the same raiding content twice in a week to maximize your character's progression. These systems are the culmination of a great deal of design and player feedback from the last few years. With the release of the 4.0.1 patch, the new Flexible Raid Lock system will debut in Icecrown Citadel and The Ruby Sanctum.

With the Flexible Raid Lock system, instead of being locked to a specific raid size or raid group, each character will have the opportunity to defeat each raid encounter once a week. You could kill Lord Marrowgar and Lady Deathwhisper with a 10-player raid on Wednesday, join a 25-player raid to kill Festergut and Rotface on Thursday, and then lead a completely new 10-player raid to kill The Lich King on Friday. Every raid has a list of encounters associated with the zone. For example, Icecrown Citadel has twelve encounters. After you defeat Lord Marrowgar, you can open up your character's raid information dialog and see the list of encounters in Icecrown Citadel with Marrowgar marked as defeated. You may no longer fight Lord Marrowgar with any raid size or difficulty until the weekly raid reset for your region occurs.

Another key change is that if you join someone else's raid in progress, you are no longer locked to that raid after merely zoning in. Your raid status will only change when a boss is defeated, at which point it will be updated to reflect the state of the instance in which you are currently participating. So, let's say you have killed the first four bosses of Icecrown Citadel, and you then join a raid that has defeated the first four encounters, as well as Festergut and Rotface. The dialog that displays upon entering Icecrown Citadel will show that the raid has defeated 6 of 12 encounters. If you help them defeat Professor Putricide, then you would be marked as having defeated not only Professor Putricide for the week, but also Festergut and Rotface. If instead after joining the raid you then proceeded to wipe ten times to Professor Putricide, you could leave the raid with only the first four bosses marked as completed.

To help communicate to players which bosses are dead in the raid leader's raid, there is new functionality to link in chat a list of the encounters the raid has defeated. So before you join a raid, you can see what they've already defeated. If a raid leader advertises in chat that she needs another healer for an 8/12 Icecrown Citadel run, you can see precisely which bosses are still available to fight. If you were only looking for that one item from Queen Lana'thel that never drops for you and this raid already defeated her, you will know not to join that raid.

Let's look at another example of the Flexible Raid Lock system. A guild schedules three nights for 25-player Icecrown Citadel raiding on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. On Wednesday, the raid defeats Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Icecrown Gunship Battle, and Saurfang. On Thursday, five people cancel their raid attendance due to real life emergencies. The raid leader knows that if he cancels Thursday raiding, there's little chance they'll have enough time on Saturday to defeat the other eight bosses in Icecrown Citadel. So he splits the remaining 20 Thursday raiders into two 10-player raids. Each new raid enters Icecrown Citadel and defeats Rotface, Festergut, Blood Council, and Valithria Dreamwalker. The next Saturday with all 25 players online, they reform as a 25-player raid and enter Icecrown Citadel once more. Only Professor Putricide, Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and The Lich King remain. After a tough fight, the Lich King falls and everybody celebrates. Without the Flexible Raid Lock system the entire raid probably would have missed out on a night of raiding, and likely would not have reached the Lich King.

While players can freely move between raids of different sizes in normal difficulty, there are some additional rules for Heroic difficulty. If a 10- or 25-player raid defeats a boss on Heroic difficulty, then those players may now only raid additional Heroic encounters with that specific raid. If your Heroic 25-player raid defeats the first four bosses of Icecrown Citadel on Heroic, then they may not split up into two 10-player raids and continue to fight in Heroic difficulty. You may also not join someone else's raid if they have defeated a Heroic encounter.

But let's say you are a member of a Heroic raid in Icecrown Citadel, and after killing Lord Marrowgar on Heroic you have Internet connection issues that prevent you from raiding for two nights. During those two nights, the rest of the raid kills everything. Without the Flexible Raid Lock system, you would be done with raiding Icecrown Citadel for the week. Ouch. With the Flexible Raid Lock system, you can join someone else's raid as long as they are doing Normal difficulty. This would at least give you the opportunity to earn your Justice Points for the week. If this raid attempted to switch to Heroic difficulty for Icecrown Gunship Battle with you in the raid, the raid leader would receive an error message stating that she cannot change to Heroic, because someone in the raid (i.e., you) is already locked to a different Heroic instance.

All of the new Cataclysm raids will feature the Flexible Raid Lock and Dynamic Difficulty systems, and when the Cataclysm occurs the other Wrath of the Lich King raids will also have these features. It's important to note that this system doesn't affect Heroic dungeons, they will work as they always have. We look forward to feedback for this new system after 4.0.1 is released. As a reminder, Icecrown Citadel and The Ruby Sanctum are the only two raids that support the Flexible Raid Lock until the Cataclysm occurs.

 

[Phoenix86]

Yeah, that's not confusing AT ALL.

I mean, if it takes 6 paragraphs to explain, how the hell are raid leaders going to explain this enough not to screw over a 25 man raid.

I foresee this happening a lot:
25 man does 1-2 wings, breaks down into 2 10s and the RL says go do a 3rd wing. We'll pick up the last wing as 25s later. The 25 reforms on another night and the instance is cleared... One of the 10s says "wait, we weren't supposed to clear?!?"

It'll be a nightmare for pugs and/or griefing.

 

[blurredvision]

Seems pretty simple until you get to the paragraph about hard modes. I don't understand the point of completely changing the rules of what you can and can't join after downing a hard mode raid boss.

 

[Cookie]

I dislike the HM part too. A lot.

I'm thinking I can kiss the thought of more shadowfrost shards goodbye after this week!

 

[ViviTheMage]

I am not sure if this has been posted, but here's a bluepost on mmo-champion about the raid changes :

Almost six months ago we announced that Cataclysm raids were being redesigned to make both raid sizes the same difficulty, drop the same quality of loot, and exist in the same lockout. This evolution in raid philosophy is built on the belief that the size of your raiding group should be a choice based solely on what's more fun and enjoyable for you, and that you should not have to complete the same raiding content twice in a week to maximize your character's progression. These systems are the culmination of a great deal of design and player feedback from the last few years. With the release of the 4.0.1 patch, the new Flexible Raid Lock system will debut in Icecrown Citadel and The Ruby Sanctum.

With the Flexible Raid Lock system, instead of being locked to a specific raid size or raid group, each character will have the opportunity to defeat each raid encounter once a week. You could kill Lord Marrowgar and Lady Deathwhisper with a 10-player raid on Wednesday, join a 25-player raid to kill Festergut and Rotface on Thursday, and then lead a completely new 10-player raid to kill The Lich King on Friday. Every raid has a list of encounters associated with the zone. For example, Icecrown Citadel has twelve encounters. After you defeat Lord Marrowgar, you can open up your character's raid information dialog and see the list of encounters in Icecrown Citadel with Marrowgar marked as defeated. You may no longer fight Lord Marrowgar with any raid size or difficulty until the weekly raid reset for your region occurs.

Another key change is that if you join someone else's raid in progress, you are no longer locked to that raid after merely zoning in. Your raid status will only change when a boss is defeated, at which point it will be updated to reflect the state of the instance in which you are currently participating. So, let's say you have killed the first four bosses of Icecrown Citadel, and you then join a raid that has defeated the first four encounters, as well as Festergut and Rotface. The dialog that displays upon entering Icecrown Citadel will show that the raid has defeated 6 of 12 encounters. If you help them defeat Professor Putricide, then you would be marked as having defeated not only Professor Putricide for the week, but also Festergut and Rotface. If instead after joining the raid you then proceeded to wipe ten times to Professor Putricide, you could leave the raid with only the first four bosses marked as completed.

To help communicate to players which bosses are dead in the raid leader's raid, there is new functionality to link in chat a list of the encounters the raid has defeated. So before you join a raid, you can see what they've already defeated. If a raid leader advertises in chat that she needs another healer for an 8/12 Icecrown Citadel run, you can see precisely which bosses are still available to fight. If you were only looking for that one item from Queen Lana'thel that never drops for you and this raid already defeated her, you will know not to join that raid.

Let's look at another example of the Flexible Raid Lock system. A guild schedules three nights for 25-player Icecrown Citadel raiding on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. On Wednesday, the raid defeats Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Icecrown Gunship Battle, and Saurfang. On Thursday, five people cancel their raid attendance due to real life emergencies. The raid leader knows that if he cancels Thursday raiding, there's little chance they'll have enough time on Saturday to defeat the other eight bosses in Icecrown Citadel. So he splits the remaining 20 Thursday raiders into two 10-player raids. Each new raid enters Icecrown Citadel and defeats Rotface, Festergut, Blood Council, and Valithria Dreamwalker. The next Saturday with all 25 players online, they reform as a 25-player raid and enter Icecrown Citadel once more. Only Professor Putricide, Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and The Lich King remain. After a tough fight, the Lich King falls and everybody celebrates. Without the Flexible Raid Lock system the entire raid probably would have missed out on a night of raiding, and likely would not have reached the Lich King.

While players can freely move between raids of different sizes in normal difficulty, there are some additional rules for Heroic difficulty. If a 10- or 25-player raid defeats a boss on Heroic difficulty, then those players may now only raid additional Heroic encounters with that specific raid. If your Heroic 25-player raid defeats the first four bosses of Icecrown Citadel on Heroic, then they may not split up into two 10-player raids and continue to fight in Heroic difficulty. You may also not join someone else's raid if they have defeated a Heroic encounter.

But let's say you are a member of a Heroic raid in Icecrown Citadel, and after killing Lord Marrowgar on Heroic you have Internet connection issues that prevent you from raiding for two nights. During those two nights, the rest of the raid kills everything. Without the Flexible Raid Lock system, you would be done with raiding Icecrown Citadel for the week. Ouch. With the Flexible Raid Lock system, you can join someone else's raid as long as they are doing Normal difficulty. This would at least give you the opportunity to earn your Justice Points for the week. If this raid attempted to switch to Heroic difficulty for Icecrown Gunship Battle with you in the raid, the raid leader would receive an error message stating that she cannot change to Heroic, because someone in the raid (i.e., you) is already locked to a different Heroic instance.

All of the new Cataclysm raids will feature the Flexible Raid Lock and Dynamic Difficulty systems, and when the Cataclysm occurs the other Wrath of the Lich King raids will also have these features. It's important to note that this system doesn't affect Heroic dungeons, they will work as they always have. We look forward to feedback for this new system after 4.0.1 is released. As a reminder, Icecrown Citadel and The Ruby Sanctum are the only two raids that support the Flexible Raid Lock until the Cataclysm occurs.

 

[JujuFish]

I am not sure if this has been posted, but here's a bluepost on mmo-champion about the raid changes :

Uh, I don't know how you can miss the post that's only four above yours.

 

[Anubis]

2 hours late vivi

 

[Aikouka]

I'm not a huge fan of that HM clause either... it seems silly and over-constricting... especially the part about being able to join someone else's HM if you've already done one.

2 hours late vivi

Effort appreciated none the less .

 

[BassBomb]

Keepers of time done, Kaluak done

Ogrila, Frenzyheart WIP limited by dailies

Zandalar next, need about 200 more bijous to take me the way (farming bijous on my pally since they are faster then sending to rogue)

Timbermaw will be next after Zandalar

 

[lupi]

yeah what's up with zand, totaly gone with the patch? I am at like 80 some percent revered so don't really need that much to make the final push, just the time to do it.

 

[BassBomb]

yeah what's up with zand, totaly gone with the patch? I am at like 80 some percent revered so don't really need that much to make the final push, just the time to do it.

I heard ZG is gone, and I heard the Zandalar tribe will also be gone, so the achieves are now or never I guess

 

[Aikouka]

The achievements will become Feats of Strength.

 

[rcpratt]

Thorium and mithril done. Halfway through Iron. So easy in Arathi but need a ton. Yawn.

 

[DaTT]

Just got my Cata BETA key today...currently installing it. Can't wait to fly through Org.

 

[Anubis]

4 mounts down
1 to go

ugh this is painful

 

[Cookie]

This is an update to the last raid change post I don't want to quote because it's so long. Does anyone have a Blizzard-English translator handy?


Update
One piece of clarification on questions being asked so far, although we're still compiling feedback and will work to answer some of the questions and clear up any confusion we can.

The loot system in Icecrown and Ruby Sanctum is not changing. This implementation of the new flex raid lock is only that, a new implementation of the raid lockout system we'll be using in Cataclysm. This does not change the separation of 10 and 25 in ICC, and does not change the item drops or achievements.

 

[rcpratt]

You'll still get separate loot in 10-man and 25-man ICC and RS (lower ilvl in 10man). However, you can no longer clear both 10-man and 25-man. Only can kill each boss once, although you can do it in a combo of 10 and 25.

 

[Aikouka]

4 mounts down
1 to go

ugh this is painful

You still farming those PVP mounts?

 

[Anubis]

yea 20k more honor and i can stop

 

[Molondo]

For someone who was quitting you are putting alot of time into the game. You should have not installed the beta.

 

[Anubis]

eh i was always planning on playing cata just not as much as i used to and i did quit before i started this PVP stuff i played the beta for like a week or so, got to level 83 (when it was the cap) , never ran a dungeon or anything, its actually not even installed anymore
and ive only been working for PVP mounts for what a week or so, i pretty much only log on on the weekend for an hour or 2

 

[lupi]

and in todays episode of REALLY....

The design behind the new system is partially to address this issue. 10- and 25-player raids weren't designed with the intent that players would just do a raid twice a week. It's understandable that this became natural player behavior though given the design and loot system, which is why we're changing it for Cataclysm.



Really blizz...you didn't think people would do both sides for a higher chance of getting a gear upgrade given the finicky nature of the loot system, really?