Elitist Jerks - View Single Post - A proposition for dungeon and raid progression

Jaxtrasi · 03/06/08, 8:15 AM

Age 1 includes the following endgame content:

"Level 70 Dungeons": The level 70 five-man dungeons from the instance groups that the players have had access to while levelling 60-70. These include Shattered Halls, Steamvaults, Shadow Labyrinth and Black Morass. These dungeons are a easily completeable by skilled players in levelling gear, and will pose a significant challenge to unskilled players until they have acquired better level 70 gear. These instances drop iLevel 115 blue gear and do not drop epics or primal nethers.
"Advanced Dungeons": Five-man "Advanced" versions of the instances the players had a chance to visit while levelling 60-70 (Hellfire Ramparts, Blood Furnace, Slave Pens, Underbog, Mana Tombs, Auchenai Crypts, Sethekk Halls and Old Hillsbrad). These Advanced dungeons are available via a difficulty selector and have been tuned to be of the same difficulty as the Level 70 Dungeons. These instances also drop iLevel 115 blue gear. The Advanced setting has no effect on Level 70 dungeons. Between the Level 70 dungeons and the Advanced dungeons, complete matching eight-piece "sets" of gear (without set bonuses) are available for each class. These gear sets look like recoloured Tier 2 gear.
"Tempest Keep": Three five-man dungeons accessible only by flying mount. These dungeons are notably harder than the other five-man instances. Skilled players will find them challenging in levelling gear. Less skilled players will have to spent time acquiring some endgame blue gear from the Level 70 and Advanced dungeons before attempting them. The Tempest Keep instances drop iLevel 115 blues. In Tempest Keep the players can acquire newly modelled item sets for their class such as "Bold Armour" and "Oblivion Raiment" as well as weapons carefully itemised for specific roles.
"Heroic Dungeons": These ten-man dungeons are retuned versions of the Level 70, Advanced and Tempest Keep dungeons. Access to Heroic dungeons requires Revered reputation with the appropriate faction. These dungeons are significantly harder than Tempest Keep. Skilled players will need to collect some endgame blue gear before attempting them and will need to spend a little time learning the instance. Less skilled players will need to collect a lot of blue gear and spend a lot of time learning the instance. Additionally, the ten-man requirement makes forming groups more difficult and coordination during fights more complex. Heroic dungeons drop low-quality epics (iLevel 110), Badges of Justice and epic jewels. These instances have a one-day lockout timer to prevent players farming them.
"Karazhan": This 25-man, ten-boss raid dungeon requires an attunment quest chain accessed through Level 70 Dungeons (but not Heroic or Tempest Keep dungeons). The instance is significantly harder than Heroic instances, although the first couple of bosses are not too complex. Experienced raiders will be able to make significant early progress but should expect to spend some time gearing up in the first half and in Heroic dungeons before completing it. Players new to the raid game should expect to spend some time gearing up and learning basic skills in five- and ten-man content before attempting Karazhan. Karazhan drops good-quality epics (iLevel 120, and 125 from the final boss) including the "Tier 4" item set. Karazhan does not drop Badges of Justice or Primal Nethers. This instance has a one-week lockout timer. Raiders who defeat the final boss of Karazhan will receive a special title. In addition, the first group to down the final boss of the instance on each server will receive a special, unique reward.
"Gruul's Lair" and "Magtheridon's Lair": These 25-man raid instances contain only one or two bosses and a small amount of trash. The instances require similar gear to the second half of Karazhan, but are notably more complex than any individual fight there. These instances drop iLevel 125 epics including the remaining pieces of the "Tier 4" item set and are on a one-week lockout timer. Raiders who defeat the final boss of these instances will receive a special title.
"Arena Season 1": Players compete in rated Arena matches in order to maintain and improve their Arena rating. Season 1 Arena weapons have a minimum rating requirement of 1600 to ensure that people cannot trivially "farm" for them without attempting to compete. Season 1 Arena gear is epic quality (iLevel 115) and optimally itemised for PVP. At the end of Season 1, the top-rated team on each server will receive a special, unique reward. Very highly-rated teams will receive a special title.
"Battlegrounds": Players complete in open Battleground games to earn honour. Season 1 Honour gear is blue quality (iLevel 115) and optimally itemised for PVP. Selected epic quality gear (iLevel 105) which matches the appearance of the Season 1 Arena gear is also available at a significantly higher cost in honour.

Age 2 is expected to appear as development time allow, some time after the most advanced groups have cleared the available content, but before the majority have done so. Age 2 includes the following new and changed content:

Level 70, Advanced and Tempest Keep dungeons will be unchanged.
Heroic dungeons will be unchanged. They remain 10-man, unchanged, unnerfed, with the same rewards.
"5-man Heroic Dungeons": These five-man dungeons are retuned versions of the Heroic dungeons. They will have similar gear requirements and drop the same gear as the 10-man Heroic dungeons. However, each boss will drop only 1 item instead of 2. Because of the reduced group size, some encounters may have to be simplified and fights and groups will require less coordination. One-day lockout.
Karazhan, Gruul and Magtheridon are unchanged. They remain 25-man, unchanged, unnerfed, with the same rewards.
"10-man Karazhan": This ten-man dungeon is a retuned version of Karazhan. The dungeon will have similar gear requirements and drop the same gear as Karazhan. However, each boss will only drop 2 items instead of 4 and the special title for completing the instance is not available. Because of the reduction in group size, some encounters will need to be slightly or substantially redesigned. Experienced raiders of 25-man Karazhan can expect to have an easier time in 10-man Karazhan due to the reduced complexity, allowing them to fill in gear gaps. One-week lockout.
"10-man Gruul's Lair" and "10-man Magtheridon": Like 10-man Karazhan, these instances are retuned for 10-man groups and drop the same loot, but half as much. One-week lockout.
"Serpentshrine Cavern" and "The Eye": These 25-man raid instances contain a total of ten bosses. They are a step above 25-man Karazhan in terms of gear requirements and complexity of encounters. Inexperienced raiders who have not spent some time acquiring gear from Karazhan and Gruul/Magtheridon will struggle in these dungeons. These dungeons drop high quality epics (iLevel 130, and 135 from the final bosses of each dungeon) including the "Tier 5" item set. One-week lockout. Raiders who defeat the final bosses of both these instances will receive a special title. In addition, the first group to down both bosses on each server will receive a special, unique reward.
"Arena Season 2": Players compete in rated Arena matches in order to maintain and improve their Arena rating. Ratings from Season 1 are reset to the default at the start of Season 2, and players can carry only a limited number of points over from Season 1. Season 2 Arena weapons have a minimum rating requirement of 1600. Season 2 Arena gear is epic quality (iLevel 125) and optimally itemised for PVP. Season 1 gear is also available at a significant discount, and with no rating requirement. At the end of Season 2, the top-rated team on each server will receive a special, unique reward. Very highly-rated teams will receive a special title.
"Battlegrounds": Season 2 Honour gear is unchanged at blue quality, but new iLevel 115 epics items are available matching the appearance of Season 2 Arena gear.

Age 3 follows on in a similar vein:

Level 70, Advanced and Tempest Keep dungeons remain unchanged.
10-man Heroic and 5-man Heroic dungeons remain unchanged.
25-man Karazhan, Gruul and Magtheridon remain unchanged.
10-man Karazhan, Gruul and Magtheridon remain unchanged.
"5-man Karazhan", "5-man Gruul" and "5-man Magtheridon": These dungeons are further reduced in group size and encounter complexity, continuing to drop the same loot but half as much again. Because of the overall reduction in group size, some or all encounters will have to be substantially redesigned to take into account fewer roles available and less strict requirements on classes present. One-day lockout.
"10-man Serpentshrine Cavern" and "10-man The Eye": These dungeons are retuned in a similar manner to 10-man Karazhan, requiring less players and with less complex fights. One-week lockout.
"Black Temple" and "Mount Hyjal": 25-man raid dungeons that are even more difficult than 25-man SSC and Eye. These dungeons drop iLevel 140 and 145 epic items, and are only suitable for experienced raiders heavily geared from earlier instances. One-week lockout.
"Arena Season 3": Reset in the same way as the start of Season 2. Similar reward structure with iLevel 135 gear available. Season 2 gear is available at a substantial discount.
"Battlegrounds": Epic gear rises to iLevel 125. Season 1 gear is now available for purchase through honour.

And so on. As the new expansion approaches and development resources sufficient for new 25-man dungeons become scarce, retooling old instances can still continue.

iLevels given may seem over-specific, but are included simply to indicate the comparitive intended level of gear progression at that point. 125 might be 123, all the numbers might be reduced by 5, etc.

03/06/08, 8:15 AM	#2 (permalink)
Jaxtrasi Von Kaiser Abbott Orc Warrior <Loktar gi Rathis> Argent Dawn (EU)	Loktar! Age 1 includes the following endgame content: "Level 70 Dungeons": The level 70 five-man dungeons from the instance groups that the players have had access to while levelling 60-70. These include Shattered Halls, Steamvaults, Shadow Labyrinth and Black Morass. These dungeons are a easily completeable by skilled players in levelling gear, and will pose a significant challenge to unskilled players until they have acquired better level 70 gear. These instances drop iLevel 115 blue gear and do not drop epics or primal nethers. "Advanced Dungeons": Five-man "Advanced" versions of the instances the players had a chance to visit while levelling 60-70 (Hellfire Ramparts, Blood Furnace, Slave Pens, Underbog, Mana Tombs, Auchenai Crypts, Sethekk Halls and Old Hillsbrad). These Advanced dungeons are available via a difficulty selector and have been tuned to be of the same difficulty as the Level 70 Dungeons. These instances also drop iLevel 115 blue gear. The Advanced setting has no effect on Level 70 dungeons. Between the Level 70 dungeons and the Advanced dungeons, complete matching eight-piece "sets" of gear (without set bonuses) are available for each class. These gear sets look like recoloured Tier 2 gear. "Tempest Keep": Three five-man dungeons accessible only by flying mount. These dungeons are notably harder than the other five-man instances. Skilled players will find them challenging in levelling gear. Less skilled players will have to spent time acquiring some endgame blue gear from the Level 70 and Advanced dungeons before attempting them. The Tempest Keep instances drop iLevel 115 blues. In Tempest Keep the players can acquire newly modelled item sets for their class such as "Bold Armour" and "Oblivion Raiment" as well as weapons carefully itemised for specific roles. "Heroic Dungeons": These ten-man dungeons are retuned versions of the Level 70, Advanced and Tempest Keep dungeons. Access to Heroic dungeons requires Revered reputation with the appropriate faction. These dungeons are significantly harder than Tempest Keep. Skilled players will need to collect some endgame blue gear before attempting them and will need to spend a little time learning the instance. Less skilled players will need to collect a lot of blue gear and spend a lot of time learning the instance. Additionally, the ten-man requirement makes forming groups more difficult and coordination during fights more complex. Heroic dungeons drop low-quality epics (iLevel 110), Badges of Justice and epic jewels. These instances have a one-day lockout timer to prevent players farming them. "Karazhan": This 25-man, ten-boss raid dungeon requires an attunment quest chain accessed through Level 70 Dungeons (but not Heroic or Tempest Keep dungeons). The instance is significantly harder than Heroic instances, although the first couple of bosses are not too complex. Experienced raiders will be able to make significant early progress but should expect to spend some time gearing up in the first half and in Heroic dungeons before completing it. Players new to the raid game should expect to spend some time gearing up and learning basic skills in five- and ten-man content before attempting Karazhan. Karazhan drops good-quality epics (iLevel 120, and 125 from the final boss) including the "Tier 4" item set. Karazhan does not drop Badges of Justice or Primal Nethers. This instance has a one-week lockout timer. Raiders who defeat the final boss of Karazhan will receive a special title. In addition, the first group to down the final boss of the instance on each server will receive a special, unique reward. "Gruul's Lair" and "Magtheridon's Lair": These 25-man raid instances contain only one or two bosses and a small amount of trash. The instances require similar gear to the second half of Karazhan, but are notably more complex than any individual fight there. These instances drop iLevel 125 epics including the remaining pieces of the "Tier 4" item set and are on a one-week lockout timer. Raiders who defeat the final boss of these instances will receive a special title. "Arena Season 1": Players compete in rated Arena matches in order to maintain and improve their Arena rating. Season 1 Arena weapons have a minimum rating requirement of 1600 to ensure that people cannot trivially "farm" for them without attempting to compete. Season 1 Arena gear is epic quality (iLevel 115) and optimally itemised for PVP. At the end of Season 1, the top-rated team on each server will receive a special, unique reward. Very highly-rated teams will receive a special title. "Battlegrounds": Players complete in open Battleground games to earn honour. Season 1 Honour gear is blue quality (iLevel 115) and optimally itemised for PVP. Selected epic quality gear (iLevel 105) which matches the appearance of the Season 1 Arena gear is also available at a significantly higher cost in honour. Age 2 is expected to appear as development time allow, some time after the most advanced groups have cleared the available content, but before the majority have done so. Age 2 includes the following new and changed content: Level 70, Advanced and Tempest Keep dungeons will be unchanged. Heroic dungeons will be unchanged. They remain 10-man, unchanged, unnerfed, with the same rewards. "5-man Heroic Dungeons": These five-man dungeons are retuned versions of the Heroic dungeons. They will have similar gear requirements and drop the same gear as the 10-man Heroic dungeons. However, each boss will drop only 1 item instead of 2. Because of the reduced group size, some encounters may have to be simplified and fights and groups will require less coordination. One-day lockout. Karazhan, Gruul and Magtheridon are unchanged. They remain 25-man, unchanged, unnerfed, with the same rewards. "10-man Karazhan": This ten-man dungeon is a retuned version of Karazhan. The dungeon will have similar gear requirements and drop the same gear as Karazhan. However, each boss will only drop 2 items instead of 4 and the special title for completing the instance is not available. Because of the reduction in group size, some encounters will need to be slightly or substantially redesigned. Experienced raiders of 25-man Karazhan can expect to have an easier time in 10-man Karazhan due to the reduced complexity, allowing them to fill in gear gaps. One-week lockout. "10-man Gruul's Lair" and "10-man Magtheridon": Like 10-man Karazhan, these instances are retuned for 10-man groups and drop the same loot, but half as much. One-week lockout. "Serpentshrine Cavern" and "The Eye": These 25-man raid instances contain a total of ten bosses. They are a step above 25-man Karazhan in terms of gear requirements and complexity of encounters. Inexperienced raiders who have not spent some time acquiring gear from Karazhan and Gruul/Magtheridon will struggle in these dungeons. These dungeons drop high quality epics (iLevel 130, and 135 from the final bosses of each dungeon) including the "Tier 5" item set. One-week lockout. Raiders who defeat the final bosses of both these instances will receive a special title. In addition, the first group to down both bosses on each server will receive a special, unique reward. "Arena Season 2": Players compete in rated Arena matches in order to maintain and improve their Arena rating. Ratings from Season 1 are reset to the default at the start of Season 2, and players can carry only a limited number of points over from Season 1. Season 2 Arena weapons have a minimum rating requirement of 1600. Season 2 Arena gear is epic quality (iLevel 125) and optimally itemised for PVP. Season 1 gear is also available at a significant discount, and with no rating requirement. At the end of Season 2, the top-rated team on each server will receive a special, unique reward. Very highly-rated teams will receive a special title. "Battlegrounds": Season 2 Honour gear is unchanged at blue quality, but new iLevel 115 epics items are available matching the appearance of Season 2 Arena gear. Age 3 follows on in a similar vein: Level 70, Advanced and Tempest Keep dungeons remain unchanged. 10-man Heroic and 5-man Heroic dungeons remain unchanged. 25-man Karazhan, Gruul and Magtheridon remain unchanged. 10-man Karazhan, Gruul and Magtheridon remain unchanged. "5-man Karazhan", "5-man Gruul" and "5-man Magtheridon": These dungeons are further reduced in group size and encounter complexity, continuing to drop the same loot but half as much again. Because of the overall reduction in group size, some or all encounters will have to be substantially redesigned to take into account fewer roles available and less strict requirements on classes present. One-day lockout. "10-man Serpentshrine Cavern" and "10-man The Eye": These dungeons are retuned in a similar manner to 10-man Karazhan, requiring less players and with less complex fights. One-week lockout. "Black Temple" and "Mount Hyjal": 25-man raid dungeons that are even more difficult than 25-man SSC and Eye. These dungeons drop iLevel 140 and 145 epic items, and are only suitable for experienced raiders heavily geared from earlier instances. One-week lockout. "Arena Season 3": Reset in the same way as the start of Season 2. Similar reward structure with iLevel 135 gear available. Season 2 gear is available at a substantial discount. "Battlegrounds": Epic gear rises to iLevel 125. Season 1 gear is now available for purchase through honour. And so on. As the new expansion approaches and development resources sufficient for new 25-man dungeons become scarce, retooling old instances can still continue. iLevels given may seem over-specific, but are included simply to indicate the comparitive intended level of gear progression at that point. 125 might be 123, all the numbers might be reduced by 5, etc.
	"I've never known people as dogmatic as those who insist that all opinion is equally subjective."