Pamine

mmo-champion.com has a longer summary:

 

◊ Praetorian

Um, yes? There have been a million suggestions.

Example: The glaives break in the battle, but can be reforged. That crazy smith guy on the edge of the cliff in east Terokkar gives you a quest to gather various mats, some of which are low-% (but not super-low -- like Splinters) drops from various BT bosses, to reforge the blade. Then, let's say, you have to temper the reforged blade in Archimonde's Doomfire, and finally douse it in the Well of Eternity (after Arch's death).

 

Copernicus

He seems to be in good shape for someone who died.

My main questions are with the 5-man instance. With the 25-man zone, I think everyone knows what to expect. With the 5-man, is it going to be a step above the current dungeons or is it just going to be Shadow Lab 2.0? Based on their past results of introducing loot later in the game's lifecycle, all the stuff in there is going to be popular. I really like the heroic dailies, because I can group up for an hour and do a unique dungeon while still getting badges/nethers at a reasonable rate. I would hate to fall into the same trap that was the heroics back in 2.0, where everyone ran the same dungeon (Mechanar) over and over for their heroic option.

 

Starfire

Huh? This doesn't seem new.

Correct me if I am wrong, but Majordomo and Ragnaros both required quests and reputation to unlock them?

And think about it (the other way), if bosses needed individual players to each have the reputation will be another clusterfuck of an attunement.

 

Renew

Removing RNG from unlocking his fifth loot pool would be a logical idea. There is no reason why Nihilum should have 0 glaives and some random guild having 4 sets. It's a huge step back in design as pre 2.1 was. There was only praise for Naxx, what would make them think reverting back to the MC and BWL screw ups would be accepted? Lack of competition I guess.

Illidan doesn't even have a head reward (the rings dropping from trash is ridiculous and shows lazy design) so why not make him drop a quest item that starts a quest chain which can guarantee at least one set? Akama can give you a quest once you get to Illidan for the first time requiring you to kill the previous bosses and collect tokens that once stacked high enough you can turn in for some glaives.

Confidence is not Arrogance.

 

Switchblade

There seems to be a good number of Demon hunters roaming outland. I'm sure they could have slapped something together (See blood elves and Draenei). So far my interest has been perked with this reputation unlock for bosses. Coming from a casual raid guild I hope these bosses are a mix of execution and teamwork rather than resist and "lolrandom" checks.

http://ctprofiles.net/1031812

 

Renew

I also feel that when 2.4 comes out we can help them push the game closer to where it should be in terms of balance. Yes there will be new raid content, but there will also balance changes that will most likely be on the level of 2.0 as we head into Wrath of the Lich King.

Due to the nature of how the race for Kil'jaeden will go, I guess that getting raid synergy and class balance at a more appropriate level will be even larger than the epeen of a world first PTR kill.

Confidence is not Arrogance.

 

Maczor

I'm hoping this really means the bosses will be challenging. I will be disappointed if we end up with another Na'jentus/Supremus/Akama as the first 3 bosses. I'm hoping at least for guilds like mine, who are currently something like 7/9 that Sunwell lasts us close to the Xpac with maybe only 2 months or so of farming. Kudos to those guilds farming Illidan for over 6 months that have managed to keep things rolling.

 

Solomir

It could be done similarly to Atiesh, but in the reverse. Illidan drops a random broken/drained warglaive (left or right) and the person awarded it goes through a quest chain of killing raid bosses all over again + some lore event to reforge/reinfuse the warglaive and you get your legendary. Since there's an artificial time barrier between the first kill and your first glaives, the droprate can be made higher, in the 40-60% range. Yes, some guilds may get screwed by getting the left glaive on all their kills, or have none at all, but the glaring issue of farming BT for months and not seeing the glaives should disappear.

 

Morelis

As a player on one of those servers where we're the only progression oriented guild I'm finding this news a bit worrying. The idea that we'll be able to compete on the first few bosses then have to sit there and wait for the rest of our server to do enough dailies to unlock the rest is troubling. That we get to watch other realms clear the instance in the meantime leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

Hopefully the actual unlocking will happen on a per guild or per person level but with the limited info we have right now it's easy to expect the worst.

 

◊ Kalman

Learn from FoH, then, and use the rest of the server to your benefit. Population is relative, but like I said, you can't adjust for it - a high population server is *always* going to have advantages over a low population server (and this holds true for a raiding population advantage as well).

As to PTR... well, ZA had no race, because everything died on the PTR. I suspect Sunwell will be the same - there are a lot of bored guilds out there with plenty of time to spare, and the PTRs have been improving in terms of stability (although they're definitely not perfect).

Like I said - sometimes they forget. That said, the warglaives are still a mild improvement over Sulf/TF (even if a step back from Atiesh) - they're immediately usable, rather than requiring waiting for both halves, and are actually good, unlike Sulf. Atiesh was a better model, and tying David Wayne into the Glaives would have been great, but, we get what we get. Can you really say that raid instance implementation has been getting *worse* over time (barring the Naxx->2.0 transition - Naxx was a high point, and initial 2.0 stuff was rough, but no more so than initial AQ). Naxx was an outlier that throws off the curve, but the trend is steadily upward - they do learn.

 

• Wodin

He didn't die, though. The quest turnin event in Shattrath makes that abundantly clear - he's rubbing your face in the fact that you may have left him beaten and broken, but the next time he sees you you're in for some serious shit.

I'm also curious to see how they'll do the legendaries in Sunwell if there are any. It's one of the places where you have to both be very careful of the lore (Atiesh actually made sense, for example, because he'd been beaten and the staff shattered, whereas broken Warglaives honestly wouldn't make as much sense - I mean, he was beating your ass with them a moment ago), and also try to accommodate bad luck and mitigate that without making them common as dirt.

The only real worry I have with the rep requirement on specific bosses is new recruits/class switches. I guess if it's possible to self-quest to exalted and you've got a mature server with all the dailies open it won't be that bad.

 

◊ Cathela

The AQ gate event had NPCs start to "turn in" materials after a few weeks. There may be a similar mechanic this time.

My comrades are my weapons, and I am their shield.

 

Docjowles

They've acknowledged that there will be a legendary ranged weapon in Sunwell, I think?

Edit: WoW Forums -> Legendary ranged weapon

 

Wintern

Our server is in the same position, very few raid guilds in BT and Hyjal, and a low-med population, if they balance it so by the time the third boss is dead the server should have enough quests or whatever done and you can move on to the next one without any waiting then it would be fine, but if we have to sit around and watch others clear or kill the bosses we can't even get to i'll be very disapointed. Completely agree with XI on all his points.

 

Acacia

As my site is hammered, and currently inaccessible (I'm currently trying to access my admin to install a less demanding theme on the blog), I'll publish the full post here as I trust the seriousness of this community.

Disclaimer: Jeff Kaplan were interviewed by Magnus Eriksson for Level Magazine. The content of the magazine Level and their sub magazine “LEVEL Special: World of Warcraft” #3 2007 are all copyrighted to Reset Media and as such, I will not scan and publish the full article here. Any Swede can however go and purchase their own copy in stores today. And I do apologies for any translations mistakes as this was pretty hastily put together >.>


Original post: http://acaciaizm.com/?p=309

The Swedish magazine Level also publishes a reoccurring Special World of Warcraft magazine. In the newest issue they have published a long interview with Jeff Kaplan, talking about patch 2.4, and onwards. The below text are translated and shortened parts of the interview:

• Sunwell Isle will be located off the coast, north of Silvermoon in Eversong. The Island will be patched in with patch 2.4
• Sunwell Isle will, as previously announced, house a major questing hub with a 5-man Normal and Heroic Instance (Magister?s Terrace) together with a 25-man raid Dungeon (Sunwell Plateau). The goal with Sunwell Isle is to close the Burning Crusade storyline with the next expansion in mind. However, Kaplan states that there are some scenarios left in their back pockets “in case of” the development of WOTLK gets delayed for any reason.
• At the start of the patch, the players will be greeted by a small expedition camp where they can start questing; though as the questing progresses (more dailies, yay!), the camp will grow to a small town. The larger the camp gets, the more quests will open up. Some buildings will already be in place, but needs to be re-taken.
• Kaplan states it will be about the same “feel” as the Opening of the Gates scenario for AQ, in a miniature version. The more daily quests that gets done, the faster the whole server will progress.
• The questing will tell the full story about Tempest Keep
• A new faction will be introduced, “The Shattered Sun Offensive” for which you can gain reputation. Aldor and Scryer factions seem to finally be getting along to meet the new threat.
• The 5- and 25-man dungeons will be open from the start, although, some bosses will be inaccessible until the dailies have progressed far enough. The 5-man Heroic instance will “most likely” require Honored reputation with “The Shattered Sun Offensive”. The first three bosses in the 25-man dungeon will be accessible from start, the three last ones has to be “unlocked” via questing.
• In the Magister’s Terrace (the 5-man dungeon), Kael’Thas will have a comeback as a boss, in a new shape. (Kaplan mentions a large green crystal etched to his chest).
• Players entering the 25-man dungeon will be faced with Kil’Jaeden himself. Kaplan states that this is one of the coolest bosses the art department has ever produced. The fight in itself matches the one with Illidan.
• Other bosses include Brutalicus, a giant Pit Lord who has lost his wings, one of the first bosses will be the famous blue dragon Kalecgos who you will need to free from his enslavement under Kil’Jaeden. A Fel Dragon (first in WoW history), the female Eredar Twins and a Dark Naaru will also be in the mix.
• Kaplan suggests the dungeon to be on par, or harder than the Black Temple. The Sunwell Plateau will be tuned for Tier 6 geared players, though there will not be any Tier 7 per se. Some pieces will be set pieces (though not necessarily class specific); all in all the drops in the dungeon will be above T6.
• On other news, patch 2.4 will raise the cap on the amount of Daily quests allowed on a given day, from 10 to 25.

And the second post, http://acaciaizm.com/?p=310:

• On the subject of daily quests, Kaplan comments: They are happy with the Daily Quest concept and likes how, for example, the Heroic dailies works. Instead of having players grinding Mechanar over and over again to get easy Heroic Badges, they now provide an incentive to explore other instances which you might not previously seen.
• They are also happy with the Heroic keys being accessible from Honored reputation level, as it enables those leveling “late” to access the Heroics as well. As a late leveler or an alt, it could get almost impossible for many to get a group to re-run Shadow Labyrinth over and over again.
• On the question of “other information regarding 2.4″, Kaplan is secretive as always, though hints that there will be balancing actions taken in regards to PvP for certain classes.
• Arenas are also hinted as an area Blizzard “have large plans for” and they will be aiming to bring it closer to e-sport acceptance.

Curiosa:

The magazine cover featured on WoW insider is from the previous issue (Loading.se Specialutg�vor), the current issue features Zul'Jin and is the third issue of 2007.

The translation above is of course parts of the interview which is in fact 8 pages long. I've therefore focused on the main, relevant parts. I'll try to keep an eye out for any critical clarifications needed to be done based on the interview that are an outcome of my fast (bad?) translation.

UI's: Acaziaizm Original | Acaciaizm MiniMe | Acaciaizm MiniMe: Healbot Edition | Acaziaizm Semi

 

◊ Kalman

if I had to guess, I suspect that it'll be closer to the MC rep requirement (X number of people with the faction required to buy the crystal that unlocks the next section or whatever, 25-X people whose rep is irrelevant) than the heroic requirement (Y rep on a given person to even zone in). Depends on how much they learned from the 5 man attunements to T5 content, and how the rep is gained.

Also just guessing: no Sunwell legendaries. MC had 2, BWL/AQ had zero, Naxx had 1, T4/T5 had zero, T6 has 1, Sunwell and the first instance in the next expansion will probably be legendary-free (although I wouldn't be surprised to see Atiesh make a triumphant return in Naxx 2.0).

edit: Based on Docjowles post, I may be proved wrong about this.

 

Avair

Thunderfury was about as bad as you could get for quest design, so Warglaives are certainly better, even if glaives and bindings were both a 2% drop. The requirement to collect the two halves to get any use for them was brutal, locking players guilds into rerunning MC long after they didn't want to. Getting a single binding is exciting, until you realize you now can't miss a single MC ever again, just in case the other half drops.

TF was a failure of social engineering
Consider this: Two left binding drops was heartbreaking. Two left warglaives drops is cause for celebration. And for some reason your left glaive holder misses a night and the right one drops, he's going to feel pretty bad, but at least there is something to show for it. Having a left and right bind on two different players in the same guild would probably be about the worst possible feeling I could think of.

That said, gradual progression for the first guilds to down bosses (Atiesh) towards legendaries seems like a far better model than random 2% drops.

 

Acacia

Btw cheers Copernicus for respecting my original blog post earlier, it would've been perfectly all right for you to post it with a link to the source. Just nice to see that someone thinks a step further sometimes

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berg

The idea of growing that quest hub as you do dailies is actually pretty cool. That said, I think people would appreciate this new idea much more if the current content was not so ancient. Having that content there, but unreachable after a 4 month (or more) wait is brutal.

 

Morelis

My point was that guilds that could otherwise participate at the leading edge of the new content could be potentially hamstrung by the population level of their server, which quite frankly, sucks. I'm not saying that my guild would necessarily be competing at that level, but if we can't I want it to be because we didn't play well enough, or try hard enough, not because we happen to be on the wrong server.

 

berg

This one is kind of a no brainer actually. The casual players who are familiar with the RTS franchises really get no interaction with the characters they know from those games. Jaina, Archimonde, Vashj, Kael, Illidan, Akama etc. all exist only in raid zones, or in quests to enter them. Putting Kael in a 5 man gives all of those players a chance to see him and I am sure they will make his encounter pretty interesting.

 

Gokey

Sunwell is going to have a Legendary bow for Hunters. (read up a few posts)

 

Sillia

It's also potentially an experiment to see how 'epic' they can make a 5-man encounter. Clearly, there will be huge expectations for some concentrated coolness from this encounter. However, I think it has some real possibility. I just hope they eventually move away from the old and tired "Oh no, somebody who used to be good is now corrupted and we have to kill them" story.

 

andastra

I agree. With the exception of the old gods, I can't think of any major villian in the Warcraft universe who didn't start out as one of the good guys. Here's hoping they make some major bad guys in the future who are really bad guys.