Illundai

I'd like to think a 10 minute gryphon flight is a PITA, especially considering how easy it is to get to BT and MH (if you are smart about Dustwallow Marsh quests *cough*).

Yes, Death Knight tanks are/were too good in 3.0.x. Having 38k HP, 76.81% Avoidance (Miss incl.) and not gimping your threat in the first tier of gear is broken. (Yes this is clickable)

 

◊ Quigon

There might be a new inn at this new event center/island.

I'd have to agree with much of what was said here - perhaps this is their experiment to slow progress down - since usually top guilds can plow through new encounters in 1-3 nights max. I can't really say they've offered much in the way of challenging content since naxx - in a way that was not simply challenging through RNG or pure frustrating mechanics (like say, resist gear shit). EQ and late Vanilla WoW had more challenging encounters that didn't change in difficulty 10 fold based on luck. I felt most of the Naxx fights were very hard, even the so-called "easy" ones... and yet they felt consistent. I thought the devs really started to get things right with twin emps, ouro, c'thun and beyond (despite what you might think Ouro was one of, if not the hardest boss in AQ40 at least for the first couple months after he was made killable). Although late aq40 had terribugs, at least the style and design was exceptional from twin emps onwards to the expansion.
Starting in SSC we got gruul, hydross, magtheridon... what the hell is this?

I'm cautiously optimistic though. Naxx was a late-era addon-dungeon that was absolutely masterful. Let's hope Sunwell falls into this same category. There is nothing saying that it cannot dominate our raid expectations.

Much of sunwell will probably be defeated on the PTR though, but the world event sounds cool.

And yes, the legendaries need to not be heavily based on RNG - Atiesh good, warglaives-thunderfury-sulfuras-Bad.
Legendaries are just drama anyway.

 

Wuff

Seems to be fair. You have to kill Kael to enter Hyjal ... maybe it doesn't matter where you do this in 2.4.

Perhaps there is some kind of Naga boss in this instance too (who drops Vashjs vial). Well, in my opinion it's about time, attuning new raiders isn't fun when you want to work on Archimonde.

 

Irise

I think you are mistaking curiosity about boss models and loot with genuine interest in the competition for World Firsts. How does it matter to me whether DnT, Nihilium, EJ or LR finish it first? I know that the boss strats and videos will be out long before I ever see those fights.

 

◊ Acustar

What quest? And yeah, it's bad enough trying to fly to ZA, maybe we'll (mages) get a port to Dalaran in wotlk.

 

Ralask

If you are thinking that a 6 boss sunwell is going to be the equal of a multi-wing Naxx I would say you are probably going to be upset. The raiding game has been stale for some time, we have been killing Illidan for quite awhile, I cant imagine what its like for the DNT's and EJ's of the world. I dont think Sunwell is going to be the saving grace for the high end raider that many of us are hoping the area will become. With no new sets and limited bosses it seems they will have to throw many roadblocks in the way to make it last the length they need for WOTLK to come out. Im probably being negative and jumping to conclusions off of little information but it is the gut feeling that I am getting.

 

Illundai

OT: Got quite some PMs, I thought the quest would've been more known.

It's a small quest chain starting in Sentry Point, the part where you get "Return to Jaina" allows you to teleport from Stormwind to Dustwallow. As long as you don't turn that in, you can continue to use it for a fast port for your Hyjal needs.

Yes, Death Knight tanks are/were too good in 3.0.x. Having 38k HP, 76.81% Avoidance (Miss incl.) and not gimping your threat in the first tier of gear is broken. (Yes this is clickable)

 

Prinsesa

Undercity to Stonard is a 12 minute flight, plus the ride from Stonard to Karazhan itself.

In both cases, it's just an AFK period void of any necessary interaction, so it's pretty low on my PITA meter. Monstrous Kaliri, now THAT is something to be pissed about.

I'm pretty stoked about this Dark Naaru thing as well. I always thought Oshu'gun was perfect for another dungeon, right down to the tunnel passageway as an instance portal, with Ku're in his Dark Naaru form as the end boss.

A'dal is powerful enough to oneshot a Fel-Reaver. He could probably destroy Illidan if there was some way to make the fight happen, so I firmly believe that Mu'ru wasn't actually defeated by the Blood Elves but is really just playing along.

If we extend this conspiracy theory further, Mu'ru could potentially be acting as his own time-bomb. When the clock ticks down, he makes like a black hole of sadness and destroys Silvermoon

"We do want Sanctuary to be the tanking seal"

- Ghostcrawler

 

◊ Quigon

Well our guild seemed to finish within a week or so of EJ for Naxx and TBC - ahead or behind, give or take, so I'm sure I can make some claim about the push on PTR as Gurgthock can, and what the drive will be for guilds like ours that are basically getting little-to-nothing from tier 6 at the moment. Our guild will probably treat PTR like a true progression zone - since there isn't anything else to do other than pray lllidan drops another legendary (cause 6 isn't enough).

I fully anticipate the zone will be destroyed at a rate of 1-3 days per encounter. The only exception will be strategy oriented fights (like reliquary, or 4H style - that seem easy once you know how to do it... the old "oh that fight is easy" by the raids who come at it later).

I obviously am not expecting Sunwell to be Naxxramas 2.0 - but if the quality of the 6 encounters in Sunwell are on par with naxxramas encounters (not loatheb or buggy thaddius, but perhaps an anubrhekan, gothik, 4h???) then I think most people would be quite pleased?

There is potential - I'm hoping that the brain drain of early BC has been filled in by now, and we'll see that for the first time in sunwell.

However, I have no illusion that over the next 9 months, there will only be 6 new encounters, and probably 1 to 4 weeks of real progression...
Buckle in on the backhoe - its the year of the farmer*.

*Note the year of the farmer started approximately 5 months ago... longer if you're not human.**

**Nihilum

 

Pamine

Remember going to Old Sebilis? Before PoK? 30mins walk thru like 10 zones? Ya, a 10 mins flight is nothing. I hope they don't add more more portals and such personally. It all seems like a great conveniance now, but it leads to an empty world in the end, where everyone just sticks to a handful of zones and instant port between them.

 

Ayreon

Maybe I am missing something but if Kael'thas is going to be a 5-man boss in 2.4...what is going to happen to Tempest Keep? I wouldn't make sense for him to be in two places at the same time...

 

Jelloshots

I've actually wondered about this myself, and I'm sure others have as well. One of my favorite moments in all of WoW was going into the chambers where they kept M'uru for the first time. Sometimes the myriad spoilers (which I bring on myself, I know) result in a world less engrossing, and this was a moment that was completely my own.

 

Enova

Well, upon turning in the [Verdant Sphere] off Kael, there's a small chat where an image of Kael basically tells A'dal that he's alive and planning to bring Kil'jaden back. So, I'm guessing you need to have killed Kael to go to the 5 man dungeon, if everything stays like it is now...

Guilty as charged ^

 

Ayreon

Yes but I mean...2.4 comes, Kael is now in the new 5-man..and in TK, undefeated, at the same time? Either the have to change TK...or remove it altogether...

 

Searix

Going to toss something in here, PTR testing lately. (AKA Hyjal/BT PTR)

http://boards.worldofraids.com/index...d=32360#p32360
http://boards.worldofraids.com/index...d=32464#p32464

The above are my posts on WoR from PTR testing Hyjal/BT when they were on the PTR, and i've noticed a few things from then and now after having them on farm for months.

-From the 9 bosses tested, 3 of them have been nerfed CONSIDERABLY, in a way that removes their random factors:

Azgalor: Howl of Terrored, would be a full aggro drop, cast every 15 seconds 1 second cast uninterruptable
War Stomp: 2-3k damage, few second stun (You thought melee had it bad before)
Doom: Did 3k damage per 3 until character died.

Supremus: Everything was elemantal fire damage, including his melee attack. (GM was even quoted as saying we should bypass the boss if tank didn't have a full FR set)

Bloodboil: BoP themed fight, bloodboil was COMPLETELY random (tank also could get), but ticked once every 3 seconds.

Just showing how PTR testing went last major raiding instance implementation, my point is also this: If there's guided GM/guild testing like last time, you're not going to see their last bosses.

 

◊ Cireena

Him being in the Sunwell instance has nothing to do with him still being the last boss of the Eye. Look at Vael still helping you out thru BRS even though you killed him in BWL.

 

◊ Quigon

Searix, the history of PTR fixing major issues with raids is definitely there.

Naxx bosses had some insane bugs during PTR - I'd like to think the PTR helped there.

I believe it was BWL where people basically were so pissed off from the sheer # of bugs that they put raid zones on PTR from there on out, even if it screwed up the "competition aspect."

 

Enova

Oh, come on, I think there's a few precedents for that... Uncorrupted Vaelstraz appears in UBRS after completing the Rend Blackhand event, and further on you kill Corrupted Vaelstraz in BWL. The game assumes a certain progression sequence. So, along that progression, you can find references to your previous feats. (Naj'entus yelling 'For Lady Vashj' and so on). IF you can restrict acces to the new dungeon based on having beaten Kael, then yes, they can coexist in two separate dungeons. But hey, what are we complaining about? It's not like Kael respawns once a week as it is now, right?

EDIT: Cireena beat me to it...

Guilty as charged ^

 

Arghoslent

Who cares what they are called? And who's to judge which name is corny, cheesy or cool? The final boss in Sunwell can be called Darksanta for all I care.

It's the fight that matters, not the name.

 

Tyrian

Kil'Jaeden better be an amazingly designed fight. Hopefully the C'thun of the expansion - a fight everyone respects.

He is one of the most influential characters in WoW lore, albeit behind the scenes - since we usually see the results of his manipulations rather than him directly. The Legion has been a forefront story for years (in WC3/WC3:tft/Wow:tbc) and if they plan to 'close the story' as quoted - they better do it justice and make him go out with a bang.

 

chrull

About transportation to Sunwell:

There is 4 notches in the center of Shattrath, but only one isn't used for portals right now, right? Seems like a perfect place to throw in a portal.

 

Vaccine

Going back a few pages here but no one really commented on this.

The new dungeons are set after the events of Tempest Keep. Thats what they mean when they said they'd be wrapping up the TK story arc with this new zone, its the on going story of how Kael'thas defected to the Burning Legion, was killed, and was brought back, presumably by the power of the Verdant Sphere (the green crystal in his chest thats mentioned?). I'm not sure whether they will want to maintain the chronological integrity of recent events as we have tackled them in raids, or whether the Black Temple and Mount Hyjal events are going to have been participated in sometime after the events of TK + Sunwell. I think the more sensible option has been already mentioned here, simply require one vial, off of either KT25 (think it will catch on? ) or Vashj.

For the Dark Naruu I'm really hoping they go into a lot of detail not only on the Naruu, but more on how the Blood Elves came to capture their own Naruu battery as it were, I never really bought the story that went on there, it was very rushed.

The Dragons both sound interesting. Kalecgos should be an awesome fight and I'd advise everyone with a slightest interest in the general plot to read the Sunwell Triology.


The opening event is interesting. I'm a bit concerned that this could be used as a pacing mechanic to try to spread out content till the apparantly delayed WotLK. Maybe its just the giant cynic in me but it seems this could be an easy way for Blizzard to say "Well hey guys, we gave you the content! Your server just didn't get its act togther and get the 1000 people exalted required to summon Kil'Jaeden!".

 

Reliknom

Am I the only one that fears an awesom frost resist fight with the coming of the 3rd blue dragon boss? Although it will be still fun to free Kalecgos from his slavery, even more fun if we won't have to kill him.

"Morituri Nolumus Mori!"

 

Metrosexuelf

Count me among the number that think the server-wide questing thing is a good idea. They are taking the best aspects of the AQ war effort and it makes the game-world feel more alive. As far as the the complaints laid about by XI vis-a-vis putting an artifical block on the end game 'race' I think it's much ado about nothing. Let's be realistic. Only about twenty or so guilds have a reasonable shot at 'world firsts' and only about twenty or so U.S. guilds have a shot at U.S. firsts.

If you are in Nihilum or D&T or whatever guild that wants to seriously contend for such firsts then you know you are going to have to put in thirty or more hours a week raiding to make that happen. You guys will find a way to 'normalize' any 'artifical' hurdles. That's what you signed up for when you joined those guilds and... pardon the Godfather reference... that is the business you have chosen. I'm not going to be naive and say the raiding race is only relevant to the top guilds; however, I disagree that it should weigh heavily against any interesting and novel ways Blizzard designs to open up content or make the game feel more alive.

 

Prinsesa

I doubt that it'll be a frost resist.

While Kalecgos is a blue dragon, who are typified as having connections to the frost element, they're also known to have great ties to magic in general, arcane magic in particular.

This is opposed to Sapphiron, whose Frost Wyrm form could really do nothing but breathe ice in different shapes and forms.

"We do want Sanctuary to be the tanking seal"

- Ghostcrawler