• adamb10

Blizzard today announced some features of 3.2:

World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> Blizzard Shop Talk - Under Development

I look forward to seeing what the Crusadar's Coliseum is.

 

Torrential

If it's an entire raid based on 'vehicular' (ie horses) combat I'll probably quit when it launches and wait for 3.3. Do. Not. Want.

They also seem to be going in the direction of WG/SotA with the new BG. I was under the impression most BG folks didn't like either one all that well.

 

Earthhoof

This could, alternatively, be an opportunity for a boss-only sort of thing. "We've captured the most fearsome beasts/agents of the Scourge Northrend has to offer, prove your might." Granted, by no means a lore-rich or even particularly coherent reason for an instance, but potentially one that could be quick and fun.

 

Masaru

Regarding Crusader's Coliseum, do you remember the quote from a blue that said the mystery raid between Ulduar and Icecrown was something people have wanted for a long time? Combined with the Argent Tournament Coliseum and a subset of players who always ask for heroic versions of old world instances, I'm wondering if we'll get random vanilla dungeon/raid bosses in the Coliseum. Could be interesting.

It is odd that there isn't another large raid in 3.2 and no additions to Wyrmrest in 3.1 or 3.2 but perhaps there is more to come in 3.2, like the real mystery raid.

 

• adamb10

Zarhym gave more details about the raid instance.

World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> Blizzard Shop Talk - Under Development

 

Mr. Crow

This makes the Crusader's Coliseum into the mystery raid for 3.2. So long, hopes of Azjol-Nerub...

With this mystery solved, we pretty much know what we're going to get between now and the next expansion pack -- the next major content patch (likely 3.3) will have the Icecrown Citadel raid, and potentially an additional 5-man in Icecrown (if that's not what the Coliseum is for).

I'm certainly interested in seeing what Isle of Conquest is going to consist of. The description makes it sound like capture-point (AB) and siege (SotA/WG), so it might end up being a capture-point/capture-the-flag hybrid like Eye of the Storm.

I know my questions at BlizzCon are gonna be peppered with "What happened to Azjol-Nerub as a questing area?" and "Where in the stonking huge multiverse IS Alleria Windrunner?"

 

Cranberry

Per Zarhym, it will be "More a cross between WG and AV".

Disappointed as I am with the Coliseum, that could be loads of fun.

 

Mr. Crow

Truth be told, I think the Argent Tournament in general and the idea of the Coliseum is a lot of fun. I don't know if I would trade those for answered questions, because getting something new and different in the game is a great thing. I just wish that we'd get some development time on stuff they've already said they'll do.

 

SeanDamnit

I could see that, and that would be pretty cool.

But I'm dissapointed that we're not exploring some unfinished lore rich areas of Azeroth. Grim Batol for example.

Card carrying member of the Inapropriately in Love with Hilary Duff Society.

"Yeah, well, if we could all get what we want I would be eating dinner out of Hilary Duff's skull right now" - Salabesh

 

Faldrath

Could be, but it also would make no sense. "Hey guys, in order to prepare you for fighting Arthas, we decided to resurrect Ragnaros and let you kill him again!"

 

Axl_Stukov

Makes as much sense as having tournament grounds right next door to your enemies doorstep, in any case this could provide some very fun fights. Wonder if the bosses will be a set order, or if you can pick and choose each and every fight.

 

Shadout

Would be disappointing if the Coliseum is indeed the 'long waited raid instance'.
It seems more like a new Sartharion instance, just with a few more bosses.
On the other hand, a new arena season does point toward a full-scale raid instance with new item tier of course.

But then again, we dont really know what they have planned. Maybe they simply pushed back everything (it always seemed a bit early with Arthas in 3.3 given the normal timeframe between expansions and Arthas instance stated as the last in the Wotlk story) . So the 'secret instance' could simply become 3.3, Icecrown 3.4 etc.

 

Fooma

I believe long ago one of the developers responded to a thread suggesting the ability to tackle old world bosses on an individual level at new level caps. Like experience Black Fathom Deep bosses scaled to a raid setting. The developer responded that they were interested in this idea. I wish I had a source on hand right now but it would obviously take some backtracking through bluetracker over a year ago to find this.

This 'surprise raid' instance seems very much in line with this type of idea, at least so far as the details have been revealed.

 

Soul

Maybe they'll pull a 'Wrath of Werdna' on some of the encounters and pull maxed out parties/raids from the armory and make you fight them. This expansion doesn't have an encounter like the BRD arena encounter or the MgT arena yet... having a raid-sized version of that kind of encounter would be great if done correctly.

 

Liebestod

Scaling up old bosses to level 80 is a terrible idea largely due to the fact that most content pre-1.7 was simply not very good. Why would anyone want to fight a 25-man version of Aku'mai?

What I do see the Coliseum as being good for is for providing the opportunity to fight friendly lore figures - Tirion Fordring, Broll/Valeeria, Ronin, Darion Morgraine, Velen, A'dal, Maiev, Fandrel Staghelm... etc. etc. Like the CoA, then, it could be expanded further in the future. So it's a neat feature, although it probably won't be a substitute for a "real raid"... but then again, who knows? Arguably Blizzard could make a ton of new content with this without having to make much in terms of new design investments - no new models, or terrain... just program a bunch of encounters and abilities.

 

Smallpox

Extremely long shot but maybe the "mystery raid people have wanted for a long time" is Uldum? I mean, its been talked about for ages and what with us rampaging around in Ulduar and all this titan lore.. this would seem like a decent time to do something with it and continue on or finish the epic of Brann Bronzebeard.

 

Mideci

No, there is no raid zone. There is a single raid encounter (probably with multiple enemies if you read the blue post). Consider this somewhere between Malygos (one boss) and an instanced Ring of Blood.

Uldum, in fact, was all but ruled out for Wrath by Blizzard some time back.

It's now safe to say there'll be 3 full raid tiers in Wrath, which if you considered Sunwell 1/2 a tier, is a bit less. Based on the length of time from when Ulduar was declared "done" by Blizzard to when it shipped, i'd say an educated guess is that any serious consideration of a full-blown raid zone for 3.2 was dropped to keep Icecrown development on track and allowing it to ship in whatever time they intended. (Well ahead of April, if you read the blue posts).

Keep in mind that TBC was out 21 months before Wrath and to meet that target again, the next expansion would be due around August 2010. If Icecrown came out in, say, December, this would be plausible. Yes, the last few months of the expansion would feel pretty lean for high-end guilds. But the last period before all the content patches/expansions is likely to feel that way for the duration at this point.

 

Ellyh

Also of note they are curbing the ever increasing stampede towards jewel crafting.

from Bornak
This will bring it back into line with the other professions like enchanting and blacksmithing.

 

Fugazor

Does not sound too exciting but so was WOTLK when was first annouced ("new dances/haricuts?!").

I wonder what kind of lore will be behind Crusaders' Coliseum. Yes maybe most of us say "who cares" but I think in deep it is nice to have some kind of lore purpose to kill bosses - it just somewhat feels better.

Another thing is PvP, does 3.2 bring new battleground/honor system? It does not seems so and it is much more wanted than some another bg - an alternative for those who dislike arena and leveling in bg for alts.

As for release date I don't believe in any speed up in that matter and expect 3.2 in September 2009 and 3.3 in March 2010.

 

Mideci

World of Warcraft - English (NA) Forums -> Blizzard Shop Talk - Under Development gives insight into Blizzard's current plans. Scroll to the blue post on that page.

 

aegir123

Something I always thought could add some easy to make content to the game is a coliseum. Create it once and you can always get back to it and add bosses to it whenever current content has been beaten and new content is too far away. It may not be as new and exiting as a new raidinstance but the amount of work it takes to add that bit of content is way less then a dungeon.

Now the question is what Blizzards intentions with the coliseum is. Will it be there to fill a gap, in which case 3.3 wont be that far away or is it meant to be a fullscale raid such as Ulduar pushing 3.3 a bit further away?

 

Axira

Considering Arena season 7 will also start with 3.2 ... I assume this means that the raiddrops from the Colliseum will also have to be a 'tier' higher than Ulduar, as to assure PvE drops will still be remaining better than arena rewards, no?

Unless for some reason they would decide that season 7 gear will stay the same itemlevel as S6 gear, which would be a first. Or that it'll just be half a tier higher, and that S7 gear will also only be a minor upgrade compared to S6 gear. (Edit: As that is what happened in S4 as well, I just found out. So I guess the latter will be the assumed path they'll take with the itemlevels of gear in 3.2).

 

Axanor

With the Coliseum shaping up to be an unusual raid zone, I wouldn't be surprised to see another Chamber of Aspects portal open up alongside it, if only to give the people who primarily PUG these raids a more accessible option at this tier of raid zone.

 

Bregonn

I hope not. The arguments between 'new boss first, I don't want to get saved' and 'old boss first, then we have some loot if we don't kill new one' caused by skill and gear differences in pugs make them almost not worth pugging. Adding a third, higher tier boss in the same raidlock will make it even worse.

 

Kyai

It would seem likely that a new Chamber of Aspects instance would be a separate instance, rather than an offshoot of the obsidian sanctum.