Patch 3.2: Call of the Crusade - Page 2

Smallpox · 05/23/09, 3:23 AM

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 · 05/23/09, 5:02 AM

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 · 05/23/09, 5:12 AM

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

from Bornak

In the next major content patch we will be removing the prismatic quality of the jewelcrafter-only Dragon’s Eye gems. Like other gems, they will have to match the socket color to receive a socket bonus. When this change occurs, players with qualifying jewelcrafting skill will be provided a yet to be determined amount of Dalaran Jewelecrafter Tokens as compensation.

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

Fugazor · 05/23/09, 5:41 AM

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 · 05/23/09, 6:03 AM

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 · 05/23/09, 6:37 AM

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 · 05/23/09, 7:56 AM

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 · 05/23/09, 8:44 AM

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 · 05/23/09, 10:01 AM

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 · 05/23/09, 11:57 AM

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

timski · 05/23/09, 8:25 PM

The most interesting footnote is on timing. Over the last 2 years, we've come to expect 6-or-so-monthly patch cycles. But, those "presumed time lines are way too inflated" (to cannibalize Zarhym's comment later in the cited thread).

Which sounds like we could be seeing both 3.2 and 3.3 this year. That would force WoW expansion #3 (which will surely be previewed at Blizzcon) out in the middle of 2010. Unless there's a 3.4 lurking. Or this could all be wild optimism on Blizzard's part, believing that they can suddenly buck their own trend of lengthening patch cycles.

Oh. And, is it not possible that the "surprise raid" will be a... surprise? And as such, won't be previewed so early.

Bregonn · 05/23/09, 8:32 PM

Originally Posted by 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.

My bad. I was thinking about a new Vault of Archavon boss.

Liebestod · 05/23/09, 9:48 PM

Originally Posted by timski

The most interesting footnote is on timing. Over the last 2 years, we've come to expect 6-or-so-monthly patch cycles. But, those "presumed time lines are way too inflated" (to cannibalize Zarhym's comment later in the cited thread).

Which sounds like we could be seeing both 3.2 and 3.3 this year. That would force WoW expansion #3 (which will surely be previewed at Blizzcon) out in the middle of 2010. Unless there's a 3.4 lurking. Or this could all be wild optimism on Blizzard's part, believing that they can suddenly buck their own trend of lengthening patch cycles.

Oh. And, is it not possible that the "surprise raid" will be a... surprise? And as such, won't be previewed so early.

No, I definitely think we'll be seeing expansion #3 out in about a year.

Kaveli · 05/24/09, 2:57 AM

With black down(Obsidian Sanctum), that leaves red, green, blue, and bronze. We've already fought Malygos (blue) as a Nexus boss so I would presume red, green and bronze have the highest probability of being the next ones opened.

If the timelines here are remotely ballpark, I don't see blizzard having enough time to release all of the chamber of secrets dragonflight instances without releasing more then one at a time.

With the next major patch bringing the Coliseum (not a troll instance surprisingly..) and not a full raid dungeon, is it going to be a .5 tier like AQ40? This would be odd in itself since 25 man's are tier 7.5 and 8.5.

This is probably only puzzling since we've only had 3 tiers per expansion and the next step in gear this early would call for 4 tiers in WOTLK for Icecrown.

Food for thought, or maybe just late night rantings, who knows.

Axl_Stukov · 05/24/09, 3:16 AM

Has Blizzard ever stated they only will do 3 tiers of loot each expansion cycle? So many norms have already been broken with Wrath anyways, I don't see why something like having 4 loot tiers is out of the question.