Infraction for Ptoleman: 2. All opinions should be stated as succinctly as possible.

Kaubel · 06/21/09, 10:31 PM

Post: Patch 3.2: Call of the Crusade
User: Ptoleman
Infraction: 2. All opinions should be stated as succinctly as possible.
Points: 1

Administrative Note:

Message to User:

Don't quote-split.

Original Post:

No one knows for sure what the exact nature of the new hierarchy will be until we can get on the PTR, but the different versions argument is the most obvious and natural, otherwise they wouldn't have announced the distinction in the first place.

Its confusing for the players.

You underestimate the players. The community adapts to changes almost instantly.

Differing 10- and 25-man mechanics are already present in minor ways. There haven't been any riots from the community over notes on Wowhead boss strategies saying: "The boss does not use this ability on 10-man."

Their track record shows otherwise (I.E: they've never done this).

They hadn't done a fight like Sartharion with different modes of difficulty either. Until they did. This really isn't a reason for them not to do it. Also, you're somewhat mistaken. These types of differences are already present in minor ways, and this separation allows to them to go further in that area.

They may as well give an encounter a unique boss look. I don't have the impression that a single boss texture / potential add textures are what take time, rather the environment.

I fail to understand what you're getting at here.

Their track record shows that they design the 25-man encounter, and then for the 10-man version they strip away things that depend on: Too many tanks, too many things to think about at once, etc.

A good theory, but it's more likely they that simply design the core mechanics of the encounter and adjust the numbers for each version. On average the difference between 10- and 25-man encounters is inflation, either of pure damage output, DPS requirements, or the number of mobs and such. 25-man numbers are just as relative as those in 10-mans.

However, you have to realize that this lockout provides them the potential to so introduce new mechanics into harder versions while leaving them out of easier ones. This gives them greater flexibility in encounter design and a better foundation with which to please ALL types of raiders, especially the ever-hungry hardcore raiders that desire unforgiving mechanics and bosses.

You have to consider that the whole 'everyone should be able to experience everything' isn't just to make casuals happy. Its to try and further offset the time cost of developing content, which is what they're always racing against. I think realistically the following will happen:

The guilds who would have not started on the hardcore version until they cleared the normal version, by and large, still won't until they've cleared the normal. They'll still say things like: 'Its useless until we've cleared the normal one', 'We don't have the gear until we've cleared the normal one', etc.
The guilds that would've gone and tried the hardcore versions anyway still will. Except now they'll be farming the normal version too, for more gear drops per reset. So they have to sit through the same bosses twice, because its what pays off the best.

I'm not sure its a good idea, to be honest. Because I think it adds an element of boredom that they really don't need at this point. Everyone is already well aware that if you do the same encounter enough times, it becomes boring. It pretty much doesn't matter what encounter it is. This way, they're effectively cutting TimeUntilBored in half.

I really don't understand what's the issue here for you. A casual guild will spend most of their time clearing the normal mode and dabbling in the hard-modes. A hardcore guild will gear up in the normal mode while focusing the sum of their attention on the hard-modes and down them, at which point they'll never bother with the normal mode version again. The hard mode gear is better and the encounters are more interesting for them.

It's basically the same as it is now, only guilds that want to work on the hard mode version no longer have to (in effect) waste their time on bosses they already have on farm. When all is said and done, this change is simply removing a frustrating aspect of the normal mode/hard mode separation to the benefit of all players involved.