Thread: Sindragosa US First Kill, New content, Blue posts

Sindragosa (Heroic) US First Kill by Exodus
Exodus is the first guild in the US to kill Sindragosa in Heroic Mode and now leads the Icecrown CItadel progress with Paragon, both guilds only have Professor Putricide and the Lich King left to kill.

Additional PvE and PvP content in a future patch
Zarhym posted a very interesting comments about what's coming after Icecrown Citadel. Apparently, Blizzard plans to release a few more things before the big 4.0 patch and the expansion and we might see a few more additions to the game. Don't get your hopes too high, Zarhym also confirmed that Icecrown Citadel would be the last big raid of the expansion.

Originally Posted by Zarhym (Blue Tracker)

With that being said, we do have some additional PvE and PvP content and changes we plan to implement prior to the release of the big Cataclysm patch and subsequent retail release of that third expansion. We'll be discussing these new features in more detail in the coming weeks.

[...] As we stated before releasing Wrath of the Lich King, we still intend for Icecrown Citadel to be the final raid of the expansion in terms of tiered progression.

Recent In-Game Fixes - February 2010 - 02/11

Originally Posted by Crygil (Blue Tracker)

Listed below are recent fixes we have applied to the game. Keep in mind that some of these changes may not be active until after the realm has been restarted.

To review previous in-game fixes, please visit: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/th...23843880&sid=1

02/11

• Using a "Bag of Heart Candies" with a full inventory will now cause the local postmaster to send you any candy not recieved.
• Sindragosa will now be more consistent in her application of Unchained Magic in 25-player difficulty.

Blue posts

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment

Can't play without healing debuffs in PvP
I agree it's an issue and we do have some plans. (Source)

Bryntroll and other proc weapons
I wouldn't worry so much about how much percentage of your damage the proc is doing. I mentioned that once when comparing various proc weapons and it became adopted as the design goal for all proc weapons. It isn't.

The only real salient comparison is Bryntroll to other two handed dps weapons of the same ilevel (or Zod's to other bows or Trauma to other healing weapons, etc.) Procs are always going to be more random than pure stats, and we can live with that. If you're very intolerant of RNG mechanics, then proc weapons probably aren't for you. If swapping from Bryntroll to another item on the same tier of content is a significant dps increase (taking class, spec and other gear considerations in mind of course), then there is a problem with the weapon. It's as simple as that. (Source)

Game balance in Cataclysm
However, we're going to back off of talking about Cataclysm for a little bit. We're excited about it, so we've been wanting to share our philosophy, plans and ideas as they relate to class design. However, it may be a little too soon. I think it's clear that some players are mistaking our excitement for Cataclysm as our giving up on Lich King. ("Cataclysm will fix it.") That's not our intent nor plan, but I can understand how you might draw that conclusion. We'll talk more about the upcoming expansion soon (tm). (Source)

40-players raids
Right now our plan is to look back on 40-player raids fondly as a format by which we were able to evolve and customize what we feel to be the best raid formats for World of Warcraft. I don't believe our developers have ever stated that they'll absolutely never do a 40-player raid again, but we're really happy with the raid variety we have now with 10- and 25-player raids featuring normal and Heroic difficulties.

The game did rapidly expand from 2004-2006, but I'm not sure it's safe to assume that such a growth in the size of the player base related specifically to what was happening at the endgame. In fact, it had much more to do with the game's overall accessibility, engaging quest experiences, interesting lore, and strong game play mechanics. It was such a growth that ultimately encouraged our desire to make the raiding game more accessible to the new types of people we were introducing to the MMORPG genre.

So while we haven't rapidly expanded our player base over the last year, we've retained our record subscription numbers after five years since World of Warcraft's release. We feel this in part due to the updates we've made to the endgame. We see a greater percentage of players raiding now than ever before, and not just one or two of the easier raid dungeons as in the original game and first expansion. We're seeing much more casual-oriented players serious about fighting the Lich King, while also seeing some of the most advanced guilds in the world begin to work out the strategies for besting him on Heroic difficulty. Our next step is to go back to the early game in Cataclysm and provide additional updates and improvements to bring it closer in line with our development experience, today's technology, and the type of gamers we want to attract. This is in addition to encouraging existing players to try the game again, but have it feel much more like a new experience.

As a long story short, we'll continue to iterate upon the raiding game to improve it, but we feel we have a working formula right now. In order to appeal to a wider range of players, sheer numbers and time devoted should not be the primary determining factors of success in this game. (Source)

Is Icecrown Citadel too easy compared to old raids?
Let's keep things in perspective here. There is a very small percentage of players who have defeated every raid boss in this game consistently for five years straight now. That kind of experience is unparalleled. There's also a very thick system of online resources for providing and sharing strategies which were not nearly as robust for the original game as they are today. The community that's grown around this game has somewhat changed the way the game is played. That's okay though. That's natural.

The fact that at least 25 members of our player base have killed Sindragosa on Heroic difficulty doesn't say much about whether or not the encounter is more complicated than, say, Twin Emperors. In fact, most of the raiders I've talked to who are at, or have killed the Lich King in 25-player mode say that Icecrown Citadel has provided some of the most fun and interesting mechanics this game has yet to offer. Most of the fights today are technically more complex than the fights of old, but the difference is in the tuning and the polish.

I can think of at least a couple of bosses that took a long time for any guild to kill where bugs were a major factor. As soon as the bugs were fixed, the bosses were defeated. There were also several bosses, take Princess Huhuran for example, which weren't necessarily incredibly challenging from a mechanic perspective. The challenge came in the form of requiring that players farm resistance gear from that same instance for weeks and weeks until they stood a chance. Resistance fights have since more or less disappeared. We want the interesting mechanics of a fight and the fun factor of that fight to be what players remember, not that they had to wait for major bugs to get fixed, or farm enough of a specific type of stat to even stand a chance. Of course there are gear checks still in the game, but they're much more reasonable. They allow you to customize your character to your wishes and prove your talent by successfully performing your class/spec role, while also successfully learning and reacting to the mechanics of each fight. These are areas in which guilds like the one to which you're referring excel to an impressive degree. (Source)

imo, 40 man raids should be heroic mode

As we stated before releasing Wrath of the Lich King, we still intend for Icecrown Citadel to be the final raid of the expansion in terms of tiered progression.

Why do I feel a troll raid! After all, troll raids are not "tiered" progression?
Maybe something like ZA, only 10man with difficulty level slightly harder than ICC 10 yet still easier than ICC 25?
Just speculating. :-X

Originally Posted by Powder

Why do I feel a troll raid! After all, troll raids are not "tiered" progression?

There always has to be a troll raid.

I've been thinking about a troll raid ever since Wrath came out.....
Dont tell me you didnt either?
Considering the HUGE troll area in Northrend, I think its safe to say if there was another raid released it would be troll oriented.
Also may i point out that Vanilla and BC both had troll areas with instances/raids to go with them. Im certain that this will be no different

I TOLD YOU there would be another raid before Cataclysm ! Besides, they still have to release those dances you know

Ofc there will be wotlk version of swp before cata, afaik gundrak raid.

Funny that they should mention the Twin Emperors... I get to watch 'srs raiderz' wipe on those guys so often. Or Cthun for that matter still one-shots droves and droves of overzealous lvl80s farming for rep.

Still, I wouldn't mind a couple of 5 or 10 mans that open up like the ICC5 areas, heroic-only, which deal with some intermittant 'mopping up' of some stronger minions of Arthas who decided the crown-switch was a good moment to set up shop for themselves somewhere. Possibly not even all of them in Northrend.
That could be an interesting final patch/content-filler.

Originally Posted by Ghostcrawler

So while we haven't rapidly expanded our player base over the last year, we've retained our record subscription numbers after five years since World of Warcraft's release.

Sounds alot like "Yeah, we could have done much better with WotLK".

I've been waiting for a troll raid. Go go side progression!

I'm thinking they'll release another Chamber of Aspects boss..

I'd like to raid a couple of trolls again I'm a big fan of Zul'gurub and Zul'aman..

Although I personally haven't killed Arthas yet I have to say that when it comes to raiding difficulty in this expansion I'm hugely disappointed in Blizzard. I understand that they want as many as possible to see their content and that's agreeable but well isn't normal modes there to do that?
And hardmodes was supposed to be hard, or what? It wont be hardmode if they simply slap some extra dmg done from the boss and a larger HP pool.. Added twists and mechanics is needed, which requires us to alter tactic either partly or completely. I'm not a big fan of limited attempts either, to me that only seems like a way to create half-assed content and force it to last longer than it otherwise would've because of the level of difficulty the bosses are on.

Vodka neither Paragon had "access" to boss kill videos and they sure as hell aint sharing in between, strategics n such for the ICC Hardmodes and I think it's an utter joke, completely BS that 11/12 HM's are down in 25man.. WTH I have to say to that.. Now I'm sure it's going to take a few resets for my guild to clear everything on HM.. But man.. this is silly... So much for giving the hardcores something hard to compete with each other over when it comes to ranking..

I don't think Blizzard ever is going to openly admit to creating Hardmodes that wasn't hard enough (some of their developers do, as private opinion ofc... yes I know a couple of Blizz employees that actually do important stuff).. Because I tell you all the top raiders I've spoken to are annoyed with how easy stuff is... The boss fights themselves can be nice and fun, we've seen a lot of new stuff in this exp (and that's a good thing) but it's simply under tuned in HM... It makes me almost rip my hair off =| and I got pretty long brown hair!

Well.. I guess AFK for 6-8 months before Cata.. ICC will probably be just as BT was.. *shrugs* an instance farmed for almost 1 year before something else came out to raid.