Raid Openings and the Thursday release

[Dilbon]

They said that the anniversary event isn't going to occur on the regular schedule. This one will probably start later and/or last longer than the typical one.

Or it will occur two weeks earlier than normal, lasting until 17th.

Edit: Ok that doesn't make any sense, until 12th, the day before WoD.

[femur68]

Their general theme on Twitter today is that they would be giving us plenty of time to level, and they have commented in the past about considering having a longer than 1 week gap between expansion release and raids opening, so I suspect them opening any raiding on Tuesday, November 18 is unlikely. This is my prediction.

November 13 - expansion releases
November 18 - no raids open first week
November 25 - they hold off another week rather than opening raids to coincide with Thanksgiving
December 2 - normal/heroic Highmaul open
December 9 - mythic Highmaul opens

They would then probably wait until at least some time in mid to late January to unlock Blackrock Foundry.

This is the schedule I HOPE they go with as well. Leading a guild that's currently at the level of completing partial heroics (now mythics) each tier, normal (now heroic) difficulty can still show us some obstacles, and I'd rather not encounter those on a week Thanksgiving is on. Too much chaos!

[Moshots]

Heroic=old normals so uh releasing on nov 25th would do nothing. Any good guild will still blow through them and have mythic unlocked in time for week 2. Honestly can't remember a tier since cata where whatever guild i was in even raided past thursday on a week 1 normal kill. Maybe ToT but we wasted 3 hours on a Meagara on steroids day 1.

[Nobleshield]

I'm hoping they hold off until after Thanksgiving to open any raids, that way it gives people time to relax, enjoy the holidays and level/gear up. It was one week for MoP and that seemed to be well received, so I personally would be fine with two weeks before raiding in WoD. Gives enough time to level, enjoy the new content, gear up with dungeons, etc. without that rush rush rush pressure.

[Tiberria]

Why? Most raiders don't have a job.
They actually have more time during the normal working day.

What? I am 99% sure that even in world first level guilds like Method, BL, etc, the vast majority of raiders work or go to school. I know for a fact that it is 100% false for raid guilds with <20 hour/week schedules - which is literally almost every one outside of the World top 20.

- - - Updated - - -

I think that it makes a lot of sense from Blizzard's perspective to wait longer on raid releases, because there is already lots for people to do at the start of an expansion, and delaying the raid release increases the life span of the 6.0 content before people start getting bored and wanting the next patch. Waiting 2.5 weeks until December 2 would be a good idea, especially because it would push Blackrock Foundry to late January/early February, which then means they could get away without needing a content patch until somewhere around May.

[DeleteThisUser]

This is very important to know. IF they open it up on the 18th of November it leaves little time to level up and gear for 25 raiders. This is messed up if you ask me.
A lot of guilds will not be ready by then. A November 25th will cause problems for guilds that raid Thursdays and Fridays.

I think they should do it this way:
- LFR opens up 11/18
- Normal Opens up 11/25
- Heroic Opens up 12/2
- Mythic Opens up 12/9

This would give raiding guilds a chance to level up and go through the content without being hampered.

Heroic mode will be the first out the door, which will allow individuals within a 25-man raiding community, prepare 20 raiders and 5-6 bench members for Mythic mode.

[Wilderness]

Their general theme on Twitter today is that they would be giving us plenty of time to level, and they have commented in the past about considering having a longer than 1 week gap between expansion release and raids opening, so I suspect them opening any raiding on Tuesday, November 18 is unlikely. This is my prediction.

November 13 - expansion releases
November 18 - no raids open first week
November 25 - they hold off another week rather than opening raids to coincide with Thanksgiving
December 2 - normal/heroic Highmaul open
December 9 - mythic Highmaul opens

They would then probably wait until at least some time in mid to late January to unlock Blackrock Foundry.

This would be my guess as well, and what I would prefer. I wouldn't be totally shocked if they moved it up a week and opened normal/heroic on Nov 25, but I would be surprised.

[Deleted]

Europe - Heroic opens 26th Nov.
US - Heroic opens 2nd Dec to allow the US to fully appreciate Thanks Giving.

[Tiberria]

Europe - Heroic opens 26th Nov.
US - Heroic opens 2nd Dec to allow the US to fully appreciate Thanks Giving.

There is no way they can open heroic a week earlier in Europe. That gives EU guilds a second week of heroic lockouts/gear, which screws over the world first race.

[Wilderness]

Well we have the answer now anyway from the interview on the front page. About 2 1/2 weeks after expansion, so that would be the Dec 2nd start (for US) for normal/heroic, with mythic/lfr the week after.

[coprax]

so blizzard rather places mythic progression right into the christmas holidays than opening normal mode around thanksgiving (which only the us cares about?). great job.

[Crowfeather]

Their general theme on Twitter today is that they would be giving us plenty of time to level, and they have commented in the past about considering having a longer than 1 week gap between expansion release and raids opening, so I suspect them opening any raiding on Tuesday, November 18 is unlikely. This is my prediction.

November 13 - expansion releases
November 18 - no raids open first week
November 25 - they hold off another week rather than opening raids to coincide with Thanksgiving
December 2 - normal/heroic Highmaul open
December 9 - mythic Highmaul opens

They would then probably wait until at least some time in mid to late January to unlock Blackrock Foundry.

Holy crap man! Are you a wizard?

[Wilderness]

so blizzard rather places mythic progression right into the christmas holidays than opening normal mode around thanksgiving (which only the us cares about?). great job.

Yeah, it sucks but the fact is that when they chose (or had to wait for) a November release there just wasn't a way for progression to be impacted by the holidays. I'd be surprised if the top guilds haven't cleared 7/7 Mythic before Christmas rolls around, but for most of us that's just going to be something we have to deal with. I think more people would be affected by normal/heroic opening around Thanksgiving than will be affected by having Mythic open Dec 9 instead of Dec 2.

[InfernalDark]

There is no way they can open heroic a week earlier in Europe. That gives EU guilds a second week of heroic lockouts/gear, which screws over the world first race.

EU wins the race anyway so it doesnt really matter.

[lunchbox2042]

Does anyone care about Highmaul anyway? Its only purpose is to serve as an appetizer for Blackrock Foundry just as MSV served as an appetizer for HoF and ToES.

[bclumas]

Does anyone care about Highmaul anyway? Its only purpose is to serve as an appetizer for Blackrock Foundry just as MSV served as an appetizer for HoF and ToES.

It depends on the loot tables. It could have trinkets and such that are far superior to BRF. Don't be so negative all of the time.

[Pennoyer]

Does anyone care about Highmaul anyway? Its only purpose is to serve as an appetizer for Blackrock Foundry just as MSV served as an appetizer for HoF and ToES.

A lot of people will, especially considering Imperator has potential to be nearly as epic as Lei Shen depending on tuning.

[Thetruth1400]

December 2nd is the most likely date as in the interview he said it would be two and half weeks after launch they'd open.

As far as I'm concerned, the entire expansion is already doomed for failure, let alone the piss poor way they're handling it with all the events that fall pretty much instantly with the expansion release date.

Let's see, this year we have;

November 13 - Expansion date
November 22 - 28 - Pilgrim's Bounty
November 23 - WoW's 10th Anniversary
December 15 - January 2 - Winter Veil

That's a ton to cram into such a short time. People are going to get just as frustrated as they did with Pandaria and the hundred + dailies a day at the start.

They're saying, "Don't worry, it won't be a problem" but I frankly can't see how it won't be. All of that holiday events, plus people trying to level, plus people trying to raid. It doesn't exactly scream confidence in hope that they know what they're doing. If anything, it looks like a sloppy mess that they are scrambling to clean up.

I guess we can blame it all on the mishandling of the Titan teams. From that interview, he states it set them back 6 months. That would have put this game being released back in May, like it should have been.

[kamuimac]

so blizzard rather places mythic progression right into the christmas holidays than opening normal mode around thanksgiving (which only the us cares about?). great job.

actually very great job - let those top 300 kill themselves when rest will enjoy slower pace progress

for me absolutely brilliant can get at least 4-5 classes to fully dungeon gear to see which one i enjoy most and choose that class for raid purposes no more repetition from this tier geting into MV on day 1 of raids open in fully quest greens cause i rerolled and lvled 1-90 MW instead hunter an dinged 90 20 minutes before raid

[Kelsifer]

This is what is making this game bad, STOP FUCKING RUSHING THROUGH CONTENT. who gives a shit if you wont be able to raid opening week!? its going to be there until they either shut down the server or rehash the shit. Why bother racing through it? 90% of you are not even skilled enough to be in the top 10% of your server anyways. Its a game, not a job. calm the fuck down and just play.