They will need 1 month to complete the development (over half of the bosses aren't ready) AND testing of throne, 25 fight modes if we ignore raid sizes. If they do release it when it's ready it can be a great raid, if they set a date on stone they might screw the most ambitious raid to date since WoW launched
Asking to remove Raiding is probably one of the stupidest things ive seen, sorry if im beeing rude, but you are basicly asking for the removal of pve progression in this game. That is just plain dumb.
Looking at the numbers for Heroic, they're actually pretty large.
Some guilds are still progressing through either Terrace or HoF normal and haven't moved onto Heroic modes yet (that's what my old guild and a friend of mine's is too).
Those are some big numbers. Of course not as large as normal mode, but still substantial.
No less than 3 weeks from now, probably over a month. They tend to notify us when the PvP season is coming to an end.
5.2 is going to release in april imo.
Most guilds are raiding in 10 man mode.
So, 5K guilds (raiding in H HoF/ToES), giving a 100% bonus for bench, second raid teams, etc., is 100K players.
That's just a couple percent of the NA/EU/KR/BZ player population. It's also close to the rounding error on the active account numbers they hand out every quarter.
"There is a pervasive myth that making content hard will induce players to rise to the occasion. We find the opposite. " -- Ghostcrawler
"The bit about hardcore players not always caring about the long term interests of the game is spot on." -- Ghostcrawler
"Do you want a game with no casuals so about 500 players?"
It is a stretch to assume those people have the same preference as you. I play with lots of non-raiders and have never heard them wish that the raid content was removed/trimmed. Just because a small % of people participate, does not automatically mean they would like that content to be replaced by something else. In fact, the largest reason people do not participate IMO, is simply time, they do not have the time to raid at that current time, or simply have never invested the overall time in the game where they are good enough/want too. The last thing they are worried about is more to do... new players, part time players, are actually overwhelmed IME... I know I was for long time.
In fact, I think the long history of the game catering to raiders, and the fact so many players who do not directly participate in it still love/play the game, is a testament to the fact that it should remain the center of the game, and that there may also be a X factor there that keeps people intrigued even if they do not directly access it. It created the ambiance.
Also, those same non-raiders do in fact go and play in old content, collect mounts and have fun, when it is easier and not current. With the addition of transmog gear, that has only grown. Also, I think they just enjoy being part of the community that is involved with that active story line, and the fact that some people, somewhere, are in fact killing the big bad guy, even if it is not them, is important to the feeling of the game. Also, I think Blizzard has made huge strides to add content beyond raids, compared to other expansions, while also keeping their story line and hardcore players entertained with raid content, so more non-raid content seems a bit wasted actually. I jsut do not think those people use it.
Last edited by Sprucelee; 2013-01-30 at 01:43 AM.
"There is a pervasive myth that making content hard will induce players to rise to the occasion. We find the opposite. " -- Ghostcrawler
"The bit about hardcore players not always caring about the long term interests of the game is spot on." -- Ghostcrawler
"Do you want a game with no casuals so about 500 players?"
I respect your opinion and your vision of the game.
But, you are asking to undo a decade of game development, philosophy, and community to fundamentally change WoW into something that it isn't.
There comes a time when every gamer must take a deep breath, sell/uninstall a game that he will never enjoy, and seek out greener pastures that can better suit your gaming needs.
Last edited by Keoren; 2013-01-30 at 03:55 PM.
The ptr is live 4 weeks now, raid testing is almost 3 weeks, i cant seen another 4-6 weeks of raid testing, maybe 4 weeks left, unless something happens
so i will say the 20th or 27th of feb
mid march may be pushing it, but u never know, so ye i say 3-4 weeks