Following "The Race"

[Reptar]

As a former player, I still enjoy following the big PVE races when they come out. Since I'm unfamiliar with Legion dates/timelines, has the first "race" or raid opened up yet? If not, when is that planned for?

Thanks!

[Flurryfang]

The first raid is already out and have been cleared. Exorsus cleared the mythic version of Emerald Nightmare in 18 hours, closely followed by the usual suspects

[Reptar]

18 hours....Was this expected to be an easier raid that leads up to something greater, or did Blizzard vastly underestimate this tier?

[Deleted]

18 hours....Was this expected to be an easier raid that leads up to something greater, or did Blizzard vastly underestimate this tier?

It's most likely on purpose. This expansion is planned to be with more content per time spend on it. I fully expect that they want people to be "done" with it asap.

[Deleted]

18 hours....Was this expected to be an easier raid that leads up to something greater, or did Blizzard vastly underestimate this tier?

Neither nor, its the natural speed for the current situation, that is being heavily equipped from mythic dungeons, world quests and possible legendary items.
Players for the start are much stronger than before, with a bit of preparation (high playtime during the first days)

[Deleted]

they just didnt know how to tune it, since people came in with titanforged gear from spamming m+ dungeons and crazy farm on artifact power, aside from that it was overall undertuned id say, especially xavius(endboss). the next big raid tier is nighthold which should be waaaay easier to scale knowing people will be around 895~ if theyre hardcore raiding by the time nighthold comes out

[Reptar]

Thanks for the info everyone. Sadly I missed the race (or should I say sprint), this time around.

[Freedom]

they just didnt know how to tune it, since people came in with titanforged gear from spamming m+ dungeons and crazy farm on artifact power, aside from that it was overall undertuned id say, especially xavius(endboss). the next big raid tier is nighthold which should be waaaay easier to scale knowing people will be around 895~ if theyre hardcore raiding by the time nighthold comes out

The problem is, Nighthold still drops 875 in N, 890 in Heroic. And some players are already hitting 880 ilvl between legendaries and TF'ing to 895 and Mythic clears of EN(880). Some people were walking into M EN with 870 - ABOVE H EN ilvl. They can't possibly be tuning M NH so tightly that someone walking in with two legendaries and 885-895 ISN'T going to clear all the way to M Gul'Dan really rapidly, especially if the cap on M+/TF items is raised the week N/H NH releases(like releasing M+ before M EN). And I imagine most top guilds will be 890+ at least by M NH release.

If you tune M NH for 895, thanks to TF and M+ spam, there will be people meeting that ilvl req day 1. Same problem with M EN.

[Deleted]

The problem is, Nighthold still drops 875 in N, 890 in Heroic. And some players are already hitting 880 ilvl between legendaries and TF'ing to 895 and Mythic clears of EN(880). Some people were walking into M EN with 870 - ABOVE H EN ilvl. They can't possibly be tuning M NH so tightly that someone walking in with two legendaries and 885-895 ISN'T going to clear all the way to M Gul'Dan really rapidly, especially if the cap on M+/TF items is raised the week N/H NH releases(like releasing M+ before M EN). And I imagine most top guilds will be 890+ at least by M NH release.

If you tune M NH for 895, thanks to TF and M+ spam, there will be people meeting that ilvl req day 1. Same problem with M EN.

im just saying thats something they can relate to, as far as mythic+ goes they literally had no idea of the item ranges people would be, im not saying they should tune it to people at itemlvl 895, they can easily tune it to lvls higher than that, im just saying its easier to get an average itemlvl out of people than it was with "850" capped itemlvl and the next week people spamming the shit out of titanforging itemlvls which noone could anticipate or rather it was impossible to balance for an item range in groups from 825-870, with NH not beeing out for another 2-3 months its so much easier to assess what itemlvl people will be around release so the tuning window for mythic is alot closer(880-900). not to mention they could just overtune it, i dont think anyones going to be mad if certain bosses later on in the instance are overtuned for the first 1-2 weeks since most non hardcore guilds wont get that far anyway, its always easier to overtune and adjust afterwards than just release something super undertuned and lackluster like they did with EN, especially xavius

[anon5123]

18 hours....Was this expected to be an easier raid that leads up to something greater, or did Blizzard vastly underestimate this tier?

The raid was not easy, it was the players being overgeared.

Look at WoD: When the first raid was released, the highest ilvl you could get was warforged heroic gear (636) and 3 pieces of crafted gear (640). And mythic gear level was 685. So by the time Mythic was available, the raid would be, at best, mostly ilvl 650-655. Still far below the mythic level.

And now in Legion: When Emerald Nightmare was released, players had full access to Mythic+ dungeons that dropped 860 or higher gear, with Mythic gear starting at 880. By the time Mythic EN was open, full raid groups were ilvl 870 or higher, which was above the level of heroic EN.

Gear was what made the raid go down quickly, not ease of mechanics.