5 Pieces of T9. 5 Bosses in Coliseum. Is there a surprise T9 Raid?

[gilfanon]

I got to thinking as I looked at the new tier sets, Blizzard have stated that there will be 5 bosses in The Coliseum. But there are 5 pieces in the new T9 set. Excluding 'one shot' bosses like Magtheridon/Gruul&Maulgar/Sarth, Blizzard are not normally in the habit of having Tier gear drop from the first and every boss in a multi-boss Raid instance. I know people are going to say this is about Blizzard catering to casuals, but I still can't picture T9 dropping from the first boss in the Coliseum. I think they might be hiding a Raid instance...

Does anyone else have any similar theories? I'm imagining one of several options:

1) T9 is spread across the Coliseum and a new Dragon wing in Wyrmrest with one or two additional bosses.
2) 1 or 2 pieces of T9 are going to drop in Coliseum and the rest drop in a new instance- possibly one unlocked by defeating the boss in the cavern below the Coliseum (Nerubian instance suddenly opens up?)
3) Icecrown is coming sooner than we think. The Coliseum acts as a rallying call and 4 weeks after it opens (once all the gates have opened) the Lich King finally gets fed up of it and attacks the Tournament grounds, initiating the final battle in Icecrown which is released in a patch a month later (my optimistic view)
4) There are more bosses in the Coliseum than announced (i.e. there are 5 bosses in the Coliseum and an extra boss underneath- that would mean Blizzard didn't lie when they said the Coliseum has 5 bosses)

The Coliseum as a standalone instance always seemed to me a bit unambitious for a major tier content patch. I'm sure there's something else in store, something Blizzard have up their sleeves... Anyone else hoping for a hidden Raid?

[qae]

I do actually!

Wouldn't it be nice if once we kill all Coliseum boss (or while doing it) something happen, like an earthquake or something, and we discover a whole instance underneath the Coliseum!

Maybe Blizzard is just not telling everything.. Just speaking about Coliseum.. And we discover the truth only when it go live!

That would be fun!

[Travio]

Wouldn't it be nice if once we kill all Coliseum boss (or while doing it) something happen, like an earthquake or something, and we discover a whole instance underneath the Coliseum!

... like in the screenshots that're datamined where it shows the floor of the Colliseum missing and a Nerubian cavern below?

too bad it wont happen, coz ptr is for testing everything ya know

Not true. Not everything gets PTR tested.

[qae]

who knows.. that would be new but well.. New is nice!

[Kaesebrezen]

I got to thinking as I looked at the new tier sets, Blizzard have stated that there will be 5 bosses in The Coliseum. But there are 5 pieces in the new T9 set.

Blizz stated wrong. Colliseum got 7 Bosses. Read the Achievements.
It just takes 5 weeks for all bosses to be activated (that was the statement btw).

[Kbpringle]

... like in the screenshots that're datamined where it shows the floor of the Colliseum missing and a Nerubian cavern below?

Hard mode maybe?

[gilfanon]

... like in the screenshots that're datamined where it shows the floor of the Colliseum missing and a Nerubian cavern below?

Not true. Not everything gets PTR tested.

Aye, Algalon and Yogg were both untested. But by the sounds of the trouble Ensidia had with bugs on Algalon, that was not necessarily a good thing...

Blizz stated wrong. Colliseum got 7 Bosses. Read the Achievements.
It just takes 5 weeks for all bosses to be activated (that was the statement btw).

This was the statement:
* New epic 10- and 25-player raid dungeon with five encounters, with each encounter being unlocked one week at a time

Where did you get 7 bosses from the Achievements though? The 'Call of the Crusader' achievement doesn't link to a list of bosses from what I can see, and there only seem to be 4 or 5 boss-related achievements listed from what I can see... The map of the cavern under The Coliseum only has one skull in it though, so there's only likely to be one more boss there, so I suspect we still might be looking at only 5 (including the underground boss) in the Coliseum, which tends to suggest there might be another Raid coming...

[qae]

I just don't see how the Coliseum could be the whole thing..

[Sanguissa]

Hmm, it would actually make sense. We would kill fifth boss in the arenam, by great applaud of argent crusade.


Sudennly a earth would quake, and some voice would tell us that lich king send us best regards. Than we would fall in the hole in ground to 2nd floor, where would be that Frost-anub-arak and one-eye creepy bug.

Like magnataur, valkyria. snowbeast, wormie thing, someboss ------> frozen nerubian, one-eye nerubian.

Because..that cavern looks like nerubian or old-god, and since yoggy has failed..

[Travio]

The cavern's Nerubian; the entire continent is littered with Nerubian tunnels, as Azjol-Nerub itself is huge and takes up about a third of the continent underground (what we see as the two instances is only a small portion of the actual city). Given the fact that the one achievement is specifically called "The Traitor King" I'd assume Anub'arak makes another appearance (as that's his title, though Arthas believes it's a reference to him first time he hears it...) as the boss we fight down there.

There's also another wing of VoA with an extremely easy boss (assuming you don't stand in the fire) to drop T9 gear as well.
So far though, no hints of anything besides VoA and the AC.

[Mesija]

Anub'arak is returning since there is a new achievement for him,and i doubt he will be in the colliseum

[Svenskpally]

5 bosses on a whole content? sounds to little compeard to 3.1. must be more coming,

[gilfanon]

Mmm, the VoA bosses just drop the same tier stuff that drops in regular Raid instances though, rather than having a unique loot table themselves. That still means there needs to be 5 individual bosses that drop T9. I agree that we're going to see a Nerubian down in the pit, but I still think the mechanic of the Coliseum argues against having all the T9 tokens drop there. It can't just be "Boss appears, Kill Boss, Loot Tier"- once you learn a boss mechanic and start to gear up, unless there's trash to slow you down, if there were only 5 bosses you'd be finished the Raid within 40 minutes... 40 minutes for getting 5 pieces of Tier would be crazy.

I'm still leaning towards another unannounced instance- probably not a big one, but perhaps a Dragon portal, where at least one piece would drop. Anub (or his relative) will drop one. That will leave 3 pieces to be dropped by 3 out of 5 Coliseum encounters. The first 2 will drop non-tier loot. That's my guess anyway...

[Relina]

too bad it wont happen, coz ptr is for testing everything ya know

Cuz ya know, people were testing Yogg and Algalon when 3.1 was on the PTR... oh wait.

[Kuismar]

also the images are datamined, we keep forgetting some of them might be from the new 5man, including bosses.

as for the T9 i would guess they are going to do random token drops from the bosses kinda like gluth in naxx. they also said they like the way the voa items dropped so its possible they go to that method that each boss has a chance to drop any token.

[Teyrocar]

It can't just be "Boss appears, Kill Boss, Loot Tier"- once you learn a boss mechanic and start to gear up, unless there's trash to slow you down, if there were only 5 bosses you'd be finished the Raid within 40 minutes... 40 minutes for getting 5 pieces of Tier would be crazy.

Exactly, they will probably have waves of trash to "prep" you for the boss fights. Think Hyjal. It's essentially a massive boss-fest that's more or less in one location, but it has trash waves in between to help pace the instance.

I too hope for another Wyrmrest portal to open. If the Coliseum has 5 bosses total, then it could drop 4 tier pieces (the first boss would be the easiest and the only non-tier boss) and the new dragon would drop the 5th. If it has a sixth hidden boss, then the first two could get away with not dropping any tier.

In the end, 3.2 isn't intended to be a very big content patch. It's a prep for 3.3. Naxxramas was so easy they had to make 3.1 extensive enough to hold people over. Unlike when 3.1 came out, most guilds will still be farming Ulduar & attempting hard modes when 3.2 is released.

[Lightning4]

Well, the achievement for killing the bosses lists these:

Gormok the Impaler -Magnataur, probably first encounter
Acidmaw - Possibly the jormungar
Dreadscale - ? Maybe the giant ugly nerubian-ravager hybrid?
Icehowl - The giant yeti
Lord Jaraxxus - Unknown
Edyis Darkbane - Member of the twin Val'kyr? Or perhaps leader of the "enemy heroes" collection?
Fjola Lightbane - Member of the twin Val'kyr?
And finally... "Final Boss"

If you assume Edyis and Fjola are the twin Val'kyr, that still makes 7 encounters. Then there's something about an "Enemy heroes" encounter, which sounds to me like it's a fight against a collection of alliance. Something doesn't add up, I'm guessing we'll find out more down the road.

[meag333]

There is something, called the argent tournament going on as well.

Then there's something about an "Enemy heroes" encounter, which sounds to me like it's a fight against a collection of alliance. Something doesn't add up, I'm guessing we'll find out more down the road.

[Lightning4]

There is something, called the argent tournament going on as well.

I meant that about how the number of bosses doesn't add up with what blizzard started. :P
It makes perfect sense that we'd fight a team of the opposite faction. Even moreso if it's an entire equal-sized raid!

[Teyrocar]

Well, the achievement for killing the bosses lists these:

Gormok the Impaler -Magnataur, probably first encounter
Acidmaw - Possibly the jormungar
Dreadscale - ? Maybe the giant ugly nerubian-ravager hybrid?
Icehowl - The giant yeti
Lord Jaraxxus - Unknown
Edyis Darkbane - Member of the twin Val'kyr? Or perhaps leader of the "enemy heroes" collection?
Fjola Lightbane - Member of the twin Val'kyr?
And finally... "Final Boss"

If you assume Edyis and Fjola are the twin Val'kyr, that still makes 7 encounters. Then there's something about an "Enemy heroes" encounter, which sounds to me like it's a fight against a collection of alliance. Something doesn't add up, I'm guessing we'll find out more down the road.

You're assuming every one of those beyond the twins is a single boss encounter, when Blizzard has stated that:

"Your first challenge will pit you against a group of terrifying beasts the Argent Crusade captured in Northrend, including (but not limited to) a magnataur and not one, but two jormungar wyrms."