Possible change to hardmode system.

[Markluzz]

I've been thinking, 'medium-core' guilds like myself who just cant seem to get through many hardmodes (some bosses but usually not the whole instance) but does normal just find seem a little left out of the picture of the hardmode system, what I'm thinking is what if Blizzard made 3 difficulties instead of 2.

Easy-Mode: This would be a step down from normal mode or equivalent to ToC like bosses for those who want practice on the boss easier, or pugs and such. They would drop one less emblem per boss, and the stats would be equivalent to such on 10 man they would be equal to the last 25 man tier and on 25 man they would be equal to the current normal 10 man tier, also it would be easy mode tier you buy with your emblems, the rest you buy with marks, not needing emblems to buy the gear. Also you would not have to complete easy-mode to attempt normal mode. How it would work is on any boss you could switch between easy and normal mode depending on what mode you want to fight the boss in. (Say gunship battle, people would switch from easy-mode to normal mode for that fight since it is clearly easier than any other icc fight). The main difference is that the bosses would be tuned down, say on Rotface he would cast oozes less often or maybe not even cast them, making the fight alot easier, or on Marrowgar he might never go into the bonestorm phase, maybe on Deathwhisper her adds wouldn't get buffed.

Normal Mode: These bosses would be more challenging than most normal bosses are currently, and the tier tokens dropped on these can be turned in for real tier without having to save up frost emblems. At any time like on a fight like Putricide or something you could switch to easy mode to help learn the fight more and such, also remember the fights would be more difficult than the normal mode currently to give challenges to people who want them but cant do hardmodes.

Hardmodes: These stay as they are.

So basically the pugs and people who like to faceroll through stuff can have what they want only with less epic loot, the medium-core guilds could get challenges fit for their skill, and hardcore guilds that faceroll through normal mode will get their challenges.

[Dragonshardz]

Not to sound elitist (i most certainly am not) but I think that making this game similar to a FPS in terms of difficulty is just ridiculous. I would be very satisfied if my guild downs every boss in ToC, ICC (even up to LK). If it happens - great, we can start off trying hard modes. Now these aren't considered give'n take so if you want to have that "heroic" tag on your gear, you should be really good at tactics, coordination, EFFORT, etc. I think that bridging the gap even further with additional difficulty settings is senseless. This would mean another downgrade for the overall quality of the items, and will weaken the "hard core" modes because people will simply get the items from your "medium" mode and then farm "hard mode" easily.

I think that a hard mode should be done by those who strive for greater challenge, harder encounters and of course = better lewt. This demands a great deal of dedication and commitment, and if you can't achieve it with your guild, I suggest moving to a better one.

/cheers

[Shiira]

Blizzard already did this with sarth, flame leviathan, freya and yogg-saron, it just never really became very popular.

[bouddieehh]

im sorry but it's a bad idea no im not elitist but ur either satisfied with easymode or get challenged in hardmode i never enjoyed freya +1 / 2 or yogg+2 / 3

[Sarcasm]

When normal mode is too easy it's time to push yourself further to get the hard modes down instead of expecting more content to be spoon fed to you with a minimum of effort.

[Jon]

Easy mode?

As if the normal modes weren't already too easy.

Sheesh.

[Sam]

I will take the elitist road and say that if you and your guild are having trouble with the way ToC was done, then you either need to take a look at your playing skills or re-think who you're playing with. Yes, friends are friends, but if it's to the point where you want a THIRD difficulty added to what was already a laughably easy(on normal) instance, then you just need to get better.

A lot of people complained about there being 4 different instances with ToC as it was.

[mundy]

I'd hate to see a boss fight on this "easy mode". What would they do? The fire patches only do 10 damage per tick? the enrage timer is 45 minutes?

Your suggestion doesn't really make sense. You said you're feeling "left out" of the hard modes, how would having an easy option change this? Furthermore, hard modes are called hard modes because they are meant to be hard. If you can't do them because they are hard, mission accomplished. Read up on your class on ElitistJerks, make sure you have geared yourself correctly, play your role better and stop standing in fire and you will be amazed how much more content you will be able to clear (hard modes included).

Adding this "easy mode" seems highly redundant.

[Rogge]

No. The rest of the game should be made more difficult instead so people came to raids with some understanding of how to play.

Rewards without challenge is meh.

[Markluzz]

I'm saying they make normal mode harder and add in an easy mode, not that they just make easy mode because i agree most things in normal mode are easy, yet like i said blizzard is still leavin medium-core guilds unsatisified like mine, ones that really dont get anywhere with hardmodes but breeze through basically any normal mode content once learned.

[Sarcasm]

like i said blizzard is still leavin medium-core guilds unsatisified like mine, ones that really dont get anywhere with hardmodes but breeze through basically any normal mode content once learned.

Then either a) raise the performance bar or b) lower your expectations. Blizzard don't and shouldn't cater to people who can't be bothered pushing themselves.

[AnotherPaladin]

I'm not going to say it's a bad idea entirely. If Blizzard had a ton of time to kill, then sure I'd love to see a third difficulty added. However, there's no word on Cataclysm, so that's usually not a good sign towards progression of the Xpac. Also, they have yet to implement many things that were promised in LK. I think Blizz's time could be better spent somewhere else.

[antidan]

The only good idea with hardmodes is to make them into a quest system so that you have to have beaten every previous boss at least one time on hardmode to unlock a hardmode boss. All other ideas are silly and don't make sense in either lore or practicality.

[Keosen]

The system that you can choose what boss to do in HC and which not, is implemented?
For ex you can do in ICC
-First Wing HC
-Princes HC,Blood Queen Normal
-Frostwing Heroic
-LK Normal?

[Helly21]

I have to say that I like this idea for gearing up. But then you'd have to remove new emblems from heroics so the only way to get the better tier gear each content release is to do the new instances - but in easy mode if it's too hard because of gear in normal mode.

ONLY if they remove the upgrade of emblems in every other instance. People would experience new content without having to run 1 million heroics aswell as the gear wouldnt be as "farmable" as it is today - due to the raid lockouts.

[ComputerNerd]

The current difficulty is aimed at people seeing the content, but not to the expense of there being no challenge involved.
It does not have to involve the entirity of ICC which should be accessible to "casual" raiders, and im glad to see that while the first wing might be considered too easy, it is there as a warmup, but people can even fail there so weeding out the complete idiots.
ICC gets harder as you go through which is just fine as it is, and if you are good enough for normal, but not for some hard modes then you have the bar there in front of you that you need to aim for, get over it and there is no need to further cater for noobs by allowing them access to everything.
It is accessible to all, providing they are willing to improve and put in some effort.

[Shiira]

As much as I have liked icecrown so far I absolutely hate limited attempts.

I don't give blizzard my money to spend hours theorycrafting every limited attempt boss because every wipe brings us closer to losing the opportunity to get a kill for good, and if they continue to encourage this type of behaviour then I won't be playing in cataclym. A few guilds out there are running full raids of alts that are the same classes as everyones mains so they can learn about the bosses before doing any pulls on their mains, my guild doesn't but I'm sure those that are doing this sort of thing aren't enjoying it. Do limited attempts make raiding more enjoyable for anyone out there at all? Speak up if you are one of these theoretical people because I don't think they do.

Call me bad if you want but I don't enjoy raiding like this.

[Draoi]

Do limited attempts make raiding more enjoyable for anyone out there at all?

I don't mind them. If anything it makes people better raiders in a shorter time-spans. You don't really have a good strategy if you pound you head against a boss for hundreds of attempts. If you are going for world/regional firsts I can see using alts to learn encounters, but I doubt any guild out of the world top 50 / 100 do this.

Sounds to me like you are in a guild that isn't as hardcore as you would like.

[Norome]

oh come on! the easier this game will be, the more boring it will get and more people will eventually switch to another MMO. it's just like playing SimCity with infinite $$$ or Doom with IDDQD.. you might enjoy it once or twice, but you will not only stop doing that sooner or later, but you also won't play the game ever again.

[Draoi]

In all honesty i believe ICC to be the only true great thing about WoTLK.

I kinda like passenger mounts. Totgc is easy and quick for gearing alts. I like getting 310's on those alts too. achievements are kinda fun, the little noise and the flash get me every time.