Hard Modes just don't do it for me

[Zeppelin535]

I disagree.

Mim? "Oh look guys. Raid damage." Exactly what I was talking about.

Freya? That is exactly the kind of shit I was talking about. Just more spells.

Vezax? Mana problems, and extra add. Nothing new here.

Zero light? Everything about Yogg's hardmodes is taking away buffs and a helpful mechanic. This is equivalent to making the boss hit harder, and adding a spell. My point once again.

Ulduar is a terrible case of uncreative hardmode diarrhea.

This the most blatantly wrong analysis of Ulduar I have ever heard. Have you even ever done these encounters? I assume the answer is no and I thus rest my case.

[kanzei]

I really dislike how hardmodes have taken the place of harder raids. Instead of having something like BT and then Sunwell, they just have things like Ulduar and then Ulduar hard modes.

I understand the point that Blizzard does not want to spend so much time making a new raid and only have 15% of players see it, and I think this is a reasonable argument. However, I used to really like always looking forward to the challenge and mystery of the next raid, even if I never got to do it. It added motivation to progress, and an awesome feeling when I finally witnessed that raid that I had never before been able to progress through.

This is not a QQ thread, and I understand the theory behind just having hardmodes, but it just takes away part of the awesome experience of raiding. What do you guys think?

I agree. I'd like to see them hire more creative staff and create new content. God knows they have enough revenue to do it. 12 million subscribers at $15 a month.

[Vook]

Blizz made raids have normal modes and Heroic/Hardmode for the hardcore so that non-hardcore-raid5daysaweek people could actually see raids. I know lots of people like to look back at Vanilla with their rose-tinted glasses, where "raids were actually hard!!!" but really, think of how much time and dedication it took to raid, back then. Not everyone has that kind of time. And if making raids "easier" gets more money for Blizz, they're gonna do it.

Myself, I didn't think WOTLK was as easy as all the QQers make it out to be. I actually did hardmodes in their time, and it was quite challenging and fun to progress through them.

Oh, and unless you've got HLK, Yogg+0/Algalon before ICC and H Halion, you've got no right to complain that WOTLK is too easy.

[Komie]

Less prerequisite bosses. The players might not be able to complete the encounters, but they will get to fight in them, make a couple of them progresssevily harder as the fight goes on, so that everyone gets to see part of them before wiping.

In a raid with bosses A-F you could have a linear progression, like A -> B -> ... -> F But you could also put A, B and C at the front, make D require either A or B, make E require either B or C, and make F require either D or E. This way, everyone gets to fight 3 bosses, and people who can down 1 boss can fight 4 or 5 bosses already. Only the hardcore players will reach the last boss though.

Well thats the problem blizzard is trying to avoid. Blizzard doesn't want that 10% of raiders to be the only people to see the last boss, they want everyone to be able to experience the last boss.

Just from personal experience, when Vanilla Naxx came out I was really excited. I heard some great stuff about it. But I was really really disappointed when I wasn't able to see the last boss fight because we were never able to reach it before BC came out.

So you're suggestion really doesn't work. Honestly, I don't think any suggestion will work because once you make a boss fight harder, you're closing it off from X% more people. The harder and harder you make it, the higher that numbers gets, which Blizzard is trying to avoid.

[blackangel209]

This is not a QQ thread

That's exactly what this is... In fact, 90% of posts that say they aren't a QQ, are blatant QQ.

[mutantboy]

I'm not sure I'm understanding? Are a lot of you guys saying that you want stupidly hard content because when you do the easy content the hard content is not new?
(yeah I called it stupidly hard content - which for 90% of the playerbase it is)
Personaly i want to see a raid block where you decide Hard or easy mode - and thats it. Just like in the old school FPS games. No going back unless you start again from scratch.

Unfortunately it wouldn't work - most supposed hardcore raiders gear up on easy mode now, farm 10 mans till you can do Hard mode, farm 25man to 10 man heroic and then last of all do 25man heroic. So the normal complaint becomes I did the content 37 times already so now I'm bored.

Lets see how Cata goes eh? no more doing content 2x a week and farming a bazillion badges, getting gear really quickly and saying the contnet is too easy

[styvorama]

If you are unhappy you could stop playing.

I'm just unhappy with the number of times I read this statement a day.

And on topic: Hard modes seem much more fun then flipping a switch for Heroic mode.

I really like the idea for unlockable heroic wings or more hard unlockable Algalon style fights. This way the normal mode would be there, and they would only need to design a few fights specific to the more hardcore raider. I understand we are not the only ones playing, but the amount of time we spend in the content you create needs to be considered. If you were developing a widget for sale, would you put more consideration to the groups that will get much use out of it, or the group that will only use it a little?

[Spectral]

Unfortunately it wouldn't work - most supposed hardcore raiders gear up on easy mode now, farm 10 mans till you can do Hard mode, farm 25man to 10 man heroic and then last of all do 25man heroic. So the normal complaint becomes I did the content 37 times already so now I'm bored.

This isn't quite true. When I was in a hardcore guild (no longer am), we began on Heroic ICC the moment it was possible for us to. Some fights still had to be done on Normal for awhile due to difficulty and raid comp, but we did everything on Heroic that we could the moment we could. Ten mans were largely an afterthought for the bulk of us.

Plenty of people do what you mention, but extending it to "most hardcore raiders" is excessive.

Lets see how Cata goes eh? no more doing content 2x a week and farming a bazillion badges, getting gear really quickly and saying the contnet is too easy

This I couldn't agree with more though.