Patches 4.1, 4.2 Raid Speculation

[Apok101]

We have the firelands (4.1) and WotA (4.x) confirmed.
Speculations lead to there being an Abyssal Maw raid an Old god raid. then theres Deathwings raid.

[PBitt]

Firelands is confirmed for 4.1, I believe it has 7 bosses, which means there will be another raid to go along with it of rougly the same size. Firelands was originally supposed to be released with launch so I think alot of it is already complete. I think the counterpart raid will be an Abyssal Maw raid, seeing as there is also a five man there being added and I think Blizzard put too much work into designin Vashj'ir and stuff that not putting raid there at some point would be a major mistake. Beyond that, yes, we will have a CoT raid and a Deathwing raid, but if they keep the model of having more than one raid per tier that leaves a fair amount of other possiblities.

[Migey]

As far as raids are concerned, while they did amazingly in TBC as far as lore and location are concerned, they failed INSANELY hard in WotLK, missing out about 3 potential raids.

I suspect a Firelands and Abyssal Maw raid will come in same patch.

Then CoT and something else...

Also, everyone seems to know, so i feel like a noob for asking. But... who the fuck is N'zoth? I get hes an old god... but why havn't i heared of him before?

[AlexGrey]

Please no more p1 adds - p2 brains - p3 clusterfuck with a bunch of tentacles and various beams Old God fights. Unless they come up with some creativity, I loathe another Old God.

Yes yes, lets just make another tank n spank with void zones here and there. >.>

Old god fights require the most analytical and organized raids to defeat them as their mechanics and core strategy are NOT what you find in the common boss encounter.

[Reinhard]

Firelands is confirmed for 4.1, I believe it has 7 bosses, which means there will be another raid to go along with it of rougly the same size. Firelands was originally supposed to be released with launch so I think alot of it is already complete. I think the counterpart raid will be an Abyssal Maw raid, seeing as there is also a five man there being added and I think Blizzard put too much work into designin Vashj'ir and stuff that not putting raid there at some point would be a major mistake. Beyond that, yes, we will have a CoT raid and a Deathwing raid, but if they keep the model of having more than one raid per tier that leaves a fair amount of other possiblities.

All cata raids at the moment are Old Gods focused.
We have 3 factions under the influence of the Old Gods in the current and known raids :
- Twilight Hammer
- Black dragonflight
- The Elemental Lords.
I wonder if this is a theme they want for the rest of the expansion.

Fireland will be an elemental Lord raid.
Deathwing should be a Black Dragonflight raid.
An abyssal Maw raid would be logical. it would finish the storyline of Vashj'ir and bring another faction of Old God servants in raid : The Nagas.

Less likely would be an Emerald Dream raid.
The corruption of the emerald dream is said to originate from the same Old God that the naga serve : N'Zoth.
We have strong ties with the Emerald Dream in Hyjal which could be the access point.
So it would be easy to add it to Cataclysm storywise.
That would bring a change of scenery and new ennemies: the Satyrs.

We know that the COT raid will take place during the War of the Ancient, but not why we go there.
If it's an infinite dragonflight problem, we could see the resolution of this storyline and maybe see an Old God involvement in their actions.

Silithus is also a huge candidate for a new raid.
This is the only zone that has not been revamped during the cataclysm and it is basicly just Old Gods stories.
I can see an AQ revamp (ala Onyxia/Naxxramas) if they are pressed for time or a new raid if they're not.
With Silithids, Tol'Vir and such. We would still have the Old Gods focus, but we would fight different ennemies to mitigate the "Old God Fatigue".

I am not conviced we will fight N'Zoth this expansion.
He is said to be somewhere in the middle of the sea, probably next to the Maeltrom.
Blizzard kept Azshara and all this region (Undermine, Broken Isles) out of Cataclsym and I see them more in their own expansion.
Gilneas seem to have moved this way to during the Cataclysm (Retcon magic !).
Like BC, Cataclysm has the potential for a follow-up extansion which pick up the storylines where they stopped..

[Deleted]

firealands will be next raid as said above , i really hope there will be a egyptian / old god raid in uldum that would be pimp

you will only get massive protests from thousands of people about this, and lots of deaths, haven't you heard!?

[Khazzeron]

I want an Ulduar like, 12 boss raid in Uldum.

[Winterstrife]

Old Gods eh? I wonder what this one will look like? Seeing that the known Old Gods seems to be related to a body part wonder which body part would he be.

C'thun - Eye (actually EYESSSS loads of em)
Yogg-Saron - Mouth (loads of em, he has no eyes how the hell he knows which raid member to target for insanity?)
N'Zoth - ??? Nose? (lol) Butt? (hmmm...) Ears? (lawl)

Opinions?

---------- Post added 2011-02-10 at 02:25 AM ----------

you will only get massive protests from thousands of people about this, and lots of deaths, haven't you heard!?

Only if the final boss position been taken up by Kael'thas who refuse to step down from his status as a final boss since Tempest Keep :x

---------- Post added 2011-02-10 at 02:29 AM ----------

We have the firelands (4.1) and WotA (4.x) confirmed.
Speculations lead to there being an Abyssal Maw raid an Old god raid. then theres Deathwings raid.

I wonder if they would introduce a united faction (members from Horde & Alliance) for Deathwing's raid, seems like every final expansion boss seems to have one.
TBC - Shattered Sun
Wrath - Ashen Verdict
Cata - Maybe an offshoot faction from the Earthern Ring?

[Deleted]

I agree with many of the speculations in this thread. Firelands is confirmed, another Vashj'ir dungeon of some kind is virtually guaranteed. Apart from the obvious Deathwing raid, other candidates are something old god related or another CoT raid. I think that if the Abyssal Maw is a raid, then Deathwing will somehow be tied into a Deepholm raid to complete the 'set' of the 4 elemental plane raids.

I do doubt that Abyssal Maw will be a raid though. I doubt even more that there will be 2 raids in any of the content patches. If ToC, a 5 boss encounter in 2 rooms, is enough to constitute a 'new content' raid, I think Blizzard will be content with a 7 boss Firelands raid in 4.1. Abyssal Maw will probably be a new 5 man, dropping 359 blues/epics.

Also, as far as I know a 2 raid content patch has never been done, but I can't remember if Hyjal was in from TBC release or if it came along with BT.

[MiseriaScH]

Specific boss wise I'm wondering if that Satyr you help in Hyjal shows up sometime (unless he showed up in some quest I haven't see yet). Or perhaps he'll be one of the new 5 man bosses.

I have a feeling we we won't be seeing him majorly again until Sargeras/Twisting Nether Expansion.

[njorde]

Uldum Raid I'm predicting, as well hyjal... sorta hoping for another skywall raid that place was really awesome and they could have done A LOT more with to4w

If you ever went into the lake under nordrassil you would realize its extremely deep yet there is a lot of detail in it, at the bottom there is just some placeholder rock... I wouldn't be surprised if something goes down right there

[conscript]

Uldum Raid I'm predicting, as well hyjal... sorta hoping for another skywall raid that place was really awesome and they could have done A LOT more with to4w

If you ever went into the lake under nordrassil you would realize its extremely deep yet there is a lot of detail in it, at the bottom there is just some placeholder rock... I wouldn't be surprised if something goes down right there

Thorne was extremely disappointing. When they previewed that place initially they mentioned the mobs being storm drakes, elementals, etc. Then it turns out the only mobs are three djinn and Al and the other cool mobs are trash or junk boss in VP. I would love to see an expanded raid there, but we are for sure done with the realm of air.

[Sylla]

I do doubt that Abyssal Maw will be a raid though. I doubt even more that there will be 2 raids in any of the content patches. If ToC, a 5 boss encounter in 2 rooms, is enough to constitute a 'new content' raid, I think Blizzard will be content with a 7 boss Firelands raid in 4.1. Abyssal Maw will probably be a new 5 man, dropping 359 blues/epics.

The reason people say that is because Blizzard seem to have gone with the whole 'multiple smaller raids' instead of 'one insanely big raid'. Whether or not development time etc. is enough is another issue i guess.

Also, first major patch in wrath was Ulduar, the dungeon that seemed random and unrelated to the rest, so I am hoping for something cool this time around too .

Edit: does anybody get the feeling that they will see that giant squid thing from throne of tides turn up as a raid boss sometime in the future?

[Deleted]

Well, TBC had many raids when it was released (they were broken, but lets not get into that). They didn't stick with that design philosophy for the content patches. I know that it seems Blizzard has changed policy from the initial tier of wrath, and I hope they have. But it seems unlikely given the normal method of releasing content. I'm not bashing Blizzard at all. If anything, I think it would be too much work to release 2 quality raids every tier given the development time required. I really like BoT and BWD, and I would actually be pleasantly surprised if this system of raiding continued.

[Deleted]

(...)Also, everyone seems to know, so i feel like a noob for asking. But... who the fuck is N'zoth? I get hes an old god... but why havn't i heared of him before?

Check quests & lore panel at blizzcon '10 part 3
Edit: nothing interesting, Metzen just said that N'zath (Nizzoth? - there is no official spelling yet) is the next Old God, and he will play a role in Cataclysm.

[Deleted]

Meh i think onyxia will be brought back in a new raid every patch =D ALSO: As many people have stated, Firelands was confirmed as a raid in 4.1 by blizzard in BlizzCon2010

Old Gods eh? I wonder what this one will look like? Seeing that the known Old Gods seems to be related to a body part wonder which body part would he be.

C'thun - Eye (actually EYESSSS loads of em)
Yogg-Saron - Mouth (loads of em, he has no eyes how the hell he knows which raid member to target for insanity?)
N'Zoth - ??? Nose? (lol) Butt? (hmmm...) Ears? (lawl)

I'd like him to be a knob. No, I'm not gay, it's just it'd be funny =D
"But taunka, boobs or vagina could be a funny old god? right?"
Yes, but I wouldn't be able to kill a pair of boobs. Or a vagina. I'd hate to see them go to waste, and that's why an all female or all gay guild will be getting world first

[carneymaster11]

We had the Eye of C'thun and the Maw of Yogg-Saron...I think N'zath will be made out of noses...and they will all be resurrected to form a full face, the Oldest God!

OT: I hope we get our damn Troll raid for this expansion! Dark Trolls and their hidden empire!...WotLK missed out on something grand with the ice trolls.

I think that would actualy be kinda cool. Someone gathers up all the body parts of the old gods and puts them together in some ancient ritual to bring about the ultimate destroyer of the universe. Sargeras could do it. Create the only creature capable of toppling the titans whom we finaly meet and have realised this planet of theirs that was cursed with flesh is now their greatest achievement doing what they could not.

[Deleted]

i still think they shoud save the naga for a expack of theyr own and not a raid dungeon so id say 4.2 will be cot

[Groovus]

I'm going to bet on a revival of Hakkar for one of the Cata content patches, the Zin'Rokh Archaeology Item hints at it and the questlines in STV left alot of things unanswered... (I miss you, Polymorpheus'aka!)