40 man scenarios

[AeneasBK]

They could make 40 man PvE scenarios, to work similar to world bosses; but to be more scenario-like rather than a single boss (even if he has adds). Off the top of my head:

Alterac Valley as a PvE 40 man scenario - essentially it is similar to the old AV, but with waves of horde NPCs spawning rather than horde players BUT WAIT. The objectives are all there, with the old Lieutenants as mini-bosses; but worked out much more like a proper MINI boss, so several abilities, maybe multiple phases, but something that can be done by about 15 people without too much trouble. These Lietenants buff the FWK Lieutenants + Drek with buffs as long as they are alive. You have to kill "Galvangar" and cap the first 2 towers. After first 2 bosses you progress further south, do the same with the FWK towers. Capping a GY stops the NPC waves spawning at that GY. Capping the mines buffs allied NPCs. Killing Drek'Thar is the final part of the encounter. BUT THERES MORE.

As soon as you engage the 2 Lieutenants "assassins" will periodically spawn to attack our Lieutenants and Balinda, and will need to be taken care of. If our Lieutenants die the assassins start spawning in Dun Baldar. If *those* Lieutenants are killed, the assassins will cap the Aid sation and NPC waves will beign to assault Vandaar.

The final rewards are there for killing Drek'Thar, comparable to the world boss of that tier (say 559 for this tier) There is, however, also a timer, and the faster you complete the encounter, coupled with how perfectly you complete it (no of allied deaths, no. of allied Lieutenants still alive etc.) will also reward bonus rewards, up to and including bonus loot bags for perfect completion (and fast) to bonus valor, satchels of exotic mysteries, VP etc.

So whilst this will be "puggable" to maximise the rewards you will want a relatively organised group and strategy, with assigned players to take care of the assassins spawning; groups assigned to take down each mini boss at the same time and also players free to keep back the waves of NPCs; maybe some assigned to venture further to early cap graveyards, or cap the mines to buff our NPCs... As the groups would be relatively spread out, the lag shouldn't be such a horrendous issue. I'd love to rock something along those lines. I merely used Alterac Valley as an easy referenced example; there could be so many EPIC encounters to make in such a format.

*Disclaimer: Potentially

Copied this from the thread about 40 man raiding as I the more I started writing it out the more and more I felt it would be a fun way for Blizzard to "epic up" some key elements of the story-telling. And I didn't want the post to get buried in the other thread which was about 40 man raiding. You could argue that a 40 man scenario IS a raid (afterall, The Battle for Mount Hyjal is kinda like a 25 man scenario...) in which case ... welp fair enough. But I was thinking these would be shortish affairs, when perfectly completed they should take mayb 13-15 minutes, but if handled poorly can take 30-35... a bit like a challenge mode but grander...

Anyway what do you think. If this was a feature announced for a patch in WoD would you be excited to see how it plays out?

[MoanaLisa]

Breaking scenarios out of their design constraints as we've seen them so far would be a welcome thing generally. World bosses tend to have a short shelf life as actual world content. Once that begins to fade extending their usefulness by putting them into a 40-man scenario would be fun as long as there were limitations on how often you could see a world boss in a single day.

[AeneasBK]

Breaking scenarios out of their design constraints as we've seen them so far would be a welcome thing generally. World bosses tend to have a short shelf life as actual world content. Once that begins to fade extending their usefulness by putting them into a 40-man scenario would be fun as long as there were limitations on how often you could see a world boss in a single day.

I was thinking similarly to the flex rewards, the "non latest tier" stuff could be repeatable (satchels, VP, pets/mounts etc. maybe throw in some themed cosmetics as well) but the big reward would be once per week only (and you can only win the bonus bag once a week, so if you don't succeed first time, its worthwhile to try it again). Could also tune it so its a fast method to cap VP; Blizzard are moderately good at matching rewards to effort to get people doing the content they want...

That way, like a world boss, everyone wants to kill it once per week for sure. But unlike world bosses, there would be a reason to want to kill them maybe a second or third time that week.

[Golden Yak]

I honestly wouldn't mind taking part in some kind of huge-scale war scenario - bunch of allied players and maybe friendly NPCs against some enemy horde - maybe recreate the Battle for Mount Hyjal or the Second War's final battle at Blackrock Spire. Just huge numbers on each side in big scrum.

I don't think I would hate it.

[MoanaLisa]

Honestly, I've been disappointed with scenarios. I never thought of them as anything but some side group content but I had never really imagined when they were announced that Blizzard would be so strict in how they were designed and constructed. Rewards are another issue but not mine really. Gear is not my first priority; fun is so I don't have a lot to say about that other than currency, rep, or valor would be enough for me and that's why I still do them mostly. But scenarios, which had a ton of potential to be fun, ended up being not really so much fun at all. Heroic scenarios were a step up and I liked the solo scenarios just fine but they're still sort of blah for me.

Designing some for much larger groups with world bosses or whatever--even old raid bosses--is something I would like just from the standpoint of play and something to do. God knows there are enough old raid bosses sitting around not being used for much of anything except for solo farming for transmog gear. It doesn't need to be complicated. I'd be fine with some AQ bosses that had a couple of standard mechanics and were tuned for 40 end game players.

EDIT: War scenarios like Golden Yak talked about would be fine by me as well. Probably more to do to design something like that but I agree that would be something that could be a good time.

[Marston]

I am still waiting for the day when we will get old Alterac Valley as a scenario. It would fit perfectly, imo. Each stage has various objectives like "Kill Boss X", "Gather Y Blood to summon your summonable Boss" or "Destroy the tower/bunker". At the moment these scenarios are just 3 player dungeons. I do like them, but they could do so much more. Heck, Battle for Darrowshire Scenario with 15 players. Silithus AQ Opening as a 40 player scenario with several bosses. Battle for the Undercity as a solo scenario (maybe even one time only). They could do soooo much. I really hope the scenarios in WoD will be more diverse and maybe even offer content for more then 1 or 3 players.

[Bathory]

Would love it, if I was teamed with 40 competent players. I'm sure 30 would be afk while the other 10 are doing the scenario. Think LFR but with 15 more people

[Edds]

Would love it, if I was teamed with 40 competent players. I'm sure 30 would be afk while the other 10 are doing the scenario. Think LFR but with 15 more people

or get 10 tanks and 20 healers that overheal 99%

[AeneasBK]

or get 10 tanks and 20 healers that overheal 99%

Within reason though; I'm sure it wouldn't be too hard to balance them so that they are doable with a moderately unbalanced group (and lets be honest, its more likely to have an overrepresentation of DPS than any other scenario) but if you want the maximum rewards, you want to be buddying up with another guild.

Golden Yaks ideas are great - Battles from Warcraft history, the final battle for the Dark Portal at the end of the second war amongst many others would be awesome, and it would be a great medium for the retelling of the RTS storylines in WoW.

Similarly, Moana I lik the idea of putting some of the old big baddies into a 40 man scenario, imagine if they retuned C'thun and gave him some fancy new old god powers to keep him up to date! Or Nefarian (MKIII I guess )