Patch 5.4 - Flexible Raid Preview
Patch 5.4 will add a a new raid difficulty:

  • Bring anywhere from 10 to 25 people to your raid and the difficulty will automatically scale.
  • Works with battletags, so you can bring friends from other realms.
  • Item level of loot is between Raid Finder and Normal and loot is awarded with the Raid Finder style loot system.
  • Separate lockout from Raid Finder and Normal, allowing you to do all three difficulties.

Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
Raids in World of Warcraft have a long history of not just challenging players, but changing and evolving as the years and expansions go by. As with everything in the game, we’re always thinking about what more we can bring to raiding to improve the experience for an even wider range of players. While Normal and Heroic Raids are a great fit for many, we feel there’s another gap worth filling—and to that end, we’re currently working on the development of a new type of Raid for the next major content update: Flexible Raiding.

One Size Does Not Fit All
While it’s impossible to fit every player into a neat, tidy archetype, we recognize that we could be providing a better experience to one broad category of raider: social groups comprised predominantly of friends and family, and smaller guilds that do their best to include as many members in their Raid outings possible.

During the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, the 10-player Normal difficulty served these groups of players pretty well, but the unification of 10-player and 25-player into a single difficulty effectively eliminated that niche. While Raid Finder mode is extremely accessible, it doesn’t provide smaller groups with a tight-knit social experience while progressing through the content. In Patch 5.4, we’re planning to introduce a new mode of raiding that allows us to deliver the sort of experience that we think these players are looking for.

/Flex
To fill this void, we’re in the process of developing a new Flexible Raid system, which includes a new difficulty that sits between Raid Finder and Normal difficulty, while still allowing friends, family, or pick-up groups to play together. This difficulty will be available for premade groups of 10–25 players, including any number in between. That means whether you have 11, 14, or 23 friends available for a Raid, they’ll all be able to participate.

The Flexible Raid system is designed so that the challenge level will scale depending on how many players you have in the Raid. So if you switch between 14 players one week and 22 the next, the difficulty will adjust automatically. Keep in mind that unlike Raid Finder, no matchmaking is available, so you’ll need to make sure you invite people to attend—but if some can’t make it, it’s not the end of the world (or the Raid). You’ll also still be able to invite Real ID or Battle.net friends cross-realm. Who you choose to bring and what Item Level gear they’ll need to join your merry band is up to you, too—there’s no Item Level requirement for this Raid difficulty.

Dressed to Kill
A new Raid difficulty also means a new Item Level. Flexible mode will award loot with an Item Level that falls between Raid Finder and Normal quality, and will use the Raid Finder’s “per person” loot system, specialization choices, and bonus rolls, so you won’t need to worry about bringing the “wrong” person and having them win that piece of gear you’ve long been waiting for.

You Have the Keys
We plan to unlock the Flexible Raid difficulty in wings, similar to Raid Finder, but on an accelerated timetable. This new difficulty also has a separate Raid lockout from Raid Finder and Normal difficulty, allowing you to take part in all three if you so desire. You’ll also be able to complete portions of your “Glory of the Orgrimmar Raider” raid meta- achievement in Flexible mode as well as in Normal or Heroic to earn cosmetic rewards such as an epic mount. This will allow Raid groups the opportunity to switch off nights between raids to complete achievements. Finally, taking part in Flexible, Normal, or Heroic difficulty will provide access to additional rewards that won’t be available in Raid Finder.

Getting Down to Brass Tacks
As with any in-development feature, we’re continuing to refine how the Flexible Raid system will work, and we look forward to hearing your constructive feedback from your experiences on the Public Test Realm when the new system goes live.
This article was originally published in forum thread: A Raid for All Seasons: Flexible Raid Preview started by Boubouille View original post
Comments 807 Comments
  1. Azrile's Avatar
    Wow, totally did not see this coming

    First thought. wanna-be hardcores are going to complain about being forced to do another difficulty level. You know, the same fake-hardcores who are ´forced´to run LFR.

    My biggest excitment for this is not for those ´casual´ guilds.. it is for the semi-random puging. With the loot system they implemented, this will feel much more like doing world bosses. You can pug with one group one night, a different group for a different wing the next night.. and there will be no loot drama.

    IMHO.. this should replace normal modes, not LFR. LFR is still for the people who don´t want to form groups, or for realms that maybe can´t support a raid-pug.. but this really could just be normal mode. Heroic raiders blow through normal mode anyway..

    I don´t know. I totally guessed wrong about the new feature (thought it was going to be the abiltiy to scale down to run low level dungeons).. which was something that would not affect me much.

    This, however, could have a huge impact on my gameplay if I can be the one who pulls together a PUG to run this stuff during the day without having to worry about keeping the same people every week and loot drama.
  1. SodiumChloride's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by ViridianCC View Post
    Needs to share a lockout with raid finder, I'd gouge my eyes out with a melon baller if I was obligated to do both retard modes just for the gear for a shot at normal.

    Disappointed it doesn't support group sizes smaller than 10. Adding more lukewarm bodies isn't always hard, and speaking as someone who's already finished CMs, I want something I can do with the 4 people I like and not a ton of garbage pugs I keep on btag through stockholm syndrome.
    No it doesn't.

    If you are doing normal mode. Why are you in LFR? Normal mode is designed to be beaten with last tier's gear. Cheesing it with LFR gear is just being a wuss.
  1. DEATHETERNAL's Avatar
    Why in heck would they not just make normal mode flexible instead of adding an entirely new mode and gear set? If the purpose is to allow for casual social raiding, that would be the simpler and less overly complicated solution.
  1. Grevie's Avatar
    Unexpected, and awesome lol. Good, Good, you know what is funny all the people that will complain but in not playing the game because they "quit" long time ago.
  1. Animaneth's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Raugnaut View Post
    Considering that it will be EASIER then Normal, it should also drop lower ilvl then normal.

    It wasn't answered, so I'm wondering- will it share a lockout with LFR, with Normal/Heroic, or seperate lockout? with Normal/Heroic, then I don't care about it for mains, but great for alts. With LFR, then its pretty good all-round. Seperate lockout entirely, and it becomes another timesink for gearing up for the first few weeks
    Did you read the announcement? The lockout will be independent of LFR and Normal/Heroic...
  1. tangers58's Avatar
    So instead of making new content Blizzard is now making 6 versions of the same content, no wonder people keep leaving.
  1. Alayea's Avatar
    This is not a solution. Blizzard still refuses to restore Normal difficulty to what it was prior to Mists of Pandaria, so instead people in circumstances such as myself still get to be considered second-class -- excuse me, third-class now -- players. I don't want this so-called "Flexible Raid" feature, I want to be able to do "Normal" content with the according rewards, and not a sub-par tier.

    (As a side note, this reeks of Diablo III's 4-tiered difficulty system. And considering how well they carried that out... yeah.)
  1. Idletime's Avatar
    Better fix, implement this and remove LFR. Then people will be required to be somewhat social again and find groups to do raiding. Raiding was always about being social and locating friends/prospects to raid with and it's something this game lost. LFR is not required to raid, being a halfway decent person who isn't a halfwit when talking to other people is. This sounds like it will allow easier pickup groups and not be brutal like a Normal mode PUG nor ridiculously easy like an LFR.
  1. Mouri Kogorou's Avatar
    More grinding. Raids will lose their uniqeness now that you MUST kill a boss at least three times per week.

    Flexibility is good, but not another raid level.
  1. Heathy's Avatar
    looks like a nice feature, it just depends on the difficulty and how it actually plays, if its not much harder than the raid finder it could be another snore fest. i see this quite tactically cured the problem of ppl having left over raiders and also the problem of ppl complaining about the old lockout system, now you get to run the content 3 times a week , i guess if anything it will be fun trying raids with varying amounts of ppl to find that perfect size, 15s could be great fun.
  1. Worgoblin's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by tangers58 View Post
    yay! Now we get to do the exact same thing 3 times a week to keep up on gear! And raids get to be even further dumbed down
    It's giving you more options. If you're feeling forced to play a game a certain way, seems like you should take a break from it. Remember, it's a game, not a job...
  1. Grevie's Avatar
    You really know when someone is just writing and not playing the game.... JAJA.... just complaints because they feel tgheir WOW DEAD predictions will have to wait another expansion.
    AGAIN JAJA or HAHA Nelson style.
  1. tangers58's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Worgoblin View Post
    It's giving you more options. If you're feeling forced to play a game a certain way, seems like you should take a break from it. Remember, it's a game, not a job...
    If you aren't doing everything you can to get gear for real raids then you should quit now and stick to LFRetards
  1. Dakara's Avatar
    My only critique, (since I love this feature) is why bother to keep Normal mode now?

    The Hardcore raiders clear normal anywhere inside the first month (many in the first week) and then move onto Heroic. May aswell just have LFR > Flexi(normal) > Heroic. Normal just feel redundant now imo.
  1. xskarma's Avatar
    Should be a cool feature for social guilds like mine that team up with others to get a raid done. Gear level is of far less importance to most of us then actually being together and doing something fun.
  1. GhostPanini's Avatar
    I like it but it should share a lockouts with normals so people won't "feel" forced to do more raids.(not that they are forced to do anything its just my opinion) I think there could be a lot of potential with the flex raiding, I especially like the ability to just make raids flexible so that guilds won't have to pug.
  1. VanishO2's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Sigmar View Post
    Needs to start at 5 players, not 10. Otherwise not a bad idea.
    You're talking about dungeons, not raids...
  1. mmocbb1534d252's Avatar
    This is a good change. All the people who CANT put in time and effort for normal becuase its either to hard, or to have a perfect rooster of 11-12 and keep attendence without benching people while not missing people. What will happen now is


    CASUAL guilds go 25 MAN RAIDING. If they get 25..cool. if not..who cares then we are 20

    its a good chance
  1. VanishO2's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Stormdash View Post
    This may not "remove" LFR, but I think it will actually render LFR kind of moot. I think it's a decent idea, actually. Agree that this should actually work down to a group of eight, but no smaller (8 is a decent number with some MMO pedigree for group play -- task force/strike force size for CoX, an Op difficulty in TOR).
    Those games with less than 10, usually needs less than 5 for dungeons.
  1. Rorschachs's Avatar
    Quote Originally Posted by Volendrung View Post
    Well... I guess Ghostcrawler was right when he said he didn't know why everyone was going to get hyped... and was worried that it would be a letdown. This is getting a bit out of hand, no?

    LFR -> "Flex" -> Normal -> Normal Thunderforged -> Heroic -> Heroic Thunderforged -> ???

    What's next? When can we expect the difficulty that is slightly more heroic than normal but not as hard as heroic? We have to cater to the semi-pros after all.
    The point is :

    Best gear = heroic
    Worst gear = lfr

    Easy = lfr
    Hard = heroic

    Who cares about how many tiers there are between heroic and lfr? As long as the ultimate goal is heroic gear and achievements it's fine.

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