13 + 1 worldboss is not "huge", it's exactly what it needs to be.
No more Fireland or Dragon Soul... EVER !
I loved Ulduar which had 14, but honestly thought that it was a bit too many. With the LFR option it's easier to see them all, but back in Wrath that many bosses was a big challenge in clear.
I think 10-12 is the right amount. ICC wasn't as much fun to look around in, but the number of bosses felt good. Sounds like the Throne will have 12 normal mode bosses and 1 heroic mode only boss (yay, they're still doing those), so it might be just about perfect!
Ill make my decision when i get onto the ptr, but it looks like Blizzard is going all out this expansion. Losing nearly 3m players must have made them change which im happy about in the end.
Very excited about 12-13+ bosses, what a nice relief from the terrible small tiers we have had recently.
Also, let's get one thing straight: Blizzard has been trying for the last 2+ years to make the "next Ulduar"..... They haven't yet. Blizzard has a very, very, very different perception than the community (or, at least, the people who actually raided Ulduar when it was current) of what Ulduar was. Not saying it isn't possible, but if Blizzard says 5.2 is the "next Ulduar", they basically mean it is going to have around 12 bosses and all be in one zone.
This is Blizzard trying to keep people's interest in 5.2. Stop reading into it. People have been begging Blizzard for years to make the "next Ulduar".... and look at the raids we have gotten since then, especially during Cata. This is nothing new.
Puts it in the same neighborhood as Karazahn, Ulduar, Naxx, and ICC.
To be honest though, it doesn't matter how many bosses are in a single instance, what matters is how many bosses per tier, and 10+ has been relatively standard.
T1 - Ony+MC - 11 total
T2 - BWL - 8 total
T3 - Naxx - 15 total
T4 - Karazahn + Gruul + Mag - 15 total
T5 - SSC + TK - 10 total
T6 - BT + Hyjal - 14 total
T7 - Naxx again + eye + os - 17 total
T8 - Ulduar - 14 total
T9 - ToC - 5 total (lol)
T10 - ICC - 12 total
T11 - BWD + BoT + Tot4W - 13 total
T12 - FL - 7 total
T13 - DS - 8 total
T14 - ToES + HoF + MV - 17 total
I didn't include original ZG (10 bosses), original ZA (6 bosses), AQ20 (6 bosses), AQ40 (9 bosses), Sunwell (6 bosses), or RS (1 boss). They could be rolled in with ZG joining T2, ZA joining T5, both AQs being treated as T2.5, Sunwell being T6, and RS joining T10. If these instances were included as such (T1-11, T2-18, T2.5 - 14, T3 - 15, T4 - 15, T5- 16, T6- 20, T7 - 17, T8 - 14, T9 - 5, T10 - 13, T11 - 13, T12 - 7, T13 - 8, T14 - 17), then 12 bosses would actually be on the small side for a tier, rather than average (average would be 14.5 per tier). It also illustrates just how poor the tier sizes in Cata were with T12 and 13 combined barely equalling most tiers and T11 still being smaller than average.
That aside, it is nice that they are going back to respectable tier sizes, assuming another Abyssal Depths fiasco doesn't occur.
---------- Post added 2012-12-21 at 08:15 PM ----------
You have an odd comparison there -
Ulduar - 4 sections - 13 bosses + 1 hardmode only boss (4 entrance, 3 transition, 4 keepers, 2 end bosses, 1 hm only)
ICC - 5 sections - 12 bosses(4 entry, 3 plague, 2 blood, 2 frost, LK)
How does basically the same number of bosses divided in basically the same way feel right in ICC but too big in Ulduar?
And Ulduar wasn't a huge challenge to clear in Wrath because of the number of bosses. The bosses themselves were just more challenging than the previous tier (which had more bosses) and thus clears took more focus. You could still clear Ulduar in 1 night if you were just farming it, 2 if you mixed in progression on hard modes.
Last edited by Kissme; 2012-12-22 at 03:29 AM. Reason: Forgot a few bosses, adjusted tier numbers
So apparently this Ra-Den dude is a heroic-only boss,i like that