Poll: Opinion on optional bosses

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  1. #1

    Optional raid bosses? Good or bad.

    Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment
    Highmaul has three completely optional bosses: Brackenspore, Butcher, and Tectus can be skipped if you like (a la Ignis or Razorscale in Ulduar).

    Foundry has no optional bosses, but consists of three separate wings that must be cleared to access Blackhand's Crucible (layout is more like Naxxramas).
    Opinions on Highmaul having 3 optional bosses? I assume they won't be optional in LFR ofc, as optional content in random groups never works.
    Quote Originally Posted by Unmerciful Conker View Post
    What?! They said soon? Well you dont hear that everyday, I dont know about you guys but that has put my mind at total rest.

  2. #2
    The Forgettable Forgettable's Avatar
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    First vote! Haha! I think it's good because when you have it on farm and nobody needs loot off them anymore, you can just skip them.

  3. #3
    Quote Originally Posted by Forgettable View Post
    First vote! Haha! I think it's good because when you have it on farm and nobody needs loot off them anymore, you can just skip them.
    Or, alternatively, 1 guy out of 20 still needs that boss and everyone else wants to skip.

    "God damn it Leeroy"

  4. #4
    There's a part of me that likes it, because I think choice is great.

    And then there's that part of me that doesn't like it. The reason is that if my character, be it a main or an alt, needs gear from that boss and the raid group decides to skip it, well then I'm not getting my upgrades, am I?
    Hopefully I'll be getting the upgrades, somehow, even if the skipping of bosses happens often.

    I'll say it's bad, only because I'm afraid of the consequences it may or may not have.
    Hopefully it'll be purely good and won't have any bad consequences.

  5. #5
    Remember also, a Highmaul I believe has MsV quality gear, its a half tier lower I believe.
    Quote Originally Posted by Unmerciful Conker View Post
    What?! They said soon? Well you dont hear that everyday, I dont know about you guys but that has put my mind at total rest.

  6. #6
    Immortal Raugnaut's Avatar
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    I like it, takes one back to Ulduar. Who cares about LFR?
    Quote Originally Posted by Moounter View Post
    I think your problem is a lack of intellect.

  7. #7
    Gives people choice finally. SoO after Malkorok was not a choice, Siegecrafter was considerably harder than either Spoils or Thok and you had to do Spoils to get to Thok.

  8. #8
    Not great. For if you need something from that boss their is a possibility that boss will be skipped since no one else needs it as much.

  9. #9
    I don't like it. As others have mentioned - loot drama.
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  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Count Zero View Post
    I don't like it. As others have mentioned - loot drama.
    Seeing as you will have a random chance to get extra stats and sockets I'm guessing most raids will do it. You can clear H SoO in 3-4 hours and that's 14 bosses, the 7 bosses in Highmaul will be done in 2 hours when farm time comes around.

  11. #11
    Herald of the Titans Nutri's Avatar
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    I kinda like it

    Has to have a good loot table for it be keep getting killed tho. And I feel sorry for that one guy who still needs that awesome piece of loot while the other 19 are already packing for the next boss.

    It adds a certain level of choice, which is a good addition to a non-linear raids layout.
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  12. #12
    I went with the "it's good as long as they have no important gear", with the addition that they have no important gear for the "raid". It is going to suck big-time if 2-3 people every week gets downvoted because they are the only ones that need something from them, and the rest just want to push on.

    On the other hand, if they have no relevant gear, they will be "irrelevant" bosses rather than "optional".

    I would much rather see the Onyxia, Malygos, Sartharian model. Where the optional bosses are completely out of the raid with their own lockout. It worked well. The guilds did them until they had the achievements, hardmodes, etc. Then either left it up to raiders to PUG them, or made a "miniraid off-night" for those who still wanted to do them. Especially Sarth was really well suited for this purpose. Scalable difficulty, ranging from "lolzerg" to "knowyourshit", all within the same raid difficulty. Maybe it is redundant today with raid difficulty options, but it added a nice twist to an otherwise very small raid.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by det View Post
    My guild has never skipped Ignis or Razorthingy in Ulduar.

    Not sure about how that works for LFR but at this point LFR is tourist mode with shit looking gear, so that gives you an idea how much the devs care about those groups.

    I don't see guild dramas, maybe PuG dramas in normal (what was flex)
    Realistically though they will probably only be optional in real raiding difficulties, if they are in LFR probably be required just to keep things simple/

    -----

    With the insane amounts of random stats and extras on gear there will NEVER be a case of 'no one needs gear on them lets skip em' unless your guild really couldn't careless about gem sockets, tertiary, and warforged. In which case you probably won't care much either as far as skipping them.

    I think optional bosses are only optional in name, even in progression we all know wowprogress will include them in the race for world firsts or rankings period so I don't know why it would even be an issue with people.

  14. #14
    Immortal roahn the warlock's Avatar
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    Double edged sword, pugs will want to skip it. But it's great for groups who don't need to do them
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  15. #15
    Deleted
    I think it's fine. Would there be any point in including them if they drop loot that no one wants? Remember the animal bosses in Karazhan?

  16. #16
    "optional" in the sense they are still going to drop shit you need. I'm indifferent. I'd rather kill everything in an instance anyway, but I see the benefit it brings for some raid groups.

  17. #17
    Very good, I don't pug so skipping certain bosses will not affect me. We're also getting warforged-esque loot as well, so for a boss to become completely meaningless, you'd be really lucky, and therefore should be very okay with killing the boss to help your guild, and not complain about not getting loot. And for farming, the odds of you just killing everything are very possible, as for progression it's just a means of which boss is the least difficult to do first.
    Last edited by Boottybounce; 2014-07-24 at 08:28 AM.

  18. #18
    The Lightbringer inboundpaper's Avatar
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    A non linear raid could be cool now that I think about it.
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  19. #19
    I don't like it. It gives an illusion of choice, but in the end guilds will either bounce between those bosses, not able to down any and trying others hoping they will be easier..
    Or will just find out optimal order on the internet and go with it..

    After progress is done, unless it will be another Ulduar's Boringscale gimmicky fight, anyone will still do them for loot, vps or whateva..
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  20. #20
    I raid lead for my guild. I can tell you I love it. I approach it as we will be killing those bosses pretty much in every normal, now heroic, clear. Mythic we will likely be doing the same until we get towards the end of the instance. At that point it is about getting an extra hour here or there to continue to get kills on our light scheduled and average progression curve (currently clear all heroics, just not ultra fast).

    Does this mean myself or someone else might be missing out on one or two 'BiS' slots from those bosses? Very possible. But I have never felt that a single piece of gear would make more of a difference in progression than an extra hour of work. Execution far out weighs 5 more intel or 6 more haste (for example). But after we clear the raid on mythic we would go back to complete clears which means the opportunity to get that gear again opens up. Pretty much just means gearing from those bosses is delayed at the price of progression which is where my guild's mind is. Which is the most important thing here. If it isn't where your guilds mind is then just kill them should be what you do. Or if your guild just kills mythic content so fast it doesn't matter then well.. it doesn't matter. All things to consider.

    I should also add that if it ends up a majority of weapons / trinkets came from these bosses it might change the approach a bit. Since I believe those are the biggest / most important game changers when it comes to gearing and progression. But it would have to be a pretty powerful majority with VERY few alternative options along the shorter path.

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