Mythic raiding opens in Christmas week.

[luciano]

For me the only problem is that we raid from 6PM to 10PM on Thursdays and that's the 24th; meaning I'll be spending that 4 hours feasting on food with my family downstairs instead.

You mean to tell us that, this one time, because of this one holiday, y'all can't meet at a slightly different time and/or date? C'mon.

[apustus]

You mean to tell us that, this one time, because of this one holiday, y'all can't meet at a slightly different time and/or date? C'mon.

I only said it's a problem, not a big one or one that is impossible to solve.

[Baleful]

People that nolife to get the content done in week 1/2 are no concern to me, they choose to do it. On the other hand, you will have Blizzard employees working on Thanksgiving to ensure the SL launch is smooth, and again on Christmas to ensure the raid is properly tuned and bugs get solved quickly. Speaking as someone who raided nolife past 4 years on a ~5X world guild.


PS: I'm not even american btw, but most Blizzard employees are and afaik Thaksgiving is an important family holiday there.

[DazManianDevil]

Well, since almost no one mythic raids, it's a good thing that we get raids in December instead of next year. And the little group of people who follows the mythic race can watch it while eating that weird festive bread.

Didn't you hear, everyone on MMM-C is either a world 50 raider, multi Gladiator or quit the game eons ago; or heck why not all 3?
Weird festive bread, I'm listening.

[epigramx]

This "problem" has always eluded me. Holidays / free time sounds like the perfect time to play the game I enjoy. It might be problem for the normies, but then again, are many mythic raiders such normies?

Exactly

You misunderstand. Most players WANT to play the game on holidays usually because obviously it's a game they like and they have free time at that time.
The point is: if it's holidays and nobody in your social life takes your time away from gaming then you're probably either too hard core or too lonely.

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For me the only problem is that we raid from 6PM to 10PM on Thursdays and that's the 24th; meaning I'll be spending that 4 hours feasting on food with my family downstairs instead.

I suspect you're not raiding with people from countries that Christmas is popular because that is most peculiar scheduling a raid for night before Christmas.

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It amazes me that you think the hard core people even have a real life.

On the contrary: it's RARE to find world-first tier raiders that are real failures in social life.
Sure they often spend like 12 hours a day on a game for a few weeks.
But the worst no-lifers are semi-hardcores wannabies I think.

[Hinastorm]

They were going to have to fuck over something with the release delay.

They chose to fuck over anyone who cares about thanksgiving (including their employees) and mythic raiders.

If they made the raid release more than 2 weeks after launch, they would need to re-tune the raid or it would be overly easy from all our gearing.

Honestly, I think they ended up with the least worst outcome here. Of course I don't care about thanksgiving, and i'm not a mythic raider, so that's easy for me to say.

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People that nolife to get the content done in week 1/2 are no concern to me, they choose to do it. On the other hand, you will have Blizzard employees working on Thanksgiving to ensure the SL launch is smooth, and again on Christmas to ensure the raid is properly tuned and bugs get solved quickly. Speaking as someone who raided nolife past 4 years on a ~5X world guild.


PS: I'm not even american btw, but most Blizzard employees are and afaik Thaksgiving is an important family holiday there.

The only other real alternatives they had was a longer release delay, or they could of made the raid not drop till January, but had to re-tune it. I personally kind of wish they went with option 2.

[epigramx]

If they made the raid release more than 2 weeks after launch, they would need to re-tune the raid or it would be overly easy from all our gearing.

I have some confusion here. Someone mentioned that it's ROUTINE anyway for the first raid of an expac to be downed (by the world-firsts) within like 2 days max.
What I don't get is not how it happens but WHY it happens: why do they do that and not let it be hard for a couple of weeks especially since it's the start?

[ymirsson]

I have some confusion here. Someone mentioned that it's ROUTINE anyway for the first raid of an expac to be downed (by the world-firsts) within like 2 days max.
What I don't get is not how it happens but WHY it happens: why do they do that and not let it be hard for a couple of weeks especially since it's the start?

It happens because people are able to down in in the week after opening the raid, i don't see how that is hard to understand.

[epigramx]

It happens because people are able to down in in the week after opening the raid, i don't see how that is hard to understand.

You don't understand. All that is clearly designed by the devs. The question is WHY do they aim for the first raids to be easy since it's the start of the expansion so it might make some sense to keep them hard for a while.

[ymirsson]

Why would it make it sense? if it can be defeated, it will be. Where is the advantage in designing it to arbitrarily hold it for 2 resets or more?

[sheaebay]

I have an honest question about this whole 'christmas raiding' issue. Lets say Shadowlands was not delayed and was actually released on Oct 26th and the raid came out November 10th or 17th. Wouldnt 99% of people still be 'christmas raiding'? Tiers last several weeks/months for the overwhelming WoW population. If anything I think i'd prefer a hiccup at the very start of the tier vs the middleish/end of the tier.

Now if you are a top world 10-20 guild then yea I can see how the new release date is fucking awful, but for most people I just don't understand the whole christmas raiding stance since they would be raiding either way on both release dates?

[Sentynel]

That's really not working for hard core raiders though. They do like 8 hour nights AND they farm the world 8 hours (they sleep/eat/shit the rest ~8 I guess).

Nobody's forcing them to play that much. If you can't prioritize real world stuff over video games, then the problem is not on Blizzard's end.

[ryjkur]

I have an honest question about this whole 'christmas raiding' issue. Lets say Shadowlands was not delayed and was actually released on Oct 26th and the raid came out November 10th or 17th. Wouldnt 99% of people still be 'christmas raiding'? Tiers last several weeks/months for the overwhelming WoW population. If anything I think i'd prefer a hiccup at the very start of the tier vs the middleish/end of the tier.

Now if you are a top world 10-20 guild then yea I can see how the new release date is fucking awful, but for most people I just don't understand the whole christmas raiding stance since they would be raiding either way on both release dates?

Yeah I dont understand why skipping one reset is end of the world. Like you said there have been many tiers where 90% of raiders were still progressing during christmas period.

[Baleful]

The only other real alternatives they had was a longer release delay, or they could of made the raid not drop till January, but had to re-tune it. I personally kind of wish they went with option 2.

I was hoping for either your option 2, or releasing SL early January. Beta isn't that much grat either even with the extra month. It feels like Devs still want to improve Beta but Activision (or Blizzard) won't accept any more delays and want to Launch before December.

Now if you are a top world 10-20 guild then yea I can see how the new release date is fucking awful, but for most people I just don't understand the whole christmas raiding stance since they would be raiding either way on both release dates?

Most Famed guilds won't be done until week 5-6 (horde), skipping one week can get you out of Famed if you are a ~W100 raiding guild, so they'll feel forced to raid. Alliance side is less punishing because Famed spots last for months, so you can easily skip one week and get Famed anyway. Everyone else bellow Famed level can't really complaint that much, Cutting Edge will last for at least 3 Months, more than enough time to finish content for almost any decent guild.

[arkanon]

I would not at all be surprised if this Mythic tier is quite a bit easier than anything we have seen for a while - maybe not mechanically, that shit would have been locked in weeks ago, but tuning wise. Anticipating a 1 lockout world first.

[aceperson]

That's gonna test a lot of hard-core raiders notion of ..hardcoreness. Then again is it ever healthy to ever put a game above social real life?

have you seen how much money is poured into the world first race these days? they aren't choosing between playing a hobby and seeing family. they are choosing between a job and families. also, covid. so people might not visit families anyways as to not spread the disease.

[PenguinChan]

I would not at all be surprised if this Mythic tier is quite a bit easier than anything we have seen for a while - maybe not mechanically, that shit would have been locked in weeks ago, but tuning wise. Anticipating a 1 lockout world first.

What makes you say that?

[Hellobolis]

it's a bit unfortunate sure.

but seeing how everybody who needs a break from the game is taking the break now, how a lot of people will have less plans than usual due lockdowns, and none of the actual holidays falling on my guilds raid days, chances are pretty good we can continue to raid with a non-optimal roster on a purely volunteer basis.

[majinbebi]

You don't understand. All that is clearly designed by the devs. The question is WHY do they aim for the first raids to be easy since it's the start of the expansion so it might make some sense to keep them hard for a while.

It's not designed to be easy. Aside from some tuning issues, these guilds kill the exact same bosses in way fewer pulls/attempts than guild #200. Yes, they put in way more hours in a smaller period of time so that it's exaggerated, but they're some of the best players at this particular type of game. You're asking why an elite footballer/basketball player/any top athlete would have an easier time running an obstacle course than someone who only works out and jogs a few miles on the weekends.

[Stardrift]

Stop pretending Christmas takes that much time off people's hands.

Seriously, where the hell did this notion come from? You guys do understand Blizz doesn't like releasing stuff during Christmas because they want to give employees time off, right?

Nevermind. NEETs don't understand that the working class likes to take paid vacation during the month of December lmao

/Thread