The Icecrown Hardmode Switch...

[Butterball]

Now with the ICC hardmode switch, are the "OMG I want every boss to be harder just so i can smash my head against the wall for 3 weeks before getting it down" and "OMG wheres M'uru" raiders going to do every boss in hard mode straight away?

Somehow I think not....

They will be here moaning that its not fair, casuals are bad, every boss should be hard, etc, etc.

[Deleted]

k

[Sulika]

The real sad part isn't the switch, it means that the hardmodes will probably no longer be creative and fun, hard by adding complexity to the encounter like Yogg'saron, Mimiron etc. Instead we will get the boring TotC hardmodes where the bosses just hit harder and have more health. Killing the boss over and over waiting for the run where your tank doesn't get instagibbed is no fun. It is more a test of patience than skill.

On the plus side, the switch does give european guilds something to aim for again. Since most of the new bosses are downed in the first day before they reach european servers now anyway at least now the european guilds can try and get the world first hard modes while the americans have to wait for their instance to reset after plowing through the normal world firsts.

[seam]

The real sad part isn't the switch, it means that the hardmodes will probably no longer be creative and fun, hard by adding complexity to the encounter like Yogg'saron, Mimiron etc. Instead we will get the boring TotC hardmodes where the bosses just hit harder and have more health. Killing the boss over and over waiting for the run where your tank doesn't get instagibbed is no fun. It is more a test of patience than skill.

Not necessarily.

Just because you don't activate it during the fight doesn't mean it can't have new mechanics. It also doesn't mean it will be like ToC. All it means is you start the fight in hardmode by different means, so if anything it will be MORE like Yogg hard.

[Izenhart]

Im actually confused about the switch mode.

I mean, ICC will be in wings, so the last bosses of each wing will need to have all the previous bosses dead.

So you will be able to switch to HM to a certain degree.

Like you won't be able to face #3 Boss in XY wing on HC if you did the #1 and the #2 of that wing in Normal mode.

Or at least that what'd be logical?

[seam]

You can do bosses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 in normal mode, and then switch to 7 being hardmode, then 8 normal again.

[Gaskal]

It is not written in stone yet.
From what it looks like Mechanics will most likely change for bosses when you switch to hardmode. It will be more uld like than totc like. just you won't have to press that red button or talk to that NPC or kill the heart. you just have to switch to hardmode and then you will have the new mechanichs as you did in uld.

About the frequency you can change back and forth nothing is for sure.
maybe they will just let you switch as much as you want. or maybe you will get restrictions like :
1. You must do the normal mode of this boss to unlock the hardmode.
2. You must do Hardmode of bosses X and/or Y and/or Z to unlock this hardmode.
3. You must do the normal mode of bosses X and/or Y and/or Z to unlock this hardmode.

or maybe they will limit the times you can switch back and forth :
You can only change to hardmode N times in a single week reset. You are doomed to do normal modes now.

or maybe they will require you to take off your pants:
You must take off your pants to unlock this hardmode.
Arthas only :

You must take off all your clothing and be totally naked, then run for a full day around Moscow and sleep a whole night in a boat pond there to unlock this hardmode. (as if you can survive that)

[HatakeSC]

I'm actually a bit disappointed with this because I really liked how it worked out with TOC. Having Uld style hardmodes means that when you want to do the hardmode of the 1st boss you are forsaking time to get gear on the rest of the stuff you know you can kill. I like the linear difficulty increase of doing normal mode and THEN working on hard modes.

[Elementology]

I'm actually a bit disappointed with this because I really liked how it worked out with TOC. Having Uld style hardmodes means that when you want to do the hardmode of the 1st boss you are forsaking time to get gear on the rest of the stuff you know you can kill. I like the linear difficulty increase of doing normal mode and THEN working on hard modes.

You mean you like being thrown extra loot from 4 different raid IDs of the same encounter? If you ask me, that's just boring, ToC was fail in my book, having to do a 10m and 25m version is fine but adding a 10m H and 25m H is just boring as all hell

[Plawsky]

The real sad part isn't the switch, it means that the hardmodes will probably no longer be creative and fun, hard by adding complexity to the encounter like Yogg'saron, Mimiron etc. Instead we will get the boring TotC hardmodes where the bosses just hit harder and have more health. Killing the boss over and over waiting for the run where your tank doesn't get instagibbed is no fun. It is more a test of patience than skill.

Sartharion - Don't kill a drake.
FL - Talk to a guy.
Freya - See Sartharion.
Mimiron - A button.
Yogg - Don't talk to the keepers.

All of those could be considered switches (and Mimiron quite literally is a switch). You specifically mention Yogg and Mimiron, saying that this new system will make hardmodes unlike those - yet those are just "Turn on hardmode" fights as well. So next time think before you post, and don't make assumptions about how the ICC hardmodes will work.

[Milamber]

They will be here moaning that its not fair, casuals are bad, every boss should be hard, etc, etc.

Long live QQ!!

[SalcN]

You can do bosses 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 in normal mode, and then switch to 7 being hardmode, then 8 normal again.

[Deleted]

Semi-related, but an interesting fact is that because of this hard mode switch, there's now up to 8 different difficulty settings for a boss, not including the various types of hard mode (1 keeper, 2 keeper, etc).

• 10-man
  
  • Normal
  • Hard
• 25-man
  
  • Normal
  • Hard

Edit: Oh, heroic mode removed as very politely pointed out by multiple people on the next page. Updated list but pretty much worthless now.

[Deleted]

Since most of the new bosses are downed in the first day before they reach european servers now anyway at least now the european guilds can try and get the world first hard modes while the americans have to wait for their instance to reset after plowing through the normal world firsts.

What! And...what! You do realize that Ensidia is on a European server. Just mentioning, because I seem to remember they had a few world first kills, in recent history. Yeah I know, you young ones define 'recent' as 'last week', maybe I'm getting old. :P

And the second part (the waiting for reset part) doesn't make any sense at all.

[gagglone]

Not necessarily.

Just because you don't activate it during the fight doesn't mean it can't have new mechanics. It also doesn't mean it will be like ToC. All it means is you start the fight in hardmode by different means, so if anything it will be MORE like Yogg hard.

It would be cool if there were hardmodes within hardmodes. I.e. hardmode you activate by clicking the button, then hardmode you activate by doing something special.

Button = Harder hitting, more health
Other = New mechanics added

[Deleted]

Semi-related, but an interesting fact is that because of this hard mode switch, there's now up to 8 different difficulty settings for a boss, not including the various types of hard mode (1 keeper, 2 keeper, etc).

• 10-man
  
  • Normal
    
    • Normal
    • Hard
  • Heroic
    
    • Normal
    • Hard
• 25-man
  
  • Normal
    
    • Normal
    • Hard
  • Heroic
    
    • Normal
    • Hard

I think you misunderstood the new hard mode concept

[Sanguissa]

Semi-related, but an interesting fact is that because of this hard mode switch, there's now up to 8 different difficulty settings for a boss, not including the various types of hard mode (1 keeper, 2 keeper, etc).

• 10-man
  
  • Normal
    
    • Normal
    • Hard
  • Heroic
    
    • Normal
    • Hard
• 25-man
  
  • Normal
    
    • Normal
    • Hard
  • Heroic
    
    • Normal
    • Hard

That would be riddicoulous, they are propably just changing the way we will switch difficultys.

[Deleted]

Semi-related, but an interesting fact is that because of this hard mode switch, there's now up to 8 different difficulty settings for a boss, not including the various types of hard mode (1 keeper, 2 keeper, etc).

• 10-man
  
  • Normal
    
    • Normal
    • Hard
  • Heroic
    
    • Normal
    • Hard
• 25-man
  
  • Normal
    
    • Normal
    • Hard
  • Heroic
    
    • Normal
    • Hard

I thought mods were supposed to know what their talking about?

Ghostcrawler said that there would be only 2 id's/week, one for 25 and one for 10, you could switch to hc mid-instance

[Deleted]

Not once did I mention that there would be different lockouts. I merely said that in total a boss would have up to 8 different difficulty settings, for example 25-man heroic with hard mode, or ordinary 10-man (Normal and not hard mode).

Ghostcrawler said that there would be only 2 id's/week, one for 25 and one for 10, you could switch to hc mid-instance

This however is new to me. I was under the assumption that hard modes were only being changed from "do this specific thing in a fight" to a simple toggle in the UI, and that hard modes are still separate from heroic mode. Mind linking me to the specific blue post?

[Deleted]

Not once did I mention that there would be different lockouts. I merely said that in total a boss would have up to 8 different difficulty settings, for example 25-man heroic with hard mode, or ordinary 10-man (Normal and not hard mode).
This however is new to me. I was under the assumption that hard modes were only being changed from "do this specific thing in a fight" to a simple toggle in the UI, and that hard modes are still separate from heroic mode. Mind linking me to the specific blue post?

You are missing the point. Each boss will have only 2 difficulty settings normal mode and hard mode.