Theory: No major raid for 4.1

[Deleted]

For the sake of all hats let there be more then 1 boss.

[godofslack]

This was a meaningless post that has been edited by the internet.

[lightofdawn]

i dont really like it when ppl associate the word "casual" with supposedly being inept at raiding...just sayin

qq bla bla w/e

but yeah, 4.1 isnt comin out for a month at least, none of the new heroics are scripted yet at all

[Deleted]

Enough have passed normal mode. What we actually need IS a new tier to allow casuals to catch up with the 353 gear to build PuGs that are strong enough for normal t11 which still is better than the "welfare epics". People just dont feel safe without epics and thats why they don't PuG raids that much yet.

[Arkom of Sacrilege]

Actually, if the "leaked product slate" is to be believed and Blizzard is shifting to a year and a half between expansions, rather than two years, a faster release makes more sense. Assuming that they wish to deploy at a rate that will keep hardcore raiders from getting extremely bored, it would keep average and a bit above average raiders occupied throughout with quick turnarounds. More casual raiders can work their way up over time. They have a right to see content, yes, but no one ever said they had to see it while it was current. Through new heroics with upgraded loot, valor point gear dropping to justice point gear every new tier, etc., it will still allow people to gear up and see content without having to push themselves exceptionally hard.

I would say that this is Blizzard attempting to correct their mistake with the way that Wrath ended, with the long gating, stretches between ICC buff increases, and (what seemed like) eternity between Arthas becoming killable and Cataclysm hitting the shelves. I would estimate that Patch 4.1 will evolve on the PTR for two or three months, then go live. It could be sooner, but if it's too much sooner, Blizzard risks a mistake in the opposite direction: making the average/above average players feel like they're being pressed too hard to try to keep up and further angering the casual players. Regardless, the forums will explode with frothing rage and angrily typed, poorly articulated outcry in some semblance of something passing for English.

[moveth]

I will eat an entire plate full of hats if there isn't a new raiding tier.

How many hats can you fit on a plate?

[Killaim]

Jumping in the hat eating group, with some additional points.

IF there was only a single boss with some trinkets as drops, those trinkets wouldn't be a whole tier higher than the current epic gear.
And I wouldn't say 4.1 comes out too soon, it will be on the PTRs for a solid month, if not two, that means 4-5months of tier11 content, which is solid if Blizzard releases adequate amount of t12 raiding content (they have said they want multiple smaller raids per tier, so Firelands with 6-7 bosses is not enough).

[Subbversion]

I find your theory very valid, but I also feel as though this would apply later into Cataclysm. If your opinion is valid, my addition would be

4.0 - BoT, Conclave, BWD, Baradin Hold
4.1 - Additional Baradin Hold Boss, Epics in Troll heroics off end bosses, Firelands raid with multiple hardmodes, very large loot tables (a la Ulduar)
4.2 - What you've proposed - Additional baradin hold boss, small raid with previous tier epics now available to help more people experience the previous tier
4.3 - Raid tier (perhaps CoT) of decent size but smaller than 4.2, time between this patch and next patch will be quick
4.4 - Deathwing dies.

I see this to be feasible scheduling to allow maximum content saturation to the overall playerbase while appeasing hardcore raiders who want a current difficult raid on a regular basis. 18 months between expansions instead of 24 months will result in faster releasing of patches to keep content fresh. I doubt Blizzard will let Cataclysm linger as much as WOTLK did.

[godofslack]

I find your theory very valid, but I also feel as though this would apply later into Cataclysm. If your opinion is valid, my addition would be

4.0 - BoT, Conclave, BWD, Baradin Hold
4.1 - Additional Baradin Hold Boss, Epics in Troll heroics off end bosses, Firelands raid with multiple hardmodes, very large loot tables (a la Ulduar)
4.2 - What you've proposed - Additional baradin hold boss, small raid with previous tier epics now available to help more people experience the previous tier
4.3 - Raid tier (perhaps CoT) of decent size but smaller than 4.2, time between this patch and next patch will be quick
4.4 - Deathwing dies.

I see this to be feasible scheduling to allow maximum content saturation to the overall playerbase while appeasing hardcore raiders who want a current difficult raid on a regular basis. 18 months between expansions instead of 24 months will result in faster releasing of patches to keep content fresh. I doubt Blizzard will let Cataclysm linger as much as WOTLK did.

The only problem with that is that they explicitly said there will be multiple raids per tier. Given that fact and the data mining of caverns of time events in the PTR, you can bet your ass 4.1 is Firelands + WoTA.

[Varyk]

I'm almost positive I saw somewhere showing a few details about "The Firelands" raid. It has several bosses, not just 1. It's not even on the PTR yet, which means it should be about 2 months before it's even ready to go live. You're conspiracy is incredibly inaccurate.

[vizzle]

Herp Derp I'm OP and I don't listen to Blizzcon. Firelands will have 6-8 bosses, and there will be another raid to go with it, probably 4-6 bosses. Casual players shouldn't care about defeating Sinestra while it's current content, because they know that they are casual.

[Fixati0n]

Hat eaters unite!
I strongly.. STRONGLY hate anyone using the "just because they've done it before, doesn't mean they'll do it again" line, when there's a constant stream of them 'doing it again'. Can someone name a major patch that didn't bring a new tier?

Halion didn't need one because, well, it was a filler/pre-cata/shit raid. End of.

---------- Post added 2011-02-26 at 04:27 AM ----------

Herp Derp I'm OP and I don't listen to Blizzcon. Firelands will have 6-8 bosses, and there will be another raid to go with it, probably 4-6 bosses. Casual players shouldn't care about defeating Sinestra while it's current content, because they know that they are casual.

It has 7 btw. :P
But yes, what you said is correct, they want more than 1 raid per tier. So it's going to be a 6 boss raid or maybe a 4 and a 2 boss raid like it is atm. Though strong bets on the 6 boss one.

[Healingsara]

I'm almost positive I saw somewhere showing a few details about "The Firelands" raid. It has several bosses, not just 1. It's not even on the PTR yet, which means it should be about 2 months before it's even ready to go live.

It was mentioned at Blizzcon, but as we all know much of what is mentioned at Blizzcon has a habit of not going live or being postponed. I'm not saying the firelands raid won't happen, I just don't think we'll see it with 4.1

[Killaim]

It was mentioned at Blizzcon, but as we all know much of what is mentioned at Blizzcon has a habit of not going live or being postponed. I'm not saying the firelands raid won't happen, I just don't think we'll see it with 4.1

Then what will happen? Do you honestly believe giving 2 (maybe 3) 5man heroic dungeons and (by your theory) 1 raid boss will make us say "Yep, that'll keep us busy for the next 3-5months, no rush Blizzard."? This would be even worse than the Icecrown incident.

PTR hasn't been up for a week, don't jump to conclusions.

[PBitt]

It was confirmed before Cata even went live that Firelands will be a t12 raid with exactly seven bosses with Rag as the end boss. Confrimed, by a blue, I'm sure you could find it quite easily if you look. There will be another raid coupled with it, likely the War of the Ancients from some hints, but we don't know for certain yet either. But, the Firelands was probably all done before Cata went live, or mostly so, as it was originally planned to be out as a t11 instance so they got a headstart on it. It looks like we will also be getting a few new bonuses. like ZG and ZA as five man heroics with sweet rewards, which they *totally did not have to do* to those of you complaining about completely extra content that they totally didn't even have to touch. ZG is a new instance, same theme, and ZA, which was a badass instance. Back to raids, it will be some time yet, its the first tier of the expansion so naturally it would make more sense to allow a little extra time for people to level and run heroics to gear up intiatially for the raids. I would say early May at the earliest, they always announce this stuff months before it actually happens.

[Handsylton]

Casual players shouldn't care about defeating Sinestra while it's current content, because they know that they are casual.

I'm probably taking this in entirely the wrong context, I'm extremely hungry, no food to eat, and in the middle of a blizzard outside so I can't really go anywhere..

But.. I think that there a probably quite a bit of people out there who have a problem with not being able to kill Sinestra this raiding tier. Not because they want to down all the heroic bosses.. because they want Sinestra to be in the normal raid as well.

Having heroic only bosses is probably one of the worst ideas when it comes to lore EVER. It's even worse than 95% of the WoW community not getting to see Sunwell AT ALL, not until well into Wrath anyway. At that point, seeing old content that doesn't matter anymore is just stupid, it's past it's point of usefulness to the story, and you end up feeling like "oh... that's what happened... hmmm". Not fun for anyone and a big mistake by Blizzard, and having heroic mode only bosses is just as big of a mistake.

[Deleted]

I predict 4.1 to come at late march or early april, anyway no major raid for 4.1 is the worst theory ever. dumb. Blizz confirmed firelands was coming.

[G l o w y r m]

Who said 4.1 is coming this month, heck, no one even said it would come this year afaik

It's most likely hitting in about 3 months. That would coincide with the leaked Blizzard calendar and it also makes plenty of sense time wise. 6 months is plenty for the current tier.

Now as for the OP, I'm not sure why you think there won't be a full raid. The Firelands is an outdoor raid zone and I would venture a guess at there being around 5 bosses. It's the Elemental Plane and Ragnaros' home. Sulfuron Keep should be there and I would be extremely surprised if he didn't have a slew of lieutenants and subjugates. He most likely has a new Majordomo also.

There will definitely be more than just Ragnaros.

Blizz confirmed firelands was coming.

Exactly, keep in mind that the Firelands has been worked on by Blizzard since the start of Cataclysm since it was oringinally intended to be part of the initial release. I'm pretty confident it's going to be a decent, full fledged (bigger than ToC, smaller than Bastion) raid area.

[Tharkkun]

Pretty sure we'll see 4.1 "soon", and then the new tier of raiding (and legendary) a month or 2 after that.

Sounds like you're shooting an arrow into the night sky with your predictions. Until the current PTR builds show a RC on them it means more content will continue to pushed. If you followed 4.06 at all you would've noticed major changes/additions each week.

[nnelson54]

Having heroic only bosses is probably one of the worst ideas when it comes to lore EVER. It's even worse than 95% of the WoW community not getting to see Sunwell AT ALL, not until well into Wrath anyway. At that point, seeing old content that doesn't matter anymore is just stupid, it's past it's point of usefulness to the story, and you end up feeling like "oh... that's what happened... hmmm". Not fun for anyone and a big mistake by Blizzard, and having heroic mode only bosses is just as big of a mistake.

Sinestra and other heroic bosses drop the same loot as the normal next raiding tier, if I read correctly(and I may be wrong). There will still be reasons to go back and do Sinestra and the other HM bosses in full T12 gear to fill out a few slots, like there always is(still doing TotC largely for trinkets during ICC, for example). It will be nothing like Sunwell or Naxx being completely obsolete a few months after being released.