I know this topic has been beaten to death by other bloggers, but remember, I'm almost always behind the trend and late to the table.
The reason I as this is comparing BC raids to WotLK raids (25 mans):
Kara = Naxx10
SSC = Naxx25
Gruul's = OS
Mag's = VoA
Of course the last two might be in reverse order....I didn't do too many 25 man raids in BC.
Now, two months into BC were people PuGging Gruul's or Mag's? And I don't mean picking up a healer or dps for guild runs, I'm talking about 25 people from 20 different guilds - a true PuG.
I don't think so.
Yesterday, I PuGged both OS25 and VoA25 and had nary a problem in either. I placed third on the damage meter in each and didn't die in the fire.
Actually thinking back, I've never been in a guild run of either of those instances, 10 or 25 man versions. And I've never had a problem completing the instance with my fellow PuGgers.
Of course this leads me to two conclusions:
A. Players got better. ROFLOLCOPTER!!!!!!!
B. The raids are easier.
I'm not complaining here; I like easy epics just as much as the next guy. But, I'm left wondering just how much more content can be added to WoW to keep my interest.
Greedy Goblin actually came up with an idea that would be EPIC if Blizzard would implement it - namely, create Heroic versions of all the instances. Heroic Mauradon was his rallying cry, but I'd totally be there for Heroic Wailing Caverns or Sunken Temple! How about Heroic versions of past raids? Heroic MC or Heroic SSC? Let's do it!! If Blizzard wanted to repopulate Oldlands, as well as breathe life back into Outlands, this would be a great way to do it.
I don't know about you, but eventually, I'm going to get tired of running Heroic Violet Hold over and over. It'd be nice to have a plethora of familiar instances to choose from. Even if those instances only provided Emblems and copied the loot table from another Heroic. I'd go!
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7 comments:
I like your comparison between the BC and WotLK raids, I've made the a similar comparison myself, although I wouldn't call Naxx25 SSC, I'd call it "2.5 Kara groups lumped together".
One thing to note, is that in addition, BC had 2 more raids available than WotLK does, SSC and TK. So not only are the raids waaay easier, there is less to see. Sure, Naxx has more bosses, but to be honest, they get rushed through so quickly, it doesn't feel special at all to down a new boss.
Plus, I think having regular and heroic versions of raids is a bit of a cop out, when I kill a boss in Naxx25, it doesn't feel like I've killed something new, if I've already done it in 10.
The content is easier. They designed it to be to give the casual raider more of a chance at gear that would otherwise be unreachable.
As much as people complain about Naxx10-25 and OS10-25 being too easy, what they fail to realize is that they are going to NEED that gear to get anywhere in Ulduar once it's released.
I really suspect that Ulduar is going to make or break guilds and set apart the real players from everyone else. I mean, we have Naxx10-25, OS10-25, and VoA10-25 on farm status for all intents and purposes.
I don't know if they will be harder bosses (health-wise) so much as they'll be more complicated fights that require more coordination. And they mentioned that Ulduar will herald the return the heavy Crowd Control so I expect large 6+ mob trash pulls will be the soup of the day.
But to answer your question, yes, the raids are too easy. But that was the point. They were designed to be that easy :)
I'm tired of "Ulduar will change everything". I understand making some raids easier so "casual" (which I still think is a silly concept, it's about skill, not time) players can get gear, but couldn't they have given us one raid at launch that was actually challenging?
I think it's clear that Blizzard made a mistake when within just a couple months of a new expansion coming out, people are already done and waiting for the next content they'll push.
I would LOVE Heroic Scarlet Monastery. The Mograine/Whitemane part still gives me the chills.
My main's a level 80 holy paladin. I love taking her into Herod's room and killing all his adds with consecrate. An ironic demise!
"I'm tired of "Ulduar will change everything". I understand making some raids easier so "casual" (which I still think is a silly concept, it's about skill, not time) players can get gear, but couldn't they have given us one raid at launch that was actually challenging?"
The problem is that a majority of the player base is casual. Raiders and Hardcore guilds actually make up a very small portion of WoW's players. So the eternal question becomes, which group does Blizz pander to?
Obviously the end-game people want Blizz to give them more stuff..while the casual base want Blizz to make more of the game accessible and frankly, easier to play. Blizz tries their best to keep both groups happy but they have learned, just like other MMO's, that this is nearly impossible... :p
"The problem is that a majority of the player base is casual. Raiders and Hardcore guilds actually make up a very small portion of WoW's players. So the eternal question becomes, which group does Blizz pander to?
Obviously the end-game people want Blizz to give them more stuff..while the casual base want Blizz to make more of the game accessible and frankly, easier to play. Blizz tries their best to keep both groups happy but they have learned, just like other MMO's, that this is nearly impossible... :p"
This is pretty much hitting the nail on the head. As much as some players say that the new endgame raid content is too easy its because blizzard designed it to be more accessible to a wider range of players. If you really look at statistics the "hardcore" wow players are actually only a small percentage of the entire wow subscribers. Blizzard wanted more people to experience the game with raiding gear/tier gear being easier to get and thus more accessible to the rest of the wow community.
"I understand making some raids easier so "casual" (which I still think is a silly concept, it's about skill, not time) players can get gear, but couldn't they have given us one raid at launch that was actually challenging?"
Although I agree blizzard should have made some of the released raid content more challenging for the hardcore players you have to understand as i said before most of wows subscribers are casual players and they are the bigger audience blizzard needs to cater to since they really make up most of the population. Blizz tries hard to help both player type needs but in the end I think they had to make the raids easier for their larger population of players. And no you are wrong the casual/hardcore player DOES NOT only define skill it actually IS also about time. Example: Two players are both equally as good skilled with their characters in wow. One plays 5+ hours a day, the other less than 2 hours. If you were to record their progress over a month or so the one that plays more is probably going to have considerably better gear and much more completed than the player that plays less despite the fact they both can play well. Personally I can only play certain days and about an hour to two hours those days becuase of my busy day job and kids, and for most progression guilds they require more active members. But now I am more happy due to the fact that i can get into more pug raids and complete them and be able to get more gear in my wow time frame :).
good post :)
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