Poster: Tigole at 10/6/2005 8:22:57 AM PDT
Subject: Raids and Dungeons Update |
| |
Just wanted to give everyone a quick Raids and Dungeon update.
Patch 1.7 is live and we're seeing lots of people in Zul'Gurub each night. There are a couple of minor Zul'Gurub adjustments being made that might interest you. The Panther Boss encounter will be undergoing some minor tuning in the 1.8.0 patch that should make it a better encounter overall. Specifically, the rate at which panthers come out should be reduced. Also, there will be some minor adjustments to the Edge of Madness. After you kill an imp, only 2 voidwalkers will appear, rather than 3. Some minor adjustments with creature placement should also be evident in this area.
Speaking of Patch 1.8, it's live on the Test Server right now which means it should be making its live debut in the next week or two. We appreciate everyone who came onto the Test Server to help tune the 4 green dragons. We've made some minor tweaks to these guys and they're looking good for release. Any additional testing or feedback is always welcome. Just so everyone is on the same page, these dragons are supposed to be more difficult than Azuregos or Kazzak, yet not as difficult as some of the hardest encounters in the game.
We're busy working on Patch 1.9. Patch 1.9 is going to be one of our biggest content updates to date featuring not one, but two raid zones. The Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj (20 person raid zone) will be on par with Zul'Gurub in difficulty, perhaps slightly harder (but not by much). The Temple of Ahn'Qiraj (40 person raid zone) is absolutely massive, and will be around the same difficulty level of Blackwing Lair. Some of the earlier monsters in the 40 person area might be slightly easier than BWL but as guilds progress to the end, they'll find a zone on par with BWL.
We're also hard at work on a pretty epic world event that will lead to the opening of the gates of Ahn'Qiraj. More information will be coming out about this from our community team in the near future. Needless to say, it's going to be cool =].
Because of the sheer scope of what we're going to include in 1.9.0 the development cycle might take slightly longer than the 1.8.0 cycle.
In other news, we're really excited about BlizzCon. For those of you attending, our heavy-hitting Dungeon crew will be hosting a panel there. Likewise, our Raid team will also be hosting a panel (ok, so we're the same guys but no one needs to know that...). Hopefully, we can answer some questions there, meet some of you folks, and offer some cool previews of cool Dungeon and Raid stuff to come.
|
| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=181028&p=#post181028 |
| |
Poster: Tigole at 10/6/2005 8:38:27 AM PDT
Subject: Re: Raids and Dungeons Update |
| |
Arlokk's trigger should be fixed in 1.8.
Regarding Blackwing Lair, yes, we are looking into ways of optimizing the zone. Yet at the same, while we can do some optimization on our end, players need to understand that certain UI mods are causing serious problems for raids. Without getting into a bunch of technical mumbo-jumbo, I can suggest that you and your raid try BWL with certain UI mods disabled and see if that improves performance at all.[ post edited by Tigole ]
|
| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=181028&p=#post181054 |
Poster: Tigole at 10/6/2005 8:39:43 AM PDT
Subject: Re: Raids and Dungeons Update |
| |
As for the ZG coins, they are technically desired by many classes and they are also able to be traded.
However, on the purple ZG boss items, we're going to mark which classes need those in a future update. So that information will be directly in the game for you.
|
| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=181028&p=#post181057 |
Poster: Tigole at 10/6/2005 6:13:20 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Raids and Dungeons Update |
| |
Q u o t e:
Two things I wanted to ask about in relation to the ZG tuning:
1) Jeklik and the bats: I know that she can be pulled to an area that makes it so that she can't call her initial bat friends. Is this going to be changed?
2) Blooddrinkers: I noticed that they will sometimes siphon from each other. Are they supposed to do that?
1) Fixed in 1.8.0
2) sounds like a bug. we'll look into it
|
| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=181028&p=#post181902 |
Poster: Tigole at 10/6/2005 8:20:52 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Raids and Dungeons Update |
| |
Q u o t e:
You know Tigole, if you guys would improve the default UI to be as useful as CT Raid Assist in the first place, maybe it wouldn't be an issue. The defualt UI is still incredibly lacking.
Also, one of the main functionalities of CTRA that makes it nearly required is the feature that alerts the raid of incoming boss abilities like Wing Buffet. If you guys were to add emotes to all key boss abilities and allow the user to place the emote text in the middle of the screen, along with improving the Raid UI to the level of quality of CTRA, that would go a long way toward alleviating a lot of the complaints you're getting.
It's rather disappointing to see every Blizzard rep walk the party line and blame UI Mods instead of realizing that those mods were created to fill a need. And if the default UI were actually useful and comprehensive in the first place a lot of these mods that are consistently used as scapegoats would have been unnecessary.
Damage Meters I can understand, as that's not something that should be in a default UI. CT Raid Assist, however, is a requirement for the serious raider for a reason.
Regards.
I agree that there is room for improvement in our User Interface. I think we've proven since the game shipped that we're going to keep updating our interface to add functionality to imrpove everyone's experience. I wasn't trying to blame UI mods unfairly. If you re-read the post you responded to, I also mentioned that we were looking into ways of optimizing the zone. I was merely trying to help someone troubleshoot some of their lag.
Many UI functions exist in mods and not the "official" UI for a reason -- we simply cannot put them in for efficiency reasons. Many players do not know or understand this. They just download mods and assume that it's the fault of the server or the game without understanding of what's truly going on.
|
| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=181028&p=#post182007 |
Poster: Tigole at 10/6/2005 8:27:10 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Raids and Dungeons Update |
| |
Q u o t e:
Tigole, do you plan on making BWL easier much as you did with MC in order for other guilds who are just starting BWL to catch up to the crowd that will be doing the new instance?
No. There are no plans for making BWL easier. The only planned change for BWL in the near future is to remove the Despawn timer from Vaelenstrasz because it's currently not functioning properly and causing customer service issues. This change will take place in 1.8.0.
Also, it should be noted that it was never a goal to make MC easier. Over time, we made what we considered imrpovements to the zone. Some made the zone easier, some made it harder. We also fixed a lot of bugs. Over time, any zone will be perceived as being easier. The more familiar things become, the easier they become. The more powerful characters become, the easier a zone seems.
|
| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=181028&p=#post182014 |
Poster: Tigole at 10/6/2005 8:29:47 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Raids and Dungeons Update |
| |
Q u o t e:
What about some tier 2 buffs?
There are no plans for a *major* tier 2 armor revamp that some players are demanding. However, we are looking very carefully at certain tier 2 pieces and set bonuses and determining if any changes need to be (or should be) made. I don't have an ETA on when/if these changes will occur.
Tier 2 armor should get new graphics in Patch 1.9.0.
|
| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=181028&p=#post182017 |
Poster: Tigole at 10/6/2005 8:30:50 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Raids and Dungeons Update |
| |
Q u o t e:
Will 1.9 include graphical updates for tier 2 raid sets and other items (Malistar, etc)?
Most likely the new graphics will be ready by 1.9.0.
|
| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=181028&p=#post182018 |
Poster: Tigole at 10/6/2005 8:32:47 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Raids and Dungeons Update |
| |
Q u o t e:
What is the 40 man raid instance going to drop? Will there be a tier 3 class set introduced here, or will we get only non-set items? Will it be gear on a par with, or superior to BWL?
No tier 3 set. But it won't strictly be non-set items. We can do a lot of set items that don't involve a full armor set. Some of the gear will be on par with BWL -- some worse, some better.
|
| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=181028&p=#post182021 |
Poster: Tigole at 10/6/2005 8:34:44 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Raids and Dungeons Update |
| |
Q u o t e:
Tigole,
Could you please answer why you do not get reputation gains when you are dead?
We'll get this fixed soon.
Oh, and be careful what you ask for >=]
|
| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=181028&p=#post182024 |
Poster: Tigole at 10/6/2005 8:37:01 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Raids and Dungeons Update |
| |
Q u o t e:
Tigole, can you give us specific information on which mods are causing the problems?
Well, I don't really want to start pointing the finger at particular mods because many mods incorporate other mods and it will turn into a big mess =P
If you're running a mod that tracks a bunch of stuff that everyone around you is doing, consider not running that mod.
|
| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=181028&p=#post182025 |
Poster: Tigole at 10/6/2005 8:39:04 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Raids and Dungeons Update |
| |
Q u o t e:
With regards to the 20-person dungeon, do you feel there is space within the itemization to allow for a dungeon of Zul'gurub-level difficulty to drop interesting loot without blowing Risk vs. Reward out of the water?
With regards to the 40-person dungeon: will there be the emphasis on resist gear over regular gear that we see in Blackwing?
1) Yes
2) You'll see a mixture of both kinds of encounters. You're going to definitely want resist gear for some of the fights. At the same time, we want you to be able to use your best gear too -- so not all fights will be resist focused.
|
| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=181028&p=#post182027 |
Poster: Tigole at 10/6/2005 8:40:43 PM PDT
Subject: Re: Raids and Dungeons Update |
| |
Q u o t e:
Maybe releaes the 20-man Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj first to hold us over? =]
Trust me, that would make OUR lives much easier (and our families'). But because the reward for opening the Gates of Ahn'Qiraj is the two zones, we need to have them both there, open and waiting for you.
|
| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=181028&p=#post182029 |
Poster: Tigole at 10/6/2005 8:39:43 AM PDT
Subject: Re: Raids and Dungeons Update *edited post* |
| |
As for the ZG coins, they are technically desired by many classes and they are also able to be traded.
However, on the purple ZG boss items, we're going to mark which classes need those in a future update. So that information will be directly in the game for you.
|
| | http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=181028&p=#post181057 |
