Blizzard announced today "refinements" in the raid progression path in
regards to the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. The most drastic change is
that 10 player and 25 player raid instances will now share the same
loot table and the same lockout ID. While 25 player version bosses of
the instances will drop more items, the actual loot will be exactly the
same in both formats. Raid leaders will be able to swap from 25 player
to 10 player mode depending on group size and will also be able to
select between heroic difficulty and regular difficulty on a per boss
basis, similar to the way ICC is structured now. Is this the end of 25
player raiding? Is Blizzard catering to casuals on an even higher scale
now? The results remain to be seen, but this is a very interesting
announcement to say the least.
Cataclysm, and we'd like to share some of those changes with you today.
Please enjoy!
The first of the refinements being made is that we're combining all
raid sizes and difficulties into a single lockout. Unlike today, 10-
and 25-player modes of a single raid will share the same lockout. You
can defeat each raid boss once per week per character. In other words,
if you wanted to do both a 10- and 25-person raid in a single week,
youd need to do so on two different characters. Normal versus Heroic
mode will be chosen on a per-boss basis in Cataclysm raids, the same
way it works in Icecrown Citadel. Obviously the raid lockout change
doesn't apply in pure Icecrown terms though, as this change goes
hand-in-hand with a few other changes to raid progression in Cataclysm.
We're designing and balancing raids so that the difficulty between 10-
and 25-player versions of each difficulty will be as close as possible
to each other as we can achieve. That closeness in difficulty also
means that we'll have bosses dropping the same items in 10- and
25-player raids of each difficulty. They'll have the same name and same
stats; they are in fact the exact same items. Choosing Heroic mode will
drop a scaled-up version of those items. Our hope is that players will
be able to associate bosses with their loot tables and even associate
specific artwork with specific item names to a far greater extent than
today.
Dungeon Difficulty and Rewards
10- and 25-player (normal difficulty) -- Very similar to one another in
difficulty; drop the exact same items as each other.
10- and 25-player (Heroic difficulty) -- Very similar to one another in
difficulty; drop more powerful versions of the normal-difficulty items.
We of course recognize the logistical realities of organizing larger
groups of people, so while the loot quality will not change, 25-player
versions will drop a higher quantity of loot per player (items, but
also badges, and even gold), making it a more efficient route if you're
able to gather the people. The raid designers are designing encounters
with these changes in mind, and the class designers are making class
changes to help make 10-person groups easier to build. Running
25-player raids will be a bit more lucrative, as should be expected,
but if for a week or two you need to do 10s because half the guild is
away on vacation, you can do that and not suffer a dramatic loss to
your ability to get the items you want.
We recognize that very long raids can be a barrier for some players,
but we also want to provide enough encounters for the experience to
feel epic. For the first few raid tiers, our plan is to provide
multiple smaller raids. Instead of one raid with eleven bosses, you
might have a five-boss raid as well as a six-boss raid. All of these
bosses would drop the same item level gear, but the dungeons themselves
being different environments will provide some variety in location and
visual style, as well as separate raid lockouts. Think of how you could
raid Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep separately, but you might
still want to hit both every week.
We do like how gating bosses over time allows the community to focus on
individual encounters instead of just racing to the end boss, so were
likely to keep that design moving forward. We don't plan to impose
attempt limitations again though, except maybe in cases of rare
optional bosses (like Algalon). Heroic mode may not be open from day
one, but will become available after defeating normal mode perhaps as
little as once or twice.
In terms of tuning, we want groups to be able to jump into the first
raids pretty quickly, but we also dont want them to overshadow the
Heroic 5-player dungeons and more powerful quest rewards. Well be
designing the first few raid zones assuming that players have
accumulated some blue gear from dungeons, crafted equipment, or quest
rewards. In general, we want you and your guild members to participate
in and enjoy the level up experience.
We design our raids to be accessible to a broad spectrum of players, so
we want groups to be able to make the decision about whether to attempt
the normal or Heroic versions of raids pretty quickly. The goal with
all of these changes is to make it as much of a choice or effect of
circumstance whether you raid as a group of 10 or as a group of 25 as
possible. Whether you're a big guild or a small guild the choice won't
be dependent on what items drop, but instead on what you enjoy the most.
We realize that with any changes to progression pathways there are
going to be questions. We're eagerly awaiting any that we may have left
unanswered. To the comments!
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