Forum post of the day: Raid timers (poll)
by Amanda Dean 
Feb 7th 2009 at 10:00PM
Today's forum post of the day serves a dual purpose: it brings up issues with raid timers and it demonstrates how not to make friends and influence people on the forums. Our hot-headed friend Phearing of Silver Hand is a mighty bit miffed that he zoned into a 10-man Vault run only to find that there were no mobs there. He was saved to the instance, and thus does not get another shot at it until the raid timer resets.Nubbyzor of Whisperwind quickly pointed out that if the raid leader is saved to the instance you join their raid ID. This has happened since the dawn of raid timers. People have been mislead into joining raids in progress and cannot get a second shot at a heroic if their group is under par. Heroics aren't really a big deal, if your group fails, you can try again tomorrow. It's lame, but it's only one day. The week-long timer on raids makes this a little bit harder to swallow.
The original poster insists, in a rather unpleasant manner, that this happens because Blizzard is too cheap to invest in additional content and raid timers keep people from progressing too quickly. I'd like to think it has more to do with allowing groups to go back to the dungeon over several days instead of a single marathon session. It also could be something about throttling progression so that guilds don't gear up overnight. In any case raid timers can be a problem, especially for PUGgers. While you can check the armory for PUG members to assess your chances, there is no way that I know of to check someone's raid timer.
This brings us to our poll:
| Nothing, it's worked well this long, why change it? | |
|---|---|
| Allow raiders to select a number of days between resets. | |
| Reset raids twice a week, maybe Tuesday and Saturday. | |
| Reset raids daily. | |
| Let raid leaders reset raids at their leisure, with restrictions. | |
| Allow raid leaders to reset raids any time, no restrictions. | |
| Make raid timers personal. | |
| Just do away with raid timers all together. |
As for how to make make friends and influence people on the forums:
1. Don't insult someone who is agreeing with you.
2. If you insist on insulting people, be creative in your verbiage "go pee in a cup" gets old fast.
3. Don't be a troll.
4. If you're going to be a troll, which I don't recommend, check your spelling. It will be the first thing that gets called out.
5. Pay attention to the content of responses, there may be something insightful there.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Forums, Forum Post of the Day
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Stevo Feb 7th 2009 10:07PM
I think (and I think that this has been talked about before) that Blizzard should show a message on your screen upon zoning in for confirmation of you becoming saved to the heroic/raid. This would prevent all of these occurrences.
And as a side note, I voted that instances should reset daily, to help my bad luck on drops via Vault runs =)
TiM Feb 7th 2009 10:11PM
Why not just make someones raid timers inspectable from chat. So we can look up and see if the raid leader or a member is saved. /shrug
Chris Feb 7th 2009 10:37PM
A popup is easily the best solution
S?hrtogg Feb 8th 2009 4:11AM
Indeed.
The problem is not in the resetting, but in the saving.
Nemesis Feb 8th 2009 8:14AM
Why on Gods Earth haven't they done this in the past? I'm sure it's happened to someone who's played for a while at LEAST once.
M Feb 9th 2009 8:55AM
The change should be ... you are not saved to that Raid ID until you down a boss in that raid.
I lost a 10-man vault run this week for the same reason.
Deadly. Off. Topic. Feb 9th 2009 3:37PM
a POP up is a good idea for most people who "won't" read and need a pop up to warn them that they should.
Terraxx Feb 7th 2009 10:08PM
The only thing I'd suggest is that there is some way for users to check Raid Leaders IDs, I don't know how many times I've been saved to Vault without knowing.
Jorelos Feb 7th 2009 10:15PM
Besides redoing how saving raids is done there really shouldn't be a timer on VOA or at least it should be reduced to something reasonable like 24 hours.
The reasoning for getting rid of the timer on VOA is that it is more like an instance other than number of players in that it is designed to be done in one go by a group so there is absolutely no logic to making people wait to try it again if their raid group fails
If they don't remove the raid timer for VOA they should at least shorten it and/or make it only kick in if you successfully complete the boss battle, that way being part of an unsuccessful group wouldn't count against you.
Vorken Feb 7th 2009 11:41PM
Unless someone in the VoA run is already saved(in which case there is no boss), i have not been saved to it unless we beat Archavon. You can pull the 5 trash mobs all day and it doesn't seem to save me.
rosencratz Feb 8th 2009 4:01AM
If VOA had a normal heroic dungeon timer there would be no reason for any guild NOT to run it every day as it'd be easily the quickest and easiest way to gear up the entire guild.
As said above, raid timers are as much to stunt raid progression as it is to allow people a week to complete the run.
romiress Feb 7th 2009 10:17PM
Ask to confirm before zoning into an instance with bosses down... a confirmation screen, please!
Kyle Feb 7th 2009 10:17PM
I think it's there to slow down progression so every guild has a fair chance each week. I think it's fine the way it is.
Though I do remember my first Heroic, I wanted to grind it and so LFG right after I finished, found a new grp, and promptly ruined all their nights when we got to the first boss and he wasn't there. I had no idea about raid timers at that point and felt kind of guilty :\
Jorelos Feb 7th 2009 10:22PM
If it's really there just to slow guilds down then it fails miserably, the top guilds just rotate between the raids and farm them all so it really has no effect to that end.
Trilynne Feb 7th 2009 10:28PM
I like having a week to tackle a raid; as a casual guild, this gives us enough time to clear it without rushing. Hardcore guilds might not like it, but they are NOT the majority of players(get over it). Blizz should MOST DEFINITELY add SOME kind of alert that lets you know that, if you continue, you will be saved to Whatever raid: Y/N? That would solve a TON of problems for people.
Jorelos Feb 7th 2009 10:34PM
That's great for raids that actually require more than one trip to complete but see my example of VOA where it just doesn't work. Also, wouldn't you agree that for people who go through it faster there should be a way to reset faster if needed?
Trilynne Feb 7th 2009 10:50PM
Yeah, VoA is odd... but they are going to add more wings to it or something, so perhaps it will become a bigger raid in future that would merit the week reset?
I'm not sure if there should be a way for raids to reset faster... Remember, we only have the easiest third of the raid content in the game right now, if this is going to be like previous end-games. Eventually, the people who like to move faster will have harder content that will keep them busy, and they'll stop asking for shorter lock-outs. (Well, not stop, but perhaps ask less often) It does keep a limit on the amount of badges and loot people have. That's probably the main reason for lock-outs: preventing people from amassing HUGE stores of badges and/or gear, just because they and 9/24 friends have the time to clear Naxx over and over and over and over.
hinu Feb 8th 2009 6:36AM
Drops in VoA are on par with raids (T7 gear and all). One week timer makes sense for it.
SDevil Feb 7th 2009 10:28PM
I don't think they should adjust the raid timers, I think they should add some sort of dialogue box to let you know you will get saved because a boss is already down in the instance or raid you are joining or they should make it so you don't get saved until you down a boss with the group.
Karilyn Feb 7th 2009 10:30PM
I've often suggested that there be within limits the ability to reset raids as needed... If you need a week to clear a raid instance, so be it...
I propose keeping a raid open for up to 7 days max after the RaidID is created (So it can reset on a different day beside's Tuesday...)
And also allow a person to hard-reset a raid as early as either 20 hours or 68 hours (2 days and 20 hours) after the raid is created.
It would definitely be nice if there was that sorta flexibility there to accommodate the needs of different guilds and individuals.