Major Ulduar testing news: PTR soon, not all bosses available
by Adam Holisky 
Feb 17th 2009 at 3:40PM
Secondly, Ulduar will not be tested like a normal instance. The testing will be in phases and only happen according to the schedule Blizzard lays out. They'll announce times when certain bosses will be available for testing, and that means that only during those times will those bosses be open for play. This also means that Ulduar will initially be closed on the PTR.
But think for a moment about what this does – it means that we won't be seeing strategies and other guides immediately available upon release of the patch (or in most cases before the patch). It means that world firsts will actually mean something again, and it won't just be a rush to see who can log onto the server first.
That is quite big and exciting news. Daelo also lets us know a few other things.
Need more news about Ulduar? We've got updates, previews, speculation, and everything else you need to know about the next big raid coming in patch 3.1. If the Titans are hiding it up there, we'll tell you about it here.The first set of boss encounters that will be tested include:
- Freya
- Thorim
- Hodir
- The Iron Council
Even more exciting: bosses will be tested on the European and North American PTRs. Some bosses will be tested on both PTRs, and some will be tested on only one. That means that the EU PTR experience can, and most likely will be, markedly different than the US PTR experience.
We'll have more on this story as it develops, and will bring you the latest PTR news at it happens.
Filed under: News items, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Firestride Feb 17th 2009 3:45PM
Ugh. Vehicles. I look forward to spamming a macro, since when I spam the buttons nothing happens.
Firestride Feb 17th 2009 3:47PM
Hey, I skimmed this, thinking it was also linking to the Ulduar Preview that's making the rounds. But it doesn't, so there's no mention of vehicles anywhere. So feel free to delete/rate down my comment for irrelevance. Sorry!
Eversor Feb 17th 2009 4:18PM
How does a vehicle differ from a, say, FFB mage, exactly?
Ryan Feb 17th 2009 4:26PM
Gear.
Robert M Feb 17th 2009 5:38PM
I think there are vehicle encounters, check out
http://www.wow-europe.com/en/info/underdev/3p1/ulduar.xml
Candina@WH Feb 17th 2009 5:38PM
Wanted, new accomplishement 'Vehicles, why did it have to be vehicles'
/sigh
WTP my f'n class. If I wanted to play a [insert vehicle here] I would have rolled a [insert vehicle here]. ;-)
Alavan Feb 17th 2009 8:35PM
Oh comeon, vehicles are fun!
Jake Feb 17th 2009 3:51PM
*Thorim
Jorelos Feb 17th 2009 3:50PM
Good, let D&T actually work for their world first instead of just trying over and over again on the PTR until they get it right and doing the same strat on live.
Ametrine Feb 17th 2009 4:21PM
D&T... Death and Taxes?
Dude, I thought they disbanded months ago, like, when Sunwell came out.
Flairy Feb 17th 2009 4:26PM
Ensidia*
Makros Feb 17th 2009 5:26PM
Despite D&T being long dead, I don't see why you or the writer think this...
"Secondly, Ulduar will not be tested like a normal instance. The testing will in phases and only happen according to the schedule Blizzard lays out. They'll announce times when certain bosses will be available for testing, and that means that only during those times will those bosses be open for play. This also means that Ulduar will initially be closed on the PTR."
will change anything relating to the top guilds developing strats from the PTR. Just because it happens in phases and only on a certain schedule doesn't mean that no one will see the bosses until they are live.
"But think for a moment about what this does – it means that we won't be seeing strategies and other guides immediately available upon release of the patch (or in most cases before the patch). It means that world firsts will actually mean something again, and it won't just be a rush to see who can log onto the server first."
Why not? What about the way they are implementing it on the PTR says there will not be strats available when it goes live? The only thing that could keep that from happening is NOT putting it on the PTR at all and thats not happening.
Aaron A. Feb 17th 2009 5:41PM
Makros:
While I agree that releasing the instance on PTR compromises the "surprise factor," I maintain at least some hope because of this:
"bosses will be tested on the European and North American PTRs. Some bosses will be tested on both PTRs, and some will be tested on only one. "
This says to me that only those who can get onto both the US and EU PTR's (and I'm sure a few people can) will have first-hand experience with /all/ of the fights before Ulduar goes live. What I really hope, though, is that Blizz keeps the last couple of bosses, or the keys to the expected 11 Hard Mode fights, off of the PTR entirely.
Fuseitana Feb 17th 2009 3:50PM
"The first set of boss encounters that will be tested include:
* Freya
* Thoruim
* Hodir
* The Iron Counci"
Thorium, really? Did he move to Ulduar from the bug holes of Silithus?
Craig R Feb 17th 2009 3:51PM
freya.
thorim.
hodir.
this is gonna be good.
Sirg Feb 17th 2009 4:21PM
Yet again more good bosses corrupted to their evil selves. It's starting to look like a boring clichee. Where are the real evil bosses?
Everyone in WoW is 1st good, then corrupted by something or somebody and we have to kill it.
RyuHakubi Feb 17th 2009 6:01PM
I don't WANT to kill Thorim! I want to free him, damn it! I want him to fight at my side against an Old God! I want him to head off to report to the Titans, or act as a defender should the Titans decide their work on Azeroth needs serious reformatting, ANYTHING but kill another noble soul forced into being a loot-pinata.
I'm so tired of killing the good guys.
Arashikou Feb 17th 2009 4:55PM
While I agree the whole "save the corrupted hero" thing is getting a little stale, the state the different shrines were left in (as well as the manner of Hodir's capture) suggest that at least some of these people went WILLINGLY into Ulduar to become raid bosses, so that should be interesting to have explained.
sephirah Feb 17th 2009 3:53PM
So lot of time for top guilds to study boss strats, clear the raid in the week 3.1 will go live and QQ about easy content...
Ras Gonzo Feb 17th 2009 3:54PM
Woot! No vehicles :P