More information on 3.2 release date, Coliseum, new Battleground
by Michael Sacco 
May 22nd 2009 at 7:42PM
Hot on the heels of the Under Development page for Patch 3.2, we received a few more tidbits of information from Community Manager Zarhym, responding to posts on the official forums. In bold are the players' questions.
The Argent Coliseum: Does this mean a raid and a instance will be in there?
Yes, there will be a 5-player version, then a 10/25-player version. The bosses will be different for the two versions. Think Ring of Blood or Amphitheater of Anguish, but more epic.
The new Battleground (Isle of Conquest): So, it's WG combined with AB?
If anything, Wintergrasp combined with Alterac Valley with a few more twists.
Do you really think Ulduar achievements will last a year? Instances become stale after 6 months even with achievements. Yea 3.2 won't be till later this year and by then Ulduar will have been played to death and people will want something fun and new to do and not some small joke instance since we won't see Icecrown till April/May next year probably.
Would it help if I told you that your presumed timelines are way too inflated? :)
I was expecting most of this information, and I'm glad that my suspicions that the Coliseum would be a Ring of Blood-style event were confirmed. This isn't really an avenue Blizzard has used for a raid before. The hinting that 3.2 will come a lot sooner than we think is also comforting -- since it means that 3.3 and Icecrown are even closer.
I'll have a speculation post about what we can expect in the Coliseum soon. Until then, keep your eyes peeled -- we'll update you as soon as we get any more news!
Filed under: Patches, News items, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Xavs May 22nd 2009 7:48PM
I've been hoping for a long time (pre-wrath) that they would come out with something like Arena, but for PvE (random old bosses releveled to 80 maybe? ).
Guess they finally did it. Can't wait to see how it ends up.
daemeonkin May 22nd 2009 8:24PM
VanCleef raised as a DeathKnight.
dasime May 22nd 2009 8:30PM
If it could be any last boss from any dungeon beefed up to 80 with the same fight and strategies - that would be soo awesome, even if hard to implement. :P
Would be more unlikely to have raid bosses tho as many more of them require environmental factors (such as Instructor Razuvious in Naxx).
Alavan May 23rd 2009 10:43AM
They could do environmental stuff. Just put the DK understudies in there with Rezuvious standing around him. Or for Magtheridon, just put the cubes around the outside. Remember, it's their game and they can code it how they want and how the players will like.
The Hammer May 22nd 2009 7:50PM
I remember Tigole responding to a post with an idea remarkably close to how the Coliseum sounds, with "Cool idea." It was basically a random boss everyday. If that's what this is, then friggin' sweet. I'd love that.
Unknown May 22nd 2009 7:54PM
Hey where is the new Druid Form skins?
Debesun May 23rd 2009 1:32AM
Shocking, recently released information hot from the lips of the Blues themselves only hours after 3.2 information is shown. Do NOT look any further as I continue to divulge this ground breaking revelation.
"We haven't officially stated when new art for druid forms will be ready. We'll be sure to give you the scoop when we're ready. :)"
-Zarhym
Well I guess it's a new development if you've had your head buried under 45 tons of rock for the past 2 years :)
RogueJedi86 May 23rd 2009 2:06AM
My guess is the quote means it's in 3.2, but they haven't OFFICIALLY said anything YET. Zarhym could just be acting coy, but he specifically says "officially", which basically says that it's unofficially been given a release patch date. Anticipation implies it must be 3.2. Or at least I hope so.
NeSuKuN May 25th 2009 11:18AM
Updated druid skins are the new duke nukem forever
Thander May 22nd 2009 7:56PM
I'm kind of thinking 3.3 (Icecrown) will be in November/December just in time for Christmas season. That put's 3.2 around the same time as Blizzcon.
epsilon343 May 22nd 2009 8:11PM
Ugh...this is actually what I was hoping it wouldn't be. Not really sure what I was expecting but after Ulduar I was hoping they wouldn't return to these cheap 1 boss encounters disguised as raids...
devilsei May 22nd 2009 8:35PM
Considering its part of the Argent Tourny, which in itself is for the more casual crowd, so what? Stick to your ulduar 25s and hardmodes, let the casuals have a raid designed for casuals. Naxx may be easy, but its still a long raid.
devilsei May 22nd 2009 8:37PM
Blasted no edit button...
Of course though, my statement is based on the new dungeon design, the whole 5-25 scalability, is really made for casuals in mind, with 25 being in just to balance it out.
epsilon343 May 22nd 2009 8:38PM
I'm not a hardcore raider..way to jump to conclusions.
It's just that for some reason Blizzard has been obsessed with these single boss encounters which I think is kinda stupid. In launch we had 3 individual bosses and Naxx. Then we get Ulduar and Emalon added in with 3.1 but it seems like they're going back to pumping out single boss encounters for us.
Why not look into Grim Batol or something else in conjunction with the Argent Tournament updates...?
devilsei May 22nd 2009 8:46PM
Sorry, I didn't quite mean to label you exactly a "hardcore" raider, was just saying that casuals should have a fair share of accessible raids, and a minimalist design in terms of bosses doesn't hurt. Ulduar seems designed to last a bit longer in terms of content than normal raids, because this was being added in after it came out. No one is going to force you to raid this dungeon though, bottom line, so why care?
epsilon343 May 22nd 2009 8:58PM
Why care? Because that means that when we eventually do put Ulduar on farm, it'll be just that much longer that we have to wait for the next raid to come out. Because I'm guessing the next content patch won't be rolling out till after the summer sometime which will probably mean that Ulduar will have, I'm guessing, at least 6 months of people the top end raid with very little else to do in addition to it.
devilsei May 22nd 2009 9:04PM
Well, by farm, you mean every hard mode down pat and able to kill Alganon first try every try? Or just generic Ulduar, no hard modes? Honestly, no matter what the high-end guilds will have it down pat no problem. Considering Ensidia, which is supposedly the best guild ever, needed 25man gear to take down Alganon in 10-man, means something I'd think, in terms of how long it'll last.
andy May 23rd 2009 4:30AM
I really don't think that the argent Coliseum is meant to be counted as raid progression.
my bet is as the Argent Tournament is meant for a cool casual raid to progress the story in icecrown, I also think that sindragosa will be making an appearance
upgray3dd May 23rd 2009 1:37PM
If it's any consolation, epsilon, it will be more than one boss. They compared it to Ampitheatre of Anguish. I'm not imagining Violet Hold, with random bosses every day. I think it will be more along the lines of "fight the same 10 bosses each week, with waves of trash in between, in one small room". There is no reason to think it will be one boss.
Hailene May 22nd 2009 8:26PM
So it's like Violet Hold / BM...?