Patch 3.2's raid extension feature clarified
by Alex Ziebart 
Jul 8th 2009 at 2:30PM
The details are mostly what we expected: Extending your lockout will let it roll over into the next lockout period, consuming your instance ID for that day (in the case of heroics) or week (in the case of raids). You can extend your lockout more than once, probably indefinitely, but Eyonix wasn't specific on how many times you can do it in a row. I assume indefinitely. The extension is also on a per-person basis, meaning if you PUG someone into your 25man run, they can't screw you by extending their lockout. That also means it's not a raid leader decision. At least, not mechanically. It's up to the individual to click that extension button.
The extension system really wouldn't make sense any other way, so this is all pretty expected. While your raid leader will certainly have some sway over what your raid group does from week to week when in an progression guild, it shouldn't surprise anybody that Blizzard hasn't put your raid IDs solely in the hands of the raid leaders. That would be abused in the most epic way possible. Get a jerk of a raid leader in a PUG, kiss your Archavon ID goodbye for the rest of eternity because the guy keeps pushing the extend button? Yeah, no thanks. I think we're all glad that the decision is made by the individuals.
I eagerly await the inevitable, "Oooops, I 'accidentally' extended my raid timer" excuses from raiders that want a week off and don't have the guts to be honest about it. Those sorts of things are the best!
Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Djfreddiettm Jul 8th 2009 2:35PM
Interesting article. I hope this helps fledgling guilds get back into the race!
Arktic Jul 8th 2009 2:39PM
It may be up to the individual, but in practice, only the Raid Leader would need to extend his lockout, and when the next week came, you could all rejoin his raid and re pick up his raid ID.
Julie Jul 8th 2009 7:59PM
Exactly. Only the raid leader needs to decide whether to extend an id or not. Everyone else just lets theirs reset, and joins the leader's raid as necessary.
Nathanyel Jul 8th 2009 2:41PM
I find it weird that any new activity in the extended lockout that would save you, say another boss, locks the extension until the next reset. Means if you still had Yoggi standing in one Ulduar ID, to kill him on the first day of the ID extension means you can't remove the extension to use the rest of the week for another item/achievement farming run.
impurezero Jul 8th 2009 2:54PM
Actually...it makes perfect sense that you can't remove the extension any time you want just because it's no longer convenient. Otherwise, there would be no point in even having raid reset days.
Think about it for a moment. If you can extend a raid ID indefinitely, then you could extend it a couple of times until, "Oh look at this! We killed Yogg a couple days into the new extension. Well, just reset it, and we can start all over right away. Now we can just keep extending this new id until we kill Yogg again, and then...oops! We killed Yogg and reset it again halfway through another new extension. Rinse and repeat. Anyone taking longer than a week to clear a raid, would essentially never be limited by lockouts in any way.
So, this has to be a tradeoff for it to work. Do we want to extend it and potentially waste some of the lockout by only having a few bosses to down? Or do we want to try again from scratch and get more loot all together.
(Note: In looking at the above paragraphs...I haven't seen so many "extensions" since yo' mama's hair, dogg! OOOOOOOHHHHHH!)
(Second note: I'm sorry...I have no idea where that came from.)
Dave Jul 8th 2009 4:20PM
There isn't a point to raid reset days. There shouldn't be any specific day telling guilds that they've lost out, give up, go home. It's a fairly stupid concept that they're just now getting around to correcting.
Yes, there is a point to locking you out of retrying a full clear within a certain period of time and clearly that's designed with retention and progression... but the notion that Tuesday is some magical "give up" day that a raid needs to quit on you just because 4 years ago some engineer decided Tuesday would be the maintenance day? Nope! They got rid of Tuesday Honor, why not get rid of Tuesday raids? In my guild I would LOVE to see the ability to set our raid week to start on Monday or Thursday and we could define the paramaters by which we raid.
I fear the clarifications have made this a moderately useless concept for us, as we would much rather gear people through repeated attempts at bosses we can down easily, rather than be locked into a full week without more loot from the first 8 bosses of Ulduar.
If the locks can't be removed and the raid week reset after a single day's worth of attempts on say a Tuesday or Wednesday so we can start our normal raid week on Thursday.. this is a pointless change that doesn't help us. Tuesday and Wednesday are lost to us for good because we can't consistently get people on those days... but we can somewhat assume that if we're on Vezzax then we might actually get people to show up for a couple more attempts on one extra day. However I think it's going to be a hard sell to get everyone to want to spend an entire raid week lockout on 2-3 bosses we haven't even downed.
Krick Jul 8th 2009 4:49PM
@Dave
I think the whole raid lockout thing is done wrong. Each RaidID should start a timer ticking from the point you start. For example...
If my guild decides to start a fresh Ulduar on Thursday night, as soon as we start the raid, there's a timer associated with that RaidID that counts down for 1 week from that start time. Every time the timer gets down to less than 24 hours, then individuals saved to that RaidID have the option to extend it one more week.
...
Krick
http://www.tankadin.com
Nathanyel Jul 8th 2009 5:56PM
impurezero: Ok, my hope for "extend ID, clear it, then take on this week's fresh ID" was already created when it was implied that you could only extend the ID one time, so you could double the time possible, tops.
For custom resets, I don't think this would mesh well with many guilds, or even PuGs, it would be hard to find groups on certain (yet varying) days, say you're looking for a Naxx grp on Saturday, but everyone you ask just answers "oh sorry, started an ID last Sunday, can't come along until tomorrow."
Also, even the time of day could factor into this, imagine a guild starts their 25man raids on Monday, but then one time, they can't start until 9pm, or only down the first boss then to get saved to the instance, so the next week, they have to wait until 9pm to start the next ID.
regisfrost Jul 8th 2009 2:42PM
Sounds like a great way for pissed raid members/drama queens (lost the roll on the item you want? Got kicked because you sucked?) to inflict endless amount of mental pain to the entire raid.
Stay tuned for more in the next Drama Watch.
regisfrost Jul 8th 2009 2:44PM
Oh it said "can't" and not "can". Here's to an edit button.
Lios Jul 8th 2009 2:52PM
"I eagerly await the inevitable, "Oooops, I 'accidentally' extended my raid timer" excuses from raiders that want a week off and don't have the guts to be honest about it."
Luckily Blizzard thought about that: "An extension can be reversed on an individual basis provided the player does not do anything in the instance during the extended lockout period that would save that player to the instance."
So if you're raid buddy 'accidentally' clicks, he'll have a hard time explaining why he didn't simply undo his extended raid lockout.
Hendrata Jul 8th 2009 3:00PM
But some people may not know this until exposed, and hence drama will still happen. Oh yes please, guild-watch needs new type of drama, and I need new type of Wednesday Morning Funnies
chevysdad07 Jul 8th 2009 3:06PM
@impurezero
gah bro all you do is post on this lol every thread i see has a post from you in it.but you do add a few interesting points and a few different views so co crit from me just sayin lol do you have time to balance life/wow.com/wow? lol jk tho.
your a relatively regular and good poster, i try to read a good majority of posts and you seem to pop up alot nice name btw
well im out g2g back to work
>8~(
EZ Jul 8th 2009 3:42PM
are you retarded?
Shoryu Jul 8th 2009 4:05PM
why dont you myspace him if you love him so much?
Radiophonic Jul 8th 2009 3:23PM
This should be confusing.
Player 1: I can't get in
Player 2: How long was your lockout?
Player 3: Umm...a week I think
Player 4: Oh um...ours was for um...let me do the math...
VegetaPrime Jul 8th 2009 3:32PM
I really don't like the idea of the extension taking away the rest of the week. Say you only need one extra day to kill Yogg, well then the whole week after that is screwed.
I would suggest shortening the raid lockout time (with the option to extend it for a day or two) for non-current content or once all world firsts are accomplished in a raid. Or do away with raid lockouts all together for anything not current. If we're getting a new badge system that's helping people gear up, why not open up Naxx and Ulduar to give even more chances to gear up for the next content? Hell, put them on the same schedule as the heroic dungeons.
I guess I sort of understand the concept of the lock out so we don't blow through the current content too fast, but what is the point in keeping that lockout on the old content?
kuri Jul 8th 2009 5:11PM
Welcome to the world of trade-offs and game balancing.
You pick progression vs. loot, and Blizzard attempts to manage the amount (and quality) of epics available in the game. For instance, you have the option of clearing to the end of the upcoming Coliseum next patch to get the highest-end loot, or resetting after a week and outfitting more members of your raid.
paul Jul 8th 2009 3:33PM
Just when you thought you were out of your guild's wipefest, they pull you back in!
Yakuko Jul 8th 2009 5:47PM
Someone who skips out on wipefests either needs to find a new guild if they feel theirs is holding them back or suck it up. I despise people who only show up for farm content but leave the guild short on progression nights.