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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast topic: Are manually extended raid lockouts a good thing?
by Lesley Smith 
Jul 21st 2009 at 8:00AM
Hands up who remembers running Karazhan back in the days when it took a week to clear and you needed every one of those nights to do it?
Are you currently spending your evenings raiding in Ulduar? Is Ignis taking more time to down than you anticipated? I think we've all been there, you're in the zone but just can't kill that pesky raid boss before the raid timer goes ding and everything resets. I've once did an early morning raid (we're talking like 2am here) through Kara, powering through all the bosses, because the timer was due to set that morning and it was fun, even if we didn't quite clear Medivh's tower out. I think we stopped after Prince as none of us could keep our eyes open. But there's something heartbreaking about getting down to that final boss and calling it a day, knowing that you have to start all over again the following day. It's kind of soul destroying.
Patch 3.2 finally offers an answer in the form of a raid lockout extension. If you're mid-raid and haven't a hope in hell of finishing by the reset, you can manually extended it for another week. But I wonder, constant readers, are you going to use it? Will it motivate you to finish a raid or do you think it slow progression down?
Are you currently spending your evenings raiding in Ulduar? Is Ignis taking more time to down than you anticipated? I think we've all been there, you're in the zone but just can't kill that pesky raid boss before the raid timer goes ding and everything resets. I've once did an early morning raid (we're talking like 2am here) through Kara, powering through all the bosses, because the timer was due to set that morning and it was fun, even if we didn't quite clear Medivh's tower out. I think we stopped after Prince as none of us could keep our eyes open. But there's something heartbreaking about getting down to that final boss and calling it a day, knowing that you have to start all over again the following day. It's kind of soul destroying.
Patch 3.2 finally offers an answer in the form of a raid lockout extension. If you're mid-raid and haven't a hope in hell of finishing by the reset, you can manually extended it for another week. But I wonder, constant readers, are you going to use it? Will it motivate you to finish a raid or do you think it slow progression down?
Filed under: Patches, Blizzard, Breakfast Topics, Instances, Raiding, Bosses
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 4)
Bouillestfu Jul 21st 2009 12:56PM
This is the dumbest thing ever. Here's why. If you can't down a boss either you haven't got the strat down properly or your members aren't geared enough. In BOTH senarios having more and better gear can give you the edge. Extending the lockout period only restricts your group from having more and better gear which could make the fight easier.
Starting anew every week ahs geared up the weakest links of your group and made every encounter easier each time. Making Leviathan, Deconstruct, Ignis and Razorscale a joke. Even Kologarn and the Iron Council have gotten easier with a better group. This can only mean that later bosses will be easier as well if you get by to gearing up more of your group. Ulduar is clearable in a week if your guild can clear it thats for sure, the only thing that holds you back are fights in which your group stumbles a bit.
Trying out a boss for which you don't have the DPS/Heals/Survivability for 7 more days won't get you a kill unless your lucky.
I guess what I'm saying can be summed up by.
No extention = More lewt = Better group = Easier Fights = More Progression
Extention = Less lewt = Less gearing up = Harder Fights = Less Progression
Graevlayar Jul 21st 2009 1:02PM
Our Uludar 10 group is made up of "older" men with wives and children for the most part. So we can only really raid one night per week. This is good news for us.
sarlalian Jul 21st 2009 1:53PM
Interestingly, this could be used in a negative way against pug players I'd suspect. If anyone can extend the raid lockout, and it affects everyone on the raid_id, then someone could extend your already cleared instance, and prevent players from running that instance again. Maybe interesting for getting back at the jerk that ninja'd your raid_id that week, but sucky for everyone else.
KilgoreTrout XL Jul 21st 2009 2:13PM
"You have now been saved to this instance for two years."
Heh, you can individually opt out if you want, so this can't actually happen.
KilgoreTrout XL Jul 21st 2009 1:49PM
My guess:
7 guilds and at 3 server transfers in Wrath because you kept getting gkicked for being a petulant childish asshole.
I think I'm pretty close on this one.
(Oh yeah, it was _their_ fault, I know, you're awesome, really).
Chamual Jul 21st 2009 2:24PM
I think it's a great idea. It gives guilds who's main challenge is time a chance to progress rather than resetting.
Sure it's an extra thing the RL has to worry about and use responsibly, but tbh if you are raiding with a crap raid leader and your guild won't change them I would be looking for a new guild anyway.
Hasteur Jul 21st 2009 2:47PM
@Jerry
I will wait till live to see the "extended unreset" functionality. The case I could think of was where We start the 25 man raid on Thursday, push through Monday evening, make the decision monday evening that we will extend the raid lockout, and then have the top raiders locked out for the rest of the week.
Though with Conquest badges dropping like leaves now it'll be worthwile to chain run heroics every day.
doktorstick Jul 21st 2009 3:18PM
Huh? I missed something in the thread I think. Only one person needs to extend the raid lockout. Heck, if you are worried about your top raider (notice singular, only one person needs to extend their raid id) bring in an alt into the instance and have him get saved to it--and then do the extension. After reset and if you decide to continue pushing through the old raid, have people join the alt's raid, get saved and swap out the alt.
Cake.
doktorstick Jul 21st 2009 3:14PM
I loathe the opinions of those who think they know best for the "casuals". If a group is under-geared and cannot defeat a gear-check boss, let them figure that out. You don't need to be the raid czar dictating how people should approach getting through content.
Slam Jul 21st 2009 4:29PM
The only problem i can foresee is raiders doing the "oops, i extended my lockout, and now i can't raid this week" thinking they get a week off. Its something i know you really can't do unless you are trying to do it, but some people think your clueless.
Being the GM of a long time raiding guild, the things people do are silly, and make me want to jump off Thunder Bluff naked.