Patch 5.2 interview with Dave Kosak
Inside an old alt's vault
The latest patch 5.2 news
All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsIcecrown raid access progression
by Adam Holisky 
Nov 18th 2009 at 12:25PM
- Icecrown Citadel is going to be broken up into four distinct sections: The Lower Spire, Plagueworks, Crimson Hall, and Frostwing Halls. We plan on releasing these four sections of Icecrown Citadel over time and not all immediately when patch 3.3.0 goes live.
- The first section that opens will include the Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Icecrown Gunship Battle, and Deathbringer Saurfang encounters. "Several weeks" until the next encounters become available.
- Players may not attempt any Heroic versions of 10 player encounters until they have defeated the Lich King in a 10 player raid. The same goes for 25 mans. This means no heroic Icecrown until after the Lich King is defeated, which will apparently be, at the earliest, in a couple of months.
- The four most difficult bosses have a limited number of attempts on them each week. Once those attempts are gone, you have to wait another week to try again.
- There will be no explicit rewards for defeating the Lich King with a specific number of attempts remaining as there was with Trial of the Grand Crusader. There will also not be an achievement to complete Icecrown Citadel without being defeated by a boss encounter, or letting a raid member die. (i.e. A Tribute to Insanity).
- In the weeks and months after all twelve encounters are unlocked, additional attempts against the final four boss encounters become available.
- Over time, after all bosses are defeated, players will begin to get a buff, making defeating bosses easier.
The full statement after the break.
The full statement from Daelo:
Icecrown Citadel testing has been progressing very well over the last few weeks, and this has been a huge help to the encounter design team. I want to thank everyone who has logged onto the PTR and tried the encounters there.
As we're now getting closer to the release of 3.3.0, I wanted to talk about our plans for access progression within Icecrown Citadel. Icecrown Citadel is going to be broken up into four distinct sections: The Lower Spire, Plagueworks, Crimson Hall, and Frostwing Halls. We plan on releasing these four sections of Icecrown Citadel over time and not all immediately when patch 3.3.0 goes live. At this point I can't give precise dates for these release dates as they are determined by when patch 3.3.0 goes live. Once dates are known with more certainty, I'll update the community so they can plan appropriately.
The first section that opens will include the Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Icecrown Gunship Battle, and Deathbringer Saurfang encounters. Progress beyond that point will be prevented for several weeks. Then the Plagueworks will open with Rotface, Festergut, and Professor Putricide becoming available. After another period of time, the Crimson Hall will open and you can then fight the Blood Princes and Blood-Queen Lana'thel. The final Frostwing Halls unlock then occurs after that, making Valithria Dreamwalker, Sindragosa, and the Lich King available. We believe a staggered release of the content will allow players to experience Icecrown Citadel at a sustainable, measured, and ultimately more enjoyable pace.
There are other elements that gate access along the way. Players may not attempt any Heroic versions of 10 player encounters until they have defeated the Lich King in a 10 player raid. Similarly, players must defeat the Lich King in a 25 player raid before they can attempt a Heroic 25 player encounter. So players must master every normal difficulty encounter in Icecrown Citadel before attempting Heroic difficulty.
The Lich King may not be attempted until Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, and Sindragosa are defeated. Furthermore, the Heroic difficulty of The Lich King encounter may not be attempted in any week unless the three aforementioned encounters have been defeated in Heroic difficulty that week.
The Ashen Verdict provides reinforcements and material for players to assault Icecrown Citadel, but this support is not endless. Raids will have a limited number of attempts total each week to defeat the four most difficult encounters in Icecrown Citadel: Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King. As these boss encounters are unlocked, the number of attempts available per week will increase. The initial number of attempts provided for defeating Professor Putricide is only five. When Blood-Queen Lana'thel unlocks, the amount of total attempts remaining will increase to 10. Then when Sindragosa and the Lich King unlock, 15 total attempts will be available to defeat all four bosses. After a raid has exhausted their attempts for the week, the Ashen Verdict must withdraw their support and the four most difficult bosses all despawn and become unavailable for the week. The limited attempt system is a feature of both Normal and Heroic difficulty.
There will be no explicit rewards for defeating the Lich King with a specific number of attempts remaining as there was with Trial of the Grand Crusader. There will also not be an achievement to complete Icecrown Citadel without being defeated by a boss encounter, or letting a raid member die. (i.e. A Tribute to Insanity).
In the weeks and months after all twelve encounters are unlocked, additional attempts against the final four boss encounters become available. This represents the Ashen Verdict growing more powerful and gaining a stronger foothold in Icecrown Citadel. To further help raids, Varian Wrynn and Garrosh Hellscream will begin to provide assistance by inspiring the armies attacking Icecrown Citadel. This is represented as an additional zone wide spell effect applied to all players that will increase their hit points, damage dealt, and healing done. This effect will also increase in effectiveness over time. Players may opt out of the spell's effect if they so wish.
Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.Filed under: Patches, News items, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 9 of 9)
Eindrachen Nov 21st 2009 12:23AM
I can see that this method of gated progression does leave something to be desired. While I myself am casual, folks who have the time and energy for dedicated raiding seem like they kind of got a bit of a bum deal.
It's not that it penalizes them, because truthfully it doesn't. Not at all. In fact, they've kinda got a leg up; they can be farming Emblems of Frost while learning the ins and outs of each boss bit by bit each week, and get a leg up on gear better than most of us casual folks normally have.
Mainly, it's just boring to have to wait on content that's basically already released. Case in point: the AQ patch. The only difference is that AQ punished casual players (nothing like farming thousands of mats for vastly inferior rewards than if we just put them on the AH), and this punishes hardcore players. Neither is acceptable in the game; there should be a balance between the two. I mean, Christ, they already took out all the achievements they normally have for hardcore folks to sport. That alone seemed a bit harsher than necessary.
Having said all that, let's give them a pass this time and see how it plays out. We're basically theorycrafting results that haven't come in yet. There's still a chance for more content before Cataclysm; keep in mind that there is nothing saying they couldn't revamp the old outdoor bosses for level 80. I could totally see them doing that with Azuregos for some equipment side-grades so that every class build has something good to help it along. And Cataclysm may hit really, really soon, sooner than we think; they've clearly got a working build of it, and if it isn't already in late alpha testing, I'd be highly surprised.
FYI, A Slave Obeys got a downrank from me. Not because I disagree with him (I clearly said he may have had a point), but because his reaction is certainly out of proportion. He wants others to see his point of view, but refuses to see any potential good of the system. Hypocrisy stinks no matter who's spouting it.
Knik Nov 25th 2009 2:38PM
It's simple marketing. Blizz had to do something to retain more of its market share. With Aion and other new releases, WoW had to have something 'new' and 'easy'. Hence ToC. So now they're stuck with releasing IC earlier then planned, or let people get bored.
Mike Dec 10th 2009 8:57AM
As I stated in a pervious response, think not of 'casual' / 'hardcore' etc.
Think of the fact that you are paying money on an 'always beta' game. On content that is partially released. On stupid promises. You PAY for that. You should get things you PAY for, not whatever the company throws at you.
Buying in 'gated release is good for you, my dear player' is like going to the grocery, paying in full for something and then getting lumps of it (because it is good for your sanity, and you should not eat that much, no?) with the promise of next lump at 10-15 days intervals.
Before you downrank my comment, realise you are a paying customer also, not only a player. And as PAYING customer you have certain rights. And the company that supplies some services to you in exchange for the money have OBLIGATIONS.
Blizzard stated that they will release Icecrown. So far, they did not released Icecrown. They released a part of it. Period. So, you pay them money to lure you with the next lumps and also to play with their bodyparts while those money keep poring in.
As one of the posters here stated, this is really insulting. I have seen him downranked a lot.
Well then. Gz for those that did downranked him (and for sure will downrank this comment too), and happy cozy slavery. Learn to demand something guys. Not sleep on one ear and ingurgitate whatever brown matter Blizzard will throw at you, on your own money.