If your guild has been struggling throughout the various bosses in Icecrown Citadel, then struggle no more! Icecrown Citadel raid buffs are now live. For the Alliance, it is called
Strength of Wrynn and the Horde version of the buff is
Hellscream's Warsong. For now, your health, healing done, and damage done are increased by 5%. It looks like
it'll eventually cap out and end at 30% but who knows when that will be. All in all, the buffs will definitely help progression raids out. If your raid doesn't need the buffs, you can simply talk to your faction guy and tell him to go away. He'll ask you once just to confirm, but if you are sure, he'll disappear. We've known that the
raid wide buffs would appear at some point but not exactly when.
Be sure to check out
WoW.com's Icecrown Citadel raid strategy and information page!
Tags: buffs, damage, healing, health, hellscream, hellscreams-warsong, icc, icc-raid, icc-raiding, icecrown, icecrown-citadel, icecrown-citadel-raid, icecrown-citadel-raiding, patch-3.3, patch-3.3-changes, patch-3.3-wow, raid, strength-of-wyrnn, world-of-warcraft-patch-3.3, wow-3.3-changes, wow-new-patch, wow-patch, wow-patch-3.3, wow-patch-news, wrynn
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items, Raiding
Mar 2nd 2010 at 12:40PM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Murdock Mar 2nd 2010 12:47PM
Does anyone know, is this a per lock out, per wing or per boss type of thing? I think, from the information above it is a per-lock out. I.E. you dismiss him you have no buff until the reset. Is that correct?
Matticus Mar 2nd 2010 1:01PM
Murdoch, it is per lock out. Every week, he'll reset so you can turn it off again. But once its off, it's off for the week.
Falcrist Mar 2nd 2010 1:34PM
It also IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR HARD MODES.
I have yet to get into the game to confirm this, but that's how it was explained by a blue just before 3.3 hit.
Terayus Mar 2nd 2010 2:03PM
If this buff is "per lockout", am I able to extend last week's raid into this week and gain the buff or will I have to reset this week in order to have it?
Falcrist Mar 2nd 2010 3:11PM
Actually... it's on in heroic... and I can't find the blue post stating that it wouldn't be available for heroic modes. I swear I read it somewhere.
That's disappointing. :(
Gothia Mar 3rd 2010 4:46AM
My question is how can you track this since "anybody" can turn off the buff. If the person has permission that is fine, but some random dipshit that does this, the same random dipshit that starts events without permission, without permission will need to be disciplined.
zoey Mar 2nd 2010 12:50PM
Whoever thought of this idea wasted Blizzard's money and resources. Opting out of the zone-wide buff is like opting out of gear upgrades. No one in their right mind would want to opt out of it. And even if they opt out for e-peen boosting purposes, it's not something that you can track at the moment anyway. What a stupid idea to make it an "optional" buff.
nyctef Mar 2nd 2010 12:54PM
Not really, since being able to opt out of it gets rid of most of the QQ that always comes with such nerfs.
(cutaia) Mar 2nd 2010 12:55PM
It's "optional" status probably took as long to add as it took you to make that post. Also, as far as ePeen goes...I think it's actually refreshing that people have an option for doing something "the hard way" that isn't tracked. For once, the difficulty level of the game is a simple matter of preference and *not* a matter of bragging rights.
In other words:
*makes dismissive wank motion with hand at your post*
Spellbound Mar 2nd 2010 1:10PM
Stupid idea is stupid. New content is being thrown at us far too quickly and since we have to finish it fast before the next best raid goes live lets just make everything easy as pie! I'd say normal vs hardmodes was enough tbh.
Falcrist Mar 2nd 2010 1:31PM
Does this make ICC too easy for you? Go do hard modes, where this buff IS NOT AVAILABLE.
Good luck! =D
Ringo Flinthammer Mar 2nd 2010 3:58PM
I would be amazed if anyone turned this off. Now, if they add achievements for completing goals in ICC without the buff -- other than the heroic modes, of course -- then it might get used. Until then, people will claim they've turned it off a lot more than they actually will.
In fact, I look forward to the first person to get busted for claiming his raid cleared ICC without the buff and then having their own logs getting thrown in their face, showing otherwise.
ryan Mar 2nd 2010 12:49PM
why would you want to turn it off? Does it disable hard modes or achievements?
It must not be available in heroic, otherwise this seems a bit early, as Heroic Lich King has yet to be downed, right?
Braundo Mar 2nd 2010 12:50PM
A matter of pride/challenge for a lot of guilds who want to do it the "real way" without artificial buffs, I would imagine.
Slaytanic Mar 2nd 2010 12:55PM
@ Braundo
^This. 100%. I don't like this. At all. It's almost like....cheating.
Even though I miss my cologne buff terribly......*looks around nervously*
(cutaia) Mar 2nd 2010 1:02PM
Technically, I discovered that cologne stored in the guild bank did not disappear. Now, if you take a stack out it will soon magically disappear from your inventory. However...taking one cologne out and using it right away? That still works.
And another reason to turn off the buff? Well, if your guild has started the heroic version, chances are you're going to want your regular version runs to be as difficult as possible for the sake of practice.
Scott Mar 2nd 2010 2:16PM
Walking into a fresh raid, keeping this buff would allow the raid to burn the bosses that have become weekly kills and reduce time between farmed v. new bosses. Win.
Come new bosses the buff could be removed and the fight would be played out as originally intended until the next reset. Win.
If it poses problems come the next raid reset, the optional buff is present to ease the learning experience, and downing of the boss until it becomes a weekly kill. Win.
BrettUltimus Mar 2nd 2010 12:49PM
I thought the buffs topped off at 30%?
Valt Mar 2nd 2010 1:36PM
"It will grow overtime, maybe once per month with 5% or 10% we dont know yet" not with exact words but the idea is that. Was said on Blizzcast 13
WoWie Zowie Mar 2nd 2010 12:50PM
well hopefully i can finally convince my group to not bite me during Blood queen lana'thel. i was thinking i would never get that achievement