Icecrown Citadel raid buff to 20%
by Basil Berntsen 
May 25th 2010 at 1:30PM
While this might cheapen raiding rewards for many hard core players, I'll take a slowly increasing, optional buff against a flat out 30% HP reduction any day. Also, I suspect we might see some new achievements or rewards for players choosing to not use the buff once it finishes hitting 30%.Adam Holisky: I'm doing 10k single target dps right now on my huntard in ICC. today I'll magically do 10.5k. that just doesn't seem right.
Basil Berntsen: It's better than suddenly reducing the health of the bosses by 30% like they did in BC
Filed under: News items, Wrath of the Lich King
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Ian May 25th 2010 1:36PM
If raid players haven't downed Arthas yet, they 'aint hardcore.
thegatherer May 25th 2010 1:58PM
Cause obviously the only players are hardcore.
Joe May 25th 2010 1:59PM
Not everyone is a hardcore raider... I myself can't be due to the military style of life. Stop trolling and go do something productive.
Mr. Tastix May 25th 2010 2:04PM
You got trolled, bros.
Ian May 25th 2010 2:09PM
Really guys? Really?
I'm 10/12 in 10-man and 4/12 in 25. I am hardy a hardcore player, and never once claimed to be.
Hardcore players will no doubt have an issue with the buff, but at this point in time they shouldn't. They've already done the content. If they have yet to do the content, then they have failed to meet the definition of 'hardcore'.
However, if a point wasn't missed, this wouldn't be an internet forum.
Dane Bramage May 25th 2010 2:16PM
also... if they don't like the buff, then they can turn it off. that's the point of it being optional.
Jorges May 25th 2010 3:23PM
"If HARDCORE raid players haven't downed Arthas yet, they 'aint hardcore"
-fixed
Hollow Leviathan May 25th 2010 7:19PM
If raids have not downed Lich King yet, they're aren't hardcore, or 1-2 in the raid isn't hardcore, or there's been a lot of IRL issues limiting attendance, or time zones have limited attempts, or the GL quit and the raid has had to regroup, or...
artifex May 25th 2010 8:01PM
Ian is not wrong, and what he's saying isn't bad.
Hardcore is hardcore. You know, the extreme raiders.
That has nothing to do with being good raiders, or accomplished raiders. Just extreme raiders.
In fact, I'd go further and say probably nobody's as hardcore as the ones with world or server firsts.
note: I have no world or server firsts. I never will, because I'm not hardcore.
I'm happy I'm not.
theRaptor May 25th 2010 1:36PM
Anyone who doesn't like it can just talk to their faction representative and turn it off.
Unfortunately any noob who can't work out how to use a teleporter can also turn it off.
It won't really affect hardcore raiders as getting achievements first is what matters, and the gear is going to last them to the second tier of cata raiding at best.
Themock May 25th 2010 6:11PM
I had this happen with our one pug slot last week. He didn't even realize what he was doing. Something that I did not know is that if instance is clear of all players for 30 min, it comes back automatically. A good thing for people to know if a disgruntled or unsuspecting raid member turns it off on you.
Themock May 25th 2010 6:13PM
*if THE instance. Damn you, grammar check.
Rokkuman v3 May 25th 2010 1:40PM
Its not so much as being about the hardcore but about what Blizz wanted from the start. They want everyone to have a better chance at seeing the Fall of the Lich King and this will help out those that didnt get a chance to see other endgame content. I'd feel bad if I worked hard on something for people to enjoy and only 20% of those people got to see it :(
Clown May 25th 2010 1:49PM
its good. even for hardcore guilds once icc is cleared you just return to pickup the extra bits of kit this buff just makes that faster. i can see how guilds who have not progressed without the buff being a bit mad tho but it can just be turned off.
PodPeople May 25th 2010 4:18PM
yes, it can be turned off, but it's an all or nothing option. that was fine back when it was only 5%, but now that we're at 20% it would be nice to be able to choose what setting we want. I like that we have the choice and all, i just wish it wasn't so binary. I know for my guild the best setting was 10%, it was a balance between being helpful without making things cheezy.
eROKv May 25th 2010 1:57PM
hardcore raiders can form a line at the AH bridge in IF and i will be handing out cookies and pats the back. please link your achievements first though...
Sean May 25th 2010 6:16PM
Everyone knows hardcore players are Horde. What would they be doing in IF?
Redielin May 25th 2010 1:50PM
After doing our LK attempts last night, our Resto Shaman made an important point: some people are waiting until the next buff before they get serious about pushing themselves to get the LK down. Instead of "oh we wiped, how can we improve" its "its okay guys, we'll get the LK next week with the buff".
An unintended consequence of the buff, sure but a really annoying one.
crschmidt May 25th 2010 2:09PM
As a raid leader, I completely agree. Most of our raiders aren't like this, but we have one who consistently states that it is clearly Blizzard's intention that fights can't be done without the buff, etc.
Now, I'm willing to go with this for hard modes -- the fact that Blizzard's encounter designers admitted to never getting past Yogg +3, much less down to Yogg +0 when testing encounters, means that there is some evidence that encounter designers are not able to tune the top end content precisely, so having the ICC buff to turn that knob is useful. (See also: No 10 man strict guilds have cleared H LK yet, even with the 15% buff.)
However, 10-man strict guilds cleared ICC 10 to LK -- even without 25-man gear -- in the first month it was available. The fact that we haven't downed LK yet is not because we need to wait for another buff. At the time, the fight in question was Sindragosa, and the reason we were wiping was because we need to get better at not chaining frost tombs, standing where we were supposed to, running out of blistering cold, etc.
Using the coming buffs as an excuse to not improve your playing is annoying and frustrating, and I hate that people do it.
Kemikalkadet May 25th 2010 2:11PM
I dunno, it had the opposite effect on our group. We had the attitude of 'c'mon lets get it down before it gets nerfed more'. We pushed to get Sindra down this week and had a couple of 'test-the-waters' attempts on the lich king. Shame we won't see him down before 20% buff but if we get it before it hits 30% i'll be happy.