Flexible raid locks in patch 4.0.1
by Adam Holisky 
Oct 1st 2010 at 12:30PM
- You are no longer locked to the raid upon zoning in, but to a specific boss kill.
- You are no longer locked to a specific raid size or group.
- Heroics have greater restrictions placed on them.
- All Wrath raids will use this system once Cataclysm releases.
- All Cataclysm raids will use this system.
- This only applies to raids and not to normal or heroic dungeons.
Bashiok -- Flexible Raid Lock System in 4.0.1Almost six months ago we announced that Cataclysm raids were being redesigned to make both raid sizes the same difficulty, drop the same quality of loot, and exist in the same lockout. This evolution in raid philosophy is built on the belief that the size of your raiding group should be a choice based solely on what's more fun and enjoyable for you, and that you should not have to complete the same raiding content twice in a week to maximize your character's progression. These systems are the culmination of a great deal of design and player feedback from the last few years. With the release of the 4.0.1 patch, the new Flexible Raid Lock system will debut in Icecrown Citadel and The Ruby Sanctum.
With the Flexible Raid Lock system, instead of being locked to a specific raid size or raid group, each character will have the opportunity to defeat each raid encounter once a week. You could kill Lord Marrowgar and Lady Deathwhisper with a 10-player raid on Wednesday, join a 25-player raid to kill Festergut and Rotface on Thursday, and then lead a completely new 10-player raid to kill The Lich King on Friday. Every raid has a list of encounters associated with the zone. For example, Icecrown Citadel has twelve encounters. After you defeat Lord Marrowgar, you can open up your character's raid information dialog and see the list of encounters in Icecrown Citadel with Marrowgar marked as defeated. You may no longer fight Lord Marrowgar with any raid size or difficulty until the weekly raid reset for your region occurs.
Another key change is that if you join someone else's raid in progress, you are no longer locked to that raid after merely zoning in. Your raid status will only change when a boss is defeated, at which point it will be updated to reflect the state of the instance in which you are currently participating. So, let's say you have killed the first four bosses of Icecrown Citadel, and you then join a raid that has defeated the first four encounters, as well as Festergut and Rotface. The dialog that displays upon entering Icecrown Citadel will show that the raid has defeated 6 of 12 encounters. If you help them defeat Professor Putricide, then you would be marked as having defeated not only Professor Putricide for the week, but also Festergut and Rotface. If instead after joining the raid you then proceeded to wipe ten times to Professor Putricide, you could leave the raid with only the first four bosses marked as completed.
To help communicate to players which bosses are dead in the raid leader's raid, there is new functionality to link in chat a list of the encounters the raid has defeated. So before you join a raid, you can see what they've already defeated. If a raid leader advertises in chat that she needs another healer for an 8/12 Icecrown Citadel run, you can see precisely which bosses are still available to fight. If you were only looking for that one item from Queen Lana'thel that never drops for you and this raid already defeated her, you will know not to join that raid.
Let's look at another example of the Flexible Raid Lock system. A guild schedules three nights for 25-player Icecrown Citadel raiding on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. On Wednesday, the raid defeats Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Icecrown Gunship Battle, and Saurfang. On Thursday, five people cancel their raid attendance due to real life emergencies. The raid leader knows that if he cancels Thursday raiding, there's little chance they'll have enough time on Saturday to defeat the other eight bosses in Icecrown Citadel. So he splits the remaining 20 Thursday raiders into two 10-player raids. Each new raid enters Icecrown Citadel and defeats Rotface, Festergut, Blood Council, and Valithria Dreamwalker. The next Saturday with all 25 players online, they reform as a 25-player raid and enter Icecrown Citadel once more. Only Professor Putricide, Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and The Lich King remain. After a tough fight, the Lich King falls and everybody celebrates. Without the Flexible Raid Lock system the entire raid probably would have missed out on a night of raiding, and likely would not have reached the Lich King.
While players can freely move between raids of different sizes in normal difficulty, there are some additional rules for Heroic difficulty. If a 10- or 25-player raid defeats a boss on Heroic difficulty, then those players may now only raid additional Heroic encounters with that specific raid. If your Heroic 25-player raid defeats the first four bosses of Icecrown Citadel on Heroic, then they may not split up into two 10-player raids and continue to fight in Heroic difficulty. You may also not join someone else's raid if they have defeated a Heroic encounter.
But let's say you are a member of a Heroic raid in Icecrown Citadel, and after killing Lord Marrowgar on Heroic you have Internet connection issues that prevent you from raiding for two nights. During those two nights, the rest of the raid kills everything. Without the Flexible Raid Lock system, you would be done with raiding Icecrown Citadel for the week. Ouch. With the Flexible Raid Lock system, you can join someone else's raid as long as they are doing Normal difficulty. This would at least give you the opportunity to earn your Justice Points for the week. If this raid attempted to switch to Heroic difficulty for Icecrown Gunship Battle with you in the raid, the raid leader would receive an error message stating that she cannot change to Heroic, because someone in the raid (i.e., you) is already locked to a different Heroic instance.
All of the new Cataclysm raids will feature the Flexible Raid Lock and Dynamic Difficulty systems, and when the Cataclysm occurs the other Wrath of the Lich King raids will also have these features. It's important to note that this system doesn't affect Heroic dungeons, they will work as they always have. We look forward to feedback for this new system after 4.0.1 is released. As a reminder, Icecrown Citadel and The Ruby Sanctum are the only two raids that support the Flexible Raid Lock until the Cataclysm occurs.
With the Flexible Raid Lock system, instead of being locked to a specific raid size or raid group, each character will have the opportunity to defeat each raid encounter once a week. You could kill Lord Marrowgar and Lady Deathwhisper with a 10-player raid on Wednesday, join a 25-player raid to kill Festergut and Rotface on Thursday, and then lead a completely new 10-player raid to kill The Lich King on Friday. Every raid has a list of encounters associated with the zone. For example, Icecrown Citadel has twelve encounters. After you defeat Lord Marrowgar, you can open up your character's raid information dialog and see the list of encounters in Icecrown Citadel with Marrowgar marked as defeated. You may no longer fight Lord Marrowgar with any raid size or difficulty until the weekly raid reset for your region occurs.
Another key change is that if you join someone else's raid in progress, you are no longer locked to that raid after merely zoning in. Your raid status will only change when a boss is defeated, at which point it will be updated to reflect the state of the instance in which you are currently participating. So, let's say you have killed the first four bosses of Icecrown Citadel, and you then join a raid that has defeated the first four encounters, as well as Festergut and Rotface. The dialog that displays upon entering Icecrown Citadel will show that the raid has defeated 6 of 12 encounters. If you help them defeat Professor Putricide, then you would be marked as having defeated not only Professor Putricide for the week, but also Festergut and Rotface. If instead after joining the raid you then proceeded to wipe ten times to Professor Putricide, you could leave the raid with only the first four bosses marked as completed.
To help communicate to players which bosses are dead in the raid leader's raid, there is new functionality to link in chat a list of the encounters the raid has defeated. So before you join a raid, you can see what they've already defeated. If a raid leader advertises in chat that she needs another healer for an 8/12 Icecrown Citadel run, you can see precisely which bosses are still available to fight. If you were only looking for that one item from Queen Lana'thel that never drops for you and this raid already defeated her, you will know not to join that raid.
Let's look at another example of the Flexible Raid Lock system. A guild schedules three nights for 25-player Icecrown Citadel raiding on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday. On Wednesday, the raid defeats Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Icecrown Gunship Battle, and Saurfang. On Thursday, five people cancel their raid attendance due to real life emergencies. The raid leader knows that if he cancels Thursday raiding, there's little chance they'll have enough time on Saturday to defeat the other eight bosses in Icecrown Citadel. So he splits the remaining 20 Thursday raiders into two 10-player raids. Each new raid enters Icecrown Citadel and defeats Rotface, Festergut, Blood Council, and Valithria Dreamwalker. The next Saturday with all 25 players online, they reform as a 25-player raid and enter Icecrown Citadel once more. Only Professor Putricide, Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and The Lich King remain. After a tough fight, the Lich King falls and everybody celebrates. Without the Flexible Raid Lock system the entire raid probably would have missed out on a night of raiding, and likely would not have reached the Lich King.
While players can freely move between raids of different sizes in normal difficulty, there are some additional rules for Heroic difficulty. If a 10- or 25-player raid defeats a boss on Heroic difficulty, then those players may now only raid additional Heroic encounters with that specific raid. If your Heroic 25-player raid defeats the first four bosses of Icecrown Citadel on Heroic, then they may not split up into two 10-player raids and continue to fight in Heroic difficulty. You may also not join someone else's raid if they have defeated a Heroic encounter.
But let's say you are a member of a Heroic raid in Icecrown Citadel, and after killing Lord Marrowgar on Heroic you have Internet connection issues that prevent you from raiding for two nights. During those two nights, the rest of the raid kills everything. Without the Flexible Raid Lock system, you would be done with raiding Icecrown Citadel for the week. Ouch. With the Flexible Raid Lock system, you can join someone else's raid as long as they are doing Normal difficulty. This would at least give you the opportunity to earn your Justice Points for the week. If this raid attempted to switch to Heroic difficulty for Icecrown Gunship Battle with you in the raid, the raid leader would receive an error message stating that she cannot change to Heroic, because someone in the raid (i.e., you) is already locked to a different Heroic instance.
All of the new Cataclysm raids will feature the Flexible Raid Lock and Dynamic Difficulty systems, and when the Cataclysm occurs the other Wrath of the Lich King raids will also have these features. It's important to note that this system doesn't affect Heroic dungeons, they will work as they always have. We look forward to feedback for this new system after 4.0.1 is released. As a reminder, Icecrown Citadel and The Ruby Sanctum are the only two raids that support the Flexible Raid Lock until the Cataclysm occurs.
Filed under: News items
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 9)
Aaron Oct 1st 2010 12:59PM
Yeah but you can't replace them and continue on with Heroic modes if I'm reading it correctly.
Boobah Oct 1st 2010 1:35PM
Your character can only use one heroic lockout; they said nothing about how many people can be saved to any given heroic lockout, save that it's certainly more than 25. I'd expect the Heroic ID to function pretty much identically to the current raid ID.
Robin Oct 1st 2010 12:43PM
I was hoping this was sexual innuendo regarding warlocks in raids. T_T
Aaron Oct 1st 2010 1:01PM
hahahahaha
Daedalus Oct 1st 2010 12:44PM
I believe what they're saying is that you wouldn't be able to join a 6/12 if you were 7/12. They could join you, if they were willing to miss that one boss, though.
(Which raises all kinds of interesting possibilities for groups that have trouble with just one boss in particular. They could do everything up to that boss, then join someone who'd downed it, to skip the boss and keep going. Though that might not be the best idea in the world...)
Matt Oct 1st 2010 12:46PM
Sweet! Will the raid browser be up and running as well?
Algnosis Oct 1st 2010 12:46PM
Good stuff, I support it 100% I'm sure some people are going to screw themselves because they didn't fully understand how somthing worked and QQ, but on the whole I see this as being a great addition.
Cealle Oct 1st 2010 12:50PM
This is horrible.
Anyone that thinks this is a good idea just doesn't get it.
Same with the 10/25 sharing lockouts. They are RUINING pugging completely.
Fuck activision-blizzard. They are horrible.
Zorbak Oct 1st 2010 12:56PM
With the focus guilds are getting in Cataclysm, definitely. But the game is a lot more fun in a guild and any tangible benefit to make guilds more appealing can only be a good thing.
Quill2006 Oct 1st 2010 12:58PM
Perhaps I'm just being stupid, but I don't really understand the causes of your hostility. Perhaps you could write about your concerns rather than simply saying you hate the change? It seems like a great thing for pugs to me; I can raid the first wing with my guild the one night we can get 10 people together during this terrible slow time, then join one of the raids looking for help on Sindragosa or something.
Noyou Oct 1st 2010 1:47PM
Of course they are "killing" pugs. It's called guild leveling. I've only been playing since jan of '09 but in that short time Blizzard seems to be doing everything they can to make things better/easier to make content available to more people. This is another example. You will still be able to run pugs but it sounds like you will be a tool to help other guild level. Sounds like a good match to me :)
Faith Trust Oct 1st 2010 1:49PM
Or pug swap, you join a pug that downs Saurfang, and it disbands.
But then someone needs help with PP and you do that and raid disbands, then someone needs 1M for LK ..and you swap to that.
Granted, you might miss a lot of bosses on that scenario.
But its better than getting saved to a Saurfang run on a week just because ppl didnt want to run more, at least with flexible raid locks you have more possibilities to progress further.
dodgeballer2005 Oct 1st 2010 12:50PM
YYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES! ... Is my response.
relmatos Oct 1st 2010 12:50PM
Big question. It may be explained but I didnt understand it so here it goes.
Imagine I've done the first 4 bosses and Valithria(dont know how often this happens but on my guild we usually went to valithria before going to putricide).
What happens if I join another group for the Plagueworks if they havent killed Valithria but have killed the other 4(regardless of having killed Fester or Rot)?
Do they get saved to Valithria as well or will I just be unable to help them heal her?
Avrus Oct 1st 2010 1:16PM
You would not be able to join the fight on Valithria. So you'd have to sit out until they downed Valithria and moved on to Sindragosa.
Ice Oct 1st 2010 12:50PM
"you are no longer locked to that raid after merely zoning in. Your raid status will only change when a boss is defeated, at which point it will be updated to reflect the state of the instance in which you are currently participating."
-I thought this was on plans for like 3.2 or 3.1 but it worked half of the time and half not? "Saves only after boss is killed if joining late". No matter, its good that now its actually coming back.
Anyway, most of this seems good change for pugs. Not much change for guilds that run heroic bosses. But the "not being saved if DC'd for days" sounds awesome.
This seems little for guilds when first thinking but its really god send.
guest42 Oct 1st 2010 12:52PM
Before I get down ranked let me go on record as saying I think this is overall a great idea and I fully support it.
Now that I've said that let me point out a downside:
Be prepared to see people joining a raid in progress, down a boss, then leave group when the loot roll is finished. Raid leaders will be increasing their frequent trips to cities to search for replacements in trade chat. The reason is because people will not feel as if they are wasting their raid lockout for the week by joining for one boss. People who may have only 35 mins to raid will join for the boss then leave with the knowledge they can join another raid tomorrow and finish. Of course, they won't tell the raid leader they only have 35 mins to raid when they enter. They may even lie if needed. While there are plenty of pugs who leave now after say Saurfang, they know when they leave that they are done raiding for the week. With the knowledge that they can return it will happen much more frequently.
Now all of you are going to reply to me saying why this doesn't matter. I'm not saying its a big deal. I know, there will be tons of new potential replacements available. I'm not saying it's going to ruin raiding. I'm just pointing out what is going to suddenly be a new situation we will have to deal with when pugging raid spots. With less consquences to joining/leaving raids we will spend more time filling/replacing spots.
Nyold Oct 1st 2010 12:57PM
Yes, with people leaving more frequently, as you said, other people will also be much less reluctant to replace.
But there's also a reputation aspect. If you're notorious for dropping raids, your reputation will follow you. But then maybe it's not a big deal. Dropping raid is not that big of a "sin" anymore when replacements are easy to find (due to people less reluctant to replace for that just one boss).
Zorbak Oct 1st 2010 1:01PM
This is a very good point, but I can't see people leaving once they get past a boss they want only to join another run; what I can see however is maybe a mistake happens during a pug and some people leave because they are "too leet for this pug" and they know they can join another run, they won't be wasting their lockout.
Murashu Oct 1st 2010 1:27PM
This is the problem I have with this system as well. We already have people who don't want to "waste their time" on certain bosses because "nothing drops for me". This will just make it easier for people to cherry-pick the bosses they want for loot and leave raids always trying to find replacements.