Breakfast Topic: How do you prefer to access "hard modes"?
by Brian Cutaia 
Jun 2nd 2011 at 8:00AM
Ever since Wrath of the Lich King, Blizzard has toyed around with its concept of "heroic" raiding. What first started out as a mere distinction between 10- and 25-player boss fights eventually became a difference in difficulty that was available in both raid sizes. It iterated further from Ulduar's various "hard mode" triggers to a simple UI element that toggled the "Grand" in and out of Trial of the Crusader. In ICC, Blizzard seemed to finally settle on how it wanted things to work.
Heroic mode is still relegated to a UI element, but it can at least be changed on a boss-by-boss basis, which puts it a step above the Argent Tournament's four raid lockouts. I must say, though, I do miss the creative methods of triggering hard modes in Ulduar. Leaving up the towers before Flame Leviathan or killing XT's heart to throw him into a new phase were clever and engaging ways to change up fights.
These days, there's no fun to be had in turning these modes on -- you just a flip a switch and sit through a loading screen. I wish it were possible to bring back a more meaningful method of triggering heroic modes. If you ask me, it would be great if you used a machine to "wake up" the additional drakes for heroic Halfus, for example. The downside to this type of toggle, of course, is that there is much more room for player confusion about how to activate each hard mode. I think it's a fair trade-off, though.
How about you? Do you pine for Ulduar's version of hard modes, or do you prefer to set it and forget it in the UI? Is there anything else you would change about heroic modes?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Nina Katarina Jun 2nd 2011 8:08AM
Wasn't Sarth3d the first hardmode that gave different loot? I really liked that method - it made it tough to accidentally hardmode yourselves.
swelt Jun 2nd 2011 8:15AM
I think it was the 3 bugs in AQ40 actually. The order you killed them made the fight harder/easier and doing the harder options rewarded better loot.
The Dewd Jun 2nd 2011 2:04PM
You could make the argument for/against a Dire Maul Tribute Run being a "Hard Mode". The boss fights didn't change, really, other than the fact that you didn't actually fight most of them. If nothing else, DM and AQ showed that Blizzard was already thinking in terms of changing your loot based on what you did in the instance.
MattKrotzer Jun 2nd 2011 8:09AM
I'm all for the trigger-in-encounter method of Ulduar. It was just such an engaging method for activating the hardmode fights, though I do believe a few were too easy to accidentally stumble onto, whether you meant to or not.
Honestly, there's very little about Ulduar that I didn't find to be flawless. It's probably the greatest raid ever created in the World of Warcraft, in my opinion. It gave a measure of fluidity and choice in how you wanted to progress, had innovative mechanics that still provide challenges to groups who have long since outleveled the content, and was jam-packed with story.
Knob Jun 2nd 2011 8:15AM
Not only was Ulduar's hard mode trigger system great, the hard modes themselves made the fight feel completely different. FL+4 felt completely different from normal mode, same with Freya, Yogg-Saron. There were some boring ones like Hodir, but overall Ulduar was just a mass of awesome. The best raid in WotLK by far.
Tinwhisker Jun 2nd 2011 8:25AM
I agree, Ulduar was the ultimate in raiding. It had everything: lore, mechanics, scenery. It was engaging and exciting and the bosses were all unique and fit in well with what was going on. There was never a sense of, "Oh, here's *another* dragon to fight."
Deathknighty Jun 2nd 2011 9:09AM
What about Razorscale? I guess she was Thorim's mount, but that boss still had a fair degree of dragun-derp. :/
MattKrotzer Jun 2nd 2011 9:13AM
Razorscale had a breath attack, but lacked the tail whip. Also, required a new and interesting mechanic to bring her to the ground, as well as a tank swap/kite mechanic.
Unlike Sindragosa, you couldn't just say "Normal dragon rules apply" for Razorscale.
Vort Jun 2nd 2011 9:25AM
Ulduar was a great raid, but I couldn't call it the greatest raid in World of Warcraft. Kara still tugs at my heart strings in a special way no other raid has been able to do. I learnt everything I know about raiding from Kara, and I got my first ever piece of tier gear from Curator. The fond memories of Kara probably means I'm not being objective, but Kara's environment, bosses, variety to the fights. Greatest raid ever :)
Sharlatan Jun 2nd 2011 12:02PM
Yep,
Ulduar was the best method for hardmodes.
It was varied, from simple dps race like hodir, to complex like firefighter, to mechanic changing like vezax. With the end boss having a scalable difficulty for the really uber to stoke their epeen on, and a hc mode only boss as a kind of reward for defeating the other hardmodes.
In fact, uld is pretty much the definitive raid model imo, more like this one pls, everything since has been pants.
wutsconflag Jun 2nd 2011 12:40PM
Agree 100%
Pyromelter Jun 2nd 2011 1:38PM
Razorscale is an armored version of Veranus, who is a proto-drake. I could be wrong but I'm fairly confident in saying that proto-drakes are not the same as dragons. So "dragon-durp" would not apply since she wasn't a dragon. Also, that fight was really fun, the only slightly annoying thing about her was the achievement "Iron Dwarf, Medium Rare."
Also, Ulduar is awesome. Not was awesome, is awesome. Whoever designed that raid needs a raise and also needs to be paid to do more raids.
The Dewd Jun 2nd 2011 2:09PM
I'm also in the Ulduar camp. Not only was the really the first raid instance that *really* made me look around in awe since Molten Core (remember the first time you actually got Executus down and walked into Rag's room and looked around?) but the triggers were different for every fight and required the raid to do/not do something.
Plus, in some ways it was a built-in gear check - especially in what seems to be one of everyone's favorite examples in this thread, XT. If you couldn't kill the heart fast enough, it didn't matter and if you could, there was a good chance (if you could do the spark dance), that you could kill him with the enrage. Plus it made things a bit more exciting as your raid got closer to being able to kill the heart "on accident" and having to yell on Vent to everyone to stop DPS on the heart.
g2g591 Jun 2nd 2011 2:11PM
Agreed, I loved how engaging Ulduar's method of activating hard modes was. It made you WANT to do hard modes, I mean, look at Mimeron for example, a big red button with a sign saying do not push? who DOESN'T want to push that!? and XT, i mean, knowing your raid had the dps to break this guys heart made you (me at least) want to do hard mode on him. It also gave a sort of explanation on why this guy suddenly does a bunch of stuff that he doesn't do on normal mode.
Skarn Jun 2nd 2011 2:56PM
"It was just such an engaging method for activating the hardmode fights, though I do believe a few were too easy to accidentally stumble onto, whether you meant to or not."
One of Blizzard's stated reasons for leaving the "Trigger Method" behind is that, as you mention, sometimes it was difficult to know what triggered the hard mode. They worry that will be too rough on the average raider.
I don't think that's a real issue. The "average" raider shouldn't even be worrying about hard modes. The raiders that are going after hard modes are gonna be able to figure out the Triggers just fine. If they can't, they're probably gonna wipe anyway!
Tsukuri Jun 2nd 2011 8:11AM
I myself much prefer the Ulduar method of activating hard mode.
I have two reasons:
First being that it actually means that sometimes you need to be careful NOT to activate it if you think you can't do it (think XT where if you accidentally killed the heart then you're kinda buggered),
Secondly it's a much more creative/interesting way of activating it instead of the "on/off" switch (oh and it removes the need of a few moments on the loading screen and the chance of a DC).
Even though I never originally did any hard-mode in WotLK until T10 and Cata, I really do think it was clever how you had to manage your dps incase you accidentally killed the heart OR urge your raid-members not to press that irresistable button.
Luvaria Jun 2nd 2011 3:12PM
Yep, all that plus the main reason for me is thinking that, in the other instances' easy modes, "oh this boss has the potential to do all of this...but he'll just die without trying."
For example, knowing that LK has shadow traps on heroic...but he just decides he doesn't need them ever on regular?
I guess I just like having some sort of story about why the boss is stronger. Particularly the elements of outside help is what I liked. FL + towers, Thorim with help from Sif, refusing some help on Yogg from the keepers, Freya being empowered by the ancients, killing bosses in a different order in Iron Council. All of those I loved. Vezax and XT were fine too, but mechanics like that may not be the easiest way to figure out what the HM is until you accidentally stumble onto them (I still like the mechanics, there's another element of control *during* the fight that you have to watch to make sure it happens the way you want).
bimberiusz Jun 2nd 2011 8:15AM
Do not Push The RED BUTTON!
Knob Jun 2nd 2011 8:50AM
What does thiiiiis button do?
MrDrew Jun 2nd 2011 12:07PM
....twiddles thumbs looks over at the big shiney red button gleaming with temptation....the whispers start....must not give in....*SMASH* points at the healer.