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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast 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 2 of 3)
Naryn Jun 2nd 2011 8:16AM
I much preferred the Ulduar model, where not every single boss needs a hard mode, just on the ones that work, it becomes much more of an achievement to do them at least in my opinion.
Realmreaver Jun 2nd 2011 8:20AM
It is, to me; a very basic concept. What is important to a hardcore raider? Exclusive lore or gear? Both? Most desire gear. To be one step above others. To have and be able to show exclusive power and prestige about most others.
That is why I always thought 10 and 25 was fine distinction between none heroic and heroic content. I always thought the lower tier 'epics' should be a new color alltogether. Not blue nor purple but maybe red?
People want to be unique. Let them. I also believe however that such exclusive gear should keep them from joining certain 'open' activities. Like green and blue geared folks should be 'phased' or 'instanced' for world pvp and red and purples should have their own as well. Not only that but only those in full resistance gear can be 'instanced'.
MattKrotzer Jun 2nd 2011 9:11AM
So in your ideal world, you'd be phased away from everyone else?
That sort of defeats the purpose of an MMO.
(cutaia) Jun 2nd 2011 10:31AM
That idea is a joke.
No, I mean, literally, it's an April Fool's joke Blizzard played. In 2010, they basically said this type of phasing based on gear would happen:
http://www.wowwiki.com/Equipment_Potency_EquivalencE_Number
srodrigueziii Jun 2nd 2011 1:41PM
Your number is not large enough to whisper these comments.
Kate Jun 2nd 2011 8:22AM
The Ulduar and Sarth hard mode activation was just fantastic. It integrated varying the difficulty of the encounter into the fight itself without the clunky flick a switch mechanism of later raids. I would guess that the latter is much easier to design and code (and by extension cheaper too if you consider the cost of development time) which is why it's the norm now.
swelt Jun 2nd 2011 8:22AM
The Ulduar method was cool. But the reason that Blizzard gave for not continuing it is pretty legitimate. Their point was that it's hard enough to make each new boss 'new and different' anyway, that to also have to come up with 'new and different' ways to trigger a hard mode was unsustainable. Think about how many bosses they've released since Ulduar... 5 in TOC, 12 in ICC, 12 in Cata, 7 in Firelands. That's a total of 37 gimmicks they'd have had to come up with to trigger a hard mode. If we actually had to 'kill the heart' or 'press the button' in each of those 37 encounters, we'd no doubt be whining about how samey the content was these days.
Now one logical consequence of this is that you only have hard modes for certain encounters. But that in turn brings up a whole difficult question of difficulty progression. The current model seems to be 'normal is fairly challenging, heroic is difficult, previous tier is easy'. If you start reducing the number of bosses which even have a hard mode, you start reducing content for those guilds that want truely difficult encounters.
Zenith Jun 2nd 2011 8:45AM
Most hardmodes could have been as simple as an npc you talk to similar to the faction leader in ICC(Important note though, the option should be reversable).
An example could be Malfurion and company that help out with heroic ragnaros - instead of a UI toggle, make them spawn in front of the encounter area and have a dialogue options of 'we got this' and 'maybe you should help'.
Of course it should be made very clear in this example that the with help option is harder(ragnaros will concentrate on the area more instead of there and wherever the druids are in normal mode). There should also be a clear sign which mode is active before combat(let them walk into the battlefield and yell something.)
Other npc's can easily be added that run up to a boss and weaken them to current raids.
Heck, I would like having a single npc run through the raid with the group(technically they would just spawn close and run to the boss after trash has been cleared), which would also be the hardmode toggler once you have access to hardmode for that raid
polydorr Jun 2nd 2011 9:57AM
@swelt
I too think their reason is legitimate.
Lots of people will say, "But wait! They could do X or Y." And it usually ends up being some rambling thing that would be cool to them. But I'm content to let Blizzard do the brainstorming. And if it gets the content out that much quicker, so be it.
Homeschool Jun 2nd 2011 12:06PM
Hard modes don't need to be triggered in new or fancy ways ALL the time. Most fights would be simple to design a trigger for, even with precisely the same mechanics they currently have.
Halfus: The number of drakes you release before X point in the fight.
Omnotron: Push a button.
Maloriak: Turn a valve.
Valiona and Theralion: Kill X mobs in the shadow realm.
Some fights could have been designed slightly differently to have a corresponding trigger.
Nefarian: Kill Nef before Ony.
It doesn't need to be unique or fancy. What makes these triggers fun is the dynamic nature they add to the fight - the logical reason behind the heroic mode, the interaction with the boss, the feeling that it's not just a predictable scripted fight but that there is instead some choice.
Cataclysm raiding has (so far) been a little TOO predictable:
- Hallway with 0-to-X trash mobs
- Arena setting with boss sitting still and waiting
- Boss shout
- Kill boss
While these elements have always been present to some degree, the current raids seem to have little else. Some dynamicness to the way you approach the fight would have been a very welcome change.
Pyromelter Jun 2nd 2011 1:48PM
Okay, it's legitimate, but I'd be willing to bet that the majority of wow players would give up a few extra dailies, or a slight zone modification, or any number of trivial aspects of gameplay, for blizzard to continue to put that effort in.
Also, remember some hardmodes can be speed-kill achievements (Hodir). This is not a new mechanic, the old stratholme had that mechanic where you'd save the princess (argent dawn chick) if you got to him and defeated him in time. Council-type fights are also easy for hardmodes, just make hard mode kill in a certain order from easiest to hardest with the hardest guy going nuts at the end.
Basically doing it the ulduar way does take some extra effort, but I think it's fair for the playerbase of paying clients to WANT that extra effort. Heck, if they made that effort, they would have a good shot at increasing those subscriber numbers again (after dwindling down since the start of cataclysm).
Zanathos Jun 3rd 2011 3:38AM
You're not going to be giving up dailies, you're going to giving up raid bosses. Ulduar was awesome, but it also took forever to come out. All those hard modes were essentially a different fight. Which was great, don't get me wrong. But that means each hard mode essentially eats up the resources it would take to add another boss. Blizzard's decided to make hard modes amped up versions of regular encounters and focus on more overall encounters instead, which I find understandable.
themightysven Jun 2nd 2011 8:24AM
I like the Ulduar method, just making the trigger for hard mode being the same as that boss's special achievement seems like it shouldn't be that confusing, and the style not only makes it more organic [sp?] But can allow for happy accidents. (Oh my did someone step on Grezlorjoug's tail and get us purplier purples?)
cyanea85 Jun 2nd 2011 8:39AM
Another voice for the Ulduar crowd. I really hate that they killed that tier off so quickly. that place was amazing.
I'd also love for there to be less hardmodes (bosses that don't necessarily need one, like Marrowgar and the Gunship) in favor of having more creative ones...like Sarth's different levels rather then the same fight but with a new ability or something.
razion Jun 2nd 2011 8:43AM
While the UI toggle is *convenient*, I also find it very easy and, frankly, boring. Just toggling "25-man heroic" isn't nearly as hilarious as going and punching a gigantic red button, or as neat as being able to slice completely through XT's heart, or [not] messing with towers/watchers.
Frankly, I like the idea of the non-binary harde-mode like XT's heart the MOST because it acts as its own "raid check" device. And although that specific example mostly only gravitates as a gear-check, I think they could do better with the system and make Hard-Modes more "skill activated", meaning you would have to push through something you normally otherwise wouldn't have done. This would be its own way of checking if your raid was actually ready for the Heroic encounter *in practice* as opposed to just looking up your gear levels and the recommended levels for a heroic and just toggling.
Spellotape Jun 2nd 2011 8:43AM
Personally, it hasn't really made a difference fun-wise whether the HM was triggered or "switched on", as it were. Maybe it would seem more "fun" to players if a hard mode was more literally turned on a la Mimiron, but I'd probably prioritise how to access a HM lowest in terms of raid encounter satisfaction.
perderedeus Jun 2nd 2011 9:36AM
One, I like Hard Modes that have a unique toggle. Like the Big Red Button. They're more... I dunno... fun, unique, that way. It gives us a chance to see a new mini-event or have a new voice-over or whatever.
Two, I like non-binary hard modes. Like Flame Leviathan or Yogg. I think these keep the fights interesting past what would otherwise be their prime, giving groups who have 'everything on farm' a chance to do something that much more difficult.
Oomu Jun 2nd 2011 10:10AM
I prefer the ulduar way.
and yes, ulduar was a great raid. better than icc.
Brewa Jun 2nd 2011 9:53AM
I also was a big fan of the Sarth/Uld method. And I liked the tiered hard mode options as well for some of these fights with easy/medium/hard (sometimes with varying steps in between). When it's just "flip the switch" it feels like something is lost.
Lemons Jun 2nd 2011 9:56AM
XT's heart is probably the best hardmode activation gimmick I can think of. Also Iron Council's idea of leaving up the big dude for the end being "hard mode" is a good one too (was that a hard mode or just an achieve? I forget).
Anyways if you listen to the WoW Insider show I pretty much agree 100% with what they said. Activation hardmodes are best and also there doesn't need to be a hardmode on every single boss.