Blizzard announces first round of Firelands raid hotfixes
by Mathew McCurley 
Sep 20th 2011 at 2:00PM
Normal difficulty bosses Shannox, Beth'tilac, and Rhyolith took 15% decreases to health and damage, whereas all of the other bosses in Firelands took a 25% hit. Certain trash packs have had their proverbial bite removed, and Alysrazor's tornadoes will now move more slowly. All adds in these encounters have had their health pools and damage decreased in the same proportions to their corresponding bosses'.
On heroic difficulty, all bosses' health pools and damage, along with adds' corresponding health and damage, have been reduced by a blanket 15%, which is a huge nerf for heroic modes. Alysrazor also drops more feathers on both difficulty settings, and her Wings of Flame buff is now a static 30 seconds.
While many players will be upset with these nerfs, I can only imagine the many raid groups that will happily charge forward to finally defeat the encounters that they have been banging their heads against for the better part of the patch. Blizzard has said that there will be more nerfs coming, as this is just the first round, so make use of this time to get as many of the bosses as you can while the getting is hot.
First round of Firelands hotfixes
As announced in the 'Firelands Raid Changes Incoming' blog post ( http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/3494581/Firelands_Raid_Changes_Incoming-9_12_2011 ), we'll be making the below hotfixes which have gone into effect during today's raid reset.
Normal difficulty
• Shannox, Beth'tilac, Rhyolith - health and damage reduced by 15%.
• Other bosses - health and damage reduced by 25%.
• All adds' health and damage have been reduced in the same proportions as bosses.
• Hellhounds and Unstable Magma deal much less damage.
• Alysrazor's Fiery Tornados move slower.
• The Wings of Flame buff duration on Alysrazor is now uniformly 30 seconds.
• Alysrazor drops 1 additional feather for 10-player mode and 2 additional feathers for 25-player mode in all cycles.
• Wrath of Ragnaros in Stage 1 now knocks targets up, but not back.
Heroic difficulty
• Boss health and damage reduced by 15% (Heroic Ragnaros' health has not been reduced.)
• All adds' health and damage have been reduced in the same proportions as bosses. However, Heroic Ragnaros adds have been reduced by 15%.
• The Wings of Flame buff duration on Alysrazor is now uniformly 30 seconds.
• Alysrazor drops 1 additional feather for 10-player mode and 2 additional feathers for 25-player mode in all cycles.
Stay tuned to the 4.2 Hotfixes blog post as these and other live updates are made to the game: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/3019413
Normal difficulty
• Shannox, Beth'tilac, Rhyolith - health and damage reduced by 15%.
• Other bosses - health and damage reduced by 25%.
• All adds' health and damage have been reduced in the same proportions as bosses.
• Hellhounds and Unstable Magma deal much less damage.
• Alysrazor's Fiery Tornados move slower.
• The Wings of Flame buff duration on Alysrazor is now uniformly 30 seconds.
• Alysrazor drops 1 additional feather for 10-player mode and 2 additional feathers for 25-player mode in all cycles.
• Wrath of Ragnaros in Stage 1 now knocks targets up, but not back.
Heroic difficulty
• Boss health and damage reduced by 15% (Heroic Ragnaros' health has not been reduced.)
• All adds' health and damage have been reduced in the same proportions as bosses. However, Heroic Ragnaros adds have been reduced by 15%.
• The Wings of Flame buff duration on Alysrazor is now uniformly 30 seconds.
• Alysrazor drops 1 additional feather for 10-player mode and 2 additional feathers for 25-player mode in all cycles.
Stay tuned to the 4.2 Hotfixes blog post as these and other live updates are made to the game: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/3019413
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Look at what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back! 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 8)
Diop Sep 20th 2011 2:03PM
I'm surprised they're so large nerfs to all the bosses really in a current tier. I think a lot of people working on Ragnaros or heroics are going to feel cheated out of a sense of accomplishment.
Krz Sep 20th 2011 2:16PM
Yeah, my guild has been working on 25 Normal Ragnaros for two weeks, and we were making headway last night.. and now there's this enormous nerf which will make the encounter totally trivial. Disappointing, really. We needed time, not nerfs.
furrama Sep 20th 2011 2:21PM
This sort of attitude sounds familiar. Where I have I heard it before.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtdZF77gc3Y
acehawkblade Sep 20th 2011 2:37PM
Both of my guilds are at that same spot ... working on 10 man Rag normal and making progress, but just needing more time. Both groups raid 2 nights a week for 3.5-4 hours a night. Most of us are disappointed in the nerfs coming while the tier is current because we know we could get him down with more work.
Smapdor Sep 20th 2011 3:04PM
Everyone had the same chance to down the bosses. If they couldn't do it in time that is their problem. Maybe they should have worked harder on it.
Arbolamante Sep 20th 2011 3:12PM
I have no pride - I just want all bosses down. Short of handing us an "I win" button, I have no problem with a nerf at this point.
DragonFireKai Sep 20th 2011 3:58PM
The bigger concern is how this is going to affect the upcoming tier. These nerfs are massive. It's going to create a sizable skill gap between this tier and the Demon Soul. Going from firelands to the first boss in T13 will be soul crushing on a level not seen since going from 30% buff ICC to T11 content. Groups will develop unreasonable expectations of their own progression, and when they fail to meet those expectations, they'll quit, just like all the players in T11 did when they found out just how much they relied on the 30% buff. I'm not sure how effective the new "derp mode" raids will be at buffering this out. Will guilds that became accustomed to clearing firelands on normal be satisfied with with getting brickwalled in normal and having to split loot with the worst humanity has to offer in the LFR pugs?
Blanket nerfs like this are never good for the game.
benbettis Sep 20th 2011 3:59PM
To be honest, I'm a little upset with these nerfs too. This is the current content we're talking about, and it's getting a sunwell/icc style nerfing. At least leave the Heroic modes alone like you did for the last tier.
My guild recently moved to 25 man for this tier (albeit, a decision we've arguably regretted) and we're only 3/7 HM. Had we stayed 10m i think we'd be 6/7 HM but that's beside the point. The point is, I want to beat the content as Blizzard intended; I want to beat the same content that paragon beat, even if I'm a few months behind them. I don't want to beat 15% easier bosses. Last night we just gave up on doing our heroic domo attempts because we knew these nerfs were coming today. That almost made me sick to my stomach, as over dramatic as that is.
These kind of nerfs completely trivialize the current effort we're putting into this tier, which I don't need to remind anyone again, is still the current tier and likely will be for a few more months.
And I understand nerfing normals if they don't feel like enough guilds are able to see the current content. But really, Hard modes don't need this kind of massive adjustment. Let us step up to the challenge! :)
Noyou Sep 20th 2011 4:25PM
"Blanket nerfs like this are never good for the game."
Oh? They have been doing this for, what 7 years now? I think they know what they are doing.
DragonFireKai Sep 20th 2011 4:45PM
And the first blanket nerf on current content was the 30% ICC buff, and skill gap that it created ran nearly a million players out of the game. They're still pushing out random stat epics despite the outcry against it with Tot4W. Blizzard has often repeated their own failures. They aren't some magic bunch of geniuses. They can run a franchise into the ground with a few bad decisions just like any other company.
jfofla Sep 20th 2011 5:00PM
Cheated?
They had PLENTY of time to kill those bosses.
Let's face it, if they have not downed it by now, those people need these Nerfs.
leggomymuoio Sep 20th 2011 5:11PM
So happy we managed to get our Rag 10m normal kill last week before the nerf. Personally I think it's a little early for nerfs, but I'd also like to see heroic Rag (my guild took a month or two just to get normal Rag down).
Jorges Sep 20th 2011 6:31PM
To be honest, I don't care about anyone's epeen. I want to see the content like everyone else. These nerfs are most welcome.
Gennifurfur Sep 20th 2011 6:43PM
Normally I'd agree with those saying "if you haven't downed it by now, you need those nerfs." But let's face it, Firelands came out during the Summer, and I know my guild lost a lot of core players to this. Just when we might start seeing regular attendance by some of those players we've really missed, bam, firelands gets a rather ridiculous nerf. At least start at 5% and maybe do another 5% or so in two weeks. Why 25% in one shot?
Ice Sep 21st 2011 8:39AM
"""Blanket nerfs like this are never good for the game."
Oh? They have been doing this for, what 7 years now? I think they know what they are doing."
Umm no, they haven't?
Naxx wasn't nerfed 20% when ulduar came out, ulduar wasn't nerfed xx% when toc came out, toc wasn't..ICC had raising buff and lasted year.
Kara wasn't nerfed when black temple came out. BT wasn't nerfed when Sunwell came out. BC raids were nerfed 20% when 3.0 came out tho.
Molten core wasn't nerfed 20%(iirc) when BWL came out. Blackwing lair wasnt nerfed when AQ came around..
No, they haven't done this "for 7 years".
Gear and getting bosses on farm nerfed the content, not Blizzard. People must remember this, they certainly haven't nerfed old content when new came along like this.
This is totally new design philosophy with cataclysm it seems, giving easy access to epics and gear doesn't seem enough to nerf content.
And iirc this is FIRST time blanket nerfs are done MIDDLE of tier. Just pointing this out.
Personally I'm bit mixed on this. I wouldnt have minded nerfs really close to 4.3 I think middle tier nerfs are not ideal. It makes me feel like this tier is over and done with and only thing left is to farm gear. If 4.3 was around we would be working that.
Now its kinda like "well this tier is pretty much done now all we got left is farm gear.." with 4.3 it would be "ok tier12 over lets go kill deathwing". Makes me feel theres "nothing to do" because I like progression and dont care about gear.
Como Sep 21st 2011 10:21AM
It's amazing how many idiots are in here who confuse time with skill. We've been working on heroic ryloth for 2 weeks now and have been inching closer and closer. We're going to one shot it this week, thanks blizzard for fucking up the last part of the game that I liked.
Heroic modes are worthless now if they are just going to nerf them with the rest of content. Nerf the shit out of normals I don't care and people should be able to kill rag but heroics should be hard and not everyone should be able to do them. I hate blizzard a little bit more every day and that is killing my child inside, I've been playing blizzard games since before they were blizzard.
Hal Sep 20th 2011 2:06PM
Glad to hear it. My raid group was stalling after Shannox, so hopefully we'll get a chance to do something besides wipe with our raid nights.
(cutaia) Sep 20th 2011 2:12PM
Sounds like my guild. :(
Catsmeow Sep 20th 2011 2:18PM
Whew, I was beginning to feel alone. We stalled big time after Shannox, which is kind of strange given that we didn't stall all any boss in T11 for as long as we have been banging our heads against Beth.
sckeener Sep 20th 2011 2:31PM
Agreed. My guild struggled on Bale. We got the first 3 down with enough time on them.
My problem with fl was many of the fights seemed much easier if you had the right composition; however the next fight would be easier with a different composition.
So much for cata's bring the player and not the class/spec