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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBlizzard 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 8 of 8)
tony.nguyen.enmax Sep 21st 2011 12:34PM
@parcus
What you say may seem true but some people will never know until they try it. There's a bunch of negativity that goes on; guilds that say, "This raid is too hard for you, don't bother!"; non-raiders that say, "I don't have 20 hours a week to spend wiping on Firelands!"; people that want to start raiding that say, "I'm not good enough for Firelands, it's too tough!".
To the guilds that claimed Firelands was too hard, it isn't. Get off your high horse and let casuals in. To non-raiders, you don't need 20 hours a week. 2x 2.5 hour sessions are more than enough to progress week in and week out. To the people that want to start raiding, you are good enough, Firelands is not that tough, the first few bosses never were.
I would agree that Alysrazor, Baleroc, Domo and Ragnaros could give people a lot of difficulties for a few weeks, pre-nerf, but they were still doable with some effort.
The tough part is getting the people together, which is tough because of all the negativity. Now we have a huge nerf that probably wasn't needed in this magnitude. Because Blizzard felt we weren't progressing enough, because people didn't think they could, didn't want to, or were told they couldn't do Firelands.
Thomas Higgins Sep 21st 2011 1:43PM
Well, 13k dps is something my Rogue could see if he stood on the highest peak in Azeroth, whilst elevated on the backs of a thousand turtles. I do five. On Troll heroics. I am not geared up enough and am not the best judge of what rotation to use. I know poor gearing is no excuse in the modern world of Warcraft for low dps so I stay away from them now. I don't need the aggravation that some pre-pubescent male or female would cause me in yelling "lrn2playnewb".
The thing is, I am happy with that when I am playing WoW. I say when because I haven't for a while now. I am learning how to play Arma 2, and that is one vicious bitch of a game.
Kenneth Sep 21st 2011 5:24PM
I understand that Firelands have been out for a while, but there isn't a need for a nerf until the end of the expansion, and even that you can argue. Doing it while it's the relevant tier is just plain stupid. I don't understand how anyone can see this is a good thing unless you are so bad at the game and couldn't progress. Hell, you get three free pieces of the tier from running enough 5-mans plus the bullshit of Baradin Hold. If Blizzard is serious about this game, then they should wait for the end of the expansion if they wanted to hot fix nerfs.
Also, the "hotfixes" that some of you are talking about weren't to this extent. Mostly, it was to fix bugs that made the fights impossible to complete. They did slight nerfs here and there, but didn't start these major ones until the end of Burning Crusade because too many entitled casuals cried because they didn't "see" Sunwell.
DragonFireKai Sep 21st 2011 5:50PM
The blanket nerf in patch 3.0.2 wasn't for people to see content. It was because many of the mechanics that guilds had been using, group twisting shamen, rolling drums, multiple consumables, among others, had been removed from the game, and as such, raid DPS dropped.