Ol' Grumpy and the Goblet of Firelands adjustments
by Matthew Rossi 
Sep 21st 2011 at 6:00PM
So, this time I've been called back into service to talk about the recent Firelands adjustments, or as I like to call them, significant nerfs. Quite frankly, my take on these is a bit more nuanced than the last time, so I sadly won't get to grump around as much as I prefer. Frankly, there are several key differences between this series of nerfs and the ones to T11 content that make the situation a little less cut-and-dried.
- This time, both normal and heroic content is being nerfed. Last time, normal mode fights were nerfed across the board, but heroic content was left unchanged so that people who wanted to experience it at the original challenge level could do so. This is a decision I lauded at the time, and I find the different implementation this time kind of baffling.
- We got half as much time with tier 12 as we did tier 11 before the changes. Now, to some degree this isn't an entirely fair comparison because we also had to level from 80 to 85 before we got a chance to do tier 11, and in addition there were 13 total fights in tier 11 content plus a bonus heroic only encounter. Tier 12 has eight, seven in Firelands and one in Baradin Hold that barely even counts. But it still seems very early to nerf this content.
- These are some serious nerfs to content that is still relevant. Unlike the T11 changes, which took place as T12 dropped, these fights are still the fights that we're all doing. There's nothing to replace them, no place for the players who have done it before the nerfs to go if they want to stay on the cutting edge of content. This is the cutting edge, and it's now between 15% and 25% less sharp.
Today's most relevant content
I think it deserves to be said again: This is not nerfing outdated content to make people want to do it; this is nerfing the most relevant content the game currently has to offer. Reducing the health and damage for Firelands normal and heroic in this way implies that either Firelands was tuned higher than most raiders were ready for (an assertion I personally would not have supported), or we'll be seeing new content pretty soon, or both. When perusing the comments for the post we did announcing the changes, I was at first surprised and then thoughtful about the number of posters who said they simply had not cleared Firelands yet at the three-month mark.
What I'm seeing people talk about is the amount of trash that needs to be cleared vs. raid time, the basic summer curse we're all familiar with, and the learning curves for specific boss mechanics. I think these are all fair points. In the interest of full disclosure, I'll admit that I've been raiding Firelands since it dropped and clearing heroic modes for over a month, putting me squarely in the middle of the road for raid progression. So for me, these are issues that haven't interrupted my progress through Firelands. But to be fair, I left a less progressed guild that hadn't even completed all of tier 11 a week or so before Firelands dropped, and that guild's lack of progression wasn't based on skill or lack thereof but rather on time and player availability.
Frankly, releasing a major raid in the middle of summer means you have to expect a lot of difficulty filling the rosters. It all snowballs from there, really. A raid night missed for whatever reason tanks progression. If you raid two or three nights a week, missing one of those nights is proportionally bigger than if you raid four, especially if you generally have to raid with whoever shows up like a lot of smaller guilds do. It's not even the case that the content itself is too hard, but time factors compound with each missed raid.
Restel Syndrome
Combine this with new mechanics that are unique to each fight, and I think what we're looking at is the Restel Syndrome. Named for a friend and excellent player I've known for years, Restel Syndrome is when raid design excellence (I'm on record as finding each Firelands fight to be at least solid if not outright brilliantly designed) causes a steeper learning curve that simply cannot tolerate any sort of raid delay or missed learning chance.
The fact that Firelands is seven really well designed boss fights with unique mechanics means that there's no Loot Reaver, no Gunship, no "here's some loot for showing up" bosses that don't take much learning. While you may view a particular Firelands boss as that for your guild, in my discussions with other players, I've noticed a lot of variation as to which boss is easier for what guild. Some struggle on Rhyolith, while others blew right through him. Some love Alysrazor, while others hate the fight. Beth'tilac is equally lauded as easy as it is cursed and bemoaned.
These factors combine and cause each raid to find its progression stymied at different rates. I know excellent guilds that have fallen apart over a perceived or real lack of progress in Firelands, guilds that have been together for years and faced all the challenges of the last couple of expansions and their raid content. Is it my belief that Firelands is an inherently harder raid? No, not at all. But it is my belief that it is providing unexpected roadblocks for guilds of all sizes and styles of play, from the hardcore raider to the semi-casual and down to people who only experience raid content when they pug it. With the emphasis on accessibility that the Raid Finder will provide, this seems to me to be a similar kind of change as the recent threat changes -- a Band-Aid intended to get more people into Fireland while it is still relevant.
The message behind the nerfs
Looking at it from that perspective, do I think this a good change or a bad one? Well, I personally think it's too severe and for that reason would call it a bad change. But I'm not opposed to the basic idea of making such a change to relevant content; I just would have been significantly more conservative in the initial application. I also believe this means those patch 4.3 previews we've been seeing may go live as soon as the end of next month, perhaps just after BlizzCon. Nerfs this big say "This content is less relevant than you think" to me.
In the end, I find these changes baffling and more extreme than was necessary, but I think they might have been inevitable based on how few guilds actually cleared all the content and got into heroic modes. With 4.3 already showing us its hand, so to speak, it may be that the Firelands' time in the sun is almost over.
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! Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Hotfixes
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
Grovinofdarkhour Sep 21st 2011 6:10PM
Firelands came out on 6/28. Nerfed after not even 3 months?
TOO SOON, EXECUTUS!
Kuro Sep 21st 2011 7:09PM
Maybe I need one of them fancy tin-foil hats for this analysis, but here goes:
Didn't they delay the release of Firelands because the community wasn't ready for it? I seem to recall that Firelands was supposed to be out about the same time that 4.1 hit.
Perhaps they're trying to get back to production schedule by accelerating the pace of Firelands progression? Generally the way Bliz has worked is that you need to be at the tier of the previous raid to be able to participate in the latest content.
But they probably should have waited till 4.3 was on the PTR to do these nerfs, but I have a feeling that they were holding back the PTR to keep the dataminers grubby paws off the data before they could control the PR. (As they did badly in some cases, re: "BRAND NEW (recycled) worgen mounts!".)
(Not to be painted as a Bliz fanboy. I'll say that I'm rather dissapointed in how they handled most of Cata, mistakes with class balance, what I see is a fall in production values from Wrath (any of the new T13 bosses have original models so-far?) , and a very disjointed unsatisfying storyline. )
Straz Sep 21st 2011 8:04PM
Well, seeing as how they admitted that there were more new players vs older players not too long ago, this may be indicative of a move to cater (not in the negative connotation it's often used in) to less-experienced, lower skill (not to their fault) players. I think the LFR adding a new, less difficult tier is a good move on their part.
loop_not_defined Sep 21st 2011 8:31PM
Nevermind Normal...I'm still confused over nerfing Heroic mode. The Normal-only nerfs with T11 seemed to be a very popular decision, so I just can't wrap my head around their Firelands decision.
loop_not_defined Sep 21st 2011 8:33PM
"Popular" being a relative term, of course.
Adam Sep 21st 2011 11:13PM
@Kuro
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say we probably won't see this on the ptr. Why ruin the surprise of Dragon Soul.
vegemite Sep 22nd 2011 6:13AM
the problem with nerfing normals and not heroics is seen in teir 11. the Gap in difficulty between normal and heroic is enormous after the normals were made easier and makes them even more difficult for guild to attempt.
Personally I think it was a good move, if you haven't cleared at least the normal content after ~3 months i believe it should be nerfed.
I haven't cleared the content because of a time commitment issue, just because you haven't cleared all heroic modes doesn't mean your a bad player, I like the nerfs cause it means I may get a chance to raid firelands before 4.3
Also from blizzards point of view raids are expensive to produce so they want to get as many in there as possible.
karatesmashunhurt Sep 22nd 2011 6:26AM
"The Normal-only nerfs with T11 seemed to be a very popular decision, so I just can't wrap my head around their Firelands decision."
I would love to do some HC T11. But few people with the skills to do them actually wants to do them. Most people don't see the point in spending time wiping and learning a HC T11 fight, when you can do the same in Firelands for better loot. I'd love to do heroic content (even if only to see the extra-mechanics) and with the T12 and & T12 HC nerfs I'll be able to see some fights, and maybe even be able to down a few.
Natsumi Sep 22nd 2011 9:03AM
I still have this sneaking suspicion that Blizzard will NOT put 4.3 on the PTR and will drop the entirety of 4.3 in all it's unspoiled glory on us with little advance warning. They may have a short PTR with no dungeons or raids to test out void storage and Transmogrification but I think with all the info they released on the fight, and in an effort to prevent week 1 full clears by the bleeding edge guilds (that learn the fights on the PTR in the first place, giving them and advantage in the world first race).
THIS IS MY PREDICTION (I'm good at detecting these things)
Luis Alluren Sep 27th 2011 8:33AM
so naive of you guys to think this as anything else to do with WoW--
-- a few games are coming out--
My point ? You're not competing against Ragnaros, Blizzard has a raid of it's own to fight !
ayanamilily Sep 21st 2011 6:13PM
My guild has been spending the last month or so working on Ragnaros on 25N. We also have a little trouble getting Domo consistently on farm. We enjoyed thed challenge. Last night, we cleared the entire raid in 3 hours (the bulk of the time spent on swapping players) and one-shot Rag for our first guild kill. To be honest, we felt our hard work over the last month was for naught. If it had been a 5% nerf, we may feel a little bit differently. But the ease we breezed through content made us a little ill. Next week we're going to work on heroics and we hope that the encounters are still challenging despite a 15% nerf. If it is easy, we're going to feel insulted.
Krz Sep 21st 2011 8:44PM
Are you in my guild? Because that's EXACTLY the same situation as mine. We felt cheated after blowing 7/7 in one night of raiding the night after the nerfs.
Stompyomouf Sep 21st 2011 9:31PM
Yea I felt the same way. I couldn't figure out if I was playing WoW or Mario 3 last night....
Natsumi Sep 22nd 2011 9:05AM
Now do it without swapping players lol
albanesp Sep 22nd 2011 10:04AM
I hear you!!!!. Most of my guild killed Rag 3 weeks and again 2 weeks ago (when I was on vacation, then away for business). This week we brought in an inexperienced, undergeared healer for Rag. We one-shotted Rag even though the same healer died twice, I died at 15% due to my own stupidity, bad luck (and no heals) and we still one shot him.
For anyone who is essentially farming normals, they are now a joke. We will spend the remaining time on this tier just doing hard modes and cleaning up on regular at the end of each raid week.
Como Sep 22nd 2011 11:27AM
We killed 3 heroic bosses (1 hour of attempts on ryloth the previous night) in 4 hours yesterday..... It 100% cheapened everything we've been working on.
Zhiva Sep 21st 2011 6:16PM
I have the feeling that Blizzard doesn't have a design philosophy for WoW anymore and just throws random things on it to see what sticks.
Maccaroon Sep 21st 2011 8:52PM
T'is my own personal theory that much of the changes and designs we see to questing styles and raid designs are test runs for the new MMO, Titan. Perhaps not as random as we think but rather compare and contrast different design philosophys. An example of this would be questing through Mt Hyjal with its multi hub quest design vs Vashj'ir with its linear quest design.
It may seem random to us but perhaps it's clever forshadowing of future developments in game design!
kurrgan Sep 22nd 2011 7:09AM
Taking the Cave Johnson approach to WoW? "We're just throwing science at the wall and seeing what sticks here."
TonyKP Sep 22nd 2011 9:04AM
I think it's more of a pressure-from-above issue. Someone high up in the food chain at Activision looked at that $162 million a year in lost revenue from the 900k lost subscriptions and said "I don't care about your pretty little raid that you worked so hard on, make it easier so people quit leaving!!"
That said, I agree that the "vision thing" has been more than a little lacking in this expansion.