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by Dan Desmond 
Feb 21st 2012 at 6:00PM
Well, it seems I was wrong, for in the very next tier of content Blizzard released, we saw progressive nerfs to these difficult fights. Personally, I prefer to keep these encounters the way they are, at least until a new tier is released. Something just feels wrong to see the hardest fights available made easier through a series of hotfixes. Even with respect to my own guild's progression, having sweeping nerfs hit Firelands just as my guild was putting in some really good attempts on Ragnaros felt like Blizzard moved the finish line, taking what would have been a very gratifying kill and turning it into an accidental one-shot that contained none of the catharsis we had felt during previous boss kills.
What do you think? With the Raid Finder now a reality and a new expansion looming on the horizon, do you think the difficulty of heroic raid encounters should be static, like those from tier 11, or should they be more flexible?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Raiding, Achievements, Cataclysm, Mists of Pandaria
Reader Comments (Page 4 of 4)
Como Feb 22nd 2012 10:04AM
It's why I quit =(
I'm playing tor, and the tera beta and I'll wait til MoP til I make a final decision, I have the annual pass anyway
Geoffrey Feb 22nd 2012 11:22AM
Always, always, always make all nerfs OPTIONAL. That's all Blizz needs to do.
Meiji Feb 22nd 2012 2:20PM
Emotionally, I tend to agree with the idea of leaving hard modes alone.
The issue however is that if a guild has cleared normal and maybe done one or two heroics and then stalled, they are pretty much stuck for the rest of the xpac. By lessening the difficulty of heroic encounters, it provides a little more content to struggle along with.
Borsk Feb 22nd 2012 6:05PM
They did leave it alone. Just switch off the nerf at the start of the instance. Much ado about nothing.
Philster043 Feb 22nd 2012 6:55PM
The point is to make the game fun. The game is fun for the hardcore raiders, then it's fun for the less-hardcore raiders. Then it's fun for the casual players (who are the ones most likely to hang around long after the release of the patch). Looks to me like Blizzard is doing a smart thing here.
Granted, I'm one of these casual players who occasionally like to raid, so...
kdiddy Feb 22nd 2012 7:37PM
I believe that progressive nerfs to normal modes are perfectly fine. On the other hand, hard modes should be left alone. Balancing an individual encounter or adjusting a mechanic can be ok in some cases. Heroic modes shouldn't be dumbed down just so more people can progress. They are there for skilled players who want to be challenged. My raid group is not 8/8H and I'm ok with that, and I'd rather not have it handed to us. I believe we should all strive to become better at our classes and at the actual encounter, that way a sense of accomplishment remains, regardless of how long it took. #keephardmodeshard
detailbear Feb 22nd 2012 8:31PM
I've never raided and if I make it to Raid Finder it will be a great accomplishment. I can understand Guilds and Players wanting special recognition of beating Heroic before the nerf and that could be handled with a special word in their titles ("Grand" or "Exalted" or "Premier" Savior of Azeroth).
Lower tier guilds also need something to work toward and rewards on their way. You can provide varying levels of challenge either by having 9 or 10 difficulty levels that don't change (and wouldn't THAT be fun!) or by lowering the difficulty over time. Especially when you can turn off the nerf.
I'm all for compromises, so I'd like to see Blizzard grant some special titles, and have an optional progressive nerf, and maybe delay heroic for a cycle. When Normal Mode gets the first 5% nerf, heroic doesn't get one. When Normal Mode gets its second nerf, Heroic Mode gets its first nerf. It would give people a chance to get through more content pre-nerf and get that e-peen title, but the Heroic nerf still happens for those guilds who need it and they can progress and maybe get better for the next Tier of content.
ZeroDrawn Feb 23rd 2012 12:16PM
I think one of the things that exacerbates this problem is that the meat of the meaningful content exists strictly within dungeons / raids and BGs / Arena currently. There's a lot of vertical progression but very little horizontal - you're always rising, but you're never stretching, moving around.
The idea of the Pet Battle system is actually a decent example of a new type of meaningful content, where the method of progression (collecting pets & pet abilities) is completely separate from gear, and so changes to any gear-related content have no effect on it. Wether or not pet battles will actually turn out to be an enjoyable thing is yet to be seen.
While the Crusader's Coliseum is mostly unremarkable, it too has potential in becoming new content. It could be a PVE arena of sorts, where you and two friends must rise through the ranks and conquer many different kinds of challenges, like a fight where healing is needed but each heal causes your max hp to drop by x%, or a fight where you have to chuck bombs into the audience to blow down corpses that you use to distract a hungry one-shotting Abomination.
There's probably more examples, but it really boils down to WoW needing to grow out instead of up all the time.
Hunter1998e Feb 28th 2012 9:57PM
Leave heroic alone
It's called heroic for a reason