Instance Design in Wrath

[shoju]

But you're assuming (in this counterfactual, only-one-difficulty world) that the hard mode is the "real" mode, and that the easy mode would simply be deleted. Wouldn't it be much more reasonable to assume, given their goals and past instance design, that they would have made the bosses somewhere in the middle in terms of difficulty? Probably ramping up from a few easy initial bosses to a middle-hard by the end, possibly with an Algalon "super challenge" boss for the elite?

-Jester

I didn't get to see a lot of the elite raids of TBC Pre-nerf (no BT, Hyjal, or SWP). But I thought that both TK and SSC were a good ramp up in difficulty. I have yet to see a normal mode fight that was on par with pre-3.0 Kael (I didn't see him pre-original nerf), or pre3.0 Vashj. A couple of them have been close (Mim, Yogg), but nothing was as big of a coordination check as those.

I like the idea of Ulduar Hard modes. I like the idea of a super elite boss that you can only unlock through hard modes. I like that we can run them 10 man instead of having to go back to 25 mans. I just wish that they would fix a couple of things in 10 man raiding, and a better path of progression into the raids. ToC is a complete and utter failure IMO. I don't like it. I don't like that

1.)Northrend Beasts - 2nd hardest normal boss
2.) Jarraxus - 3rd hardest boss
3.) Faction Champs - Hardest
4.) Twins - stupidly easy (5)
5.) anub - Not as easy as twins, but was a let down in how easy it was. (4)

I mean, we spent more time wiping and getting our first kill on Northrend Beasts than we did learning and getting our first kills on Jarraxus(30 minutes to an hour of work), Twins (1 shot), and Anub(2 shot) COMBINED. We spent 2+ hours to get Beasts down the first night. We hit Phase 3 on Anub the first time we saw him, died, went back in and killed him. I believe that the first night they went after Twins was without a full knowledge of the mechanics of the fight as well. I think they knew colors, and that there was a switch involved, and that was it. a complete 1 shot.

I really hope that ICC has some of the 10 man problems fixed. Itemization, and availability of gear is dreadful at times in 10 man settings, Some of the hard modes are overtuned (I will admit, nothing is as overtuned as S3D10 was), and some 10 man raiders are incredibly frustrated that 10 man raiding isn't the "separate path of progression" that it was advertised to be (myself included).

Sorry I got off topic there, but yes. I agree that I liked the idea of the bosses going from


Easy first -> super hard last boss in TBC better than I like T9 content.