02-11-2008, 08:58 PM
I'm not going to bother speculating about the impact of the Sunwell badge vendor until we've actually seen what items he might sell, and for what price. It does make me think of all those PVE players who formed Arena teams for the sole purpose of getting the Arena weapons.
Blizzard have publicly said "they want people to see the content" (I believe that was their comment when they removed the attunement requirements for TK and SSC). I suspect we will see the same pattern repeated in the "Lich King" expansion - initial attunements to challenge the top guilds, and to pace out progression through the content, followed by removing attunements once their purpose has been served and they want to push people through the content.
I think its easy to underestimate how much the change in raid sizes from 40 to 25 people shortened the life span of instances. Prior to the expansion, I don't think we dropped Molten Core from the schedule until we were trying to progress simultaneously in AQ and Naxxramas, and there weren't enough days in the week to fit everything in.
Now, by the time guilds finally kill Vasjh and Kael, the previous bosses in SSC and TK are all but farmed out (occasional reluctant to drop items aside). While the two end bosses still have loot that raiders want and desire, the rest of the instances come close to being one long trash clear.
Removing the attunements now gives guilds that have been stuck at Vashj and Kael the opportunity to experience some new content they are probably mroe than eager for. By making Vashj and Kael accessible without clearing the full instance, they become faster to learn for guilds that haven't killed them (but want to), and farmable for guilds in the Tier 6 zones that still want items off them.
Kael'Thas can be such a fun fight that I'm glad more guilds will get to try him.:)
On another note, the number-crunchers at Elitist Jerks have been aiming their spreadsheets at the new Intellect-driven Spirit regen formula. The math scares me but the concise version seems to be: with more than 300 intellect, your spirit regen will increase; with less than 300 intellect it will decrease.
Chris
Blizzard have publicly said "they want people to see the content" (I believe that was their comment when they removed the attunement requirements for TK and SSC). I suspect we will see the same pattern repeated in the "Lich King" expansion - initial attunements to challenge the top guilds, and to pace out progression through the content, followed by removing attunements once their purpose has been served and they want to push people through the content.
I think its easy to underestimate how much the change in raid sizes from 40 to 25 people shortened the life span of instances. Prior to the expansion, I don't think we dropped Molten Core from the schedule until we were trying to progress simultaneously in AQ and Naxxramas, and there weren't enough days in the week to fit everything in.
Now, by the time guilds finally kill Vasjh and Kael, the previous bosses in SSC and TK are all but farmed out (occasional reluctant to drop items aside). While the two end bosses still have loot that raiders want and desire, the rest of the instances come close to being one long trash clear.
Removing the attunements now gives guilds that have been stuck at Vashj and Kael the opportunity to experience some new content they are probably mroe than eager for. By making Vashj and Kael accessible without clearing the full instance, they become faster to learn for guilds that haven't killed them (but want to), and farmable for guilds in the Tier 6 zones that still want items off them.
Kael'Thas can be such a fun fight that I'm glad more guilds will get to try him.:)
On another note, the number-crunchers at Elitist Jerks have been aiming their spreadsheets at the new Intellect-driven Spirit regen formula. The math scares me but the concise version seems to be: with more than 300 intellect, your spirit regen will increase; with less than 300 intellect it will decrease.
Chris