Epic Cockblocking.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Icecrown Citadel testing has been progressing very well over the last few weeks, and this has been a huge help to the encounter design team. We want to thank everyone who has logged onto the PTR and tried the encounters there.

As we're now getting closer to the release of 3.3.0, we wanted to talk about our plans for access progression within Icecrown Citadel. Icecrown Citadel is going to be broken up into four distinct sections: The Lower Spire, Plagueworks, Crimson Hall, and Frostwing Halls. We plan on releasing these four sections of Icecrown Citadel over time and not all immediately when patch 3.3.0 goes live. At this point we can't give precise dates for these release dates as they are determined by when patch 3.3.0 goes live. Once dates are known with more certainty, I'll update the community so they can plan appropriately.

The first section that opens will include the Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Icecrown Gunship Battle, and Deathbringer Saurfang encounters. Progress beyond that point will be prevented for several weeks. Then the Plagueworks will open with Rotface, Festergut, and Professor Putricide becoming available. After another period of time, the Crimson Hall will open and you can then fight the Blood Princes and Blood-Queen Lana'thel. The final Frostwing Halls unlock then occurs after that, making Valithria Dreamwalker, Sindragosa, and the Lich King available. We believe a staggered release of the content will allow players to experience Icecrown Citadel at a sustainable, measured, and ultimately more enjoyable pace.

There are other elements that gate access along the way. Players may not attempt any Heroic versions of 10 player encounters until they have defeated the Lich King in a 10 player raid. Similarly, players must defeat the Lich King in a 25 player raid before they can attempt a Heroic 25 player encounter. So players must master every normal difficulty encounter in Icecrown Citadel before attempting Heroic difficulty.

The Lich King may not be attempted until Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, and Sindragosa are defeated. Furthermore, the Heroic difficulty of The Lich King encounter may not be attempted in any week unless the three aforementioned encounters have been defeated in Heroic difficulty that week.

The Ashen Verdict provides reinforcements and material for players to assault Icecrown Citadel, but this support is not endless. Raids will have a limited number of attempts total each week to defeat the four most difficult encounters in Icecrown Citadel: Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King. As these boss encounters are unlocked, the number of attempts available per week will increase. The initial number of attempts provided for defeating Professor Putricide is only five. When Blood-Queen Lana'thel unlocks, the amount of total attempts remaining will increase to 10. Then when Sindragosa and the Lich King unlock, 15 total attempts will be available to defeat all four bosses. After a raid has exhausted their attempts for the week, the Ashen Verdict must withdraw their support and the four most difficult bosses all despawn and become unavailable for the week. The limited attempt system is a feature of both Normal and Heroic difficulty.

There will be no explicit rewards for defeating the Lich King with a specific number of attempts remaining as there was with Trial of the Grand Crusader. There will also not be an achievement to complete Icecrown Citadel without being defeated by a boss encounter, or letting a raid member die. (i.e. A Tribute to Insanity).

In the weeks and months after all twelve encounters are unlocked, additional attempts against the final four boss encounters become available. This represents the Ashen Verdict growing more powerful and gaining a stronger foothold in Icecrown Citadel. To further help raids, Varian Wrynn and Garrosh Hellscream will begin to provide assistance by inspiring the armies attacking Icecrown Citadel. This is represented as an additional zone wide spell effect applied to all players that will increase their hit points, damage dealt, and healing done. This effect will also increase in effectiveness over time. Players may opt out of the spell's effect if they so wish.

[Ingmar]

For probably a majority of players, this will all end up as a net anti-cockblock, thanks to the stuff in the last paragraph.

[Soulflame]

The limited attempt system is a feature of both Normal and Heroic difficulty.

It's an epic cockblock for everyone, from the word go.

[Simond]

So...you get five shots at the final boss of the first section and and many as you like on the rest, and then the number goes up with time?

[Gobbeldygook]

So...you get five shots at the final boss of the first section and and many as you like on the rest, and then the number goes up with time?

No, the first part to open (4 bosses) will have absolutely no limits on attempts.  The second wing's (three bosses) last boss will have a 5 attempt limit.  The third wing's last boss (of two) will add 5 attempts to the limit when opened.  Fourth wing is a boss with unlimited attempts and two more bosses that are attempt limited, bringing the total to 15 attempts.

[proudft]

Hrm, we usually give up after 3 or 4 fails anyway.   

[Fordel]

Hrm, we usually give up after 3 or 4 fails anyway.   

Fuck were still in Ulduar anyways, by the time we get to IceCrown it will so not be an issue for us.

[Ingmar]

By the time guilds like mine even get to those bosses we'll be sporting quite a buff from the stuff in that last paragraph - hence I expect it to overall be a LESS cockblocky experience for us.

[kaid]

Honestly depending on how that last paragraph works by the time my guild has to worry about it the buff may make this thing naxx mk 2 hehe. It sounds like they really want everybody to see the end content but they want to even out how long things take so people do not clear the whole thing opening day and go O NOZ IC to EZ and whine and cry on the forums all day.

[Musashi]

Mixed feelings.

Seems like a cockblock.  Like they're just stretching out this content until the expansion comes out.  Otherwise, I doubt going to these lengths is necessary.  I guess it all boils down to whether you're willing to pay 15$ a month for content at this rate.  And you probably are.  Thankfully, I'm no longer in a place where this will effect me one iota.

[Delmania]

I've got many feelings here.  Some of the agree with Musashi, this is an attempt to stretch out the content.  On the other hand it's nice to know that people won't clear ICC in a weekend considering this is the ultimate instance from Warcraft 3.  I am happy that they will give out buffs so that scrubs like myself if I can find a decent guild, might have a chance to fight Arthas.

[Lakov_Sanite]

The problem is treating this as "the ultimate instance" and also making it casual friendly. The increasing buff alone would make this good if they just made arthas really, really hard. Even going so far as to have an achievement for beating him before you get the full buff. However what they are doing is not making icc the ultimate instance, they are making it the ultimate queue system.  Icc may indeed be hard but opening the main doors and then telling people they will have to wait in line for that next hit of content is going to make a lot of people sore.

Let's forget ultra-casual guilds or bleeding edge raiders for a moment. There are right now on many servers people pugging 25man toc, that are more than ready to do icecrown and a lot of guilds that will surely beat every boss available in the first week. I just think this smacks of lazy design and possibly hubris.  Wanting the game more casual friendly is one thing but is this really the only solution?

If I had to guess though, it's mostly because they have a timetable for when 3.3 is going to hit and they simply aren't ready with the rest of the content for the patch release.

[Ingmar]

I don't think its anything as conspiracy-worthy as "Oh god, content not ready yet!" They gated Sunwell and TotC and TotC heroic too, it's just a case of 'we don't want it all to be cleared the first night'.

[K9]

I'm really not bothered by this.

[AutomaticZen]

If I had to guess though, it's mostly because they have a timetable for when 3.3 is going to hit and they simply aren't ready with the rest of the content for the patch release.

You're thinking in the wrong direction.  The gating gives them a couple of months to work on the 4.0 bridge patch without losing players to lack of content.  I'm sure Icecrown is fine for the most part.

[Nebu]

I'm really not bothered by this.

Me either.  It's just more content I'll never see until they raise the level cap and I can solo it all on my hunter.

[Selby]

No worries here either.  Since my guild exploded and I have to resort to PUGs (ToC-25 last night was actually successful!) I doubt I'll see the content until it matters.

[Tannhauser]

Yeah, I'll never see the LK either.  I'm just not a raider, lord knows I've tried to like it.

[Sheepherder]

The only people with room to complain are hardcore players who aren't actually any good.  I like it.

[Lakov_Sanite]

The only people with room to complain are hardcore players who aren't actually any good.  I like it.

Somewhat right, if a bit elitest.  As I've said, this is only good for two groups...either the bleeding edge raid guilds that can down a boss in 5 attempts or the casual guilds that probably wont see content until months after it's been released. Those are however both extremes and there will be a LOT of people caught in the middle.

[Paelos]

I don't think its anything as conspiracy-worthy as "Oh god, content not ready yet!" They gated Sunwell and TotC and TotC heroic too, it's just a case of 'we don't want it all to be cleared the first night'.

Yep, it's this. They don't want to release the ultimate instance of the game floated by all the hopes and dreams of their original playerbase, only to be beaten in 2 days by people who will work it over with no sleep and no job. They will absolutely milk this as long as they can, and stifle the people with no lives as long as they can.

[Fordel]

I'm oddly okay with that. 

[Shatter]

So glad I dont raid anymore

[AutomaticZen]

The only people with room to complain are hardcore players who aren't actually any good.  I like it.

Somewhat right, if a bit elitest.  As I've said, this is only good for two groups...either the bleeding edge raid guilds that can down a boss in 5 attempts or the casual guilds that probably wont see content until months after it's been released. Those are however both extremes and there will be a LOT of people caught in the middle.

But the people in the middle will have the buff.  In addition, most of the fair to middling raid guilds only get 5 or so serious attempts in on a boss anyways before, AFK, AFK, gotta go eat, girlfriend aggro, etc.

Assuming after you beat the bosses once, you've unlocked their section, I'm figuring people will save their attempts for whatever the highest boss is at the time.  So by the end, player will save their 15 attempts on Sindragosa and Arthas.

Sheep is pretty spot on.

In diagram:

[-HR-][-HR-Jrs-][---Normal Raid Guilds---][----Casual Raiders---------][-------Non-Raiders--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------]

Using ToC as a metric, Hardcore Raiders(HR) are those who completed Tribute in ToC.  Junior Hardcores can do one or two Heroic bosses at least, but any of the Tributes are beyond their reach.  Normal Raid Guilds can farm Normal, but are dying consistently against Heroic Beasts or Jarraxus.  Casual Raiders have a bit of trouble with Normal, but can otherwise get it down with time.  Non-Raiders is self explanatory, and should actually be larger in the diagram for the sake of being realistic.

[K9]

This will really only be a nuisance to the upper 2-4% of guilds. By the time my guild (like the bulk of other normal guilds) is getting to the final four bosses in a single clear the number of tries will be raised, or we'll be at a stage where 5 wipes will be enough for us to call it a night and rest.

The only people this will upset are the people who will power through content mindlessly.

[Dren]

This plan matches very closely to how I think our guild would attack the new content.  I see no issues.

[Shrike]

I find no real issues with this (other than the fact they'll bone shaman on weapons again, but we expect that).

My guild doesn't move particularly quickly on stuff, but I have other things to do. Not like I don't have plenty of time for this game...

[Sheepherder]

Somewhat right, if a bit elitest.  As I've said, this is only good for two groups...either the bleeding edge raid guilds that can down a boss in 5 attempts or the casual guilds that probably wont see content until months after it's been released. Those are however both extremes and there will be a LOT of people caught in the middle.

And they will get their time in the sun a few weeks in, once it starts unlocking more attempts, more bosses, and throwing buffs out.  Just like the casuals will get their time a few weeks after that.  In the meantime, there is no limit on attempts in the unholy section, only blood and frost.

The only way this could possibly get any better is if they significantly upped drop rates on all items from all bosses from Naxx10 to Ony25, so in the meanwhile your casuals could fill out their gear sets on alts or undergeared mains in a shorter timespan while the poopsockers who don't get how to not stand in a fire whine on the forums about how this is incredibly unfair that their willingness to slam their dick in a door isn't being rewarded.