Thread: BlizzCon
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11-06-05, 07:50 PM   #25
Cairenn
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Raid Panel

Definition of a raid: Entrance into another territory for phat l00t.

They focus on the end game for raids. “Heat only rises” which means… I think… that they have to keep things going up and harder, since the challenges have to remain. Raid targets provide something to aspire to… something that makes the world feel bigger, even if you don’t do the raids, you hear about them.

Low level raids are not really their focus. It is possible to ten man the dead mines at level 15… but they don’t focus on balancing it for that.

The 1% myth. They talked about how on the forums they are flamed for making “content” that only 1% of their player base is playing. According to blizzard, during the week… during peek hours… at any one time there is
  • 500 Molten Core instances
  • 1500 Onyxia instances
  • 250 BWL instances
  • 700 Zul’Gurub instances
All going at the same time. If you consider that this is all week long (for instance 800 MC on weeknights) that is far more than 1% of their gaming population. This is for the American servers only… and you should keep in mind the raid lockouts… which means that many of these people won’t be doing the same instance on other days.

Onyxia was born August 13 2004. She was the first end game raid targeted instance/mob for WoW. She was designed to break the mold for previous games raid encounters. She borrowed “stages” from other RPG games and brought them into WoW. Her stages, as described by blizzard were:
  • Introduction
  • She can fly!
  • All hell breaks lose
Onyxia became a template for the mindset of later raids. They ask themselves for each raid
  • what should each class be doing
  • Mix things up, try not to keep it static
  • Have a duration in mind
  • Pacing is important
  • Keep Challenging the player
  • Raise the bar
There was some discussion about “smart” mobs. Nefarion, in Oobers, says to go after the one in the skirt, but when you finally fight him, he gets tanked like normal. Where are the smart mobs that go after healers first? That use smart tactics? Simple answer:

“We can kill you any time we want!”

A smart raid boss is not fun. Killing the player is easy, challenging the player is hard.


They had some interesting stats up. In a one week period… the most deadly raid bosses were
  • Vaelstraz(sp?) 24,182
  • Bloodlord 11,242
  • Firemaw 10,363
Then the most deadly “mobs” in the game outside of raid bosses
  • Gadjetstan Bruiser 19,254
  • Defias Pillager 17,162
  • Tauren Mill Death Guard 8,298
Testing the raids is very hard. A guild that works together will do better than a pickup raid almost always. Previously, internal testing was basically done via pickups. They would get some internal testers, CMs, and other blizzard employees… all of which are very good raiders on their own, and have them test things out. The problem was that all of these people were not used to raiding together… so they are working on a “Strike Raid Team” of dedicated raiders. A group of employees who test raid content… and work together… mimicking a guild.


Blackwing Lair was not put on the public test realm at the request of the player base. They wanted to be surprised… and well… it was a mistake. Zul’Gurub was in the PTR, and the difference showed… all future raid instances will be on the PTR.


WoW was in Alpha/Beta for over a year. The average turn round now for content is 3-8 weeks. That is why the older stuff is far more polished than the new stuff.


The CDC (Center for Disease Control) in Atlanta contacted blizzard about the ZG plague in the game. The CDC had read that Blizzard had simulated a plague spreading through the world, and was interested in how they simulated it. They were disappointed when they found out it was a bug.


They also previewed some of the raid content. Ahn’Qiraj was the focus of the preview. There is going to be a massive war with the Qiraj, and it will involve the entire server. Previous raid locations were bereft of quests, that is going to change with AQ. There will be a large amount of quests interwoven with the raid instances. Story is highly important with all new raid instances coming out, AQ being the first with this it seems.


AQ will require a world event to open. Both sides, alliance and horde have to complete “stuff” to open the gates. Once they are opened, then they are forever opened, it’s a permanent server change. All level ranges will be involved, as there will be supply gather and processing quests for the lower levels, and stuff ranging the spectrum. One side and/or the other will have to gather the four parts to a scepter to open the gates. It will take the average server 3 weeks to open it. If nobody does stuff, eventually the gate will open on its own..
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