Kaplan, Pardo.....where are the raid dungeons

Our development team is currently hard at work on Ulduar. It's going to be massive. For those looking to progress past Naxxramas, this will be your place. For those looking for much more of a challenge content-wise than they've seen thus far in Wrath of the Lich King, Ulduar welcomes you.

After The Burning Crusade's final major content patch, the plan was to space out the new raid dungeons in Wrath of the Lich King so there wouldn't be overwhelming moments or times where several raids are released at once and slightly ill-tuned (as was the case with The Burning Crusade's launch); we also don't want extremely long periods of time where no new raids come out, as was the case after The Burning Crusade's initial launch.

I trust players can expect to find a fair amount of challenge and content with patch 3.1, and each major content patch after that in Wrath of the Lich King will offer similar new feats.

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How did content get so Linear? In the 2nd or 3rd old EQ expansion Ariel and Tigole were specifically behind one of the dungeons getting their loot totally revamped. To compete with one or two other top of the line raid dungeons....Where is the choice? In WoW it seems you clear one dungeon then move to the next....It was not that way in EQ and I cant believe Pardo or Kaplan would have liked it to be.

Raid progression in this game has always been fairly linear. That is by design. The idea is to have clear progressions depending on how you choose to spend your time, whether in 5-man, 10-man, 25-man, or PvP.

It takes quite a bit of time to design a new dungeon, even just speaking about the art alone. By the time we get around to tuning a new raid dungeon, the idea is to offer new, more difficult challenges, which would naturally result in better rewards. That seems to describe a linear design philosophy as you put it.

For those asking about the challenge, I'd wager the average guild couldn't expect to waltz into Ulduar and clear the place right away in its top form. If it didn't come back to haunt me (har), I'd guess it would take weeks for the average guild.

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On a difficulty scale what previous (BC or Vanilla) raid could be most compared (in their respective time period) to Ulduar?... Kind of like BWL to Naxx's MC?

I'd like to avoid comparisons at this point. If each of those old raid dungeons were exotic insects in a rain forest, Ulduar would be the body-snatching fungus from outer space coming to create pod people.

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Hey zahryn how are you, is patch 3.1 bringing battleground exp?

Not likely, though it is still a possibility in Wrath's future.

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All that really says is "get ready for halls FILLED with trash :D!" The size of it isn't really a selling point because we know empty space will just be filled with boring trash clears.

What really matters is the amount and quality of the boss encounters.

Point noted, though I didn't just use the word "massive" to mean "big rooms" or "loads o' trash."

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Did you mean "massive" as in "hit the giant enemy crab in its weak point for massive damage?"

I'm not sure if the community could handle such historical realism in WoW.

lol

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It's "massive" like an elephant with a gland problem is "massive"?

Or it's "massive" like the invention of fat-free chocolate chip and rainbow sherbet flavor ice cream would be "massive"?

I couldn't tell you with any certainty, and I'm not one to Speculate.

>.>

<.<

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Well, you tell us it's massive, and it will take "weeks" for the average raid guild. Of course, you've also hinted that there will be a LOT more "hard mode" versions of these fights, including one fight that, by itself, doesn't have a regular or "easy" mode, and this is a step in the right direction as I think 3 drake Sartharion was knocked out of the park. My only complaint about the encounter also seems to be addressed from prior comments on it'll reward the raid more than just one mount for 25 people per kill, which is fantastic.



HOWEVER, I'd be remiss to point out how silly big Naxx is, plus we got 2 single shot dungeons as well in 3.0. Are we getting the same AMOUNT of varied stuff to do, or will it be considerably shorter? We looking like a Naxx number of bosses to beat, a BT level, a SSC level, or a Sunwell level in terms of amount? More content spread across more time only works if it doesn't take less than a month to do everything before you're again waiting 4-5 months, ya know?


Also, is anything hammered down in terms of what's next? I know 3.1 brings Ulduar, another patch down the line will bring Icecrown obviously, but will there be any tiers(I guess the best way of phrasing it) in-between? While the raid achievements were a nice idea, will we see some kind of equality with them(in other words some fights that stress out other roles as much as you stressed out healers for stuff like the Undying/Immortal, silly notions of getting killing blows on some kind of device as a tank or healer going away, etc) this time around?


How about in terms of professions, as you've used raid zones to fill holes in them in the past. Right now, the professions have never been in a more uneven and unfinished state. Will Ulduar help off-set this a little bit, or is that something only regular patching will solve eventually? I mean, no offense, but the game has a few problems at the moment, and I'd like to know if this 3.1 is going to be the panacea a lot of us are hoping it's going to be.

I'm not in a position to comment on a lot of what you're asking just yet. I will say though that we've discussed a lot of these points with the development staff, and none of them were caught off guard by our questions.

We have a pretty clear blueprint of what is to come. 3.1 will certainly be a big patch with a lot of new content, a lot of updates, and a lot of fixes. But the 3.2 list is also being solidified by the day to keep the momentum going.

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So what tier armor are you guys gonna be recycling for Ulduar?

I'm not sure if your question is less fair than funny, or the other way around.

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Is there any plans to add new heroic dungeons with 3.1?

There won't be a new 5-man in 3.1.

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or possibly anytime afterwards?

There has been discussion on this for down the road.

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How about badge rewards?

You might see some additional rewards from heroism vendors down the line, though it's not expected there will be a host of new items released comparable to Ulduar or Icecrown loot, at least not in the same manner Sunwell badge gear was provided.

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Glyphs?

As we continue to evaluate professions, one shouldn't rule out additional glyphs in the future.

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Achievements for the non-hardcore players?

The achievements will continue to come, and there will always be plenty of achievements for everyone.

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I suppose you aren't able to comment on most of those, but it's worth a shot.

I know it's a little vague, but I thought I'd share what I can at the moment. :)