Firelands Raid Changes Incoming

Firelands Raid Changes Incoming

With the final showdown against Deathwing approaching, we’ve been keeping a close eye on players' progress through the current Firelands raid content. Before patch 4.3 is released, we want groups who are working on Heroic-difficulty content to be able to get as close to Ragnaros as possible, and we want players who are tackling normal progression to be able to experience as many of the encounters as they can. To achieve these goals, we’ll be toning down the difficulty of both normal and Heroic raids through hotfixes in the coming weeks. In general, we plan to reduce health and damage of all raid bosses in both normal and Heroic Firelands by around the same percentage we brought difficulty down for the original Cataclysm raids when Rage of the Firelands (patch 4.2) was released.

We're looking forward to seeing more groups of players face off against the firelord in the weeks ahead. However, before we make these changes, we want to give everyone a final shot at the bosses at their current difficulty level -- so this is a heads up that we’re planning to apply the difficulty hotfixes beginning the week of September 19.

Stay tuned to the Patch 4.2 Hotfixes blog for these and other live updates to the game as they happen.

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Comments (1,726)

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Sionel
Draenor
Sionel
9/12/2011
People complain to much. The nerf does suck at least for the guilds still trying to down ragnaros. But remember, they are doing this so people can get gear before the next raid hits. Expect the unexpected. My guess would be that they plan on making Deathwing's raid so hard that not having Firelands gear will result in not having the dps/hps/tank mitigation to even be able to do the bosses.
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Azynthe
Khaz'goroth
Azynthe
9/12/2011
@Sionel: This does make sense. I suppose I would have been happy to play patch 4.2 for a while longer than it will last. My team has one week to kill Rag pre-nerf and our raid leader is away again. The faster release of content is just quicker than would suit me personally I guess.
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Accelerator
Laughing Skull
Accelerator
9/12/2011
can we make my level 80 characters able to enter too?
going to be easy enough for them soon enough.
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Bluehorror
Dawnbringer
Bluehorror
9/12/2011
all these people saying the game is going downhill, yet you keep shelling out your 15 a month, as if blizz cares about your whining, they're getting their profit.
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Aurelas
Cho'gall
Aurelas
9/12/2011
R.I.P fire lands might as well not have happened.
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Exhaustion
Stormrage
Exhaustion
9/12/2011
Ghostcrawler has to be Nerfed !!
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Cierndanis
Dath'Remar
Cierndanis
9/12/2011
This is far too soon. It's even admitted in the post that they didnt nerf t11 raids by this amount until firelands was here! The current tuning of the content is about perfect for a semi-hardcore raider with some casuals in the team and it would be sad to be able to let jagged tear stack to 20 and go lolwin...

Please Blizzard, this is too soon! my guild is just getting started on Heroic modes and are really enjoying the challenge now that normal difficulty is 1shot. At least wait until 4.3 is looming or here, as with the previous tier of raiding.
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Charøn
Echo Isles
Charøn
9/12/2011
@Cierndanis: People are assuming that 4.3 isn't looming much closer than anticipated.

Not that Lore is the be-all, end-all of raiding discussion, but he even admits that nerfing H Rags this soon is probably a good idea. Not sure how I feel about nerfing the regulars yet, unless 4.3 is literally within spitting distance (I totally agree with you on this), but Blizzard is as Blizzard does.
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Snodog
Medivh
Snodog
9/12/2011
And another subscription lost
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Aranyszin
Stormrage
Aranyszin
9/12/2011
Easier = better. Remember kids, everyone has a right to see the raid content, even the ones who just hit 85. Can we just skip to the part where you completely convert this to a first person shooter?
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Aranyszin
Stormrage
Aranyszin
9/12/2011
At some point, I think Blizzard should just implement a tour bus for people who "don't have time" to actually PLAY the game. That way, they could all ride through while GC sits up front with a mic and says

Ghostcrawler: "And if you look to your left, you will see Ragnaros. He used to be hard, but then a new patch was designed, so now, he basically can't hit you unless you give him permission. Give us a nice scary roar Rag!"

Ragnaros: <rolls eyes> "Roar."

Ghostcrawler: "Good boy. Now give them some loot. Give it... "
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Shadas
Kul Tiras
Shadas
9/12/2011
@Aranyszin: Nerfing normals? Sure, go have a ball. Heroics should stay the same, imo. I gave up raiding a while ago, but I still feel like this is kinda quick.
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Ashunera
Anvilmar
Ashunera
9/12/2011
Nerfing normal modes is cool, lets more people see the content, which is the point.

Nerfing heroic modes (outside of bug fixes and improper tuning.. aka Baleroc 25H) is not cool, people do heroic modes for the challenge and prestige, if people want to see the content, normal modes are available to them.
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Twobtnkilla
Dreadmaul
Twobtnkilla
9/12/2011
This is good news.
We wiped 10 times on Beth last night, that was not even Heroic.
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Gizzmoh
Uldaman
Gizzmoh
9/12/2011
@Twobtnkilla: let me know when you reach tripple digits on heroic rag, and i still think this nerf is not needed, whats the next expansion gonna be, 5 man BiS gear?
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Shaker
Frostmane
Shaker
9/12/2011
Nerf normal, not heroics, please.
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Exhaustion
Stormrage
Exhaustion
9/12/2011
@Shaker: i approve of this msge
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Lol this is dumb. Nerfing isn't really an issue but the timing is. Oh well whatever this game has been going downhill for awhile anyway, might as well go a bit faster.
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Astralrage
Uldaman
Astralrage
9/12/2011
This.....is confusing. First, you was fine with nerfing the previous raids when the next one is released and now you're nerfing this one and 4.3 isn't even on the PTR. Why? This game was already boring with the exception of raiding and now you're dropping the nerfbat on this too?
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Marcarthur
Blackrock
Marcarthur
9/12/2011
Whatever..saw it coming, don't know why so many are acting surprised.
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Astralrage
Uldaman
Astralrage
9/12/2011
@Marcarthur: Yeah, you're right. I saw this coming. I just didn't see this coming in the middle of 4.2. I would expect this around 4.3 release, not now.
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Kamela
Stormscale
Kamela
9/12/2011
Dont care so long as they don't nerf rag more until much, much closer to 4.3.
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Karlmarks
Eitrigg
Karlmarks
9/12/2011
Just gonna say this. My guild is not full of the best raiders, but we try pretty dang hard, every week we keep at the boss til we down it. And when we down the boss, we feel pride and a sense of accomplishment. Last tier we were able to down nearly all bosses on normal and were working(and failing) on Nef, and we felt pretty good about ourselves. But then the nerf came, Nef the cause of our nightmares, became a joke. We one shotted him the day the patch hit and felt cheated. Our guild fell apart shortly and the majority of Firelands was spent recreating our raid group. Now we finally get a competent raid together that has the potential to down all the bosses....and then you nerf firelands....this is why i'm upset.
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Twobtnkilla
Dreadmaul
Twobtnkilla
9/12/2011
@Karlmarks: If what your saying is true, then you had more problems in your guild that just a raid nerf. You blame it on the nerf but people don't leave a guild or game just because content is nerfed, there are other factors involved.
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Karlmarks
Eitrigg
Karlmarks
9/12/2011
@Twobtnkilla: There is, i'll admit that, but the point i guess i failed to get across was, Nerfs make you feel that all that hard work and planning was for nothing
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Twobtnkilla
Dreadmaul
Twobtnkilla
9/12/2011
@Karlmarks: You still have to plan, you just leave less to chance I guess. The mechanics aren't changing, (well, not yet it seems).
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Dreknar
Drak'thul
Dreknar
9/12/2011
Really no big nerfs till after 4.3
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Varnius
Lightninghoof
Varnius
9/12/2011
I'm not ever the person !@#$%ing on the forums about anything, but you couldn't have applied the hot fix to Ragnaros's HP at the same time?

I mean honestly, you guys nerfed him when 7 guilds in the US had killed him and less than 40 worldwide. The following week, at least in US progression, you would've seen at least 4-5 new kills.

Why hot fix everything a week after nerfing Ragnaros? And why when so few guilds had killed him? It didn't seem to make any sense to us.

I mean if in future tiers the concept is going to be, "Oh, well, it's been a month since Paragon killed the fight, time to dramatically reduce its difficulty." then why are we even working on these encounters?

It's a hell of a thing to work on a fight for a month when VERY FEW guilds had killed it and then see it hotfixed on a Tuesday night out of nowhere. It really just takes so much away from all of that effort.
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Mikerk
Kargath
Mikerk
9/12/2011
LOUD NOISES
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Aquä
Khaz'goroth
Aquä
9/12/2011
*Rant incoming*

While I can see why people get pissy when stuff like this is nerfed to the ground...it is neccessary, but if you have cleared it already then why not let them majority of the playerbase (aka most of the subs aka "casuals") will never see this content unless it's nerfed enough. (I am part of this group...not b/c I'm a bad player, it's because I can't dedicate the time to raid progress daily 3 or 4 days a week and only get 2 bosses down within that time the average WoW player.)

We play this game for fun, while yes difficulty is part of that fun...most of the time simply seeing the end of the content will make A LOT of people happy including me. I was very excited when i got my first LK kill back in Wrath post nerfs. I didn't give a !@#$ how hard it was, I just wanted to fight him and see him defeated. Is it so wrong to deny majority of the players closure to content just because the few who actually got to see it in it's prime got to see it first? What are we taking away from you? Pride? Your loot? Your achievements? You have your memories, your pride, your loot, and your achievements that prove you did it when it was "hard". Let us casuals have our pride, loot, and achievements. We pay that same $15 everyone else does, just spend less time in Azeroth as some of you do.
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Bluehorror
Dawnbringer
Bluehorror
9/12/2011
@Aquä: finally a sensible argument
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Lexag
Tanaris
Lexag
9/12/2011
@Aquä: Casuals have normal mode, I understand. But why nerf heroic? It's not intended for casuals.
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Twobtnkilla
Dreadmaul
Twobtnkilla
9/12/2011
@Aquä: +1
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Elsette
Medivh
Elsette
9/12/2011
@Aquä: We raid twice a week and we're 3/7 in heroics. Don't claim you need to raid every night to do well, because you don't. I have no problem with them nerfing normals but leave heroics alone.
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Sluggs
Area 52
Sluggs
9/12/2011
@Aquä: first of all because you spend $15 a month does not entitle you to see everything.

I don't want to "see" the content and that seems boring to me to just "see" the content in a video game. Might as well go on youtube and watch the videos so you see it.

I want to experience the content and if it ends up seeing ragnaros as a shell or his former self then it will just be disappointing.

There needs to be a casual for people who just want to see the content and not experience it. I would be fine with that if they left the normal and heroic modes alone.
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@Sluggs: who are you to decide who gets to see what and why? you making a ridiculous statement and a selfish one.
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Nyp
Destromath
Nyp
9/12/2011
OH COME ON.
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Endule
Greymane
Endule
9/12/2011
even nerfing heroics despite the fact that way more guilds are at the end raid boss much quicker then last tier?
as far as the damage dealt portion shall the healers just use t11 gear to not be dying of boredom? plenty of the heroic fights are all ready doable with 4-5 healers as is
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Calibar
Saurfang
Calibar
9/12/2011
Woot, can't wait, just awesome! :D /love blizzy
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Quintus
Wyrmrest Accord
Quintus
9/12/2011
Wait til 4.3 PLEASE. Some people actually enjoy the challenge.