Blizzcon 2013: Part 4 - Dungeons and Raids

Dungeons and Raids

·         The new Flex loot model will work similar to how Master Loot does today, but the number of drops will scale based on the number of people eligible for loot in the group. The personal loot system won’t be removed, you will just have to opt in to it.

·         The number of drops will scale well with the number of players, as each additional player gives you a higher chance to get another drop, up to where it is guaranteed. This ensures that are no odd breakpoints that will restrict raid sizes.

·         Mythic raid lockout is boss based, static id, nothing is changing from the current Heroic lockout system.

·         The game has a Raid Browser that no one uses, so in WoD it will be expanded to support killing world bosses, doing achievements, finishing Shadowmourne, or any other activity. This will support cross realm groups and encourage people to do PuGs rather than completely random matchmaking.

Flex raids look awesome, I haven’t had the opportunity to go through them, but I really like the fact that they have been designed are they are actually being pushed to the forefront of raiding in the next expansion.  Every raid will be flex in this new system, that means you can take as many or as few as you want and the gear drops and bosses will dynamically scale depending on your group.  I am sure someone will do the math and figure out the prefect raid size, but I look forward to that.  I think that it is great that I might have a chance to raid with a guild that may not be able to field 25 every week, but can easily put together a group of 17.  In we go to conquer whatever it is and we may not leave with the most gear possible, but it allows us to actually DO that content.

I doubt I will ever see Mythic raiding, but it seems cool.  A separate tier, capped at 20 and for the hardcore.  It will obviously have the best gear, but will likely also have the highest difficulty and the least amount of forgiveness.  Get ready to sell out some cash for repair bills, folks.  Since it is on a different lockout, you could see people farming lower tiers to supplement gear at the other tiers.  However, with the new gearing system I have no idea how any of that will work out.

Raiding and Heroics have not really been my cup of tea in recent expansions, but I do enjoy both.  I love raiding with people I know and completing the task and I also really like face stomping instances for either loot or progress.  WotLK was great for getting Heroics ran, but it was also bad for the elite dickwads that ruined it for others.  Once you were geared you expected everyone in the Heroic to be as awesome as you.  Thankfully I was a healer and if I didn’t like listening to you… I controlled the group and could make sure you didn’t get any farther.

One of the coolest things in all of the raid announcements: Raid browser being used.  This thing is worthless right now.  The LFR system is so easy that no one bothers.  Adding more stuff is going to make it a lot more useful.  Reminding people it is there might also make it useful. =P  The example used of finishing Shadowmourne is actually perfect.  This shows that the browser will allow for a multitude of things, not just current content.  That should put a lot of people at ease.