Thanks for this Blizz (story raids)

[Titanspite-stormrage]

The entire system is great. The time gate is unnecessary. I doubt gear even will drop from it

[Brewa-hyjal]

Blizzard pointed out the problems with LFR themselves, in the blog post where they announced Flex:

Raiding a single zone with a guild or group of friends can stay engaging for months, and one of the core reasons for that is the pacing of progression through a zone. A raid group might start out learning a new boss or two each week; that pace slows as the raid reaches the later bosses near the end of a zone, and more time each week is spent re-clearing “farm content” to gear up further. This keeps the experience varied, and even if you don’t get the specific loot you were hoping for in a given week, you’re seeing your friends and guildmates progress and get stronger, and you’re feeling the impact of those upgrades as you kill bosses faster and faster. Raid Finder offers none of that. Your ninth clear of the Underhold section of Siege of Orgrimmar is likely no faster than your second (and might even be slower); you aren’t experiencing anything new or different.

[Brewa-hyjal]

@Lorelaî-stormrage

We’re all missing this part. It’s not the entire raid, just the last boss.

Well, damn. That’s no good.

[Titanspite-stormrage]

But normal isn’t time gated and it is downed in the first hour

[Jhaella-maladath]

Thanks for being forthcoming about the design intent. Your hard work is appreciated!

[Soeroah-alexstrasza (Soeroah)]

I can give you feedback right now

It’d be better if it was the whole raid, but I can understand why it’d only be the last one. I don’t think that’s a good story portrayal, but I can imagine the work it’d take to do it for every new raid.

But releasing it with the final wing of LFR, weeks after the raid launches, defeats the point of a story mode raid. Casual players will finish the quests leading up to the raid weeks before they can get the resolution.

If there are weak rewards and it’s only one boss, it’d be better to let it be accessible at the end of the questline as a scenario.

[Sakimayu-stormrage]

@Lorelaî-stormrage

@Limestone-11887

This difficulty is intended for a private party of 1-5 players and will allow players to face off against Queen Ansurek without the assistance of other players or Followers.

We’re all missing this part. It’s not the entire raid, just the last boss. It releasing when the final LFR boss wing releases makes sense then.

Yeah, it’s probably meant then to avoid causing quest lock issues, like when people couldn’t finish the Black Empire questline in BFA because you needed an N’Zoth kill to proceed.

I still never finished that dang quest chain, come to think of it …

I expect this probably means that the TWW questline is going to similarly bake in the final boss of the raid as part of the chain, much as happened with N’Zoth (whereas in say SL, the “kill the final raid boss” quest was a bonus - and really not a very good one at that, come to think of it, given you usually spent more gold on repairs than the quest gave kek - sidequest not necessary to complete the campaign).

[Thelei-stormrage]

GD will smack you down if you get too big for yer britches

[Árani-moon-guard]

Story mode should have like a cosmetic item at the end from the boss drop. Maybe like a cape that’s like spider themed or a hearthstone effect. That way you can release it week 1, nobody has to miss out on anything and you get another toy or cosmetic appearance for your collection.

[Lìvía-moon-guard]

@Sakimayu-stormrage

The problem with LFR is that even a modicum of difficulty becomes a big problem if (as is common) you have a limited segment of the group that’s actually trying, and also if the boss has core mechanics that can’t easily be defanged to the point of addressing that without basically not being a fight at all (say, N’Zoth, or a lot of the Shadowlands raid bosses).

Changes LFR could have had was to reduce the player count to 10 and ensure the groups are sorted tank/healer/3dps. This way it’s much easier to see what you belong to asap to reduce the mess we had with N’zoth. Worst case force the correct group into their respective holes.

[Maizou-proudmoore (Maizou)]

@Limestone-11887

We currently plan to release this experience alongside the final wing of Looking For Raid difficulty

So despite adding a setting specifically for seeing the story, you’re STILL forcing LFR players to be spoiled by raiders posting spoilers on places like wowhead or YouTube.

This is a pointless change if it releases at the same time as the LFR version of the boss.

The fact you guys still don’t understand being spoiled by normal+ raiders posting the cutscenes sometimes two months before lfr gets them is stupid.

[Sentenzå-sargeras]

@Árani-moon-guard

Why should we (who don’t want to raid or have no interest in it) have to be punished waiting 6-8 weeks purely to get the final chapter.

Ion wants you to experience the narrative conclusion at the end of an epic battle alongside your friends. Which I can kind of understand but like… that’s just not going to happen for everyone.

What they should do is open that Story Mode fight the week after. If you can’t clear the raid on Normal the first week, you’re probably going to watch the ending on youtube anyways so it isn’t spoiled for you. So if Week 2 is when Normal and Heroic open, open Story Mode for the final boss Week 3. EZ PZ.

@Maizou-proudmoore

The fact you guys still don’t understand being spoiled by normal+ raiders posting the cutscenes sometimes two months before lfr gets them is stupid.

Yup. That much of a delay makes little sense to me.

[Hunda-blackrock]

wondering if its the whole raid or just the last boss , anyway even ppl that raid will do it , just for the heck of it , im sure blizz will add a toy or something to bribe players

[Titanspite-stormrage]

It’s the last boss

[Sentenzå-sargeras]

@Hunda-blackrock

wondering if its the whole raid or just the last boss

It says just the last boss.

[Radadine-argent-dawn]

It would have been nice if this was done in wrath… I don’t think it will be enough to keep me around

[Kadambari-proudmoore]

@Limestone-11887

We currently plan to release this experience alongside the final wing of Looking For Raid difficulty, for players who’ve reached the appropriate point in the questing experience of The War Within.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

You guys literally just started to hit a home run with a story mode version… then pulled it back and got called out at the plate. Why? Because of this “alongside the final week of LFR” nonsense.

THIS IS A HUGE MISTAKE. Like, massive.

Players whose main reason for playing through the story want to know how the story begins, unfolds, AND ENDS. Why would you do something so arbitrary as to put a 4-6 week gap between the climax of the story and the very end of it? This is incredibly poor game design. For a massive amount of your players, who don’t choose to raid, you are deliberately withholding the final chapter from us for over a month.

Would YOU want to read a novel nearly all the way through, then be forced to put it down for six weeks before you get to read the last chapter? Of course you wouldn’t.

Raiders are going to raid regardless of the story. Most of the time they spend in the raid, it’s downing bosses and trash, not worrying about the story developments.

But for those of us who don’t want to raid, this is ridiculous. We will just get spoiled by Wowhead posting the video of the end anyway, which means we won’t experience it IN YOUR GAME.

The excitement I had for this has just vanished into thin air.

Please, I beg you, reconsider this ridiculous timegating nonsense. Story mode for the end of the first part of the TWW storyline is a GREAT decision. But holding it back from so many of us for arbitrary reasons is absolutely the WRONG CHOICE.

[Grizzle-eredar]

@Kadambari-proudmoore

Please, I beg you, reconsider this ridiculous timegating nonsense. Story mode for the end of the first part of the TWW storyline is a GREAT decision. But holding it back from so many of us for arbitrary reasons is absolutely the WRONG choice. The excitement I had for this has just vanished into thin air.

Slow down the rate in which you consume content then? So that way you’re not complaining about nothing to do after the second week?

[Jeysca-wyrmrest-accord]

I also just noticed that it potentially just for the final boss?!

If this is the case it ruins everything I was excited about. The chance to take the raid at my own pace, listen to the talking heads, enjoy the environment. But if it’s just the final boss encounter that’s not helpful at all to allow people to immerse themselves.

Just as with the time gating, please allow this Story Mode to be the whole raid =/

[Sentenzå-sargeras]

I imagine many folk will simply watch Bellular to avoid being spoiled, negating any real reason for doing this until we’re like 2 expansions out and this encounter is fit into some sort of Chromie-style expansion leveling experience for newcomers to get caught up with the current state of World Soul Saga in Last Titan.