Firelands Raid Testing Development Notes

In Development Cataclysm Classic 4.4.1 PTR
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Now that we’ve had a first round of testing in Firelands and some time to process your feedback, we’ve moved forward with many changes to the raid.

First and foremost, we’ve heard many players’ feedback that the current challenge across all difficulties in Firelands on PTR is not as satisfying as they hoped.

Firelands is an iconic raid and throughout original Cataclysm there were a number of significant changes (both documented and undocumented) that impacted the challenge of the raid. For Cataclysm Classic, we’ve gone through every single creature and spell record across all four difficulties in the Firelands raid and reviewed all changes to original creature health and damage values, as well as spell damage for each individual difficulty. We then determined if the change was appropriate and, in most cases, we restored the original values where it made sense to do so.

We want this raid to live up to its challenging, but iconic status and to maintain a meaningful sense of progression across all raid sizes and difficulties, so we’ve made sufficient adjustments to restore much of the “feel” of the original state of the raid. At the same time, we’ve tried to leave behind some of the more frustrating mechanical elements that weren’t as fun as the team had originally hoped when first released.

The exception to this rule is Rhyolith. Due to the nature of the fight, we have decided at this time to not make any aspect of this encounter more difficult through restoring original HP and damage values.

Here’s a summary of many of the post-4.2 adjustments that we have reverted and are no longer present in Cataclysm Classic:

Enemy Health

  • The 25% health reduction on most Normal Mode enemies has been reversed.
  • The 15% health reduction on most Heroic Mode enemies has been reversed.
  • Blazing Talon Initiate health was reduced by 50% on Normal Mode and Voracious Hatchling HP was reduced by 30% on Normal Mode. Both of these have been reversed.

Melee Damage

  • Melee damage of some enemies was also reduced after patch 4.2, and we’re also undoing that. Some enemies that should punch you harder include:

  • Beth’tilac

  • Voracious Hatchlings

  • Shannox

  • Riplimb

  • Rageface

  • Baleroc

  • Majordomo Staghelm

  • Spirit of the Flame

  • Molten Elementals on Heroic difficulty

Spell Damage

Spell damage across all difficulties has been adjusted.

  • Beth’tilac and her adds had damage reductions ranging from 10% to 45% in some cases. These have been reversed.
  • You should expect more damage from the following abilities:
    • Ember Flare in both Phase 1 and 2
    • Burning Acid
    • Volatile Burst.

Alysrazor had many adjustments to difficulty. The following spells now do more damage:

  • Firestorm
  • Volcanic Fire
  • Blazing Claw
  • Incendiary Cloud
  • Brushfire
  • Fieroblast
  • Gushing Wound
  • Lava Spew
  • Fiery Vortex
  • Harsh Winds
  • Fiery Tornado
  • Blazing Buffet
  • Full Power

Shannox now does more damage across all raid sizes and difficulties with:

  • Immolation Trap
  • Jagged Tear
  • Hurl Spear
  • Magma Flare
  • Magma Rupture

Baleroc changes include:

  • Torment deals more damage.
  • Inferno Blade deals more damage.
  • The duration of Tormented has been increased on Normal difficulties to match the Heroic durations.
  • The attack speed slow while Decimation Blade is active has been removed.

Majordomo Staghelm deals more damage with:

  • Burning Orbs
  • Leaping Flames
  • Flame Scythe
  • Searing Seeds deal more damage.

Ragnaros deals more damage with:

  • Dreadflame
  • Meteor Impact
  • Sulfuras Smash
  • Superheated
  • Supernova
  • Magma Trap Eruption
  • Blazing Heat
  • Engulfing Flames
  • Hand of Ragnaros
  • Lava Wave
  • Molten Inferno
  • Molten Seed
  • Wrath of Ragnaros

Thank you for testing the Firelands raid in Cataclysm Classic’s PTR. We’re looking forward to seeing you on Friday, October 4 starting at 22:00 CEST and, as always, your feedback.

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This… isn’t a good change. You’re listening to a very small minority of the playerbase who have tons of time to waste testing and wiping on bosses. Classic is a game for boomers and dads. The reason the playerbase dropped so hard in WotLK (Ulduar) was difficulty.

My guild will clear this, but the game is going to be even more dead than it currently is. Those who come back to check out Firelands will be disccouraged from continuing. The majority of Cata Classic guilds (over 82%) are still anywhere between 3-8/11 HC currently. This change just incentivises them to stop playing as they’ll be hardstuck two months in on 2-3/7 HC.

Why do you continually listen to streamers and this small cohort of “hardcore” gamers? They have been wrong time and time again, and will never be satisfied. You’re screwing over the majority of your playerbase by listening to them.

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It’s in fact a very good change and they’re listening to the people playing the PTR and giving feedback instead of the tourists who quit the moment they have to try harder than being drunk in Molten Core.

Do normal mode or go play SoD if you’re a boomer mate. It’s there for y’all.

Next xpac will be the official introduction of mythic raiding in Classic with SoO. Can’t wait for you people to keep whining heroic and mythic need to be LFR difficulty because…uh reasons.

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I mean its funny how you dont see the problem at all. Nobody cares if the raid is hard and good at the same time if the majority of the playerbase has quit the game as a whole. Some of the “hardcore” raiders are so delusional in Classic. I personally care about the difficulty of the content but if they game dies over it, then please just make it easier and cater to the majority. If all you care about is the “prestige” that you’ve killed the bosses pre-nerf and you dont care about the health of the game, then go to retail and join a mythic guild. Classic is not for the loud egocentric hardcore wannabe mythic raiders. Get a grip.

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Woooossshhhhh.

That’s the point of my post going over your head. Guessing reading comprehension isn’t your strong suit, bud.

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Sorry, i’m an officer… i can’t read.

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Good changes!

Please make some of the 391 items that are in the database but not in the actual game avaiable as well through firestones or something similar. For example, the Heroic Cinch of the Flaming Ember (plate belt). There’s very limited itemization in FL and since these items are already in the game files it shouldn’t take much effort to add them.

And bosses are still bugged. Alyrazor is still bugged. Gushing wound isn’t working as it should and there’s no rings in the tornado phase

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There is no problem, that’s the thing. You can whine about it all you want. This is what raid difficulties are for and it’s only gonna get worse mate. I have no need to join a mythic guild. In about a year or so we’ll be raiding mythic in Classic. What are you gonna do then? I guess whine on here to downgrade mythic to LFR for the dads.

Or you can just play normal and get to see all the content. You just won’t get the highest ilvl gear and it doesn’t matter just like it doesn’t in Retail. But yes, I know Classic casuals are way to entitled to accept this :wink:

The game won’t die over it my man. People like you have been saying this since Ulduar now. SoD is here but it’s also the perfect example of how throwing everything at casuals for free does not keep them around. Or is SoD also too hard? lol

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To the people who’re concerned about the game being too hard, I have some bad news for you, the game only gets harder as time goes on. At a certain point you just have to accept you aren’t going to be able to clear all the content on the hardest difficulty. What are you going to do if WoD comes out? Ask them to remove Mythic difficulty from the game? You’re just going to have to get used to the idea that normal mode exists for a reason.

Blaming this change on a Vocal minority is a strawman argument, Blizzard have the data, they don’t even need our feedback to see how easily the bosses are falling over.

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It appears lots of EU players have reading comprehension issues.

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Really feels like the raids are being balanced based on the horde factions unfair advantage

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You have overcorrected the raids. Like others have posted here, heroic modes are currently challenging for the best guilds to clear, but they are impossible for the vast majority of guilds. This will only hasten the death of cata that is already experiencing a significant population decline compared to the previous classic versions.

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Good changes!

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The difficulty felt alright, we aren’t a hardcore guild and had some comp issues but managed to get a few hcs down dispite only having 2 hours and lag/dcs

I’d rather have a raid we can sink our teeth into than something we can clear on the first night or nearly clear.

It’s only 7 bosses so needs to hold up for a bit at least and the more gear you get the easier it gets

Now all we need is for you to post about the staff and how you will speed up the process so us officers can decide who’s getting it and when