Blizzard announces first round of Firelands raid hotfixes
Blizzard recently announced that both the normal and heroic mode encounters in the Firelands would be rebalanced and nerfed over the coming weeks to make the raid tier more accessible to many raid groups. The nerfs and changes begin this week, with the first round of nerfs to make the raiding experience a bit less demanding.
Normal difficulty bosses Shannox, Beth'tilac, and Rhyolith took 15% decreases to health and damage, whereas all of the other bosses in Firelands took a 25% hit. Certain trash packs have had their proverbial bite removed, and Alysrazor's tornadoes will now move more slowly. All adds in these encounters have had their health pools and damage decreased in the same proportions to their corresponding bosses'.
On heroic difficulty, all bosses' health pools and damage, along with adds' corresponding health and damage, have been reduced by a blanket 15%, which is a huge nerf for heroic modes. Alysrazor also drops more feathers on both difficulty settings, and her Wings of Flame buff is now a static 30 seconds.
While many players will be upset with these nerfs, I can only imagine the many raid groups that will happily charge forward to finally defeat the encounters that they have been banging their heads against for the better part of the patch. Blizzard has said that there will be more nerfs coming, as this is just the first round, so make use of this time to get as many of the bosses as you can while the getting is hot.
Normal difficulty
• Shannox, Beth'tilac, Rhyolith - health and damage reduced by 15%.
• Other bosses - health and damage reduced by 25%.
• All adds' health and damage have been reduced in the same proportions as bosses.
• Hellhounds and Unstable Magma deal much less damage.
• Alysrazor's Fiery Tornados move slower.
• The Wings of Flame buff duration on Alysrazor is now uniformly 30 seconds.
• Alysrazor drops 1 additional feather for 10-player mode and 2 additional feathers for 25-player mode in all cycles.
• Wrath of Ragnaros in Stage 1 now knocks targets up, but not back.
Heroic difficulty
• Boss health and damage reduced by 15% (Heroic Ragnaros' health has not been reduced.)
• All adds' health and damage have been reduced in the same proportions as bosses. However, Heroic Ragnaros adds have been reduced by 15%.
• The Wings of Flame buff duration on Alysrazor is now uniformly 30 seconds.
• Alysrazor drops 1 additional feather for 10-player mode and 2 additional feathers for 25-player mode in all cycles.
Stay tuned to the 4.2 Hotfixes blog post as these and other live updates are made to the game: http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/3019413
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Look at what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
