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Optional boss modes making a comeback in Mists of Pandaria?
Kaivax hit the forums to answer a player's question about Ulduar and talk about the fondness the dungeon has retained amongst the playerbase and where the optional boss modes have gone. Back during the first half of Wrath of the Lich King, "choose your own difficulty" encounters and in-fight hard mode triggers were staples of the encounters in Ulduar and the Obsidian Sanctum. When Trial of the Crusader launched, Blizzard implemented the UI-based difficulty toggle. Players have expressed desire to return to the old days, feeling that the toggle method is just too robotic when encounters could be designed around cool difficulty-swap mechanics. In his post, Kaivax hints that the design teams are thinking about bringing back these mechanics for some fights in the upcoming expansion, Mists of Pandaria. Rather than selecting a normal or hard mode toggle before pulling an encounter, Ulduar raid groups were tasked with completing different objectives during the encounter or defeating the boss mechanics in a different order to activate hard mode. Famously, players would press a large red button behind Mimiron labelled "DO NOT PUSH THIS BUTTON," activating the encounter and a rather angry Titanic watcher. Other fights during Wrath of the Lich King such as Freya and Sartharion featured a "choose your own difficulty" mechanic wherein the player's choices before the encounter increased or decreased the boss' overall difficulty. Harder combinations of abilities would yield more impressive items. Will Mists of Pandaria bring back our beloved "choose your difficulty" encounters and in-fight hard mode triggers? I know I'd like to get another Sartharion-style encounter, especially with mount rewards like the original provided. Read the full blue post behind the break below.
Patch 3.3 PTR: Icecrown to introduce new hard mode toggles
There'll be a new way to activate hard modes in Icecrown, according to Bornakk. After the somewhat confusing four modes for the same instance that was introduced in Patch 3.2, which redefined "normal" and "heroic" for 10- and 25-man raids, Blizzard is making it easy for players to toggle hard modes for the bosses in Icecrown. The current plan is to make boss hard mode toggles part of the UI rather than through game mechanics such as in Ulduar. This means that players running Icecrown can switch hard modes on and off for bosses throughout the run. As Bornakk states, players "can switch it back and forth as much as you like. Encounter 1 on hard, 2 on normal, 3 on hard, 4 on normal, etc."It's also interesting to note that Blizzard plans to scale up the Emblems found in older dungeons to Emblems of Triumph the way Emblems of Conquest are dropped in raids now. Newer, higher version emblems will drop in Icecrown, allowing advanced raiders access to the newest gear. This emblem upgrades will allow players to better catch up on gear and consequently explore Icecrown. Of course, Bornakk reminds everyone of the caveat that "Things can still change."Patch 3.3 is the last major patch of Wrath of the Lich King. With the new Icecrown Citadel 5-man dungeons and 10/25-man raid arriving soon, patch 3.3 will deal the final blow to the Arthas. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.3 will keep you updated with all the latest patch news.
