warlords-of-draenor-raiding
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Highmaul and the first world boss opens on December 2
After tomorrow's scheduled maintenance, the normal and heroic versions of Highmaul will be available for raiding on US realms (with EU opening on December 3). The LFR and mythic versions of Highmaul will begin to open the following week. In addition, the first world boss will start spawning in Gorgrond -- either Drov the Ruiner or Tarlna the Ageless, which will alternate every week. Both world bosses drop similar ilvl 650 loot. Normal and heroic are both flexible between 10-30 players and don't share lockouts. You'll find the entrance to Highmaul in western Nagrand (remember, there's no queuing like there used to be for SoO flexible raids). Don't forget your bonus rolls! Head over to Fate-Twister Tiklal (Warspear) or Fate-Twister Seress (Stormshield) to purchase your first set of 3 Seals of Tempered Fate. They can be purchased with gold, Apexis Crystals, Garrison Resources, or Honor Points. You can mix and match or buy all 3 with one type of currency, but the more you buy with the same type of currency the more expensive it gets. You can also get one of these free from a level 3 Dwarven Bunker/War Mill in your garrison, or from a rare follower mission. You are limited to 3 per week across all sources. Check after the break for the full Highmaul raid unlock schedule. Blackrock Foundry is due to open several weeks later.
Warlords of Draenor: Beta raid testing schedule for Monday, July 28
Raid testing for Warlords of Draenor will continue on Monday with two new scheduled encounters, according to a post made by Lead Game Designer Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas. As with last week's testing, both encounters will be on Heroic difficulty, allowing players to bring a group of anywhere from 10-30 people in order to test the content. To get in the raid, speak to Nexus-Lord Donjon Rade, who is now also located in Dalaran, Shattrath, and both factions Vale Shrines, as well as Stormwind, Orgrimmar, and your garrison. Oregorger from Heroic Blackrock Foundry will begin at approximately 10:30AM PDT, and the Twin Ogron encounter from Heroic Highmaul will begin at approximately 4pm PDT. Characters that participate in testing will have their effective level scaled to 100 for the purposes of testing, so no need to worry about gear or level. Keep in mind that testing periods are subject to change at any time -- so if you're interested in testing, keep a eye on the official forum thread for any updates.
Warlords of Draenor: Raid testing to begin Monday, July 21
Lead Game Designer Ion "Watcher" Hazzikostas has announced that the Warlords of Draenor beta will begin raid testing tomorrow with two Heroic encounters -- one from Highmaul, and one from Blackrock Foundry. As a Heroic level encounter, the raid will accommodate anywhere between 10 and 30 players. Players that wish to test the encounter can speak to Nexus-Lord Donjon Rade in either Stormwind, Orgrimmar, or their garrisons, once the encounters are open for testing. The Butcher from Heroic Highmaul will be available for testing beginning at 1:30pm PDT, and Gruul from Heroic Blackrock Foundry will be available beginning at 4pm PDT. Please note that testing periods are subject to change at any time -- if you're interested in testing, keep an eye on the official thread in case any changes are made to times or dates.
Dev Watercooler: Building Healthy Gameplay
Following last week's blog on the stat squish and CC removal, this morning's offering is a Dev Watercooler on the changes to healing coming with Warlords of Draenor. As ever, the full post is after the break, but let's look at the key summary points here: Player health has been increased relative to player damage and healing This means that Resilience and Battle Fatigue can be reduced in PvP The raw throughput of healers relative to player health has been reduced The aim is for more "triage" healing Burst damage and burst healing are lower. These changes are being taken into account in raid encounter design The healing of "smart heals" is being reduced Mana efficiency of multi-target heals is being reduced Low-throughput, low-mana-cost heals like Nourish, Holy Light, Heal, and Healing Wave, are being removed because they think that while they do add complexity, they don't truly add depth to healing gameplay. There are clearly some huge changes. Hit the break for the full post.
Mythic Raiding: Why 20-man?
Mythic raiding in Warlords of Draenor won't be the first time we've seen this particular raid size. Both vanilla Zul'Gurub and Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj were 20-man raids. It also won't be the first time guilds were fractured by raid size changes, such as the vanilla to BC transition. Heroic raiders in both 10-man and 25-man guilds are wondering why neither of them was chosen to be the official raid size going forward. Why do both raid sizes need to have their teams disrupted? Community Manager Lore chimed in on the forums to explain why Blizzard chose 20 as the magic number. Essentially, the problem with the 10-man raid size is they can't reasonably guarantee you will have a specific class to handle a unique mechanic. This isn't a problem in 25-man, but when you are trying to make both raid sizes equal in difficulty you cannot design mechanics which only work in 25-man.
