Wow, this is something I never saw coming. Tigole just announced that the Serpentshrine Keep and Tempest Keep: the Eye raids will no longer require any attunement:After a lot of thought and deliberation, we've decided to remove the attunement requirements to enter Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep: The Eye. While many of our attunements in the Burning Crusade have been good progression checks, a few of the attunements have turned out to cause unnecessary stress on guilds either doing the content or attempting to do the content. With Black Temple and Battle for Mount Hyjal thriving, we want to encourage (rather than prevent) new guilds and raid groups to attempt Serpentshrine and TK. We are going to leave the current attunement quests in the game so that players can still engage in the challenge and the lore of those quests should they choose to. At a later point, we are considering adding a final reward step to those quests as well (that way those who have already completed them would not miss out on a *new* reward).
We're listening to feedback from you guys constantly and your opinions are important to us. We want this game to be the best possible MMO experience for our players.
Enjoy Serpentshrine and Tempest Keep =)
(Please note: This change will go live later today -- it's not yet active)
Presumably the idea is that the effort it takes to get the gear to compete in SSC or TK is enough of a check. Many people have complained about overly involved attunement processes in the Burning Crusade, and this is a big step in the direction of fixing that. In fact, Tobold had cited the attunement barrier to SSC as a major reason why he canceled his WoW account. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got some sightseeing to do...
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
6-19-2007 @ 1:54PM
Tiago said...
8)
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6-19-2007 @ 1:54PM
Adys said...
Woah.
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6-19-2007 @ 1:55PM
Okage said...
I don't know about the rest of you but...SERPENT SHRINE CAVERN PARTY!!
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6-19-2007 @ 1:55PM
Dave said...
Wow talk about drastic. Well Tobold sounds like you need to reactivate your account. ;)
But seriously this is great, especially for casual guilds> The constant swapping in and out for people to kill bosses in raids was quite a pain.
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6-19-2007 @ 1:56PM
Tiago said...
[cue in for elitist jerks to bitch about blizzard having just cut a few inches off of their epeen] 8)
(Sorry for the double post, the comments system didn't like the enclosing instead of the [] I used now)
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6-19-2007 @ 1:59PM
bill said...
As a crafter of major fire prot cauldrons, I support the opening of the eye to all Pugs.
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6-19-2007 @ 2:00PM
someone said...
Worst fucking Devs in the world. I love having all my accomplishments turned into something a half brained noob can do because every patch the end game is nerf more.
Hell just wait 4 months, by then thell just give epics away.
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6-19-2007 @ 2:05PM
Nogun said...
this is pretty lame, the Scrolls from Vashj and Kael were a much nicer solution.
They should just release Zul'Aman if the casuals are getting bored but too crap to get attuned.
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6-19-2007 @ 2:08PM
TyphoidTimmy said...
Man, the hardcores are going batshit over this news because of the 'wasted hours on progression' over on the Dark Iron Server.
While I had only got one half of my SSC attunement, I can see where Tigole is coming from with a big chokepoint on The Eye for a lot of the smaller guilds.
Still better than EQ's "Eat It and Like It" attitude, IMHO
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6-19-2007 @ 2:08PM
Dalaran said...
LAME. I worked on all my attunements for nothing.
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6-19-2007 @ 2:09PM
Mel said...
Talk about absolutely unexpected. :) *wheee*
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6-19-2007 @ 2:14PM
Dave said...
Whoa, I did not see this coming. Personally, I'm okay with this idea. With the smaller raid size, it's more vital that each person pull his or her weight, especially on cutting edge content. There's already a built-in check in that a certain level of gear is required to complete fights successfully. While a mostly overgeared raid might be able to pull through a few undergeared raid members, it'd be a challenge. And if a undergeared raid does manage to topple the bosses, all the better for them.
I anticipate a negative reaction from many who did the attunement the hard way, even though nothing was really taken from them; they're also on the cutting edge for when the new rewards for the attunement quests are released.
Is it just me, or do a lot of Daves post comments here? I suppose it could just be me and one really active guy.
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6-19-2007 @ 2:14PM
Tridus said...
Good change.
Actual progression will still be stopped by gear: raids in dungeon 3 blues will get nowhere in SSC, even if they can go into it now.
All this does is remove some fairly pointless rep grinds.
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6-19-2007 @ 2:16PM
Razzberry said...
Excellent decision. Having a 10-man raid be a pre-requisite for 25-man content was just a poor decision to begin with and just causes a ton of logistical nightmares for guilds who want to solely focus on 25-man content. I am, however, surprised they did away completely with having Gruul and Magtheridon be pre-requisites for SSC and TK respectively.
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6-19-2007 @ 2:18PM
blackangely2k said...
This is FANTASTIC! Of course, SSC is going to beat most guilds silly at first, but attunements are retarded anyway. If you can handle the mobs, you should be able to succeed. Forcing everyone into an arcane tracking system to determine who is or is not attuned was always dumb, and now we can see more guilds rise to the challenge of the actual instances, instead of the challenge of proper recordkeeping.
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6-19-2007 @ 2:20PM
Asspigeon said...
Although I disagree with this because I already competed my SSC attune and was well on my way to the Eye, most raiders cannot keep up gearwise with the PVPers. This makes it a little bit easier to get T5 and hopefully compete with arena geared people.
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6-19-2007 @ 2:20PM
Jimbo said...
yeah, thats funny. make things accessible, and here come the whiners. its um, a game. unfortunately in the end, we all lose, no matter how attuned, or how many more hours you put in than me. but hey, if it makes you feel better, complain all you want. It makes me laugh.
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6-19-2007 @ 2:21PM
Aziraphale said...
This, this is amazing... I guess I have been proven wrong from previous posts, I guess Tobold DID have a huge influence :P ... maybe.
But nonetheless this is EXACTLY what TBC raiding needed. ACCESSIBILITY!!! Way to go Blizzard on this decision, maybe now raiding will be fun like it used to be!
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6-19-2007 @ 2:26PM
Quoi said...
Haha, QQ moar hardkor raiderz! Seriously, I thought you did it for the challenge? You got your server firsts and all that crap. Get over yourselves.
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6-19-2007 @ 2:37PM
Mordiceius said...
good god, the post has barely been up and it's filled with QQing already.
the main point everyone needs to remember is:
MORE PEOPLE WILL BE ENTERING THE INSTANCES BUT IT WILL BE THE /SAME/ PEOPLE KILLING THE BOSSES.
Just because you can enter doesn't mean you can kill crap. Look at AQ40. Everyone could enter. How much casual progress was there.
/thread over.
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