A highly anticipated addition to the 3.2.2 patch is the return of Onyxia. Opinions on forums and in game have been positive with an air of excitement. In current content the Broodmother is nestled away in her cave in Dustwallow Marsh. Classic World of Warcraft offered her lair as a raid instance for 40 level 60 raiders. Onyxia’s new encounter will be similar to her level 60 version with similar abilities but re-tuned for level 80 raiders. Many players are excited about her loot table as well due to the fact that Blizzard plans to re-release the Tier 2 model which has been declared (arguably) the most cosmetically appealing tier in the game. Onyxia will also drop an exceptionally rare flying mount modeled after the Broodmother herself and achievements will be added to offer additional content for guilds looking to increase the difficulty level of the encounter. One achievement is being called “Many Whelps! Handle It!” As a person who has seen the infamous “Onyxia wipe” video, I was highly amused with the title of that achievement.
Continuing a thought made by Ferrel in a previous article: could this be considered new content? While there is tremendous excitement over the new Onyxia, there are many people who are tired of the recycled level 60 raid instances that are re-tuned and served to the level 80 players. From my own perspective it is new content. I didn’t raid in classic WoW and never saw Onyxia in all her 40-man raid glory. I have seen her and fought her with about four others to get the achievement of defeating her but never saw her as Blizzard intended. I’ve also heard people talk about her dreaded Deep Breath and the only response I could give was a virtual nod and smile. That ability will be prevalent in the new Onyxia as well so I may get to see why it was horrifying. This brings me back to my original question and once more I ask, “can this be considered new content?” Can something be considered new content if it is new for some but not all? Onyxia will be recycled content re-tuned to be applicable to the current raid tier. It is not brand new nor is it innovative. New content should be fresh and mostly never seen before. Most raiders want a challenge and if you’re not in it for the gear you want the content. Throwing recycled material at raiders who are in it for the challenge is practically an insult. It is true that a large portion of raiders will be satisfied with this “new” content as it’s just another way to get raid gear. For content raiders it’s rather disappointing.
Reflecting on the challenge I have also heard and read about the concern over the difficulty level of Onyxia. When Naaxaramas, another classic 40-man raid, was re-tuned and returned in Wrath it was considered a “starter” raid instance. In classic WoW Naax was extremely hard. It was a raid instance that was so horrendously challenging that only elite hardcore raiders could “enjoy” it. In Wrath Naax was easily completed by pick-up groups. There is a valid concern that Blizzard may do the same to Onyxia and allow the content to be accessible to a large percentage of raiders. Onyxia in classic was a tough encounter, (not as hard as Naax), but still difficult. I think if she is decreased in difficulty so that any guild with minimal skill can defeat her it will upset players that were able to defeat her in classic.
Beyond the issue of difficulty the new Onyxia will exist outside of lore. This concerns me greatly since currently in game lore Onyxia is dead. She masqueraded as Lady Prestor, an advisor in Stormwind. She was later ousted as Onyxia and killed by Varian Wrynn who is the current King of Stormwind. Players have been questioning developers about this and the response has been that she will exist outside of lore. Her glorious return is merely a “gift” to WoW players to celebrate the anniversary of the MMO. Now while this may not sound like a big issue I don’t understand how something can exist outside of lore. Lore, in a basic way, is a story. If I was reading a book where a character died and then was magically alive towards the end, I’d call that bad editing. This feels the same to me. I understand that they’re giving non-classic players a chance to see an infamous raid encounter but it also feels like something being thrown at raiders to keep them occupied until the anticipated Icecrown Citadel is released. Blizzard, as of late, has been implementing unfinished content (Trial of the Crusader). Raiding is easier and victory is obtainable for most guilds. The problem with this is the content is now sped through and then people want more to do. Due to this high demand for raid instances I truly feel that this encounter is being released just give us another thing to do. I am hoping that I am incorrect in my judgments and Onyxia will be enjoyable, worthwhile content for all raiders. We shall see on release.
Epic Slant is pleased to host differing (or similar) opinions from other players and guest articles. As always please allow me to dispense with the necessary disclaimer. The preceding article and author’s opinions do not necessarily represent the opinions and/or views of Epic Slant, Ferrel, or any staff writers. -Ferrel
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First I must disagree on a point of aesthetics: for Druids Tier 3 was the absolute best looking gear in the game, at the time or since. As a resto Druid in vanilla WoW I pined for Dreamwalker. (Also, Druid T2 helm is the less than attractive Moose Ears model.) When Tier 3 was remodeled for Tier 7 I was excited to finally get some but in my opinion the addtional detailing detracted from the clean, soft lines of the original Dreamwalker. In fact, I’m considering ordering a FigurePrints of my Druid in classic T3.
Opinions on aesthetics aside, I hadn’t thought about the lore factor in bringing Ony back. I really don’t think about the lore side of the game too much but it is a valid point that it is disruptive to what is otherwise and epic storyline. Plus it emphasizes your point that this is just “filler” content until Icecrown opens. But because it’s FUN filler content I’ll be going back as often as I can.
Great to see you on the blogosphere Sio!
For a Priest I thought the tier 3 gear looked best as well. If I recall (and I could be totally wrong) the tier three had either a halo or small angel wings right?
Yes – It was Tier 3 – Vestments of Faith
I know you! Oh yes I completely agree with T2 Druid gear being unattractive. I take pride in the appearance of my character and moose ears are just not hot. For many other classes however, their tier sets are amazing. My favorites are the warlock and rogue sets.
Oh dear. This post, while interesting…if full of statements that show off the lack of understanding of certain things in wow.
Naxxramas (correct spelling there) pre-BC was difficult, sure. But what a lot of people do is misinterpret “difficulty” as “more players involved”. Any raid leader will tell you that in general, more players means more work for the leader. Organizing 40mans was hell for officers and leaders, and to be honest, thank god it’s now 10/25man.
“In wrath naxx is easily completed by pickup groups” sure, but that’s totally the intention. blizzard wanted more people raiding. naxx is designed to be the raiding 101 class, introducing people to the core mechanics of a raid. Is it any surprise that it’s now easy?
“onyxia in classic was a tough encounter” only during progression. plenty of people were 20, 10, even 5-6 manning onyxia before burning crusade came out.
there’s even a video somewhere of it being 3-manned by very well-geared level 60s. Deep breath may’ve been horrible, but it was also avoidable by being careful, and is even easier to avoid now.
Blizzard, as of late, has been implementing unfinished content (Trial of the Crusader) – WHEN is ToC unfinished? what? it’s a nice, tight, clean instance. there’s no major gamebreaking bugs. it’s hardly unfinished.
Raiding is easier and victory is obtainable for most guilds. – see the naxx note – raiding is intentionally easier this expansion. That’s what hardmode achievements are for – to distinguish good guilds from average ones.
The problem with this is the content is now sped through and then people want more to do. – Hardmodes. just because your guild breezed through ToC-10man, does not mean you are geared or skilled enough to complete the Trial of the GRAND Crusader, where everything is more difficult.
Then there’s all the Ulduar hardmodes, some of which are insanely enjoyable.
Sure, hardmodes mean doing the same content. But although blizzard themselves have admitted raid content has been light this expansion, there’s still enough around to keep people busy – as long as they’re willing to be challenged.
I never raided in Classic but from what I’ve been told, Naax was the hardest raid zone available. Period. In order to even make a touch of progression, you had to be completely geared from Molten Core, AQ40 and BWL. I took a ragtag group of level 70’s into Naax when it was still in Old World to see what it was all about. It was awful. We couldn’t get past the first boss in the military wing and we outgeared and outleveled the place by ten levels. Naax in Classic was horrendously hard. It was intended to be, as you said.
Trial of the Crusader at times can be buggy just as Ulduar can. To me that makes the content unfinished. It’s a personal opinion only. Many people are tolerant of it which is perfectly fine. To each their own.
My guild has progressed through hard modes in Ulduar and are working on progressing through Trial of the Grand Crusader. We’re getting closer and closer to our goal. To me, however, hardmodes are just filler. It’s just something else to do in content already killed the “normal” way.
Jemre, I do not see how you can say this post shows a “lack of understanding of certain things in wow” when most of what you said fundamentally agreed with it anyways.
Naxxramas in classic was a raid for the ruling elite of WoW raiding. This is indisputable. It has nothing to do with 40 people because you needed 40 people for all raids (except ZG and AQ20) in classic BC. The instance was amazingly difficult, there is no room for argument. I think you misunderstood what she meant since she is simply talking about the difficulty of classic Naxx vs other classic raids in comparison of the difficulty of Wrath Naxx in comparison to other Wrath content.
Yeah, Naxx is easy now and is easily completed by PuGs. Yeah, Naxx is meant to be this way because it is a starter raid, everyone understands this. The point of what is being said in the article is that when people saw how amazingly easy they made naxx people were upset about it, and rightfully so. The people who were upset about it may also be upset if onyxia is dumbed down in equal proportions. Sounds like a fair assessment to me.
Onyxia in classic was a “tough” encounter. Some of the ruling elite from both horde and alliance when and legitimately 15-20 manned it. Some of the horde ruling elite even managed to 10 man it thanks to tremor totems. I have not ever seen a video that didn’t include questionable tactics of anyone doing less then 10 manning it. Yes, running up the side of the wall in this few glitched spots to avoid the old school deep breathe is extremely questionable; as is having buffs from people who aren’t inside the instance.
From personal experience in raiding ToC the week of its release and even the next few weeks there were several issues within that instance that in my mind makes me consider it to have been released unfinished. Unfinished meaning that they didn’t work out all the bugs, which they obviously did not since they released a plethora of server side fixes and patched fixes to make it not only more stable but also to fix boss mechanics that were not working correctly. Right now there is a bug on the beasts of northrend in heroic difficulty causing the encounter to despawn sometimes when Acidmaw and Dreadscale become active. Sounds like a bug to me and bugged content is not finished content.
I am fully in agreement that the only reason Onyxia has been redone is to give people more to do once they finish everything else. To think otherwise is borderline foolish. What other reason could they have since she exists completely outside or lore? Current game lore is that King Wrynn killed her, how can we be fighting something that is supposed to have been killed in current game lore? Maybe if we had to access her via the caverns of time I would change my mind.
I personally love the concept of hardmodes in the current game. Its a great mechanic for raids and is a step in the right direction. Unfortunately most guilds simply run through the joke content, get there gear and are happy to call it a week. I would much rather have the baseline content be at least 50% more difficult then it currently is so that people don’t blow through it like its a joke though. How can anyone justify ToC being cleared by PuGs in half naxx10 and half naxx25 gear? They can’t.
……
“Uber” guilds amuse me…
So basically, she jumped through a plot hole to land in the present day? Sounds fine with me. None of Blizzard’s lore really jived with itself in the first place.
That’s because their world was stolen from Games Workshop =D
Jemre had it right with the lack of understanding comment for sure.
Comment edited by Ferrel: As always on Epic Slant readers are welcome to disagree with the stories. They are not, however, allowed to do so by doing nothing more than just posting rude remarks. That may be acceptable on the WoW forums but it is not here. I’ve removed the unnecessary rude portion.
The more I read forums the more it seems to me that the “uber” WoW crowd is slightly full of themselves. I am not trying to insult anyone but there definitely seems to be a “This is the only way it can be, I am right, you are wrong” mentality. You do realize you are playing the McDonalds version of MMOs that is extremely player friendly and accessible to everyone? I don’t think those are necessarily bad qualities but it definitely makes it the kiddie pool in terms of effort required.
Comment edited by Ferrel: I understood what Dresden meant but realized the majority of the WoW world would not. He basically meant “Don’t act like another Wow player is stupid for their opinion because, according to him, WoW isn’t exactly a super hardcore game.”
Thanks for translating, I kind of went off on a tangent there.
Wasn’t trying to insult anyone just sticking up for people’s ability to have an opinion.
I was hoping we would keep this wonderful site WoW free but it is a gamers site afterall. Having people with a “lack of understanding” start posts only adds to the pain but I put up with it because Ferrel does a good job with the site. Well done Ferrel!
WoW will always creep into everything ^_~
Don’t worry though, it isn’t going to be my focus nor will ES turn into a WoW blog!
It seems people quickly forget the bravado of ubers in games past.
Thank God