Mists of Pandaria Raid Tuning

[malvanis]

This was brought up for the launch of ToT on the original mistblade. Due to being in 5.4 patch as well as some other unknown reasons, player damage is highly inflated especially in T14 and T15. This made progression on the majority of bosses way too easy. 

For example, Garajal 25H which should have been an insane gear check on the first week died without even coming close to enrage time despite our group being less geared and less skilled (by a long shot) than guilds that were wiping to enrage on retail.

Another example is the first kills of Heroic Sha of Fear on retail were over 20 minutes long whereas we killed it in about 15 on our first 25HC kill. 

Similar issues were present in ToT.

I'd be happy to try find some actual damage comparisons if you're open to some kind of adjustment to the raids so they feel more difficult. I didn't progress T16 so have no comments from my end but I remember tauri damage feeling inflated as well when in bis gear. Maybe someone else that did SoO progression on mistblade can comment.

My suggestion is an appropriate level of increase to boss HP and damage (preferably permanent but at the very least for the duration of progression) to make the raids roughly the same difficulty as they did on retail. That amount might be quite drastic especially for T14 just thinking of the Sha of Fear example.

 

Edit: removed suggestion of reducing player damage/healing as this would adversely affect classes that rely on double dipping damage effects like fire mages ignite (I think)

Edited October 19, 2023 by malvanis
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[Coldbreaze]

Hard to balance these kind of things... You do not want to chase away the dad-gamers either. A lot of people like a challenge, but not a wipe fest.

[vaakou]

I agree, they can buff heroics or add dampening while not touching normal difficulty. Dad gamers can still clear normals and attempt HC prog. It won’t completely shut them out from the harder content anyway.

 

[malvanis]

Hence why the temporary buff just for progression, maybe with an option to turn it off later on via the npc. It's not fun to roflstomp every boss with lower gear than was available.

[Crysis]

Not decided yet.

[malvanis]

As an addition to this, regarding the timeline and people getting bored. I think releasing the raids on an approximate (or exact) retail schedule with appropriate buffs in place to compensate for 5.4 number, followed by ilv upgrades as a pseudo nerf and slowly reducing the buff over time would contribute to longer interest in the raiding playerbase.

[Janko]

I highly support this as someone who played on mb1.

Take note that we are not asking for some random buffs. We just want some buff (prolly only flat % buff as its simplest/without putting too much time and effort into it), to >compensate< for playing in last patch aka 5.4 which made us do more dps/hps etc than players did in 5.0.

t16 doesnt need buffs (due playing in appropriate patch), but t15 and t14 do.
My suggestion would be 20% hp buff for t14 & 10% for t15. Hope for any tho or at least vote pool for it, ty.
 

[ICritMyKilt]

I like the idea of an NPC at the entrance that can toggle a buff and make it easier for those not interested in a wipe fest, but I feel like there should be a bonus for completing it on an enhanced difficulty.  Maybe extra gear drops or a chance at a super rare mount or something. At the very least the drops or something should also take a hit if you nerf the encounter via the NPC.