Project Lore

We expected it might the case for some time now, but Blizzard has confirmed it: Icecrown Citadel will subject players to gated progression in an attempt to stretch the content out as far as possible. However, as you will see below, it gets a little bit more complicated than just restricting you from accessing certain wings. Just as well, it seems that several weeks (as opposed to one) will pass before the next chunk of the raid zone is available. Here are the highlights you should be looking for:

• Each wing will be gated, with several weeks between each release. It has not been stated how long this period will be.
• The Wings are Lower Spire (4 fights), Plagueworks (3 fights), Crimson Halls (2 fights), Frostwing Halls (3 fights, including The Lich King). They will be released in that order.
• Each wing, aside from the Lower Spire, will have a marquee boss fight (Putricide, Queen Lana'Thel, Sindragosa). Every time one of these encounters is opened up, 5 more attempts will be available on these specific fights for a total of 15 (Lich King is included, though he doesn't supply any additional attempts).
• Once your attempts are expended, these four bosses will despawn from the zone until the next week. Likewise, these attempts only act as a limiter. You will not get any special rewards for not dying or only using up a certain number of attempts.
• As the weeks move forward, the Ashen Verdict's forces will "grow stronger," giving players the ability to pick up an optional buff which will make their raiding experience easier if they're having trouble.
• Heroic difficulty will not be accessible for any boss until the Lich King has been defeated on Normal.
• Heroic difficulty for the Lich King will not be available until the three aforementioned marquee boss fights have been completed on Heroic on a week-by-week basis.

The text of the announcement in full follows:

Icecrown Citadel testing has been progressing very well over the last few weeks, and this has been a huge help to the encounter design team. I want to thank everyone who has logged onto the PTR and tried the encounters there. As we're now getting closer to the release of 3.3.0, I wanted to talk about our plans for access progression within Icecrown Citadel. Icecrown Citadel is going to be broken up into four distinct sections: The Lower Spire, Plagueworks, Crimson Hall, and Frostwing Halls. We plan on releasing these four sections of Icecrown Citadel over time and not all immediately when patch 3.3.0 goes live. At this point I can't give precise dates for these release dates as they are determined by when patch 3.3.0 goes live. Once dates are known with more certainty, I'll update the community so they can plan appropriately. The first section that opens will include the Lord Marrowgar, Lady Deathwhisper, Icecrown Gunship Battle, and Deathbringer Saurfang encounters. Progress beyond that point will be prevented for several weeks. Then the Plagueworks will open with Rotface, Festergut, and Professor Putricide becoming available. After another period of time, the Crimson Hall will open and you can then fight the Blood Princes and Blood-Queen Lana'thel. The final Frostwing Halls unlock then occurs after that, making Valithria Dreamwalker, Sindragosa, and the Lich King available. We believe a staggered release of the content will allow players to experience Icecrown Citadel at a sustainable, measured, and ultimately more enjoyable pace. There are other elements that gate access along the way. Players may not attempt any Heroic versions of 10 player encounters until they have defeated the Lich King in a 10 player raid. Similarly, players must defeat the Lich King in a 25 player raid before they can attempt a Heroic 25 player encounter. So players must master every normal difficulty encounter in Icecrown Citadel before attempting Heroic difficulty. The Lich King may not be attempted until Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, and Sindragosa are defeated. Furthermore, the Heroic difficulty of The Lich King encounter may not be attempted in any week unless the three aforementioned encounters have been defeated in Heroic difficulty that week. The Ashen Verdict provides reinforcements and material for players to assault Icecrown Citadel, but this support is not endless. Raids will have a limited number of attempts total each week to defeat the four most difficult encounters in Icecrown Citadel: Professor Putricide, Blood-Queen Lana'thel, Sindragosa, and the Lich King. As these boss encounters are unlocked, the number of attempts available per week will increase. The initial number of attempts provided for defeating Professor Putricide is only five. When Blood-Queen Lana'thel unlocks, the amount of total attempts remaining will increase to 10. Then when Sindragosa and the Lich King unlock, 15 total attempts will be available to defeat all four bosses. After a raid has exhausted their attempts for the week, the Ashen Verdict must withdraw their support and the four most difficult bosses all despawn and become unavailable for the week. The limited attempt system is a feature of both Normal and Heroic difficulty. There will be no explicit rewards for defeating the Lich King with a specific number of attempts remaining as there was with Trial of the Grand Crusader. There will also not be an achievement to complete Icecrown Citadel without being defeated by a boss encounter, or letting a raid member die. (i.e. A Tribute to Insanity). In the weeks and months after all twelve encounters are unlocked, additional attempts against the final four boss encounters become available. This represents the Ashen Verdict growing more powerful and gaining a stronger foothold in Icecrown Citadel. To further help raids, Varian Wrynn and Garrosh Hellscream will begin to provide assistance by inspiring the armies attacking Icecrown Citadel. This is represented as an additional zone wide spell effect applied to all players that will increase their hit points, damage dealt, and healing done. This effect will also increase in effectiveness over time. Players may opt out of the spell's effect if they so wish.

So what do you think about this? Personally, I like it. Gating does make the content last a little longer, and from what I've experienced on the PTR so far the "marquee" fights (including Deathbringer Sarufang) are sufficiently difficult, meaning that nobody should feel slighted that they don't get to pop a cap in the Lich King on the day one. It also keeps a lock on the "world first" crowd. While they're certainly free to raid how they see fit, the trend of conquering a dungeon on its first night also has a dangerous side effect on the community, creating the perception that the content isn't as difficult or engaging as people want it to be. The only real problem I have is that it feels like the content may be stretched just a little too thin. This entirely depends on what Blizzard means by "several weeks" between each wing is released. One or two weeks is more acceptable than three or four. But even if they do let it go that long, hopefully it's just to tide us over until Cataclysm and not used as an excuse to delay the expansion any further.