Cataclysm Guide: Dungeons & Raids

From Twilight Wiki

Contents 1 Point System 2 Patch 4.0.1 Points Conversion 3 Raid Progression Changes 4 10 & 25 Shared Raid ID's 4.1 Normal Difficulty Raid ID's 4.2 Heroic Difficulty Raid ID's 5 Heroic Old Dungeons 5.1 Heroic Deadmines (L85) 5.2 Heroic Shadowfang Keep (L85) 6 New Cataclysm Dungeons 7 New Cataclysm Raids

Point System

Blizzard has finally done away with the badge system first introduced toward the end of Burning Crusade. Throughout WotLK we have seen it become more complex and now at the end of WotLK, trying to keep track of what badges buy what items and having to convert these badges for that item and so on becomes not only annoying, but time consuming and confusing. We've all tried to buy an epic quality gem from the vendor at some point and having to change your [Emblem of Triumph] into [Emblem of Heroism] requires you to make 3 different transactions just to buy 1 item.

Anyhow, the badge system is gone and in its place is a point system. Similar to the revamped PvP point system, the PvE system will offer players 2 different types of points.

• Justice Points - These are the lower tier points earned from completing different daily instance quests as well as killing bosses in heroic level instances and some lower level raids such as Original raids, BC raids and Wrath raids up to lvl 81. As you level past content the bosses within as well as any daily's associated with them will no longer reward Justice Points. For example, if your character was level 70 and you completed a level 70 raid such as Black Temple, each boss killed inside would yield Justice Points for your efforts. Once you surpassed the level of that raid, you would still be able to get drops off the bosses within the instance, however none of the bosses would award points for vendor item purchases.

There is a limit of 4000 Justice Points you can stockpile, however there is no limit to how quickly you can earn them.

• Valor Points - These are the high level tier points which will be earned from completing the random daily heroic dungeon in Cataclysm as well as from Cataclysm raid bosses.

There is a limit to the total amount of Valor Points you can stockpile as well as how quickly they can be earned.

When a new tier of PvE raid content is released, all Valor Points will be converted to Justice Points to prevent players from attempting to stockpile points to buy new tier level items.

Patch 4.0.1 Points Conversion

Blizzard plans to introduce the new point earning system with patch 4.0.1, slightly before the release of Cataclysm. In doing so, all badge systems currently in the game will be converted to the new point based system. This means that bosses and quests which award badges pre-4.0 patch, will then award Justice Points. In addition, items that were purchased from vendors using badges will now be purchased using points instead.

Players [Emblem of Frost] and [Emblem of Triumph] will be converted into Justice Points with patch 4.0.1. Any badges below those 2 levels will be converted into gold via in-game mail.

There is a grace-period "soft cap" being put in place when this conversion happens which will temporarily allow players to go above the 4000 point limit. Players who find themselves with more than 4000 will be unable to earn more points until enough points are spent to drop them below the hard cap.

Shortly before Cataclysm release this grace period will end and any points above 4000 will be converted into gold.

The 4.0.1 Justice Point rates from quests and bosses are as follows:

Raid Progression Changes

Cataclysm raiding is changing from how it works in WotLK and prior versions of WoW.

• 10 and 25 Raids Will Share Same Loot = Both versions of each raid will drop the same items, identical item level, stats and all. The only difference will be that 25 versions of the raid will drop more items per boss to compensate for there being more participants.

• 10 and 25 Raids Share Same Lockout ID's = Both versions of each raid will share the same Raid ID's. This means that a group can start a raid on 25 and finish it later in the week on 10 or vice-versa.

• Limited Attempts will be limited to special bosses = There will no longer be an attempt counter on bosses for either normal or heroic, however certain special bosses may be limited this way still such as how Algalon the Observer works in Ulduar currently.

• 10 and 25 Raids will share achievements = Both 10 and 25 raids will share the same achievements and achievement rewards. There is some talk of this possibly changing or having 25 raid exclusive achievements and achievement rewards for some raids.

10 & 25 Shared Raid ID's

Both 10 and 25 Raids will share the same Raid ID's. This should make it a lot easier for people to find raid groups and or participate in different raid groups over the course of a reset period. You will be able to start a raid on 25 at the early part of the week, and if you cannot find enough people to continue with 25 you can downgrade it to a 10 raid and continue where you left off.

Normal Difficulty Raid ID's

Players will be able to join different Raid ID's provided they have not killed any more bosses in the instance on a previous raid than the raid they intend to join. Below are some examples:

Heroic Difficulty Raid ID's

Heroic modes for raid bosses will be handled similarly to how heroics are done now. If a player takes part in a raid that completes a boss encounter on heroic difficulty, they will be saved to that ID for all future heroic encounters till the next reset.

What this means is that if the player wants to take part in another heroic encounter in the same instance, they will need to do so on that same raid ID. If they want to join another raid ID for regular encounters, the same rules as shown in the first example above still apply.

One drawback to this is that if the player who is already saved to a different Raid ID for a heroic encounter is present on a different raid, the Raid Leader will be unable to toggle any new heroic encounters while that player is present on the raid.

Below is an example:

Heroic Old Dungeons

Blizzard has revamped 2 older original WoW dungeons for level 85 players to enjoy again shortly after the release of Cataclysm. Blizzard has announced that neither dungeon will be available at Cataclysm release but will be opened in a patch shortly after.

Heroic Deadmines (L85)

Location: Westfall

Players will be able to fight lvl 85 heroic versions of mobs and bosses within The Deadmines, Edwin Van Cleef, Mr. Smite, and so on. Exactly what bosses will be available on heroic mode is still unclear. The dungeon is planned to be redesigned inside to reflect current events in Cataclysm which may mean some of the older bosses will be removed.

Heroic Shadowfang Keep (L85)

Location: Silverpine Forrest

Players will be able to fight lvl 85 heroic versions of mobs and bosses within Shadowfang Keep, though as with The Deadmines heroic it is still unclear which bosses will remain. Archmage Arugal has been replaced on heroic with Lord Godfrey as the final boss though.

New Cataclysm Dungeons

• Throne of the Tides (80-81)
• Blackrock Caverns (80-81)
• Vortex Pinnacle (82-84)
• The Stonecore (82-84)
• Lost City of the Tol’vir (85)
• Halls of Origination (85)
• Grim Batol (85)

New Cataclysm Raids

• Blackwing Descent (10/25 raid)
• Throne of the Four Winds (10/25 raid)
• Bastion of Twilight (10/25 raid)
• Baradin Hold (10/25 raid)
• War of the Ancients (10/25 raid)