Tomorrow, patch 6.2 will open up, bringing us many features. Chief amongst them is the opening of Tanaan Jungle and the raid instance inside: Hellfire Citadel. (It would be awesome, in my opinion, if there were sections of the raid called the Blood Furnace and Shattered Halls - though the latter was probably named in reference to the Shattered Hand Clan, which I don't think will have a presence here.)
With HFC, we will have tier 18 available to us - in other words, loot loot loot loot loot!
One of the major differences of this raid from many previous ones is that there will be different item levels for rewards across each difficulty. Yes, Blizzard has decided that it's not so great when Lord Marrowgar rewards the same quality loot as Sindragosa. Thus, later bosses in the raid will have higher-quality loot than the earliest fights. This gives people a greater incentive to really push forward through the raid, and avoids the common theme of people downing a hard, late-raid boss for the first time and simply sharding all the loot.
I don't actually know the exact structure of the raid - whether it has wings that branch off from a central hub or if it's a more linear, Throne of Thunder-style instance. But we can safely assume that later bosses like Mannoroth will be more rewarding, and that Archimonde will likely drop the highest quality loot in the instance.
And what level is all that loot?
LFR: 675-685
Normal: 690-705
Heroic: 705-720
Mythic: 720-735
In other words, a heroic raiding guild should not feel obligated to run Normal mode at all if they are able to down the first few bosses of the instance. I think this is mostly a good idea, though I wonder if some guilds who are working on a later boss might feel incentivized to try an earlier boss on a higher difficulty.
Still, I think that this is probably the right pattern. HFC is larger raid, at 13 bosses, so it does seem appropriate that there would be some real distinction between rewards for its earliest bosses and its later ones. There's certainly precedent for this in older raids. The one thing I hope they plan for is to allow all specs to get weapons that are of equal quality - it'd be pretty unfair if Archimonde dropped an awesome agility sword, but nothing for enhancement shamans or dagger-wielding rogues.
LFR will require a minimum item level of 650, which I think is perfectly reasonable. Follower missions, without any raiding done, can award 655 and 670 items, both every two weeks, meaning that at this point, even a player who never goes inside instances can probably reach that item level. And those who have gotten a decent complement of LFR BRF gear will certainly exceed this requirement.
The Legendary Ring will be completed in 6.2, and will have an item level of 735 - on par with Mythic gear dropping from Archimonde. There is also a possibility (though this is unconfirmed) that the ring may even be upgraded to the ludicrously-higher level of 795, though this might be saved for a future patch or be cut. The rings will also have an activated ability that causes all members of the raid with a similar type of ring (all types of DPS are merged for the purpose of this ability) to go off. This effect should probably be treated like Bloodlust/Heroism/Time Warp, as a major raid cooldown. The effect will, of course, be stronger the more people have the ring.
As a catch-up mechanism, follower missions that grant Abrogator Stones and Elemental Runes will now come more frequently.
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