Ulduar & the PTR

[TeaLeaf]

Quote from: Daelo (Source)
Ok, we're getting close to the point where we will need testing of Ulduar boss encounters on PTR, so let's talk about Ulduar testing!

We're going to be performing testing differently than in the past. We're looking for much more targeted feedback, and we don't want to just have the zone freely open and allow extended, unsupervised testing to take place. So, when the PTR servers come up with 3.1.0, by default Ulduar will be turned completely off. We'll instead enable Ulduar and specific bosses during times where the encounter team can observe testing.

Shortly after 3.1.0 PTR is up and running, I'll post a schedule that will indicate when we will open specific bosses to testing. We'll have testing opportunities for both EU and NA region PTRs in their respective prime time playing hours. There might also be a boss or two we do leave up for extended testing, and some bosses will only be tested in either the EU or NA. Some encounters won't be up on the PTR at all! There's 14 boss encounters in Ulduar, there will be lots to test. The schedule will be quite flexible, check in the Dungeons & Raids forum and on the PTR forum for updates.

The first set of boss encounters to get testing will include:

    * Freya
    * Thorim
    * Hodir
    * The Iron Council


Both 10 player and 25 player versions of the encounters will be open to testing, and we expect players to have nearly full Naxxramas gear. While Jillian McWeaksauce might make appearances on the PTR to provide testing consumables, please try to bring your own.

I hope to see raid groups of many different skill levels on the 3.1.0 PTR servers when they become available!

Additional info on first boss
The first boss has you enter 1 of 3 different vehicles (Chopper, Demolisher, and Siege Engine) to fight your way through an immense Iron army to the Flame Leviathan and defeat him. After that, there's very little use of vehicles by players. We'll have the fight up on the PTR at a later date, but this fight isn't in the first wave of boss encounters to be tested. (Source)

Actually, the effectiveness of the vehicles in the Flame Leviathan fight changes depending on the quality of the gear. So someone in full Naxxramas epics (or Ulduar epics!) will have an easier time than someone in greens. (Source)

Ulduar PTR Testing
We'll be monitoring the EU PTRs and the EU forums for feedback quite a bit, actually. For us as encounter designers, EU testing is awesome because we can watch testing in your evenings during our normal business hours. There will also be some EU only bosses for PTR testing, along with some NA only bosses. (Source)

I'll be organising some PTR raids to the new Ulduar raid instnace when the boss content is released.  If you are interested then let me know nearer the time.  In the mean time, make sure you know to install the PTR client!  Good testing on the PTR usually provides us with valuable information about the forthcoming boss encounters that we will face when the patch goes live.

TL.

[TeaLeaf]

When the 3.1 PTR patch is available then in order to play on the PTR you need to do the following:

Run the Blizzard Launcher and click the 'Play Test' button at the bottom left.  Log in and select a character to copy  to the PTR realm.  Then download the client for the PTR and install as per their instructions.  The direct link to the English client download page is here: http://www.wow-europe.com/en/ptr/

PTR FAQ: http://www.wow-europe.com/en/ptr/

PTR Forums: http://forums.wow-europe.com/board.html?forumId=11095&sid=1

[TeaLeaf]

Quote from: Blizzard (Source)
For countless millennia, Ulduar has remained undisturbed by mortals, far away from their concerns and their struggles. But since its recent discovery, many have wondered what the structure's original purpose may have been. Some thought it a city, built to herald the glory of its makers; some thought it a vault containing innumerable treasures, perhaps even relics of the mighty Titans themselves. They were wrong. Beyond its gates lies no city, no treasure vault, no final answer to the Titan's mysteries. All that awaits those who dare set foot in Ulduar is a horror even the Titans could not, would not destroy, an evil they merely... contained.

Beneath ancient Ulduar, the Old God of death lies, whispering.... Tread carefully, or his prison will become your tomb.

As the next step in tiered raid progression in Wrath of the Lich King, Ulduar is set to blow players away with gorgeous setpieces, sprawling battlefields, and innovative boss encounters. Ulduar's design aims to provide a fun, unique, and innovative raid experience, but it also includes additional challenges - and rewards - for seasoned raiders. In this sneak-peek at World of Warcraft's newest raid dungeon, we'll take a look at some of the new content that makes Ulduar rise above the crop of amazing dungeons already available in World of Warcraft.

Welcome to Ulduar
Many players have already gotten their Wrath of the Lich King raiding feet wet in Naxxramas and the Sartharion raid, but Ulduar is the first example of the expansion's much larger, truly epic scope of raiding, as will be evident from the second you set foot in the instance. The most obvious difference between Ulduar and its predecessors is that the dungeon actually comprises two separate raid areas. The first section is an epic battle against a vast army standing between you and the entrance of the dungeon proper; in the second area, you will dive into the heart of the dungeon itself and finally discover the secrets of Ulduar.

Ulduar's new master has rallied his own massive Iron Army to guard the entrance to Ulduar and to prevent any unwanted guests - including you, especially you - from reaching the inner sanctum. Thankfully, you'll be able to face the Iron Army on even footing: although the main Horde and Alliance forces are focused on the forces beyond the Wrathgate and on each other, some who are better able to appreciate the true magnitude of Ulduar's threat have managed to scrap together a small fleet of siege vehicles to aid you in the assault.

You and your friends will have to use these vehicles wisely to break through Ulduar's defenses. A mix of motorcycles, demolishers, and siege engines will be at your disposal, each granting unique abilities to the pilot and the passenger. Motorcycle drivers, for example, can create pools of liquid tar that snare opponents and can be set on fire by area effect attacks, while demolisher passengers can load themselves into the vehicle's catapult so that the pilot can launch them into the distance. If used judiciously, these and other abilities will help decimate the Iron Army and any other threats lying in wait between you and Ulduar.

One such threat is the Flame Leviathan. After you've plowed through the innumerable ranks of the Iron Army, you will be confronted by an enormous tank. Mimiron built the Flame Leviathan as part of the V0-L7R-0N weapons platform, which means that it packs quite a punch. Normal spells and abilities won't be enough to take down this juggernaut, so you will have to rely on your siege vehicles to outmaneuver and defeat the boss. After wearing the massive war machine down, you will have to launch players onto the tank's back to destroy its defense turrets and sabotage the Leviathan before you can move on. Of course, if you'd like an additional challenge beyond this naturally frantic (but extremely fun) fight, you can try your hand at one of the Flame Leviathan's different Hard Modes (see sidebar).

Of course, the vehicle gauntlet, the Iron Army, and the battle against the Flame Leviathan are only the start of World of Warcraft's most ambitious raid to date. Patch 3.1 will hit the Public Test Realms very soon, so you will be able to see for yourself what other challenges await beyond the gates of ancient Ulduar.

Hard Boiled
Ulduar brilliantly illustrates the new design challenges and innovations that come with the bigger scope of the expansion's raids. In order to make raid content more accessible, it has to offer a lot of variety, but it also needs to include a very granular means for players to adjust a raid's difficulty. This concept was first realized in the Burning Crusade with the introduction of Heroic mode, and Wrath of the Lich King is developing the idea even further with new Hard Modes.

Boss fights that have a Hard Mode are affected by certain variables which players can control and which change the encounter's difficulty. For example, spread throughout Ulduar's vehicle section are four defense towers you can destroy. The more towers you leave intact, the harder the encounter with the Flame Leviathan will be, but the loot will also be better.

Ulduar isn't the first dungeon to include Hard Mode, but it certainly makes the most use of it. Out of 14 bosses, 11 will have a Hard Mode that offers additional challenges and rewards. Ulduar will appeal to a wide range of play styles, but the dungeon also has great longevity and a high replay value.

PTR & Your UI

Expect most addons to not work well on the PTR, so plan a basic vanilla UI rather than your #pimped-out' current UI.  The more simple the UI, the less errors you'll get.  Addons usually take 1-2 weeks ot catch up!

Character copy:

When you transfer your character make sure that you load your bags with as much gold and consumables as possible, even if you end up borrowing some from somebody else for the duration of the character copy.  Whatever is in your bags at the point the character is copied arrives with you in your PTR character's bags.  So make sure your bags are full before pressing that copy button!

[burmyhermy]

sounds good lets just hope blizzard have learnt and make the new content harder than what we currently have because it aint half getting depressing.

[TeaLeaf]

Short video preview of an unfinished Ulduar dungeon as at 3.0.8.  It will be visually improved (and completed) before release!

And if anyone finds the music kinda nice it's by Robert Miles called 'In My Dreams' & 'Red Zone'.

TL.

[Lexander]

sounds good lets just hope blizzard have learnt and make the new content harder than what we currently have because it aint half getting depressing.

You can't make anything hard as people use INSANE amounts of time to practice the encounters in ptr, and also when the instance goes live there are  all ready tactics in the web. If the instances would some pop out un-announced it would make it harder. Also if they make make encounters really challenging some players whine and it gets nerfed, so basiclly it is a two barrel gun.

[TeaLeaf]

Aye, whilst some will run the PTR, remember that the versions seen on the PTR these days are usually partially incomplete or designed to test a specific game mechanic that they wanted to test additionally out of house.   Also, they do not release and test all boss content, so you actually get not as big of a head start as you might have thought.  Sunwell Plateau was a very good example, with most people only able to see up to Felmyst and only for a day or so at a time before it as taken offline again.  I remember we had one night on Felmyst, they skipped Brut, and we got one night on Felmyst, so the tactics that will be available on day 1 will be worth absolutely nothing - you'll still need to go in there and figure it out which for progress guilds is what happened in Sunwell.  Boss guides did not really become available for some time and initial information was very patchy on abilities.

TL.

[Lexander]

Always better when people are on the same line, and no we can even start from the same line than others, not behind

[burmyhermy]

aye but what i was getting at was the difficulty ie u compare mh ,grull , mag tk,sunwell etc to wotlk raids since the difficulty nerf this game has became a joke and yes i know we havent cleared all 25 man naxx yet and malygos but we aint far off it and i hope they dont mess up by making another raid instance with potential just a joke .

[TeaLeaf]

I think Ulduar will be geared at a higher level (they expect entry level to be people with pretty much all Naxx gear) and with the different difficulty options should allow a much more challenging level of difficulty than Naxx.  Naxx was after all, only ever meant to be the Karazhan of WotLK, not the SSC/TK in terms of difficulty.

TL.

[Azunai]

Imagine it like so:

[TeaLeaf]

PTR character copy is now available.

TL.

[Azunai]

Judging by that video: Nice they made the instance nice and small scale so we don't spend half the raidtime running back after wipes.... o wait!

WTB mountable dwarves or something ^^

[TeaLeaf]

4 PTR realms up:

Naralex
Remulos
Fordring
Brill

I am aiming for Fordring for my toons if as and when they are copied, that's assuming they do not get auto-allocated somewhere.

TL.

[TeaLeaf]

Both of the character copies I selected have now arrived.  They got auto-assigned to a realm and are
on the BRILL realm.  Seems Blizzard are not being helpful in allowing guilds to land on a realm of their choice.  W2g Blizz again.

TL.