Patch 2.4: Hyjal and Black Temple attunements removed
by Adam Holisky 
Feb 8th 2008 at 11:00PM
Blizzard announced the following important four lines in their 2.4 Patch Notes:- Players will no longer require an attunement quest to enter Hyjal.
- Players will no longer require an attunement quest to enter the Black Temple.
- Players who have completed the attunement quests for Black Temple and Hyjal will be granted the title of "Hand of A'dal".
- You may now fight Prince Kael'thas and Lady Vashj without first killing all the other bosses in their respective dungeons.
While the removal of the attunement is obviously a way to get more people to see their new raid zone, the Sunwell Plateau, all is not golden. Many, many, many raiding guilds and players who have already made the brutal trek through Vashj and Kael will be quite upset. On the other hand players who are not yet able to, but perhaps ready for, the first few bosses of MH and BT, will undoubtedly rejoice.
What are your opinions of this change? How do you think it will affect the raiding landscape?
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, News items, Instances, Quests, Raiding, The Burning Crusade
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 5)
Gimmlette Feb 9th 2008 1:21AM
Interesting point about old world instances which still need a many stepped quest for attunement, while two of the premier instances in the expansion are now easier to get into. If they were going to ease attunements, why not do it across the board so more people might go into the old world instances, too?
Isn't this semi-equivalent to opening up heroic instances to honored instead of exalted? The theory is that it opens up content to more people. They do have to constantly rethink their interactive game to continue to provide content for those playing.
But how much is it "dumbing down" the game. Maybe there's just some things some guilds or people won't get to see because of what it takes to get there?
Just as some people couldn't care less about PvP, some people couldn't care less about Mount Hyjal or Illidian. What's new in the patch for solo players? While I hope my guild eventually makes it to these instances, it's going to take awhile and, beyond grinding and helping guildies there isn't much for a 70 to do. I have a number of friends who don't really care and are feeling more and more left out of Blizzard's expansion ideas.
There will always be something we complain about, but perhaps that's what makes the game a bit more intriguing.
Philip Feb 9th 2008 1:28AM
The attunement removal is obviously done to further progress the players. As the end game progresses, attunements do nothing but create roadblocks that players would rather skip. They dropped it on SSC, they dropped it on The Eye, now they are dropping it on the new high level dungeons just as Sunwell is being released. BWL, MC and Naxx are prefect examples of dungeons nobody bothers to get attuned for anymore ( granted the 40 man thing is still a blockade, too; however, word on the streets is at least one, if not all, are getting a 25 man makeover).
IF there's any attunement its 25 man, I would imagine it'll be dropped when the next 25 man or WotLK is released, which ever comes first.
Khody Feb 9th 2008 1:31AM
I pride myself in being the only JC on my small BC server that has hyjal patterns, and now every scrub and there sister is going to be able to get them also. Oh well. Is the title going to be a thing awarded only to people attuned at the time the patch hits? That would be fair considering if people do go back and do the attunement, they still get a really awesome necklace that you will end up needing in both instances. There should be an exclusive reward for players that are able to do the simple attunement.
With the hyjal rep buffs, people are going to be getting there rings alot faster also.
Kai Feb 9th 2008 1:31AM
Ok call this elitism but this sucks.
I've done BT/MH before and I came back to my old server to play with friends. Before I know it I'm making a guild and leading it through Kael/Vash. Now this was nothing new to me, but it was for those guys as they had never seen vash/kael downed.
We just finished off attuning everyone so we can start in bt/mh and this comes along. It sucks especially as we got 6/6 SSC 3/4 TK in our first week.
Vash and kael ain't hard, their just common sense. Rage winterchill, Ane, and Kaz in MH are *easy* so easy their like lurker. Along with HWN, Surp, and Shade.
This change was un-needed. Just let people go for vash/kael without the other stuff and its fine.
Tone Feb 9th 2008 1:45AM
A brilliant move by blizz and I applaud them for this. This content should not be locked away from the masses, especially when people are leveling a toon when Lich comes out. This way they can go and run these instances and get that gear if they choose. Its a very smart decision, blizz worked hard on those raids and would like the majority of the player base to experience them.
Milktub Feb 9th 2008 1:50AM
I have no experience post-Kara, so take my words with a grain of salt ...
But I chalk this change up to the same minds who brought us "Heroic Keys at Honored". It's great for folks with alts. One less hump for guilds gearing up alts.
Basically meaningless for everyone else. I mean, have you tried Pugging a heroic? I was about to tank heroic ramps tonight. Then, having misgivings about lack of CC, looked up my dps members ... one was 5 points over honored with Thrallmar and barely friendly with the other Outland factions. I later ran into another of the potential groupmates who said they started, but this guy spent the first two pulls wildly hitting everything in sight and they disbanded after the third pull.
To go back to the topic at hand, this'll be great news for guilds who already have BT/Hyjal on farm and just want a quick way to bring in a few deadweight alts in on runs to get them geared up. But for guilds who are finally progressing to what will soon be "the old endgame", this'll mean guild applicants who no longer need to think about whether they're "Hyjal Attuned" and show up for a raid with Kara gear ... or worse.
jaxson_bateman Feb 9th 2008 1:59AM
If you're on a server with very few attuned healers, and not many willing to leave their T5 guilds despite you saying you'd get them their Kael vial as long as they had their Vashj one... yeah, they'd prob happily take Kara geared healers. =)
That said, the skill still has to be there. We wouldn't take people like in the heroic pug you're talking about. =P
Kaphik Feb 9th 2008 2:31AM
I think Blizzard learned something from Naxx. They created an intricate, expansive raid instance, and many people were unable to experience it because they were just not ready for it when TBC came out. The whole raiding experience post Karazhan seems to be people picking and choosing the bosses they are best geared to beat, until they are able to move on to the harder bosses. Taking away the attunement doesn't diminish your accomplishmentsl, nor does it immediately make it easier for people to clear them.
The Burning Crusade was focused on Illidan, and even with the changes, I'd have to guess that 75% of the games population will still not have beaten him by the time that Wrath comes out.
theRaptor Feb 9th 2008 4:37AM
If 25% of *raiders* have beaten him come WotLK, I will be impressed. According to wowjutsi.com, 8-10% of *raiders* have beein in MH/BT, not even half the raiders out there have been in SSC/TK.
Amphitere Feb 9th 2008 3:06AM
This is total bullshit and I say this as a raider who has yet to complete TK or SSC. =\
jaxson_bateman Feb 9th 2008 3:16AM
Bah, how many people will I have to reply this too...
Try getting to T6 first (before the attunement is removed), watch a few people leave afterwards for various reasons, and try and get replacements.
You'll be incredibly lucky if you get fully attuned people, so you'd have to run back to at least TK, if not also SSC, and vial them up. Not only is it a pain in the arse to be forced to clear content you've done plenty of times before, but it also takes nights away from progression.
dan Feb 9th 2008 3:11AM
Anyone who didn't see this coming the second they removed the earlier attunements and added t5 equivalent items via badges and ZA just wasn't paying attention. Blizz doesn't put attunements in place to slow down the casuals... they put them in to slow down the hardcore players. Who happily accept it because it inflates their epeen.
Guilds and players in the middle of that spectrum, peeps just now rolling up on Vashj and Kael will benefit from this -- they may down one of them before the patch hits then score the easy loots from the fist bosses in MH and then loop back around for the other since they'll still be farming ssc and tk for some loots.... just like the hardcore guilds did.
Funny that.
Heleth Feb 9th 2008 3:42AM
hand me epix plz.
Rich Feb 9th 2008 5:19AM
To all the whiners complaining about how this is going to ruin raiding and let the noobs get free epix from BT.
STFU
You've been singing the same toon since TBC came out. First with SSC/Eye. Now this...
This change is really only going to benefit the people currently doing the content, just like the last attunement removals. It will allow alts and new recruits to guilds to catch up and not waste progression time.
The removal of attunements for raids hasn't kill it, like everyone was crying about with SSC/Eye.
pablo Feb 9th 2008 5:28AM
I think you all are missing the point. This move is neither good or bad but necessary if players are ever going to see BT or MH. Remember that WOLK is coming out "soon". Once that happens nobody is going to be spending their time trying to get attuned to BT or MH. In my guild we are just moving on from Kara. If we were to do all the necessary steps to get our guild attuned for BT and MH we would never be ready before WOLK cam out and we all know that when it comes out everybody is going to forget about this stuff and it will be a race to lvl 80 and the Lich King. What Blizz is doing is the only thing they could do if they did not want to leave the fun of BT and MH to a very small handfull of WOW players.
Krishan Feb 9th 2008 5:41AM
Fucking stupid...PVE getting shitter, PvP sucks already..
GG Blizz.
Bearskunk Feb 9th 2008 6:09AM
its always just a bad change if it makes things easier for others. bet the ones whining now rejoiced when the vials werent needed anymore and the ssc trash was nerfed heavily.
Werther Feb 9th 2008 6:57AM
I think they have to do this change to keep players interested until the next expansion that I believe is still another 6-12 months away :(
Tridus Feb 9th 2008 7:00AM
They didn't remove the Karazhan attunement. People seem to forget that all the time.
They also forget how easy the other attunements were. BWL attunement didn't require weeks learning to kill Kael. It required a UBRS run. MC required a BRD run. Naxx was BUYABLE.
heruval Feb 9th 2008 7:37AM
It's easy to understand why Blizzard has removed the attunements. It's a business and players are their revenue stream. Fine. Whetting the appetite of less skilled players is good. Keeps them paying the monthly fees.
Here’s some info: T6 tokens don’t start dropping until you get to Azgalor(4th boss in Hyjal) and
Mother (7th boss in BT). Have fun getting that far. Don’t you people get it. Removing attunements doesn’t mean easy tier epics.
And as for attunements just put in place to slow down the hardcore players. Yeah it may slow them down, but the elite are still going to complete all content and defeat all bosses. Can’t say that about the scrubs. Let’s not forget that it’s Blizzard that programs these bosses to be so hard. Cleary, they expect only the elite to be able to down them. Not too many players have seen or killed Kel’thuzad.