Onyxia is the toughest attunement in the game

by Mike Schramm Mar 5th 2008 at 6:00PM

Here's an interesting observation: after patch 2.4 drops, Onyxia will be the hardest attunement in the game. BT and Hyjal dropped, SSC and TK dropped, and even the Karazhan attunement got removed, so the hardest attunement now left in the game (does the AQ gate opening count as an attunement?) will be the long quest chain to attune to Onyxia's Lair.

And Blizzard is apparently OK with that. They've been back and forth on attunements since the beginning of the game. On the one hand, attuning a character to an instance like Onyxia makes things feel epic (and indeed, some people think the Alliance version, with the Stormwind reveal, is one of the best quests in the game). But putting attunements in the way just to keep players away from content clearly isn't the way to go about things.

It will be interesting, as always, to see how things change in the next expansion -- Blizzard has already said that they'd like alts to be able to benefit from attunements and reputation rewards, so odds are that while there still will be attunements of some kind, they'll be set up in such a way that once you do them one time, you won't have to do them again. And that's a pretty good balance -- players still get to experience epic content, but it never is forced into a grind where you have to jump through hoops just to get someplace the devs don't want you to be yet.

Tags: attunement, balance, blizzard, developers, dungeons, onyxia, quest, wotlk, wrath-of-the-lich-king

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Instances, Quests, Expansions, Raiding, Leveling

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

Hazerduz Mar 5th 2008 6:15PM

Oh I would love an account Attunement, just got my 5th 70 attuned for Kara, and it is starting to be a pain. I see the intention of having them, but I don;t know many people who only play one character. At least the Kara Attunement makes sense, in that you basically have to get Medivh's permission to go into his old stomping grounds. Onyxia was fun and did feel epic the first time, but my warrior is still the only char I have Attuned for Ony.

Sadly still no UBRS key, missing one freaking Gemstone for the past 2 1/2 years, maybe I should solo it one of these days.

Killer Mar 5th 2008 7:12PM

The gemstones for UBRS key are 100% droprate now. Go get em tiger! XD

BigRed Mar 6th 2008 7:37AM

However, finishing the quest is often bugged.

Rich Mar 5th 2008 6:25PM

The Onyxia one should be changed if not gotten rid of. Its a pain in the ass to do, especially for the Horde.

There are plenty of people who run it now, but no ones wants to run people to get keyed. I hit 60 2 months before TBC and didn't get a chance to get keyed.

They are dumping all the other attunements, might as either dump or change that one.

MrGutts Mar 5th 2008 6:30PM

Yeah this is getting pretty heated when a CM has to reply 5 or 6 times in one thread. I am wanting them to add additional parts to it for WoLK. Make it a really long ass attunement, supeeeeer long :-)

guesswho? Mar 5th 2008 6:31PM

true but for the minimal time invested she is still worth killing every week and more fun than mindless lolnetherwing dailies. 5 70's can walk away with 30+ gold and shards.

Urthona Mar 5th 2008 6:56PM

Make attunements and the keys associated with them Bind On Account.

Kadathwack Mar 5th 2008 7:16PM

I think attunements are a good thing for game. They prevent people from going to instances they aren't geared enough for and spending their time and gold on wiping. They help set up a linear progression with raiding.

Attunements that effect all the characters in your account may be a better way to go, but I'm sure that attunements will still be around in Wrath, in some form or another.

anonymoose Mar 5th 2008 7:22PM

"They prevent people from going to instances they aren't geared enough for and spending their time and gold on wiping."

One would hope the actual defense against going into instances you aren't geared enough for and spending time & gold wiping on would be intellect.

wyrd Mar 6th 2008 2:26PM

Haha, thats alot of faith to have in people. Assuming that intelligence will keep them from wasting other peoples time and gold.

Kuroyume Mar 5th 2008 7:48PM

if they remove the onyxia attunement i hope they at least keep the questchain ... Alliance side at least, it's got one of the coolest moments in the game...

Ophelos Mar 5th 2008 8:51PM

The worse thing about this attunement is trying to get the key for ubrs. Since this quest http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=4743 "Seal of Ascension" is still broken. So you'll need to find someone who already got the key for ubrs, (Only need 1 person with the ubrs key to get in) which well be alot easier then waitting around for blizzard to fix this quest.

I've tried to get my key for ubrs a few months back when i was bored, and went back to pre-bc instances to try and get my key for everything. The Onyxia and ubrs are the only two that i need to get. (Could have done the second ubrs trip by now, but it was hard to find 2 more people to come to ubrs to help out with the quest. yep i've said two, since that's all you need is 3 lvl 70's to do this 10man raid)..

Jess Mar 6th 2008 12:09AM

Funny thing is that people are still getting attuned for Onyxia on my server. I guess they really like watching bolvar solo 10 dragokin. Or maybe since onyxia drops a huge chunk of gold if you split it between small group (plus a BOP blue or two and that bag) she's still worth doing.

Gimmlette Mar 6th 2008 12:00PM

Are you on Llane? Then that would be my guild, Spectacular Death, getting more and more guild members attuned so we can run Onyxia again and again.

I'm on the fence about attunements since I'm attuned for both Onyxia and Kara. Having a 12-step attunement means some people, including some who are well-geared from other instances, aren't going to take the time to do it. (Bolvar, dude, she's standing 5 feet from you. YOU go talk to her.)

Sometimes I think, "Hey I did this. You should too", but I realize that attitude cuts off a number of people from lore that is very well done.

And then, making Kara like UBRS where one person needs a key for the rest to get in means more people will see that content and get some good gear as a by-product. Some people will do the quest chain to get keys. I know I would simply because I like having keys to everything (Searing Gorge pass, anyone?)

I will still attempt the BT attunement the old way because it's there. While the Onyxia attunement can get tedious (I have to go BACK to Lakeshire???), the amount of lore and filling in of the back story, to me, makes it worth it. It is so much fun to kill dragonkin in SW keep. Ever notice the boy king wears what look like orthopedic shoes? Surely someone in that city could fix whatever is wrong.

Sl0th Mar 6th 2008 3:24AM

Onyxia keying is a pain in the ass, to be sure. But, especially for the Alliance, it really is one of the best quest lines in the game.

Marching through Stormwind beside the guy you just escorted out of BRD to expose a dragon, a high ranking black dragon raid boss, who has basicly been the most fustrating high-ranking NPC to talk to outside of Staghelm, is just fun. And it explains a question anyone who had done a variety of human quests all the way back to the starting area had been asking. "How can the guys in Stormwind be so freaking oblivious to the hell that's raining down in their surrounding territories." Whenever I see someone else doing it, I like to watch the fireworks (And the idiots who decide they want to slay some dragons in the throne room and get cut to shreds.)

That said, with the new expansion on the horizon and people now killing Onyxia with ease using a group they'd take into a heroic... Maybe its time to remove the requirement for the attunement. Keep the quests in place. God knows people will still do it just to have done it. But let anyone walk into Onyxia's, with or without the magic blood-filled necklace.

As for Kara... I think the attunement loss is a huge mistake. The Master's Key is going to basicly become the key to Shattered Halls or Arc. One person in the party needs to open the door and anyone can come inside. The attunement for Kara was basicly a training mission. The five instances you had to run, or partially run, give enough variety in content to be able to tell you whether you're ready to walk through that locked gate into epic land. If you can't handle some of the pulls in SL, you'd be eaten alive in Kara. Now there'll just be more people in quest greens and blues who think they're ready for the big leagues only to be frustrated when Nightmare chews their head off or Morose slits their throat.

Bloodthorn Mar 6th 2008 4:19AM

"One would hope the actual defense against going into instances you aren't geared enough for and spending time & gold wiping on would be intellect."

QFT!

Zali Mar 6th 2008 10:24AM

I don't care if some idiot gives up his/her own treasure for repair bills because s/he decided to want into an area that they just are not ready to take on. It is there gold, after all. In my opinion though, attunements aren't there to keep people from wasting there cash on repair bills. Attunements are there to keep people from wasting MY cash on repair bills.

Frankly, if I go into Kara I would like to know that everyone in there with me is geared well enough to give it a solid shot without wiping four times on every boss. And I don't want to spent 20 minutes inspecting every person in the raid group before we start. Attunements are fine by me.

And what is horribly wrong with running a quest chain or ten? Quests usually pay out pretty well. Sure, it might take some time to do, but then again, it takes some time to level up to 70 in order to get into dungeon XYZ. Anyone who has made it to level 20 in this game knows that the good stuff is going to take a little extra effort, and you gotta work for the really good stuff.

Some attunements might be a long slog, some might require you to team up with some buddies, but so what? It is a social game anyway. Teaming up with buddies is what it is all about. Sure you can farm primal fire's solo, but it is more fun and safer to do it with friends. As we used to say when I was a kid, "same diff."

Keep the attunements I say. All of them. If your buddies can run your alts through Dead Mines 30 times, then they can run with you on some attunement quests.

wr3ckage Mar 6th 2008 10:53AM

Well, after 3 years of playing this game, I must admit that it is becoming more and more linear by the day...
I was a FPS player before, where pretty much everyone (in a multiplayer scenario) starts with the same gear and can access the same content, and where the time invested playing mostly relates to your skill level.
In WoW, I've had a similar experience (/played = skill), where I had to quest through the Onyxia chain to be able to hang a dragon's head by Stormwind gates and get the T2 helm, which I wore proudly in the Outlands.
Nowadays, with the heroic requirements lowered to Honored status, ebay/powerlvl stuff, a lot of teens playing, you can't rely on intellect alone to defend you against the pain of heroic pugs, let alone thinking about the random guild member that just hit 70 asking why he can't get in the KZ runs.
Not when your average joe full o'greens is in the heroic LFG, and then goes "you mean I have to fly up there?" or "erm I can't get in the instance for some reason"...
Thanks Blizzard, for the Armory, but not for removing the Attunements and lowering the Heroic requirements.

(sorry for my bad english)

Cheers

Monergist Mar 6th 2008 4:50PM

I can't find a single soul to go to UBRS with me to finish the last part of Onyxia attunement. I'm sure people would happy to zerg Onyxia for fun and for the 30g she drops. But no one cares to take the time to complete the attunement. This sucks and wish Blizzard would remove attunement requirements on all old world instances to increase the chance that old content will actually get visited.