Why is tier 14 heroic gear required for progressing in normal Throne of Thunder? Anything after Jin'Rokh is tuned for item lvl 500 or more. The highest you can get from normals is 496. Most heroic raiders had about 510 before the patch and some normal mode only raiders barely had 490. As a result the elitist crew facerolled it and said it was loleasy while the rest are struggling.
My main has 3 522 pieces, one 502, some upgraded 496s and I'm still way below 500. Why should I farm LFR for months until I'm ready for normal mode? That's how long it is going to take with the current drop rate. Most players in my guild are even less geared even though they have more normal mode kills. I guess I'm not doing ToT with them anytime soon.
Clearing Ulduar hard modes wasn't required for entering Trial of the Crusader or even ICC.
Throne of Thunder normal isn't tuned assuming you are a Heroic raiding guild. If your raid is still progressing through Tier 14 (say, at Garalon) it's very likely you'll be able to only kill Jin'rokh and then face a very difficult battle trying to slay Horridon or Council of Elders, though.
In that case (and for the guilds still progressing through T14) it probably makes more sense to go back clear the rest of Tier 14 (which is now more doable thanks to the 10% reduction in damage and health of bosses as well as the new VP gear you can get with 5.2 Patch). Guilds that have completed Tier 14 Normal already should be able to progress through Throne of Thunder. Of course, you might not clear all of it in a couple weeks, but it's something definitely doable without getting Heroic gear from Tier 14 (gear from Normal Tier 15 is higher item level). On the other hand, it's also important to keep in mind that Jin'rokh is a rather easy boss. He's not necessarily a representation of the rest of the raid's difficulty. Which is something many of you have probably noticed while progressing on Horridon or Council of Elders. And that might set a wrong expectation as to how quickly you can/should progress in Throne of Thunder. It's very possible to kill Jin'rokh without much difficulty and then suddenly feel like Horridon is a brick wall, don't despair! There are many encounters in Throne of Thunder that your raid will have to learn. And it's normal to feel things may be overtuned at the beginning of a new raiding tier while everyone is trying to better understand what each boss does and how to execute the fight properly. Not everything comes down to how much gear your raid has. In fact, you might overgear, say, Horridon, and yet be unable to progress past him due to an inefficient strategy. In any case, the developers are keeping an eye out on how things are going, and they will be making adjustments as needed. Ideally, no one should find him/herself in a situation where it looks like it's impossible to win without getting more gear and unable to actually get more gear. So, don't give up. Go get those VP items (some items from Raid Finder might help as well, absolutely) and keep refining your strategies. The boss kills will come :) |
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It's definitely true, however, that jumping from Garalon to ToT might be stressing for the raid group on the first weeks. As the raid gets more gear from the newest Raid Finders, the 5.2 Valor Point items and so on, they'll start progressing through the harder encounters. But, even if you start making progress past Horridon and Council of Elders, I'd honestly encourage you to go and finish Heart of Fear in Normal, and Terrace of Endless Spring. Terrace is particularly useful as it drops 2 tier pieces, Sha-Touched weapons and it has minimal trash, which means you can clear it in around two hours once you get used to the raid :) |