wow The First Week of the 9.2 Sepulcher Raid Will Only Feature 8 Bosses

[Staff 1,176]

 

Update: Blizzard have issued an official statement, explaining the timing on the Sepulcher of the First ones raid:

9.2 Raid Timegate (Source)

Narratively, the Eternity’s End raid tells two stories, one after the other. Our current plan for the release of the raid looks like this:

• During the first week of the release of Eternity’s End, the raid will not be open.
• Beginning with the second week, the raid will open for Normal and Heroic difficulties, and the first eight bosses will be available in those difficulties.
  • It will not be possible to fight the final bosses on any difficulty during week two.
  • This is intended to provide a moment to tell the story in a way that accounts for the passage of time between the events of the eighth encounter and the subsequent encounters.
• Beginning with the weekly reset of week three, all bosses will be available on Normal, Heroic, and Mythic difficulties.
  • This will also be the opening of the first wing of the raid on Raid Finder difficulty.

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In an interview with Korean site Inven, Steve Danuser and Morgan Day talked about the Sepulcher of the First ones 9.2 raid, and specifically mentioned that the first week will only have 8 of the 11 bosses available. The concept here is that we need Anduin's help to overcome Domination magic, and so he's the endboss for the first week. After that, starting with Mythic week, all bosses will be available, so there will be no major impact on the Race to World First (aside from the final 3 bosses not being farmable during the fist week). This has also been confirmed by Blizzard separately.

The interview talks about amyn things 9.2-related, and while the translation is a little rough, the answers are pretty understandable (minus the "animals" and "the guard" being bosses and the Jailer).

Q. You say you need to learn the magic of domination from Anduin. If so, will Anduin join the allies with the power of domination? The story of rescuing Anduin takes precedence. By subduing Bolvar and Jaina at once, it was clear that the domination magic used by the guard was very powerful. To deal with the guard, you need to know about this magic. Anduin knows more about the magic of domination handled by the guard than anyone else, so he can work with him to learn how to deal with the magic the guard uses. The new raid consists of 11 animals, of which Anduin appears as the 8th name. During the first open week of the raid, you will face up to Anduin. This part was intentionally planned and allowed us to take a closer look at Anduin's story before the final showdown. You can learn a lot from this story. Q. You mentioned earlier that in the first week of the raid, you can even face Anduin. After a certain period of time, the next raid area will open, and will it be implemented in a way that will ultimately confront the guard? Yes. The first week provides an important part of the story, where you can even deal with Anduin and fend off the guard's domination. It was intentionally set for a natural story development. After that, the region will open in time for the opening of Mythic difficulty. Incidentally, the guard is the last boss of the raid on 'The Burial Grounds of the Beginning'. If the guard is finally defeated, the final curtain of the Shadowlands story will come to an end.

You can read the full interview (with the help of google translate) over here, as it goes over many of the patch 9.2 highlights.