From jwberry's 4th installment of the instance scaling developer diary (http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/devdia...ces-20-part-4-):
"We ripped out all of the raid-locks, and instead there is now a deed that is completed by defeating the bosses of the three 12-man wings. Each character must have this deed completed before they are able to fight Thorog. It is a one-time personal gate. Once completed, that character can always access the dragon fight. In addition, once the dragon is unlocked you can play him as often as you wish.
Ill repeat that again because it bears repeating, this is a one-time gate. Once you have personally unlocked access to the Dragon Wing you can play it as many times as you want as frequently as you want."
Is there any reason why this can't represent the future of raiding so that radiance can be eliminated? As I recall, wasn't the primary stated purpose of the original Watcher radiance gate that it served to tie together the instance cluster and make sure that you completed the cluster instances before engaging the raid boss?
I recognize that Turbine has subsequently ramped up the radiance threshhold with each successive raid, thus requiring completion of other content that isn't necessarily part of an instance cluster, as well as adding the DN and BG that were not divided into a cluster and raid boss. I also recognize that Helegrod was never radiance gated, so gating Thorog by deed completion was done in a different context.
However, given the problems inherent with constantly increasing the radiance gate with each new raid (to say nothing of the negative feedback players have expressed with radiance gating in general), and given that Turbine is now demonstrating that it can and will gate raid bosses in a cluster through deed completion, is there any compelling reason at all to retain radiance as a gating mechanism on a going forward basis?
"We ripped out all of the raid-locks, and instead there is now a deed that is completed by defeating the bosses of the three 12-man wings. Each character must have this deed completed before they are able to fight Thorog. It is a one-time personal gate. Once completed, that character can always access the dragon fight. In addition, once the dragon is unlocked you can play him as often as you wish.
Ill repeat that again because it bears repeating, this is a one-time gate. Once you have personally unlocked access to the Dragon Wing you can play it as many times as you want as frequently as you want."
Is there any reason why this can't represent the future of raiding so that radiance can be eliminated? As I recall, wasn't the primary stated purpose of the original Watcher radiance gate that it served to tie together the instance cluster and make sure that you completed the cluster instances before engaging the raid boss?
I recognize that Turbine has subsequently ramped up the radiance threshhold with each successive raid, thus requiring completion of other content that isn't necessarily part of an instance cluster, as well as adding the DN and BG that were not divided into a cluster and raid boss. I also recognize that Helegrod was never radiance gated, so gating Thorog by deed completion was done in a different context.
However, given the problems inherent with constantly increasing the radiance gate with each new raid (to say nothing of the negative feedback players have expressed with radiance gating in general), and given that Turbine is now demonstrating that it can and will gate raid bosses in a cluster through deed completion, is there any compelling reason at all to retain radiance as a gating mechanism on a going forward basis?