Shadowmoon Valley: what’s a non-linear dungeon raid?

Wondering about the new raid dungeon in development? Checking out the Under Development page at the World of Warcraft site, it indicates that the Shadowmoon Valley – the current address of Illidan Stormrage – would feature a non-linear level 70 raid dungeon.

Non-linear? Players, including Bagscot over at the WoW forums had various reactions to this as it really wasn’t expounded. Blizzard CM Tseric was kind enough to explain that by non-linear, it means that players would have a common starting point but would have an option as the said dungeon branches out to different bosses.

These branches will then reconverge at the end, where the final battle takes place. This will allow players who’ve already cleared or defeated all of the bosses to choose a path to get to the end, without having to clear each and every encounter. Or for players who are still progressing through it to change up the plan by choosing different encounters, rather than singularly measuring progress, one boss at a time.

It would surely be a choose-your-own-adventure type of dungeon, as players would be able to create a strategy on who to take on first or who to avoid. It would obviously be deviating from the usual progression type of raid dungeons – we’ll see in the long run how it goes. And (*gulp*) we’ll see just how bad Illidan Stormrage can get.

Wondering about the new raid dungeon in development? Checking out the Under Development page at the World of Warcraft site, it indicates that the Shadowmoon Valley – the current address of Illidan Stormrage – would feature a non-linear level 70 raid dungeon.

Non-linear? Players, including Bagscot over at the WoW forums had various reactions to this as it really wasn’t expounded. Blizzard CM Tseric was kind enough to explain that by non-linear, it means that players would have a common starting point but would have an option as the said dungeon branches out to different bosses.

These branches will then reconverge at the end, where the final battle takes place. This will allow players who’ve already cleared or defeated all of the bosses to choose a path to get to the end, without having to clear each and every encounter. Or for players who are still progressing through it to change up the plan by choosing different encounters, rather than singularly measuring progress, one boss at a time.

It would surely be a choose-your-own-adventure type of dungeon, as players would be able to create a strategy on who to take on first or who to avoid. It would obviously be deviating from the usual progression type of raid dungeons – we’ll see in the long run how it goes. And (*gulp*) we’ll see just how bad Illidan Stormrage can get.