Thursday, October 18, 2012

Mogu'shan Vaults LFR: Act Two...ish

Well, after sitting in the queue first 15 minutes, then 20, and then another 40, I got a 2/6 (which really means 2/3) bosses down invitation to do MSV each time and rejected them all. Finally, after another attempt later in the evening, I got in to a 1/6 boss down group. Sadly, that meant no chance at the cool shield off of Spirit Kings, but I did get to see both Elegon and Will of the Emperor, which are both very cool fights.

I also got a second Sigil of Power and the tanking chestpiece off of Will of the Emperor.

Cho continues to travel with you in the second half, commenting on the various things you find there. Within the Vaults there is some very definite Titan technology, including Elegon, who is an Astral construct akin to Algalon, but in the form of a Cloud Serpent rather than a Vrykul Rogue.

Elegon: Elegon is a fight that will take you one or two attempts to get the hang of, but once you do it's very cool. The construct sits in the middle, and is the kind of stationary boss that will freak out if you don't have a tank on him. One tank takes him while the other is there to pick up adds (finally! An LFR boss who has the tanks do different things!)

Anyway, he's floating above a big circular hole in the ground. He projects a platform over said hole, and while standing on it, you receive a 20% bonus to both healing and damage, not to mention getting an awesome astral form like Algalon. He spawns adds that explode when they die, so my understanding (and if I make errors here, forgive me. I gave a quick look at the dungeon journal and picked up what I could from what I saw and the surprisingly helpful LFR raid told me) is that you keep them close to the raid for splash damage and then pull them out when they're low to have them explode elsewhere.

The big raid-killer here is when he summons six orbs around himself. At this stage he will no longer yank people back if the tank is not there. Killing the orbs damages him (I think) and delays the mechanic that kills everyone if they're not light on their feet. When the orbs reach the outside of the projected platform, the platform will shut down, dropping anyone still on it into the abyss. This will happen eventually, as he keeps summoning orbs until it does (I think) but you can get in a lot of extra damage if you can delay this. Anyway, if (I think) one of the orbs hits the outer edge, the platform powers down and the six Power Conduits the orbs are linked to will go up, making walls segmenting the outer room. You'll have to dps down the Conduits while lots of little adds get spawned on random raid members. These guys are what the tanks deal with until the platform gets back. Anyway, then it's rinse and repeat.

A couple quick trash pulls later and you'll come to the room with the Will of the Emperor. Here, the Mogu are using that Titan tech to mass produce soldiers (Halls of Stone, anyone?) You now have to fight said rapidly manufactured soldiers.

Will of the Emperor: Now, most of these guys do not get tanked, and will fixate on targets. They also have varying levels of CC-vulnerability, with some who can be outright frozen, stunned, and all of that, up to some who can barely be controlled at all.

The two actual Boss-type enemies do need to be tanked, and tanking them works in a very interesting way. (I should note here that I did it terribly, and actually had to be battle rezed at one point.) The two bosses (whose names are very similar, but I can't quite recall them) are held at either side of the arena. They will occasionally do "Deadly Combination" where they will do some brutal swings with their weapons, causing a big chunk of damage and making the tank more vulnerable. The thing is, they telegraph their moves, and while tanks cannot move away from them entirely (due to a debuff they give the tanks,) the attacks can be avoided if you know which way to go. I've promised myself I will do better at this next time, as I only avoided about two out of five... ish. Anyway, if a tank successfully avoids these attacks five times in a row (which I did not,) they get Opportunistic Strike, which is a special-action button that allows them to strike the boss for 500k damage. With practice, I'm sure tanks are going to be topping recount on this one.

Anyway, the raid is quite cool, and with my settings turned all the way down (including resolution) I can actually get through it without a huge degree of lag.

Lorewise, I love that Cho comes with us to narrate the place, though I wish we'd gotten more of a definite reveal on the Mogu-Titan connection. Now, granted, the existence of Titan stuff in the possession of the Mogu itself may be considered a twist to those who haven't been paying much attention. What I'd like set down in stone is whether the Mogu are a Titanic race, or Titanic constructs akin to Thorim and Hodir. Another, more outlandish theory that's been put forth is that the Mogu literally are Titans, though I think this would be kind of a let-down. Somehow I feel that an actual Titan being anything less than a dungeon boss (or even a raid boss) in terms of power would be pretty underwhelming. From Cho's perspective, the Mogu are simply using pilfered Titan technology to meet their goals, though I read this as more of an unwillingness to see that the Mogu serve some greater purpose than to just be cruel oppressors.

BONUS EPILOGUE:

I also killed the Sha of Fear, though if I thought lag was bad inside an instance with 25 people, being outside with 40 (and a bunch of Hordies we beat to the punch) is just insane. Still, I managed to pick up some adds and tank them acceptably, moving out of bad aoe, and got about 1/2 FPS (that's not one or two, it's half, as in a frame every two seconds or so.) We got him down, and while I did not get the White Tiger Legguards I was hoping for (one of my guildies got the Burning Scroll pants, which is the Mage tier 14 set - and this is not LFR level, but normal-mode,) everyone who beats him can loot a claw off the boss and turn it in to Ban Bearheart (don't all Pandaren have bear hearts, by definition?) for some nice 476 (crafted epic/LFR level) boots.

I'd tell you about that fight, but jeez, I don't even know. He mind-controls people who have to be dps'd to return to sanity, and there's bad stuff on the ground and like a million adds. It's an utter lag fest, but if you can get in the raid group, it's a chance at some very nice loot indeed, not to mention one of the requirements for the "Tranquil Master" title (Just need Sha of Fear, which will probably not be for a few weeks.)

BONUS BONUS EPILOGUE:

I finally got the Puzzlebox of Yogg-Saron! It's a silly vanity item gotten via Archaeology, and one that doesn't do any appearance-changing or anything, so a lot of people might find it particularly repugnant, but I've been looking for it since Archaeology was introduced. Clicking on it will cause you to, a few seconds later, get a creepy whisper from presumably some part of Yogg-Saron's will, with a lot of prophetic insanity. Of note: It mention a Black Goat with Seven Eyes, which I have heard refers to Y'shaarj, whose "corpse," for lack of a better word, makes up the Sha.

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