Wednesday, January 29, 2020

LFR Wing 1: Ny'alotha, the Waking City

That's right! I actually went in and did LFR. I'm planning on actually seeing this whole raid while people are still running it!

As someone whose computer was new shortly after the launch of Warlords of Draenor, I was very appreciative to see that the first wing of Ny'alotha is made up of immense but rather smooth stone architecture (or cyclopean, to borrow one of Lovecraft's favorite words,) and thus my computer was able to keep things at a perfectly playable clip.

As often happens, however, my co-tank was constantly out-threating me, though after the first boss I got someone who actually knew to ease off on damage after a taunt.

The first three fights are Wrathion, Maut, and The Prophet Skitra.

The raid opens with no trash to start - just Wrathion, apparently gone mad and corrupted as you watch shadows close in on Azeroth in the background.

This fight incorporates a lot of the classic "dragon fight" mechanics that I don't think we've seen since maybe Blackwing Descent. Fire breaths, tail-swipes, etc.

It's not terribly difficult, though it can be scary as I don't know if there are any classes that can actually completely avoid the fire aoe that he drops on the ground (maybe a Demon Hunter or a Windwalker Monk.)

Ultimately, when we defeat him, we discover that this was just an illusion - N'zoth trying to gaslight us into thinking that Wrathion's corruption, and that of Azeroth, is an inevitability.

After this fight, the illusion disappears and we find ourselves in the antechamber of Ny'alotha - a dark and massive vault of stone, with pathways to the two other bosses of the wing.

Maut is a massive Obsidian Destroyer. His main mechanic to look out for is that he periodically shields himself with mana and then starts casting a devastating AoE. You need to burn through the shield asap to do so. He'll also create these void circles that silence you, but also protect you from magic. I think they do damage you, so when he casts his big spell, you want to dip into these right as he's about to finish it.

Finally, because he drains mana from the raid, you'll want to have players intercept the blue balls that shoot toward him (they take a little damage, but not much) and then have them get within range of casters (especially healers) to have the blue mana go back to them.

The third and final (well, could be final or second, as I don't think you need to do the latter two in order) is the Prophet Skitra, which is probably the most interesting fight.

Skitra's major mechanic is that he'll summon illusion copies of himself - but only half the raid sees half of them and the other half sees the other ones. Attacking the illusions will damage the raid, so instead you want to have the tanks (who are always on different sides of the illusion divide) to figure out which version of Skitra they both see - then you can attack that one and end the illusion phase, which we got I think three times on a successful kill. (We just had the other tank go and attack each illusion they saw and when they started hitting something I could actually see, I'd call it out and mark it with a skull.)

Anyway, with those three down, that's the first wing.

So far I love the look of the raid - it feels appropriately ominous, ancient, and apocalyptic. I'm eager to see the rest of it and hopefully not have my computer die when we get out and see a more elaborate skybox!

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