In theory, I love the idea of LFR.
Before 3.3, which introduced Icecrown Citadel, the Frozen Halls 5-man dungeons, and the Dungeon Finder, putting together a dungeon group meant spamming trade with requests like "LFM VH, need two dps and a healer." You would do this for about an hour (though admittedly, playing a tank made things easier.) Finally, you'd get a group, and you could go run the dungeon. If someone was an asshole and you decided to kick them, you'd have to send someone back to Dalaran (or Shattrath, or Ironforge or wherever) to get a replacement. Having a guild obviously made this easier, but any guild I've been in has people who don't necessarily want to just drop what they're doing to run a dungeon.
The point is: For 5-man dungeons, people ran PuGs all the time. Sure, some of them were brutal (heroics in BC were generally considered harder than Karazhan, the starter raid,) and by no means were there not people who were total jerks, but really the environment did not change much with the introduction of LFG.
Nowadays, running 5-man dungeons is relatively stress-free. Sure, during the era of the Zuls you'd have some people who just couldn't figure out that you had to always stand next to Jin'do's chains - even if you were trying to dps the spirits chasing the healer, but overall, you could often come across a very friendly, sociable group of people that makes the run (even with occasional wipes) a pleasant experience.
I have yet to experience a pleasant LFR run.
Now, ok, once people really knew Dragon Soul, you could get Madness down pretty quickly and get the cool weapons. The thing is, the best you can ever hope for in LFR is a quiet group that is competent.
What you can usually expect are people complaining about low dps (even though we're downing the bosses just fine) or people starting the fight before everyone is there, or people who go AFK after every wipe, or people who just flat-out refuse to resurrect, yet want the people who are running back to be kicked for not being ready for the next attempt.
In short: LFR is a terrible way to experience the content.
Now, I am all for ease and accessibility. I've always been more of a "perfectionist" gamer than a "challenge" gamer. I'll play games on the low difficulty settings, but attempt to pull things off immaculately. In Skyrim, my Argonian assassin only ever got a bounty after killing the cousin of the emperor in the Dark Brotherhood quest chain (I don't know if it's even possible to get out of Solitude undetected.) And that's with both the full Dark Brotherhood chain and the full Thieves Guild chain. I like beating time records on bosses we have on farm. I like smooth runs.
So I have absolutely nothing against LFR as an easy way to raid. That's commendable.
My problem with it is that the anonymity of being in a group of 25 people, rather than a group of 5, allows for some really horrific behavior. I was just in a Vault of Mysteries LFR and we got wiped because someone activated the Will of the Emperor before everyone was there. But with 25 people, it's not easy to tell who did it. So we tried again, and the exact same thing happened. This, of course, after I was forced to stay up to 2:30 in the morning just to get in on a tank.
Honestly, I don't have a solution, other than the general advice of "don't be a dick." LFR was really the only way I got to experience Dragon Soul, as my guild's raiding core has somewhat dispersed since Wrath of the Lich King. I can only hope that we can try to rebuild this time around.
Now here's what concerns me: Blizzard has said that they want to emphasize LFR as the way that alts or latecomers catch up. They feel that the un-randomized grind of currencies makes things a bit too mechanical, and that it allows people to get far more powerful gear than what drops in the less challenging content they are running.
What I take away from that is that they want us running LFR a lot. Respectfully, Blizzard, I'd really prefer not to. Yes, it's true that you could get Firelands-quality gear out of the Hour of Twilight heroics, and that you could get Trial of the Crusader-quality gear out of the Frozen Halls. So yes, you can skip that content. But is that such a terrible thing? During Wrath, we fell into a lull after completing Naxxramas (sadly, Ulduar was the raid we missed out on the most.) We did some Trial of the Crusader, even beating it once or twice, but where the guild began to thrive again was in ICC. We would not have been able to get working on ICC had it not been for the 232 gear in the Frozen Halls.
I've never had as much fun raiding as the ICC days, when we had two full raids running each week: one the "progression raid," which was regularly pushing on the final bosses of the various wings upstairs, and the "Alt raid" that clearing a good half of the instance regularly (the first four plus Rotface/Festergut.) All of this was possible because of the Frozen Halls.
Now, I know the argument is that LFR will be able to provide that booster gear. The problem is that PuGs get exponentially worse the more people are in them. 5 people? You might get a rotten apple, but usually you'll be fine. 25 people? Oh dear lord.
Finally, as another direction to look at this from: Some of us like running 5-man dungeons. While raids are the pinnacle of PvE content, 5-mans have always been the meat and potatoes. Please let there be a progression of 5-man content through Mists!
Thursday, October 25, 2012
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Praise the Phantasmal Crab! Solo Old School Raids, here I come!
With 5.1, the requirement that one be in a raid group while entering pre-Mists raids is now gone.
This means many wonderful things, chief amongst them being that farming old tier gear for Transmog purposes will be far, far easier.
Obviously, hitting up Cataclysm raids will likely still be a hell of a challenge, and possibly impossible (at least until late Mists tiers, but even then probably by an elite few.) I expect, however, that BC raids will be very much in the realm of soloability (obviously barring certain mechanics that can't be soloed, like a Mind Control ability that resets the boss if everyone's MC'd.)
So let's see, what kind of stuff am I going to be on the lookout for?
Jarsus has got his Paladin tier 6 armor (full set,) but I think either he or Kerahn (the Tauren Paladin) has got to get a set of tier 8 (preferably in 25-man colors.) While it is a "plate skirt" set, which I usually don't like (ok, in fairness, a lot of the Plate skirts have actually been awesome, despite this. Tier 2 being the obvious example,) I absolutely love the look of Paladin Tier 8. Fitting very much with the Titan theme, it's like you're wearing a factory that produces holiness.
For Oterro, the Death Knight, the tier set I'd most like (other than Warrior tier 3, which ain't happening for a couple reasons) is tier 13, which will likely still be unsoloable until the next expansion. That said, I do have the LFR shoulders and pants already, so I can just get the JP versions of the rest of it, if I allow for some color inconsistency.
For Ardten, the Warrior, Wrathful Gladiator is the look I'm already working on, so not much trouble there. Then again, I would not mind picking up Armageddon, the absurdly huge sword from Four Horsemen 25 (that might be tricky to solo. Second Wind could help, though.)
For Darsino, the Rogue, completing a set of Tier 10 25-man would be great, though for his headpiece I'd have to go with Cursed Vision of Sargeras off of Illidan. Darsino is undead, and the "face option" I chose way back in the day was the one where his undead eye-lights are off. I always figured he was like a super badass blind undead assassin, so the simple blindfold off Illidan would be perfect for him.
For Tarbhad, the shaman, once again I love tier 8. I actually liked tier 13 a bunch for them, except for the helmet. But I got the LFR shoulders for that anyway, so I don't think he's really got to farm those up.
Now that we're out of the "Quintessential Quintet" (which I am just one Tarbhad away from getting, achievement-wise,) we'll talk about the other dudes.
Morcanis, the warlock, I will probably go for something simple. Not sure I even want to go tier on this, as most Warlock tier sets stress the "evil" look, and less of the "scholar of forbidden mysteries." If he were, say, an Orc, I'd go for tier 5, but my concept for Morcanis is more of a friendly, good guy who just happens to be really into some very dangerous magic, and sometimes becomes a demon.
Now, between the two Mages (Goraas, the Draenei, won out on the "who to get to 90 first" question. I'm going to try to wait to level up any class repeats until I get all 11 classes to 90, but Shibti, being one my original characters, gets an exemption here, and will probably precede the Priest and Monk.) Goraas already has a full set (minus gloves) of tier 13, which is not only my favorite mage tier set, but my favorite tier set of all. He has the JP gloves that match the normal mode, but I wouldn't mind getting a full set of normal-mode tier 13 at some point, even if the LFR version looks pretty good on his fishbelly white skin tones.
For Shibti, the troll mage, I think most helmets look a little odd on him. On one hand, I think that the tier 8 Kirin Tor look would be very appropriate to him (personality-wise, he was super happy to see the Kirin Tor recognizing Troll mages... might be a bit upset when Jaina takes charge...) On the other hand, I kind of like the simplicity of tier 4 for mages.
For Ordenar, the hunter, I'm not quite sure. Not many of the hunter tier sets have inspired me all that much, though 10's ok. Like all my engineers, he'll be keeping his goggles. (Actually, of all classes, high-tech goggles seem best suited to a hunter... well, maybe any ranged class.)
For Selarion, the druid, I've always wanted a set of tier 6. Yes, he's a Night Elf, and tier 6 for druids is CLEARLY meant for Tauren, but damn if it doesn't look awesome.
Finally, for Etharian, the Priest, I would not mind tier 6 - it's pretty well-suited to Shadow Priests.
Ok, so realistically, I doubt I'll get all of these. But with the removal of the need to coerce someone into forming a raid group with you, I expect to be hitting up these old instances with far greater frequency. Hell, I expect that I'll just head to Karazhan whenever I want a cool place to just hang out.
This means many wonderful things, chief amongst them being that farming old tier gear for Transmog purposes will be far, far easier.
Obviously, hitting up Cataclysm raids will likely still be a hell of a challenge, and possibly impossible (at least until late Mists tiers, but even then probably by an elite few.) I expect, however, that BC raids will be very much in the realm of soloability (obviously barring certain mechanics that can't be soloed, like a Mind Control ability that resets the boss if everyone's MC'd.)
So let's see, what kind of stuff am I going to be on the lookout for?
Jarsus has got his Paladin tier 6 armor (full set,) but I think either he or Kerahn (the Tauren Paladin) has got to get a set of tier 8 (preferably in 25-man colors.) While it is a "plate skirt" set, which I usually don't like (ok, in fairness, a lot of the Plate skirts have actually been awesome, despite this. Tier 2 being the obvious example,) I absolutely love the look of Paladin Tier 8. Fitting very much with the Titan theme, it's like you're wearing a factory that produces holiness.
For Oterro, the Death Knight, the tier set I'd most like (other than Warrior tier 3, which ain't happening for a couple reasons) is tier 13, which will likely still be unsoloable until the next expansion. That said, I do have the LFR shoulders and pants already, so I can just get the JP versions of the rest of it, if I allow for some color inconsistency.
For Ardten, the Warrior, Wrathful Gladiator is the look I'm already working on, so not much trouble there. Then again, I would not mind picking up Armageddon, the absurdly huge sword from Four Horsemen 25 (that might be tricky to solo. Second Wind could help, though.)
For Darsino, the Rogue, completing a set of Tier 10 25-man would be great, though for his headpiece I'd have to go with Cursed Vision of Sargeras off of Illidan. Darsino is undead, and the "face option" I chose way back in the day was the one where his undead eye-lights are off. I always figured he was like a super badass blind undead assassin, so the simple blindfold off Illidan would be perfect for him.
For Tarbhad, the shaman, once again I love tier 8. I actually liked tier 13 a bunch for them, except for the helmet. But I got the LFR shoulders for that anyway, so I don't think he's really got to farm those up.
Now that we're out of the "Quintessential Quintet" (which I am just one Tarbhad away from getting, achievement-wise,) we'll talk about the other dudes.
Morcanis, the warlock, I will probably go for something simple. Not sure I even want to go tier on this, as most Warlock tier sets stress the "evil" look, and less of the "scholar of forbidden mysteries." If he were, say, an Orc, I'd go for tier 5, but my concept for Morcanis is more of a friendly, good guy who just happens to be really into some very dangerous magic, and sometimes becomes a demon.
Now, between the two Mages (Goraas, the Draenei, won out on the "who to get to 90 first" question. I'm going to try to wait to level up any class repeats until I get all 11 classes to 90, but Shibti, being one my original characters, gets an exemption here, and will probably precede the Priest and Monk.) Goraas already has a full set (minus gloves) of tier 13, which is not only my favorite mage tier set, but my favorite tier set of all. He has the JP gloves that match the normal mode, but I wouldn't mind getting a full set of normal-mode tier 13 at some point, even if the LFR version looks pretty good on his fishbelly white skin tones.
For Shibti, the troll mage, I think most helmets look a little odd on him. On one hand, I think that the tier 8 Kirin Tor look would be very appropriate to him (personality-wise, he was super happy to see the Kirin Tor recognizing Troll mages... might be a bit upset when Jaina takes charge...) On the other hand, I kind of like the simplicity of tier 4 for mages.
For Ordenar, the hunter, I'm not quite sure. Not many of the hunter tier sets have inspired me all that much, though 10's ok. Like all my engineers, he'll be keeping his goggles. (Actually, of all classes, high-tech goggles seem best suited to a hunter... well, maybe any ranged class.)
For Selarion, the druid, I've always wanted a set of tier 6. Yes, he's a Night Elf, and tier 6 for druids is CLEARLY meant for Tauren, but damn if it doesn't look awesome.
Finally, for Etharian, the Priest, I would not mind tier 6 - it's pretty well-suited to Shadow Priests.
Ok, so realistically, I doubt I'll get all of these. But with the removal of the need to coerce someone into forming a raid group with you, I expect to be hitting up these old instances with far greater frequency. Hell, I expect that I'll just head to Karazhan whenever I want a cool place to just hang out.
Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Aberrations?
Tiny note here. Apparently Paladins' Turn Evil and Warlocks' Banish will now affect "Aberrations" in addition to Demons and Undead/Elementals respectively.
As you are likely aware, Aberration is not a creature type that exists in-game, though we can probably be confident that it will appear. The current creature types are: Beast, Humanoid, Elemental, Undead, Giant, Demon, Dragonkin, Mechanical and Critter.
However, there are a large numbers of "unclassified" creatures out there, such as Oozes, Slimes, and Old Gods. I would suspect that these weird, wrong things will likely be given the Aberration type.
On the other hand, despite the fact that Worgen have the racial ability Aberration, they will presumably continue to be classified as humanoid, much the way that playable Undead are considered Humanoids rather than Undead, and Tauren, despite being cow-people, are considered humanoids instead of Critters.
As you are likely aware, Aberration is not a creature type that exists in-game, though we can probably be confident that it will appear. The current creature types are: Beast, Humanoid, Elemental, Undead, Giant, Demon, Dragonkin, Mechanical and Critter.
However, there are a large numbers of "unclassified" creatures out there, such as Oozes, Slimes, and Old Gods. I would suspect that these weird, wrong things will likely be given the Aberration type.
On the other hand, despite the fact that Worgen have the racial ability Aberration, they will presumably continue to be classified as humanoid, much the way that playable Undead are considered Humanoids rather than Undead, and Tauren, despite being cow-people, are considered humanoids instead of Critters.
Scattered Lore Questions and Speculation
First off, I'd suggest people take a listen at this new music coming with 5.1. Be warned, there's a lot of seeming repetition, as there are many variations on certain themes. But still, there's some really top-caliber music going on there. For those of you who play with the music turned off... You have something wrong with you.
This article's just going to be a list of things I'm curious about in WoW Lore. There's an enormous depth of lore to this game, what with its 13 playable races, not to mention all the zones and non-player races and its mysterious history.
Bug People: The Aqir and their Progeny, and the inconsistent Will of the Old Gods
Way back when, before there were even Night Elves to speak of (they were still Trolls at that point,) there was the Zandalari Empire and there was the Aqir. The Aqir seem to have been created by the Old Gods, though by "created," we cannot be sure if they were truly made from scratch, or merely uplifted from an original state as just, well, bugs.
Just as the Zandalari split off into the Amani and Gurubashi (and then into smaller groups,) the Aqir split into three species we know of: the Qiraji, the Nerubians, and the Mantid. Each formed huge, powerful empires, and we've been to each of them, mainly to kill those guys. Now, admittedly, Ahn'Qiraj was less an empire and more a Titan facility designed as a prison for C'Thun (though whether through wear and tear, repurposing by the Qiraji, or just a change in artistic direction over at Blizzard, it doesn't look all that Titanic.) The Nerubians had a vast underground empire in Azjol-Nerub, but thanks to the combined efforts of Anub'arak and Arthas, the Scourge has control over most of it (hm, a faction created by the Burning Legion overpowering a faction created by the Old Gods... hm...) Meanwhile, the Mantid have their Kypari trees in what is now known as the Dread Wastes, but are falling to the power of the Sha of Fear.
The Aqir-descended races worship the Old Gods as just that, gods. In fact, the Mantid believe that the "Usurpers," (aka the Titans) are false gods, and that indeed all the races of Azeroth should worship the Old Gods. But given what we've seen of the Old Gods over the course of World of Warcraft, they don't exactly seem to want us around all that much. Twilight's Hammer (which oddly enough began as an Orc clan, but has since transformed entirely into an Old-God-worshipping doomsday cult) clearly just wants things to get destroyed. Indeed, the Old Gods seemed very happy to watch the Elemental Lords duke it out in the interest of destroying everything.
So why would these guys go to the trouble of creating complex species? It's very possible they just wanted to see them fight each other, or perhaps wanted to use them to get rid of the pesky other races that might interfere with the chaos they were interested.
Then there's another possibility. What if the Old Gods really are interested in creating a stable world, where the people they created can live and flourish, and in so doing bring glory to their names?
On the other hand, there's a slight issue with that, which is the existence of the Faceless Ones. The Faceless Ones seem much more closely related to the Old Gods than the Aqir (though the Vezax lookalikes have a similar fringe thing to the Prophet Skyriss, or whatever he's called.) Yet when we come across possibly the last three non-Scourgefied Nerubians, they react with great fear and hatred toward beings like Herald Volazj.
There is another example of Aqir acting somewhat odd toward the things they claim to worship. The Klaxxi are still devoted to the Old God Y'shaarj, yet they oppose the Sha. Now, certainly, the Sha appears to be something somewhat different that the Old Gods. As much as you loved grandma, you probably don't want her body rotting in the living room. (Sorry for that sentence.) The Sha, is, kind of, the will of the Old Gods, but without real form or direction. It almost makes you wonder if the Klaxxi would be fine, even prefer, that the Sha of Fear had infested some other race.
Deathwing: Did he mean well?
So let's say that the Old Gods ultimately wanted to rule over Azeroth, using the Faceless Ones as enforcers to keep the various Aqir races fighting each other for their amusement. We now that Deathwing was driven crazy by the Old Gods, but what if it was a slightly different kind of crazy?
One of Deathwing's plans in Cataclysm was to use the re-origination device in Uldum. Now, given my understanding of it, I thought that this device would completely atomize the entire planet, and then begin to rebuild it. We've heard that the Titans did not want to kill the Old Gods even though they could, because they were worried what would happen to Azeroth if they had (and given the Sha, it seems to have been a valid concern,) but if the planet's getting destroyed, I would imagine the re-origination device would also kill the Old Gods as well.
So what if Deathwing's "destroy the world" goal was actually him (crazily) misinterpreting the role assigned to him by the Titans? He's supposed to watch over the deep places in Azeroth. He finds the worst kind of corruption there. He starts hearing whispers that drive him insane. Insane does not necessarily mean "being controlled by outside forces." He goes "ah, it's simple. I've got to just blow up the planet!"
Ok, so that one's a bit of a stretch.
Lo'gosh and Goldrinn:
In Cataclysm, we met, face to face, Goldrinn. This guy's a pretty important figure to the Worgen, but also to other races, including the Orcs. Now, the Orcs had never been to Azeroth before the First War, but they had a wolf deity called Lo'gosh that they worshipped. In Mount Hyjal, we more or less get confirmation that these beings are one and the same.
Which has pretty big implications. Goldrinn, at the very least, exists on multiple planets.
The Age of the Draenei:
Oftentimes, questgivers will adress you as a "young mage," or something similar, usually with the implication that if they are an old veteran, they are much older than you are.
So I was a bit surprised about four years ago when I was doing the Death Knight starting experience on Oterro (who is kind of my Vice Main - the Commander Riker to Jarsus' Picard) and I realized something. When talking with the guy of your race who you have to kill, he talks about knowing you from back on Argus, begging you to remember your homeland.
That made me realize: Oterro is OLD.
We know, of course, that Velen obviously has been living since Argus, seeing as he was one of the three leaders of the Eredar people. His brothers (though this may have been figurative rather than literal) Archimonde and Kil'jaeden were corrupted by Sargeras, and Velen led the Draenei away with the help of the Naaru. The thing is, we also know that the Eredar (specifically, the Mannari Eredar, as in, the demons) fought in the War of the Ancients.
In fact, according to the novels (which I have not read. This is from WoWpedia) the flight from Argus was a whopping 25,000 years ago.
Now, granted, many playable Draenei could have been born during the millennia of running from the Legion. Your Draenei mage might be an adorable little 900-year-old. But Oterro, and actually all Draenei Death Knights, are at the very least, 25,000 years old.
And you thought that Night Elves were an ancient people.
Actually, though I don't really role-play in-game, I like to think that any time Oterro comes to some place like Mogu'shan Palace, he's like "well, it's kind of old, I guess. You should see Mac'aree, assuming the Legion hasn't, you know, turned it into a smoking crater."
This article's just going to be a list of things I'm curious about in WoW Lore. There's an enormous depth of lore to this game, what with its 13 playable races, not to mention all the zones and non-player races and its mysterious history.
Bug People: The Aqir and their Progeny, and the inconsistent Will of the Old Gods
Way back when, before there were even Night Elves to speak of (they were still Trolls at that point,) there was the Zandalari Empire and there was the Aqir. The Aqir seem to have been created by the Old Gods, though by "created," we cannot be sure if they were truly made from scratch, or merely uplifted from an original state as just, well, bugs.
Just as the Zandalari split off into the Amani and Gurubashi (and then into smaller groups,) the Aqir split into three species we know of: the Qiraji, the Nerubians, and the Mantid. Each formed huge, powerful empires, and we've been to each of them, mainly to kill those guys. Now, admittedly, Ahn'Qiraj was less an empire and more a Titan facility designed as a prison for C'Thun (though whether through wear and tear, repurposing by the Qiraji, or just a change in artistic direction over at Blizzard, it doesn't look all that Titanic.) The Nerubians had a vast underground empire in Azjol-Nerub, but thanks to the combined efforts of Anub'arak and Arthas, the Scourge has control over most of it (hm, a faction created by the Burning Legion overpowering a faction created by the Old Gods... hm...) Meanwhile, the Mantid have their Kypari trees in what is now known as the Dread Wastes, but are falling to the power of the Sha of Fear.
The Aqir-descended races worship the Old Gods as just that, gods. In fact, the Mantid believe that the "Usurpers," (aka the Titans) are false gods, and that indeed all the races of Azeroth should worship the Old Gods. But given what we've seen of the Old Gods over the course of World of Warcraft, they don't exactly seem to want us around all that much. Twilight's Hammer (which oddly enough began as an Orc clan, but has since transformed entirely into an Old-God-worshipping doomsday cult) clearly just wants things to get destroyed. Indeed, the Old Gods seemed very happy to watch the Elemental Lords duke it out in the interest of destroying everything.
So why would these guys go to the trouble of creating complex species? It's very possible they just wanted to see them fight each other, or perhaps wanted to use them to get rid of the pesky other races that might interfere with the chaos they were interested.
Then there's another possibility. What if the Old Gods really are interested in creating a stable world, where the people they created can live and flourish, and in so doing bring glory to their names?
On the other hand, there's a slight issue with that, which is the existence of the Faceless Ones. The Faceless Ones seem much more closely related to the Old Gods than the Aqir (though the Vezax lookalikes have a similar fringe thing to the Prophet Skyriss, or whatever he's called.) Yet when we come across possibly the last three non-Scourgefied Nerubians, they react with great fear and hatred toward beings like Herald Volazj.
There is another example of Aqir acting somewhat odd toward the things they claim to worship. The Klaxxi are still devoted to the Old God Y'shaarj, yet they oppose the Sha. Now, certainly, the Sha appears to be something somewhat different that the Old Gods. As much as you loved grandma, you probably don't want her body rotting in the living room. (Sorry for that sentence.) The Sha, is, kind of, the will of the Old Gods, but without real form or direction. It almost makes you wonder if the Klaxxi would be fine, even prefer, that the Sha of Fear had infested some other race.
Deathwing: Did he mean well?
So let's say that the Old Gods ultimately wanted to rule over Azeroth, using the Faceless Ones as enforcers to keep the various Aqir races fighting each other for their amusement. We now that Deathwing was driven crazy by the Old Gods, but what if it was a slightly different kind of crazy?
One of Deathwing's plans in Cataclysm was to use the re-origination device in Uldum. Now, given my understanding of it, I thought that this device would completely atomize the entire planet, and then begin to rebuild it. We've heard that the Titans did not want to kill the Old Gods even though they could, because they were worried what would happen to Azeroth if they had (and given the Sha, it seems to have been a valid concern,) but if the planet's getting destroyed, I would imagine the re-origination device would also kill the Old Gods as well.
So what if Deathwing's "destroy the world" goal was actually him (crazily) misinterpreting the role assigned to him by the Titans? He's supposed to watch over the deep places in Azeroth. He finds the worst kind of corruption there. He starts hearing whispers that drive him insane. Insane does not necessarily mean "being controlled by outside forces." He goes "ah, it's simple. I've got to just blow up the planet!"
Ok, so that one's a bit of a stretch.
Lo'gosh and Goldrinn:
In Cataclysm, we met, face to face, Goldrinn. This guy's a pretty important figure to the Worgen, but also to other races, including the Orcs. Now, the Orcs had never been to Azeroth before the First War, but they had a wolf deity called Lo'gosh that they worshipped. In Mount Hyjal, we more or less get confirmation that these beings are one and the same.
Which has pretty big implications. Goldrinn, at the very least, exists on multiple planets.
The Age of the Draenei:
Oftentimes, questgivers will adress you as a "young mage," or something similar, usually with the implication that if they are an old veteran, they are much older than you are.
So I was a bit surprised about four years ago when I was doing the Death Knight starting experience on Oterro (who is kind of my Vice Main - the Commander Riker to Jarsus' Picard) and I realized something. When talking with the guy of your race who you have to kill, he talks about knowing you from back on Argus, begging you to remember your homeland.
That made me realize: Oterro is OLD.
We know, of course, that Velen obviously has been living since Argus, seeing as he was one of the three leaders of the Eredar people. His brothers (though this may have been figurative rather than literal) Archimonde and Kil'jaeden were corrupted by Sargeras, and Velen led the Draenei away with the help of the Naaru. The thing is, we also know that the Eredar (specifically, the Mannari Eredar, as in, the demons) fought in the War of the Ancients.
In fact, according to the novels (which I have not read. This is from WoWpedia) the flight from Argus was a whopping 25,000 years ago.
Now, granted, many playable Draenei could have been born during the millennia of running from the Legion. Your Draenei mage might be an adorable little 900-year-old. But Oterro, and actually all Draenei Death Knights, are at the very least, 25,000 years old.
And you thought that Night Elves were an ancient people.
Actually, though I don't really role-play in-game, I like to think that any time Oterro comes to some place like Mogu'shan Palace, he's like "well, it's kind of old, I guess. You should see Mac'aree, assuming the Legion hasn't, you know, turned it into a smoking crater."
Saturday, October 20, 2012
The Slow Death of Tank Gear
Paladin tanks have very weird stat priorities now.
The reason for this is that we get a huge benefit from our Shield of the Righteous ability. At my current levels of mastery in a mix of JP blues and LFR epics, ShotR gives me a full 50% reduction in physical damage taken.
The thing is, Shield of the Righteous is very short. The damage reduction only lasts 3 seconds. On the plus side, getting to three Holy Power does not take long. The thing is, because this ability is so powerful, we really need to maximize the time it is up. This means we prioritize hit, HARD capping Expertise, and... Haste.
Because we inherited Ret's Sanctity of Battle, the cooldowns on Judgment and Crusader Strike/Hammer of the Righteous now scale with Haste. And when your survival is built on maintaining a 3-second buff that needs HoPo to put up, you are going to want to hit with your HoPo generators as consistently and frequently as possible.
What this means is that Paladin tanks now want Hit, Expertise, Mastery and Haste (Mastery is still good as it's the thing that determines how powerful that awesomely powerful ability is, not to mention giving Block chance and buffing Bastion of Glory.) Look at those stats. Notice anything? Put together, those look like DPS stats.
A Paladin tank could have a set of gear with not a bit of dodge or parry, and still be considered appropriately geared. This strikes me as odd and unsettling. For one thing, the automated gear-distribution in LFR is going to give me sub-par gear sometimes, and lock me out of some of the better pieces.
Part of my issue here is aesthetics. I don't like seeing any dps stats on tanking gear. Back in the day, hit and expertise were your threat stats, and dodge/parry/block (which became Mastery) were the defensive ones. Making tank gear distinct from dps gear helps people know what to roll on if they're not theorycrafters, and frankly, if there's a plate piece that has dodge and parry and there's a tank class out there that says "nah, that's not for me," you've got a problem.
I don't know what it's like for the other tanks. Given that Blood DKs have hardly changed, I assume the priorities are the same as they were in Cata, and I haven't touched the Druid or Warrior tanks this expansion, while the Monk is only level 50 and just taking what agility gear he can get.
So there are two solutions, as I see it:
A: Get rid of tank gear
This is not the solution I would favor, but it's doable. Plate tanks would simply use the same gear as plate dps - the same way that Guardians and Brewmasters essentially use the same gear as Leather Agility dps. They've already started making all tanking weapons have role-neutral stats, making them equally useful for Single-Minded Fury and Dual-wield Frost. However, if we went this way, I'd propose that Dodge and Parry be rolled into Haste and Crit, respectively. There's a certain flavor to it (you're fast, so you can dodge, or you're good at placing your weapon just right, so you can parry better) and it would truly unify the gear types. Plus, you could either nerf or get rid of Vengeance entirely, as tanks would now be scaling just as well in their offensive stats as dps. (And as I've said before, Vengeance has some inherent problems, like the way it makes tank swaps a nightmare.)
That said, this would raise some issues as well, such as causing even more loot drama. One could, of course, adjust drop rates or some such thing to allow what would now be the most popular type of gear among different specs (with 8 different specs that could use Strength Plate, compared to, for example, the 2 specs that can use intellect mail) to cause less of a problem.
B: Make dps stats less attractive to tanks
Now, I differentiate Threat stats from DPS stats, despite these meaning the same thing, ultimately, by putting Hit and Expertise in the "threat" category, and Haste/Crit in the "dps" category. The reason is that I actually really like having to hit/expertise cap now. I hated how in Cataclysm, a quarter of my attacks just plain didn't hit the boss. Sure, I was still holding threat and all, but it's not exactly a great feeling to see so many abilities just go to waste. But haste and crit, well, I just want to leave those to the dps. Let me get my dodge/parry (and wonderful, delicious mastery) for my survival.
Now, as far as I know, the haste issue is mainly a Paladin one (Brewmasters seem to like it a lot for Energy regen, but they're going to get some on their gear anyway.) So one thing they could do is take Sanctity of Battle away from us. Sure, this probably devalues Mastery a bit, and maybe takes some of the fun out of trying to maintain maximum ShotR uptime, but there's another possibility:
Instead, have something called, oh, let's say "Conviction," which would be a passive bonus to Protection. Every time you dodge or parry an attack, the cooldown of your Crusader Strike or Hammer of the Righteous (and maybe include Judgment) is reduced by .5 seconds (or whatever value would be balanced.) Now, we've got a huge incentive to get dodge and parry, because it not only gives us the RNG-dependent lack of getting hit that one time, it also gives us the damage-smoothing of Shield of the Righteous more frequently. Essentially, Conviction, and thus Dodge/Parry becomes our form of Haste. And then we can dance around, arm in arm with our Retribution brothers, wearing our cool black tanking gear while they wear their cool bronze dps gear and everyone's happy and puppies.
The reason for this is that we get a huge benefit from our Shield of the Righteous ability. At my current levels of mastery in a mix of JP blues and LFR epics, ShotR gives me a full 50% reduction in physical damage taken.
The thing is, Shield of the Righteous is very short. The damage reduction only lasts 3 seconds. On the plus side, getting to three Holy Power does not take long. The thing is, because this ability is so powerful, we really need to maximize the time it is up. This means we prioritize hit, HARD capping Expertise, and... Haste.
Because we inherited Ret's Sanctity of Battle, the cooldowns on Judgment and Crusader Strike/Hammer of the Righteous now scale with Haste. And when your survival is built on maintaining a 3-second buff that needs HoPo to put up, you are going to want to hit with your HoPo generators as consistently and frequently as possible.
What this means is that Paladin tanks now want Hit, Expertise, Mastery and Haste (Mastery is still good as it's the thing that determines how powerful that awesomely powerful ability is, not to mention giving Block chance and buffing Bastion of Glory.) Look at those stats. Notice anything? Put together, those look like DPS stats.
A Paladin tank could have a set of gear with not a bit of dodge or parry, and still be considered appropriately geared. This strikes me as odd and unsettling. For one thing, the automated gear-distribution in LFR is going to give me sub-par gear sometimes, and lock me out of some of the better pieces.
Part of my issue here is aesthetics. I don't like seeing any dps stats on tanking gear. Back in the day, hit and expertise were your threat stats, and dodge/parry/block (which became Mastery) were the defensive ones. Making tank gear distinct from dps gear helps people know what to roll on if they're not theorycrafters, and frankly, if there's a plate piece that has dodge and parry and there's a tank class out there that says "nah, that's not for me," you've got a problem.
I don't know what it's like for the other tanks. Given that Blood DKs have hardly changed, I assume the priorities are the same as they were in Cata, and I haven't touched the Druid or Warrior tanks this expansion, while the Monk is only level 50 and just taking what agility gear he can get.
So there are two solutions, as I see it:
A: Get rid of tank gear
This is not the solution I would favor, but it's doable. Plate tanks would simply use the same gear as plate dps - the same way that Guardians and Brewmasters essentially use the same gear as Leather Agility dps. They've already started making all tanking weapons have role-neutral stats, making them equally useful for Single-Minded Fury and Dual-wield Frost. However, if we went this way, I'd propose that Dodge and Parry be rolled into Haste and Crit, respectively. There's a certain flavor to it (you're fast, so you can dodge, or you're good at placing your weapon just right, so you can parry better) and it would truly unify the gear types. Plus, you could either nerf or get rid of Vengeance entirely, as tanks would now be scaling just as well in their offensive stats as dps. (And as I've said before, Vengeance has some inherent problems, like the way it makes tank swaps a nightmare.)
That said, this would raise some issues as well, such as causing even more loot drama. One could, of course, adjust drop rates or some such thing to allow what would now be the most popular type of gear among different specs (with 8 different specs that could use Strength Plate, compared to, for example, the 2 specs that can use intellect mail) to cause less of a problem.
B: Make dps stats less attractive to tanks
Now, I differentiate Threat stats from DPS stats, despite these meaning the same thing, ultimately, by putting Hit and Expertise in the "threat" category, and Haste/Crit in the "dps" category. The reason is that I actually really like having to hit/expertise cap now. I hated how in Cataclysm, a quarter of my attacks just plain didn't hit the boss. Sure, I was still holding threat and all, but it's not exactly a great feeling to see so many abilities just go to waste. But haste and crit, well, I just want to leave those to the dps. Let me get my dodge/parry (and wonderful, delicious mastery) for my survival.
Now, as far as I know, the haste issue is mainly a Paladin one (Brewmasters seem to like it a lot for Energy regen, but they're going to get some on their gear anyway.) So one thing they could do is take Sanctity of Battle away from us. Sure, this probably devalues Mastery a bit, and maybe takes some of the fun out of trying to maintain maximum ShotR uptime, but there's another possibility:
Instead, have something called, oh, let's say "Conviction," which would be a passive bonus to Protection. Every time you dodge or parry an attack, the cooldown of your Crusader Strike or Hammer of the Righteous (and maybe include Judgment) is reduced by .5 seconds (or whatever value would be balanced.) Now, we've got a huge incentive to get dodge and parry, because it not only gives us the RNG-dependent lack of getting hit that one time, it also gives us the damage-smoothing of Shield of the Righteous more frequently. Essentially, Conviction, and thus Dodge/Parry becomes our form of Haste. And then we can dance around, arm in arm with our Retribution brothers, wearing our cool black tanking gear while they wear their cool bronze dps gear and everyone's happy and puppies.
The Blessing of Flesh?
We were first introduced to the idea of the "Curse of Flesh" during the gnome quests in Borean Tundra. The Curse became a bit of a theme throughout Wrath of the Lich King, as well as Cataclysm.
The story goes that the Curse of Flesh is something that seems to happen to people created by the Titans. The Earthen became the Dwarves and the Troggs, the Mechagnomes became normal Gnomes, the Vrykul became flesh-and-blood people, and eventually gave birth to a pygmy subspecies that are, you know, humanity. Even the Tol'vir, sealed away in Uldum, were eventually transformed from beings of stone into flesh and blood cat-centaurs with very little personality.
Even members of the Scourge talk about the Curse of Flesh, and propose that they are able to remove the curse (by, you know, killing you and raising your corpse,) though this is likely just propaganda.
One version of the story that we are told is that the Curse was created by the Old Gods to facilitate the corruption of the Titans' creations. The Old Gods are pretty fleshy, after all, and the Titans' creations are basically very sophisticated machines. It stands to a degree of reason that the Old Gods would have an easier time corrupting that which is more like them.
But does the evidence support it?
Ulduar was ruled over by Titanic watchers, all made of stone and metal, but they got corrupted all the same (admittedly, the cure for most of them was pretty easy - we just beat them up a bit.) Eastern Northrend is swarming with Iron Dwarves, who are totally willing to do Loke and Yogg-Saron's will. The Mechagnomes as well are at least willing to work for the Iron Dwarves, though that might just be because they're programmed to do what they're told.
Flash forward to Cataclysm: The Tol'vir are fleshy, but they're good guys. However, the rebel tribe among them, the Neferset, get a djinn (which in Warcraft is a type of Air Elemental loyal to Al-Akir) to "de-curse them," making them stronger and better able to serve in Deathwing's plot to blow everything up, itself a goal of the Old Gods. (Though in all honesty, I wouldn't mind finding out that Deathwing actually went too far, even for the Old Gods' purposes. He wanted to trigger the Re-Origination device, which was presumably designed to kill the Old Gods... there's probably enough here for a full article.)
Anyway, here's another case of the de-cursed people being the bad guys, and the cursed ones retaining their minds.
So what if the Curse of Flesh is actually not the creation of the Old Gods at all? Remember that when we defeat Algalon, he's shocked by the will and power and ingenuity of the mortal races on Azeroth. He's destroyed countless worlds, but he's never seen anything like this. Even with all the problems Azeroth has, he's willing to let us live and solve our own problems.
So what if the Curse of Flesh is an intentional part of the Titan design? It could be a kind of randomizer. The Titans create world after world after world, and surely they must find that they begin to repeat themselves. If these worlds serve any purpose other than to just exist and look cool, might the Titans be looking for the perfect balance to come up with a world that could stand against the forces of chaos? Perhaps by introducing a little bit of entropy - in the form of the Curse of Flesh - they can allow stronger beings to emerge from the worlds than they could have designed.
We've now defeated two Old Gods, beaten back the Burning Legion on multiple occasions, defeated the Scourge, taken down Deathwing, and now we are in a struggle that could finally unify the races of Azeroth into a united front against the darkness. Azeroth, despite all the hardship and pain and utter chaos, might be the Titans' greatest success, all thanks to the Curse of Flesh.
The story goes that the Curse of Flesh is something that seems to happen to people created by the Titans. The Earthen became the Dwarves and the Troggs, the Mechagnomes became normal Gnomes, the Vrykul became flesh-and-blood people, and eventually gave birth to a pygmy subspecies that are, you know, humanity. Even the Tol'vir, sealed away in Uldum, were eventually transformed from beings of stone into flesh and blood cat-centaurs with very little personality.
Even members of the Scourge talk about the Curse of Flesh, and propose that they are able to remove the curse (by, you know, killing you and raising your corpse,) though this is likely just propaganda.
One version of the story that we are told is that the Curse was created by the Old Gods to facilitate the corruption of the Titans' creations. The Old Gods are pretty fleshy, after all, and the Titans' creations are basically very sophisticated machines. It stands to a degree of reason that the Old Gods would have an easier time corrupting that which is more like them.
But does the evidence support it?
Ulduar was ruled over by Titanic watchers, all made of stone and metal, but they got corrupted all the same (admittedly, the cure for most of them was pretty easy - we just beat them up a bit.) Eastern Northrend is swarming with Iron Dwarves, who are totally willing to do Loke and Yogg-Saron's will. The Mechagnomes as well are at least willing to work for the Iron Dwarves, though that might just be because they're programmed to do what they're told.
Flash forward to Cataclysm: The Tol'vir are fleshy, but they're good guys. However, the rebel tribe among them, the Neferset, get a djinn (which in Warcraft is a type of Air Elemental loyal to Al-Akir) to "de-curse them," making them stronger and better able to serve in Deathwing's plot to blow everything up, itself a goal of the Old Gods. (Though in all honesty, I wouldn't mind finding out that Deathwing actually went too far, even for the Old Gods' purposes. He wanted to trigger the Re-Origination device, which was presumably designed to kill the Old Gods... there's probably enough here for a full article.)
Anyway, here's another case of the de-cursed people being the bad guys, and the cursed ones retaining their minds.
So what if the Curse of Flesh is actually not the creation of the Old Gods at all? Remember that when we defeat Algalon, he's shocked by the will and power and ingenuity of the mortal races on Azeroth. He's destroyed countless worlds, but he's never seen anything like this. Even with all the problems Azeroth has, he's willing to let us live and solve our own problems.
So what if the Curse of Flesh is an intentional part of the Titan design? It could be a kind of randomizer. The Titans create world after world after world, and surely they must find that they begin to repeat themselves. If these worlds serve any purpose other than to just exist and look cool, might the Titans be looking for the perfect balance to come up with a world that could stand against the forces of chaos? Perhaps by introducing a little bit of entropy - in the form of the Curse of Flesh - they can allow stronger beings to emerge from the worlds than they could have designed.
We've now defeated two Old Gods, beaten back the Burning Legion on multiple occasions, defeated the Scourge, taken down Deathwing, and now we are in a struggle that could finally unify the races of Azeroth into a united front against the darkness. Azeroth, despite all the hardship and pain and utter chaos, might be the Titans' greatest success, all thanks to the Curse of Flesh.
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.
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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