About a week ago, we took down Brackenspore. I was going to wait until we had Tectus down to write the next of these posts, but schedule conflicts have been coming up, and we don't have him yet (though we got far enough that I could probably write a guide.)
Brackenspore is, of course, a fungal giant who climbs up out of the Zangar Sea and is harassing some Iron Horde soldiers caught out on the northern coast. Why are we attacking him when he doesn't threaten us and is in fact distracting our enemies? Why, loot, of course!
This is a fight that involves kill priorities, coordinating interrupts, some interesting healing mechanics and a bit of extra responsibility on the part of some of the ranged players.
Before the fight begins, there will be two flamethrowers left behind by the retreating Iron Horde soldiers. Have two of your ranged DPS pick them up (preferably hunters, given that they'll be running around a lot.)
Throughout the fight, a green algae or moss will slowly grow from the edge of the area inward. This stuff is nasty - it'll slow and damage players and it will heal the boss. The two people with flamethrowers will have to burn away the moss using the flamethrowers. Doing so will give them a big damage boost to help compensate for the time they're off the boss burning moss. However, the flamethrowers will overheat if they are left on for too long, so these players will need to know when to turn them off. Ultimately the moss will grow at a faster rate than the flamethrowers can burn them, which acts as a kind of soft enrage.
While those people are worrying about that, there are several other mechanics to bear in mind.
Periodically, beneficial, friendly mushrooms will pop up. If healed to full, they will provide a beneficial area around them. Green mushrooms will heal anyone standing in their circle, while blue ones will give a 30% haste buff and mana replenishment. The blue ones are the top priority and should be healed immediately (and everyone who can should stand within them) while green ones should be saved for Infesting Spores, which we'll get to.
Brackenspore itself has three major mechanics to pay attention to - though two of these are really just for the tanks to worry about. Rot is a stacking DOT that tanks will get. Though DBM starts shouting at you at three stacks, you'll need to let it get up to 4 for the other tank's stacks to fall off. Brackenspore also has a cone-breath attack. Tanks will need to keep it faced away from the raid and pop anti-magic cooldowns like Divine Protection or Anti-Magic Shell. The third ability is Infesting Spores, where Brackenspore will channel a stacking DOT on the entire raid, eventually hitting 10 stacks before it ends. At this point, healers should heal up any green mushroom that's in a safe place (not the moss,) and players should stand in the green circle.
There are three kinds of adds that need to be dealt with as well. Spore Shooters will pop up and send spores at the raid. DPS should focus these guys down quickly. Mind Fungi will also pop up, and while they don't have any real damaging abilities, they'll create an aura around them that reduces casting speed. Casters should get away from them before attempting to kill them, while melee can just wade in there and knock them out. These have a nasty habit of popping up around the blue mushrooms.
The final add type is the Fungal Flesh Eater. Whichever tank is not currently on Brackenspore should pick these up when they spawn over by the coast. If there are no Spore Shooters or Mind Fungi, DPS should focus these guys down (though they can be tanked next to the boss so that cleave damage will work.) The Fungal Flesh Eater has one ability, which is Decay, an interruptible spell that deals massive raidwide damage. Coordinate between your melee so that you can have one player interrupt the odd-numbered casts of Decay while the other does evens, as it casts it more frequently than a single person can interrupt.
Ultimately you're going to need good DPS to down the adds quickly and to make sure the boss goes down before the moss takes over.
Monday, March 9, 2015
Sunday, March 8, 2015
Universes, the Legion, and Alternate Azeroth
While it's sort of a time-travel expansion - showing us a Draenor as it was when the Horde first arose - we're seeing a different turn of events. It's a parallel universe - Draenor B was always different, and we see that in a few different ways. Rulkan was still alive, Garrosh was never born, Akama was a Paladin instead of a Priest.
But these differences are pretty minute. Different though it was, it's clear that, had it not been for Garrosh's intervention, things would have played out quite similarly to how they did in our world. Small differences would certainly have magnified effects over time, but I think Blizzard's intention is to say that this universe would have been very similar to ours.
Spoilers ahead (though given the nature of WoW, I think plot details come from so many different angles that it's next to impossible to say what is and isn't a spoiler.)
As of 6.1, and those very few who are lucky enough to have already finished the Blackrock Foundry step in the legendary chain (seriously, I'm at about one tablet on my two top toons. Admittedly I've only done BRF on LFR, but are normal people clearing Normal that quickly?) have seen a pretty huge shift in the balance of power. The Legion's hold on Draenor, and Gul'dan's power ranking, has made one hell of a comeback (that was not intended to be a pun.)
With the Iron Horde falling under the sway of the Burning Legion, things are looking a bit higher stakes. The Iron Horde was, as many complained or at least observed, not much of a threat. After all, we defeated the original Horde (ok, some of us were the original Horde) back in the day, but this time we have a vast trove of intelligence. Hell, there could be older Orc commanders who are literally assigned to defeat their younger selves.
But now that the Legion is backing them, they stand to become a far more intimidating threat. The question, then, is what the plan is.
Remember that Draenor is more or less Kil'jaeden's side-project. Archimonde criticizes him, not sharing his obsession with wiping out the Draenei. The Legion has much bigger plans. The planet they really care about is Azeroth.
Why? We still don't know exactly, but there's a huge number of tin-foil-hat theories. My best guess is that Azeroth was created in order to build/give birth to/evolve from mortal species new Titans. Sargeras desperately wants Azeroth in order to stop the Titans from creating something that could defeat him (like us.) The whole Draenei genocide was just Kil'jaeden trying to settle a 25,000-year-old grudge against his former best friend (and maybe even brother? Unless that was metaphorical.)
But the Horde became important to the Legion when they realized that they could send them to invade Azeroth. Sargeras, using Medivh as a puppet, worked with Gul'dan to create the Dark Portal. One of the problems the Legion has is that it takes a ton of energy to summon demons to the physical world. And the more powerful a demon, the more energy it takes. But given that Orcs aren't demons (though I'd guess that after long enough in service to the Legion, they'd become demons,) they could send a ridiculously huge army to eliminate any resistance, and then allow Sargeras to take all the time he needs to get there.
With the Iron Horde falling into Gul'dan's hands, sure, it's likely that they'll want to eliminate us as a threat to their plans, but we don't exactly have a strong hold on the Dark Portal, and they could very easily be building a new one.
But when they do, why would they bother going to our Azeroth?
Draenor exists in what we must assume is a fully-formed, entirely separate universe, with its own versions not just of Draenor, but also Argus, Xoroth, and presumably Azeroth as well.
The only reason why these two universes were connected in the first place was so that Garrosh could get revenge on us for beating him in the Siege of Orgrimmar. Kairoz wanted to keep going to different Draenors, one after the other, and founding new Hordes in each of them, then uniting them into an infinitely large army that... would probably have been pretty scary.
But both Kairoz and Garrosh are dead. The Burning Legion and Sargeras that exist in Draenor are the ones from that universe. We know that the Legion isn't somehow pan-universal, because there was an alternate Mannoroth for Grommash to kill (in a very similar manner, but far earlier in his life, as the one in our universe.) And wouldn't they be far more interested in taking over the unsuspecting Azeroth from their own universe - one with no Alliance and no opposing Horde?
The last thirty-some-odd years have turned basically everyone in Azeroth into grizzled survivors, and it's kicked military development into hyperdrive. During the First War, Stormwind's trump card was freaking horses. Now they've got helicopters and airships and teleporters and nuclear bombs. And that's not to mention that the Horde is just as invested in holding off the Iron Horde, and all the tech that the Iron Horde is using was, you know, theirs to begin with. The original Horde was able to defeat the single Kingdom of Stromwind in the First War, but now you've got the whole Alliance as well as the entire Horde, and that's a lot of powerful people working, if not together, then in parallel. They're all tough. Hell, the Forsaken have actually died and they haven't let that slow them down. We've proven ourselves to be a serious force to be reckoned with. And I appreciate that it's very Orcish to see a powerful enemy and focus on taking them down first, but alternate Azeroth is ripe for the taking. All they need is to keep us distracted while they prepare the invasion.
Predicting the future is always a tricky game. And personally, I don't see us spending much more time in this alternate universe. While it's added in some cool new lore and introduced some cool new characters (or fleshed out old ones,) I think we're going to get back to a single timeline when we pack things up in Lunarfall/Frostwall. But if this alternate Legion is smart, and if we aren't able to stop them in time, there could very well be an Azeroth in that alternate universe that is totally imperiled.
But these differences are pretty minute. Different though it was, it's clear that, had it not been for Garrosh's intervention, things would have played out quite similarly to how they did in our world. Small differences would certainly have magnified effects over time, but I think Blizzard's intention is to say that this universe would have been very similar to ours.
Spoilers ahead (though given the nature of WoW, I think plot details come from so many different angles that it's next to impossible to say what is and isn't a spoiler.)
As of 6.1, and those very few who are lucky enough to have already finished the Blackrock Foundry step in the legendary chain (seriously, I'm at about one tablet on my two top toons. Admittedly I've only done BRF on LFR, but are normal people clearing Normal that quickly?) have seen a pretty huge shift in the balance of power. The Legion's hold on Draenor, and Gul'dan's power ranking, has made one hell of a comeback (that was not intended to be a pun.)
With the Iron Horde falling under the sway of the Burning Legion, things are looking a bit higher stakes. The Iron Horde was, as many complained or at least observed, not much of a threat. After all, we defeated the original Horde (ok, some of us were the original Horde) back in the day, but this time we have a vast trove of intelligence. Hell, there could be older Orc commanders who are literally assigned to defeat their younger selves.
But now that the Legion is backing them, they stand to become a far more intimidating threat. The question, then, is what the plan is.
Remember that Draenor is more or less Kil'jaeden's side-project. Archimonde criticizes him, not sharing his obsession with wiping out the Draenei. The Legion has much bigger plans. The planet they really care about is Azeroth.
Why? We still don't know exactly, but there's a huge number of tin-foil-hat theories. My best guess is that Azeroth was created in order to build/give birth to/evolve from mortal species new Titans. Sargeras desperately wants Azeroth in order to stop the Titans from creating something that could defeat him (like us.) The whole Draenei genocide was just Kil'jaeden trying to settle a 25,000-year-old grudge against his former best friend (and maybe even brother? Unless that was metaphorical.)
But the Horde became important to the Legion when they realized that they could send them to invade Azeroth. Sargeras, using Medivh as a puppet, worked with Gul'dan to create the Dark Portal. One of the problems the Legion has is that it takes a ton of energy to summon demons to the physical world. And the more powerful a demon, the more energy it takes. But given that Orcs aren't demons (though I'd guess that after long enough in service to the Legion, they'd become demons,) they could send a ridiculously huge army to eliminate any resistance, and then allow Sargeras to take all the time he needs to get there.
With the Iron Horde falling into Gul'dan's hands, sure, it's likely that they'll want to eliminate us as a threat to their plans, but we don't exactly have a strong hold on the Dark Portal, and they could very easily be building a new one.
But when they do, why would they bother going to our Azeroth?
Draenor exists in what we must assume is a fully-formed, entirely separate universe, with its own versions not just of Draenor, but also Argus, Xoroth, and presumably Azeroth as well.
The only reason why these two universes were connected in the first place was so that Garrosh could get revenge on us for beating him in the Siege of Orgrimmar. Kairoz wanted to keep going to different Draenors, one after the other, and founding new Hordes in each of them, then uniting them into an infinitely large army that... would probably have been pretty scary.
But both Kairoz and Garrosh are dead. The Burning Legion and Sargeras that exist in Draenor are the ones from that universe. We know that the Legion isn't somehow pan-universal, because there was an alternate Mannoroth for Grommash to kill (in a very similar manner, but far earlier in his life, as the one in our universe.) And wouldn't they be far more interested in taking over the unsuspecting Azeroth from their own universe - one with no Alliance and no opposing Horde?
The last thirty-some-odd years have turned basically everyone in Azeroth into grizzled survivors, and it's kicked military development into hyperdrive. During the First War, Stormwind's trump card was freaking horses. Now they've got helicopters and airships and teleporters and nuclear bombs. And that's not to mention that the Horde is just as invested in holding off the Iron Horde, and all the tech that the Iron Horde is using was, you know, theirs to begin with. The original Horde was able to defeat the single Kingdom of Stromwind in the First War, but now you've got the whole Alliance as well as the entire Horde, and that's a lot of powerful people working, if not together, then in parallel. They're all tough. Hell, the Forsaken have actually died and they haven't let that slow them down. We've proven ourselves to be a serious force to be reckoned with. And I appreciate that it's very Orcish to see a powerful enemy and focus on taking them down first, but alternate Azeroth is ripe for the taking. All they need is to keep us distracted while they prepare the invasion.
Predicting the future is always a tricky game. And personally, I don't see us spending much more time in this alternate universe. While it's added in some cool new lore and introduced some cool new characters (or fleshed out old ones,) I think we're going to get back to a single timeline when we pack things up in Lunarfall/Frostwall. But if this alternate Legion is smart, and if we aren't able to stop them in time, there could very well be an Azeroth in that alternate universe that is totally imperiled.
Friday, March 6, 2015
Spoilers, Raid Tiers, and the Fate of Draenor's Horde
Ok, for the sake of people on the mobile site who don't want spoilers, here's a little paragraph of stalling. Blizzard has been fairly quiet about whether Warlords of Draenor will actually have the typical three raid tiers, or only two. Given the rate at which we've been going through bad guys, it was unclear for some time just how much there was on Draenor to deal with to make more tiers. Had they saved Highmaul for later, it would have been a logical "middle tier," but instead it became the intro raid, meaning that the Ogres are basically out of the picture already.
And of course, the number of raid tiers is totally dependent on how soon we can see the next expansion. If they do a mere two tiers, we're going to have to see expansion six either this fall or very early next year - otherwise we're going to have another Siege of Orgrimmar situation, and I'm sure that Blizzard realizes that that would be horrible for business and really upset basically everyone - confirming suspicions that Blizzard is terrible at time-management.
But recent revelations have potentially raised the possibility that there could indeed be a middle tier. There's a big shake-up going on, and we're going to talk about it below the cut.
And of course, the number of raid tiers is totally dependent on how soon we can see the next expansion. If they do a mere two tiers, we're going to have to see expansion six either this fall or very early next year - otherwise we're going to have another Siege of Orgrimmar situation, and I'm sure that Blizzard realizes that that would be horrible for business and really upset basically everyone - confirming suspicions that Blizzard is terrible at time-management.
But recent revelations have potentially raised the possibility that there could indeed be a middle tier. There's a big shake-up going on, and we're going to talk about it below the cut.
Thursday, March 5, 2015
An Alliance with Hellscream
The Warlords of Draenor cinematic takes a famous scene from Warcraft history and then alters it. While both the "Draenor Universe" and the "Outland Universe" are separate from long before this event, it's here that the most profound change is made. Grommash rejects Gul'dan's offer of demonic strength. He slays Mannoroth with the help of Garrosh's sophisticated modern (or from Grom's perspective, futuristic) technology, and Gul'dan is taken prisoner.
It's not a case of the good guys winning, given that the Iron Horde is just as bent on conquest as the original Horde, but the focus of power is seriously shifted. The Warlocks, far from being the secret masters of the Horde, are now pariahs and outcasts, desperately scrambling to pick up the pieces of the plan that worked so effectively in the original timeline.
The thing is, Garrosh is not the only new factor in play. The Iron Horde, pushed by a vengeance-obsessed Garrosh, invaded Azeroth before they had fully consolidated their power on Draenor. The Draenei have lost ground, certainly, but they're still a significant force that takes resources away from the Iron Horde's strength. The Frostwolves, rather than being invited to join (and if they joined the original, demon-blood-infested Horde, I can't see why they wouldn't join the Iron variety,) were rejected, and thus present a smaller, but significant threat to the Iron Horde flank.
But the biggest factor - the result of this premature invasion - is the combined forces of the Alliance and Horde. There's no real technological advantage here - the Iron Horde's tech is taken from our era anyway - and the forces of Azeroth are well-acquainted with all the leaders of the Iron Horde, or at least, acquainted with their doppelgängers. There's practically no home field advantage, because the Orcs and Draenei of Azeroth spent years, or even centuries, on a nearly-identical planet.
Numbers and a resource-rich industrial base are surely nothing to sneeze at, but the Iron Horde is losing quickly and big.
And Gul'dan, who had been intended as nothing more than a battery to power the Dark Portal, is now free.
Ok, spoiler time.
6.2's legendary plot looks like it will have us witness Gul'dan's efforts to take over the Iron Horde. We don't know if this will be an immediate success, but given that they've talked about the final raid being very demon-heavy, I suspect Gul'dan will probably emerge victorious. Will he become Warchief? I don't know about that, as he'd probably prefer a puppet (can't be Blackhand, as he's officially killable now.)
I'd honestly not be surprised to find Gul'dan as the final boss of the expansion. Frankly, I'd be more excited about that than Grommash - Gul'dan's an Orc, yes, but he's a totally different archetype than Garrosh was.
But that leaves an interesting question open: What happens to Grom Hellscream?
It's totally possible that he'll remain Warchief. He was convinced to drink the blood of Mannoroth not once, but twice in our universe. Even after he swore the sauce off for good, all it took was a significantly dangerous foe (Cenarius) to get him to go back to it and go all Fel-red.
So as awesome as it was to see him pouring the blood on the ground, I don't have a lot of faith in Hellscream's conviction. Sure, Mannoroth is dead, and his blood is probably no longer potent, but Gul'dan's got a direct line to the Legion, and I'll bet they can bring in alternate-Magtheridon or someone like him if they need more blood.
But what if he doesn't drink?
Grom's methods have been brutal, yes, but he thinks he's doing the right thing. The vision he was given of our timeline was a Horde enslaved by the demon blood - destroying their own world and then ending up captured by the humans. The rest of the Horde's history was cut off before he could see it.
But if we're standing against the Legion, is Hellscream perceptive enough to realize that his entire crusade against us was built on lies?
WoW's not generally big on reconciliation. Even when there's a split between bad guys, it just means that we'll have two raids instead of one.
But I think, at least story-wise, it would be interesting to see an ousted Hellscream come to understand his errors and then aid us in the march against Gul'dan.
UPDATE: SPOILERS AFTER THE BREAK. SERIOUSLY, SPOILERS!
It's not a case of the good guys winning, given that the Iron Horde is just as bent on conquest as the original Horde, but the focus of power is seriously shifted. The Warlocks, far from being the secret masters of the Horde, are now pariahs and outcasts, desperately scrambling to pick up the pieces of the plan that worked so effectively in the original timeline.
The thing is, Garrosh is not the only new factor in play. The Iron Horde, pushed by a vengeance-obsessed Garrosh, invaded Azeroth before they had fully consolidated their power on Draenor. The Draenei have lost ground, certainly, but they're still a significant force that takes resources away from the Iron Horde's strength. The Frostwolves, rather than being invited to join (and if they joined the original, demon-blood-infested Horde, I can't see why they wouldn't join the Iron variety,) were rejected, and thus present a smaller, but significant threat to the Iron Horde flank.
But the biggest factor - the result of this premature invasion - is the combined forces of the Alliance and Horde. There's no real technological advantage here - the Iron Horde's tech is taken from our era anyway - and the forces of Azeroth are well-acquainted with all the leaders of the Iron Horde, or at least, acquainted with their doppelgängers. There's practically no home field advantage, because the Orcs and Draenei of Azeroth spent years, or even centuries, on a nearly-identical planet.
Numbers and a resource-rich industrial base are surely nothing to sneeze at, but the Iron Horde is losing quickly and big.
And Gul'dan, who had been intended as nothing more than a battery to power the Dark Portal, is now free.
Ok, spoiler time.
6.2's legendary plot looks like it will have us witness Gul'dan's efforts to take over the Iron Horde. We don't know if this will be an immediate success, but given that they've talked about the final raid being very demon-heavy, I suspect Gul'dan will probably emerge victorious. Will he become Warchief? I don't know about that, as he'd probably prefer a puppet (can't be Blackhand, as he's officially killable now.)
I'd honestly not be surprised to find Gul'dan as the final boss of the expansion. Frankly, I'd be more excited about that than Grommash - Gul'dan's an Orc, yes, but he's a totally different archetype than Garrosh was.
But that leaves an interesting question open: What happens to Grom Hellscream?
It's totally possible that he'll remain Warchief. He was convinced to drink the blood of Mannoroth not once, but twice in our universe. Even after he swore the sauce off for good, all it took was a significantly dangerous foe (Cenarius) to get him to go back to it and go all Fel-red.
So as awesome as it was to see him pouring the blood on the ground, I don't have a lot of faith in Hellscream's conviction. Sure, Mannoroth is dead, and his blood is probably no longer potent, but Gul'dan's got a direct line to the Legion, and I'll bet they can bring in alternate-Magtheridon or someone like him if they need more blood.
But what if he doesn't drink?
Grom's methods have been brutal, yes, but he thinks he's doing the right thing. The vision he was given of our timeline was a Horde enslaved by the demon blood - destroying their own world and then ending up captured by the humans. The rest of the Horde's history was cut off before he could see it.
But if we're standing against the Legion, is Hellscream perceptive enough to realize that his entire crusade against us was built on lies?
WoW's not generally big on reconciliation. Even when there's a split between bad guys, it just means that we'll have two raids instead of one.
But I think, at least story-wise, it would be interesting to see an ousted Hellscream come to understand his errors and then aid us in the march against Gul'dan.
UPDATE: SPOILERS AFTER THE BREAK. SERIOUSLY, SPOILERS!
The Black Forge - DPS Perspective
I've actually run this wing a couple times as DPS - twice on the Death Knight and now once on the Mage - and I have a pretty decent idea of how the thing works.
Hanzgar and Franzok:
The main thing here is that you're going to want to multi-dot if you can - for much of the fight, both guys will be available targets, so if you're a DOT-heavy class, be sure to get both of them ticking away - much like on Twin Ogron.
For everyone, but ranged especially, you should note that between the conveyer belts are narrow spaces that will not move, so you can stand there and cast without worrying about being swept into the fire at the end of the belts. However, you should note that these areas are not safe from the stamp presses or the burning plates, so you'll still need to dodge.
Flamebender Ka'graz:
Ok, here's some actual perspective on this fight:
Ka'graz will use various abilities as she builds up energy. You'll first want to take out Aknor Steelbringer, who's really just a kind of "beginning of the fight nuisance," (he's there so that fancy people can keep him alive and gain him as a follower, but that doesn't work on LFR as far as I know.)
Ka'graz will send trails of fire at random players - ranged doesn't need to worry too much about this, as it's pretty easy to side-step, but melee should be aware of where the fire is on the ground, as it persists for quite a bit of time.
She'll also put two debuffs on ranged players, but you'll need to do two opposite things depending on which she casts on you. If you get a circle around you, move into the melee group to split the damage between everyone. If you simply get a debuff with no circle, run out instead.
She will occasionally summon a pair of fire wolves. These wolves are linked, so that if one gets to 1 health, it will begin to heal unless the other is also killed. One will fixate on a random raid member, while the other will grow large and need to be tanked. Melee should focus on the large one while ranged works on the fixated one. After a while, the two will switch, and everyone should trade targets.
Finally, Ka'graz does a channeled AoE that you should use some defensive cooldown during - it's not insane damage, but the healers will thank you.
Kromog:
Kromog is the LFR Killer, at least until people actually learn the mechanics.
Tanks will be on one side of him while melee should go to the other. Ranged should spread out and make sure they stand relatively far back.
The absolute most important mechanic here is Rune of Grasping Earth. Periodically, Kromog will summon a bunch of orange runes. Every raid member needs to pick a rune and stand on it - there no sharing of runes, so ranged be sure to pick the ones that are in the back so that melee doesn't get screwed.
Stone hands will grasp up from the runes and start squeezing, which does a bit of damage. You can damage the hands, but you'll want to leave them at about 40% or so. Kromog will channel a powerful AoE spell that, in addition to the damage, will send anyone not held by a rune flying into the air, where they will almost certainly die of fall damage (some classes might slow themselves or blink/shadowstep/demonic teleport down, but there will still be a lot of damage to deal with.)
Once he finishes this spell, kill your rune and then break out tanks first, then healers, and then any DPS who is somehow still trapped.
Aside from that, there are three abilities that need to be dodged.
First are these little shockwaves that will spawn constantly - just side-step them. Kromog will also slam the ground, creating a wave of rocks that move outward - again, run out of the way. Finally, RED (not orange) runes will pop up under ranged players, and a pair of red-runed stone hands will pop up and clap together. Be sure to get out of the way of these, regardless of whether you were the one targeted or not.
Kromog does a ton of damage to the raid, especially with Stone Breath, which he does frequently. Use self-heals when you can to alleviate the burden on the healers.
Hanzgar and Franzok:
The main thing here is that you're going to want to multi-dot if you can - for much of the fight, both guys will be available targets, so if you're a DOT-heavy class, be sure to get both of them ticking away - much like on Twin Ogron.
For everyone, but ranged especially, you should note that between the conveyer belts are narrow spaces that will not move, so you can stand there and cast without worrying about being swept into the fire at the end of the belts. However, you should note that these areas are not safe from the stamp presses or the burning plates, so you'll still need to dodge.
Flamebender Ka'graz:
Ok, here's some actual perspective on this fight:
Ka'graz will use various abilities as she builds up energy. You'll first want to take out Aknor Steelbringer, who's really just a kind of "beginning of the fight nuisance," (he's there so that fancy people can keep him alive and gain him as a follower, but that doesn't work on LFR as far as I know.)
Ka'graz will send trails of fire at random players - ranged doesn't need to worry too much about this, as it's pretty easy to side-step, but melee should be aware of where the fire is on the ground, as it persists for quite a bit of time.
She'll also put two debuffs on ranged players, but you'll need to do two opposite things depending on which she casts on you. If you get a circle around you, move into the melee group to split the damage between everyone. If you simply get a debuff with no circle, run out instead.
She will occasionally summon a pair of fire wolves. These wolves are linked, so that if one gets to 1 health, it will begin to heal unless the other is also killed. One will fixate on a random raid member, while the other will grow large and need to be tanked. Melee should focus on the large one while ranged works on the fixated one. After a while, the two will switch, and everyone should trade targets.
Finally, Ka'graz does a channeled AoE that you should use some defensive cooldown during - it's not insane damage, but the healers will thank you.
Kromog:
Kromog is the LFR Killer, at least until people actually learn the mechanics.
Tanks will be on one side of him while melee should go to the other. Ranged should spread out and make sure they stand relatively far back.
The absolute most important mechanic here is Rune of Grasping Earth. Periodically, Kromog will summon a bunch of orange runes. Every raid member needs to pick a rune and stand on it - there no sharing of runes, so ranged be sure to pick the ones that are in the back so that melee doesn't get screwed.
Stone hands will grasp up from the runes and start squeezing, which does a bit of damage. You can damage the hands, but you'll want to leave them at about 40% or so. Kromog will channel a powerful AoE spell that, in addition to the damage, will send anyone not held by a rune flying into the air, where they will almost certainly die of fall damage (some classes might slow themselves or blink/shadowstep/demonic teleport down, but there will still be a lot of damage to deal with.)
Once he finishes this spell, kill your rune and then break out tanks first, then healers, and then any DPS who is somehow still trapped.
Aside from that, there are three abilities that need to be dodged.
First are these little shockwaves that will spawn constantly - just side-step them. Kromog will also slam the ground, creating a wave of rocks that move outward - again, run out of the way. Finally, RED (not orange) runes will pop up under ranged players, and a pair of red-runed stone hands will pop up and clap together. Be sure to get out of the way of these, regardless of whether you were the one targeted or not.
Kromog does a ton of damage to the raid, especially with Stone Breath, which he does frequently. Use self-heals when you can to alleviate the burden on the healers.
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Gametime Tokens: Is This the End of the World As We Know It? Or Not?
Blizzard has now officially announced (though it's something they've talked about before) the in-game gametime tokens. The way it works is that players will be able to buy these tokens for real money, but then they can trade the tokens in-game for gold. Effectively, this means that players can sort of buy gold from Blizzard, in that they can sell these to other players and thus get gold.
How do we feel about this?
Well, my intention is to effectively opt out. I plan on continuing to pay a standard subscription the way I have since I started playing in 2006. It's predictable, it's simple, and it's worth it.
I don't think this takes us all the way into "Free to Play, Pay to Win" territory, but it's a step toward a precarious ledge.
However, there are a few saving graces, or at least ameliorating factors that are noteworthy:
First is that they are not adding gold into the system. The gold you get does not come from Blizzard, but rather from other players. Now, there are some weird rules that I haven't quite gotten my head around revolving around standardizing the prices of these tokens, but the key thing is that it's other players who buy your tokens.
The other thing is that gold is ultimately, while important, not really the maker-or-breaker of a character's power in WoW. If you have 500k gold, but you only have an item level of 615, that's not going to get you into Mythic Blackrock Foundry. Sure, there are pieces of BoE equipment you can buy or you can get tons of materials to upgrade crafted items, but for the most part, gold is kind of a secondary form of progression.
You see, my big concern about the idea of buying gold from Blizzard is that Blizz would then be incentivized to make the game cost more gold to succeed. Today, as long as you don't become an auction house addict, the simple act of playing the game - running dungeons and raids, doing quests - will do more than enough to keep up with your maintenance like repair bills or buying flasks.
I'd hate to see WoW fall into the kind of gameplay that occurs when a game maker wants to make you spend more money as a function of the game's mechanics. I hate simplistic F2P games like Candy Crush with a passion, because they purposely make their games frustrating in order to draw more money out of people.
Now, you could sling some mud at WoW as well - the way that randomized gear drops, for example, make players spend much more time on content than they might otherwise - but I do have some faith in Blizzard that they really do want the game to be enjoyable.
And in that way, the monthly subscription is a pretty fair way of doing things - the Mythic Raider pays the same as the guy who just does Pet Battles. Success requires a certain dedication of time, but the dollar cost is all the same.
That's the way I like it, and while I know that the market forces seem to be pushing harder in the direction of F2P all the time, I think we'd all be poorer for it.
But is it time to panic yet?
Probably not. As long as those of who don't want any part in these shenanigans can still keep playing the way we have, we'll be ok.
How do we feel about this?
Well, my intention is to effectively opt out. I plan on continuing to pay a standard subscription the way I have since I started playing in 2006. It's predictable, it's simple, and it's worth it.
I don't think this takes us all the way into "Free to Play, Pay to Win" territory, but it's a step toward a precarious ledge.
However, there are a few saving graces, or at least ameliorating factors that are noteworthy:
First is that they are not adding gold into the system. The gold you get does not come from Blizzard, but rather from other players. Now, there are some weird rules that I haven't quite gotten my head around revolving around standardizing the prices of these tokens, but the key thing is that it's other players who buy your tokens.
The other thing is that gold is ultimately, while important, not really the maker-or-breaker of a character's power in WoW. If you have 500k gold, but you only have an item level of 615, that's not going to get you into Mythic Blackrock Foundry. Sure, there are pieces of BoE equipment you can buy or you can get tons of materials to upgrade crafted items, but for the most part, gold is kind of a secondary form of progression.
You see, my big concern about the idea of buying gold from Blizzard is that Blizz would then be incentivized to make the game cost more gold to succeed. Today, as long as you don't become an auction house addict, the simple act of playing the game - running dungeons and raids, doing quests - will do more than enough to keep up with your maintenance like repair bills or buying flasks.
I'd hate to see WoW fall into the kind of gameplay that occurs when a game maker wants to make you spend more money as a function of the game's mechanics. I hate simplistic F2P games like Candy Crush with a passion, because they purposely make their games frustrating in order to draw more money out of people.
Now, you could sling some mud at WoW as well - the way that randomized gear drops, for example, make players spend much more time on content than they might otherwise - but I do have some faith in Blizzard that they really do want the game to be enjoyable.
And in that way, the monthly subscription is a pretty fair way of doing things - the Mythic Raider pays the same as the guy who just does Pet Battles. Success requires a certain dedication of time, but the dollar cost is all the same.
That's the way I like it, and while I know that the market forces seem to be pushing harder in the direction of F2P all the time, I think we'd all be poorer for it.
But is it time to panic yet?
Probably not. As long as those of who don't want any part in these shenanigans can still keep playing the way we have, we'll be ok.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
The Endangered Heroic Dungeon
For a few weeks, heroic dungeons were the endgame of Warlords of Draenor. We dodged shrapnel blasts in Grimrail Depot or desperately killed skeletons in Shadowmoon Burial Grounds.
But now?
There's really not much incentive to run heroic dungeons. Essentially, when you first hit 100, and if you don't have a Dwarven Bunker or War Mill (because if you do you'll likely gear up for them just from Nagrand quests,) you'll hit up the four level-cap dungeons for a bit and then move on to heroics.
But you'll only be in heroics for a brief time before you'll be qualified for LFR. Technically, you can gear for LFR without doing heroics at all, though it's a lot easier to hit that 615 item level quickly if you're getting 630 pieces to balance the 600ish questing greens from Nagrand.
Hitting LFR, you can get 640 gear and now 650 gear out of BRF, meaning that the 630 stuff from heroics is just not remotely worth the effort.
LFR wings are very easy this expansion, compared to those of Mists. And they should be! But what this means is that the amount of effort to get 640 stuff from LFR Highmaul is much lower than the level of effort it takes to get inferior gear from heroic dungeons. At this point, my new 100s really just run Grimrail Depot, Bloodmaul Slag Mines, Everbloom, and then Auchindoun to get them their legendary ring upgrade before going into full-time LFR.
And while I like LFR - and approve of the low difficulty that it has now - I wish that I had a reason to go into dungeons on my main again.
In the past, this was accomplished by awarding Valor Points, or its predecessor Emblems and Badges. It would be very easy to simply have heroics award something like Apexis Crystals in order to bring them back, but there's a kind of philosophical question to be answered.
Blizzard doesn't want players feeling "forced" to go back and do content they outgear. Now, I personally enjoyed running 5-mans throughout Wrath, even when we so ridiculously out geared the original dungeons that you could clear Utgarde Pinnacle in about ten minutes. But I can also sympathize with those who felt that it was just adding busywork to those who wanted only to raid.
The thing is, 5-player dungeons and 10-25-player raids are really different kinds of content. They're structured similarly, but there's a very different feel to running a dungeon than running a raid. I love, for example, not having to tank-swap constantly (and man, do I wish they would come up with new tank mechanics, or just bring back the idea of a main-tank and off-tank and let the off-tank worry about adds.)
Challenge Modes clearly aren't a good fit to make 5-player content relevant, as it's more of a niche, competitive thing. I still want to feel the effect of my gear progression as I go through these instances.
One thing I might have done was simply put LFR and Heroic dungeons at the same level. The intention originally was for serious raiders to gear up in heroics before they jump to Normal/Heroic/Mythic raiding. But LFR still offers better gear, and thus incentivizes even the hardcore to run it instead of Heroic dungeons. If things had been reshuffled, and, say, both heroic dungeons and Highmaul LFR had offered 635 gear, you'd allow those who could handle the more difficult dungeons to gear up faster.
But another problem remains, and that's the idea that Dungeons are just a stepping-stone to raids.
Now maybe that's always going to be the case. It always has been, and it's true that organizing a raid takes a lot more effort than organizing a dungeon group.
To me, though, I've always preferred smaller group sizes. A 5-player dungeon to me evokes the classic RPG group - a couple friends sitting around a coffee table eating junk food and listening to, I don't know, Led Zeppelin probably. When you play D&D around a table, you're not going to get 25 people to play - that sounds awful.
And granted, part of the appeal of doing this via computer is that you can handle these huge groups.
But I wish that raid did not come at the expense of dungeons.
Anyway, I'd like there to be meaningful rewards behind running dungeons. Garrison resources ain't going to do it - it needs to be something that leads to greater character power, and that means gear.
But now?
There's really not much incentive to run heroic dungeons. Essentially, when you first hit 100, and if you don't have a Dwarven Bunker or War Mill (because if you do you'll likely gear up for them just from Nagrand quests,) you'll hit up the four level-cap dungeons for a bit and then move on to heroics.
But you'll only be in heroics for a brief time before you'll be qualified for LFR. Technically, you can gear for LFR without doing heroics at all, though it's a lot easier to hit that 615 item level quickly if you're getting 630 pieces to balance the 600ish questing greens from Nagrand.
Hitting LFR, you can get 640 gear and now 650 gear out of BRF, meaning that the 630 stuff from heroics is just not remotely worth the effort.
LFR wings are very easy this expansion, compared to those of Mists. And they should be! But what this means is that the amount of effort to get 640 stuff from LFR Highmaul is much lower than the level of effort it takes to get inferior gear from heroic dungeons. At this point, my new 100s really just run Grimrail Depot, Bloodmaul Slag Mines, Everbloom, and then Auchindoun to get them their legendary ring upgrade before going into full-time LFR.
And while I like LFR - and approve of the low difficulty that it has now - I wish that I had a reason to go into dungeons on my main again.
In the past, this was accomplished by awarding Valor Points, or its predecessor Emblems and Badges. It would be very easy to simply have heroics award something like Apexis Crystals in order to bring them back, but there's a kind of philosophical question to be answered.
Blizzard doesn't want players feeling "forced" to go back and do content they outgear. Now, I personally enjoyed running 5-mans throughout Wrath, even when we so ridiculously out geared the original dungeons that you could clear Utgarde Pinnacle in about ten minutes. But I can also sympathize with those who felt that it was just adding busywork to those who wanted only to raid.
The thing is, 5-player dungeons and 10-25-player raids are really different kinds of content. They're structured similarly, but there's a very different feel to running a dungeon than running a raid. I love, for example, not having to tank-swap constantly (and man, do I wish they would come up with new tank mechanics, or just bring back the idea of a main-tank and off-tank and let the off-tank worry about adds.)
Challenge Modes clearly aren't a good fit to make 5-player content relevant, as it's more of a niche, competitive thing. I still want to feel the effect of my gear progression as I go through these instances.
One thing I might have done was simply put LFR and Heroic dungeons at the same level. The intention originally was for serious raiders to gear up in heroics before they jump to Normal/Heroic/Mythic raiding. But LFR still offers better gear, and thus incentivizes even the hardcore to run it instead of Heroic dungeons. If things had been reshuffled, and, say, both heroic dungeons and Highmaul LFR had offered 635 gear, you'd allow those who could handle the more difficult dungeons to gear up faster.
But another problem remains, and that's the idea that Dungeons are just a stepping-stone to raids.
Now maybe that's always going to be the case. It always has been, and it's true that organizing a raid takes a lot more effort than organizing a dungeon group.
To me, though, I've always preferred smaller group sizes. A 5-player dungeon to me evokes the classic RPG group - a couple friends sitting around a coffee table eating junk food and listening to, I don't know, Led Zeppelin probably. When you play D&D around a table, you're not going to get 25 people to play - that sounds awful.
And granted, part of the appeal of doing this via computer is that you can handle these huge groups.
But I wish that raid did not come at the expense of dungeons.
Anyway, I'd like there to be meaningful rewards behind running dungeons. Garrison resources ain't going to do it - it needs to be something that leads to greater character power, and that means gear.
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