Ulduar Brings Back Standards
That's a pic of me on the Flame Leviathan having hopped off my motorcycle into a Demolisher and being launched because our mage died. That was the only fun I've really had on that fight to be honest.
I can't say the first boss of Ulduar has me all that excited. I'm not big into siege weapon encounters yet as I don't think they offer much in terms of game play dynamics. I'd rather see group combo points added to the game to be honest.
If you haven't pugged this encounter yet, it basically looks like three year olds playing soccer. A bunch of little kids rushing at a ball in hopes to lay a foot on it. It takes no skill whatsoever...just know how to spam 3 buttons at cooldowns.
We didn't even bother doing it without one tower up for our 10mans which was pretty easy. I do imagine four towers will actually take some strategy though. I'm looking forward to stepping it up to that. We did Razorscale 10man no problem and accidentally got the achievement but got toasted in Ignis's Slag pot. lol. toasty baby!
I'm definitely not crying for the NERF hammer for sure. I like the challenge.
In our 25man raid, we're still hitting up Razorscale. We did it last night with five healers and still didn't have the DPS to push him down but we got a lot further than we did last Friday. I'm really liking this encounter a lot for the simple reason that it's a great skill and gear check. Plus it pushes progression mentality back on the raid so they understand it's not a free ride anymore. Until the raid gets better, you pay out the @ss with repairs, pots, and food.
Naxx made people lazy and careless so if it takes hitting a wall for a few weeks to get people back into shape, I'm all down for that.
1 comments:
I really *hated* Malygos phase 3 and Eregos in The Oculus because of the crappy vehicle mechanics, and I have to say, I was dreading Flame Leviathan.
As it turns out, I've actually really enjoyed the FL encounter so far. The vehicles at least have some different and interesting abilities that promote / require teamwork (grabbing barrels, lighting tar, launching players, etc.), and having them be something different makes the run to FL 'feel' big, without it having to be an hour-long slog through wave after wave of iron dwarf trash. The Leviathan proper, felt a bit under tuned (only done him on heroic), but adding in towers has started to require that people perk up and pay attention.
We've only attempted Ignis in the first couple of days, and it seemed like he was bugged or over tuned there, but with only a couple of attempts, it's hard to say for sure... looking forward to taking him out tomorrow!
Razorscale is fast, frantic, and fun. An excellent early-zone encounter (I love the requirement for multiple tanks using very different mechanics in the harpoon phases and final ground phase). The fight has a pretty standard dumbass check, keeps the DPS (and healers) on their toes with target priority, and has a non-berserk berserk timer.
Deconstructor will soon earn a name for himself as 'The PuG Destroyer'. Requires movement and coordination, is a great gear check barrier to the inside of the zone, and as a bonus, has some of the best voice acting / scripting ever (expect to wipe the first time because your raid party is cracking up). The trash just inside the room is terrifying, but there's probably something to it that we've been missing so far.
P.S.
Lightwell is ridiculously good during this fight (and many others, IMO). Seriously, if your Holy Priests don't have it, call them noobs and tell them to get it. Now.
TL;DR version -
Ulduar is excellent so far, and while Leviathan isn't the best encounter ever, it made me not hate vehicle fights with the blazing intensity of a thousand suns, and that's saying something :)
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