How Long Until Algalon Goes Down?
Bastosa on Wednesday, April 22, 2009 - 14 Comments Tags: 3.1, Ulduar, algalon, ensidia, hard mode, raiding 
Despite the fact that Ulduar is much more difficult that the previous tier of content, there are many guilds that are tearing through it! I mentioned in my last post that Ensidia had downed Yogg-Saron and since then many more have followed. While Yogg is technically the last boss in Ulduar, there is one more challenge lying in there for the truly dedicated raider.
Algalon is the special hard mode only boss that you can only face after defeating the he Assembly of Iron, Hodir, Thorim, Freya, and Mimiron hard modes.
With the news that guilds have started to actually see this fight, and then the following blue post that you can only attempt this boss for one hour PER WEEK, it begs the question. How long until we see this guy go down?
While I was fairly sure we would see him downed by one of the “professional” raiding guilds this week, now I am not so sure. Remember after all, this guy “feeds on your tears” and is not supposed to be easy by any stretch of the imagination. Additionally one hour seems like a ridiculously short window, I imagine it will take some top guilds weeks to learn the fight alone.
Part of me always figured that part of the reason the top guilds could down bosses so fast is because the sheer number of hours they are able to put into an encounter. Now there is a limitation.
Furthermore, what does this mean for the rest of us?? I know my guild spent over 10 hours on Mimiron alone this week (phase 4 is absolutely insane). I am really having a hard time imagining us downing this guy who, presumably is harder, in that short of a window.
I really cannot wait to see how this all shakes out, and will be incredibly impressed with whoever manages world first. This is an interesting move for Blizzard, can’t say I’m sure how I feel about it yet.
Reader Comments (14)
FIRST!!!!!!!!!!!!
FIRST time i ever got to say taht
i too am very interested in the fight as well as the Sweet model for this guy awesome job blizz
now bak to the subject 10 hours are nuts crazy i never spent 10 hours on a whole dungeon lt alone a boss
ulduar is definitely proving to be full of many surprises. And for my guild it's having us go back to our roots back when raiding was hard-back when we were going for T-5 and getting that last encounter with Kael'thas Sunstrider in The Eye.(one of the best boss fights in wow history imo). In otherwords,
no more cruising through the game content. We actually need to put some good old effort into the boss encounters once again. (yay! no more mind numbing farming)
The thing about Ulduar is that even when you get stuff on farm you still will have to pay attention and be on top of things. I really do like the fact that the Algalon hard mode has the 1 hour window a week. I forsee at some point Blizzard will lower it or remove it, but they didn't just do that for the sake of "LOLZ Nao u can't kill our boss so fast take that raid QQ'ers" they actually put forth thought and a story line that goes along with it. My post on the page Juggy made included a link to a youtube video that contained the audio from the Algalon fight and him leaving after one hour or a wipe or whatever makes sense from a lore standpoint. I've never been an RP'er but it's an awesome story and I can't wait to eventually get a shot at this guy.
Vael (BWL) had the one hour window as well.
@Slinkz
But if I'm not mistaken Vael was one hour per day, this is one hour per week!
I never really got to do many BC or any pre bc raids (pre bc was actually challenging i hear) and i like how they are restoring the challenge of raiding so that guilds who may not be as good still have a challenge on maybe one of the earlier bosses and hopefully work their way up to the final boss which is what raid progression truly is! I cant wait to hit this up once i hit 80 (after i get tier 7.5). I also like the originality of the style for this raid like alot of the pre bc raids. GL to all guilds running this i prob wont make it to final boss anytime soon but its nice to hear some people are. - Arthisia Frost Dk Tank 76 (atm), Cairne
sup brah
To be honest, I like that Blizzard duid this. Sure enough, I might not see either Yogg or Algalon, even after the next expansion hits (One of the many downsides to Roleplaying servers).
However, this 1hour a week thing with Algalon, seems to bring the difficulty of Ulduar up even more, and will keep guilds interested at least until the next patch with a new dungeon / raid.
-------------------------------------
Ashecroft
EU Sha'tar
1hour a week? That's rediculous. There really is no way to play most of this game while maintaining a social life.
Im only a casual raider so this is likely to be a boss that i will NEVER down. Unless i get carried and just happen to log on at the right time. But atm, i've yet to even see what Ulduar looks like.
The 1 hour a week seems crazy, but its not only going to be your guild or your server collectively trying it. Soon there will be a complex pool of information about this guy and the right way to go about it. Some raiders I've seen have compared it to the Sunwell Gates, how you couldn't go into further content until Blizzard's status quo on dailies/boss kills had been met. This mechanic simply does not allow a guild that has 20+ hours to spend on a fight use that time in hopes of achieving a world first.
Also, like Immortal, Undying, You Don't Have an Eternity achievements, everyone here has to be on their best raid behavior. The first week in there guilds had 25 man naxx BiS gear, the fight will be decreased a little bit in difficulty once your not a tier behind in gear. So will it take hardcore guilds a shorter time to kill it than casual ones, maybe. There could be a time in which a casual guild has more luck in their hour with Algalon than a hardcore guild does. It does look like a fun fight, and I myself cannot wait to be there...as a casual.
Finally Blizzard started cleaning - although before the patch there was some hard stuff to achieve like Immortal or Satharion with 3 drakes alive, I must say I was disappointed with the difficulty level of raiding in WotLK. Leveling is far too easy so at least "end game stuff" should be very challenging and if that's what Blizzard offers in Ulduar, it seems to be really worth seeing + trying. As I've been offline for 2-3 weeks before the patch was released I can't really comment on any boss encounters from Ulduar and say how hard they are, but from what Bastosa says, especially about that "1 hour encounter" thing, I like the idea of increasing the difficulty level. May I even say: Good Job Blizzard?
PS: What is the "hard mode" option? Is it just 25 man version or something new I don't know yet about ?