More Changes for Ulduar
Posted by 
Admin on Friday, June 12, 2009 - 31 Comments Tags: 10 man, 25 man, 3.1, Ulduar, changes, hard modes, nerfs, raid design, raiding, xt-002 deconstructor, yogg-saron
Admin on Friday, June 12, 2009 - 31 Comments Tags: 10 man, 25 man, 3.1, Ulduar, changes, hard modes, nerfs, raid design, raiding, xt-002 deconstructor, yogg-saron 
Yogg-Saron, just another old god.The changes (or nerfs as some of us raiders like to describe them as) for Ulduar keep rolling in. All of the changes should be live, but some may require a realm restart. The first significant change comes to the "end boss" of Ulduar, Yogg-Saron (who's lovely face you can see to your right):
The Yogg-Saron encounter has received the following changes: Death Ray no longer hits players who are under the effect of Malady of the Mind, Guardians of Yogg-Saron no longer use Dominate Mind, the spawn rate of Guardians of Yogg-Saron is more forgiving, and these Guardians will no longer spawn if a player that is protected by Hodir’s Flash Freeze hits an Ominous Cloud.
Now, my guild is working on the fight currently and to really demonstrate the impact of these changes on our first pull of the night we managed to hit phase three of the fight (which we had never done before). If that doesn't really show how tuned down this fight has become, well I don't know what else will. The spawn rate is much slower in phase one, there are no more mind controls and basically there is zero reason for anyone to die in that phase anymore. The change to guardians spawning on a player protected by a Flash Freeze is a welcome change to say the least.
There are a few other changes also (which can be read on the World of WarCraft Forums):
- In the opening sequence of Ulduar you can now see Liquid Pyrite from farther away.
- The Flame Leviathan encounter has received the following changes: the bonus health Flame Leviathan receives per tower has been reduced, the ejection height from Flame Leviathan has been reduced, the snare effect of the Tower of Frost has been removed, and the cannons on Demolishers and Siege Enginers should now break Flash Frozen vehicles in 1 shot.
- The XT-002 Deconstructor encounter has received the following changes: the health of the heart has been slightly reduced in heroic difficulty and the rate at which Gravity Bomb and Searing Light are cast has been reduced.
Being able to see the liquid pyrite at a greater distance is a welcome change. The whole Flame Leviathan encounter has gotten what seems to be a massive scaling back and I imagine we will see a lot more hard mode deaths for FL. XT-002 Deconstructor also got a nerf, mostly to the hard mode (which only 350 guilds have beat) because activating it should be slightly easier (although if you couldn't activate it before, should you even be doing it?). The gravity bombs and searing light also got their rate of cast reduced which should make the fight slightly easier or considerably easier depending on the severity of the rate change.
While I appreciate the changes Blizzard has made in making raiding more accessible (as has been the philosophy of this entire expansion) it is a little annoying to be working on an encounter and making progress on it, only to see it changed and made much easier. My guild isn't a top guild but we progress fairly well on our 3-day schedule and it almost seems like at this point unless you're in a 5-day a week guild trying to clear as fast as possible you won't be experiencing these fights in their original form. While my guild will soon be one of the 3000 guilds having downed Yogg-Saron, it can't be argued that this is a much easier fight now.
So raiders of Project Lore, are you a fan of these changes? Are you happy that the fights have been made easier? Do you think this is the right way for Blizzard to kind of "open up" raiding to everyone?
Reader Comments (31)
@Lovekillsall
Skill? Or being able to play 6 out of the 7 days for hours on end... i am not in a raid guild and i only play fridays-sundays yet i have two toons geared for Ulduar10 .. and the fact that i cant get in makes me mad... so.. do i have no skill for playing for over 4 years? No skill for having to pug raids for all my gear? No skill to have lvld up 4 characters past 70? No, it is not skill we are lacking its the time... All of you hardcore players don't remember what it was like when u had shit gear...I go into a heroic on my fresh 80 tank and ppl bail because my hp is too low.. Well im sorry did youe tank hit 80 and have 30k hp? We all have to work for our gear, some (like me) progress slower... does this make us skilless? I've seen ppl in full ulduar gear wipe raids because it was "So ez they didnt need to pay attention". Next time you want to Q.Q. about "casuals getting it easy" Why do you think we are casuals? Because we raid all day/night? Blizzard also MUST aid the "casuals" because nearly 4/5 of WoW population isn't a hardcore raider... now if i owned Blizzard i'd rather keep the 80% of my subcribers than the few 20% who would rather Q.Q. about how ez it is.. if its so god damn ez why isnt everyone in full 8.5?
In my opinion, everytime we have to deal with a new content (raid that is), it's like having to climb a big nasty mountain. We don't know how to get on top, we don't know the way, we don't have even the skills to do so. But as we keep on "climbing" every week, we know how to go step by step and find safe spots to rest ourselves. And that's the fun of it. Plus wondering, how the heck we used to wipe multiple times on certain bosses, now that we can 1 shot them. It's because now we know how to. I personaly enjoy more killing a boss after several wipes than 1 shot him (on first tries ofc). Blizzard is sometimes helping us by making our way to the top easily. Go a bit to the past when Naxx came out. Hard core guilds pew pew the whole damn thing in less than a week. After that many kept on moaning how easy Naxx was. Ulduar is not easy. Needs more teamwork and no slacking at all from no one. There is no place to hide in a 25 man thinking that the other 24 guys will do the job and I will get the loot. The bad thing is about pugging. I agree with Shnoo that as a casual raider cannot pug Ulduar. And this is not good. But many guilds need skilled players for Ulduar, so go ahead, join a guild and give your best I say :)
Well, Yogg-Saron bears some similarites to C'thun :D
Also, im in favor for these changes. I don't see why raiding has to be so damn complicated. I raid as a hunter so i just have to stand back and do my shot rotation. If something goes wrong, its generally not my fault.
But the way i look at it, the more Blizz nerfs Ulduar, to easier it'll be for me to get in there and acctually get some gear. Right now, im just wearing Naxx gear. Some from 10 man, some from 25 man. If these fights are made just slightly less complicated, i can acctually get in there and see a boss or two down and maybe get a nice gear upgrade.
To this day, ive yet to see any bosses down. I got pulled in with a PUG into 10 man to take down Flame Leviathan, but as soon as i got in there i saw that(with me included) there was only 5 of us. So, naturally, all i get from that was a hefty repair bill.
The is a universal rule for bosses: the uglier they are the more power they have.
I think blizzard nerfs are completely rediculous.... ive seen ppl go in there with blues on never done naxx ect. I think this stuff needs to unnerffed so it keeps out the srubs who bought their toons off ebay and are looking for groups to carry them through a raid. The bosses in there are tier 8 equivilent for a reason and if you cant handle it you prolly shouldnt be there. Many guilds work hard to gear there ppl to get to this point. all i got to say is Ice Crown Citidel better be like sunwell was and not allow pugs to breach its walls.
The Old Gods are ugly because they are fundamentally inhuman, and supposed to evoke the same type of wrongness described by Lovecraft and others in the Cthulhu mythos. The names of the two Old Gods that have been encountered even allude to Mythos creature: C'Thun is pretty close to Cthulhu, and Yogg-Saron is fairly close to Yog-Sothoth.