Project Lore

Slowly, but surely, Solidsagart has been progressing along the levels on her way to level 80.  With her XP busting in to the level 76 range I decided to take her to the one zone that Solidsamm skipped, Sholazar Basin.  The last bastion of (almost) untouched life by the Scourge was a wild ride of old quest design, new ideas, stellar writing and world traveling. I'm sure most players know of Sholazar as the new home to the greatest hunter of them all, Hemet Nesingwary.  That, and the presence of the Ghostfish, are about the only things I really knew about the basin before I decided to tackle its content.  Yea, you read that right, I wasn't aware that both the Frenzyheart Tribe and the Oracles made their homes in the Un'Goro Crater-esque zone.  I did figure that out soon enough. Sholazar starts off innocent, offering a cavalcade of quests that hearken back to the days of Stranglethorn Vale.  I was tasked with killing ten of these, eight of that, and then going for the leader of said species.  It's not until I begin tackling the big game that Nesingwary becomes interested in me, and my various feats.  Once I begin to gain a following in the zone, Nesingwary actually joined me in the hunt as I went for the really big game.  The interaction with such a well known NPC made me feel as if I was having some impact on the world; a great use of subtle phasing. Juxtaposing Nesingwary's incessant need for bigger, badder and more dangerous game is a Avatar of Freya.  The demigod is struggling to comprehend, and hold back, the Scourge that are pouring in from Icecrown.  She asks any who will listen to investigate their coming, and help in their destruction.  She becomes so desperate that she allowed me, a mere mortal, to travel to Un'Goro Crater to unlock a Titan weapon for use against the Scourge. I was told that if I managed to succeed she'd overlook the death I caused in her lands.  My spine tingled when I realized that she witnessed me laying waste to the wildlife, for fun and gold.  The antonymous and interweaving stories between the two hubs end up delivering a perfect opportunity for a moral question or mechanic.  Unfortunately, there was nothing along those lines.  A missed opportunity in my book. The most memorable part of the zone for me wasn't hunting game, or demolishing the Scourge.  It wasn't even the fun quests presented by the Oracles or Frenzyheart factions.  What stuck out in Sholazar Basin for me was the writing for the quests, and the story arcs.  As noted, the Freya/Nesingwary tandem made for some good, if one-sided, moral discussion, but the wolvars and gorlocs each had an entire language of their own.  And the language was used, with one quest giver as an exception, for each and every quest presented by the factions.  I actually enjoyed reading the quest text just for the nuances in the language.  The entertaining gameplay mechanics and actual story arcs presented by the faction dispute was simply a bonus. I can't say any other zone's quest dialogue can compare to Sholazar Basin's.  There are areas of the game that offer more jaw dropping revelations and unexpected twists of allegiance, but the basin had it all in one nice little package.  Hell, I even found the hatch from Lost while running around the lush lands. I highly suggest cleaning up any remaining quests you have in Sholazar.  If you haven't been there, you are missing one of the most integrated and self aware zones in the game.  Be sure to run the Frenzyheart/Oracle line to the end.  You'll know the end when you get there...

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It's amazing how time flies! With a new dungeon on the horizon and boss testing already underway, I figured I better get my ass in gear on these second looks! It's been a few weeks since the first article, which covered the Siege area of the dungeon, and I feel like I've gotten a lot more experience with the three fights that make up the Antechamber: Iron Council, Kologarn, and Auriaya. Though the Algalon encounter is technically in this area, it cannot be accessed until after Yogg-Saron, so it will be included in a later second look. Let's move right along, shall we? The Iron Council - I won't lie. I wasn't exactly happy when we made a detour from Kologarn in a raid earlier this week to go pick a fight with the Iron Council first. It's not that it's an especially tough encounter, at least not if you follow the prescribed sequence of Steelbreaker -> Molgeim -> Brundir, but there are just so many easy ways for it to spin out of control. Tanks get their face smashed in by a Fusion Punch, or forget to move Steelbreaker out of the Rune of Power quick enough. People forget to remove the debuff from the tank. Or, maybe, the group in the back lacks the means or forgets to interrupt Brundir's Lightning Whirl. The Iron Council - Steelbreaker, Molgeim, and Brundir A second's misjudgement on the part of the tank, or those that are directly supporting him, can lead to sudden and plentiful wipes, quickly wearing down the raid's morale. And so it is, that whenever we attempt this fight, we almost always get through it, but not before racking up a few losses. One-shots of the Iron Council have been rare for my guild, no matter how experienced with the encounter the players involved may be. As a rogue, there's damage to avoid, but not a whole lot to contribute until interrupts are needed for Brundir in the final phase. Typically, at that point, the fight is already won. The hardest part of the Iron Council is the first third, when resources are spread thin and you have to account for all three generals at once. So how does this fight measure up to my expectations? Honestly, they were pretty spot on. Adds are one thing, but any encounter where you have to control several boss characters at once is going to have consistent challenges to meet (see: High King Maulgar or Fathom-Lord Karathress, both from Burning Crusade). Just as well, it seems that very few guilds have completed this encounter on the hardest difficulty (by killing Steelbreaker last). Why don't we move on to something a little more palatable? Kologarn - Oh, man. Kologarn looked so imposing when we first saw him. He's even the guy that Brann Bronzebeard is running away from the Ulduar preview video. A colossal golem, and a gatekeeper mob at that. He's got to be a pain in the rear, right? Nope. Kologarn in all of his massive glory. This. Guy. Is. A. Pushover. He gets points for looking cool, and he can push some heavy, periodic damage with his Shockwave ability, but other than that, Kologarn is a total piece of cake. Especially on 10-man, where you don't really have to rotate tanks, just keep one on the sidelines to pick up the rubble that spawns when you kill his arm. It's been quite awhile since my guild has wiped on Kologarn and its rare that anyone dies during the fight (only when they idle in the eye beams too long or accidentally fall into the gap). It's not really an issue for ranged attackers, but the only problem I've encountered as a melee dps is that the Rubble that spawns from a smashed arm can dish out a really nasty AoE. Avoid the beams, kill the right arm (four times should be enough), keep your healing steady, and this fight is a piece of cake. Auriaya - We've nicknamed her the Crazy Cat Lady. This fight is painfully simple, perhaps even more so than Kologarn, if (and this is a big if) you can handle the pull. It's dependent on having some really skilled tanks, and even though my guild does, we've still had trouble with engagement. The most typical strategy I've seen is to have most of your raid sit around the corner (down the stairs from Kologarn), and let the tanks stand just out of the line of sight until she gets into melee range. It may be prudent to have a Shaman drop a totem further up to actually pull Auriaya and give your meat shields a little bit more time to react. Her panther adds will immediately pounce the closest aggro targets, which (if we do it wrong) seem to be healers most of the time. The Crazy Cat Lady! To reduce this, I've found it a good idea to have the tanks time their damage reduction cooldowns just right so that they can survive the initial assault presumably without the help of healers. If you get past that point, the encounter is terribly facile. Train everyone to stand in front of her (as opposed to far away or behind her) and dish out the damage. If you're doing this fight on 10-man, you may not even kill the Feral Defender that she summons. Should that happen, simply avoid the large (and very obvious) void zone it leaves behind. AoEs are handy for the smaller adds, but they are not a primary concern. Conclusion - The Antechamber is heavy on quick tank kills, but if your guild has the chops to survive those, it's arguably the easiest section of Ulduar. What may slow you down is exhaustion more than anything. By the time we get to Auriaya, it's usually the end of our first night in the dungeon, people are tired and not nearly as focused as they were in the beginning. This makes managing the pull even tougher than normal because people aren't on their "A-game." It makes a good stopping point, though, because even if you have the energy after killing the Cat Lady, this is where things get real. Ulduar up until this point, believe it or not, has been a cakewalk. The four Guardians, and what lay beyond them, require deeper, more pointed strategies, so its better to tackle them after a good night's rest! I'll be covering the Guardians (Hodir, Thorim, Freya, and Mimiron) in the next edition of the Second Look, and I have to admit that it's my favorite part of the dungeon. There's some good eye candy and dynamic fights to look forward to, not to mention it's the most lore-centric section of Ulduar. All four of these bosses you've met or been involved with while leveling up in Northrend! Meanwhile, I want to hear what the rest of you thought about these fights and the Antechamber in general. Too easy, too hard? Has your guild also been thwarted by the tough pulls or is it smooth sailing all the way through? If Ulduar was an epic trilogy, would this be your Empire Strikes Back? Please let me know in the comments section!

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