Project Lore

One thing I love about raiding is comparing the different raids to each other and seeing how boss fights and dungeons evolve from patch to patch. While leading raids I often catch myself comparing boss strategies to other bosses we have defeated in the past. When explaining Thaddius in Naxx the comparison is always made to Mechano-Lord Capacitus in the Mechanar, and when talking about Elder Ironbranch's root ability Illhoof's demon chain ability comes to mind. With all these similarities going on it is always refreshing to see new abilities we are not used to. It seems like as you progress through raid content each dungeon has a few key lessons that the raiders must master, and when they do they will be stronger players for the rest of their WoW career. In BC I always had the impression that Magtheridon was designed to teach us how to coordinate raid members and get everyone clicking at the same time, Tempest Keep was there to teach us how to CC trash and deal with adds during boss fights, and Hyjal seemed to teach us how to deal with trash and bosses when you couldn't control the pace. In more modern times Sartherion (with drakes especially) seemed to teach us how to avoid standing in things that would kill us, Malygos taught us how to use vehicles to defeat a boss, and Naxx taught us how to mindlessly AOE trash and zerg bosses (JK!). So this all brings us to the question. What is Ulduar trying to teach us? Besides being a bit of an introduction back into the world of real raiding, it seems to me the key lesson from Blizzard is this: DPS control. This means not only high DPS, but know when and where to apply it, and more importantly when to stop. We see it as early as fights like Razorscale and Deconstructor. For Razor you only have a short window in which to DPS the boss, and you need to make sure you hit her hard when you can. Deconstructor takes it up a notch with controlled DPS on his heart. Too little and the boss doesn't die fast enough, too much and you are looking at a double heart phase and too many adds. Down the road we see bosses like Mimiron and Freya when killing things at the same time are essential to winning the fight, so it is really important to not kill the head or that stormlasher too early. This entire lesson culminates with the big man himself, with controlled DPS needed in all phases of Yogg Saron. Making sure the guardians all die in the pool, and not when they are ferried over, then killing the right tentacles at the right times, while saving lots of burst DPS for the brain just seems to drive the lesson home. DPS is not about pure numbers but applying the right amount of damage to the right targets at the right time. Understanding this is what will separate the best raiders from the rest. With Ulduar Blizzard is making sure we are learning our lesson. How do you guys feel, what lessons have you learned in Uldaur, or even other raids?

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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?

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So by now we have all heard about the great stuff coming in patch 3.2. While mount changes, battlegrounds, and dailies are fun and all… I wanted to take a second to talk about what, to me, is the most exciting thing about any content patch. The new raid!

As many of you have figured out by now, raiding is really what I play this game for so naturally I want as many details on the new Crusaders Colosseum as possible. Unfortunately at this point, details are a bit lacking. So that just leaves me to do one thing: make wild assumptions based on too little information and discuss possibilities that may have no basis in fact!

So let me first say this. I am a bit skeptical about this whole “ring of blood, but more epic” thing. When we first heard about Ulduar the possibilities seemed limitless. It was a huge dungeon with a great story 14 bosses tons of hard modes. Sounded great! This on the other hand sounds like it could very well be a hole in the wall that bosses come out of.

Perhaps that is what some people want. No trash, no dungeons to walk through, just one room where bosses come and drop their loot. I honestly hope this isn’t the case. To me raiding a new dungeon is more about the experience than just the bosses. It’s no wonder some of my favorite raids of all time are the ones with story and tons of design like Karazhan, Black Temple, and even Ulduar.

In my mind the only basis for comparison I can even think for the new Colloseum would maybe be Violet Hold, or perhaps on a bigger scale Mount Hyjal. Those were both dungeons when the mobs and bosses came to you. But if Blizzard is comparing this to Ring of Blood (which we have already done 3 times by the way), then it makes me question if trash will even be in the equation. Seems a bit lazy from a design perspective.

I guess we can only hope for some really interesting boss fights to hold us over until Icecrown. While I’m not totally discouraged just yet, let me say I can only hope that Blizzard has some good tricks up their sleeve.

Until we get more details all we can do is wonder. So what do you guys think?

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Can I Be The Right Baby? I've brought up my humble little guild a few times in the past.  We've had our fair share of issues, but most of them have pertained to getting a raid going, let alone completing it.  After some hardwork from the leaders, a few weeks of gear farming for new members and a fresh batch of core raiders, the guild is back on track and finally in Ulduar.  We've come a long way from scrapping together 10-man Naxxramas raids earlier in the year, but we are still a very much a casual guild, at least by my standards.  Casual or not, all guilds have their share of drama, and lately it has been surrounding the object of endless bickering, purpalz. If there is anything that can instill a sense of hatred among guildmates, for no other reason than favor from the RNG, it is loot.  Interesting and new encounters get players into raiding, but it is the off chance at a new piece of shiny armor, or a pointy new piece of metal, that keeps many of us coming back week after week.  Insert some unskilled, unknown or otherwise "undeserving" players into the mix and you have all the ingredients for Drama Soup.  Add a healthy dose of PUG to the recipe and you have yourself the chunkiest Drama Stew since the creation of The Real Housewives franchise.  This is exactly what has been happening in Warriors of Faith lately. I haven't raided in almost two weeks, but previous to my E3 sabbatical we had a few nights that our heroic Naxxramas outings were filled in with PUGs.  Some of the pick-ups were old friends or friends of guildies, so they were known to the group.  Others were entire strangers, unfamiliar with our flavor of raiding, discussion and joking.  All of which tend to be various forms of toilet humor and other unprintable topics.  Don't get me wrong, PUGs and everyone in the raid deserves a shot at the gear they helped create, but it irks me when some stranger picks up a piece of loot I have been after since our first clear.  To make matters worse there is currently no restriction in my guild of how much loot any single player can take in a run, assuming the rules of the last raid I attended still stand.  That is what really cooks my goose. My last heroic Naxxramas clear saw a pair of PUGs pick up not one, not two, but five pieces of gear!  As I said, I am all for giving our saviors (this is what they were since the raid would have been delayed, possibly even canceled, without them) their just dessert, but is it too much to ask for a limit?  Sure, they saved our bacon, but the raid was still a guild run (20 or more guildies), not a PUG group. I never PUG full raids so I am not sure what the norm is.  Would imposing a limit of two class-based items or a single multi-class item be too far?  How about a lower max roll for PUGs?  If there is no restrictions to what an unfamiliar face can obtain, thus making everyone's chance exactly the same, then why should members even bother with a guild run when they could run a raid at their leisure with the same chance at loot?  Think about it.  In my opinion gearing up members is what a guild run is for.  PUGers are enticed by these oppurtunites for the fast clear, easy emblems and, naturally, a shot at some - often unwanted - loot. What do the PUGers out there think about limits?  How about other guilds who fill their ranks with the helpful populace?  Does anyone place restrictions on what a PUG can roll on?  Do you force them to roll lower (such as /random 75), fight over the scraps (unwanted loot), or pay them off with gold if they win a roll?  Or are they simply privileged to be a part of such an amazing guild, even if it is just temporary? A limited loot solution surely isn't perfect, would cause loot and scoot syndrome, and a lower chance at winning would upset people from the start, but keeping guild members happy should be job #1 for the guild.

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Feint, the forgotten skill My fellow raiding Rogues, we've been neglecting one of the biggest buffs to our beloved class that we've had in a while. No it doesn't improve DPS, directly at least, but falls in line with the number one rule of being a raiding rogue, staying alive so you can still DPS! Patch 3.0.8 released on January 20th which is coming up on six months old now. The buff (or change depending on your view) on this skill that generally has been laughable, has now been made a very viable skill, especially in high-end raiding.

Feint: Rank 8 now reduces the damage taken from area of effect attacks by 50% for 6 seconds in addition to its existing effects.

Now, go back and read that again; reduces damage of AoE attacks by HALF for 6 seconds. To be honest I had forgotten about this skill until a few weeks ago, it has been on my bar of course but has been on the further side of the keyboard away from more important skills. Now while this may not be a huge deal even in heroic Ulduar, once you start hitting the hard modes this redone skill really shines and a really great example of great use is on XT-002 Deconstructor. I was running normal Ulduar (10 man) with my guild and we went for the hard version of XT-002 Deconstructor. Basically once you activate the hard mode the damage put on the raid (and thus stress on the healers) is increased by 40%! The spell from XT you should be most be worried about is the Tympanic Tantrum, which everyone in the raid needs to be healed from; if you can cut this in half you reduce the stress on your healers and they can worry about getting other people (tanks, other healers) topped off before you (and if you have healing potions and healthstones, you should be using those too). Giving your healers an extra 4-6 seconds to worry about others before you, can be invaluble in a healing intensive fight such as hard mode XT. The skill only has a 10 second cooldown which is very nice as it's only four seconds that you are without the 50% damage reduction, although it is highly recommended to NOT put this into your rotation as it is merely a situation skill at this point. With that said though, am I the only one who forgot about this spell? Have you raiding rogues been using it for a while? Or did it take something drastic like not wanting to stress out your healers during a hard mode? What other fights do you find this to be a good fit for?

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While I've always considered myself a strong raider, I've always done my best to keep a handle on the amount of time I dedicate to the game. It is after all, just a game, and it is very important to not spend too much time playing. That being said I am a total completionist, and I'll admit, a bit of an addict when it comes to this game we all know and love. This is why I am beginning to struggle with the new content patch. I know in a matter of months I will likely be QQing about the lack of content available... but for right now, I am overwhelmed! A big part of my problem is I can't decide if I would rather do 10-man progression or 25-man progression. So I do what any good WoW fanatic would do, and try and do both, which in my guild equals out to about 6 nights a week of raiding. That is a pretty large jump up from what I am used to, and the first few weeks I tried to make that happen it started taking a toll on me. Now don't get me wrong, I am not some helpless junkie that can't get a grip on his time... I can quit anytime I want to :) ! But the fact is I want to see both versions of Yogg go down, and there are plenty of loot upgrades for me in both versions on the instance. Fact is I am just stuck in that rare window of new content where 10-mans are still important to farm, and 25-mans still need work to progress. Eventually I know that I will completely outgear 10-mans and have no reason to go back, but I fear the hard modes will extend that window further than it usually gets extended. At this point it is clear to me I am going to have to start making some choices. What is important now, and furthermore where am I having the most fun? 10s or 25s? I realize I can't do it all no matter how bad I want to! How are you other raiders doing in this department? Are you accomplishing everything you want to? Or do you find yourself in the same place where there are not enough hours in the day (or at least enough gaming hours)? I'd be curious to know your choice, because it is time for me to make mine!

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Band-Aid Fix For Lag Kills PvP Zone For all intents and purposes, Patch v3.1.2 was designed as a clean-up to Secrets of Ulduar.  The minor content patch added a few features that were meant for Ulduar's patch, including the swanky Equipment Manager, further "fixes" for Wintergrasp and general tweaks to the massive amount of changes v3.1 brought us.  Unfortunately the Band-Aid (TM) patch tore the wound open. It took Blizzard a little while to admit it, but v3.1.2 completely broke Wintergrasp on many servers.  If you don't happen to be on one of the affected servers then you missed out on some serious Honor.  The issue is that the Wintergrasp timer is royally screwed, which caused the battle to restart ~5-10 minutes after it had completed.  I managed to score a few Wintergrasp Achievements during my struggle to complete my daily fishing quest. I was also rewarded with a handful of marks and a token amount of Honor for my anglin' expedition.  It's unknown what caused the error, but Blizzard has disabled the PvP zone until it can be rectified. Thankfully, the Wintergrasp bug seems to be the only lingering issue, but it wasn't the only one for Magtheridon (US).  As with most patch days, my ancient server struggled to re-open in a timely fashion.  It was then plagued by login and world server issues, a problem that delayed last night's raid for more than an hour.  During the wait I tried to busy myself with Terminator Salvation.  It just wasn't my night, the action title fails to install from the DVD.  Sigh.  In the end my night of gaming was worth the wait.  By the evening's culmination I had scored a shiny new dagger to replace my dull Maexxna's Fang redux.  Score. How were your servers?  Any login problems?  Did you get a chance to soak up Wintergrasp wins, honor and tokens?  Exactly how bad is Terminator Salvation?

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When Ulduar first hit I made a post asking when we all thought Algalon the Observer (the true final boss of Ulduar) would go down. Well it appears that Ensidia has answered my questions, well, at least for 10 mans.

The super guild announced on their web site that one of their 10-man teams had finally downed him (and also buried a note that another had completed world first Alone In The Darkness).

While I know it will be quite a while before I get to wear the Starcaller title, it is very exciting to hear their impressions of the fight. They of course comment on the added challenge of the one hour timer, but they also claim it is “not quite as hard as Blizzard made it out to be.” I’m taking that with a grain of salt because I imagine their idea of difficult is quite a bit different than mine!

For those that are interested they also provide a link for the loot they obtained as well as some screenshots of the quest chain. They promise video is on the way in short order.

It is encouraging to me to see it took them as long as it did, because in Ensidia time, this took a while! After all they certainly didn’t waste anytime getting world first Yogg, or any other world first for that matter!

So now the only question is how long until we see Algalon-25 go down? Or how about some of the Algalon hard modes? It pretty clear Blizzard intends to keep us all busy for a while.

If you want to keep track of the world first Algalon-25 progress for yourself I recommend you keep an eye on Ensidia’s site… I have a feeling that the news will break there!

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Wings.  What did you think I was getting at?

Malygos, being a Dragon Aspect, is a fight that I would expect to be quite epic.  Not only in its general gameplay design, but its overall presentation.  After running it for the first time last night, I can say that it largely lived up to my expectations.  As soon as you zone into the Eye of Eternity the Lord of Magic begins taunting, teasing and harassing you for being one of the lesser beings.  He also alludes to interference from the other flights, namely Alexstraza and her red brood , which comes into play later.  My big knock against the presentation is his voice.  The dialogue and taunts he tosses at us are well-written, but the vocals just aren't epic enough for me.  They do not command my respect or grab my attention as other dragons have.  In short, Malygos' voice makes me picture a nerd puffing out his chest in a vain attempt to look larger and more confident than he really is. Visually, we are placed on what may be the least laggy battlefield in all of Azeroth, a platform with four pillars that looks out at the vastness of space and a collection of celestial bodies.  Why Malygos would chose to live surrounded by heavenly objects I do not know - seems more like a Nozdormu thing to me - but it looks freaking awesome.  Though, I do love space, so I could be slightly biased in this department.  Blizzard selected the final frontier to enable their designers to go nuts with spell effects and abilities during Malygos' three phases.  And go nuts they did. The humble casual guild I am a part of did not manage to get the Steward of Magic to drop any riches, but we did experience all three of his phases.  The first phase is a glorified tank-n-spank battle with a small twist.  Should one of the summoned sparks get to Malygos, they will grant him a debuff that is almost guaranteed to wipe the raid due to 50% more damage on the tank.  The object is to pop the sparks where the DPS can sit in its debuff pool to receive their own damage increasing debuff.  Like Onyxia, Malygos doesn't just let you smash his face ass during this phase.  Every so often he will rise up and flap his wings, causing a huge tornado which turns all players into a flying cow, albeit one that takes a hefty amount of DoT damage.  The effect is awesome, pushing your camera way out so you can grasp the full size of the twister created by Malygos' wrath. Once the raid burns the blue down to 50% he will lift off, sending a collection of adds on floating discs to destroy you.  During this phase Malygos is untargetable, although he continues to rain destruction upon you.  The floating guys, and the vehicular combat they bring to the table are nice, but the combination of the anti-magic shells and the leviathan's (take that Knaak) Deep Breath collide for some awesome spell effects.  Phase 2 is the coolest phase, but it ends quickly, thanks to the squishiness of the adds.  Upon killing the final add, the floor gives way and the raid falls into the abyss.  As alluded, each player is rescued by a minion of Alexstraza for a last bout of rather boring vehicular combat. As far as raid encounters go, I very much enjoy the overall design and presentation of the Eye of Eternity.  Although his character isn't given the epic treatment that I think he deserves, the encounter is well crafted and fine tuned overall.  At the same time, the fight doesn't feel gimmicky or leave a class or role out of the equation.  To me, the sign of good encounter design is when the success of the encounter hinges on the collective skill of the raid, not an overpowered member or two. Initially, we are hit with something akin to all the previous dragon battles, then we see Malygos' full magical wrath before being tossed into more mundane vehicular combat.  Our night of attempts failed because of poor spark pool placement, 26% was our best attempt thanks to the enrage timer.  I'll be happy to participate in this fun encounter again, even though there is no loot in it for Solidsamm. With Malygos attempted, I only have a single Wrath boss left, Sapphiron.  How'd you like Malygos?

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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.

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