Project Lore

I'm sure most of you have noticed by now when running your daily random heroic that there have been a few changes to dungeons to make them run a bit faster. Patch 3.3.2 brought with it several changes that decreased the number of times a boss does a special move, making the encounters quicker and less annoying. And for anyone still working toward earning Glory of the Hero, the changes are bringing that Red Proto-Drake almost within our grasp.

Many of the changes also make their related achievements substantially easier. Let's take a look again at the recent changes that will affect achievements.

The Nexus

• For Chaos Theory: Anomalus will now use the Create Rift ability only once, down from 3 times, reducing the number of rifts that you have to fight through.

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It Looks High Due To Gnomish Relativity, It's Actually Only 3 Tauren Lengths Failing in World of Warcraft is a common occurrence.  Perhaps you lagged and that mob got a lucky crit in before your heal/potion/Vanish/Feign Death went off.  A terrible right mouse button misclick may send you plummeting to your death.  Maybe your greedy self finally got burned by a Pickpocket resist.  Failing isn't only a normal occurrence, but one that can come in many shapes, sizes and varieties.  The most hilarious of which is failing epically. My personal definition of failing epically has a pair of possible meanings.  The first is the inability to do something gimmicky, such as the numerous Super Mario Bros. type of deaths (Frogger (mobs after him), Safety Dance, Chilly Willy, etc).  The second is exponentially more painful.  Not only does it include yourself dieing, but you take someone with you, by accident.  The idea of an accident means sitting on a hunter who popped Feign Death to save on a repair bill does not count as an epic failure.  That is just endlessly hilarious and entertaining. A few examples of epic failure include Thaddius wipes, allowing people to die in Maexxna's web, allowing the tank to beat you in the DPS meter (assuming you are full DPSing), and rolling anything but a female dwarf.  I am by no means perfect and have been a part of these shortcomings along with most of the WoW populace, but I personally added a new category to the topic of doing things incorrectly, Lemmings.

During a quick run of The Nexus everything was going quickly and smoothly until I decided to take a shortcut.  After dropping Anomalus like a bad habit we headed towards Ormorok's wing.  I decided to cut out the middle man and jump from the ledge rather than taking my time walking down the ramps.  "Look before you leap" is an intelligent colloquialism, wrong ledge.  As I plummeted to my death I hit my push-to-talk button to allow my guildies to hear me laughing at my own stupidity.  When Solidsamm went *SPLAT* another maniacal laugh cut across my own, followed by another *SPLAT*.  The mage mistook me for someone who knew what I was doing, and followed me to the bottom of The Nexus.  I had managed to create Gnome Lemmings! No one is perfect, but we all love embarrassing stories so that is one of mine.  What other ways have you failed epically in WoW?  Remember, it's not the fall that kills you, it's the sudden stop at the end. As for the PL dungeon crew, we want a blooper reel!

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My GM made a call to the general members when the guild hit its raiding roadblock the other week.  I took up the call and set up a heroic night where members who needed badges, reputation, gear or something to do, could have a dedicated night where others would know to be online.  I even put a little thought into it.  I selected a weekday that the guild doesn't raid on, ensuring that the heroic night - should it become popular - would not interfere with the general operation of the guild.  The plan was to have separate groups, or some sort of rotation, that would enable us to run a few heroics over the course of a night.  Brilliant, I know! The first week was not what I would call a raging success.  I was only able to notify the guild via the little used forum, which don't garner too much attention.  After about an hour sitting around in Guild Chat a group consisting of a healer, tank and ranged and melee DPS was formed, a PUG was found and we were off to tackle the Daily Heroic, The Oculus.  It became the most agonizing instance run of my life, an amazing feat considering that we only wiped once. I've run my fair share of piss poor PUGs, but that punishment came from other players due to messy pulls, not paying attention, bad play or what have you.  Never have I gotten frustrated at the title's design itself, until last week.  The Oculus is one of three instances inside Coldarra, the others being another 5-man dungeon, The Nexus (also the name of the area) and the 25-man raid against Malygos, The Eye of Eternity.  Many of us have likely completed the other 5-man dungeon, as it is one of the easiest Heroics to participate in.  The Oculus is known for the opposite reason, being one of the most difficult and least run heroics that Wrath introduced. For me, the instance is, without a shadow of a doubt, the worst instance ever.  The dungeon is high on the fail meter from a culmination of its length, inspiration, execution and general boredom.  You spend most of your time flying around the outside of The Nexus killing trash mobs as you make your way to various constructs.  The fights with the guardians and constructs are basic, uninspired quick kills.  As if that wasn't boring enough, the trash is followed by uneventful tank and spank boss fights.  It isn't until the third boss, Mage-Lord Urom, that an encounter becomes interesting.  About 90 minutes after we zoned in - no wipes up to this point - we finally pulled Eregos, the only enjoyable aspect in the entire dungeon.  Many players hate the final encounter because it's a very fickle battle, requiring knowledge and near perfect execution.  Thanks to a fantastic explanation and constant communication, our group downed him in only our second go. The designers attempted to make The Oculus heavy on vehicle combat but it just didn't work.  The battle against the blue dragonflight is painfully boring mainly due to all the crappy trash you have to clear to do anything of consequence.  Hopefully the team behind The Oculus learned from their mistakes, and passed that knowledge on to the team responsible for Ulduar's vehicle-based encounters.  At least those fights inside Ulduar will enable gear to make a difference. The Oculus was a valiant effort at trying something new, but it didn't come together.  If you feel like torturing yourself then you can run it, just be prepared for agony.  We ended on a high note, as the the entire party received a chuckle after we downed Eregos.  This came by way of the Guild's GM receiving six, yes a half dozen, achievements all at the same time.  As for Solidsamm, he shall never return there, daily or not.

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