Malygos | Secret Agent Cat

Posts Tagged ‘ Malygos ’

Yes, The Wall And My Head Have Long Been Good Friends

And still, familiarity breeds contempt.

Let’s look at some of the points that have been sticking in my craw.

Upon release of The Burning Crusade, once level 70 had been achieved, raiders were presented with:

Karazhan : Tier 4, 10-man raid, 9.5 bosses, 2 events, Plenty of interesting trash (CC & tactics required), Located in the Old World
Gruul’s Lair : Tier 4, 25-man raid, 2 bosses, Minimal interesting trash (tactics required), Located in Outland
Magtheridon’s Lair : Tier 4, 25-man raid, 1 boss, Minimal trash (not much tactics or CC required), Located in Outland
Serpentshrine Cavern : Tier 5, 25-man raid, 6 bosses, Robust trash requiring both CC and tactics, Located in Outland
Tempest Keep : Tier 5, 25-man raid, 4 bosses, Moderate trash with CC and tactics required, Located in Outland

Totals for raid content on BC release:

Number of Raid Instances: 5
Number of Tiers: 2
Number of Bosses: 24 (9 ‘pure’ bosses in kara, spider & chess=1 boss, opera=1 boss)
Difficulty (interest & quantity) of trash: Moderate-high (Highs and lows in each instance)
Location appeal: All but one located in Outland, Karazhan being in Old World was a nice touch.

Now, let’s take a look at the Wrath release. Hard modes with different loot will be treated as additional bosses. Because of the extra work for balancing, 10-man raid bosses will count as 1/2 of a boss and will not count as a full extra boss because no new artwork (models, textures, animations, scenery) needed to be created.

Naxxramas : Tier 7, 10 & 25-man raid, 15 bosses in 25-man, 5.5 bosses in 10-man, Robust trash but no CC or tactics required, Located in Northrend
Obsidian Sanctum : Tier 7, 10 & 25-man raid, 4 bosses in 25-man, 2 bosses in 10-man, Minimal trash with no CC or tactics required, Located in Northrend
Eye of Eternity : No Tier, 10 & 25-man raid, 1 boss in 25-man, .5 boss in 10-man, No trash, Located in Northrend
Vault of Archavon : Tier 7, 10 & 25-man raid, 1 boss in 25-man, .5 boss in 10-man, Minimal trash with no CC or tactics required, Located in Northrend

Totals for raid content on Wrath Release

Number of Raid Instances: 4
Number of Tiers: 1
Number of Bosses: 28.5
Difficulty (Interest & quantity) of trash: Low (Lots of trash in Naxxramas, but no CC or tactics required)
Location Appeal: All instances located in Northrend

Now, I realise that a number of my points are personal preference. For example, I believe that being forced to go back to the old world to get to raid content is a good thing. I enjoy connections throughout the world, tying everything together. I also enjoy trash that requires a brain to get through instead of the chain-pull AoE-fest that we are ‘enjoying’ in Naxxramas.

If I were to be as strict on the numbers as I would like (counting 10 and 25-man versions of bosses as one and the same) Wrath would find itself severely lacking in the number of baddies to kill.

But, just looking at the numbers, content proffered in the two expansions upon release seems to be relatively equivalent.

Why then, does it not feel that way?

First, in Wrath, we only have one tier of gear to look forward to, and it’s possible to get almost every single piece from one instance. This is either a good or a bad thing depending on how you feel about it. I’ll get to why I think it’s a bad thing a little later.

Secondly is the trash. Upon the release of 3.0, Crowd-Control died. It was no longer needed. Part of this was from Blizzard’s new paradigm shift of ‘bring the player not the class’ (25-man Razouvious and Faerlina are stark exceptions), and part of it was a conscious effort to make Naxxramas an introductory raid to help newbies get their feet wet.

Those are the reasons, but I don’t accept them as excuses.

For example. The trash in Gruul’s Lair; the entire raid had to stack on the back of some mobs there or they would get charged and wipe the raid. In the Arachnid quarter there are spiders that charge, but this is no more than an annoyance. Nobody dies, and the AoE continues.

If these big spiders hit harder when they charged, requiring that they be sheeped, or rooted (druids can do that indoors now, not that they need to) would help add interest and challenge. It would make the 20-minute achievement more difficult too. If you needed a raid that was geared enough to survive charging spiders so that DPS could be cranked through the roof in order to get through quickly, wouldn’t that make it more worthwhile?

So, back to the numbers

Wrath has more bosses, one less instance. I’m going to tell you that my issue is with variety.

But Tiger! There’s only one less instance! There’s plenty of variety!

NO, there ISN’T.

The vast majority of raiding content in Wrath is in Naxxramas. OS, EoE, and VoA are presented in similar manner to Magtheridon’s Lair and, to a lesser extent Gruul’s (Gruul’s had 2 bosses, remember). Here is your boss, kill him, loot, win.

Imagine, if you will, that BC had just dropped and only contained Karazhan, Gruul’s and Magtheridon’s Lair, and that’s it.

Hmmm, ok, in typical Tiger fashion I’ve realised that that is pretty much what just happened, and it’s not really a bad thing. The problem I’m seeing is that Ulduar will only make this problem worse! Icecrown will then be the icing on the cake that is my dissapointment with Wrath raiding.

All for want of variety.

I made a comment in Vent last night that seemed to be very well-recieved by my guild: I don’t mind banging my head against a wall, I just wish I could bang it on a different wall for a while.

Back in BC, once you progressed beyond Tier 4, if you found yourself getting roflstomped by content you could go and do the other tier of that content. Al’Ar mopping the floor with your face? Go tackle Hydross instead. Leotheras put the bliders on you? Take your tanks and go tackle Void Reaver.

I’ve said before we’re working on Sarth 3D. Our biggest problem is that, after an hour or two of wipes, when we’re getting frustrated and discouraged, there’s nothing else for us to go work on.

But Tiger, Ulduar will have more hard modes! More variety!

How many of those bosses will you need to kill to get to ther bosses? If one boss’s hard mode eludes you, will you have the option to go work on another and come back, or will that chance be lost to you for a whole week?

I think that is a fatal flaw in what appears to be Blizzard’s single-instance tier paradigm. The ability to go bang your head against a different wall is missing.

And that’s why I’m frustrated.

PS – WTB Pally & DK tanks.

No, really, come say hi, please.

2009: 04/06
CATEGORY: Instancing
TAGS: Gruul's Lair
Instancing
Karazhan
Magtheridon's Lair
Malygos
Naxxramas
nostalgia
Obsidian Sanctum
raiding
SSC
Tempest Keep
Ulduar
5 comments

I Apologise For The Destruction Of Your Beard

Just the beard though. You, Malygos, needed to die. I will miss your beard though.

See? See what I did there? Contrary to popular belief, ferals and tanks can, when we so desire, be well-spoken and civilized.

I jes’ dun’ WANNA!

But where was I? Aaah yes, the destruction of a perfectly good, respectable, no, dare I say it? The destruction of a most venerable beard.

cute beard… little wiggly fluff dangling right there in my face…

d’awwww

/bat

/kittenmode all over.

I am NOT easily distracted!

Anyway, we’re going to kill Malygos tonight, and I’m going to download and use THIS. I’ll letcha know how it goes.

-Agent 00Tiger …out

2009: 03/11
CATEGORY: Game Mechanics
TAGS: Malygos
raiding
tanking
Comments Off on I Apologise For The Destruction Of Your Beard

Malygos Stomped… Again

Threat still an issue.

So, I’m trying to wrap my mind around this. On my screen, I have Omen tucked nicely underneath my character’s tiger toes and above my orderly block of ‘Oh Sh*t’ buttons. It’s right there, front and center, I’m keeping an eye on it ALL THE TIME.

Just this week, however, I’ve been noticing that our dps have been creeping up closer and closer to the threshold I set for threat. I saw this on Anub’Rekhan, on Malygos 10-man, Grand Widow Faerlina, Patchwerk, and now again on Malygos 25-man.

I guess it’s to be expected during Malygos. After all, ranged casters can still explode things during the vortex with instant-cast spells. Even though I’m always mashing my attack rotation (242342348234234238423423), I’m also always getting ‘out of range’ errors. Suffice to say, no threat is being generated.

Things in this fight are compounded by the fact that I must be CONSTANTLY vigilant about where the sparks are coming from. We cluster our raid in the center of his platform and it’s my job to make sure the raid is always between the source of the sparks and Malygos. So what would normally be a ‘sit and generate gobs of threat’ encounter, is turned into a kite-scramble while waddling backwards, fretting about the random dps or healer that’s standing where I want to go and still trying to stay ahead of the dps on threat.

It’s certainly a challenge (and one I rather enjoy).

So yes, on Malygos, these issues are expected. But what about Anub’Rekhan, Grand Widow, and Patchwerk? Those are most definitely ‘sit and piss off the boss’ fights.

I’m wondering, has anybody else noticed a more difficult time staying ahead on threat? I never really payed attention to my actual Threat Per Second, I only kept an eye on the general size of the gap between my threat and that of the DPS.

That gap, within the past two weeks, has closed alarmingly fast.

Of course, this could all be a result of my almost insta-epic experience, one compounded by my status as not only a Barfly, but one of two physical leather-weareres and being a tank. (perfect storm here for loot to fall like rain). It could be a case of me getting the best of the best early on and now that the DPS are getting their hard-earned epics they’re starting to encroach on my ‘huuuuuuge tracks of [aggro] land’.

*ahem*

But I don’t think our dps has increased all that signifigantly within proportion.

Which once again leads me to wonder…

what’s wrong with my threat?

2009: 02/26
CATEGORY: Instancing
TAGS: Bear
Malygos
raiding
tanking
8 comments

Sorry, I Lied…

*shifty eyes*

I actually did get a good amount of WoW-time in over the weekend. In fact, I must confess that I’ve fallen head-over-heels in love with my baby shammy. When I sat down on Sunday she was a mere level 37, and the the time I went to bed that night I’d ground her all the way to 41.

And NO, I didn’t do it through dungeon runs. That day I had Mr Tigerfeet take me once through Zul’Farak, and then a nice pally-man took me through Cathedral. I got 1/3 of a level from ZF, and only about 1/5 of a level from SM Cath. That still leaves at least 3 1/2 levels I did ALL BY MYSELF!

I’m usually pretty against running low levels through stuff. I don’t like being powerleveled and I don’t like doing it for others. I made a slight exception this time though because my quests were starting to get ridiculous. When everything is orange and red you know you need to get some leveling from elsewhere.

Mudsprocket helped save my bacon on that score, and I’m rather chagrined to notice that, after the fact, I had completely forgotten about the Arathi Highlands. D’oh.

Either way, Shaman = love. I’m leveling enhancement and enjoying every minute of it. There was a streach of a few levels down in my early 30s where I’d have to sit and drink after every fight. It was getting to be frustrating, but then Atrides came up and thwapped me for using Lightning Shield instead of Water Shield.

I made the suggested change and now, not only do I have no down-time, I can successfully out-last just about anything. No, really, I feel like a freaking Paladin in all their roach-ey glory.

Last night, though… was absolutely great.

I wasn’t on Rainseeker (my shaman), I was instead playing Tigerfeet. I’d logged on with the intent to futz around with some dailies and then maybe hop over to Rain later and continuing leveling her.

My guild, however, needed me. I’m such a sucker for being needed.

They were wrapping up Naxx-10 and needed another tank. Well sure, I figured, I’ll go. I don’t have to be happy or cheerful, I just have to tank stuff. See, last night I’d gotten one of my random fits of depression. The kind where you start to wonder what’s the point in anything if you can’t leave a lasting impression on the world. The best lasting impression to me are children, the ultimate form of creation, the ultimate sacrafice of love. I can’t have children though, so sometimes the prospect of working diligently away at my life, accruing things and building a wholesome home (forever to remain empty), gets me down. It always seems to happen at once. A couple of guildies we’d had take a break because of a new baby have started playing again, then yesterday the MOTD urged us to congratulate one of our shamans on his new progeny, and Phae is setting down her blog because of her impending blessing…

You see? When it rains it pours.

So last night I was just in a blah kind of ‘feel-sorry-for-myself’ mood. What a wonderful thing it is to be able to escape.

So I tanked the Military wing, my least favorite, but I did it anyway. Then we got to Saph and, oops, nobody had their frost resist gear with them. We decided to say ‘screw it’ and killed him without the FR gear. One dead dragon later and we were passing out our membership cards for the ‘100 club’.

Grats from the guild and then on to KT. Hey, we’re on a roll tonight, why don’t we try his achievement too? That was actually pretty fun. Kill 18 abominations before phase 2.

We didn’t have any specific plan apart from pull the A-bombs and see what happened. We were very scared that when we’d pull a group of a-boms we’d get whatever else was lurking in the corner along with. Nope, that’s not the case. Range-pull an abom and you’ll get the 3 in the corner and nothing more.

So, we’d pull a group, kill them, then pull another. About 3-4 pulls in it dawned on me that nobody was counting how many aboms we were killing. Oops. Oh well, we’ve gone too far now, let’s just get down as many as we can and hope that it’s enough. Pull, tank, kill kill kill, pull, tank, kill kill kill, lather rinse repeat.

Phase two I just did my best to stay out of the way and toss hots where I could. Phase three I picked up the big bug-men and then down went KT aaaaaaand. We Just Couldn’t Get Enough. Like I said, we don’t know how many we killed, but we always had an extra group on us. It made phase one a lot more fun and interesting for tanking. I’m hot sure how dps felt about it, they certainly did a good job of keeping the other adds in check along with getting the aboms down.

Well, ok, Naxx is dead, we’ve all got two new achievements, now what?

Sarth Sarth!

But I said, what about Malygos? We haven’t killed him on 10-man yet…

Needless to say, everyone loved this idea, so off to Malygos we went!

First try was a very good solid attempt except we didn’t make the enrage timer. We were at 2 minutes by the time we got to phase 3, and I was having some difficult aggro issues. One of our locks got 1-shotted because her dots ticked her up above my threat during the vortex.

I must do something about this. The second time we killed him, but she was still holding way back. This wasn’t a question of not having enough dps, it was a question of the tank not generating enough threat. This hasn’t been something I’ve had to deal with since BC when I was tanking in Kara for a group that way-outgeared me and all I had was a Braxis Staff of Slumber! That was rough.

Anyway, we killed Malygos, but not before he killed us.

Wait,

What?

No… REALLY! We were all dead!

Don’t believe me?

Click for Larger

My raid frames are on the left, underneat my character frame (Yes I’m using default, ooooh the ghetto!)

It’s a nice shot if I do say so myself, You see Maly all *omgwtfbbq’d!* falling out of the sky, my pointer is hovering on him and we know that yes he is, indeed, skinnable, we’ve got the achievement in there and… of course, we see that everyone is, indeed, quite dead.

Hilarity, pure hilarity. Plus, by this time, I was most certainly not feeling a bit depressed! In fact, I got up this morning and got some exercizing done this morning. There’s just something about physical exertion that starts your day out right, really!