The first raid of Battle For Azeroth, Uldir, has opened.
From the Alliance perspective, this raid is a little weird because it seems to be tied entirely to the Horde story line. The Alliance are basically tourists following Brann Bronzebeard on his eternal quest to release more Old Gods into the world. I guess this is one drawback of having two very different faction stories in the expansion.
My guild has decided to be a little more hardcore this expansion. We're looking at raiding 3 nights a week, and ultimately aiming to move into Mythic difficulty. I'm going along with it, but ultimately I am doubtful of things working out. I don't think we're really prepared for the roster management that Mythic requires. I also think we're pretty weak at time management, movement, and positioning. Attributes which Mythic will stress. But maybe attempting Mythic will force us to realise that and improve those weaknesses.
In any case, we tried Normal Uldir to start. We killed the first five bosses on Tuesday. They're all pretty decent.
The second boss, Mother, is particularly interesting because you have to slowly funnel raiders from one room to the next, while still handling mechanics and leaving enough dps on the boss in the previous room. It will be quite interesting to see pick-up groups handling this.
On Wednesday, we killed the sixth boss, Zul. This one took us quite a while, as it involves a lot of target switching. It's a pretty interesting fight overall, though. The boss takes control of people and forces them to jump off the platform. You have to cleanse them before they reach the edge. That creates adds which need to be purged/dispelled to be defeated. Interesting mechanics which I don't think we're really seen before.
The seventh boss, Mythrax, is funny because you have to jump down into his room, and that automatically starts the fight. We had an attempt or two which happened because someone overshot the edge and fell down too early.
For holy paladins, I have a feeling BfA is going to be a return to focused tank healing. Stand within 10 yards of your tank so you get full mastery and aura and keep them alive.
All in all, Uldir looks like like an excellent raid instance, and a great start to raiding in the expansion.
> The boss takes control of people and forces them to jump off the platform. You have to cleanse them before they reach the edge
ReplyDeleteHmm, this sounds vaguely familiar, could it be some boss in TBC or WotLK did something like that? I might be imagining things though.
Anyway, cool to see you posting more again (well, since BfA launch already, I guess), and good luck with raiding :)
You're probably thinking of the Valkyrs in the Lich King fight. They would pick up people and carry them off the edge, and DPS had to kill them quickly.
DeleteIt's kind of similar, but this one is different because it's a healer mechanic instead. As well, you want to time it so they are dispelled near the edge.
Perhaps it feels more unique to me since I'm a healer, and didn't really have to deal with Valkyrs. Though now that I think it about it, it's not actually that different from dispelling someone who has to run out of the raid manually or they blow up people near them.
Nice catch, that's probably it. Been too long :P
DeleteBut not too long that when I read "Twin Valkyrs" I instantly had to think of this achievement, and even remembered the name. https://www.wowhead.com/achievement=3799/salt-and-pepper-10-player
Brains are weird...
Yeah, didn't you have to run out to the edge to be dispelled in the Lich King fight in one phase? Doesn't matter, that bomb dispelling is really a common mechanic...