Monday, January 24, 2011

Heroic Raid Stacking


So I get that early raiding in WotLK was easy and that five man heroics were a joke too. I don't have to see it, Dottie. I lived it. My guild absolutely crushed it. So when Blizzard made the decision to ramp up the early difficulty for Cataclysm, some complained, some cheered and I just rolled with the punches.

It is nothing that gear and time can't fix right? For normal modes that does appear to be the case. A month into the expansion and we are at 12 of 12. There were some tough fights for sure. A reanimated Nefarian took us 6 nights and 114 attempts to down. Nothing to wild though. Except when you start heroic raiding.

It is not across the board, but a fair amount of bosses either require that you stack your raid composition or suffer and fail. Look how many druids are in that heroic Nefarian screen shot. I count eleven! Heroic Halfus has been downed by 1,096 guilds as of today (1/24/11). Presumably the easiest boss. Tankspot recommends 3-4 tanks, 8 healers and 12-13 dps. Other strategies call for 4-5 tanks. Where do we get eight healers or five tanks from?

An even better question. Is this what Blizzard intended? We can bring the player not the class all we want. Well not Shamans, but that is not the point. Do we have to recruit new healers for 2-3 fights or suffer through DPS healing in their blue level off spec. Or are we not supposed to be here yet, unless we are willing to go an extra absurd mile? Something about all this feels broken, out of balance and just plain lame.

1 comment:

Ethan said...

I realize I am oversimplying here and I'm biased as a newly "ex" ex-WoW player. but it really feels like some important mangerial talent in Blizzard has moved from WoW to other projects.

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