Encounter Journal Preview

Originally Posted by Alieta

This sucks.

No more fun on new encounters where you do not know the spells. I would have nothing against the loottable or the story. But this is nearly a guide for everybody and it destroys the hardmode race....

Hmm didn't know that failing and dieing was fun?

Originally Posted by Crazia

Thanks for ruining another fun aspect of the game Blizzard.... good job

Wait, what? Going to Wowpedia/Wowhead to look up the abilities of the bosses was fun?

You don't have to look up the abilities with this feature if you don't want to. It's simply there so people don't have to rely on those sites to plan the fight.

Blue Post:
"You mistake this implementation as a walk-through. While you will be told the items and abilities the boss will employ, it will not tell you when, how much damage, where to stand etc. This is merely an extra in-game tool to help players get into the encounters, understand them a little better, and enjoy them. The ability to take down the boss is still soundly within player hands and abilities."


Lol....................................................................................... ......................

Originally Posted by Crazia

Thanks for ruining another fun aspect of the game Blizzard.... good job

Seriously, who would play WoW if they could just get all the answers on WoWhead or youtube. The game wouldn't have been any fun for the last 6 years if you could just have every encounter explained in complete detail!

It will be interesting to see how well they keep-up with maintaining this, as the various encounters are tweaked/nerfed/buffed...

It will become a joke if significant changes aren't reflected in the Journal for days - or weeks - after a change on Live is implemented.

Great Job Blizzard this is going to make playing this game much better I'm tired of using 3rd parties/combat log to figure out bosses abilities(also I like they didn't include the strats.)

This is just to give people who said the Encounter Journal doesn't provide enough information from which to generate loose strategies:

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Stage 1:

Much like original Ragnaros in Molten Core.

Differences:

- The Lava Wave created from Sulfuras Smash is now dodgeable (think Sartharion Flame Walls, only these Walls ripple outwards in all directions from the point of impact).
- Magma Trap is a new ability. Players should be mindful of not standing in locations that could create a line of Magma Traps that would otherwise limit your ability to move freely around Ragnaros' platform (as these apparently persist for "the remainder of the battle").

Intermission1:

Like the original Ragnaros, he submerges and creates Fire Elementals.

Differences:

-Instead of Fire Elementals spawning and aggro'ing onto players, they fixate on Sulfuras (think Lady Vashj Stage 2 Water Elementals). Set up fixed positions for DPS and healers around the platform to deny the Sons of Flame. (I imagine they spawn outside the ring of land you're standing on and make their way to the center where Sulfuras sits)

Stage 2:

Ragnaros maintains his Sulfuras Smash/Lava Wave, but now has more abilities.

Ideas:

- Molten Seeds are much like Dragonhawk boss in ZA. They explode after 10 seconds, leaving plenty of time for the entire raid to shift one way or the other. In doing so, you can funnel all Molten Elementals in one direction which will make it easy for tanks to pick them up. Depending on how intense the Molten Power buff (reminiscent of ToGC Anub'arak's Spider Frenzy on adds) is, how far the Elementals must be from each other, and how wide the land ring is, that will determine if the raid can all shift in one direction following a Molten Inferno or if the raid must split: one half goes left with half of the Elementals, the other half goes right.
- World in Flames could match up with when Molten Inferno occurs making the movement laid out above even more critical.

Intermission2:

Same as the first Intermission with the exception of Lava scions spawning.

Ideas:

- Again, if fixed positions are assigned to a perimeter around Sulfuras and the DPS are capable of bringing down the Sons of Flame in their quadrant with minimal assistance, Blazing Heat is less of an issue. If the Sons of Flame have a substantial amount of HP (i.e. more than 1 raider needed to take down in 10man or 3 in 25man), Blazing Heat's fire trail will have to be curled into itself (Lord Jaraxxus Fel Flame, BQL Swarming Shadows) and other DPS will have to adjust positions to account for where the Sons are spawning.

Stage 3: (First Soft Enrage due to increasing amounts of Living Meteors spawned)

Essentially Stage 2 minus the Molten Seed mechanic. It is replaced by the Living Meteor mechanic.

Ideas:

- Move around the platform in CW or CCW fashion as Living Meteors come down so they are always trailing you. They will essentially be "kite killed" by ranged DPS.

Stage 4: (Second Soft Enrage due to Superheated stacking)

A stage in its own right. Ragnaros no longer has any of the abilities he previously had in the fight and is now mobile.

Ideas:

- Again, due to Superheated being a persistent aura that stacks over time (BQL Shroud of Sorrow.. minus people healing themselves as vampires), this is his soft enrage mechanic. Max DPS.
- Empower Sulfuras looks like it could be an ability similar to General Vezax's Surge of Darkness, meaning you have to kite Ragnaros when he Empowers Sulfuras. This may be a one-time Empower that lasts for the remainder of the fight.
- Dreadflame is simply there to limit the region making kiting more difficult (Professor Putricide Ooze Puddles).
- My guess is that when Ragnaros steps out of his lava pool, the lava dips (Laws of displacement?) and more of the room becomes traversable. Hence the need for an ability like Dreadflame to limit the room again.


The Catch:

Cenarius helps you during the fight.

- Cenarius assists with Breadth of Frost (ice patches). Find them while kiting in both Stage 3 and 4 to severely dampen the Ragnaros' soft enrage abilities.

Hamuul Runetotem helps out during Phase 4.

- Hamuul will most likely place Entrapping Roots on the ground and you must kite/navigate Ragnaros towards them to trap him for additional damage/immobilization. This is reminiscent of Maiev's traps during the Illidan encounter(BT) or the Crystals against Ossirian the Unscarred (AQ20).

Malfurion Stormrage offers Cloudbursts, allowing player(s) to mitigate Dreadflames.

- Although they will probably only be temporary usage, I imagine when a player becomes a Cloudburst it is like becoming the Abomination on the Professor Putricide fight. Moving your Cloudburst over the Dreadflame pool may extinguish it instantly, or you may have to keep using "Deluge" on the Dreadflame pools to shrink them until they disappear completely.

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Just to reiterate, this is mostly educated speculation on my part, but it just goes to show what is possible to speculate given the amount of information. <3

Originally Posted by Alieta

This sucks.

No more fun on new encounters where you do not know the spells. I would have nothing against the loottable or the story. But this is nearly a guide for everybody and it destroys the hardmode race....

Be honest here. There's probably about 5 guilds in the world who down these encounters way before anyone else has even thought up a proper strategy. These then spread all over the internet in the form of kill videos, and nearly everyone proceeds to use these for their own raids.

This feature won't change a thing about that, especially since it's merely an ability list, not a strategy guide. You can find all the info in the journal on wowpedia / wowhead during the PTR testing already, so... meh. It's been like this for years.

Originally Posted by Auralan

Be honest here. There's probably about 5 guilds in the world who down these encounters way before anyone else has even thought up a proper strategy. These then spread all over the internet in the form of kill videos, and nearly everyone proceeds to use these for their own raids.

This feature won't change a thing about that, especially since it's merely an ability list, not a strategy guide. You can find all the info in the journal on wowpedia / wowhead during the PTR testing already, so... meh. It's been like this for years.

I´d rather say 100. I know some people raiding in these guilds and they are not happy about this journal. Even as a spectator of the race it will be a different feeling because one important aspect - to find out which spell does what - falls away.
@PTR testing: Usually there are no hardmode tests for the endboss so nobody but Blizzards knows the tactic.
Ofc I could be wrong, but in my opinion this is a step into the wrong direction (once again). There won´t be a change for the non-top Guilds but I am sorry for the top guilds.

Originally Posted by Xcruiser

This is just to give people who said the Encounter Journal doesn't provide enough information from which to generate loose strategies

Obviously this isn't enough information to make a legit strategy. You don't know what the rooms looks like, where Ragnaros is actually located...Ohh wait, you do.

Looks like a good feature.

Originally Posted by Rubymage

When Sulfuras is Empowered, attacks made by Ragnaros cause Flames of Sulfuras, inflicting 500000 Fire damage to all enemies within the Firelands.
in the firelands dos blizz play to kill everyone in the zone if a guild is trying to do heroic mode?

This is where their terminology gets confusing There's Firelands (The Daily zone with the Regrowth) and Firelands the Raid instance. It would be helpful if one had a suffix or prefix added to it to clarify. (they totally aren't going to do that)
Think of it how Icecrown Citadel and The Black Temple are in world locations in addition to raid names

Originally Posted by Crazia

Thanks for ruining another fun aspect of the game Blizzard.... good job

And there aren't any addons that've been doing this for years...oh wait.

Originally Posted by Alieta

Originally Posted by Auralan

Be honest here. There's probably about 5 guilds in the world who down these encounters way before anyone else has even thought up a proper strategy. These then spread all over the internet in the form of kill videos, and nearly everyone proceeds to use these for their own raids.

This feature won't change a thing about that, especially since it's merely an ability list, not a strategy guide. You can find all the info in the journal on wowpedia / wowhead during the PTR testing already, so... meh. It's been like this for years.

I´d rather say 100. I know some people raiding in these guilds and they are not happy about this journal. Even as a spectator of the race it will be a different feeling because one important aspect - to find out which spell does what - falls away.
@PTR testing: Usually there are no hardmode tests for the endboss so nobody but Blizzards knows the tactic.
Ofc I could be wrong, but in my opinion this is a step into the wrong direction (once again). There won´t be a change for the non-top Guilds but I am sorry for the top guilds.

I call bullshit on this. Why? because boss abilities can already be clicked in the fights themselves. They appear in your chat, and a single click gives a full tooltip. And again, all the info on spells is already in various websites long before the fights go live. And if the info isn't there before it goes live, people have proven to be very resourceful on providing this before you can even say "buffs plz" and clear trash.

Edit: the point I was trying to make with the ~ 5 guilds, was perhaps not very clear. I meant that those are the ones who actually put up videos that become widespread amongst the player base. Yes, there are more guilds who clear a lot of the fights fast, but they don't "contribute" as much in terms of how much info they spread on how they did the fights.

Originally Posted by Kalsam

Am I the only one to have caught this faux paus: "Cenarius is a demigod, the son of Malorne and Elune, and the patron of all of Azeroth's druids."

Cenarius, according to the stories, is the son of Malorne and YSERA. Hence why the Aspect when berserk in the Ancients trilogy when she saw Malorne slaughtered by the demons, and Cenarius wounded. =\

Wrong, it was THOUGHT that she was his mother. Hell Malfurion thought they were dealing till he realised she treated Cenarius more like a favoured son than a lover. Ysera loved Malorne, but Malorne already had Cenariusafter fealing with Elune (still somewhat unconfirmed) so Ysera basically adopted Cenarius.

It looks like this fight is gonna be incredibly awesome!

Doesn't mmo always post what boss abilities are when they come out? I swear people will and do bitch about everything and anything. Also all the talk about nothing for the casual? Aren't they adding a giant freaking quest hub in 4.2 also??

looking forward for the encounter, seems very challenging....hoping to get it done at the earliest!!

Good bye atlas, we had a good run

Rly dunno what to think of this, but i guess its somehow usefull and makes it easier for people to be prepared for raids knowledge-wise.