Ulduar Encounter Difficulty, Poll, Blue Posts, WoW Parody Song, Fan Art

[Dvaldin]

Not hard to believe that there are a lot of people that read this particular web site and forums started in 'nilla.However, there were not as many subscriptions in 'nilla. A timeline of the amount of subscriptions/new subcriptions would probably give a more accurate view of the 'when' a person started playing.

[Buu]

People don't praise THE DIFFICULT of Ulduar. That really SUCKED. People praise the uniqueness and deep development of the Raid. They would probably praise more Dragon Soul if Hagara was Magatha and Ultraxion was Chromatus.

[shadeth]

I find it ironic that they use Algalon as something most people didn't beat, when Sinestra from Cata is something that not only have most people haven't beat, many people haven't even heard of! Seriously! We were trying to get a group together for it and a lot of nubs were whispering asking what it was. So, they still made inaccessible content, it just wasn't nearly as cool as Ulduar was, that's the problem. Heroic Ruby Sanctum was also probably not cleared by many people when it was current content.

I think 'optional' super hard bosses are great, let the main player base have a means to clear out most of the storyline through LFR or whatever, but leave some super hard bosses up that take a really dedicated group. Also, the level design for raids has been dumbed down a whole lot since Ulduar, Black Temple, Sunwell, Naxx, BWL, Kara, etc. Those older raids you could almost get lost in if you weren't familiar, the current raids feel like the fight is in the big empty rooms and huge corridors, really boring.

[Gilderoy]

Yup, this is coming "soon".

Thanks Chaud

[Keyblader]

lol whats with the body proportions on that garrosh pic?

[Stevoman]

I would like to see some analysis on Ulduar achievement dates against the launch date of TOC. Patch 3.2 was rushed out the door very prematurely, and many guilds simply didn't have enough time to finish Ulduar before TOC launched. Ulduar had 14 bosses and was current content for a mere 5 months. I suspect the huge dropoff of Descent into Madness achievements will coincide with the launch date of TOC/TOGC.

[Aleros]

Where's the "Beta" option for the poll?

[Biorr]

Chenbo's Art never ceases to amaze me.

[Azivalla]

A chart that says bosses get harder the closer you get to the final one...

Intradesting.

Rather, its a chart that shows people running out of time each week to complete all of the encounters. I see sorry for the developers who worked on Algalon. Soooo few people experiencing your work.

[Sephiracle]

Rather, its a chart that shows people running out of time each week to complete all of the encounters. I see sorry for the developers who worked on Algalon. Soooo few people experiencing your work.

Shouldn't have released a terribad instance that provided better gear so quickly.

[Brodeo]

I liked that normal mode was still considered progression in Ulduar, not a week-long setback to the real raid.A lot of people have mentioned this already, but the carrot on a stick is necessary to make people want to get better. If you dont WANT to get better and progress, why do you even raid? Its clearly not for you.

[smiff]

Keep in mind that Ulduar, a rather large raid instance, was only relevant for approximately 3½ months. That's quite literally NOTHING relative to how much time we've had to clear out other raids, and is likely also one of the conributing factors to its great succes. That goes not to say that it would've been any less epic than what it was if it had remained relevant for a longer period of time. To me (and most probably a few/bunch of other people would concur), soley the content and uniqueness of Ulduar would be compelling enough to keep me attached and entertained for at least twice of its "lifespan".

[Chaosshadow]

This argument is so flawed... Algalon is supposed to be a the "hard mode only boss". Algalon was something sort of a really hard goal every hardcore guild dreamed to reach but it wasn't necessary. Therefore about 25% of the people completed the content, which I think is fine.Also the "We didnt have time to clear the instance" is a horrible excuse my guild only raide 3 hours a week and we beat it. Imagine now with raid lock-outs...

[mostlyharmless]

I'd be interested to see hard mode progression in ulduar too. My 25man guild was at 5/9 hm when I burned out, but they moved on to I think 7/9 hm before ToC, and later in ToGC they got yogg+0 and algalon. I'll never forget how that Chinese guild "Stars" got yogg+0 before the nerf, when ensidia had thought it impossible.

[roahn the warlock]

the picture you are trying to paint is pretty skewed in my humble opinion and i am not agreeing with the underlying notion that raids should be short and easy or else the whole wow population won't see it. You lost a little respect here.

You normalize the graph based on how many players completed the first 4 bosses in ulduar. This group of players consists of hardcore raiders, their alts, casual players and your trade pug as ulduar was getting pugged non stop for ages with the bad pug stopping after siege and the better pug going a little further, on average.

You then compare this to the algalon that in order to get access to you needed to kill several heroic bosses - and only then did you get 1 hour every week to work on the encounter. It's designed to be done by few, so putting this into this graph to support the notion we should have fewer and/or easier bosses is not something i can sit comfortably with.

Let's look at it another way.

88% of all players stepping into ulduar completed more than half the place (8 bosses or so), regardless of their raid mentality. How is that not good?

More than half of all players completed the harder, later bosses (keepers).

Only a little under 1/4 completed the final boss, yogg-saron. Now, being the end boss after 10-12 other bosses with complex mechanics compared to most earlier bosses i am actually surprised that if you look at all players that ever completed the first 4 bosses in ulduar 1/4 (including your casual joe that got picked up in trade) would actually kill yogg-saron.

Nevermind algalon.

this^^^^^^

[smiff]

The picture you are trying to paint is pretty skewed in my humble opinion and I am not agreeing with the underlying notion that raids should be short and easy or else the whole wow population won't see it. You lost a little respect here.

You normalize the graph based on how many players completed the first 4 bosses in ulduar. This group of players consists of hardcore raiders, their alts, casual players and your trade pug as ulduar was getting pugged non stop for ages with the bad pug stopping after siege and the better pug going a little further, on average.

You then compare this to the Algalon that in order to get access to you needed to kill several heroic bosses - and only then did you get 1 hour every week to work on the encounter. It's designed to be done by few, so putting this into this graph to support the notion we should have fewer and/or easier bosses is not something I can sit comfortably with.

Let's look at it another way.

88% of all players stepping into ulduar completed more than half the place (8 bosses or so), regardless of their raid mentality. How is that not good?

More than half of all players completed the harder, later bosses (keepers).

Only a little under 1/4 completed the final boss, yogg-saron. Now, being the end boss after 10-12 other bosses with complex mechanics compared to most earlier bosses I am actually surprised that if you look at all players that ever completed the first 4 bosses in ulduar 1/4 (including your casual joe that got picked up in trade) would actually kill yogg-saron.

Nevermind Algalon.

You couldn't be more right or make any more sense. Combine that with how short Ulduars relevancy lasted.

[Annoying]

What, no "Beta" option on the poll? =P As for the ulduar topic, I think blizz is on the right track right now. They obviously have huge reasons to want the majority of their player base to see content. This is LFR, and to some extents, normal difficulty. I feel the hard modes could be a bit more hard, but I doubt many share that opinion.

[Repefe]

Ulduar was epic ... didn't matter if you did just 4 or 8 bosses, if you never saw Algalon. It was a respectable raid. Something Blizz has turned away from in favor of cheap and fast.

[ffaorlandu]

Where's the "Beta" option for the poll?

This. Granted, I only played the last 2-3 weeks of the open beta before launch. But it still counts. Still actively playing the paladin I made on launch day, too.

[-Alcatraz-]

What, no "Beta" option on the poll? =P As for the ulduar topic, I think blizz is on the right track right now. They obviously have huge reasons to want the majority of their player base to see content. This is LFR, and to some extents, normal difficulty. I feel the hard modes could be a bit more hard, but I doubt many share that opinion.

Eh they are decently hard however I'm looking at the current things in my brain right now

LFR: Help mode / Basics ( Even though you can ignore 3/4 of the mechanics )
Normal: Easy
Hard: Well... the way it's meant to be played

Personally I want the uldaur model back, It's great to see a final boss meant for the people who well obviously wanted to see true end game itself. It was very rewarding and just seeing that door to algalon open was amazing in my eyes.