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

[Desdonde]

Algalon honestly was not that difficult, the 1 hour timer is what made it tough, compared to Firefighter/Yogg 1, I would easily say that Algalon was easier. You just needed good raid coordination and excellent healers to prevent tank gibs. Firefighter required a hell of a lot more coordination.

[Spellweaver]

Surprised the Algalon percentage is still so low, as I see Ulduar mount runs in trade all the time on my server.

The sample size is from players that have raided/cleared the place before 3.2, so it obviously doesn't include any post 3.2/WotLK kills.

The troll hunter on mount art looks pretty awesome, and the Sylvanas one looks pretty good aswell.

[Desdonde]

Wish I got to experience Pre-nerfed firefighter. Such a shame

Trust me - you wouldn't Very very tightly tuned, but the fight is so long that you eventually want to start throwing things over the frustration.

[Kiry]

Ulduar was the last really good raid that had a solid sense of accomplishment and a (imo) good way to really measure progression. Not, clearing normal in 1 to 2 weeks, then "progress" on hardmodes for the next 6months or more.It also had amazing lore leading up to it, and tying it all together. They did a good job in there.

[TimeTravel]

I also didn't expect only 1% of the poll voters to start to in Cataclysm, I could see maybe 5 or 10%, but 1% a lot less than I thought. A lot of the people I used to know from Vanilla aren't even around now. Then again, I remember a poll on the front page here of asking if you currently played or not, and I believe 40% said no, so I suppose we have a lot of people who like to hang around the awesome MMO-C forums.

If wow was as good as the MMO forums I would still be playing

Yeah ulduar will be the last epic raid for true raiders, with LFR unfortunately no matter how good they make the raid it will never feel epic. So they may aswell keep the standard at DS level.

[Ryme]

This is not a bad thing, awesome bosses like Algalon should be a reward for hard play. People always get to "see the content" at a later date anyway.

People clearly love the place, so I assume they loved the way you always had something new to look forward to after you killed your next boss. I'm sure those people agree with me that having a mechanic or two different in heroic is not nearly as awesome.

As someone else said, all that graph shows is that bosses get harder as they go along, which has somehow been morphed by Blizzard's logic to be a terrible thing they must avoid.

[Windry]

I think it'd be great irony if Britney Spears were to sue Blizzard for advertising this song on the front page of their website as they continue to sue Valve for the rights to the name of dota.

[kittenboots]

god damn chenbo's artwork is so gorgeous.

[elpeps]

I dont think that poll is correct....most ppl wont say they startet in Wotlk or cata..

[Dasmunk]

Surprised the Algalon percentage is still so low, as I see Ulduar mount runs in trade all the time on my server.

I also didn't expect only 1% of the poll voters to start to in Cataclysm, I could see maybe 5 or 10%, but 1% a lot less than I thought. A lot of the people I used to know from Vanilla aren't even around now. Then again, I remember a poll on the front page here of asking if you currently played or not, and I believe 40% said no, so I suppose we have a lot of people who like to hang around the awesome MMO-C forums.

The graph is based on the percentage of raiders who did it while it was still current content and not based on anything that happens in the present.

[Idletime]

Ulduar was well tuned for guilds that were at least somewhat capable. During that time I was with a guild that had completed Yogg with 3 lights up and if I remember correctly we were considered a top 2500 guild. Ulduar pushed me to look for a better guild because we were simply not able to do the more important achievements so I completed No Lights the week prior to ToC release. I had been with my previous guild over a year and Ulduar remains to this day (for me) a mark of a raider. This is the disconnect in today's WoW - Blizzard has made the game more about the content and less about being capable of clearing it with constant nerfing. They've removed an important carrot that lead to things like improving your play, knowing your class mechanics, doing what it took to get further, and understanding the makeup of a competent raid. I personally don't believe it's important for everyone to see the content. Video games have ALWAYS been about one thing - being good enough to see it through to the end, and having the ability to repeat it. During Vanilla and BC, I don't think the screams of "I Paid, Therefore..." were not nearly as loud. They turned the tables and started allowing people to believe that they had an absolute entitlement to catch up. This was a loss for the raiding world. I knew people I was clearing AQ40 with tell me they would be back for the next patch when they would give gear for dungeon points. Disgusting to hear, actually. You knew the people were capable of so much more but they got bored very easily. This is ultimately what made me lose interest in WoW. Part of the fun in raiding hard content is knowing that you are doing something that others will be striving for and will be envious of. You had people in the raid that learned their jobs, that spent time actually figuring it out and not just pushing buttons. Even if you are in a backwater guild on a backwater server, hitting #3 server content wise is a personal achievement. You did it because you belonged in the raid, not because you had some arbitrary ilvl that meant you should be able to perform. Your people wanted to be there and didn't feel entitled to epic loots. I cancelled my account recently, I give the odds of me returning to WoW afterwards about 1 in 100. Am I holding on to some outdated progression model? Do I yearn for the days when you were with 39 other nerds and cleaning content out? Maybe. The game's mainstream and that means another raid like Ulduar will never be produced. It will be a game of Top 1000 World guilds clearing normal modes the first week, clearing Heroic mode within 2 more weeks, and everyone else clearing normal modes until nerfs. Not fun, not competitive, poorly designed, and lacking in inspiration. I blame money more than anything, but I control my money and it's going elsewhere.

[AvalonTLW]

I refuse to vote because it says vanilla, and not classic.
Screw that shit.
Classic the shit.

[TimeTravel]

I dont think that poll is correct....most ppl wont say they startet in Wotlk or cata..

That's true, most people don't want to say they missed the best period of wow being the burning crusade.

[Lasher]

Very surprised that descent into madness has the same percentage on 10 and 25. 10 man was MUCH easier from what I recall. Their concern about players seeing the content is somewhat valid, but the problem wasn't the number of bosses, but the fact that they were all in one instance. BoT / BwD / TotFW was done RIGHT in my opinion. Also, LFR pretty much removes this problem since they split it in sections anyway.

[Dasmunk]

Many liars claiming they started in Vanilla...pretty sad if you ask me...

[Vandexander]

The string on the troll's bow is on the wrong side of his arm :/

Either that, or he's holding the bow upside down.

Also, he should be holding the string in the middle, not to one side.

The artist is an excellent artist, but maybe needs to work on his/her archery a little bit.

[Rizendragon]

Well Algalon was purposefully designed to be out of reach for most players and considered optional content, so the completion rate is of no surprise. Add on the one hour timer which doesnt allow players to overcome mistakes and learning curves with a brute force of many hours upon hours of wipes.

Less than a quarter of the population that raided Ulduar cleared the raid while it was current and yet players seemed to have been happy.

I'm glad someone else brought this up. From what I can see this is how a raid graph should look pre-nerf. Considering that Ulduar was out for 4 months and this was the result makes me feel that the difficulty was spot on. The lesser skilled players waited until ToC to experience Ulduar and it's hardmodes while the hardcore and semi-hardcore got to experience Ulduar in all of it's glory. Perfect tuning imo.

I keep getting the feeling that the main "this needs to be easier to be fun" bs is coming from Todd Chilton. Of all the people on the panels he seems the most "epix for all" personality while GC and Corey Stockton almost roll their eyes at what he has to say...

Edit: I'm also amazed at how many people are dismissing ICC as a very well put together and epic raid. IMO it was very well tuned at 0-10% buff. Beyond that it was faceroll. Hell I was in a top 3 server guild during ICC and the closest we got before the nerf (which killed the guild mind you) was normal Valithria. I personally feel that people equate the glory days of ICC to the 35% buff, but they forget the early gated days of the raid.

[Suikoden]

That fanart of the troll on the saber was impressive.

[subanark]

I started wow about 6 months after it came out.... Never got to raiding, seeing as I quit after doing a 5 hour MC trash run with 25 peeps... where we wiped a lot and got 1 epic out of it. Started up again a week after BC started (took a free xfer off the server) and played until the (new guild I joined) guild decided to xfer. Came back shortly before Wrath... didn't join a new guild or do raiding, just pug stuff. Later I joined up when I hit 80, sailed though Naxx, had a rough time in Ulduar, ToC wasn't too bad. Ended up joining the elistist part of the guild that split into a new one, focusing on 10 man ICC (tried LK heroic once). That went until part way though cata when the (now smaller) guild started falling apart. Merged with another guild, which also started falling apart, but we managed to bring it back together, which is mostly how it stayed with peeps comming and going but staying a stable 10 man guild. Now in dragon soul we have occasional problems with attendance, but still manage to be one of the best guilds (tied for 1st with 1/8 heroic lol), but suffer from being on a low pop server.

[Hedleyazg]

In general it was just a good flawless raid, Compared to ToC and a year + 1/2 Of ICC? Uldaur takes the cake. Not even to list Naxx there.

No no, I mean the fact they are looking at peoples progression in that raid when it wasn't out as long as other raids were.