I, like most people, have been following this race rather closely and have been somewhat disappointed by the weekly clears of both normal and heroic difficulties. There has to be some contributing factor that makes this tier, as well as the previous one, seem more simple than those before it. Has anyone considered the Dungeon Journal and its effect on bleeding edge raiding?
Figure this: when Yogg-Saron, Heroic Lich King, or Heroic Ragnaros were released, guilds had no clue as to what to expect from phase to phase. As the next phase arises, the best guilds in the world would have no understanding of what to expect next, and be forced to spend a multitude of time trying to learn and adapt to this new encounter. But how does this play into current raiding? Every single boss this tier had their dungeon journal available since before the start of the expansion, and it does not take a genius to figure out how to change the tab from "Raid Finder" to "Normal" to "Heroic" and see what changes were going to happen in each phase of difficulty. Would it not make sense, then, for the best guilds in the world to use any information at their disposal to clear the instances in the fastest times? I believe so. Just as if guilds such as DREAM Paragon, Method, Blood Legion, and vodka were to stream their raids live, there would be people watching and seeing how they tackle roadblocks, having heroic encounters in the dungeon journal is another limiting barrier to the difficulty.
I would like to pause and say that I feel in no way that 100% of the simplicity of this tier was due to the dungeon journal. I am just wondering (out loud and for discussions-sake), if these instances might have lasted a reset or two before having them fully cleared. You're free to disagree, obviously, but please don't post flamebait or troll. It goes nowhere very quickly.
What are your thoughts?
- Does/Did the dungeon journal affect the race?
- Should the dungeon journal contain heroic boss information?
- If yes to the above, should they stagger its release to once the world race has concluded?
- Are there other alternatives to having heroic boss information in the dungeon journal?