thoughts of highmaul so far

[Theprophecy2186]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you, but imo the rooms aren't unique at all. Each boss room is just a big circle. The only variety is the backdrop, which you don't even notice when you're fighting the bosses anyway. This is probably my only complaint about the raid, really, that every fight takes place in a huge circular room with a flat floor.

But name a single raid where 90% of the boss rooms aren't just big circles.. or giant open rooms? Unless the room is a gimmick of the fight, you typically fight them in a circle/square room. I don't understand the disappointment with this......

[Dasani]

I think highmaul is mostly alright. Not the best raid ever, but not the worst either.

I absolutely despise the last boss due to his knockbacks. It wouldn't be that big of a deal if blizzard hadn't broken tanking where if you even glance slightly to your left the boss runs all the way over there behind you and skips and hops and turns around and all kinds of crazy shit. They need to tone that shit down and return it to how it was in all previous expansions, all mob movement is way too exaggerated in this expansion. If you haven't tanked any, you probably aren't aware of what i'm talking about.

Aside from my gripe with that shitty aspect of tanking being compounded by frequent knockbacks on that fight, I don't really have much to say one way or the other about highmaul.

My guild is now 5/7 Mythic and honestly the bosses don't seem very challenging at all. The mechanics seem pretty simple and straightforward and it's mostly a matter of having enough gear to kill it. We pride ourselves on being good raiders, but we don't care enough to run the same raid 20 times every week to funnel gear to mains and all that jazz so our average item level for people is still a little on the low end, at least relative to the people who have killed the 2 bosses we haven't yet. Hell we even one shot two of those mythic bosses, and that is kind of a joke in and of it's self.

For a first raid tier, and not even a whole raid tier, I think it serves it's purpose pretty well. Seems a lot of fights are really oriented at heavy AOE though. Imperator, Tectus, Koragh, (kargath too really, though he's a joke) all of these bosses require a lot of AOE damage dealers to be successful. I just feel like rather than mechanics you need to avoid or do properly or whatever, simply substituting it for "shit you gotta AOE fast" is kind of lazy design. I mean it would be fine on one or two bosses, but the majority of them require a lot of AOE to succeed.

The healing feels very... wrong as well. I guess you could take this to be against highmaul or perhaps just the new method for designing raids or whatever, but the healing feels very off. It's like there are a bunch of mechanics you can avoid to take no damage (which is good), then there are the occasional mechanics that do a good chunk of damage to specific people but they always have warning in advance or you can control who takes that damage in most cases (which is also good) however a lot of these fights also seem to just have a bunch of raw aoe damage that goes out frequently and is just a hard healing check and if your healers fail it, you all die. But these things happen so often you can't just pop cooldowns for every one of them, and non-healer cooldowns like AG for example were gutted and almost completely useless. Mythic Butcher and Mythic Imperator are good examples of this. I mean I guess it's kind of a healer L2P issue I suppose, but it feels like heals are horribly weak relative to what they were in the past (which blizzard said they would be) but the damage output from unavoidable aoe and shit is just as high as it used to be (which is the opposite of what blizzard said). So I feel kinda disappointed in all that. But aside from healer problems, everything seems cakey.

Anyway, I guess my gripes aren't really about highmaul it's self so much, it seems like a decent middle of the road kind of raid that isn't especially enjoyable but not too annoying either, but my gripes are more with how things have changed in regards to healing and also the tanking issue where mobs get overexcited and run behind you like motherfuckers at the drop of a hat.

[icecoldsir]

Boring and too easy mechanically on all difficulties.

[InfernalDark]

Already bored with it.

[kamuimac]

but the damage output from unavoidable aoe and shit is just as high as it used to be (which is the opposite of what blizzard said). So I feel kinda disappointed in all that.

i have very similiar feeling - blizzard promised that dmg will be much smoother and more spread in time - yet what we have now is bunch of mechanics which will 2-3 shot u if u dont react imidiately - exackly like it was in past - which i dont mind - it just goes against what they said it will look like - tbh i see no difference at all as dps in the income of dmg im reciving before wod and in wod

[Kuul]

Boring and too easy mechanically on all difficulties.

Making it great entry raid.

[Helwinter]

It's been fun. We've cleared 7/7 Normal and 1/7 HC and I had a lot of fun. We've run with 30, including our social and irregular members, and we've been able to include everyone and not feel like, because an encounter is overtuned or especially difficult, we've had to drop anyone.

Brackenspore, Tectus, Ko'Ragh and Imperator are really interesting bosses, with something different going on.

We're starting on MoreGearMode this coming weekend and I'm confident we'll get a few more bosses this weekend. We're aiming to do some Mythic bosses in early January so we're about on track.

[gcsmith]

I'm really enjoying Highmaul, due to trying to find a raid guild that raids Friday and Saturday night I've been guildless currently, but the instance has been fairly easy to pug. If you get a decent group that is. But often you can just sense if a raid can do a boss or not so it's all good.

Still, can't wait for Blackrock Foundry to come out. I just want The Black Hand to complete my Transmog set.

[Deleted]

Sha of Fear was the most boring kill video I have ever watched. You could skip 18 out of the 20 minutes and not miss much. Margok seems to be similar in that the fight is just too long but you only play for the last quarter of the fight. Not even looking forward to ever go there.

4/10

[Ryme]

It's OK.

Tectus, Brakenspore and Imperator are fun fights the others are pretty dull.

[Deliverer]

A lot of people saying they are burnt out by progress cause of multiple difficulties. First of all noone is forced into lfr it's simply not required i'm full epic and didn't even step foot in it. The only reason to do normal is because this is starting raid of an expansion if you are full heroic or even mythic geared when BRF gets released you won't need to do normal for any reason, you can just go straight into heroic. Being burnt out cause of raiding after 2 weeks of first raid being released is silly raiding is simply not for you.

[kamuimac]

A lot of people saying they are burnt out by progress cause of multiple difficulties. First of all noone is forced into lfr it's simply not required i'm full epic and didn't even step foot in it. The only reason to do normal is because this is starting raid of an expansion if you are full heroic or even mythic geared when BRF gets released you won't need to do normal for any reason, you can just go straight into heroic. Being burnt out cause of raiding after 2 weeks of first raid being released is silly raiding is simply not for you.

set bonuses , trinkets, gear without shitload of versatility on it beg to differ about not having to run normal.

[Ninotchka]

What set bonuses are there in Highmaul?

[Deleted]

its the first new raid in over a year, automatically makes me love it.

but more seriously, i think its good, not amazing, but nothing wrong with it. some of the boss mechanics are annoying, not to the point where it makes me hate the boss, just enough to make it that bit more exciting. and as others have said, nice to be outside for once (although all the MoP raids did feature some outside fights, its nice that the MAJORITY of fights are outside!).

[Razorice]

Super easy! I don't know why people make such a fuss over Paragon and Mythic! Can't wait for the other wings to open on LFR!

I see what you did there.

OT: Yeah, it's alright. Nothing too special.

[Deleted]

I gotta say, I like it pretty much so far.

We've cleared Normal and Heroic within the first ID and are on 2/7 Myth so far, working on Brackenspore / Tectus (still gotta decide, who we'll focus at today), and are moving on.

Let's see how long this is going to be fun without burning out. I've already been LFR 1+2 with the alt.

[Beldrak]

I love what they did with Ogres this expansion. I think Highmaul is one of my favorite raids ever!

[Lesane]

MSV was a lot more fun imho. The optional bosses in Highmaul are just lame gear checks pretty much. The main bosses are all somewhat fun in their own way though. Kargath is too undertuned but I liked the concept and visual/audio of the fight. Mar'gok was a good fight. I'd give the whole instance a 7/10 tops.

[Darthmatty]

Im having a blast in Highmaul. However, I do play a hunter and I get all the bitch jobs: stands on Kargath, moving in and out on butcher, flamethrower on brack, shield charge on twins, orb soaking on kor, debuff passing on Imp.

I ran lfr once for stones and a drop or two and it wasnt too bad. Kinda afk'd.... its almost like fishing while doing your rotation. its a great environment to practice your rotation and see mechanics even though they dont matter. I will only do it with half attention so I dont get burned out.

Normal feels fun. Its pretty easy and I dont mind doing it for gear because I get to do the fun jobs and I like practicing my rotation in the specific boss fights for heroics. Im excited to do the meta achievements on normal. I havent downed imp yet.

Done kargath, butcher, and tectus on heroic. Heroic feels nicely tuned. I feel held down by my guild but it is tuned well. I love the group finder tool. Easy to pug heroic groups to get gear to carry my guild who hasnt progressed that far.

I love every boss in there except butcher and imp. Imp is pretty boring, his mechanics arent difficult just tedious for most of the raid, its just a gear check and takes forever. Butcher...like wtf blizz seriously havent had such a boring boss in ages. Not sure what they were thinking. Maybe they ran out of time? I mean honestly the fight would have been better if they directly mirrored it to the diablo 3 boss and made the health pools some mechanic. All the other fights are great. I FUCKING LOVE TECTUS. Might be because im a hunter or because the fight is great. Ogron is another honorable mention.

Tier list for fights would go: Tectus>Twins>Kargath(wish it wasnt stupid easy cause it has good mechanics)>Brack(flamethrowers and healing mushrooms are cool)>Koragh (only so low because people always go in the fucking shield when they arent supposed to)>Imp>trash>butcher

Overall, Id give highmaul a 9/10 (only because I have special jobs) if i didnt have the extra stuff Id prolly give it a 7. As for opening expac raids, it can be compared best to MSV: short raid with lower ilvl loot and no tier. I liked msv better but hm is still pretty fun and a great opener. Im very excited for mythic and all the extra mechanics to spice it up.

[Krazzorx]

set bonuses , trinkets, gear without shitload of versatility on it beg to differ about not having to run normal.

However that is irrelevant to quality of the raid as that's true of all raids now.

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Personally I really like it. Love the atmosphere of the degenerating Roman Empire plus the in-game lore with how Highmaul is interconnected with Grommash and Cho'gall.