Why is the Xavius fight so ugly?

[Irian]

It's called the Emerald Nightmare. It's a common idea in a nightmare to see dark shapes crawling just outside of vision. Xavius plays into this mechanic in his intro and during the fight. The entire thing is supposed to be nondescript and very forebodingly empty feeling. Considering how ugly and red/black the rest of the raid was I was actually a bit taken aback by it, and thought it was really cool. It's actually like a legitimate nightmare.
Going into it blind (other than a few short text guides) I didn't know what to expect considering how much lore surrounded the Rift of Aln, and to finally enter it to see nothing but blackness was a really cool moment. It gives you the feeling of truly being lost in a horrific and unnatural place that any amount of detail couldnt've done.

[Deleted]

It looks awesome in its own way.

[Nuckels]

His room to me, does not scream nightmare. Thats my only issue with it.

[Ergar]

The room is exactly how the nightmare was described in the novel "Stormrage". Thick, almost impenetrable fog/mist that covers everything where the nightmare has taken hold. I doubt people who haven't read the book will appreciate it much, but to me it was a really nice touch. Makes the fight more awesome.

[Deleted]

Well I am gonna be honest. I haven't read any warcraft book since Rise of the Horde, so I wouldn't know how it's supposed to look.
And frankly, even tho I like lore, I love good visuals more. And I still feel like they could do this minimalistic foggy design a little bit nicer than this.

A very big issue of mine is the floor being transparent, so things like Priests's Barrier is not a dome, but rather a full sphere, you see DK's army of death basicly rising up from thin air, and I also saw that trinket from Eye of Azshara that spaws Hydra head, spawning 3 feets under the floor looking like fire spagheti.

[Triceratrozer]

only ugly thing is Xavius, what happened to that cutie guy?

He got better looking.

[Factoral]

I think the raid looks great. It's not like they got to the last boss and gave up....it's the way it is for a reason, I personally think it's fitting. I guess its down to what you like though.

^this.

This isn't lazy development or unimaginative art. The devs have made it this way for a reason.

Its unfortunate you do not like it, but then in a game as big as warcraft, everyone will have a region that they do not like the look of.

[Grimbold of Skullcrusher]

I like it. It's completely different from anything else in the game.

Exactly. But I guess people will be complaining about anything nowadays.

[Deleted]

Personally think it's awesome. Really gives you that foreboding feeling of "oh shit we're somewhere we're not meant to be"

[squeekinator]

100% agreed. For all the cool looking areas in the nightmare, the xavius fight has got to be the most boring, unimaginative shit I have ever seen. Honestly, the underground bosses in Dragon Soul were better designed and those were literally just holes in the ground. Its hard to believe that the same raid that gave us an emerald nightmare with a twisted and warped thunderbluff in the background *by far my favorite boss room in forever* gave us the last boss of the tier in just a plain gray room. So sad

[Nestalim]

I really liked the room. You drop on it, and you don't know what to expect.

Then the silence, all the adds around you, that just flee when you run into them.

Then.. Slowly.. They come. Waves after waves, trying to choke you into this space of nothingness.

Then Xavius appears, the waves of monster cutting trought this eternal fog.

This really remembered me the room of the Four King in Dark Souls, you don't need full HD textures to create an atmosphere for real.

This fight is 10/10.

[Crits-N-Gigglz]

only ugly thing is Xavius, what happened to that cutie guy?

Exactly. He looks terrible.

[Aeula]

It's what's inside that counts. And inside Xavius there's a lot of red and black shit... And tentacles.

[Deleted]

Title speaks for itself.
When you take a look at all the majestic landscapes we have been offered in the last 12 years of WoW developement, one would wonder why the room of the last boss of a raid instance looks like some designer slept at his job and then just hit send, when he ran out of time.
I will have to be looking at this abominable room for the next 3/4 months, especially when considering I will spend most of my time in Emerald Nightmare wiping on the last boss on Mythic difficulty.

I am honestly baffled by this choice. This is 100% worse than the last phase of Sha of Fear. And that was only bearable because nobody actually seen that room, only hardcore raiders (your 1% of players), but here EVERY raider gets to see this ugly flatland they call a boss room.

Well, the same reason no new mechanics can be found on the EN bosses : they didn't want to put a lot of resources into the raid. It should be obvious as EN is a contender for worst raid ever been developed in WoW since trial of the crusader back in WOTLK.

[Okacz]

Title speaks for itself.
When you take a look at all the majestic landscapes we have been offered in the last 12 years of WoW developement, one would wonder why the room of the last boss of a raid instance looks like some designer slept at his job and then just hit send, when he ran out of time.
I will have to be looking at this abominable room for the next 3/4 months, especially when considering I will spend most of my time in Emerald Nightmare wiping on the last boss on Mythic difficulty.

I am honestly baffled by this choice. This is 100% worse than the last phase of Sha of Fear. And that was only bearable because nobody actually seen that room, only hardcore raiders (your 1% of players), but here EVERY raider gets to see this ugly flatland they call a boss room.

I guess it's just a missed idea. The place is supposed to be this "meta horror place", kind of like on Sha of Fear HC, but nothing can cover up the fact that it's a featureless space covered in "fuck your framerate" smoke. They could have came up with something better. The raid has some pretty cool locations for fights, like Mulgore or Un'Goro, and the area of fighting the last boss is the worst.

[Deleted]

Well, the same reason no new mechanics can be found on the EN bosses : they didn't want to put a lot of resources into the raid. It should be obvious as EN is a contender for worst raid ever been developed in WoW since trial of the crusader back in WOTLK.

That actually makes sense. Only Cenarius and Xavius have sorta new mechanics, all other bosses are just repeats of old raids or Legion 5mans.

Also, juut noticed. If your details are at low, there is no fog, you are litteraly in an empty light gray box. (I always run my details at low in raids.)

[satimy]

Wasn't xavius obsessed with beauty? Why does he look like a fat frog Chode?

[Djriff]

His room to me, does not scream nightmare. Thats my only issue with it.

While the room itself doesn't, the trash before it slowly meandering out of the fog was a tad creepy.

[Deleted]

Probably a reference to someone from ensidia saying, years ago, that they would fight an untextured box in a white room as long as the mechanics are fun.

[LordAmbrosia]

Title speaks for itself.
When you take a look at all the majestic landscapes we have been offered in the last 12 years of WoW developement, one would wonder why the room of the last boss of a raid instance looks like some designer slept at his job and then just hit send, when he ran out of time.
I will have to be looking at this abominable room for the next 3/4 months, especially when considering I will spend most of my time in Emerald Nightmare wiping on the last boss on Mythic difficulty.

I am honestly baffled by this choice. This is 100% worse than the last phase of Sha of Fear. And that was only bearable because nobody actually seen that room, only hardcore raiders (your 1% of players), but here EVERY raider gets to see this ugly flatland they call a boss room.

I thought it was really cool. Surrounded by the darkness, with faces leering out at you during the trash pulls. You are too damn picky.