which HM mechanic do you like the most? "poll"

[kosuko]

in global ulduar ofcourse..being able to clear an instance 4 times per week (totc) is just crap..
icecrown kinda takes away the "achievement feeling" of killing a boss.. seeing how you gotta do him on heroic aswell..
Also the 10/25 man raiding is a bit lame but ok..

Imo the best hard mode is XT2(something) deconstructor or whats he called..
Activating a hard mode by doing high dps is the best idea ever..
all in all... TBC was the best ... no hard modes required cause raids where hard enough already..

[vizjerei]

Naxx was fine, but release of ulduar was too late so, became boring. Ulduar seems to win the WotLK contest overall. I mean it, every single fight is such cleverly designed, also the atmosphere during boss fights were qualified. Even HodirHM was fun, like a coffee break during the day, and satisfactory for recount whores. No arguments on ToC, ToGC whatever. Totally ridiculous. The TotC design team should go for super mario or smt. "hey, stand on an arena, santa clause throwing away some epics! omfg!" One thing i can give credit is the design of tiers, maybe some of weapons and such for argent.

Many of us had overexpectations for ICC, thats way ICC is dissappointing. Professor had some flavor, Valithra might be a bit interesting, sindragosa - setback to sapphiron with a bit different mechanism, and thats it. Also the limited number of tries for an encounter DOES NOT makes it a real HM. Wonder whose idea is this, but if you think we like it, absolutely a big NO.

To sum up, Yogg-saron fight attracted me most in terms of the coordination and concentration needed, keeper(s) to choose or none, phase transitions, /kiss sara and such.

[Kidoeng7]

Ulduar HM are the best for me :P
To be honest ToC and ToGC do not have much difference in terms of fight pretty same thing.
Still dont know how ICC heroic is but i will try them this week but definitely still ulduar remains my favorite instance and favorite hard modes ;D

[Twinkelle]

Most definately Ulduar. Makes the fights a lot more interesting having to "force" them into hard mode rather than having the hand do it.

[Tharky]

Hah this is hilarious. Back in ulduar people where whining that hard mode activation did not feel natural, that it was a stupid system and where whining for a system more alike to the icc one. And now everyone seems to think it was the best we could ever get.

Where is the i don't care option?

[Deleted]

I liked Freya's, Yogg's and Sartharion's hardmodes the most. You can practice with an 1 step easier hardmode

[Samin]

I think the Ulduar system is the best. And I guess with the removal of limited attempts (they hinted at that) it is very likely that they add it again. Because you won't be punished that bad for accidently activating the HM (which would've been bad in ICC with limited attempts, then you would still be punished for accidently activiating it and by the repair bill).
Maybe not so much like XT where you can actually activate it by accident but more like Mimiron or FL where you have to talk to someone or push a button so you may still "accidently" activate it but not totally by accident.

[Salooo]

Definately the way Sartharion and Ulduar worked (triggered), one thing I didn't like with it was, however, that you could be one or two seconds late with the kill on Hodir hardmode and then won't be able to do that hardmode until the next week.

Triggering the hardmodes felt a lot more "natural" and added a nice feeling to it, but not having the option of switching back to hardmode on for example Yogg-saron wasn't very fun (ever had someone talk with a watcher when you're after the hardmode?).

[Eats Compost]

Surf.

On a more serious note, I sort of liked some of Uld's HM activations, and disliked others. I liked the midfight activations more than the pre-fight (Mimi button, Freya) ones, as they felt more interactive, whereas Mimi/Freya felt a bit too much like tabbing between Heroic/normal. Hodir was just plain weak, though. I sincerely hope we never see a HM like that again.

[Zerenty]

I like the way they did it in Ulduar the most.
The reason behind me liking this above others is that there wasnt just that one hardmode, you could do some bosses on "medium" mode and others like it, which makes it better for a guild to work their way towards the great fights.
And also having it build directly into the boss encounters makes it fun to just get the encounter pulled or other things like that.
Also i think many people had a great urge to press the big red button at Mimiron ;D

[Joe Christ]

I can't believe how many people voted for the Ulduar-style hardmode crapshoot. Any sort of boss fight where you have call a wipe because you failed to trigger the hardmode activation mechanic is just stupid and frustrating. It was acceptable when you could turn it on and off like a switch (Yogg, Freya, Mimiron), but then you have nonsense like Thorim where an attempt can be over less than 2 minutes into the pull, and Hodir where missing the cache by less than a second essentially meant you were fucked for the week but GG here's some abyss crystals for the effort.

The on/off thing is basically what we have with ICC now, and I consider it to be an improvement.

[Eats Compost]

I can't believe how many people voted for the Ulduar-style hardmode crapshoot. Any sort of boss fight where you have call a wipe because you failed to trigger the hardmode activation mechanic is just stupid and frustrating. It was acceptable when you could turn it on and off like a switch (Yogg, Freya, Mimiron), but then you have nonsense like Thorim where an attempt can be over less than 2 minutes into the pull, and Hodir where missing the cache by less than a second essentially meant you were fucked for the week but GG here's some abyss crystals for the effort.

The on/off thing is basically what we have with ICC now, and I consider it to be an improvement.

I'd agree with that, actually. I think that with activation, it should be there for the gimmick/fun and not the challenge. Of course, I'd make an exception for XT, as that's just to check that you have the DPS to actually down the boss and shouldn't be a problem for a group that can actually do the HM. I also agree with you on Hodir, but he's difficult to lump in with most other hardmodes.

[Dangg]

What is wrong with you people?
A year ago everyone whined about Ulduar/Sarth HM.

[mynameisjona]

What is wrong with you people?
A year ago everyone whined about Ulduar/Sarth HM.

I remember people whined about 2 things:

1)Algalon having a timer
2)Yogg+0 being ridiculously overtuned

No one whined about Sarth+3 except that it was to easy for a hard mode

[Furbolg]

I think it's pretty obvious from the poll that the Ulduar/Sartharion way was awesome

[Yagamoth]

Ulduar - It's clear to me ^^
Overall, the hardmodes didn't feel like "a second playthrough", more like another challenging element to the encounter you already know. Even though the activation on, say Mimiron or Yogg was somewhat like "Pull the trigger to activate", it still drastically changed the encounter.

I'd agree with that, actually. I think that with activation, it should be there for the gimmick/fun and not the challenge. Of course, I'd make an exception for XT, as that's just to check that you have the DPS to actually down the boss and shouldn't be a problem for a group that can actually do the HM. I also agree with you on Hodir, but he's difficult to lump in with most other hardmodes.

I don't think it was that bad with the triggers. Except for Hodir.
XT - You really needed the DPS
Thorim - It was certainly about dps, but most of all about coordination, which was also needed to reach Thorim in time

Hodir - Well, that's about the only hardmode I didn't like in there. Of course, it was somewhat refreshing healing this encounter with 4 people in 25 man and actually seeing, that if people don't screw up too much, it's easily healable. But it didn't feel as good as when we downed the other hardmodes. Simply "Watch the timer - Wipe or try?", not that much fun.

[Sunshine]

I think there's a big difference between the triggering mechanism and the interest of the fight. Several people have mentioned that they love XT because the fight is so different on hardmode, but that has nothing to do with the triggering mechanism. Selected hardmodes could easily have a completely different fight than regular modes.

Plus, there's also the fact that you didn't have to kill them for many weeks on normal mode before hardmode was available, so they seem even better in looking back. It's too hard to tease out feelings about triggering mechanism given that there are such strong feelings about the instances for unrelated reasons.

That said, I prefer mimiron/FL-style hardmodes. Have it be an interactive element in the environment (zomg big red button / killing towers), not a skill-based test where you have to cause a wipe if you fail to activate it.