Boredom! Therefore I present you Catalysm World Boss: Merodersh The Arbiter

[Synnal]

While the servers were down, I have always thought how fun it would be to create your own raid boss, as I'm sure most have
tinkered with the idea. I have always enjoyed the concept of the elements and how an overseer of the elemental planes put by the titans after creation would come to life once the event had happened and so I bring you Merodersh the Arbiter a instanced World Boss. Please give your honest opinion and try not to post unless it is related to the topic. Feedback and suggestions are always welcomed as its simply a crazed thought in an twisted mind =p.

Lore: (For us nerds.)

With the Old gods sealed within their prisons and their creation, the elemental beings, cast away in the planes of their
aspects came the task of an overseer to make sure they would never run rampart in Azeroth. To ensure the control over the several elements within this realm a giant, Merodersh, was gifted an over realm to watch over the life of the world, only existing in
between the folds of Azeroth's reality. Millennium and on did his ever-faithful zeal press on to never let what would be the end
of all civilization take place if the planes were to slip into each other, but with Deathwing's rise to power once more does all
seem lost. The only choice left now is clear with so much chaos erupting about him, Merodersh has called upon the mortal races to
band together and challenge him within his over realm...those who prove themselves will be granted boons of untold power while
those weak and feeble shall not fall to the ever corrupting power that is the Elemental Lords, but by his fists.

The Quest:

Upon reaching level 85, a quest from the King of Stormwind or Current Warchief of Orgrimmar is to seek out the lair of a being
known as Merodersh. Little is known about what or who he is and that magic is seeping from spots near the entry to the elemental
planes which is wrecking havoc near the locations. Learn about him and defeat him to complete it.
The text would read as follows:

Varian Wyrnn:

Hero, time and again have I called upon your service to the alliance and yet again I require a mighty task of you. With this
cataclysm our forces are stretched far and wide..from rescue of our citizens and allies to the assault upon the horde filth and
twilight hammer. Now a new threat looms all over Azeroth, this Merodersh, seems bent on ripping the world apart with the arcane
coming forth him his realm as my scholars tell me. Learn what you can of him and defeat him to stop another disaster from
happening. For the glory of the Alliance!


Garrosh Hellscream:

Pathetic! First the alliance dogs push into our lands and now this Merodersh dares issue a challenge to us? There will be swift
retribution for Varian and his filth, but our shamans tell us these disturbances of his could cause another catacylsm if left
uncheck. Take up the pride of the Horde and do not let our enemies claim victory! Do this and earn the respect of your Warchief!
Lok'tar Ogal! For the Horde!

When and Where:

Merodersh as said before is an Instanced World Boss. Now this may seem a bit odd as the idea contradicts itself, but there is a
reason for this via lore and encounter aspects of the challenge. A giant spark, looking much like dispersion on a priest, would
float around the entryways into the planes in which if formed into a raid would give you access to him. The reason why he is
classified as a world boss? simply because he has a spawn / despawn timer and is only out during certain times. When the event
would begin a world emote would be sent through the many continents of Azeroth: "A booming voice flows through the winds." His
voice is as follows: "Mortals upon the soil of Azeroth, Merodersh calls to those worthy of his challenge! Come and test your
feeble magic and steel against my might!

Merodersh and his pad

Upon entering you will find yourself in a giant circular earthen ring surrounded by many images of Azeroth's zones, waterways,
skys and so forth that constantly spin slowly around and around. Going into more detail would be a large throne chair, Merodersh
currently sitting in it as he stares into the madness taking place about him. The throne is carved of out gray and obsidian stone
to that which the skin of a giants and the giant jackal sentinels in ahn'qiraj are toned to and near Merodersh's lap is an orb
that is spewing out multi-colored bolts into the images. Added fluff such as Ulduar textures and pillars support a ceiling that
looks like a spinning maelstorm of sand, flame, water, and nature following in an endless spiral. Flowing around the pillars into
the churning spiral would be the elements currently presiding in Azeroth excluding shadow and light as they do not pertain to this
encounter.

Merodersh's model is a heavily modified stone giant with keeping the same rocky face, but body makeup wise is comprised of course of the earth, fire, wind and water. He is about 2x the size of a normal stone giant and has swirling air currents about his
shoulders and chest, a molten right hand fist cladded in sparks of flame erupting whenever he moves it. His left arm is a teal
tone of stone (think hodir's flesh) that has brilliant bright blue veins running from shoulder blade to fingers that flicker out
blue droplets like if he were bleeding water. Darkened redish-brown eyes are the only different trait on his face while his legs
and torso are made up of Obsidian and a brown / orange hue (Think feral orc) and have a glassy kind of look (Think the four legged
guardians of AQ, the brown being the main color, while the obsidian being the secondary color which could center around the knee
area in a vertical diamond shape.) The veins that stretch from both of his arms now turn from blue and red from the different
elemental aspects of his limbs to that of a deep lime color across his chest in an arcing pattern to the center where there a 4
chambered heart glows. This heart is embedded into the flesh and beats verrrrrry slowly going left to right, turning into a bright
lime green when it beats.

Hopefully that gives you a detail of what he looks like.

Merodersh - The Encounter and Why soooo Serious!
When you get done looking in awe about the encounter room / Merodersh you can now interact with him in which you find out he
really isn't a threat to this world, but more of an ally...if he finds you worthy. He gives you who and what he is and why he
exists and after explaining all this he will tell you when you are ready to begin his challenge. Now to avoid "OOOO shiny"
syndrome in people who are new to the encounter 10 raid members must click on the orb which will float to the center of the room
near Merodersh's feet and thus...he will rise from this throne and it will sink into the ground as well as the images of Azeroth
will despawn... Some final words and the Encounter begins!
I'm not about to give some Health / Mana / Damage estimates about Cataclysm Boss scaling so bare with me.

Phase 1: It can only go downhill from here...

Merodersh's Abilities: Phase 1

Seared Strike - Does ( X ) amount of damage to the target, while leaving a stacking DoT that deals ( X) amount of damage every 3 seconds that is applied per successful hit. During this Ability Merodersh's swing timer is reduced to 1 second.

Chilled Blow - An ability that freezes the third highest on threat, casing him in a iceblock that must be killed within 10 seconds or he will take 500% of his maximum health in damage (A.k.A instant death). This ability will continue to happen throughout the fight.

[b]Tidal Crush - Does ( X) amount of damage to the target, applying a stacking debuff that upon reaching 5 stacks freezes the target in a permanent block of ice. Debuff lasts for 3 minutes, refreshed upon new stack applied.This ability can not be dodged or parried, resisted or fully blocked. This attack will continue until 5 stacks of the debuff are located throughout the raid. 1 minute cool down upon fifth stack applied.

[b]Stone Gaze- Merodersh watches the target, Any attempt to use a healing or damaging ability after initial "Watched" debuff will result in target becoming encased in stone for 10 seconds, unable to use any actions. This debuff can not be broken with any form of CC breaking effects.

[b]Raging Sands- for the next 20 seconds 2 huge pillars of sand will rise and fall from the ceiling and ground every 4 seconds, dealing (X) amount of damage on the initial hit and causing one of two affects: If blasted upwards form the ground, you simply take fall damage equal to 25% of your health, if smashed from a column from the ceiling you will be stunned for 6 seconds. This stun can be broken with any form of CC breaking effects. Chilled blow will not be used during the use of this ability.


Merodersh's Abilities: Phase 2

[b]Splinter Force Deals (x) amount of damage to target in front of the caster, damage is divided among those targets equally. Maximum of 3 targets.

[b]Sundering Blast A knockback whirlwind for all within 10 yards. Applies a stacking 15% movement reduction lasting for 1 minute refreshing upon being hit.

[b]Earthen Tomb- stomping the ground that gives a graphical effect like thunderclap, doing no initial damage, but instead will cause large rock chunks to fall from the ceiling. Being hit with this will deal ( X) amount of damage and slow you by 15% movement speed for 1 minute refreshing upon being hit.

[b]Titanic Smash Merodersh pounds his hammer up and down chasing one marked target, changing targets every 10 seconds. This ability deals (X) amount of damage to all nearby targets. If the marked target is reached, it will be sent into the direction of the recently collasped pillar. Merodersh is immune to Taunt during the use of this Ability. Merodersh will not Whirlwind during the use of this ability.

Merodersh's Abilities: Phase 3

[b]Tempest Pull - Grasps all targets within the encounter's room to Merodersh, holding them in place. During this effect no preventitive damage mitigation or abilites will work.

[b]Devastating Cleave Merodersh unleashes a mighty blow, reducing all targets health by 50% of their maximum health. During this effect no preventitive damage mitigation or abilties will work.

[b]Ancient Warding When Applied, damage from Arcane, Holy, Physical and Shadow is reduced by 25%. Allows the caster to rapidly gain resistance to Arcane, Nature, Fire, and Frost by 10%. This self buff can not allow Aspect's Blessing on the caster. this self buff can not be removed.

Phase 1: It can only go downhill from here...

Merodersh comes out swinging with his fists, beating on whomever has highest threat (Let's hope the tank) and will continue to beat on him for the first 10-12 seconds of the fight before giving away his first ability: Seared Strike From his flaming fist the damage will rapidly add up quickly, but the off tank taunting off will allow the debuff to wear of quickly as the DoT only stays on the target for 5 seconds unless refreshed. After 10 seconds of this, he will then switch to his other hand and use 2 abilities: One being Chilled Blow and the other [b]Tidal Crush. He will swing 5 times with this ability so tanks must off switch back and forth how they see fit. Luckily he will not use this ability again for another minute once the fifth stack is applied. One random raid member who is 20 or more yards will feel his [b]Stone Gaze. If there isn't at least 3 members 20 yards away, he will then stone gaze the entire raid. If that wasn't bad enough, Once he cycles using both of his arms he will start to cast a channeled spell called [b]Raging Sands. Once Raging Sands is over, he will sit still for a few seconds before going back to the highest threat. In summary between his cool down on Tidal Crush he will use Searing Strike, Stone Gaze, Chilled Blow, but only can he use Raging Sands after executing all his arm attacks. This phase as you may have come up with is a Dps race as if a second round of Tidal Crush were to go through between the two tanks would one be taking out of the fight for good. Of course if someone were to take just one of the debuff of Tidal Crush could you avoid this. This will continue until Phase 2 (75%) begins.

Phase 2: So you survived my warm-up....

Appearently Merodersh liked watching deadmines in his spare time as he pulls an Aoe stun like Mr Smite and gives a small speech while reaching up toward the maelstorm to pull out a very...very big mace. This will increase his physical damage greatly on the tanks. But Good news! He no longer will use Tidal Crush or Raging Sands in this phase, allowing that nasty debuff to tick off and safely save you from certain demise. Less of a Dps Race and more of a try to survive will this phase take you a bit to get through. Still using Chilled Blow and Stone Gaze he attacks with 4 more abilities to his arsenal. For the melee, Merodersh will now use [b]Splinter Force and [b]Sundering Blast. He will whirlwind every 20 seconds. For the ranged, Merodersh will now use [b]Earthen Tomb. They have a VERY large radius so move as soon as the shadow falls over your character. 2 chunks will fall from random positions from the ceiling. This is used every 12 seconds. Lastly after 40 seconds into the fight we will lose his temper and charge one of the 4 nearby pillars that are holding the room up. Smashing it to pieces it causes the ceiling to start collapsing in that area, anyone going in that area will take Damage over Time that will kill you in a few seconds. Now for something out of Super Smash Brothers wielding the Magic Hammer he will begin using [b]Titanic Smash. The area in which the pillar was smashed will continue to have the damage over time mechanic and will remain that way until a few seconds before a new Titanic Smash begins, the pillar from before rebuilding itself. Earthen Tomb will continue to fall. This phase will either end after 4 Titanic Smashes have completed or he reaches 40% health.

Phase 3: I'm a charging my.....

So you have either survived for Vertical Broooooo storms or got him down to 40% and you enter the last phase. He will then use three abilities before the actual start of this phase: [b]Tempest Pull, [b]Devastating Cleave, and [b]Ancient Warding. The pillars of the room will now shift into giants urns, each holding a power to one of the four elements within his control: Arcane, Fire, Frost, and Nature. Players will then have to scramble and will collectively group up near the tank who will be moving him to one of urns. Upon reaching 15 yards of an urn, a heavy aoe effect will shoot throughout to those close enough, requiring heavy amounts of healing. Every tick however will start to increase the target's resistance by 10% per tick of that element effectively making them immune after 10 stacks are applied. This immunity is permanent until Aspect's Blessing is passively activated. [b] Aspect's Blessing is applied to those who reach 100% immunity. This buff will fade off the player if they move out of the Aspect's urn range if 100% immunity is not achieved. *{Aspect's Blessing is a 10% increase in overall damage for 20 seconds}*. Once Aspect's Blessing has ended, the immunity is reset back to 0%. As Merodersh gain stacks quicker then players, he must be moved before he becomes 100% immune or he will have a permanent resistance to any type of that Aspect's spells and abilities. During this encounter, Merodersh will draw upon the power of one of aspect's imbueing his physical attacks with such force that a tank can only take a few blows before dying, also he will begin casting a aoe every 5 seconds which will pulse through the entire room of said aspect. This is why you must move from urn to urn. The offtank is free to move during this phase to the urn Merodersh has imbued his power from and thus range taunt him to give the other tank a chance at living. This phase will continue to 1% in which Merodersh is defeated, finding you worthy and gives you epics!

*This is the modified version, for those who had a hard time understanding it...not to mention I fixed alot of errors.*
*modified again, May 23, 2010.* Fixed some typing errors. Added Heroic10 / 25 mode!

Heroic 10 / 25 mode - The Back Story

So you have defeated Merodersh as a world boss. A few gear tweaks and some patches later Merodersh is now decarded as "That one boss" no one every does (Archavon started a support group i heard) so blizzard decides to spice it up a notch. With the demise of the Fire Lord Ragnaros and the Fire Planes being pushed back does Merodersh call for the Assault on the Air Lord Al'Akir, a fierce foe indeed and with this terrible power comes the need of better loot! Enter Merodersh the Heroic Raid Encounter! Form a 10 / 25 raid and let's get ready to rumble! Of course who does one make a World Boss into a heroic? Simple. Have a item (everyone gets one!) drop from the cache which allows players to enter Merodersh's realm via his portal and start a raid lockout (weekly).

The Fight! - Summarized Edition - Phase 1!

The encounter itself will be the same except scaled up for those who like a challenge! Phase 1 would begin and the tanks start fighting for threat to claim that #1 and #2 spot so its always someone else who gets the Chilled Blow, but wait! this is heroic! we need more DOTS! Seared Strike has a new mechanic and its a doozy, not only does the damage go up, but if a tank takes more then 5 stacks it explodes off him, dealing AoE fire damage. Now, his other limb comes into play and Chilled Blow starts freezing the unlucky fellow (1 in 10 man, 3 in 25.) Nothing new to this mechanic expect the life on the ice blocks went up, but Tidal Crush got a brand new trick! That annoying debuff that probably wasn't an issue on the world encounter doesn't go away until the encounter ends. 25 man he will now swing 15 times instead of 5 with a normal swing timer instead of his slower version in 10 man mode. what does that mean? Simple. Crack it out or get ready to wipe it. Stone Gaze affects 1 target in 10 man, 4 targets in 25 man mode, will of course be happening with no change and Raging Sands will continue to hinder your dps race to 75%.

Up in the sky! it's a bird! it's a plane! it's Death!

Mr. Smite would be proud of lil Merodersh. His hammer will bringeth a pain in a more interesting way with Splinter Force. No two tanks could survive dividing that amount of whoop ass he dishes out so melee get ready to hug his front side. Merodersh will now have a cooldown on this ability (Every 15 seconds) and will howl about when he is about to use it, giving everyone 4 seconds before he uses it. Damage is still given out divided by how many targets are currently within his cleave range, so the more you stack the less that each person takes. Sundering Blast will still be whirling your face in melee range, while Earthen Tomb gets a slight face lift, dropping in 2 spots in 10 man, 4 in 25 man. The slight tweak comes in with a 5 second stun on hit, but the impact zone range is smaller then previously. Something no healer or ranged wants to feel still. And yes, Earthen Tomb does drop on melee. Truffle Shuffle your way out of this. Last but not least Titanic Smash will go off every 40 seconds into the fight, giving you time to dps if you can survive the small AoE damage he gives out while chasing the target and also dodge the Earthen Tombs. Phase 3 begins after 4 Titanic Smashes finish or 40% left in his health.

You want shiny baubles? Better "love" those urns!

Your beaten, battered, bruised and your fingers are sore from button mashing, but you got one more phase to go through. Though [b]Tempest Pull and [b]Devastating Cleave are still the same, his [b]Ancient Warding is not. Increased to now 15% per tick his resistance absorbing skills just got mad crazy, meaning within 4 ticks of the aura going out he will be immune compared to 5 ticks. (The math for those who were wondering. 10% per tick + his 15% = 25% per tick.) However is a new mechanic to the fight, the urns can now be destroyed thus if he were to go immune it will fade off him. The urn will reappear after 1 minute. Here is the kicker to that, if all 4 urns are destroyed he will enrage, wiping the raid in an instant. Luckily, the power of the urn will flow out upon the death blow, giving everyone within range a 50% increase in their resistance which could proc Aspect's Blessing which not only increases damage by 20% now, but the added juice from the urn's demise increases healing as well by 20% for the 20 second duration. Repeat, Rinse, WIN EPICS!

[Synnal]

I didn't think about putting a cap in on the instances, merely whoever flowed in could help out. You'd have a loading screen of course so between that and loading in there would have to be some sort of immunity buff given so you don't die right away. Notice I didn't put any "If this person dies, then the boss heals for X" kind of things so people could flow in and no one would have worry about a penalty. Phase 2 after reading over it for the 18th time does sound demanding, but speaking you could have more then 25 people in on this world encounter it may not be so bad.

Going for the PvP though. Yeah...I like world pvp and back in the day on Nightmare Dragons it was a blast to royally screw someone over, but then again its instanced so when you zone in you wouldn't be flagged...however turning the flag on inside? that would be fun indeed.

About Phase 3 I did mean for the Tanks to taunt / kite pull the boss between vases and the raid follows. But I could easily for see this being an issue if a randomly tank kept yanking him about. So Maybe we would need to put in a factor that the Raid that started the encounter / that has him tagged can only taunt him.

The Quest is level 85, but anyone may enter probably 80 and up for the requirement. He is made to be a level 85 world boss.

*Editted some fine points on this topic*

[Jirmus]

Text wall?

[Cjeska]

You have too much time, seriously.

[Kereba]

You have too much time, seriously.

This.

[Deleted]

I think you put more effort into this than any one person on the Dev team would.

[Toßias]

My brain was going to fast and couldn't stop in time to avoid the giant wall of text.

*Splat*

[Kezic]

My brain was going to fast and couldn't stop in time to avoid the giant wall of text.

*Splat*

but seriously though looks/sounds epic and was a great distraction from work for ehh 35 mins?

[Uruk]

too much text... but the small part i could read sounded good

[Synnal]

I'll try to fix it up in the next hour. I combined Abilities and the way to do the encounter as one which probably isn't a good idea.

[Malthanis]

Too much text? Really people, can you be bothered to tax your minds just a little bit each day?

Anyways, this actually sounds pretty awesome. The whole 'anybody can zone in to the fight' mechanic is probably the only thing i wouldn't agree on. But that's more on technical issues (remember when WG didn't have a cap?). I'll have to re-read this when I'm not at work so I can put a little more thought to it.

[Everafter]

Offtopic: "Too much text"? Seriously, I always thought TL;DR is a sign of how f*** lazy and/or uneducated people are. I guess you didn't have a book in your hand if that's "too long" for you.

[Ashes to Ashes]

You have too much time, seriously.

QFT

[PrimeEV1L]

Would be an awesome encounter :]

[Amgyn]

i have formed my opinion based on other people's comments.

This sounds awesome \(O.O)/

[Synnal]

Achievements for this fight:

Let our Powers Combine....

Defeat Merodersh while he is immune to Arcane, Fire, Frost and Nature damage.

I Have the Poooowwwweeerrrrrrr!

During the Merodersh encounter become immune to Arcane, Fire, Frost, and Nature damage.

[Valser]

Now that you cleaned it up its hell of alot easier to read. Thanks!

[Adaeus Lightrin]

I love the idea, but i think my comp would splode!

[Synnal]

thanks, It might be a bit a bit overwhelming on graphics, but just the room itself at first. Once the images and throne have despawned, it couldn't be that much of a demand unlikely any encounter.

[Zizzagee]

Pics or it didnt happen