Why is Ulduar fondly remembered?

[iggie]

Do they like something you don't? [√]Yes []No
Did it occur in the past? [√]Yes []No
Nostalgia

It's science.

But not bro-science... perhaps mmo-science?

[xezar]

I have a love/hate relationship with Ulduar. I love that it was a big raid, with optional ways to do bosses, an (IMO) superior trigger mechanic for heroic bosses instead of a stupid menu toggle, and the lore behind it (even if it's slightly odd we'd bother killing an old god while the LK was still kicking, though it wasn't nearly as dumb as playing joust outside his doorstep).

What I hate? It brings back bad memories of the guild I was in at the time; those fuckers can die in a firestorm for all I care.

[Halbarad]

One short answer, could be that the raid after it, was so poor by comparison (ToC)

However it had a great story build up across 2(3?) zones, supporting buildup in 5 man dungeons, a real feel of story when you went there, the unexpected, great design, great artwork for the bosses and the rooms.

I also enjoyed it as the heroic modes have variety to them (such as the deconstructor fight, which after killing the heart, had very little similarity to normal mode)

Then ToC came...

[gee]

One short answer, could be that the raid after it, was so poor by comparison (ToC)

However it had a great story build up across 2(3?) zones, supporting buildup in 5 man dungeons, a real feel of story when you went there, the unexpected, great design, great artwork for the bosses and the rooms.

I also enjoyed it as the heroic modes have variety to them (such as the deconstructor fight, which after killing the heart, had very little similarity to normal mode)

Then ToC came...

Also the raid before Ulduar was very poor, in that it was a rehashed faceroll debasing version of Naxx.

Ulduar shone bright between two shit tiers.

[Redpanda]

I liked it. But the loops you had to jump through to get shit killed got lame. I recall a blue post where they said not many people full clearing ulduar

[Sett]

Instead of toggling heroic mode on you had to:
#1 pray noone griefed you or some tard talked to keepers.
#2 Kill a boss faster! SO HEROIC!
#3 Choose NOT to afk on Thorim
#4 Hit a red button.
#5 Not AFK on XT
#6 AFK on Vezak

Oh yes those inventive hardmode triggers. Thank god the quickly swapped to a proper system quickly thereafter.If it wasn't for that we would still have 5+ Filler bosses that only have normal mode included.

It was friendly to the player base for control. You didn't have to down Yogg in order to get gear that had higher ilvl. Your group had control of where they wanted to steer the raid towards. Maybe try 1 HM for the evening. Maybe get that one achievement.


Heroics have the higher tuning. They're Blizzards true envision of an encounter, I get it. They have finale phases and abilities. But it's the same bosses. You're in the same instance. You're just forced to spend longer hours wiping on bosses with the entire instance turned on a HM pretty much.


I dislike the lock outs now. LFR, flex, normal, and heroic. It has been a clusterfuck for having people being saved and reforming the raid or seeing if the IDs will bug out. It's gotten a bit more polished out but goddess it's just so much of the same content with cute illvls being your 'good job' award.

[igame]

How did it fuck us exactly? I sure wish we still had Vezak or XT modes where ppl fucking up activated or deactivated heroic. Or toggles where one tard could destroy the entire lockout by talking to a keeper. Oh yes thank you blizzard for "fucking us over"

I sometimes question people who were so enthralled with the HM ulduar activation. How many of you actually killed those hardmodes? Rarity of Mimirons Head even though it was faceroll farmable for 1.5 years after Ulduar was obsolete would suggest to me that less then 10 posters in here achieved this feat. Thank god though. Now when I kill "heroic fights" I get superior gear then Joenormal mode who in Ulduar could get the exact same thing while killing normal mode.

Since then encounter design has become so complex and normal mode so laid back the since then nowadays many boss abilities are pointless or ignored outside the heroic scene.

Those still served a purpose. if someone in your raid talked to the keepers after being told not to, you knew not to bring that retard next time. The great thing with XT was, the heart was a controlled dps race. If the people you play with make such mistakes, you played with some pretty shit players.

[Nox Drachen]

Ulduar has a hardmode that you initiate by pushing a really large red button.

No other reason is needed.

[Angarin]

I liked ulduar because in all honesty it felt like the mechanics were ahead of its time. It felt like blizzard put more time in ulduar than they had put in any raid until ToT or SoO.

Thats just how I feel. My favorite fights in there are just, I can't pick out any. Thats the thing, I liked every single fight in there and it was so pleasing to do it. If I could I would gather a group of 80's, lock experience at 80, and just take us in there with tier 7 gear and do it all over again just to go "ooh aww, good times yes"

Its a hard concept to explain, but the best way I can is that the mechanics felt so far ahead of its time compared to naxx/toc/icc that they actually put work into it and it was the first time when a 'hard mode' was introduced and it was enabled via a mechanic not a button which also brought alot of appeal to it.

[orioxez]

I was a hardcore raider through all of TBC and into the beginnings of wrath. I didn't even finish every hardmode in Ulduar but I knew it was the best raid dungeon Blizzard had ever designed until that point. People love to talk about TBC raids being great, but honestly they were some of the worst designed raid instances. Karazhan and Sunwell were really the only two well design raids. Everything else was shit. Ulduar was well laid out, evenly paced, well balanced, and had content for every spectrum of player. The noobs could farm the easy mode bosses, and the hardest of the hardcore had 0 Light Yogg to tackle. The hardmodes were interesting and introduced new mechanics. The instance was NOT LINEAR, and this was huge. They took a page out of Naxxramas design for this, and honestly I wish every raid was this way. The hardmodes were no joke, it was a significant event when the first guild downed Firefighter, 0 Light, Algalon, tc. It is still to this day the most varied and interesting raid when it comes to boss design, instance design, and overall accessibility for everyone.

[Tekkommo]

Being such a "Hardcore" raider in Naxx as you claimed. I'm just surprised.

He was also 10 man haha, which was easymode, basically the level of LFR (well tbh even easier as 25 man naxx was easier than LFR).

[gee]

He was also 10 man haha, which was easymode, basically the level of LFR (well tbh even easier as 25 man naxx was easier than LFR).

25 Naxx required some coordination. LFR is completely utterly filled with players who do not care about fights or any content except for the epics. And those players down bosses just by running around and dpsing random stuff with no strategy. The game has never been easier than LFR.

[Tekkommo]

25 Naxx required some coordination

No it didn't.

[anaxie]

He was also 10 man haha, which was easymode, basically the level of LFR (well tbh even easier as 25 man naxx was easier than LFR).

Uhhhhh In wotlk you cleared both modes.

- - - Updated - - -

Not when they give the same loot. LFR, normal, heroic loot all have the same name, same icon, same color, same stat distribution. I will not put effort into heroics as long as retards can get the same rewards in LFR.

With this kind of attitude I doubt clearing Heroic was ever an option.

- - - Updated - - -

I liked it. But the loops you had to jump through to get shit killed got lame. I recall a blue post where they said not many people full clearing ulduar

That isn't a bad thing

[Bad Ashe]

uld is one of my favs too, but i did always have 1 gripe about it. its just too big and empty, you could scale the entire geography and architecture down by at least 20% without affecting anything.

- - - Updated - - -

No it didn't.

actually, it did.

besides trying to say naxx "needed" to be hard is kindof retarted, naxx was the intro raid. like kara. kara was stupid-easy too, for a reason: it was the intro raid, first tier, cant be hard because there isnt any gear before it raid.

[Manabomb]

Nostalgia, wrath babies...oh and, Cataclysm sucked ass by comparison.

Infracted.

To be fair, this basically sums it up. I will note that in a time where you had rehashed Naxxaramas on one side and two loot pinatas (maly and sarth) on the other, Ulduar following it (and subsequently ToC after that) made Ulduar stand out as a bright gem surrounded by shit. ICC was one of these gems, but ICC was also the first to show us that if you stare at a gem too long it really starts to bring out the flaws.

Basically Ulduar was a good raid in an expansion that either had shit raids or raids that were good and lasted entirely too long and was followed up by cataclysm. T11 content wasn't bad and was actually on the same level of Ulduar in my opinion, but for me Firelands and Dragonsoul ruined what little fun and/or challenge t11 content gave.

But also let me point out, Ulduar is by no means the "best" raid patch. It just looked/felt nice because everything else in that time was simply subpar. Hell, Ulduar and ToT are similar in that regard except SoO is actually besting Ulduar on many fronts. (All of this being opinion based.)

[anaxie]

I liked ulduar because in all honesty it felt like the mechanics were ahead of its time. It felt like blizzard put more time in ulduar than they had put in any raid until ToT or SoO.

Thats just how I feel. My favorite fights in there are just, I can't pick out any. Thats the thing, I liked every single fight in there and it was so pleasing to do it. If I could I would gather a group of 80's, lock experience at 80, and just take us in there with tier 7 gear and do it all over again just to go "ooh aww, good times yes"

Its a hard concept to explain, but the best way I can is that the mechanics felt so far ahead of its time compared to naxx/toc/icc that they actually put work into it and it was the first time when a 'hard mode' was introduced and it was enabled via a mechanic not a button which also brought alot of appeal to it.

Did you do T11?

Mechanics ahead of it's time.......... Like what exactly? Granted Yogg0 was ultra unique, but they have pulled that off multiple times with Finale bosses. <Ragnaros/LK/KJ/Al akir/Nefarian>

[Barnabas]

T11

Al'akir, Sinestra, Cho'gall, Nefarian, You also experience Neptulon, Ragnaros, Deathwing while leveling. And to an extrend more introduction to Azshara's naga and her deeper motives in the story. N'zoth played a puppeter role

MoP is fresh lore but the troll council in ToT was a huge lore throwback especially the frost troll king Malakk making an appearance finally.

The entire zone of Org is faction leaders and named orcs horde players have interacted with in the city for years. Most of them are dying. Likely see a NPC gut and refurbish in the post org 5.5 prepatch.

Nevermind the paragons encounter which while being fresh lore should have MORE then enough lore buildup.

I guess you are wrong.

Maybe I just liked the buildup more in that expansion than the past couple. Plus the end boss wasn't totally awful like deathwing and garrosh.

[anaxie]

To be fair, this basically sums it up. I will note that in a time where you had rehashed Naxxaramas on one side and two loot pinatas (maly and sarth) on the other, Ulduar following it (and subsequently ToC after that) made Ulduar stand out as a bright gem surrounded by shit. ICC was one of these gems, but ICC was also the first to show us that if you stare at a gem too long it really starts to bring out the flaws.

Basically Ulduar was a good raid in an expansion that either had shit raids or raids that were good and lasted entirely too long and was followed up by cataclysm. T11 content wasn't bad and was actually on the same level of Ulduar in my opinion, but for me Firelands and Dragonsoul ruined what little fun and/or challenge t11 content gave.

But also let me point out, Ulduar is by no means the "best" raid patch. It just looked/felt nice because everything else in that time was simply subpar. Hell, Ulduar and ToT are similar in that regard except SoO is actually besting Ulduar on many fronts. (All of this being opinion based.)

Exactly, summed it up nicely.

[Winterstrife]

I liked TOGC raid better, Onyxia-style.
Straight to bosses, no trash & the fights themselves were pretty fun. Only thing that sucked hard were the armor designs for that tier.
Overuse of model with slight alterations here & there, & the dammed recolors, ugh.