Educated guess on the second raid structure and end boss

[sarahtasher]

Various sites have essentially the same bullet points
This is something new to WoW as a raid that is a completely new experience for each faction!
The Alliance will land at the docks and work their way up the pyramid (and seeing new locations inside) and work their way up to Rastakhan.
Horde will start North of the pyramid and work their way to Rastakhan (which is the midpoint of the raid). Then you'll work your way to the docks and fight against Alliance commanders including Jaina on the high seas!
Once your raid is complete, you can talk to your scouts to get information on the other factions movements which allows you to fight the other 3 unique bosses that you haven't fought yet.

1) Please note that they carefully said that you are fighting TO Rastakhan, with no inkling of how it will go. I would daresay that ''OH NOES, HE TURN BAD'' is a distinct possibility, considering that this is a rather common career choice for monarch on Azeroth. Also, if Troll Emperor is the midpoint of the raid for both factions what could be the equivalent for the Horde as a mid boss ? Could this be that both factions fight Rastakhan ? With a troll princess having a very tough choice that is oddly common amongst WoW characters ?

(My pet hypothesis is that, that's convenient, Troll Emperor have made a pact with a Graveyard Spirit. Conveniently, he can be killed by faction A and get rezed-turned evil to face faction B. That or Baron Samedi)

2)The structure indicates a sequential raid (Alliance first attack THEN you fight your way through the docks to pyramid, climb pyramid, chat with him….Here, I would point that there are some difference between sites. Some report ''through the Alliance'', some omit that point. Would this means, gasp, fighting trolls through a trollopolis ? Never occurred at, say, Zul Farak, Zul Gurub, Zul Aman, Zul Drak…)

3)What puzzle me is how you can have nine bosses including three unique ones in an instance where there will be likely a non Shrodinger canon (IE, both storylines will be true, not just yours) Hypothesis….

A)Blizzard goes cheap, Coliseum size, and you fight on each side 3 captains that will be mirrored the other side (up the pyramid for the alliance, down the pyramid for the Horde)

B)Blizzard goes creative and each faction have a rare ''lose'' raid encounter-IE, they have to hold the line against the enemy for a given time, which is mirrored by an opposite encounter breaching a defence line. Both can be true.

C)The final boss and it's mythic only counterpart are usually the most important lore part. Now, we can imagine a gunship icecrown 2.0 scenario of course. But what if the final boss is the same for both factions. What kind of encounter with a common foe could there be on high seas ?

[Golden Yak]

Re. a fight with Rastakhan, might not happen for Horde until the whole 'you talk to scouts to get the other three encounters bit'. Horde fighting to Rastakhan isn't necessarily the same fighting Rastakhan himself. Also it mentions Rastakhan as the midpoint when talking about the Horde experience.

Rastakhan could be the end-point for the Alliance and the midpoint for the Horde, at which point the Horde proceed to fight Jaina as their final boss. Rastakhan and 2 other troll guys may be the unique Alliance bosses that the Horde have to talk to scouts to access, while Jaina and 2 other KT guys will be the unique Horde bosses that the Alliance have to talk to scouts to access.

Might be a bit weird sorting these bosses, but it could amount to a 6 boss raid with 3 optional side bosses (them being the other faction's bosses).

[sarahtasher]

You need a somewhat ''equivalent'' final boss, no ? I don't see how a ''fight the troll emperor in his throne room'' can be equivalent to ''fight Jaina on the high seas''. Sure, you can have 4 captains with a shared pool, but….

Also, I suck completely at drawing, so here is an EXTREMELY crude ASCI.

Left to Right Alliance progression if end boss is Troll Emperor
(Start)
Docks Pyramid ascent Throne Room (End)


Left to right Horde progression if end boss is Jaina
(Start)
Outside Town Pyramid ascent Throne Room Pyramid Descent Docks SEAS (End)

IE, one journey is longer than the other

[Augrelle]

You need a somewhat ''equivalent'' final boss, no ? I don't see how a ''fight the troll emperor in his throne room'' can be equivalent to ''fight Jaina on the high seas''. Sure, you can have 4 captains with a shared pool, but….

Also, I suck completely at drawing, so here is an EXTREMELY crude ASCI.

Left to Right Alliance progression if end boss is Troll Emperor
(Start)
Docks Pyramid ascent Throne Room (End)


Left to right Horde progression if end boss is Jaina
(Start)
Outside Town Pyramid ascent Throne Room Pyramid Descent Docks SEAS (End)

IE, one journey is longer than the other

I love this concept and hope they will continue in the future with it.

My issue is.......

Who's the end boss?

The fight vs Jaina and the ship commanders for horde
or
The fight outside the town for the Alliance?

There are 3 Shared bosses on both sides. We know this since there are 9 bosses total and each side only fights through 6 and the other 3 are told by the scouts. It gets you thinking on which 3 of the bosses will be shared and which ones will be exclusive. Well, we know the Jaina dock fights are exclusive to the horde, but the other 2 exclusive fights must be at the start of the raid.

So thinking like that, most of the "middle" bosses will most likely be similar. With an exclusive starting boss, and then an exclusive ending boss.

Balance wise it's going to be weird. YOu'll have an escalation of mechanics up to a point, then a quick drop followed by another rise.

[Goldielocks]

Since Blizzard is harping on how Horde is beating Alliance in terms of strategic wins, it's safe to assume Rastakhan will probably die as the Alliance side's final boss of the raid. The Horde won't get an equally important final boss. If anything, it will probably be Jaina and she will probably escape at 5% health or something.

[SirBeef]

Re. a fight with Rastakhan, might not happen for Horde until the whole 'you talk to scouts to get the other three encounters bit'. Horde fighting to Rastakhan isn't necessarily the same fighting Rastakhan himself. Also it mentions Rastakhan as the midpoint when talking about the Horde experience.

Rastakhan could be the end-point for the Alliance and the midpoint for the Horde, at which point the Horde proceed to fight Jaina as their final boss. Rastakhan and 2 other troll guys may be the unique Alliance bosses that the Horde have to talk to scouts to access, while Jaina and 2 other KT guys will be the unique Horde bosses that the Alliance have to talk to scouts to access.

Might be a bit weird sorting these bosses, but it could amount to a 6 boss raid with 3 optional side bosses (them being the other faction's bosses).

I was under the impression it was a 9 boss raid, with 3 shared bosses. Through story quests, and/or NPC interactions we would see the other 6 bosses/fights.

[Augrelle]

I was under the impression it was a 9 boss raid, with 3 shared bosses. Through story quests, and/or NPC interactions we would see the other 6 bosses/fights.

From the stream, It's a 6 boss raid for each side. 3 shared bosses, 3 exclusive bosses. After the 'raid' we can fight the other 3 bosses through the NPC interactions. The main question is how will the 3 exclusive bosses actually work?

[Golden Yak]

You need a somewhat ''equivalent'' final boss, no ? I don't see how a ''fight the troll emperor in his throne room'' can be equivalent to ''fight Jaina on the high seas''. Sure, you can have 4 captains with a shared pool, but….

I think if Rastakhan is packing spooky new powers from Bwonsamdi and is fought in the seat of his power (I'm imagine some kind of battle within the Zuldazar pyramid, his actual throne-room on top is a tad cramped), it'd be on par with Archmage Jaina fighting on her arcane-powered Kul Tiran flagship.

Re. the journey, it depends on how much each faction has to do in each area. Alliance may start at the edge of the docks with it already taken by them, then fight 3 guys outside and 3 unique guys within the pyramid, ending at Rastakhan. Horde could fight 3 guys to the north, then get fast-travel flight to the pyramid just in time to find Rastakhan's body, then flown down to the edge of the docks for their unique 3. Horde just might have less to do in the Temple proper. So the wings might be:

Alliance: Great Temple Exterior (south) -> Great Temple Interior -> Scouted Bosses (Horde Assault on Docks)
Horde: Great Temple Exterior (north) -> Horde Assault on Docks -> Scouted Bosses (Great Temple Interior)

With 3 bosses in each section.

edit-

I was under the impression it was a 9 boss raid, with 3 shared bosses. Through story quests, and/or NPC interactions we would see the other 6 bosses/fights.

My impression was what Augrelle said. 3 shared bosses, 3 Alliance specific, 3 Horde specific, and you can face the other faction's specific bosses through the NPC interaction thing.

From the stream, It's a 6 boss raid for each side. 3 shared bosses, 3 exclusive bosses. After the 'raid' we can fight the other 3 bosses through the NPC interactions. The main question is how will the 3 exclusive bosses actually work?

I'm guessing the first 3 are going to be pretty generic so that both factions can fight them - I imagine a panicked Brutosaur boss, a pissed off Loa that hates everybody for bringing the war to Dazar'alor and attacks both sides (hopefully that terrorsaur one, I don't like her), and that maybe treasure golem who's going nuts. You could easily fight all of these outside the temple either approaching from the north or the south.

[Goldielocks]

The main question is how will the 3 exclusive bosses actually work?

The shared bosses sounds more difficult to wrap my head around, tbh.

[nothingsjim]

My guess is that the Alliance raid will happen first, followed by the Horde raid, there's not gonna be a huge gap, may be 1 hour or 2 (In game Lore time) at most.

The Alliance is finally the aggressor this time, they attacked and cornered Rastakhan on top of his pyramid. The Horde respond to the attack and most likely arrive just in time to see Rastakhan getting killed. A royally pissed off Talanji cries out for vengeance and summoned every Loa she can to her aid, forcing the Alliance to retreat as the Horde gives chase.

I wonder just how will the mechanic and ability of the exclusive bosses play out. There isn't anyone on Horde's side that has boast the same magical proficiency as Jaina, will Alliance just end up fighting a Loa? And just who will be the shared bosses? Because I don't think there're any common enemies in Zuldazar for Alliance and Horde, barring, of course...the Naga.

[Golden Yak]

I wonder just how will the mechanic and ability of the exclusive bosses play out. There isn't anyone on Horde's side that has boast the same magical proficiency as Jaina, will Alliance just end up fighting a Loa? And just who will be the shared bosses? Because I don't think there're any common enemies in Zuldazar for Alliance and Horde, barring, of course...the Naga.

Thought a bit about this, and I'm just gonna throw out some ideas:

Shared Bosses (Fought outside the Great Pyramid by both Horde and Alliance):

Brutosaur Boss - a brutosaur is going on a rampage, panicked by the attacks.
Angry Loa (Pa'ku maybe) - pissed off at both factions bringing war to the city, so she attacks both
Treasure Golem - the Alliance attack broke open the treasure vault and the golem came to life and has gone nuts, attacking both sides

Alliance-side Bosses (Fought within the Great Temple)

Zandalari Dire Troll
Dinomancer
King Rastakhan

Horde-side Bosses (Fought on the docks)

Order of Embers Crew
Stormsong Aquamancer Guy
Jaina

[Augrelle]

I think it could be something like this.

With how far away the the north and south end is, I feel that the generic bosses will more in the middle of the dungeon than the ends. With the exclusives being at the start and the end. Especially since Ian says that horde fights through the pyramid, not that we ever go on top of it.

We know 3 bosses at least; Jaina and the Commanders, Rhakasan, and the concept art of a treasure Golem it looks like (the art that was shown on the screen).

[BrioWoW]

I'm just curious what will be considered the end boss. Unless I'm remembering wrongly, Ion said that after you complete the raid you can then do the other sides exclusive bosses. Kind of weird that you would be doing easier bosses after you beat the raid.

[Lenis]

Three first bosses will be identical, that are not important for story, just random strong creatures, fights might happen in different locations.

Then story splits (or actually follow one after another):
1) Alliance tries to ascend pyramid and kills three bosses including Rastakhan.
2) Horde reaches top of pyramid and sees Rastakhan dead by Alliance hands and goes after Alliance down the pyramid to docks.

6th boss for Horde and 6th boss for Alliance will be the final bosses. After the raid you can go for the three other bosses.

[Augrelle]

Three first bosses will be identical, that are not important for story, just random strong creatures, fights might happen in different locations.

Then story splits (or actually follow one after another):
1) Alliance tries to ascend pyramid and kills three bosses including Rastakhan.
2) Horde reaches top of pyramid and sees Rastakhan dead by Alliance hands and goes after Alliance down the pyramid to docks.

6th boss for Horde and 6th boss for Alliance will be the final bosses. After the raid you can go for the three other bosses.

first 3 being generic doesn't make sense if there are different starting points. Middle 3 makes the most sense at that point.

[Aeula]

I'm betting both Proudmoore brothers will be present as bosses. One for Horde, one for the Alliance.

[Dracullus]

My guess:

a) Alliance

1. Entry boss - D-Day boss, storming the port (hopefully proper boss, not another Hellfire Assault)
2. Two bosses in city - dino/wild animal boss that need to be put down and some second neutral boss (revolted Gurubashi/Amani trolls? something like that) - of course you have choice which you want kill first.
3. Undead Proudmoore guarding entry to Great Seal.
4. "Vault Elemental" boss inside pyramid.
5. Fight with Rasthakan on top of Great Seal.
6. Cinematic - you killed Rathakan, but you are surrounded by Talanji and Horde forces, last minute Jaina saves you and teleport to her ship.
7. You are back in Boralus and talk to NPC to experience what happened when you were fighting Rasthakan.

b) Horde

1. You start in north part of Dazal'Alor, "break the siege boss".
2. "Vault Elemental" boss inside pyramid.
3. You're racing to top of Seal, but some major Alliance character stops you - this fight happen inside Seal too.
4. You split up - Talanji goes top, you must save the city.
5. Fighting with Alliance mobs in the port and two neutral bosses.
6. Final boss - Alliance command - we kill them all (some known names too), only Jaina survives. Cinematic at the end.
7. We are back in port and learn how Alliance managed to kill Rasthakan.

Biggest problem is difficulty of bosses. I guess they could make "Storming the port" and "Break the siege" easier entry bosses, Rasthakan/Jaina hard end bosses and rest pretty much even in difficulty.