Ulduar Encounter Difficulty, Poll, Blue Posts, WoW Parody Song, Fan Art

[chaud]

Diablo 3 - Fists of Thunder Runed, Battle.net Balance, Poll Recap, Beta Screenshots

Ulduar Encounter Difficulty
There was recently a blue post talking about the nostalgia people feel for Ulduar and the increased difficulty. Kaivax made the point that "Ulduar is an example of a raid where lots of players got to enjoy the first few bosses, and very few players ever saw the last few".

Ulduar isn't too relevant anymore, as we saw yesterday with a Hunter soloing Algalon, but we wanted to see how significant the drop-off of players was as the bosses got more difficult, so we looked at a sample that contains ~130k level 85 characters that completed Ulduar achievements before Patch 3.2 was released. The percentages in the chart are normalized to 100% for The Siege of Ulduar (10 player).

This means that we are looking at boss difficulty relative to the easiest bosses, not the percent of the player population that completed each encounter. Keep in mind there is some inaccuracy, as the characters that made it to 85 may not include many of the characters who completed it at level 80 and then became inactive.

Ultimately, out of the 100% players who completed The Siege of Ulduar (10 player), only 1.1% of them defeated Algalon in 10-man before Patch 3.2 was released. The 25-man version was even less accessible and only 0.38% of the sampled players completed the encounter.

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Poll: When did you start playing WoW?
Were you playing when Ulduar was current content? Or were you killing Core Hounds when you first started? Let us know!



Blue Posts

Love Is In The Air, So Wear A Mask
With the onset of Valentine’s Day, thoughts of romance and companionship plague the air like a masterfully-designed virus. Not even the realm of my dark masters is safe, for Azeroth is currently teeming with positive emotions due to the “Love Is In The Air” festivities.

To further my understanding of these alien thought processes, I request your favorite canonical pairing in the Warcraft universe and why you believe this pairing works. These pairings do not need to be of the flushed quadrant; your favorite examples of companionship, friendship, or “bromance” are also needed. Should you provide this information, you are then entitled to also include your most desired pairing, but only if you also provide adequate reasoning for this union.

In order to ensure proper formatting, below is an example:

Favorite Pairing:
Reasoning:

Desired Pairing: A’dal (void state) / Xi'ri (void state)
Reasoning: So turn the Lights off / I'm not afraid / Afraid of the Dark (Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

"Break the Trees" – New WoW Parody by Sharm

Singer, songwriter, and parody artist extraordinaire, Sharm has been entertaining World of Warcraft fans with her clever lyrics and angelic voice for almost five years now. She delights us again with her latest song, "Break the Trees," a witty compilation of verses comprised solely of the names of class talents set to the beat of Britney Spear's hit, "Break the Ice."

Whether you're a tank, a healer, or a damage dealer, "Break the Trees" is sure to be a treat. Check it out below or visit Sharm's official page on YouTube.

Fan Art
The World of Warcraft Fan Art Section has been updated with five new pieces of fan artwork.

[gamelyn]

I think that's a good graph and well illustrates something that Blizzard was trying to change, but the raid itself was still very, very fun. I was in one of those raids that took down Algalon 25-man pre-3.2. The sense of accomplishment of beating that pain in the rear encounter tops anything I have done in the game. If everyone were farming Algalon for months before I beat it, the sense of accomplishment would be greatly diminished.

I think there is a middle ground between. .3% and 90%.

[Simca]

That Sylvanas fanart is nice, but odd - who is that supposed to be above her? The mask reminds me of her Val'kyrs, so perhaps them.

As for Ulduar, it was difficult, but I was totally okay with that actually. My guild was like 12/12 normal 3/12 heroic when ToC came out like 6 months later. It took us at least 2 months to get all of normal down. For Dragon Soul, we got normal down in 2 weeks. Firelands took 4 weeks, and T11 was a month and a half.

As Cataclysm has gone on, we've gotten less and less raid content (after you account for difficulty), which is disappointing.

[Hazmyth]

The string on the troll's bow is on the wrong side of his arm :/

[Resentful]

The algalon thing isn't a surprise, He was actually decently hard compared to LK however that's when we had ''Uldaur HM's'' and such so LK normal was probably tuned obviously lower due to having a heroic counterpart while Algalon had a strict 1 hour time limit in addition it being fully tuned without any interference.

Sharm can sing, Kudos.

[Hazmyth]

That Sylvanas fanart is nice, but odd - who is that supposed to be above her? The mask reminds me of her Val'kyrs, so perhaps them.

It's the Valkyr rezzing her after she died to godfrey and his bunch.

[digitalghost]

i love this poll asking when you started playing wow.. almost every single person ive talked to in game lies about playing since vanilla. no matter how good they might be, a lot of ppl still wont admit having started during wotlk or cata

[NatePsy]

Hellscream looks badass in that pic, do want our Orcs to look something like that (If we ever do) when we get new models.

[Arkbird]

Oh god, Chenbo fanart is so damn good.

[Simca]

The algalon thing isn't a surprise, He was actually decently hard compared to LK however that's when we had ''Uldaur HM's'' and such so LK normal was probably tuned obviously lower due to having a heroic counterpart while Algalon had a strict 1 hour time limit in addition it being fully tuned without any interference.

Honestly, Algalon was not more difficult than Yogg+1 or Yogg+0, but the 1 hour time limit was the main problem as well as the requirement of having beaten Firefighter (which was hell back then, even after the first nerf to it).

[1up]

That troll hunter looks EXACTLY like my guy! I same hair, same skin color, same Zulian Tiger!

I got myself a new wallpaper!

[Resentful]

Honestly, Algalon was not more difficult than Yogg+1 or Yogg+0, but the 1 hour time limit was the main problem as well as the requirement of having beaten Firefighter (which was hell back then, even after the first nerf to it).

Eh I can compare it to Yogg+1 and Firefighter - ( Nerfed Version) Personally however Zero is in a league of It's own. Good memories I say; Pretty sure I never did Pre-nerfed Fire fighter unfortunately to compare it.

[scalebane]

Nyorloth made a Homestuck reference. Cool.

[Deleted]

Eh I can compare it to Yogg+1 and Firefighter - ( Nerfed Version) Personally however Zero is in a league of It's own. Good memories I say; Pretty sure I never did Pre-nerfed Fire fighter unfortunately to compare it.

Imo, Algalon was harder then yogg+1 but on about the same level as firefighter. It took us longer to get firefighter done then Algalon.

Then again, i enjoined progressing trough ulduar and the hardmodes more then i do these days, we got yogg and most hardmodes down before the patch, but even working on the last hardmodes and Algalon afer the patch was still a challenge.

[MrExcelion]

Surprised the Algalon percentage is still so low, as I see Ulduar mount runs in trade all the time on my server.

I also didn't expect only 1% of the poll voters to start to in Cataclysm, I could see maybe 5 or 10%, but 1% a lot less than I thought. A lot of the people I used to know from Vanilla aren't even around now. Then again, I remember a poll on the front page here of asking if you currently played or not, and I believe 40% said no, so I suppose we have a lot of people who like to hang around the awesome MMO-C forums.

[Resentful]

Imo, Algalon was harder then yogg+1 but on about the same level as firefighter. It took us longer to get firefighter done then Algalon.

Then again, i enjoined progressing trough ulduar and the hardmodes more then i do these days, we got yogg and most hardmodes down before the patch, but even working on the last hardmodes and Algalon afer the patch was still a challenge.

Our progression here I believe was hmm if I remember correctly, We had progressed through ToC Hm's and such and our GM decided. Okay we are going back to do Algalon and Yogg Zero. Even with ToC gear we still struggled and Algalon was going to break our guild however that didn't happen and we killed it and yogg zero few days after.

Wish I got to experience Pre-nerfed firefighter. Such a shame

[Hedleyazg]

Ulduar is a bad example to use for progression since it wasn't out for very long before ToC came along and everyone moved along to that. In some cases people completely bypassed Ulduar. The reason people liked Ulduar so much is the fact that the Hardmodes were unique and not just, "Oh this guy hits way harder."

[Gaexion Ramza Beoulve]

A chart that says bosses get harder the closer you get to the final one...

Intradesting.

[Resentful]

Ulduar is a bad example to use for progression since it wasn't out for very long before ToC came along and everyone moved along to that. In some cases people completely bypassed Ulduar. The reason people liked Ulduar so much is the fact that the Hardmodes were unique and not just, "Oh this guy hits way harder."

In general it was just a good flawless raid, Compared to ToC and a year + 1/2 Of ICC? Uldaur takes the cake. Not even to list Naxx there.

[nekobaka]

Well Algalon was purposefully designed to be out of reach for most players and considered optional content, so the completion rate is of no surprise. Add on the one hour timer which doesnt allow players to overcome mistakes and learning curves with a brute force of many hours upon hours of wipes.

Less than a quarter of the population that raided Ulduar cleared the raid while it was current and yet players seemed to have been happy.

I was a bit surprised at first with the 10 man Decent in the Madness being a tad lower as that was the version I progressed and cleared in a once a week group that was formed from random friends and other friends with a few being carried.

I find it weird how the content patch days have gotten far smoother than in WotLK and in particular to Ulduar which was very buggy at launch and yet Ulduar was just so well made otherwise and raids like DS are just poor quality on the fun side(IMO).