the mad rush for one game

[tyreil829]

it was said there was a mad rush for one game today (Lich King) i am wondering who has waited in line for it

 

Sheppard

[Stampede]

Never heard of it.

[tyreil829]

World of Warcraft Wrath of the Lich King i went to Game today for Fallout 3 to find a long line ( that goes right outside... i had to wait for ages but given up and gone back

 

http://www.gearfuse.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/deathknight.jpg

 

Sheppard

[Stampede]

Aah ok. :thumbsup: Sorry you did not get it. Not a WOW player myself.

[Javalin]

I was in town last night, and there were tonnes of people queuing outside of GameStation at midnight to buy Wrath of the Lich King lol.

 

I think it was and will be overated much like GTA IV.

 

Personally, I don't like MMORPG's anymore. Alot of the people you meet on them are morons :P

 

 

 

I did have a lvl 25 Night Elf Rogue. But when I came to log into it one day, it had been deleted (Wtf)- So I never bothered with it lol.

 

So yes, I think it is far too much of a rush for a game.

 

 

 

Kind Regards,

 

Jav'

[Deleted269910User]

Well, this is my input as an OLD hardcore raider(5-8hours a day, 6 days a week with small variances due to RL stuff that does happen occasionally.) ever since WoW beta, raiding and PvP was fun pre-BC, lots of things took a lot of time to achieve and having good gear wasn't easy to accomplish. Then along came The Burning Crusade, over 2 years of raiding was thrown out the window, gear attained was obsolete and getting 'good' or 'great' equipment wasn't even a challenge anymore. Things got toned down towards the 10-year-old players who whined all over the forums about things being too damn hard, they got what they wanted and roughly 3/4 of the old hardcore raiders quit on my server.

 

I started hardcore raiding from a clean slate, yet again. I achieved the same 'level' of gear which I had had pre-BC, now Blizz wants to screw me over again? When I first saw the announcement for WotLK, I instantly cancelled my subscription and simply played for the time I had left, said goodbye to my old friends and that was it. How often can people let a single company screw them over? Their customer service has NEVER worked even at a 'relatively good' level, it's horrible, 3 months of waiting for answers on subscription problems(This is how long I had to wait and even then their answers weren't even answers, they suggested all the things I had listed I had already tried. Then they suggest me to send it again and wait for another 3 months, f' that.), 6 months if your account was stolen, do I need to go on?(I do not know the situation in US, however, in EU, it IS this bad, often even worse.)

 

There were lots of problems with the game, all of it got toned down towards little kids, there is absolutely no challenge in the game at all unless you're looking at 1v3 PvP situations, that + everything I've mentioned above and the small little lore screw overs caused me to just finally move onto new games.

 

Basically to sum all of this up; I've had nothing but bad experiences after another ever since BC was published and WotLK does nothing to cure their old mistakes, only make them worse with a small cream topping. This is why I wouldn't even touch WotLK with a meter long stick. Forgive me for the hate mongering, but all WoW fanboys who think I'm wrong and want to try and prove it can kindly go [insert a few descriptive words of a location where the sun doesn't shine, surrounded by several swear words], this is my opinion based on playing the game ever since beta without a single break until I finally quit 4 months ago when my subscription ran dry.

 

~Elraine

[Javalin]

Well, this is my input as an OLD hardcore raider(5-8hours a day, 6 days a week with small variances due to RL stuff that does happen occasionally.) ever since WoW beta, raiding and PvP was fun pre-BC, lots of things took a lot of time to achieve and having good gear wasn't easy to accomplish. Then along came The Burning Crusade, over 2 years of raiding was thrown out the window, gear attained was obsolete and getting 'good' or 'great' equipment wasn't even a challenge anymore. Things got toned down towards the 10-year-old players who whined all over the forums about things being too damn hard, they got what they wanted and roughly 3/4 of the old hardcore raiders quit on my server.

 

I started hardcore raiding from a clean slate, yet again. I achieved the same 'level' of gear which I had had pre-BC, now Blizz wants to screw me over again? When I first saw the announcement for WotLK, I instantly cancelled my subscription and simply played for the time I had left, said goodbye to my old friends and that was it. How often can people let a single company screw them over? Their customer service has NEVER worked even at a 'relatively good' level, it's horrible, 3 months of waiting for answers on subscription problems(This is how long I had to wait and even then their answers weren't even answers, they suggested all the things I had listed I had already tried. Then they suggest me to send it again and wait for another 3 months, f' that.), 6 months if your account was stolen, do I need to go on?(I do not know the situation in US, however, in EU, it IS this bad, often even worse.)

 

There were lots of problems with the game, all of it got toned down towards little kids, there is absolutely no challenge in the game at all unless you're looking at 1v3 PvP situations, that + everything I've mentioned above and the small little lore screw overs caused me to just finally move onto new games.

 

Basically to sum all of this up; I've had nothing but bad experiences after another ever since BC was published and WotLK does nothing to cure their old mistakes, only make them worse with a small cream topping. This is why I wouldn't even touch WotLK with a meter long stick. Forgive me for the hate mongering, but all WoW fanboys who think I'm wrong and want to try and prove it can kindly go [insert a few descriptive words of a location where the sun doesn't shine, surrounded by several swear words], this is my opinion based on playing the game ever since beta without a single break until I finally quit 4 months ago when my subscription ran dry.

 

~Elraine

 

Good for you. You're one of few who I know quit for that reason :P

 

I wish you can tell my friends that in person, how much of a waste of money it is. They keep trying to get me to play that damn game.

 

1. They never stop talking about it, despite the fact they called it a crap game several months ago lol.

 

2. One of them wonders why he hasn't got a girlfriend (He's desperate aswell)

 

3. The one without a girlfriend has a massive alterego, and his best friend even said that he is going to die a virgin because of his rapid addiction to the game (Lol)

[XanAlderon]

Never played World of warcraft and I doubt I ever will, I don't like the idea of subscribing for a game.

[Michlo]

Well, this is my input as an OLD hardcore raider(5-8hours a day, 6 days a week with small variances due to RL stuff that does happen occasionally.) ever since WoW beta, raiding and PvP was fun pre-BC, lots of things took a lot of time to achieve and having good gear wasn't easy to accomplish. Then along came The Burning Crusade, over 2 years of raiding was thrown out the window, gear attained was obsolete and getting 'good' or 'great' equipment wasn't even a challenge anymore. Things got toned down towards the 10-year-old players who whined all over the forums about things being too damn hard, they got what they wanted and roughly 3/4 of the old hardcore raiders quit on my server.

 

I started hardcore raiding from a clean slate, yet again. I achieved the same 'level' of gear which I had had pre-BC, now Blizz wants to screw me over again? When I first saw the announcement for WotLK, I instantly cancelled my subscription and simply played for the time I had left, said goodbye to my old friends and that was it. How often can people let a single company screw them over? Their customer service has NEVER worked even at a 'relatively good' level, it's horrible, 3 months of waiting for answers on subscription problems(This is how long I had to wait and even then their answers weren't even answers, they suggested all the things I had listed I had already tried. Then they suggest me to send it again and wait for another 3 months, f' that.), 6 months if your account was stolen, do I need to go on?(I do not know the situation in US, however, in EU, it IS this bad, often even worse.)

 

There were lots of problems with the game, all of it got toned down towards little kids, there is absolutely no challenge in the game at all unless you're looking at 1v3 PvP situations, that + everything I've mentioned above and the small little lore screw overs caused me to just finally move onto new games.

 

Basically to sum all of this up; I've had nothing but bad experiences after another ever since BC was published and WotLK does nothing to cure their old mistakes, only make them worse with a small cream topping. This is why I wouldn't even touch WotLK with a meter long stick. Forgive me for the hate mongering, but all WoW fanboys who think I'm wrong and want to try and prove it can kindly go [insert a few descriptive words of a location where the sun doesn't shine, surrounded by several swear words], this is my opinion based on playing the game ever since beta without a single break until I finally quit 4 months ago when my subscription ran dry.

 

~Elraine

 

 

You see it as screwing over. Myself and many others see it as increasing the options for those who have lives! Not many can devote 5-8 hours a day six days a week, that's insane. Before, all the people who couldn't do that were being screwed over. They didn't get to get the great gear you speak of and more importantly (to myself at least) they didn't get to see a lot of the game, the game that they pay the same amount of money for.

 

Games are supposed to be about options and to cater to a wide audience, not a niche "hard-core".

 

I'm not trying to get into a WoW fight here. I played it for far longer than I should have and the new expansion has tempted me to go and have a look again but I certainly won't ever be someone who queues up for hours for a game or spends 5-8 hours in a raid group. :)

 

Cheers.

[Deleted269910User]

Well, it was actually 3-4hours of raiding and the rest of the time was getting up the raid supplies. The main thing is that they've toned everything down to a level where it's too easy to gain everything you want and there is no fun in the game since it lacks all the challenge. I admit not all can invest the time for hardcore raiding(I can't either anymore, but I've retired from MMO's anyway.), but even if you're able to play for around 2-3hours a day it is definetly possible to get to the same level, even if it is slightly slower. I'm going to give an example of raiding difficulty differences in the game pre-BC and in TBC;

 

pre-BC;

Temple of Ahn'Qiraj;

C'Thun;

C'Thun is a 2-phase fight. Phase I faces the Eye of C'Thun. In Phase II the battle is against C'Thun itself.

 

The Eye and C'Thun itself cannot be tanked. It doesnt have an aggro list and uses only ranged abilities. It is also immobile.

 

The fight takes place in two locations. Outside and inside C'Thun's stomach.

 

IMPORTANT: Do not run past the door to C'Thun's room, do not even take a peek. It will aggro you and instantly kill everyone.

 

Abilities

 

PHASE I

 

Eye Beam:

Green Beam originatin in the pupil of C'thun's Eye. Random target (unlimited range), hits for 2000-2500 nature damage and jumps to nearby players within 10 yds, doubling it's damage with each jump. Can be resisted. (Certain death for the 3rd or later player affected if it jumps)

 

Dark Glare:

Red Beam (or rather "wall") originating in the pupil of C'Thun's Eye. Random target (unlimited range), hits for 50k shadow damage anyone who passes through the beam. It lasts 35 seconds and moves slowly 180° either clock- or counterclockwise.

 

Eye Tentacle:

Every 45 seconds 8 Eye Tentacles spawn in circular fashion around C'Thun at the edge of the black smoke. Each of them has 2300 hp and their only ability is a 750 shadow dmg per tick Mind Flay on a single random target. They are vulnerable to stun, counterspell, shock, silence, shieldbash, etc.

 

Claw Tentacle:

At random intervals Claw Tentacles appear in random locations throughout the room. Upon spawn, they deal 1500 physical(?) damage and knock back all players within 10 yds of their spawn-point.

 

PHASE II

 

Damage Absorbation:

By default C'Thun absorbs all damage.

 

Eye Tentacle:

(Same as Phase I but on shorter timer) Every 30 seconds 8 Eye Tentacles spawn in circular fashion at the edge of the black smoke around C'Thun. Each of them has 2300 hp and heir only ability is a 750 shadow dmg per tick Mind Flay on a single random target. They are vulnerable to stun, counterspell, shock, silence, shieldbash, etc.

 

Giant Eye Tentacle:

Every 40 seconds a Giant Eye Tentacle spawns in a random location in the room. It has roughly 40k hp and deals some minor melee damage. In addition it posess the same "Eye Beam" ability C'Thun's Eye in Phase I had --> Random target, hits for 2000-2500 nature damage and jumps to nearby players within 10 yds, doubling its damage with each jump. Can be resisted. Vulnerable to stun, silence, etc.

 

Giant Claw Tentacle:

Every 40 seconds C'Thun randomly picks a player from the raid and spawns a Giant Claw Tentacle at his feet. This causes a knockback on nearby players (10 yds) and deals 2500 nature damage on each of them. The Tentacle has 65k hp and deals significant melee damage. Tankable.

 

Every 10 seconds a random player will be swallowed by one of the Giant Tentacles and thus become teleported into C'Thun's Stomach.

 

(Stomach) Digestive Acid:

The teleport to C'Thun's stomach drops the player into a green liquid that causes a debuff "Digestive Acid", which deals 150 nature damage every 3 seconds. It stacks every 5 seconds independent of where once stands inside the stomach. Cannot be dispelled.

 

(Stomach) Flesh Tentacle:

Inside C'Thun's stomach, two of these tentacles can be found. They both have 25000 hp and deal moderate melee damage. If both of them get killed, C'Thuns body on the surface is vulnerable to attacks for 45 seconds. After that period the Tentacle respawns.

 

(Stomach) Teleport Back:

Inside C'Thun's stomach, three islands can be found. Two for fighting the Flesh Tentacles, and one with a black surface. Stepping onto that surface teleports the player back outside and he can resume the fight.

 

Process

 

PHASE I

 

0) Setup 8 self sufficient groups that always stay together (in range)

1) Spread out, stay at least 10 yds from each other (get the C'Thun Warner mod (/ctw)). Evenly all around C'Thun.

2) Kill the mini-tentacles asap (they can kill rapidly). Eyes first, Claws second.

3) On a dark glare (red beam), run to your alternate position on the opposite side of the room, don't run through the beam.

 

PULL: Make sure everyone is mounted and paying attention. Upon signal everyone runs into the room together. As soon as the first player enters, everyone gets into combat. Now everyone got 10 seconds to reach his designated position before C'Thun starts casting Eye-Beams.

 

Once inside odd groups branch out left and even groups right. While running everyone has to make sure not to overtake those in front of him, or to get close in the first place. Some people might dismount early, so be aware.

 

10 Sec after entry, C'Thun starts it's eye-beams. By that time everyone should be in position.

 

GROUP SETUP + POSITIONS: Each group has at least 1 melee, 1 healer and 2 ranged/casters plus one random class. One melee player in the group is made the group-leader and everyone in the group follows his movement. he dictates to moment when the group runs in on the pull and functions as main assist for the eyes. He is also by default the only melee to attack the groups designated Eye Tentacle. The group itself spreads out circular while making sure that no two players stand in conjunction with each other towards C'Thun. This way a Dark Glare can never hit two players simultaneously and make dodging it easier. --> See illustration.

 

GENERAL: 45 seconds after the pull Eye Tentacles will spawn for the first time accompanied by a Dark Glare. Killing these Tentacles quick (within 3-4 seconds of their spawn) while avoiding the Dark Glare is the critical ability a raid has to learn. The Dark Glare rotates 180° either clock- or counterclockwise killing everyone who passes through it. Once the Glare stops another wave of Eye Tentacles spawns accompanied by Eye Beams from C'Thun. Dark Glare and Eye Beam phases will alternate with Eye Tentacle spawns in between.

 

DARK GLARE starts on a random player and turns slowly either clock- or counterclockwise. Before the beam starts, the eye turns red and stares into one direction for about 3 seconds with some black smoke in the pupil. This is the cue for everyone in that direction to clear the area immediately and get a safe distance from the beam. Note: We don't use mod-announcement for this as we have seen its much simpler and more reliable to have players just watch the eye turn red and react to that.

 

The beam is slower than a running player, so no matter which way it actually turns, one is safe as long as he keeps running. The Dark Glare turns 180° and then stops.

 

During a dark glare, small eye tentacles will have to be killed quickly or their mindflay will make it impossible for some to run away from the beam.

 

To maintain the spread out positions, upon each dark glare groups switch to the opposite side of the room (which mean effectively rotation the whole raid 180° with the beam).

 

Afer a Dark Glare another wave of Eye Tentacles Spawns and another Eye Beam phase starts.

 

EYE BEAM: In order to conter eye beams everyone has to stay spread out 10 yds from each other. The Eye Beams have a tendence to hit those players who are not spread properly first, so there is no margin for error really. If all groups know their two alternate positions accross the room and they internally keep the positions up as illustrated above this is no big deal.

 

It gets tricky when some players fell behind during the preceeding Dark Glare and couldn't get in position in time. Its best for them to stay where they are in that case and find a safe spot nearby until the next dark glare. Running over others is bad, very bad.

 

EYE TENTACLES usually spawn at the beginning of Dark Glare and Eye Beam phases. During Eye Beam they are killed as people move past them. DoTs, instant spells and melee hits work well here. If the Glare is still at a safe distance, stopping briefly is the way to go. During Eye Beam the Tentacles are killed by the melee primarily as they are quicker to output 2500 dmg than casters, who nevertheless help. Its possible to target eye tentacles before they are fully spawned. Note: Targetting Tentacles at a distance (> 20 yds)is not possible. In the positions illustrated above, each group is responsible for one Eye spawn. Note: We dont use an announce mod for these as its proved to be more reliable to have people just pay attention to whats going on around them.

 

A macro of great utility is: /target Eye Tentacle it has a "built-in" priority that suits the priority of the encounter. It targets the nearest Eye Tentacle --> Giant Eye Tentacle --> (Giant) Claw Tentacle.

 

PHASE II

 

0) Same setup as in phase I

1) Spread out as in phase I

2) Warriors grab a Giant Claw tentacle when it spawns

3) Kill the Eye Tentacles asap --> then Giant Eyes --> then Giant Caws

3.5) Dont buch up, stay spread, only deal with whats in your half of the room.

4) When swallowed, jump on land, do as much damage to the RIGHT Flesh Tentacle as you can without dying. Then Teleport back up. Healers help the DPS inside to stay a bit longer. More than one healer isn't needed inside.

5) Once both Flesh Tentacles in the Stomach are dead, C'Thun is becomes vulnerable to attacks for 45 seconds. In that event all remaining Eyes on the outside get killed quickly. Then DPS goes all out on C'Thun.

6) After the weakened ends. There will be no Eye Tentacle Spawns within 20 seconds. Within those 20 seconds all remaining Claws should be killed rapidly.

7) Repeat this process until C'Thun is dead. If your DPS is good it should not take more than 3 weakened phases to kill it.

 

TBC;

Battle of Mount Hyjal;

Archimonde;

Archimonde is the last fight at Mount Hyjal and is quite different from all the rest.

 

First off, you don't have any trash to clear, so you can wipe all you want without having to re clear anything, making it a really enjoyable encounter.

 

Second, due to the nature of the encounter and the boss abilities, if you make even the slightest mistake your entire raid might die in about 15 seconds, especially on your first few tries. The encounter can be easy, but it's also completely unforgiving. One mistake and it's all over. Bear that in mind.

 

 

 

Raid Setup

Tanks: 1

Healers: 8 (At least 1-2 restoration druids for decursing)

DPS : 16 (At least 2-3 mages for decursing)

 

 

 

Buffs, Potions and Gear

All the usual buffs and potions.

 

Tremor Totem in healer/decurser groups and/or Fear Ward on healers/decursers.

 

 

 

Boss Abilities

HP - 4,600,000

Melee Strength - 7,000 on plate. He cannot land a Crushing Blow.

 

 

Doomfire

About every 30 seconds, Archimonde will call down a huge trail of fire, with a life of it's own. Each section of the trail of fire lasts about 27 seconds before it disappears. It 2-3 yards wide, and spawns in one spot and then gets longer and longer as its "head" moves around. Each piece of the fire deals damage for a period of 27 seconds, though the fire animation lasts for 45 seconds, so parts of the fire will remain visible, whilst being harmless, a few seconds before they despawn.

 

When Doomfire spawns, there is a little flame which is a few feet in front of the main fire, which twists and turns, showing the path of the main Doomfire. For example, if this small fire bends to the right, the main fire will go that way during the flame. It's similar to the small blue path which spawns just before Shade of Aran's Blizzard, showing where the Blizzard will start.

Archimonde often has two Doomfires active at once. They sometimes follow a player, then suddenly run in a completely random direction, then follow a player again. Thus, the best thing you can do is watch out and run if it goes for you.

 

If you step in the fire, you take 2400 damage every second, and you get a non-dispellable DoT debuff also called "Doomfire" that lasts 2250 fire damage to you every 3 seconds, decreasing by 150 each tick until zero, for a total of 20400 damage over 45 seconds. This debuff can be removed with immunities like Cloak of Shadows, Iceblock and Divine Shield.

 

 

 

 

 

Soul Charge

Whenever a person dies (pet deaths don't trigger it), his "soul" (which looks like the Banshee's Banshee Wail spell) flies to Archimonde. When it reaches Archimonde, he gains a Shadow Orb, which looks like the effect of the priest racial ability Shadowguard, only in different colours. Once he gains a Soul Charge, he will usually use it on the raid after about 5-10 seconds (though it is not fixed, and could be instant or after a long pause), so healers have this time to top off the raid in anticipation of the Soul Charge's effect.

 

There are 3 different charges depending on which class died. They are as follows :

 

Purple(Red) Soul Charge (Priest, Paladin, Warlock)

Deals 4500 fire damage to everyone in a 200 yard radius, as well as silencing them for 4 seconds.

 

Orange(Yellow) Soul Charge (Warrior, Rogue, Mage)

Increases all damage taken by everyone in the raid by 50% and deals 4500 physical damage (decreased by armour) to everyone in a 200 yard radius.

 

Green Soul Charge (Druid, Shaman, Hunter)

Deals 4500 nature damage over 8 seconds (1125 every 2 seconds), in addition to draining 2250 mana from everyone in a 200 yard radius.

 

There is no limit to the number of Soul Charges Archimonde can have, so it is very easy for one death to trigger a Soul Charge which kills a few more players, resulting in a cascade of deaths and Soul Charges, and so a wipe.

 

 

Grip of the Legion

Used randomly, and very often (if not constantly), it places a curse on a random target, dealing 2500 shadow damage every 3 seconds for 5 minutes (250,000 total). He won't cast this on somebody who has just been Air Bursted Has a range of 60 yards. Must be decursed as fast as possible.

 

 

Air Burst

Tears of the Goddess

The Battle for Mount Hyjal

Binds when picked up

Unique

Use: Briefly slows falling speed.Inflicts 1500 nature damage to everyone in 13 yards around the targeted player (including the player themselves), tossing them high up and back into the air (over 100 yards away from Archimonde), after which they will simply fall down. Will not be used on the player at the top of Archimonde's aggro list.

 

In order not to die from this ability, you need to use the Tears of the Goddess, which you can get from Tyrande Whisperwind at the entrance to the night elf camp, by talking to her. The Tears of the Goddess is an item in your inventory that when used (by clicking on it), slows your fall (like Slow Fall or Levitate) for 2 seconds, after which you resume your normal fall speed. It has a 10 second cooldown. In order not to die from the fall damage, you must use it when you're almost at the ground. If you lag, use it even earlier; it's better to use it early and take 2000-3000 falling damage than not be able to use it at all and die.

 

Air Burst has a 6 second cooldown, meaning it CAN be used every 6 seconds, but it can also be used after 20 seconds or even a minute. Thus it's pretty random. It can only be cast on a person in 60 yards of Archimonde so it cannot be cast twice on the same group of Air Burst-ed player while they are in the air or running back, since the Air Burst throws them back far more than 60 yards. An Air-Burst tank does not lose aggro, but your tank should not be hit by Air Burst if everyone positions correctly.

 

 

Fear

Cast regularly at 40 second intervals. Fears everybody in a 200 yard radius for about 6-8 seconds. Will of the Forsaken, PvP Trinkets, Divine Shield, Ice Block, Cloak of Shadows (while it's cast), Fear Ward, Tremor Totem, all can be used to avoid this ability. It has a 1.5 second cast so the main tank must be fast to switch to Berserker Stance and use Berserker Rage to counter the fear before it's cast.

 

There is a VERY HIGH chance your MT will die in the time you are feared, so you must pick pairs of about 2 healers a time who will trinket/ability out of the Fear and heal the main tank.

 

Also, if you are running towards the Doomfire while feared, you MUST get out of the Fear or the Doomfire has a very high chance of killing you while feared, or simply giving the raid healers too many targets to heal.

 

 

Finger of Death

The description of this ability, straight from the WoW spell descriptions, states, "Strikes an enemy with the finger of death, inflicting 20000 shadow damage upon them, their children, and their children's children."

 

This description fits the ability quite nicely. He uses it when there's nobody in his melee range, but never during the pull.

 

Basically it's a wipe up ability he uses just to kill you off faster after your tank dies and such. It's not used during the encounter itself unless you try to exploit it in some way.

 

 

 

The Fight

 

 

Positioning

 

Positioning, as with Kaz'Rogal, is flexible as long as you follow a few rules :

 

- Never turn Archimonde towards the raid.

 

- Stay spread out.

 

- Make sure to have decursers in range of everyone to remove Grip of the Legion as soon as possible.

 

- Make sure to have healers in range of everyone.

 

Archimonde is pulled simply by having your MT walk towards him. A hunter should Misdirect a few shots to the MT as soon as Archimonde has engaged.

 

 

 

 

 

Archimonde is facing the mountains, with the raid spread out behind him. If you're a DPS class you can run behind him while mounted, but healers should simply run on foot as the tank is very vulnerable during the pull due to receiving fewer heals when moving.

 

This is NOT a DPS fight. Let the tank grab some aggro, then you can start DPS.

 

Remember to spread out nicely, but never stand in front of Archimonde.

 

Soon into the fight, he'll cast his first Doomfire. As mentioned, it might either follow a player or move randomly, or both. If the Doomfire gets close to the melee DPS, they should move out of the way immediately. The tank should generally just stay in the Doomfire if it crosses him, but if he can move about 1-2 yards backwards and out of the fire, he should do that. However, if moving out of the Doomfire for the MT requires Archimonde to be turned or change his facing, the MT should just stay in the Doomfire. It's perfectly healable.

 

Sometime after the first Doomfire should come the first Air Burst. Make sure you're not too clumped up. A possible technique is to have the people in each group stand on top of each other. Thus, at any given time, only 5 people will be Air Burst-ed. However, it's not really needed, as long as you simply spread out. Melee need to move back from Archimonde when you see him casting the Air Burst so that a hit on you doesn't send the Main Tank into the air. Archimonde WILL continue to melee him while he's in the air, but the Air Burst will take him out of range of your healers and he will likely die.

 

When the Air Burst hits, the few affected people will be thrown very high and very far back into the air. Just a few moments before you hit the ground you must use the Tears of the Goddess to prevent dying from the falling damage. Mages and Priests can use Slow Fall, Blink, Ice Block and Levitate to avoid the falling damage if they are having trouble using the Tears. Paladins can use Blessing Of Protection/Divine Shield, Warriors can Intervene on someone else close to the ground.

 

It is IMPERATIVE that you land safely. Dying from fall damage will give Archimonde a Soul Charge. If it's the silence (purple) Soul Charge, that's pretty much a dead main tank. Whatever the effect of the Soul Charge, it's very prone to killing at least one or more people. Very often, one death will trigger a chain reaction of multiple deaths due to the global and nasty effects of the Soul Charges.

 

Use everything you can, but do not die from falling damage. A dead person can wipe the raid in a second.

 

Soon after the first Air Burst should come the Fear. This is a very tricky moment, as if everyone uses their PvP trinkets / anti-fear tools on one fear, and you have none ready for the second, the probability of the tank dying is very high. Thus, as mentioned above, pair up healers and have the first healer pair trinket/racial/talent out of the fear and focus their healing on the MT.

 

As the fear is a 1 second cast spell, the main tank should be ready to quickly switch to Berserker Stance and use Berserker Rage to counter the fear. Otherwise, if he gets feared, Archimonde will simply turn to the un-feared healers or to anyone who resisted the fear, or to simply the next target on his aggro list.

 

If you get feared and see yourself running towards a Doomfire, you have to use your trinket/racial/talent to get out of the fear in order not to run into the fire and risk not only your death ( and thus the death of the whole raid due to consequent deaths from the generated Soul Charge), but also make the job of the healers a lot tougher, as there'll only be 2 of them not feared.

 

Once the fear goes down, the next one should come in about 25-30 seconds or more.

 

The key to the fight is surviving Archimonde's abilities and not letting anyone die. While you can survive a Soul Charge's effect, it will often lead to many more deaths in a domino effect, and so a wipe.

 

When Archimonde reaches 10%, he will return to the World Tree Nordrassil and resume draining it (this has no effect on the fight, it's just an animation). He will not use any of his abilities during this phase. Tyrande will then cast a buff on you (displayed as a debuff) which makes you immune to EVERYTHING (even heals) and lasts 1 minute. You must kill Archimonde in that one minute. DPS go full out: Recklessness, Cooldowns, even healers go all out DPS. If you do not manage to kill Archimonde in that 1 minute, you lose the fight. Taking down this last 10% of Archimonde's health isn't hard at all, thus this 10% phase is often considered the "free kill" phase.

 

Once Archimonde dies, you lose the invulnerability debuff, you've saved the World Tree, and thus completed Caverns of Time : Mount Hyjal.

 

The basics of the fight are the main difference, no who has not played the game may understand the difficulty difference but main facts are; In order to kill Archimonde, all you need to do is remember to use your tear when you're blasted into air and to stay away from the god damn fire. This is easy unless your raid is filled with 10-year-olds who think the flame is pretty or that falling to the ground and splatting up is fun.

C'Thun, The fight is absolutely unforgiving just like Archimonde. The main difference however is the fact of how hard it is to survive during the fight. There are far more things to watch out and be aware of, secondly, Archimonde is a on a 'equal' tier(C'Thun, tier 3. Archimonde, tier 6.) when you don't take count for the level difference, which in itself makes Archimonde even more ridiculous as a boss.(Tiers 1-3 pre-BC, tiers 4-6 TBC.)Blizzard also has NOT made up anything new onto the boss fights, all the basics are gotten from old pre-BC bosses and have been just mix-matched.(Illidan eye laz0r->C'Thun eye beam anyone? Same with majority of the "new" item sets in the game.) What Blizz is doing is recylcing their old stuff, which you already have and then they're charging you for it.

 

Now onto the PvP aspect; PvP was far too time consuming until the PvP revamp came. It took 12 hours/day for 6 months straight with no pauses to attain R14.(High Warlord/Grand Marshal, most people who did attain this had shared their account with a friend or simply had no personal life.) Now once TBC came out, the only true and fun BG that existed was nerfed and destroyed to hell, namely; Alterac Valley.(Not going to go into details, post is getting far too long already.)

They did introduce the arenas and the god forbidden resilience that literally screwed over majority of the oldskool PvP:ers, also note that PvP gear was made viable in PvE and more easily attainable, however PvE gear was and still is useless in PvP so to basically say this; PvE, you spend a shytload of time to get a great gear, however you lose to the first PvP nablet with his nice set of welfare epics he got from afking in AV for the past week.

 

Blizz has made several choices, bad ones at that, which have made the game suited for little kids who want their epics now, with no effort at all put into it. Raiding is all just a gear check with only 4 >challenging, but NOT difficult< fights in the entire raid content; Illidan, Lady Vashj, M'uru & Kil'jaeden.

 

Now I'm assuming someone just skipped over the wall of text and is reading this; Not a wonder. Anyway this discussion is something that should be held elsewhere unless you want me to make a full comparison and a 100 page essay on in which ways Blizz has failed with both the expansions and their content.

 

~Elraine

 

P.S. As you can see, I really DO hate where WoW is going at this moment, everything Blizz has made has been a mistake ever since TBC was published.(Good fact of this is how item scaling worked, it was a total f' up by Blizz. Proof; http://www.wowhead.com/?spell=45769 simply read the comments section. There are several other ones involving other classes and their gear mechanics.)

 

P.P.S. I apologize if I sound like I'm flaming you(Or someone else for that matter.), this is targeted at the game itself, not by any means anyone here who plays it.

 

P.P.P.S. Debate about this could be very fun as long as it's kept civil. :P