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Prophet Five

Pundeath Knight
Member
Nov 11, 2017
7,689
The Great Dark Beyond
I've heard from multiple people that Blockade is insane. I'll see it one day.

Since my guild is very very slow right now and raiding is on an indefinite hiatus I made a Frost DK to potentially raid with alliance side. Knowing I won't have to tank is already just a huge relief. I'm not sure I'll get him to 120 (I boosted him to 110) but I miss DPSing so maybe this will breathe some life into BFA for me.
 
Oct 25, 2017
12,486
I think blockade is hard but pretty doable. There is a lot going on in the last phase. I think the only reason we didn't down it is cause we didn't swap to the adds once or twice fast enough, mainly when there were 2 of them.
 

Rokal

Member
Oct 25, 2017
505
One of the blockade nerfs was reverted yesterday, the add spawning interval on the bridge. So, the remaining nerfs are 10% less HP and some reduced damage on abilities. My heroic-focused guild got down normal Blockade last night but it does feel overturned for a normal fight. Even with everyone alive we still fell behind on adds and had to tunnel the boss for the last few % with several adds up.

Jaina was considerably easier.
 

Bregor

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,477
My guild got down normal Blockade last week, before the nerf. But it was one of those 'the pull just went perfectly' events. It was clearly overtuned originally.

The reverted 'nerf' actually makes it easier: slower spawning of the adds means you have less ability to clear the sea swell junk on the platform, so putting the spawn rate back up keeps things under better control.
 
Oct 25, 2017
12,486
My guild got down normal Blockade last week, before the nerf. But it was one of those 'the pull just went perfectly' events. It was clearly overtuned originally.

The reverted 'nerf' actually makes it easier: slower spawning of the adds means you have less ability to clear the sea swell junk on the platform, so putting the spawn rate back up keeps things under better control.

They also made the wail debuff, w/e the thing that sucks up the swell, last longer by like 50% or something (I think it was 8s and now 12s), so the slower spawn didn't really make it harder.
 

Jag

Member
Oct 26, 2017
11,669
Last LFR wing is going to be a massive clusterfuck isn't it. Maybe I'll wait a bit until popping in to see the fights. Would like to finally finish this war campaign and kill the king.
 

Prophet Five

Pundeath Knight
Member
Nov 11, 2017
7,689
The Great Dark Beyond
I got my new DK to 113 last night questing in Drustvar. I'm using AAP so I'm not paying much attention to any of the story stuff on this character but man this feels like the Alliance version of Voldun. Quests everywhere!

So far so good though. Frost DK has changed a bit since 7.1 and it is still hard to remember to use Chains of Ice in my rotation. I had to get a Weak Aura for it. I really feel like Blizzard needs to add their own for it considering how it works.
 

Deleted member 3058

User requested account closure
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Oct 25, 2017
6,728
I got my new DK to 113 last night questing in Drustvar. I'm using AAP so I'm not paying much attention to any of the story stuff on this character but man this feels like the Alliance version of Voldun. Quests everywhere!

So far so good though. Frost DK has changed a bit since 7.1 and it is still hard to remember to use Chains of Ice in my rotation. I had to get a Weak Aura for it. I really feel like Blizzard needs to add their own for it considering how it works.
The story in Drust is pretty good actually. Seems standalone but I loved all the individual beats. Also really enjoyed how you visibly improve the living situations in the towns while you quest through there.
 
Oct 25, 2017
12,486
Got my 405 galecaller's boon already. Ran shrine 10 a couple times this week since it wasn't bad at all. 35 ilvl upgrade over my old galecaller.

Now I just need to spam some freehold 10 for new dice. But so far not seeing many FH10 listings.
 

Prophet Five

Pundeath Knight
Member
Nov 11, 2017
7,689
The Great Dark Beyond
The story in Drust is pretty good actually. Seems standalone but I loved all the individual beats. Also really enjoyed how you visibly improve the living situations in the towns while you quest through there.

It seems like a fun zone but I'm just power leveling this guy. My husband and I are leveling other characters through KT right now and paying attention to the story on those guys. I'm just trying to get someone up to raid level ASAP haha. I like the aesthetics of the zone for sure though.
 

ToTheMoon

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,321
For Normal Blockade, it's important to note that killing the elemental add causes another debuff to instantly go out. So if you're killing the elementals too quickly, then you're actually going to end up with more elementals over the course of the fight.

Once we realized this, we were able to kill it on a good pull (though it definitely felt like it was tuned tightly). Biggest tips are:
1. Slow the Elemental as soon as it spawns. We used Earthbind Totems. Extending its travel time will help you get fewer adds over the course of the fight.
2. Don't kill the add until it's almost reached the boss! You obviously want some ranged and multi-DoTers to swap to the add to start getting it down and to keep it slowed, but killing it to early will just cause more adds to spawn. We had a couple Fire Mages (I was one of them), and for most of P2 we were just focusing the boss, doing soaks, and letting our Ignite spread to the elementals (Ignite spread range is really large on this guy, since his hitbox is so huge).
 
Oct 25, 2017
4,964
on heroic week 1 it took us -

rastakhan - hour and a half
mekkatorque - 2 hours
blockade - about an hour
jaina - 5 hours

So I think we cleared Blockade pretty fast. I will NEVER pug these fights though
 

Fosko

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,954
I finally beat the raid on normal with pugs. I loved it, Uldir was garbage in comparison. The music, the themes, the mechanics and the story mesh together so well with the expansion itself, too bad the next tier will be the azshara one, which feels like a filler arc inside this expansion.

Blockade was a bit too hard for normal, I think it's almost impossible for large groups and the add debuff being random makes it harder to pug than heroic. Jaina was very fun but it was a bit weird that she could basically be solo tanked. She died when only 1 tank and 3 healers remained alive, thank god for the 5% win.

Loved almost every fight, now I'll have to pug hc.
 
Oct 25, 2017
4,964
Huh. I forget, but are you in a normally Mythic guild? What was your progress last tier or previously?

Yeah. We've gotten CE every tier since HFC I think besides Tomb and AOTC first week every tier...besides Tomb again. I've been doing Mythic since the end of Antorus.

We got G'huun pretty late between people quitting, holidays and the fight being anti fun but most guilds I see also have like a month gap between Mythrax and G'huun.

We keep doing week 1 heroic with like 28 people just to prove we can and it makes it so much harder every single time. Jaina on Heroic was lasting 10 minutes 40 seconds on our closest kill and we got FOUR prismatic images. Its not good folks. These fights are also all REALLY long and mechanics heavy. We way overperform on DPS.
 
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Tachya

Tachya

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,496
Yeah. We've gotten CE every tier since HFC I think besides Tomb and AOTC first week every tier...besides Tomb again. I've been doing Mythic since the end of Antorus.

We got G'huun pretty late between people quitting, holidays and the fight being anti fun but most guilds I see also have like a month gap between Mythrax and G'huun.

We keep doing week 1 heroic with like 28 people just to prove we can and it makes it so much harder every single time. Jaina on Heroic was lasting 10 minutes 40 seconds on our closest kill and we got FOUR prismatic images. Its not good folks. These fights are also all REALLY long and mechanics heavy. We way overperform on DPS.

Gotcha. I can't keep everyone straight all the time. I need a raider.io addon for the thread :P

Tomb of Sargeras was a bitch of a tier. Did you guys clear to KJ but not get him? Or get stuck at Avatar? Otherwise I think any reasonably high-skilled guild would at least be able to clear through Mythic Maiden.

At my previous height, I was getting at least AotC by the second week or so if the instance was difficult, otherwise first week. And CE on some tiers or at least deep progression, usually to the last boss. I haven't been in a really serious environment since around Tomb after a group of about 1.5 years broke up around then. I switched to an Alliance guild for a couple months but didn't last too long for several reasons.

I'd like to do more stuff, but the time commitment can be difficult with what can be a slightly irregular schedule at times. And trying to ramp up participation can kinda backfire if returning to the game or whatever at bad times. I tried to get into serious Mythic back for Antorus after a fairly short break and it just didn't work out because I was in a sort of dead zone for recruitment. It was maybe 3-5 weeks or so after the raid had opened and my characters wouldn't have been usable for progression in guilds closer to my skill level, and if they had cut out heroic farm by that point from a limited schedule I was pretty fucked. Unless I wanted to guild hop.

My current apathy for playing the game myself isn't helping though, even if BoD is decent or even good as a raid. Because the group I've played with for a decent while here isn't really capable of higher-end progression.

mythic first boss is a joke. like taloc tier. last half heroic is harder.

That's usually how it is, but maybe the only the last 2 or 3 bosses are harder in heroic. Funnily enough Nythendra in Emerald Nightmare Mythic was actually not that easy. Skorpyron in Nighthold among others have been much easier. I'm sure I could compare further with a list of all the bosses in front of me. Other first bosses are more just annoying on the hardest difficulty than actually hard — Hellfire Assault and Immerseus come to mind.
 
Oct 25, 2017
4,964
heroic was way easier tonight. cleared first 8 in 2 hours, will do jaina after first mythic boss tomorrow.

blockade is WAY easier now
 

Magnus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,352
All this chat makes me miss raiding. I haven't partaken in a non LFR raid in a long time. Did a bunch of Emerald Nightmare on normal and heroic with the guild but that's all. I'm still in the guild I've always been in since 2005 but haven't raided regularly since Wrath. This guild doesn't touch mythic, it's beyond what they can do; they knock their heads on heroic for the first few months of a new raid tier till it's on farm.

I just can't commit to the raiding schedule and haven't been able to for a long time. Relationship and work took over for the last five years. How do you guys do it?
 

Reader

Member
Oct 27, 2017
113
We're currently stuck on the Angry Monkey. It turns out that most guilds that killed him are at 397-400 ilvl average. So we're hoping to get him down this Tuesday. and hopefully down the Two bros soon after.
 

Doukou

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,523
Maybe it's just me but I find this raid a bit lackluster.
The bosses are great but I think I underestimated how important room/environment design are to making a fight memorable.
 

Fosko

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,954
All this chat makes me miss raiding. I haven't partaken in a non LFR raid in a long time. Did a bunch of Emerald Nightmare on normal and heroic with the guild but that's all. I'm still in the guild I've always been in since 2005 but haven't raided regularly since Wrath. This guild doesn't touch mythic, it's beyond what they can do; they knock their heads on heroic for the first few months of a new raid tier till it's on farm.

I just can't commit to the raiding schedule and haven't been able to for a long time. Relationship and work took over for the last five years. How do you guys do it?
I pug normal and heroic as a tank, that way I can raid whenever I want. Pugging normal is not that hard, just male sure you know the bosses and have decent ilvl.
 
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Tachya

Tachya

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,496
Maybe it's just me but I find this raid a bit lackluster.
The bosses are great but I think I underestimated how important room/environment design are to making a fight memorable.

I've been unsubbed for a bit so haven't done the raid myself, but it is pretty damn disappointing that it's another Horde city raid. It was interesting enough the first time with Siege of Orgrimmar, and that was about 2/3s new areas give or take (depends on if you count the Vale-related rooms I guess). Second time you do the same sort of concept and it's just bleh, environmentally.

I'm not sure exactly how much is "new", but it didn't look like much, since Dazar'alor is pretty damn realized in the outside world as is.

From the relatively little I've seen of the fights, they seem much more interesting than plenty in recent times, but some are very heavy on individual responsibility or callouts which can get frustrating at times too, depending on the difficulty.
 

Prophet Five

Pundeath Knight
Member
Nov 11, 2017
7,689
The Great Dark Beyond
I miss raiding so I'm working on an alliance character to raid with a friends guild while mine is taking a break. I wouldn't mind raiding more but without my husband there with me it's not as fun or the same. I really enjoyed when he was able to raid with me.
 

Doof

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,434
Kentucky
Just started playing for the first time. Think I'm gonna try out Worgen Arms Warrior, Orc Enhancement Shaman, and Blood Elf Destruction Warlock, and go from there.
 
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Tachya

Tachya

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,496
Just started playing for the first time. Think I'm gonna try out Worgen Arms Warrior, Orc Enhancement Shaman, and Blood Elf Destruction Warlock, and go from there.

If you're actually playing for the first time ever there's not really any wrong choice in terms of race/class — pick whatever looks cool or fun. Don't be afraid to try a bunch of different character combinations.

The only specific cautionary thing I would say is that if you find yourself falling in deep, you may want to learn what servers have better populations for the two factions. Even though a lot can be done cross-realm, a few important things can't right now and they will significantly impact some key things.

If you have any questions feel free to ask here or elsewhere. I haven't updated the OP in a good while, but the resources linked there should still be useful. Wowhead will be your best friend, but I'd recommend using a strong adblocker when going there if you don't want to subscribe to remove ads — the ads they allow are pretty obnoxious and in times past have been malicious.

Also, I should mention that some of us and the community at large are pretty cynical about the game right now, but it's mostly about things that a new player wouldn't necessarily notice quickly or realize at all without a frame of reference — a lot is more endgame oriented. There's still plenty of stuff in this game to enjoy if you've never played before.
 
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Mars

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,988
Just started playing for the first time. Think I'm gonna try out Worgen Arms Warrior, Orc Enhancement Shaman, and Blood Elf Destruction Warlock, and go from there.

I'll be jumping in, brand new myself. I played some back in '05 at a friend's place and was instantly hooked but didn't own a PC at the time; don't know why I never played when I eventually did. But anywho, pretty excited to get in and check out the Deathknight class.
 
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Tachya

Tachya

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,496
Lol they made Jaina harder. You cant ignore the elemental now (it splits on mythic)

They reverted it already lol.

Also another personal tip Mars Doof

Take a look at different UI addons early. The depth of what you can do with addons in this game (basically a limited type of mod), is one of the things that has really set wow apart from other MMOs across the years. Definitely kept it fresher that it would be had they not been allowed, much like the modding scene for Bethesda games.
 

Bhonar

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
6,066
Also, I should mention that some of us and the community at large are pretty cynical about the game right now, but it's mostly about things that a new player wouldn't necessarily notice quickly or realize at all without a frame of reference — a lot is more endgame oriented. There's still plenty of stuff in this game to enjoy if you've never played before.
This is the most important thing everyone should realize.

The game is awesome playing normally doing the story & questing through Legion.

I see all the regulars in this thread complaining about endgame and hardcore raiding, I don't care about that stuff. Don't have to play WoW for that
 

Weebos

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,060
This is the most important thing everyone should realize.

The game is awesome playing normally doing the story & questing through Legion.

I see all the regulars in this thread complaining about endgame and hardcore raiding, I don't care about that stuff. Don't have to play WoW for that
Yeah I don't ever raid, hell I haven't stepped foot in a Heroic dungeon in BFA, and I still have plenty of fun playing for a few hours a day.
 

Prophet Five

Pundeath Knight
Member
Nov 11, 2017
7,689
The Great Dark Beyond
I see all the regulars in this thread complaining about endgame and hardcore raiding, I don't care about that stuff. Don't have to play WoW for that

They're still valid complaints though. A lot of players do play for just those reasons and those concerns should not be dismissed just because it may not be what someone is specifically into.

The leveling process and experience is still enjoyable, especially for newcomers. Maybe less so for people who are 10+ characters deep. but I'm leveling 3 characters right now and it's definitely better than current endgame, imo.
 
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Tachya

Tachya

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,496
Thanks for the tip, Tachya

Just installed a few (Elvui, World Quest Tracker, and OmniCC) recommended by PC Gamer.

Be sure to read exactly what different addons actually do though. ElvUI is a complete overhaul and essentially wraps up a lot functionality that many individual addons have into a single unified system. World Quest Tracker will only do stuff at level 110 or 120 (former level cap and current cap). OmniCC is somewhat redundant with ElvUI functionality but I still use it even when using ElvUI because I prefer the way it handles some things slightly better — you have to make sure you turn off the same functions in ElvUI though so it doesn't have displays that are conflicting.

ElvUI in particular is a very powerful addon, and the default setup options are okay, but there's a ridiculous amount you can tweak as well, so I'd take a look at whatever guides you might be able to find to see if there's something you might not know.

A similarly powerful addon is Weak Auras — it can pretty much do anything and might seem much scarier than it actually is. But definitely take a look at whatever guide you can find before taking the leap with that, and certainly ease yourself in with premade setups or specific auras from the wago.io library.
 

Codosbuya

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
2,329
Method world first!

Best decision ever to start streaming the race. Very exciting pulls and crazy endurance by their raiders.
 
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