Tuesday 9 January 2018

Ahead of the Curve - Antorus - Part Three

The raid naturally splits into these three areas and I think this is where the skip mechanism brings you once you've collected your 4 McGuffins.
It's a natural split in difficulty too, Coven shenanigans aside, although the curve is quite gentle over all of the first 9 bosses.

Aggramar

Our plate users were drooling over his sword, Taeshalach, which can actually drop for transmog purposes.  It does look bloody cool!

The fight itself is a lesson in avoiding fire which gets progressively more difficult as the fight continues.  In the final phase, I find myself tending towards the headless chicken routine and still haven't mastered Icefury so my dps is close to non-existent.

There are a couple of really interesting aspects to the fight though...

Taeshalach's Technique is reminiscent of the 'dance' you had to perform for Will of the Emperor back in Mogu'shan Vaults. 
Do you remember that?
It was a series of telegraphed moves you had to avoid for a damage buff.  I remember finding it quite tricky at the time, definitely on the first few attempts at least.
This incarnation is only for the tanks to deal with and doesn't have much depth to it, seems like a missed opportunity to me.

CC all the things!
There are a couple of transitions in the fight where the boss is immune to damage and some adds spawn.  A couple of big adds to keep the tanks busy and a few smaller adds for the rest of us.
These smaller adds just move slowly towards the boss - If they reach him, they explode for raidwide damage and leaves a debuff for more damage from any more explosions.

On Normal, you just kill these adds off before they reach the boss.  It's pretty easy, they don't have much health.
On Heroic, it gets much more interesting!  You can still kill the smaller adds but after a few seconds they just reform and continue their journey to the boss.
You need to CC all of the adds and release them one at a time to reach the boss as the debuff from the previous one runs out.  It's a level of individual responsibility and coordination that isn't needed on any of the other fight.
Having a DK grip each add in at the right time makes it a lot easier but it is still a step up in challenge, particularly with all of the fire-dodging going on.

Argus the Unmaker

Wow, this fight is spectacular!
I'm going to do my best to avoid spoilers here because I really feel like this is a fight you should experience rather than read about in a blog.

I barely know where to begin anyway, so much going on...
Multiple phases
Big buffs to make you OP
Big bombs to blow up the raid
Even a bloody Cone of Death!!!

Visually stunning, it is a superb way to end a raid (and possibly expansion)
Normal mode seems well tuned but I think Heroic is lacking a bit of bite, although reports suggest that is more than made up for in Mythic.

Those 'epic' moments are few and far between when you have been playing the game for a long time but this fight really brought them back, hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Summary

If, as expected, this is the last raid of the expansion, then I can't complain.  The bosses are fun for the most part and although the setting does get a bit 'same-y' after a while, it looks incredible and Eonar/Argus offer a touch of variety.

On Heroic, the bosses were not quite challenging enough for our group but that is probably more down to gear than anything else.  I've been keeping an eye on the progress of some old friends (who didn't raid Mythic ToS) and it seems nicely tuned for them.

We're now pushing on for Cutting Edge after a break for the holidays, I'll keep you posted!

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