September 10th, 2009 by Kyth
I’ve been thinking a lot about this ever since ToC launch where it was in your best interests to try to guess ahead of time how they might make a fight ‘hard mode’ (unless you can run a ‘test’ 25-man first to get information about the encounters.)
My husband is a game designer and told me the first thing you learn about game design is that it’s all about limits. If you can do whatever you want, that’s just play. But if what you do is limited and you have to work to overcome or circumvent those limitations–that’s a challenge.
If you create a “game” where you ask two people to just take turns naming foods, it stops being fun or interesting quickly. But as soon as you add the limit of “your food must start with the last letter of the other person’s food” you’ve created a challenge of limitation. And that one is a good limit because it also creates player interaction: if you can come up with a food with a nasty final letter, you make the other player’s job harder.
Looking from that perspective I came up with a some examples that force you to play differently on hardmodes by applying limits. Examples are after the cut:
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: hard mode
Posted in Classes and Design, Strategies and Raids | 15 Comments »
September 5th, 2009 by Kyth
Tags: freya, hard mode
Posted in Strategies and Raids | 2 Comments »
August 31st, 2009 by Kyth
We have a thread going on the StratFu Forums right now about how to do Yogg+0. I just wrote a lengthy essay on the thread responding point by point to some detailed questions.
If others out there are struggling with the fight, you may find the conversation useful. Feel free to post additional questions, Feist, a rogue in <Midwinter>, and I are both responding.
Read: Alone in the Darkness Questions
You can also always join us on IRC, at #stratfu on irc.gamesurge.net if you’re want to chat about fights, gear, the latest PTR changes, or even just how the weather is.
Tags: hard mode, yogg
Posted in Strategies and Raids | No Comments »
August 12th, 2009 by Kyth
Did you ever *lose* a boss strategy? I did.
But I found it! And uploaded it tonight. And now StratFu has the long-lost Freya hardmode strategy.
StratFu: Hard Mode Freya Strategy
Tags: freya, hard mode
Posted in Strategies and Raids | 5 Comments »
July 17th, 2009 by Kyth
There’s a very interesting article on WoW Progress graphing disbanded guilds versus their world rank. The big “at risk” rank was 3300-3500.
Time-wise, the disbands occured all before the big XT nerf which made a hardmode doable for many guilds. XT has little coordination, and is more of a test of ‘wow basics’ than the more complicated hard modes.
Basically: these were the guilds who could kill Yogg but were unable to do any hardmodes, so disbanded rather than have nothing to do other than farm easy-modes.
The author also suggests that there may have been a correlation between “we don’t care about doing hardmodes because we’ve already seen the content” and the disbands. Although I think that’s less likely to be the primary reason, there certainly is a split in many guilds between those who are interested in doing everything the game has to offer and those content with just farming easy targets.
Tags: hard mode, xt
Posted in Guilds and Leadership | 20 Comments »
June 24th, 2009 by Kyth
Thanks to Nidaba for compiling this data.
Overall, the total P2 damage last week was 6.1 million. This week it was 3.9 million.
Doomfire tick has been reduced by 50% from pre-nerf. Previously was Flames – Spell – World of Warcraft. Now seems to be hitting for ~ 5k pre-absorb/resist/mitigation.
Rapid Burst is the same as before.
Heat Wave has been nerfed by ~ 35% (from ticks in the 2400 range to ticks in the 1500 range).
Napalm hasn’t been changed much, if at all. Sample size was too small to really tell, but comparing one person in particular who got hit with it on both weeks, the dot ticks seem to be hitting for 5% less. It may not actually be a change, because 5% is small enough that raid buffs and other changes may be affecting things.
Not exactly sure on Plasma Blast. If I’m interpreting the results correctly, though, it’s been reduced by 20%. The hits on a warrior with 4-piece T8 Shield Block up, dStance, and only a GS for protection were 21,150 this week, as compared to the identical set-up hits (with an additional 3% from Disc aura) of 25,603 last week. Converted to non-Disc aura, it comes out to 0.801 as a ratio, which is close enough to 80% to call it.
Tags: hard mode, mimiron
Posted in Strategies and Raids | 4 Comments »
June 24th, 2009 by Kyth
I haven’t seen a post yet, but confirmed this when we did hard mode tonight:
All fire damage (on hardmode at least) is approximately halved. And the health of all mobs seems lower by about 5%.
The fire damage nerf is significant because heatwave was arguably too much damage for the encounter. This change removes the ‘priest stacking’ requirement from Mimiron hard mode, making it far more accessible to new guilds. Any pair of healers now can heal a group in P2, regardless of their class (and priests can solo heal one.)
Tags: hard mode, mimiron
Posted in Strategies and Raids | No Comments »
June 16th, 2009 by Kyth
As promised, Part 2: Thorim
Tags: hard mode, hardmode, thorim
Posted in Movies and Media | 45 Comments »
June 2nd, 2009 by Kyth
Harder than Freya, I felt such a tremendous sense of relief when we killed this last night. We went about 30 minutes over our normal raid time because we’d had two 0% wipes earlier in the evening (to enrage.)
I’ll write more later, but for now, a video:
Tags: hard mode, mimiron
Posted in Movies and Media | 8 Comments »
May 16th, 2009 by Kyth
Includes the specs we used, as well as detailed healing instructions for each phase and addon suggestions for ranged and melee both:
StratFu Ulduar: General Vezax Hard-mode Strategy – I Love the Smell of Saronite in the Morning
Tags: hard mode, vezax
Posted in Strategies and Raids | 12 Comments »
