On this episode, Manny and Joce give their first impressions of 8.1, talk about the most recent Q & A, tell the story of Jaina in Kul Tiras, and go over the strategy for the Siege of Boralus dungeon.
8.1 First Impressions
The patch has been out for about a week and a half as of this recording and we have had a chance to test all the new systems outside of what is being timegated until January 22nd. How about some quick-fire impressions:
- Faction Assaults
- Increased War Mode incentives
- Revised Warfront structure
- New Darkshore Warfront event
- Why I am not playing the War Campaign yet.
The Hivemind is real
The folks over at the WoW Secret Finding community have solved the puzzles in order to obtain the Hivemind Mount.
- This mount gains additional speed per rider
- Only those who unlocked the mount with you can join the hivemind!
Tides of Vengeance Q&A
Another Q&A will be held on Friday December 14th.
- Communication Questions:
- 3 categories of undocumented changes for 8.1
- If the AK knowledge was a change that was intended from months ago, why was it not reflected in the PTR at any time.
- Developer insights coming
- Plans to make the Heart of Azerite more engaging.
- Magni plot was initially a side plot. (not relevant to the gameplay) Battle of Dazar’alor will be the last raid where you’ll have to work to unlock your traits. Starting in Rise of Azshara, all traits will likely be unlocked, but you’ll use AP to unlock powers in the Heart of Azeroth itself.
- War Mode is weekly and is dependent on the performance of your region.
- Are you satisfied with the state of class design as a whole?
- Elixir of Tongues which has been hot-fixed into the game and allow you to understand the enemy faction
- Many Dungeon changes were undocumented and Ion took this time to announce additional changes that were hot-fixed later in the week.
- A wave of changes aimed at easing pain points in harder dungeons
- Some dungeon strategies were made harder due to the re-balancing
Is Blizzard still the company we remember?
- HGC, Heroes of the Dorm cancelled for 2019. HotS Team personal being relocated
- BfA issues and feedback
- General Nerd Rage Culture
Siege of Boralus
Siege of Boralus is the 2nd of the two mythic only dungeons and is only available for 120 Alliance characters who have completed ‘The Pride of Kul Tiras’ or 120 Horde characters that have reached the appropriate stage of the war campaign. It is a four boss dungeon that differs for Horde and Alliance players.
- Chopper Redhook
- Is a single phase encounter that involves keeping the waves of adds managed while kiting the boss into bombs.
- The ranged add is the Irontide Powdershot. They will continuously cast Molten Slug at the party randomly.
- The melee add is the Irontide Cleaver. This add should be faced away from the rest of the party by the tank as their Heavy Slash is an AoE attack that hits anyone in a line in front of the add.
- Throughout the encounter, Cannon Barrage spawns Heavy Ordnance in the encounter area. These bombs will tick down and explode dealing damage to the entire party.
- If a character comes into contact with the bomb it will knock them back and deal a smaller amount of damage to the character.
- If Chopper runs into a boss he will take damage and be stunned.
- Redhook will fixate on a random player and pursue them with his On the Hook ability. He will move slowly at first but will speed up as he gains stacks of Boiling Rage which increases his movement speed by 5% per stack.
- When he is stunned by Heavy Ordnance, his stacks will reset to 0.
- If he is not reset for a while he will eventually cast Meat Hook at the currently fixated target. This can be intercepted by another player. The player hit will be dragged to Redhook taking damage. The boss then follows up with Gore Crash which deals heavy damage to anyone within 10 yards of him and then an additional amount of damage to all players regardless of location.
- Dread Captain Lockwood
- This fight cycles through 2 phases with Lockheart jumping into combat and attacking from her ship respectively.
- Phase 1 involves staying on the boss as she will constantly flee from melee combat and cast Gut Shot at random players. Roots and Snares will keep her in melee and control the damage.
- During this phase, Clear the Deck will target the tanks location. After 3 seconds all players within a 10 yard frontal cone will be knocked back and take physical damage. Stay out from infront of her and note that tanks can sidestep this attack once she begins casting.
- Phase 2 begins once Captain Lockwood reaches 100 energy. She will leave the combat area and board her ship.
- 3 crewmates will enter the arena in phase 2.
- Ashvane Deckhands have a frontal cleave and should be faced away from the party.
- There is a single Ashvane Cannoneer. The Cannoneer’s Broadside will target the tanks location and deal damage to all players in front of it. Again the tank should face this add away from the party.
- Once the Cannoneer is defeated he will drop his cannon. This will provide an extra action which will force Lockwood back into the area and start phase 1 again. Please note that while holding the cannon, a player has a snare placed on them reducing movement speed by 45% for 10 sec.
- From the ship she will cast Dread Volley creating multiple void zones across the encounter area which must be avoided.
- Hadal Darkfathom
- Another single phase encounter that involves managing the fight so that the bosses abilities do not leave you stuck in a precarious situation. Many of the bosses abilities leave behind Brine Pools which deal heavy damage to those that stand within the area.
- Crashing Tide is a linear attack that leaves behind brine pools. This should be faced out and away from the fountain to keep the space clear.
- Break Water marks the location of players and after a short delay explodes and leaves behind brine pools. Players should endeavor to keep these pools out of the center of the area.
- At 100 energy, Hadal casts Tidal Surge which creates a large wave that travels across the entire area.
- This deals a huge amount of damage to any player caught by the wave but also clears away all Brine Pools.
- The fountain will cause a gap in the centre of the wave. Determine from which direction the wave is coming and put yourself behind the statue.
- Viq’Goth
- The final fight of the dungeon takes place on 3 platforms around the massive Kraken. The party will need to deal with the various abilities while activating the cannons at each location to defeat the monster.
- Though the main boss can be attacked this is basically pointless due to the cannon mechanic.
- Vaq’Goth will cast Call of the Deep which will cover a large portion of the platform with blue swirls. Move out of this area to avoid taking damage.
- Putrid Waters is a DoT that deals ticking damage to players. When dispelled it will deal damage to anyone nearby and will also knock nearby players back.
- The cannon on each platform can block LoS. Position yourself accordingly.
- The tank will need to handle the Demolishing Terrors so that they do not spam Hull Cracker and wipe the entire group.
- Demolishing Terrors will also cast Slam which is a frontal cone that deals physical damage and knockbacks anyone hit.
- The other tentacle is the Gripping Tentacle which holds a Kul Tiran Engineer. Once the Gripping Terror is defeated the Engineer will repair the cannon on the platform. After the cannon is repaired, it can be entered like a vehicle and it’s Blast Ability will hit the boss for a 3rd of its health. Upon firing the cannon, leave the area as the boss will destroy the cannon with Eradication. Eradication will also deal heavy damage to anyone within 10 yards of the cannon.
- Repeat this dance at each of the 3 platforms and the battle is yours.
Podcast (faz-pod): Download (Duration: 2:07:30 — 116.8MB)
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