Jan 10
8
Icecrown Citadel, take two!
The second wing of Icecrown Citadel is out, and it’s time to take a look at it our current status!
A few days ago, I QQ’ed a bit over how easy Icecrown Citadel was. I pointed out how easely people that had just farmed badges could go in and get highlevel gear. I complained about the lack of challenge in *the* endgame raid of the expansion. I thought it was just a bit weak. And it seems that Blizzard thought it was time to kick it up a notch too!
Most PUGs, I hear, don’t make it past Saurfang. I guess the coordination is a bit too much to ask for at this stage – sort of like expecting a PUG to get the mages out on Hodir. And even if they do manage to get down Saurfang, they are now facing an even bigger challenge: The Plagueworks!
While the mechanics of the bosses in The Plaugeworks are fairly simple, the fights themselves aren’t. It’s very clear that the difficulty has been increased by quite a large margain, as even my guild – in a good amount of TOTGC gear, much of it heroic – had quite a challenge.
Obviously, wednesday (thats patch day for us Europeans) was riddled with lag. It didn’t really start until we made it to the Gunship Battle, but when it did, we were faced with 5+ seconds delay. I remember trying to jump back to our ship, using my rocket pack several times, only to jump back 10 seconds later – twice. It was terrible. We could hardly get the mage down before the next one spawned, but with a lot of effort, we managed to get through the lag and beat the encounter. Then followed a handfull of wipes on Saurfang, simply because it is pretty damn hard to get the Blood Beasts under control, and because it’s pretty difficult to heal a tank when you don’t know he has taken damage. We got him down, in the end, with around 7 or 8 Marks of the Fallen Champion – a freaking miracle, if you ask me.
Then we went into the Plaugeworks. The trash was quite fun, even if it was rather easy, and we had a great laugh over Stinky and Precious. We went to Festergut first, but we had real problems keeping the tanks alive with all the lag, and decided to just go take a look at Rotface instead. The lag eased up a bit at that point, but we didn’t have enough time to really get some tries in.
Today we visited them again, and went straight to Rotface. This is clearly a coordination check – I think it would be very difficult to do this with people you couldn’t coordinate. We got a narrow kill, but a kill none the less. I think that, once we iron out the tactics a bit, it will go down a lot smoother.
Next up was Festergut, and we were suprised to see how easy it was without the lag. The mechanics, I mean, because it does require a lot of raid DPS. We had several close-to-death wipes – actually one where the boss just had 26.000 health left. 26k, can you imagine? Despite the pressure on the healers, the new fight mechanics and the difficult task the tanks were facing, we did get him down within a few tries – narrowly. We didn’t have much left on the enrage timer, and we are rather well geared. I shudder to think about doing this with less gear. Festergut is clearly a straight up gear check – if you can’t produce the numbers, then you don’t get any shinies.
we decided to leave the Professor for sundays raid, and spend the 10 mans we will do over the weekends on checking out the fight. Considering how few guilds has actually killed him, I think we are in for a big challenge.
What’s most important, however, is that the new fights are fun. Sure, the other fights were aswell, but they are quite easy from my perspective. The increased difficulty was a welcomed change, and I really enjoyed wiping on – and killing – the new bosses. They are rather harsh on ranged, however. Rotface has a lot of movement, and I saw my DPS go down steadely as the fight progressed, ending up at a point where I wasn’t really satisfied. It should be better next week, however, seeing as we will use a triangle tactic, rather than all clumping up in one group, and that should allow for more nuke-time. Festergut doesn’t like casters very much, and you can see a serious dent in your DPS if you are the one moving furthest to spread out after a spore – I’m that guy, unfortunately. Damn need for staying alive (which, oddly enough, I didn’t. I died right at the end).
It’s nice to see some new challenges, and that the rest of the instance seems to be quite difficult as well. I am looking forward to our 10 mans, and to try out Professor Putricide on sunday, and I definately think that Blizzard did a very good job with the new wing. Take that, PUGs!
On a personal note, I got a hold of two “new” items from yesterday. The Belt of Petrified Ivy, an absolutely kickass belt from emblems, as well as the revered version of the caster DPS ring from Ashen Verdict. Zing, shinies for me!
