So, now that firelands has been out for a while now, it's time to sit down and do some good old ranting and raving. Overall, I think it's a pretty good raid instance. But, it's not without it's flaws either. First and foremost on my bitch list, is the lack of cloth spirit gear. The majority of my gear upgrades will come from the vendor. And that bothers me more than just a little. That, and the fact I'm going to be losing a ton of spirit over the course of the patch. I don't really need spirit on every piece, but having the option there would be nice. It probably won't be much of an issue, as I'd probably go for some of those pieces without spirit anyways since I've reforged out of spirit on several pieces already. I can't help but think however that this was done intentionally to nerf priests regen. I can't honestly say that it wouldn't be eventually needed as i haven't had mana issues since early on in heroic t11, but I do wish they'd just come out and say it.
The instance is gorgeous. I really like it. It just feels epic when you go in, with enemies literally everywhere, in a huge fire land. Even the trash is fun and engaging. Although, I wish they hadn't nerfed it so much. It wasn't that difficult. My favorite trash mob however, has got to be the turtles. Even
though you don't really have to pull any of them, I just like watching slow people die to them and get tossed all over the place. I also find it extremely enjoyable to life grip people directly in front of the turtles.
The boss fights themselves I think are great. They're all very different, and enjoyable. Not only that, but most do supply a decent challenge even in full ilvl 372 gear. Alysrazor and Majordomo Staghelm are great fun. Probably the most enjoyable in the instance for me. Rhyolith I didn't really enjoy that much, but it's new and different, so that's ok. It gets pretty chaotic though, especially on heroic. Shannox, however, goes on the boring list. It's just too easy, and there's just not much going on. It's pretty boring once you get the strat down. But, even worse than that, Heroic Shannox, is even easier! He doesn't enrage, you don't have to kill the dogs. Really, it just has a higher dps requirement, and the tanks have to reset their stacks more often. It really saddens me that the heroic version of the boss, is a simpler undertaking than the normal version. The rest of the bosses are ok, not incredible, but enjoyable. Baleroc is the requisite healer check, and is pretty much a tank and spank, with a few other easy mechanics that require a bit of coordination. But, overall it's very easy.
The most disappointing fight for me, however, is Ragnaros. I guess it's because I'm a healer, but it's a pretty dull fight for healers. Dps and tanks have quite a bit to do, but healing it, is very easy. Most of the fight, is just spent healing up negligible raid damage, and standing in the not bad spots. For everyone else though, the fight is great. There's tons of stuff going on, requiring a lot of coordination and awareness. And small mistakes will wipe the group pretty quickly. So, while I didn't really enjoy it, others undoubtedly will as he is the most difficult boss in the instance.
I have killed Ragnaros in 10 man and 25 man, and I have to say, the 10 man version is a joke compared to the 25 man. Many of the things that make it hard on 25 man, are just negligible on 10, namely, the suns of flame (or whatever they're called) that spawn between phases. Although the same number spawn, they have so much less health that it doesn't require any real kind of coordination at all to keep them from getting to the hammer. I could bring one down to 50% as a healer in 2-3 hits. Everything else was a lot easier as well, simply due to having 15 fewer people in the room. Meteors were a joke, the thing where you poop flames was a joke. It really feels like the room needs to be smaller or something in 10 man. In 25 man, the most difficult thing to deal with, is dealing with those mechanics with 15 extra people around. My guild raids 12 hours a week, and the first week, we just ran out of time on Rag. So, we swapped it to 10 (after 2 hours of wiping on 25) and killed it in just a few attempts, after having never gotten past the second transition in 25. Of course, we killed it the following week on 25. But, it doesn't change the fact that it was far easier to down on 10 man.
The single greatest thing about the instance however, is the lava everywhere. It's great. You know that guy in your guild, that always afk's? Usually without saying anything? Well, in my guild, there is now a penalty for ninja afk'ing. It's called, getting chain lifegripped into the lava, and a luxurious corpse run, sponsored by the annoyed people, namely the healers and tanks, that can't just afk whenever they feel like it mid pull on the trash.
And now, of course, the complaint about having only 7 bosses. It just doesn't really seem like enough. I doubt the bosses will last, even for the casual player, until the next major patch. At least, if it lasts as long as the first tier of raiding did. The only truly difficult fight seems to be Heroic Ragnaros, as most of the top guilds got those down in short order. My guild, will likely take some time to get to Heroic Rag, but I really doubt it will take 6 months. Really, there's only 4 heroic bosses left for use before Rag. I'm thinking that the heroic difficulty isn't quite where it should be for having so few bosses. The normal difficulty I feel is good. The more casual raider will get a good challenge from them.
So, to wrap things up, I think firelands is a great raid instance, however there are some glaring inbalances in the 10 and 25 man difficulties. The heroic modes I feel could use some beefing up, but perhaps my guild has just gotten better since cata has dropped, making things seem easier than they are. All in all, I think firelands will be a fun instance to raid and farm for quite some time, but it definitely will not last as long as I'd hoped. And that's how the cookie crumbles....
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