Blue Notes: 25-man trash and EU arena teams
by Eliah Hecht 
Apr 6th 2007 at 2:50PM
Trash mobs (i.e. non-boss mobs in instances, usually raids) have been the subject of a certain amount of discontent within the community recently. Blizz have said they're thinking about doing something about it, and now they're being a little more specific. Aeus, bearer of good news for the hardcore:We're going to be making some changes to trash mobs in Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep, to make them a bit easier, slower to respawn, and provide some greater incentive to killing them.
We'll be continuing to tune and re-tune dungeons and encounters, but currently these are the two we're most concerned with and will be focusing on.
I'm assuming when he says Tempest Keep he means the Eye, the 25-man raid wing of it. So while this is nice for those of us who are working on those raids already (not me), I really wish they would do something about some of the trash in Karazhan. Specifically, the trash leading up to the Curator. That stuff is bonkers. On the other hand, I haven't been to KZ since Tigole said trash in many zones had been nerfed a bit, so maybe it's better now?
In other news, Aeus clarifies how the qualifiers from the European battlegroups for the ongoing Arena tourney will be selected:
We've seen some uncertainties about how the top 38 teams from Europe will be determined, and wanted to clarify that each Battlegroup will have a number of teams qualifying based on the size of the Battlegroup.
There will be a minimum of one team qualifying from each Battlegroup, so even the smaller Battlegroups will be represented in the second qualifying round.
More details on the qualifying rules will be posted soon.
Not much for me to add here. How's the arena season going for you guys?
Filed under: Odds and ends, PvP, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Argent Apr 6th 2007 3:22PM
i don't really think the trash between opera and curator is all that hard. some of the spectres hit pretty hard, but the ushers are far worse. you could also just skip al the philanthropists and save some time (but hey, they are good money.)
in fact, i'll say that none of the trash in kara is all that hard. the real problem is that there are some stretches that have an incredible amount of trash you have to deal with -- most notably, the curatorto illhoof/aran stretch.
removing a few of the patrolling mechanicals really wouldn't hurt anyone. same with the warp packs.
Eliah Hecht Apr 6th 2007 3:25PM
To clarify, it's not that the pre-Curator trash was that hard, it was that it respawned way too quickly. Curator being such a long fight, we were having repops after every single attempt (not counting the ones in his room that automatically repop). Really puts a damper on the raid spirit.
Halicante Apr 6th 2007 4:27PM
Yeah Curator trash is definitely dudu when trying to learn the fight. We definitely had those stupid mana fish pop up at less than convenient times more than once. The stuff after Curator is pretty bad too...magic immune packs of mobs is bs. On the bright side though, my swords is almost up to 350 and I can hit for about 10 on a good hit!
Robert Apr 6th 2007 4:43PM
It's funny how reading the EJ forums is like looking forward in time to the next patch or two. The hot topic was Gruul, and then he was nerfed; consumables, and they announced a retooling in 2.1, raid gear being non-upgrades, which is being improved, and now trash, which is being tweaked. Another big complaint was 25 man raids being untested and untuned, and now there's news that Hyjal and BT will be accessible on the test server.
If they're a reliable indication, future changes will probably include balancing of tradeskills (tailoring too OP), lowering the barrier to admission in 25 raids (possibly adding Zul'Aman as a 2nd tier 10-man), and reducing the raid attunement requirements for alts and new members.
Aphext Apr 6th 2007 4:55PM
MT in our guild came up w/ an awesome strat for clearing the pre-curator trash. The larger mana elementals have a mana shield, but low hitpoints. They drop the shield as soon as combat ends, so if you pull with a hunter who then feigns death he can pop right back up and 2-shot the big guy making the pulls much faster and easier. We went from getting 1 attempt on the curator, 2 if we were lucky, to having 3 full attempts every trash clear using this strat.
Quoi Apr 6th 2007 5:28PM
@ 4,
How is Tailoring OP? The stuff that tailoring has produced in the past was subpar at best, save for a few items. Now, you can get some quality items, just like any other profession.
bluebottleblues Apr 8th 2007 11:51AM
Last tuesday we attempted killing Prince. The boss bugged on our third try so the raid leader contacted a GM. So an hour later (Yes a whole hour to fix a stupid unattackble boss) we were able to cpntinue. Unfortunatly in this time people's potions ran out and some people had to go, so replaced them. As a result of our only warlock leaving, we had to clear the trash that respawned. We only got two more tried intill we were absolutly shattered and irritated. I love you Blizzard and I'm as ever fond of your GMs as I always been.