Al'ar: Finally, a use for troll priests
by Elizabeth Wachowski 
Jul 4th 2007 at 11:03AM
There's been a controversy brewing on my realm forums over whether something is an exploit, a bug, or merely a creative use of game mechanics, so I thought I'd take the question (and the strategy) to the wider world of WoW blogs.
Basically, Horde guilds across several realms have discovered that by using a troll priest on the Al'ar fight, you can take off 20 percent of the boss's health in Phase 2. It appears that the troll priest racial ability Hex of Weakness, which decreases healing done to the target by 20 percent, makes Al'ar resurrect from his Phase One "death" with only 80 percent of his maximum health. There have been a few posts about this on Raids and Dungeons and Bosskillers, but it doesn't appear that it's a widely used strategy.
Vendetta, the guild on my realm that used this strategy for their first kill, said they don't believe it's an exploit, and that they felt they could kill Al'ar without using it. "Until Blizzard says otherwise on Raids and Dungeons or contacts us in-game, it's working as intended because the Rising Phoenix ability is a heal effect," a guild member said. Other people have compared it to using Divine Intervention on Razorgore, which was deemed an exploit, and the bugs that caused Vashj to lose 20 percent of her health before 2.1, which were not.
So, raiders of the world, what would you call this? A clever use of Hex of Weakness as intended, or an exploitation of a bug that classifies Rising Phoenix as healing? And, more generally, if a guild takes advantage of an odd mechanism in a fight that hasn't been classified as a bug by Blizzard, is it exploiting or just being smart?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Tumples Jul 4th 2007 11:07AM
It's being smart.
Nails Jul 4th 2007 11:20AM
it's being very smart
Sarah Jul 4th 2007 11:20AM
Ingenious I dare say.
toasty Jul 4th 2007 11:52AM
can you do the same thing with mortal strike? like, if i duel a guildy right before and pick up enough rage to cast it, can i use it?
Rich Jul 4th 2007 11:59AM
This is why the game designers need to be old school paper and pencil RPG GM/DM's. Never fail, your players always come up with something from left field and creative new ways to do things.
Can you imagine the look on the first person to try it? It was probably done as a lark.
Tridus Jul 4th 2007 12:15PM
The boss has an ability that heals. You put a spell on him that reduces healing. It reduces his heal.
Only in WoW could someone call that an exploit.
Shotgunbadger Jul 4th 2007 12:26PM
Seems legit to me, it reduces the amount of healing the boss gets when it rezes, good work to the first guy to think this up even if it's an accedent!
wowtard Jul 4th 2007 4:19PM
MMORPGs are notorious for being lazy with adding new 'classification' tables.. for example many early MMORPGs left many enemies with 'untyped' damage that could not be blocked simply because the devs were too lazy, incompetent, or inept to add new damage and armor types.
This is just another example of cutting corners.
Chris Anthony Jul 4th 2007 12:41PM
I'm not sure I understand why this would be an exploit. Al'ar heals himself; Hex of Weakness reduces healing done. Thus, Al'ar heals himself for less. Complaining about this being an exploit seems sort of like complaining about Fire Resist gear because mobs that deal fire damage don't deal as much to players who have FR gear.
-Chris A.
http://www.etherjammer.com/blog/
WatcherZero Jul 4th 2007 12:42PM
If this works formortal strike, poisons and other healing reducing abilities I dont mind, if it only works for Hex then its a bug.
William Bellenbaum Jul 4th 2007 1:25PM
Much like with Mogor in Nagrand, using rogue's wound poison will have him revive at 50%, anyone try that? :)
euphorion Jul 4th 2007 1:37PM
Does Hex of Weakness reduce the amount of healing you receive from the paladin spell Lay on Hands? Because I would assume that A'lar's ability is supposed to be a similar mechanic.
Argent Jul 4th 2007 1:42PM
it's not an exploit imo. a better argument is that it's an oversight in the encounter mechanic and one that blizz may or may not address in the future (some of these they take care of fast, others not so fast -- look at how long they took to fix the LoS strat on prince in kara.)
if hex does work, it should stand to reason that MS and poisons work too. if they don't then this is nothing more than a bug.
Arras Jul 4th 2007 2:00PM
If using the troll priest's racial in that fight is an exploit, then so is using the dwarf/draeni racial (fear ward) in the Onxyia fight.
They're just using the tools they have available to them, nothing more, nothing less
Strongmark on Arthas Jul 4th 2007 2:25PM
I agree, smart way of using the tools available to you.
Pez Jul 4th 2007 2:42PM
Well, we finally have an answer for the question "Why the hell would you roll a troll priest?".
Adam Jul 4th 2007 3:28PM
Question: do mortal strike, hex of weakness and wound poison stack?
Because if they do, you could hex/ms/wound Al'ar and he'd only rez with 20% health.
Matt Rossi Jul 4th 2007 3:51PM
I believe it's the duration of Hex of Weakness that lets it work for this, MS and Wound Poison (by the way, if we're nerfing MS, nerf Wound Poison) don't last as long and so don't work. But it's just a duration thing, not a mechanical thing (if I'm right, I don't have a troll priest) and so it's not a bug.
Frankly, it doesn't seem at all like a bug or exploit to me. As many have said, Trolls have an ability that reduces healing by 20%, and Al'ar has a big heal. No harm, no foul.
Sark Jul 4th 2007 3:59PM
Okay, being that i am in this guild, i'll tell you what i know. we are working under the assumption that MS and Wound poison do work. We haven't tested either yet. The way we do phase 1, we have melee on embers, near the door, therefore they cannot be in position to apply wound and/or MS. Another thing to keep in mind is that MS is a 6 second debuff and the reincarnation heal effect takes 10 seconds. So as far as i know, there is no way to MS al'ar. Wound poison might work (assuming he's not an elemental. I'd have to ask one of our rogues) but we haven't tested that either.
Uthmai Jul 4th 2007 4:33PM
If you're actually bad enough to have rolled a troll priest, then, you're welcome to the additional assistance on this fight.