Have any of you tried...

One of the things I simultaneously love and dread about my guild on Malfurion is that we have a lot of slightly demented, creative, think for yourself types. Case in point is Vish, who often main tanks for runs when I'm healing on my shammy. The other day, in Shadow Labyrinth, before we got to Blackheart the Inciter the following paraphrased conversation took place.
"Hey, if we don't clear this room, do these guys come when you engage Blackheart?"
"Yes they do."
"You've seen them come?"
"No, but WoWWiki says..."
"So you don't really know that they'll all come."
He had me there. I'd never actually seen it. Ten seconds later, however, I did see it when he told the party to wait in Ambassador Hellmaw's room while he ran up and engaged the Inciter. Turns out that puts the whole party in combat even if they are hiding very far away, so I made use of my handy Astral Recall spell while everyone else died a gruesome but informative death.
This made me wonder: have you ever disregarded the various guides, sources and general body of common knowledge about an instance and gone in cold? Have you ever tried something just to see what happens for yourself? I don't think we should run around seeing what that level with the skull on it does all the time, but as long as everyone in the party is okay with it, sometimes it's fun to experiment in game. It's like Mister Wizard, only he usually didn't end up having to run back to his body afterwards. Usually.
"Hey, if we don't clear this room, do these guys come when you engage Blackheart?"
"Yes they do."
"You've seen them come?"
"No, but WoWWiki says..."
"So you don't really know that they'll all come."
He had me there. I'd never actually seen it. Ten seconds later, however, I did see it when he told the party to wait in Ambassador Hellmaw's room while he ran up and engaged the Inciter. Turns out that puts the whole party in combat even if they are hiding very far away, so I made use of my handy Astral Recall spell while everyone else died a gruesome but informative death.
This made me wonder: have you ever disregarded the various guides, sources and general body of common knowledge about an instance and gone in cold? Have you ever tried something just to see what happens for yourself? I don't think we should run around seeing what that level with the skull on it does all the time, but as long as everyone in the party is okay with it, sometimes it's fun to experiment in game. It's like Mister Wizard, only he usually didn't end up having to run back to his body afterwards. Usually.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Social Conventions, Virtual selves, Guilds






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Matt Nov 21st 2007 1:36PM
LOLOL i almost tried this with my group once, was gonna tank him in ambassadors room LMAO thank god i didnt...woulda been funny to see tho! hehe
Shastaelisa Nov 21st 2007 1:37PM
Oh yes. Without a doubt.
In my first few maiden fights I continually tested how close I could get to the center in order to rez bodies in the event that we later encountered respawns without downing her.
It was very informative and handy because we were able to use it as intended.
A few times she aggroed onto me, maybe twice, but after that I knew what I was capable of.
70 Resto Shammy
Mike Nov 21st 2007 1:37PM
I've always wanted to try engaging the SM Cathedral boss to see if it *really does* aggro the entire Cathedral.
For years no one would let me try it.
But rest assured that eventually some fool will do it by accident. When that fool finally did, I was so shocked by the entire Cathedral actually aggroing that I didn't think and Divine Intervention'd a mage by accident. He was unable to rez us. :)
One of my most pathetic yet most memorable moments.
Irian Nov 21st 2007 1:40PM
LOL.
I think the guides are there so we can learn on other's mistakes instead of making fools of ourselves.
lavos.determination Nov 21st 2007 1:45PM
In a effort to do exactly what you described, a set group in my guild have decided to not read any strategies on Zul'Aman. It has been some of the most fun nights we have ever had in the game, it reinforces our belief that we really are skillful players - that we aren't the product of well-written, well-meaning strategy hand-holding.. at least once.
Tankin Nov 21st 2007 2:25PM
It's like a tradition in my guild (Dragonmaw-Stormwardens-A). We've always tested the boundaries on 'normal'. Four-manning Old Hillsbrad without a tank or dedicated healer, having a warlock or Moonkin off-tank Dorothea and Lady Catriona, have a paladin tank 5-mans or DPS the beginning adds for Nefarion, and much more.
Yes, seeing most of SM Cathedral come down on a 60 paladin is intimidating ... and deadly.
SeiferTim Nov 21st 2007 1:52PM
RIP Don Herbert... :(
Ezzy Nov 21st 2007 1:55PM
Lol...Usually if we are going to do something crazy/silly we tell people to get naked. The only people truly screwed by that are Druids and Warriors. (They usually have more than one set of gear in their bags.)
And yes the SM Cathedral is fun to watch if someone aggros the boss without killing all of the mobs. Saw two level 70s die to that.
ThorinII Nov 21st 2007 1:56PM
@3, I recently did this with my 63 hunter just because I knew I could get out alive. It does pull EVERYONE inside and getting out was not easy, but I did.
Sedair Nov 21st 2007 1:56PM
I was farming xp for my SP while on my mage (dual accounts) and wondered what would happen if I aggro'd the pally boss in SM-Cath w/o clearing the cath first. I had always heard it pulled everything but never seen it happen. So I did, then immediately popped my trinket and aoe'd everything to death :D
Dave Nov 21st 2007 2:06PM
It depends on the goal of the group I guess.
For the most part, I don't want to waste my time in this game any more than I have to. Other people make the guides and the strategies and I'm more than happy to follow them until I've become bored of the encounters.
If you enjoy 20g repair bills and a night full of not getting anything accomplished at all, by all means don't read anything, don't prepare yourself for anything and you'll have a great time doing mostly nothing for a few hours. I guess it's fun, I'm not real sure. I sure wouldn't do it with ZA or say "lolz we're gonna raid Black Temple" and not read up on anything at all and just wipe over and over and over to trash.
I had a Karazhan group (a mostly-pug group) that couldn't make it past the TRASH to Attumen. Why? Nobody wanted to use Vent, nobody wanted to read the strats and nobody basically cared... so I wasted my week long timer on that sorta thing. Not cool. Conversely, yesterday in gearing up my mage I did the same thing and everyone but a single shaman had read the strats, knew what to do and basically just wanted badges. We strolled in, didn't wipe a single time to trash that wasn't the result of an unfortunate disconnection or accidental pull and had a great time until the aforementioned shaman wouldn't get vent and wouldn't understand the Shade of Aran fight and basically died the first time he did either the Blizzard or Arcane Explosions. (oddly, he didn't trigger Flame Wreath, mostly because he refused to move from the doorway every single time.... so we had some false hope there I guess). It was awesome and fun until Aran... it was pretty crappy and un-fun after that. And that was the point where people start saying "well, what if we do this..." or "why don't we try..." and it all goes to crap.
So usually whenever someone pulls out "have any of you tried..." it's at the end of a frustrating sequence where we're either wanting to give up anyway or we just don't care anymore.
I've only got a limited amount of time at night to spend with the game, the last thing I'm usually interested in, is finding new and uninteresting ways to wipe a group.
Zumwalah Nov 21st 2007 2:11PM
Remember UBRS?? vaguely you say? me too.. remember the Rend event, the only scripted event in that particular dungeon. i decided to see if you could attack the crowd of orcs that appear on the balcony you jumped down from.. everyone said dont, youll wipe us.. i did anyway and pulled the whole dungeon righat as rend spawned and whiped everyone.. effectively pissing everyone off and ruining the run. it was great
Swiss Nov 21st 2007 2:24PM
The SM Cathedral pull can be done successfully with a protection paladin. Awhile back, I was running some of my friends' alts through SM and I told them to wait in the instance doorway. I proceed to run straight through the instance to the cathedral door, pull Morgraine, and then run back towards the instance entrance body pulling everything I could in the meantime.
Once I got back to where the group was, consecration, holy shield, etc and we basically cleared the entire instance in less than 5 minutes.
Unfornately, if you kill Morgraine like that, it breaks the encounter, he doesn't get resurrected, and he was unlootable. (your mileage may vary)
jerkface Nov 21st 2007 2:32PM
no. that's why i've killed illidan and your groups are wiping in shadow labs. ;P
Agjee Nov 26th 2007 2:25PM
I usually go according to what Ive heard or read in guides.
Way back in the day, groups believed talking to the students in Scholo would aggro the room. After a clear I went into the room naked to test and was happy to see that it wasnt true. :D
Angus Nov 21st 2007 2:47PM
I heard about someone trying that.
"I wonder what would happen if I MCed a Smith."
Void Reaver down in 53 seconds, that's what.
Most of the strats are written by people doing just that.
"So what will happen if we kite this Fel Reaver to A'del's room?" SO they try it and see A'del do a normal hit for 128K.
We tried several tricks on some encounters, just to see how they work out.
Melf Nov 21st 2007 2:50PM
Our guild almost always tries at least a few attempts without reading guides or potting. After that, we almost never follow the guide exactly, and modify it to suit our own needs. Always fun to succeed without simply following the directions of others. Getting in on the test realms helps with the trailblazing feeling too!
Ezzy Nov 21st 2007 2:50PM
Some other thoughts: How do you think people who write those guides figure out what can and cannot be done? When it is old content then you usually don't have to test those boundries, but when it is stuff on the PTR or something just released with no concrete guide someone has to be the guinea pig. And guides don't always work for your group make up. ("Oh we didnt bring any priests to Kara.""We dont have enough AOE for the weapons on Kael'thas. Stuff like that.)
nativebrown Nov 21st 2007 3:08PM
lol @ 14.
u are epic. hahahaha
Jay Nov 21st 2007 3:14PM
I'd been told numerous times not to talk to the students in Scholomance. One night, after a run to the lab to make flasks, after my party had left and I was done making my bags of herbs into flasks, I figured I'd go see why we weren't supposed to talk to them...
Guess what? Nothing happened, they had a gossip dialog blathering some nonsense...
Not everything that is "common knowledge" or written in the guides is right. Sometimes you'll discover that patches and nerfs have changed things or that they were never right to begin with...