Kil'jaeden's Soul Flay hotfixed
by Eliah Hecht 
May 29th 2008 at 9:00AM
That may or may not be about to change, due to a new hotfix just implemented last night. According to Lead Encounter Designer Daelo, a change has been made to KJ's Soul Flay ability. It now uses "a much simpler rule" to determine its target: the target of Soul Flay is the player with highest threat against KJ (typically the main tank, I would think). Daelo notes that this is not intended to make the encounter easier nor mor difficult, but rather to produce "a more consistent, more understandable, and more enjoyable Kil'jaeden fight." Folks who have done this fight, do you think this is a good description of the change? Or is it a nerf, in the long tradition of nerfing raid bosses?
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
hyos May 29th 2008 9:17AM
Exodus (Kel'thuzad-US) got him also. Check www.worldofraids.com for more info.
http://www.exodus-kt.com/images/KJdown.jpg
Eliah Hecht May 29th 2008 9:31AM
I'm not seeing a story on WoR about it, but sure enough, they seem to have done. Editing.
hyos May 29th 2008 9:46AM
Sorry I forgot. It is not a news story, it is a post in the forums at WorldOfRaids. The new layout they have confuses me a bit.
Takamuri May 29th 2008 9:32AM
I am still up in the air on this change, its definatly a nerf to the learning curve (we spent about 8 hours, aka one night) trying to figure out how the original mechanic functioned.
But in the overall scheme of things, the soul flay was the least of our issues on 90% of attempts.
Jamie May 29th 2008 9:37AM
SK Gaming said aspects of the fight were frustratingly random. If aspects of a boss are challenging because you can't form a proper strategy around it then it's not fun and should be changed. I don't see this as a nerf, it's not like they toned down damage or dropped his hit points.
Takamuri May 29th 2008 10:08AM
Yes, 'almost' random Soul Flays were annoying, but not impossible to adapt to. I killed the fight as well, learning it had so many possible random factors that needed to be accounted for at all times.
The fight was fine.
Takamuri May 29th 2008 10:24AM
One other thing, you said they didn't 'tone down damage'.
Let me ask you, is 8k damage easier to heal on a tank with 21k health or a Hunter with 10k?
Andrew May 29th 2008 12:04PM
Would the player with the most threat always be the main tank? Since he's only in Azeroth from the waist up, I imagine he's immobile and therefore the fight is in the tradition of Ragnaros, C'thun, Murmur and Lurker - namely, you can't pull full-on aggro from range.
native May 29th 2008 9:46AM
way to nerf the game to make it even MORE casual friendly.
:)
Haiko May 29th 2008 10:13AM
Woohoo, Casual friendly Kil'Jaeden ^^
I'll grab my Kara-crew and will go have a look ;p
On a serious note: if randomness is part of the trouble and that is toned down, then i think it's technically a nerf. However, if it's no biggy (as Takamuri mentioned), then i don;t see the problem.
Good Luck Guilds nr. 6 till plenty.
Rhysati May 29th 2008 11:43AM
I'd be interested to see how Daelo surmises making an encounter "more consistent, more understandable" does not make it easier; that seems a contradiction.
SwiftBlue May 29th 2008 12:01PM
Maybe because Soul Flay isn't the only move he uses?
Rhysati May 29th 2008 12:07PM
And your point is SwiftBlue?
Soulflay is easier to deal with, thus the encounter is easier.
Of course there are a myriad of other factors; no-one's saying the fight is now easy, just easier than it was.
ShadowEric May 29th 2008 12:34PM
It won't necessarily be the main tank who's highest on threat. A melee dps can reach 110% of the tank's threat before pulling aggro. It's 130% for caster dps.
What remains to be seen is whether that mechanic will consider the player with aggro (the tank) as the one targetted by Soul Flay, regardless of dps classes being slightly higher on threat, or the player highest on threat, even if he/she doesn't have aggro. I'm leaning towards 2nd, but I'm sure someone will confirm that.
Watcherzero May 29th 2008 1:43PM
According to the Blue quote, its the person with highest threat that will be targetted, *NOT* the person with aggro.
Kester May 29th 2008 12:39PM
Can we have a description of what the old mechanic was? Having a post discussing the change when we are only told the old one makes it kind of hard to understand what the change is.
Kester May 29th 2008 12:41PM
"only told the new one" that should have been. Typing fail (and I'll probably find I messed up this comment too).
Corazu May 29th 2008 12:43PM
I think it was just random - from what I hear, nobody really knew how it worked and Blizzard didn't release any information on how the old one worked.
Grithok May 29th 2008 2:41PM
I think it should be randomized. Oh no, we can't read a strategy guide and learn exactly what to do to beat this GOD? The encounter should consist of several random types of things going on, that the players must be able to adapt to. This is afterall what the HARDCORE player is all about, right? Certainly these non casual 'elitist jerks' don't want to learn the fight once and then be able to start farming the boss do they? If that happened, the worthless casual players could read about how to do it on say Wowhead, and next thing you know everyone has done it.
Celton May 29th 2008 3:01PM
Kil'jaeden doesn't have a tank. Soul Flay would randomly choose someone and stay on that person for a good portion of the fight. Now Soul Flay will focus on the highest aggro person, which makes it a little more predictable and controllable. It will still probably be used on a dps since there is no tank and you need to dish out as much dps as possible.