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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsA plea against vehicle combat
by Eliah Hecht 
Feb 17th 2009 at 6:00PM
Earlier today Blizzard posted a preview of Ulduar, the tier 8 raid coming up in patch 3.1 (which they promise will be on the PTRs "very soon"). Most of it looks really cool - 14 bosses, massive rooms, hard modes. However, there is one topic that Blizzard enthused about that really worries me: vehicle combat.
We've already seen some vehicle-based boss fights in Eregos (the final boss of the Oculus) and on the third phase of the Malygos fight. But Ulduar is, apparently, going to take it one step farther: there will be a vehicle-combat gauntlet leading up to the first boss, Flame Leviathan, and that boss itself will also be a vehicle fight, with players picking among three vehicles (Chopper, Demolisher, and Siege Engine) to command.
I know some people will disagree, but I also know I'm not alone here: I hate vehicle combat and would like to see it used as little as possible in the future. I play my character to play my character, not to use the clunky and boring abilities of a dragon, or a motorcycle, or whatever they shoe-horn me into next. I hate the Eregos fight so much that Oculus is the one heroic I flat-out refuse to do. Phase 3 of Malygos is better, but still definitely the least fun phase of the fight, in my opinion.
The good news, I guess, is that Daelo promises that after the Flame Leviathan fight there is "very little use of vehicles by players." I guess that's something. Blizzard, I know you guys are really excited about this cool new vehicle technology, and it was fun for quests, but for raids, I really think it's the wrong way to go. Please let us continue to play our characters; I didn't sign up to drive seige vehicles, and I don't appreciate being forced to do so in order to do Ulduar.
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 13)
jonas Feb 17th 2009 6:06PM
There was a blue post shortly after that mentioned that your effectiveness in the vehicles was related to your gear level. Very interested to see how that plays out - will it be as simple as abilities scaling off your average gear ilevel, or with damage abilities scaling off AP/SP, and healing scaling off SP, or something more complicated?
AyaJulia Feb 17th 2009 6:20PM
This was my only concern. The reason Eregos and Phase 3 Maly suck so much is that even if you outgear the instance, the vehicle combat is designed to be a certain difficulty. The dragons' abilities are always a certain power, no matter what.
It's good to know that Blizz will be scaling it, then. I don't want my last foray into Ulduar to be as difficult as my first. It's satisfying to me when a raid gets less difficult each time because my guildies and I are getting better equipment.
Tristina Feb 17th 2009 6:30PM
Agreed with Julia. I like the idea of the vehicles scaling with your stats/gear. I think this adds a different dimension to the game and forces you to work together in a totally new way. Yeah, 10 people can run in a pound things, but can they do it while 3 of their members are driving vehicles? Ah, we can only see.
pwkalt1 Feb 17th 2009 8:43PM
yeah, hopefully this "vehiclces scaling with gear" will be retroactively applied to h occ and malygos. To be honest, I think that the reason most people hate vehicle combat is because blizzard tuned final boss in h occ to be really hard. With a good group of people, its definitely doable, but it requires a level of strategy and coordination that is not demanded in any other heroic.
As for what the vehicles would scale off of, i would guess they would just use the ilevel of your items.
Muse Feb 18th 2009 1:28AM
I don't like it. Part of what I enjoy in vehicle combat is that my healer can become the tank or the dps. Whatever gear I'm wearing wont have any effect on combat, just the amount of skills I can pour into it.
So if all of a sudden only DPS stats are valued for vehicles, I'll, once again, be relegated to the "healing" vehicle and the "healing" buttons.
Niru Ishida Feb 17th 2009 6:06PM
Was it ok back in BT when people on Teron had to use pets or else risk wiping the raid? Someone is always "That Guy" that doesn't understand the fight, or otherwise doesn't want to do it. Raids are a set of challenges using in-game mechanics that need to be overcome in order to progress. If players don't/can't manage those mechanics, they will either quit or not progress. In either case, that will cause Blizzard to significantly change their in-game mechanics, as they do play by the numbers.
majorfalcon Feb 17th 2009 6:06PM
moar QQ nao
jesse Feb 17th 2009 6:06PM
ya know i appreciate blizzard trying new things, making quests a little more interesting etc...
but i gotta be honest, for the most part, i hated pretty much every quest which required me to take control of another guy, drive a vehicle, fly something etc. they took long to do, and just all around very frustrating.
and it should be more then obvious that Occulus is the least popular of the new instances, i wonder why?
Siorra Feb 17th 2009 6:07PM
God forbid that you should do anything but spam your usual abilities in a fight. It's variety, it's fun, and it's only for the very beginning of the instance. Try it before giving it a big 'NO'.
Kvothe Feb 17th 2009 6:13PM
I agree completely. For me, vehicles have been very hit-or-miss, but 90% of them have been hit. The only problem I have with Eregos is the sheer number of idiots who you end up with who can't fly a drake for their lives, and to get to the fight you have to already invest a heavy amount of time going through the instance. If your group keeps their heads on straight though, it's fine.
At least, in Ulduar the vehicle combat will be at the begining, so you can identify the idiots and kick them before you progress too far in. I have high hopes for the vehicles, and expect they'll end up quite fun.
Tumleren Feb 17th 2009 6:18PM
Well he has tried it before giving it a big NO. And so have I. And so have, probably, all of the people who are against it.
I don't like it because it's clunky and.. weird. If they fix the system so it works as good as with normal spells and if they make it less like Oculus (oh god how I hate it), then it might be okay. But if they continue what they're doing right now, I'm not happy about this either
Magus Feb 17th 2009 6:24PM
A couple ways they can make this 100% win:
1) Make it so that you can use most of your abilities just like while riding Stampy in Post-partum Aggression http://www.wowhead.com/?quest=12614
2) Ship-to-ship combat on Flying longboats!
The good players are in charge of steering/attacking/defense, while the QQ'ers just spam the "Row" button.
Holgar Feb 17th 2009 6:46PM
Ok Seriously agree on that one, I hate to go with the spamming of "QQ moar" but when your bitching about a system for a boss not even in place your credibility goes down the crapper.........
Pyro Feb 17th 2009 7:04PM
Yep, I couldn't agree more. All these negative, whiny articles on wowinsider lately are seriously turning me off. Can we have a few more positive things to say and leave the QQ to the ignorant masses in the comments please?
For crying out loud, it's ONE encounter out of 14 and you haven't even SEEN it yet...let alone heard about it for more than an hour.
Please stop bashing everything in sight as fast as you can.
Lichbane Feb 17th 2009 9:13PM
Amen! I hate vehicles, I worked hard to learn my class, and to gear up, only to have both made useless by gimmick fights.
Maranel Feb 17th 2009 6:07PM
QQ Moar, Eliah. Vehicles are such a small part of the raiding and 5-man experience They just add some flavor. What is the big freaking deal? Jeez...
jam Feb 17th 2009 6:07PM
Maly fight is okay but Oculus is easily the worst instance in WoW. I too am hoping that we won't see too much of this vehicle nonsense in the future.
Zyrinx Feb 17th 2009 6:08PM
+1
Not a fan of vehicle combat and mechanics; I'm a fan of my character for better or worse.
infection Feb 17th 2009 6:07PM
One of the main things I hate against malygos is the fact that my button that "selects nearest enemy" does not work while on the drake.
The other problem is random things happening like when I go for my combo points with the fireballs... my flame engulf button will not light up.
I have no idea why that is happening, but when I reselect malygos, it then lights up (had around 55 energy at one point it happened)
So then I pretty much have to make a macro just for that fight.
Very annoying things happen with vehicle combat that is usually not addon friendly.
vexis58 Feb 17th 2009 6:42PM
I completely agree. The raid healing I'm used to uses mouseover macros and a custom UI, but they throw me onto a drake and all of a sudden I'm back to manually clicking people to target them, and/or reaching halfway across my keyboard to click the macro(s) I've made specifically for this fight because they effectively remove my normal keybindings for that phase. Not to mention having to show raid pets (which I normally do not) in order to see the health bars of my party/raid's drakes.
Vehicles are fine for solo questing or PvP, but they're insanely unfriendly towards a raiding UI.