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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsPlayer reaction to the 5-man Trial
by Mike Schramm 
Aug 6th 2009 at 8:00PM
All right -- patch 3.2 has been out for a few days now, and I would say that most people who are interested have had a chance to go in and run the brand new 5-man instance. Of course it's not the only change in the patch (far from it), but it's the one I was most looking forward to, and unlike the raid instances, it's all in there and doable, ready for our judgment. So what did we think?I tried it yesterday, and my first impression was "underwhelmed." I definitely don't feel that way about 3.2 as a whole, but the instance itself seems less than impressive, a one-room fight with almost as many boring moments as there are exciting ones. The fights themselves are actually pretty commonplace for a Heroic -- the jousting fight is probably the least-liked among the playerbase (seriously, whoever really loves the jousting mechanic over at Blizzard needs to take a good long look in the mirror for some self reflection), while the best is of course the Argent Confessor, who summons a random figure from our "past memories" to fight. I got Illidan and Onyxia the first few times I ran the instance, but of course Hogger and Van Cleef and Heigan the Unclean also have a chance at making an appearance. I did like the fight, but I was kind of bummed the old memories didn't bring any of their abilities with them -- they all have the same three abilities to throw at the group.
As for the lore, I'm torn. On the one hand, I did like that Blizzard mixed it up a bit, and tried to get us a little more involved in what the NPCs are doing than just having us go off on our own and take down a dungeon. On the other hand, that intro will be even longer the 25th time I'm doing it, and I'm still not convinced that messing around with an Argent Tournament is worth our time. One person dies in the whole instance (spoiler: it's the Black Knight, and he dies three times), and so while it was cool seeing our names shouted and being cheered on by the crowd, I can't help but think that it's still all just fun and games. When do we get to put somebody's eye out?
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Instances, Lore, Bosses, NPCs
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 8)
ToyChristopher Aug 6th 2009 8:21PM
It's easy but not fun.
snowleopard233 Aug 7th 2009 8:50AM
I agree with the not fun part. It was cute at first but now it's just starting to get really old. I just can't help but look at all the spinning red shields in the trailer and cringe. If you want mounted combat, blizz, just let me use my abilities while mounted. Enough of this silly jousting stuff.
Andrew R. Aug 6th 2009 8:11PM
It's going to turn into a badge run. Fast, easy and a great way to gear up a fresh 80 or alts.
We're stuck with it so we might as well farm it to death like we do with every other heroic.
MountainLynx Aug 8th 2009 6:25PM
I would NOT take a fresh 80 in there unless the rest of the group is raid-geared. Everything does a lot more damage and has more health than the previous Heroics, while the busy fights require a level of coordination and strategy that people just aren't used to unless they've been running some 10-mans. Gear up from Naxx-10 first, then PuG the hell out of this place, not the other way around.
sankto Aug 7th 2009 10:00AM
realistically, i wouldn't go as a fresh 80 in the heroic version. Maybe would have a better chance at the regular version.
Naix Aug 7th 2009 11:57AM
Fresh 80s can run the heroics all day.
Rexton Aug 6th 2009 8:12PM
I like it. I haven't been running any heroics in a while because I've been leveling my pally, so being able to gear up quickly was great. The only complaints I have are that it's open to 78-80 instead of just 80, the ridiculously long intro, and the lack of time between jousing and fighting the champions.
Karilyn Aug 6th 2009 8:12PM
The Lore behind it is fine as far as I'm concerned.
There is a simple fact about fighting the Lich King. Every soldier that falls in battle against him, makes his army stronger.
It would make sense that the Argent Crusade would want to insure that only the best of the best goes into Icecrown Citadel. Instead of sending forth an army of equal size to the Lich King's army, only to double the Lich King's strength if they fail.
It's called "strategy"!
Wulfkin Aug 6th 2009 8:57PM
This is true and its good reasoning. However I wish this was actually emphasized IN-GAME more. There's little in the game to tell you while you're there or what the objective is.
RogueJedi86 Aug 6th 2009 10:35PM
Doesn't the fact that the players nearly-singlehandedly retook all of Icecrown from the Scourge not act as proof that we're already the best of the best? Now we gotta kill our Argent Allies in a coliseum and some Zombie Vikings who took some Walrus-men's island to prove we're even more awesome?
Sanguinarius Aug 6th 2009 11:10PM
Not only that, but in the next expansion you'll have an npc 40 levels lower than you calling you "son" and demanding you dig through poop for his glass eye.
Turtlehead Aug 6th 2009 11:42PM
Setting up a poorly defended tent party on cursed ground next to the roving army of your enemy and your enemy's fortress is not a sound strategy, nor is summoning the world destroying Burning Legion as part of a dog and pony show which kills your troops.
Eisengel Aug 7th 2009 5:00AM
@Wulfkin & RogueJedi
Yeah... it kinds feels like that scene in Austin Powers where Scott Evil finds out his father captured Austin:
Tirion: Mr. Hero my friend, come here. How was your day?
Player: Well, me and a premade went to the Blacksmith in WSG and, like, they don't speak good English right, and so my buddy gets yelled at, and he goes 'he, quit hassling me cause I don't play perfect or whatever,' and the other guy goes something in 'leet-speak, and I go 'um, just back off' and he goes 'get out' and I go 'make me'. It was awesome.
Tirion: (trying to hide contempt)
Fascinating. What are your plans for this month?
Player: Thought I'd stay in the battlegrounds. There's a good BG dropping in the patch.
Tirion: And that's how you want to spend your playtime, is it?
Player: Yeah. What?
ANGLE ON A PANEL OF BUTTONS THAT HAS EVERYONE'S NAMES ON IT.
TIRION'S HAND HOVERS OVER THE BUTTON LABELED "Player." Paletress SLAPS HIS HAND AWAY.
Tiron: Hero, I want you to meet the world's nemesis, the Lich King.
Player: Why are you meeting with him? Why don't you just kill him?
Tiron: In due time.
Player: But what if he kills us? Why don't you just slice his head off? What are you waiting for?
Tirion: I have a better idea. I'm going to allow him to go back to his fortress and continue to harass us with his armies while we kill each other in an overly-elaborate tournament to see who gets to fight him.
Player: Why don't you kill him now? Here, I'll get a sword. We'll just behead him. Slice! Dead. Done.
Tirion: One more peep and you're out of the Crusade. Let's begin.
Now, Hero, some friends of mine are joining us for dinner. They're quite delighted you'll be part of the meal.
Lich King: Tirion, do you really expect your heros to win?
Tirion: No, Mr Menethil, I expect them to die. Even if they win the first round I will still throw multiple waves at them.
Release the Jormungnar worms!
(to the area)
All the worms have laser beams attached to their heads. I figure every creature deserves a warm meal.
Paletress: (clears throat) Lord Fordring?
Tirion: Yes, what is it?
Paletress: While you were setting up the tents the DEHTA dropped by, and informed us the Jormungnar worms are on the Endangered Species List.
Tirion: Right.
(to player)
Mr. Hero, we're going to have you fight kobolds with laser beams attaced to their heads.
Paletress: (clears throat again)
Tirion: What is it now?
Paletress: Well, we experimented with lasers, but you would be surprised how heavy they are. They crushed many of the Kobolds, and Nesingwary showed up on behalf of the Azerothian Fish and Wildlife Commission to inform us it was illegal to transport them from their native habitat.
Tiron: I have one simple request - creatures with friggin laser beams attached to their friggin heads to fight players, and it can't be done?! Remind me again why I pay you people. What do we have?
Paletress: Memories.
Tiron: Right.
Paletress: They're bad memories.
Tirion: Really? Are they ill-tempered?
Paletress: Extremely.
Tirion: Well, that's a start. Very well, Mr. Hero, fight the ill-tempered bad memories, if you survive you can fight Arthas... come let us return to our meeting.
Player: You aren't going to just hang out with Arthas? He'll kill you!
Tirion: No, we'll just pretend he's not some evil, undead, Legion-made demigod and just presume he'll act like a civilized being and wait until we're ready to come and kill him. What?
Player. I have a sword on my mount. Give me five seconds, I'll come back and slice his brains out. We'll do it together, it'll be fun!
Tirion: No Mr. Hero, you just don't get it, do you?
DanH Aug 7th 2009 5:33AM
That's what people always say about fighting necromancers, but it's factually untrue for several reasons.
Firstly, the Lich King is clearly capable of summoning undead from *nowhere*. Those mobs in icecrown can't all come from reanimated enemies. Indeed, the ones that *do* come from reanimated enemies are fairly clearly labelled as such.
Secondly, the Lich King can animate your dead body *whether you fight against him or not*. If you're alive, he can kill you. If you're not alive, he can reanimate you anyway.
Thirdly, the more powerful you are when he kills you, the more powerful you will be when you rise in his service. For my money, I'd rather send 700 guards against him and get 700 ghouls back than send in 10 dudes in full Tier 9 and have them turn against us as Death Knights, Necromancers and Assassins.
Fourthly, unless Arthas is going to attack you on a ****ing *horse*, how will jousting help you beat him?
Fifthly, if they sent the "best of the best" after Arthas, that would mean a bunch of skull-questionmark-questionmark NPCs going after him, leaving the comparatively weak player characters sitting around doing nothing.
devilsei Aug 6th 2009 8:12PM
And I'm not surprised...
The whole patch screamed "Mediocrity" since I've read about it. For every "ooo!" there's a "... /facepalm" to smack it right back into the dirt.
Get to face off against old memories? Sweet.
Said memories are whimps? ... great...
New dungeon to run? Yay.
The beginning is long, and there's jousting? F***!
If we could make the Herald of the Titans submit and brain-fry an old gold, then what hope does a person, who's only really well-known OUTSIDE of the game, have of beating us?
SaintStryfe Aug 6th 2009 8:18PM
"Get to face off against old memories? Sweet.
Said memories are whimps? ... great..."
Well what? did you want them to redo the fights?
No, it's a "Memory". It's just a glimpse of the person in the event.
If the intro seems long, do something to make it fun - I like to hail the lore figures (though I'd love it if I could get a reaction back...).
Otherwise, suck it up, bring a DEr and enjoy the badges/seals/free void crystals.
NOw if that damned axe would just drop.
devilsei Aug 6th 2009 10:07PM
I wouldn't want them to redo a fight, but to just use the models makes it rather lame. If its hogger, let him do his stun move, if its onyxia, let her breathe fire, if its Heigan, have him spawn up green zones we shouldn't stand in. That would honestly improve it. I'm not expecting the whole raid encounter to be reproduced, but god, don't neuter the poor guys by reducing them to generic mobs.
And I'm not going to complain about the intro its first time, but I'm sure after running it for the 10nth, or even 5th, it would get old as hell really fast.
Precision Aug 6th 2009 8:15PM
I thought it was pretty fun. Yes the intro is pretty long, but it's cool to see all of the NPCs up top watching (Varian, Thrall, Tirian, etc). I thought the fight with the black knight was pretty fun, but not too hard. The hardest phase of the black knight is when he uses army and the ghouls start going after the healer. The easiest strategy i've done is to kite him around the room during the 2nd phase since the exploding ghouls stand still for about 5 seconds before booming.
Noscy Aug 6th 2009 8:46PM
I jumped into the Heroic 5 Man version of the Trial of the Champion, and my disc priest found it quite difficult to handle the aoe damage from the Black Knights ghoul phase, which in turn made the final phase near impossible for me.
Thanks for the tip!!
Bonksy Aug 7th 2009 8:09AM
My priest is also finding the heroic difficult to heal, I'm disc/holy though, so I switched over to holy to pew pew group heals and it was a lot easier.