Trial of the (Insert Appropriate Version)

Compared to Ulduar, Trial of the Champions seemed to fall kind of flat. It seemed like a bootstrap raid, meant to make sure folks who didn't quite complete Ulduar would still be able to step into Icecrown Citadel. That's a fairly noble goal, but the whole thing still felt a little lackluster compared to the amazing success of Ulduar.

As the story goes, Tirion Fordring knows we're going to have to fight Arthas. (He's bought the expansion, you see, and knows it's supposed to be about the Lich King. Otherwise, this whole thing would have been called Wrath of Yogg-Saron.) However, because the Lich King's armies will be fueled by the dead, any solider who dies on the battleground would simply become another enemy Tirion would have to fight.

His solution to this conundrum is to hold a Renaissance Fair in Icecrown. In the tournament grounds (in Icecrown), each faction's champions would fight a variety of creatures and enemies (in Icecrown). Those who died (in Icecrown) would be considered unworthy. The raid that succeeded, however, would get to go fight Arthas (in Icecrown.)

I had a logic problem with this setup, since I never really grokked why the people who died in the tournament wouldn't just rise to join the Scourge anyway. What made the tournament so special? I'm sure there's reasons, but those reasons weren't immediately apparent to me. As best we can tell, the Argent Crusade couldn't even be bothered to burn their dead. And since only the very best and brightest were fighting in the tournament, wouldn't that mean the very best and brightest were joining the Scourge? I don't know, maybe I'm just not enough of a Lore Nerd to get it.

Trial of the Crusader did teach us something incredibly important. We need trash mobs.

One of the very initially exciting things about TotC was that there were no trash mobs. Raids would simply go from boss fight to boss fight to glorious boss fight. There's nothing about that which doesn't sound appealing, right? You could simply go from loot pinata to loot pinata, and gear yourself up in a fairly short raid. Yet, somehow, it all felt hollow.

There's a cycle in raiding. As the raid starts, you plow through some trash. They go down before you like wheat before a scythe. Then, you start to face a boss. The entire raid takes a deep, collective breath. Buffs, potions, and food is handed out. Everyone girds up their loins, and places their courage to the sticking place. And then you fight the boss. Even if you outgear and outskill the encounter, you sit up a little straighter and pay attention.

And then you're back to trash for a little while. You breath a little easier, relax a bit. You follow that natural, human cycle of attention. High-attention, relax. High-attention, relax. While you're tearing through the trash, you get to enjoy the being-awesome part of being in a 10-man or 25-man army. It feels heroic and powerful.

The Trial of the Crusader broke that cycle. You're at strict attention through the entire dang thing. Except for any AFK breaks your raid leader might mercifully grant you, you're firing at strict adrenaline through the whole thing. And while it makes for a faster, more compact raid, I think the experience left many of us feeling kind of strung out. For all that the Trial saved time by not having trash, if you couldn't clean out the place in a couple hours, the place would be exhausting by the end of the night.

The Trial of the Crusader did introduce a new concept that we would see (somewhat) reflected in Icecrown Citadel. Hard Modes were taken out of in-fight gimmicks, and placed under a simple raid control. Raid Leaders were able to choose whether their raid would do a 10-man raid, a 10-man Heroic raid, or their 25-man counterparts. It was an interesting new design, and seemed to evolve into the new Icecrown mechanic that allows Raid Leaders to choose the difficulty on a per-boss basis. I don't know if either the Ulduar-style or TotC-style is better, but it's definitely an interesting design change.

The most enjoyable fight (for me) of Trial of the Crusader was actually the Faction Champions. Your raid would basically show down against another NPC raid. That NPC raid, of course, was made up of the opposing faction, and would mirror a lot of the tactics that are employed by PvPers in battlegrounds and the Arena. Trinkets, crowd control, and feint tactics all of a sudden became really important to your raid.

Faction champions proved to be a pain in the neck for a lot of folks, but it's definitely a raid-making fight. When I ask folks about their experience in raiding, I usually ask what they think of Faction Champions. It seems like everyone has an opinion, and even a particular champion that especially drives them insane. (Often, they hate the hunter. Go figure.)

Ultimately, in terms of game story, the raid that succeeds in winning the tournament is the raid that gets sent to go fight Arthas. In character, you're not the only raid to succeed. Unfortunately, most of your contemporary tournament champions get unceremoniously, instantly, one-shot blown up when they run into the Pit of Saron. And then rise as Scourge. And then get one-shotted by Sylvanas.

Well, you can't blame Tirion for trying.