Patch 4.2 PTR: First look at the Encounter Journal
by Matt Low 
May 16th 2011 at 9:00AM
If you don't want to spoil yourself for any specific lore reasons, you may wish to avoid using the encounter journal until you at least get to the encounter itself. A recent patch 4.2 build had enabled it, and already I can see this being a huge asset to players who wish to dive into dungeons or raids.
The encounter journal effectively tells you three things:
- Loot drops
- Boss abilities
- Notable phases
What the journal won't tell you is how to take down bosses. You get a full list of boss abilities and mechanics, but it's entirely up to the raid to determine what tactics should be used to respond to said boss abilities.
Warning: Partial encounter spoiler ahead.
Clicking into it shows you all of the encounters located within, and selecting them shows you additional details about the encounter. Note the two tabs in the middle of the screen. One of them strictly shows encounter information, and the tab below it shows all of the loot that drops in the instance.
In this example, I've selected Al'akir. It shows me all of the items that will drop. I can sort difficulty level and raid size on the top right corner, although that's more applicable to encounter information than anything else. I can now see the actual boss model. If I'm entering a new instance for the first time and I'm not sure what's a boss and what isn't, I can check the journal to get an accurate idea.
As for the loot itself, I can mouse over all of the different items. It'll show me the stats and attributes on it, if there are any. On this screen, it'll show me the full list, which item slot it belongs to, and what armor type it is (such as cloth or leather). You can't see it here on Al'akir, since I only took a screenshot that contains nothing but tier helm tokens and neck pieces.
At this time, I'm not able to link any information into any chat. I can't shift and click to link items in a party chat or anything like that.
As for the loot itself, I can mouse over all of the different items. It'll show me the stats and attributes on it, if there are any. On this screen, it'll show me the full list, which item slot it belongs to, and what armor type it is (such as cloth or leather). You can't see it here on Al'akir, since I only took a screenshot that contains nothing but tier helm tokens and neck pieces.
At this time, I'm not able to link any information into any chat. I can't shift and click to link items in a party chat or anything like that.
This is the stuff I'm looking forward to the most. This screen shows players everything about the encounter. If there are multiple stages, it'll indicate such, as well as whether there are any conditions that need to be met before the phase triggers. In this case, Fandral will only shift into a cat when players have spread out. He will switch into scorpion form when seven or more players get close to each other. This tells us that players can control how Majordomo will shift forms.
Below that, we can expand the details list to show what his actual cat form abilities are. Leaping Flames causes Fandral to jump at players and deal around 30,000 damage in a small area. This ability also causes him to create a Spirit. Presumably, this Spirit will need to get taken down. You'll see additional abilities below like Adrenaline. Clicking on the + symbol will expand on it.
In the current build, I noticed a significant drop in performance when I expanded all of the details. I had to negate this by collapsing certain abilities once I was done reading them in order to move on to the next one, or risk a client crash. Like the loot drops before it, I'm not able to link abilities in the chat window, either. This would be useful so that leaders can highlight really important and potentially raid-wiping mechanics to everyone in the group.
Finally, yes, the details for Raganaros are in for both his normal and heroic encounters. The heroic encounter lists certain NPCs assisting you on the encounter. Epic spoilers, indeed!
Already I can tell that the Encounter Journal will be an excellent addition for raid leaders. Being able to see the different abilities means leaders don't have to spend as much time scouring different sites in order to explain different abilities to people. Now we can just point to them in the journal.
What does this mean for the raid pioneers and competitive raiding guilds? It'll mean less effort for all of them. Observing PTR streams in the past, I've noticed guilds repeatedly pulling encounters and trying different things in order to get an idea of all the different boss abilities that were available. Not only that, they had to reset to find out exactly what conditions were needed before an ability would activate, things like:
Below that, we can expand the details list to show what his actual cat form abilities are. Leaping Flames causes Fandral to jump at players and deal around 30,000 damage in a small area. This ability also causes him to create a Spirit. Presumably, this Spirit will need to get taken down. You'll see additional abilities below like Adrenaline. Clicking on the + symbol will expand on it.
In the current build, I noticed a significant drop in performance when I expanded all of the details. I had to negate this by collapsing certain abilities once I was done reading them in order to move on to the next one, or risk a client crash. Like the loot drops before it, I'm not able to link abilities in the chat window, either. This would be useful so that leaders can highlight really important and potentially raid-wiping mechanics to everyone in the group.
Finally, yes, the details for Raganaros are in for both his normal and heroic encounters. The heroic encounter lists certain NPCs assisting you on the encounter. Epic spoilers, indeed!
Already I can tell that the Encounter Journal will be an excellent addition for raid leaders. Being able to see the different abilities means leaders don't have to spend as much time scouring different sites in order to explain different abilities to people. Now we can just point to them in the journal.
What does this mean for the raid pioneers and competitive raiding guilds? It'll mean less effort for all of them. Observing PTR streams in the past, I've noticed guilds repeatedly pulling encounters and trying different things in order to get an idea of all the different boss abilities that were available. Not only that, they had to reset to find out exactly what conditions were needed before an ability would activate, things like:
- Does an ability trigger after a certain amount of time has passed?
- Does a player need to do something?
- Is it threat-related?
- Does the boss need to move to a specific location?
- Does boss health need to reach a certain percentage?
What are your thoughts on the Encounter Journal so far? Do you think it'll have a positive effect for players?
The news is already rolling out for the upcoming WoW Patch 4.2! Preview the new Firelands raid, marvel at the new legendary staff, and get the inside scoop on new quest hubs -- plus new Tier 12 armor!Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Elmo May 16th 2011 9:05AM
Is that the april fools crabby up in that corner?
razion May 16th 2011 10:18AM
:O CRABBY!
Naphtali May 16th 2011 10:22AM
LOL nice catch. Wouldn't have noticed that if you hadn't have said something!
Bart May 16th 2011 11:23AM
Is crabby a female? if so, would that make her a dungeoness crab? lol!
Sunaseni May 16th 2011 11:51AM
Oh Crabby, no!
(Oh Crabby, yes!)
Dan May 17th 2011 8:08AM
It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday.
Oh wait, it's Tuesday. And that damn song is still stuck in my head >_
Zaku May 16th 2011 9:07AM
Looks spiffy. But I think I'll stick with atlas loot.
Jorges May 16th 2011 11:00AM
This is exactly what I'm looking forward, I hope this thing is so well elaborated that I can remove Atlas Loot. Not that I have a problem with the addon, it's great. But the more addons the default UI make obsolete the less addons I have to load.
Maybe in the future we'll see addons integrating to this UI, bringing the extra stuff that Atlas Loot offers like wishlists and searches.
zakuno_2 May 16th 2011 2:44PM
Yes that would be something to look forward to. But for now I'd rather use atlas loot as I can actually link items and for the fact that it has more than just the cata dungeons in it. But this tool is a step in the right direction.
Castor27 May 16th 2011 9:10AM
I found the journal encounter button on the menu bar. I believe it was a reddish icon near the dungeon finder icon. If you don't use the default ui then you may have to wait for your add on to enable it. On hover it said Encounter Journal.
Jaq May 16th 2011 9:12AM
CRABBY!
If that goes live it'll make my day!
Donavan May 16th 2011 9:12AM
this is huge, i love it.
Pantro May 16th 2011 9:13AM
haha just played on the PTR, the journal comes real in handy!
oringal May 16th 2011 9:15AM
crabby = pure win
Sedna May 16th 2011 9:19AM
CRABBY 4 LYFE.
Also: Damn, that is a huge spoiler for Firelands, but it is completely awesome.
Cjdwalsh May 16th 2011 2:59PM
So its basically it's Atlas Loot and RobBossMod combined?
fallemwarrior May 16th 2011 9:28AM
are they all supposed to be Grimbatol or is that all there is for backgrounds atm
Iirdan May 16th 2011 10:51AM
I'd imagine that the Grim Batol background is just a placeholder, and other instance backgrounds will come soon.
(cutaia) May 16th 2011 11:09AM
Yeah, currently, it's GB for all backgrounds, but assuredly it'll get changed.
Daedalus May 16th 2011 9:44AM
I don't see this making anything easier for people who like a challenge; there's a pretty easy solution: don't use it.
I mean, as it stands now, most raid encounters have detailed strategies on places like Tankspot before they're even off the PTR; any raid group that likes to do the trial and error approach has to be used to avoiding that kind of thing. The fact that it's in the game now doesn't really change much.
However, as a lore nerd, I have to say: absolutely awesome. There's so many bosses out there I've always wanted more details on, and hopefully, this will fill in some of the gaps.