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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsPatch 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 2 of 2)
Helper May 16th 2011 9:47AM
Crabby still haunts my dreams. It's hard to fall asleep at night, knowing his soul piercing gaze awaits me in the dark madness that consumes humanity on the edge of the void.
StClair May 16th 2011 4:44PM
"It looks like you're trying to fall asleep. Can I help?"
Nina Katarina May 16th 2011 9:50AM
This will be so useful in PUGs. I ran some troll dungeons over the weekend with a friend who had recently come back to WoW and was powerlevelling to get ready to raid with us. It would have been so much easier to tell him to look at the journal before the fights.
The journal doesn't tell us what's interruptable, what's spellstealable, what the timers are. There will still be challenge. It doesn't tell us anything that avid dataminers weren't already able to guess. It levels the playing field a bit.
I like it.
Nina Katarina May 16th 2011 11:11AM
Now that I've had a chance to look at the screenshots some more, I'm wondering if some of it isn't a little *too* handholdy. I like to see abilities and adds descriptions, but I think it could do without telling us "burn this down quickly or the raid will wipe" information. That's something a group of raiders ought to be able to figure out on our own.
It's a bit like the enhanced levelling process - make it too easy and you burn through the content too fast, or the bits that slow you down feel like they're cheating.
Ged May 16th 2011 10:51AM
I'm new-ish to the game and this is going to be great for the "old" content that everyone else knows and expects you to know too.
(cutaia) May 16th 2011 11:10AM
If you're talking about "old" as in wrath and previous, unfortunately they aren't adding that in quite yet. Who knows how long it'll take to appear?
Lemons May 17th 2011 12:35AM
@(cutaia)
If the time it took them to put in the old dungeon maps is any indication I'm going to say somewhere in exp 5.
Luke May 17th 2011 6:53AM
I think it's safe to assume that they will implement this for the lower level dungeons. Why wouldn't they? In fact I predict this will be tied into both the achievement system and archeology.
In a game where it's difficult to introduce enough content to keep the hardcore gamers happy, it's easy to predict that they will put in place convenient systems to add new content. They admitted they designed archeology with this in mind.
By the next expansion we'll see a full integration of content, achievements and lore.
RetPallyJil May 16th 2011 10:53AM
Crabby! ^_^
Lemons May 17th 2011 12:40AM
I hope they do a better job with the 3D preview on this than they did with the quest log. Some of the mobs in there are HUGE and some are itty bitty. Just...make it fit the window...that's all I ask...
ScorchHellfire May 17th 2011 7:59PM
I'm curious as to what is happening to the keyring since the dungeon journal's button is taking up the space that the keyring's button used to...