Raid Finder vs. Normals: The Siege of Wyrmrest Temple
by Mathew McCurley 
Dec 20th 2011 at 2:00PM
The Raid Finder calls the first four bosses of the Dragon Soul encounter "The Siege of Wyrmrest Temple," accessible as the first wing of the raid. In normal mode, there is no distinction between the two wings, as the whole place is just one instance. For the sake of understanding and what most people in Raid Finder are accustomed to, we'll split our explanation into two wings as well.
Before we begin, here are a few general points to make about the jump from Raid Finder to normal difficulty.
- There will be more damage. Everything hits harder in normal and heroic mode Dragon Soul. Everything. Every ability will require more healing, and every player will be required to mitigate as much damage as they can to make the healers' jobs easier.
- There will be more healing. With more damage comes more healing. Healers will need to know what cooldowns they have and where they are best used. Tank cooldowns are good for periods of high tank damage. Raid cooldowns are good for periods of high raid damage. Your raid leader will most likely be in charge of letting you know what cooldowns to use where, so listen closely.
- There will be more tanking. Tanks will be swapping much more than they do in Raid Finder and will usually have more targets to tank that hit harder and cause more ruckus. As a tank, don't be discouraged by the amount of stuff you have to look after -- you'll get the hang of it. It's not too bad.
- You'll need to use your raid cooldowns. You most likely have raid cooldowns as a WoW class. If you're a healer, you already know about your raid cooldowns, and you're going to need to use them. Using your raid cooldowns will prevent massive damage to your raid and allow you to survive attacks that would have killed you otherwise. Learn what your class cooldowns are, and ask your raid leader when you should have them available.
- There will usually be more movement and coordination. Don't let this point scare you -- coordination actually isn't too bad. There will be more things for you to DPS, more target switching, more moving with your raid members, etc. Just remember that things will just get more complicated, not necessarily more difficult, if that makes sense.
Morchok, the first fight in Dragon Soul and the Siege of Wyrmrest Temple, is not much different on normal mode than his Raid Finder counterpart. His abilities will stay the same, expect his Black Blood of the Earth to hit for considerably more damage, and the crystals must absolutely be dealt with and their damage soaked by players. You're going to want to assign the required number of players (three in 10-man, seven in 25-man) to detonate his crystals and heal up the damage quickly. Tanks will have to swap aggro once Morchok's armor debuff on the current tank gets too high. Otherwise, it's the same encounter.
Difficulty compared to Raid Finder Not much different. Watch for more damage.
Check out WoW Insider's guide to normal-mode Morchok.
Check out WoW Insider's guide to healing Morchok.
Zon'ozz will be the first fight where Raid Finder veterans will see some spectacular changes. The fight remains the same for the most part, with a twist. The ball that Zon'ozz forms must be bounced between two groups of players until it reaches a high enough stack of bounces that hitting Zon'ozz with the ball will greatly increase the damage he takes during his Maw of Go'rath vulnerability.
Players will stack in two groups and bounce the ball between them. Each time the ball hits a group of players, it will inflict damage that is shared between all of the people near where the ball collided. As the bounces stack up, the damage increases dramatically. Usually, groups bounce the ball between the groups a few times, have the group closest to Zon'ozz move out of the way of the boss, and then let the ball collide with him to send him into phase 2.
Difficulty compared to Raid Finder Phases are the same. Much more healing for ball bounces. Coordinate two groups to deal with bouncing ball mechanics.
Check out WoW Insider's guide to normal-mode Warlord Zon'ozz.
Check out WoW Insider's guide to healing Warlord Zon'ozz.
Raid Finder players will find themselves right at home with Yor'sahj the Unsleeping, their favorite multi-colored slime aficionado. His abilities remain the same, and the number of slimes that spawn remain at three. However, like all fights in normal mode compared to Raid Finder, the effects and abilities that these slimes grant Yor'sahj must be dealt with in a different and more challenging manner.
You will still want to have a priority order for slimes. I think our group kills purple slimes first, then greens, then yellow. Each ability will cause much more raid damage, and the adds spawned will need to be dealt with quickly. One very important thing to remember is that when a green slime hits Yor'sahj in normal mode, players must spread out, as damage jumps to other players within 4 yards. When Yor'sahj gets a red slime, players need to group up close to Yor'sahj to mitigate the damage.
Other than the increased damage and healing required during the slime phases, the fight is fairly similar.
Difficulty compared to Raid Finder Not much different. Much more healing. Remember to group up or spread out depending on the slimes.
Check out WoW Insider's guide to healing Yor'sahj.
While Hagara's phases are similar in normal mode to those of Raid Finder, there are a few new mechanics that players will have to learn if they have only completed the fight on the Raid Finder difficulty. The first new ability is Ice Tomb, where Hagara will trap players (two in 10-man, five in 25-man) in tombs of ice that must be destroyed to free those players. Quickly swap DPS to these tombs and AoE them down to get the boss with some of that damage as well, if they happen to be in melee range. You will be marked with a target arrow if you are going to be Ice Tombed, so group up with your fellow Ice Tombs for easy breakage.
The second new twist that players will have to contend with is Ice Lance. If you've done this fight on Raid Finder, you'll have seen the Ice Lance but not actually had to deal with its consequences. Players who are hit by the Ice Lance have their attack speed reduced by 25%. While the mechanic is fairly trivial, it is something to watch out for, so move away from the person targeted with Ice Lance.
Finally, for you Raid Finder rogues out there who cannot complete the first step in your legendary dagger chain, Proving Your Worth, you'll be able to pickpocket the decoder ring from Hagara in 10- or 25-man normal mode. Get those awesome first stage daggers and watch everyone weep at your new DPS.
Difficulty compared to Raid Finder Again, not much different except for the Ice Tombs and the extra healing. Make sure your tank is strafing away from Focused Assault, and don't get hit by the ice waves.
Check out WoW Insider's guide to healing Hagara.
Up to the next level
Stay tuned for the second half of our guide showing you how to graduate from Raid Finder to normal mode Dragon Soul, coming soon. Hopefully all of the good times and great experiences in Raid Finder can transition themselves over to the wacky, wild world of the normal versions of the Dragon Soul encounters.
Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!
Filed under: Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
mezcao Dec 20th 2011 2:05PM
I believe they should give normal raids an extra boss, and heroic another. So if your doing LFR you see all but 2 bosses.
So if you do LFR you get to see all but 2 bosses.
TimR Dec 20th 2011 2:24PM
Their goal is to offer the same raid experience at different difficulty levels. Adding more bosses would defeat that purpose.
deatryx Dec 20th 2011 2:26PM
Adding bosses in normal or heroic defeats the purpose of RF. The whole intent was to allow more people to see content. It's counter-intuitive to then add content that you can't see.
mezcao Dec 20th 2011 4:40PM
Molten front Dailies /sigh
I hate them. I really do. However I want to buy some of the pets and goodies the vendors sell. Should I be allowed to buy those without putting in the time to do the dailies? I don't think so. I have not done the dailies and therefor I do not have the pets. I don't feel cheated, I don't think Blizzard should make it so I only have to do the dailies once each and then let me buy the pets. No it would not be right.
That is the mentality I have with the bosses. Sure i would most likely see the normal mode boss and miss the hard mode boss, but so what? If I wanted to put in the time and effort to see the hard mode boss I am sure I could. I simply can not and would not put the time needed to be a hard mode raider. However, I believe people who put in more time and effort in to raiding should be giving a little something nice like a special boss. Much the same way people who do all the molten front dailies get to buy there mushroom chair and junk.
And higher Ilvl item does not count as something special or nice. maybe unique models (not reskins) would count but not +10 to stam.
Microtonal Dec 20th 2011 5:20PM
I think that movie theaters should kick their patrons out before the climax of the film unless they've spent the previous six to eight weeks watching the first two acts of the movie over and over and over again. If you're not willing to put in the time, you don't deserve plot resolution.
Snuzzle Dec 20th 2011 6:29PM
I'm okay with HM only bosses. A lot of raids have had them, and no one complains that they need to make a normal-difficulty Sinestra or that Algalon was too hard to get to. Those are the treat hardcore raiders get to see. I'm casual to the core (I had to do some major DW dungeon crawling before I could even use the raid finder when 4.3 dropped) and I have no problem with this.
Notice, though, that almost all of the "heroic only, super hard" bosses were in a middle or early-on tier. That means that people can come back and still experience the boss fight after they outgear it.
(cutaia) Dec 20th 2011 6:31PM
I'll never understand the mentality that causes someone to wish that strangers get less content in a video game than they do. It must be exhausting caring about such meaningless things in life...
brightrjim Dec 20th 2011 6:36PM
I get better gear, an ach, and usually a mount. Seems pretty fair to me. Let the causal players see the content.
Bapo Dec 20th 2011 10:23PM
You guys say that LFR raiders should get something less, which we do, the ilvl of the gear is lower than normal and heroic, we also do not get the geodes, or essence of destruction.
Bobby Earl Dec 21st 2011 3:57AM
I'm not a raider but I sort of agree with the OP, at least for Heroic versions of raids. The whole point of achievements is, as Blizzard themselves put it, "bragging rights". To have a spare boss in Heroic dungeons that has little or no lore value and gives an achievement and/or title would be harmless. It would be no different than a non-raider going after Loremaster in my opinion. The implementation of titles and achievements is, after all, Blizzard's way of catering to the basic human desire to display one's pride in having accomplished something. I say give the raiders something to show others that they are dedicated to their particular field of gameplay. Being a borderline OCD completist I've had to come to terms with the fact that I cannot possibly obtain or achieve everything in this game and you know what? That's okay. That fact is part of what gives WoW it's grand scope.
Arrowsmith Dec 20th 2011 2:10PM
Every time my best friend leads a Raid Finder Group, he adds at the end of every strategy blurb "This is how you do it on normal. I don't care if you do it differently." People seem to appreciate the bluntness and the practice for getting into normal modes, and the asshats that don't are swiftly kicked. Just thought I'd throw that out there!
Ellesmere Dec 20th 2011 2:11PM
I want a graduation cap In-game now....
mazca13 Dec 20th 2011 2:14PM
Zon'ozz in particular tends to give people an unpleasant surprise on Normal. He's not unduly complicated, but he's a genuine gear check and you'll find him difficult if you're dragging some under-par DPS and healers. Nowhere near the level of Ultraxion, but there's an awful lot of damage going out during the dark phases, and his enrage timer is reasonably tight.
It's also worth noting that Hagara's ice walls move significantly faster on Normal. They're still easily outrun, but sometimes people are too used to the speed on LFR and get caught nonetheless.
Royal Dec 20th 2011 2:23PM
This can't be stated enough.
We lost four of our raids pugs due to not realizing the difference in speed. In order to get our pug through it we told them NOT to stop moving during that part and not to stop to DPS the crystals.
Mortenebra Dec 20th 2011 2:40PM
We actually attempted Zon'ozz before Yor'shaj on normal. Man, what a PITA. That was a definite gear-check and the fact that hitting the "ball" in a certain way can make it veer off course just made it worse. It's especially stressful on the healers, I think, because of the damage from the ball (on contact) plus the debuff. You get an unlucky break and boom, there goes one or more of your raiders. It was refreshing when we got to Yor'shaj and found out how much easier the mechanics were on that fight and not having to contend with shadow volleyball.
Bapo Dec 20th 2011 10:24PM
Hmm... I may almost enjoy normal mode Hagara more then. I have the uncanny ability (it only happened once actually) of running faster than the ice wall, and killing myself : /
Kithus Dec 20th 2011 2:16PM
Might want to include the falling icicles in hagaras frost phase.
Mortenebra Dec 20th 2011 2:35PM
This was the bit that caught my guild off-guard when we attempted Hagara on normal last week. Running away from ice walls would have been fine if we weren't also trying to dodge icicles (with disappearing circles) at the same time, losing some of that forward movement. It's just another dance we have to learn and get used to. The good thing about the ice phase-- as a hunter-- is being able to pop Aspect of the Cheetah/Pack for an extra burst of speed when necessary, since, if all goes well, no one should be taking any damage during that phase and shouldn't get dazed (which would defeat the purpose of trying to outrun the ice walls).
Skarn Dec 20th 2011 4:07PM
Yep, I recommend adding this. The extra damage if you get hit isn't too bad, but they also knock you back, which can easily toss you into an Ice Wave. You won't survive that in Normal.
Also, I've seen tanks in LFR sit and eat the Focused Assault with a CD. NOT a good idea for Normal. That hits HARD. Get outta there!
bill.vollers Dec 20th 2011 2:45PM
I would also add the damage + knockback effect from dispelling Disrupting Shadows on Zon'ozz as a significant new feature to be alert for.