Breakfast Topic: What do you think about the new holiday boss style?
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Dec 27th 2011 at 8:00AM
This year on Winter Veil, Blizzard muddied the waters a bit. Rather than put the boss in a dungeon, Blizzard put him right smack dab in Alterac, uninstanced, and made the daily package come from a daily quest. Now, if you want to kill him, you have to fly out to him and grab a group, then take him down.
On one hand, it's not too bad. Since you don't have to tap him to kill him, in theory if you get there at the same time as five or six other people, you can kill him quick and clean. On the other hand, he's hard enough that you probably need a dedicated tank, and if it's 2 a.m., you better hope your server has a lot of night owls.
Why did the developers do this? Are they testing out the idea of world bosses for Mists of Pandaria? Did they just not want to stick the Greench into a dungeon somewhere? Did they just want to stick it to the Alliance by forcing them to fly over poor Southshore every day on their way to kill the boss? We may never know for sure.
But it does bring up a few interesting things to consider. A lot of people have said they are tired of sitting in their capital city and queueing for everything.
Now that we have a shot at it, what do you think? Is this enough? Is this an exciting preview of the brave new world of world exploring, or should Blizzard just stick to the queueing and stop forcing us to go to the middle of nowhere and do a lot of work for a silly pet? And why the heck did it put that adorable corgi graphic in the Greench's cave and then not give us a corgi pet? Why so mean, Blizzard?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 6)
DragonFireKai Dec 27th 2011 8:05AM
I could have sworn they tested out the idea of world bosses with the half dozen world bosses that they put into the game at cataclysm launch.
eirinefrostblade Dec 27th 2011 10:10AM
True, but I believe most, if not all of those are raid-level bosses, and not what's essentially a five-man boss. With a dedicated tank and same-faction healer, and three dps that know whatthey're doing, that'swhat the Greench is.
For that matter, they had world "raid bosses" in BC.
MisterRik Dec 27th 2011 11:44AM
I seem to have missed something. What are these half-dozen world bosses they put in at Cata launch?
Chetti Dec 27th 2011 12:00PM
I can think of one, I forget its name, but it wanders Twilight Highlands. joom somethin, I forget. It took half of our 10-man raid team and 1 or 2 people in the area that we grabbed into our group since they were there. It was fun, for about the amount of time it took to kill him. I know our warlock won something nice from the drops, I forget what all the drops were.
Calicia Dec 27th 2011 12:19PM
There's also Akma'hat hanging out in Uldum. I see him every once in a while when I'm farming volatile air or fishing for eels.
Jaq Dec 27th 2011 1:44PM
The world bosses I know of in Cata:
Garr-Mount Hyjal
Mobus-Vash'jir
Julak Doom-Twilight Highlands
Xarlona-Deepholm
Akma'hat-Uldum
I've only seen Mobus, Julak Doom, and Akma'hat. And only killed Mobus. Xarlona and Garr I've yet to see.
DragonFireKai Dec 27th 2011 6:11PM
@Erine
They were originally designed as five man bosses. They dropped 346 blues, were easily killable by a group of five, and no one cared about them. It wasn't until patch 4.1 that they buffed them up to 359 epics, and for the most part, people still didn't care about them.
I intensely dislike world bosses, because you wind up with one of two scenarios; either they don't put anything worthwhile on their loot table, so no one kills them and Blizzard wasted their time and resources that could have been better spent making actual content, or they do put worthwhile gear on their loot table, and people have to resort to EQ style spawn camping to have a shot at the gear they need. One's a waste and the other's a pain.
Tai Dec 27th 2011 8:08AM
The greench has always been outside in the same general area. Before this year you'd have to play tag to see who could get him first when he spawned. This year I've been doing this daily on 8 toons and sometimes it's very quick, he's dead, just loot and hearth. Other times the greench is alive and I either wait around for more people to kill him, or log that toon there and fly another one over. Finally got that cherished lump of coal yesterday :)
Edymnion Dec 27th 2011 8:43AM
Yup, this is nothing new. The only new part is that they changed the quest to go kill the Greench into a daily. That and he's a world boss now so you don't have to be the first one to hit him anymore, other than that its exactly the same as it's always been. This isn't a new way, this is going back to the old way (well, I suppose it would be more accurate to say its the "never updated to the new way" throwback).
Noyou Dec 27th 2011 11:26AM
I like it. I like the fact that it is a team thing between you an the opposite faction. Which is weird that they would implement this right before (ok months before) MoP will come out. It seems to contradict their ideology. My only gripe, and it is a small one, is that as alliance, it's kind of out in the middle of nowhere. It would have been nice to have a portal either there or back. I may be being a tad lazy, but running it on 8-10 toons adds up.
Bionic Radd Dec 27th 2011 8:21AM
Ive only had to actually fight him a couple of time. He is usually already did with Metzen standing there. In other words, I kinda like it!
Draev Dec 27th 2011 10:20AM
The one time I actually had to fight him, I was under the impression he was still just a regular mob with a tad more health. So I flew in and spotted him just below. Then I mid air charged in that way that only warriors can and that's when I realized the error of my ways. The Greench had leveled up and there was no way I could solo him now. Lucky for me some horde were nearby and proceeded to lay into him while the alliance warrior being myself tanked him. Afterwards I heroic leapt away in fear of being gabled then shadowmelded until I could loot. Id say that the holidays do bring people together!
Harvoc Dec 27th 2011 11:13AM
@ Draev
Feral druids in Bear Form can also Feral Charge a target while falling if they have the talent.
Draev Dec 27th 2011 12:44PM
Oh I know that, its just that druid forms are slightly modified versions of existing classes. To me anyway it looks cooler when my warrior goes from flying mount to charge instantly since I put a /dismount on my charge macro.
Shelly Dec 28th 2011 8:36AM
@draev: druids are not slightly modified versions of other classes, they are HEAVILY modified versions of other classes. Bear/warrior with 1/4th the toolkit, cat/rogue with 1/4th the toolkit, moonkin/mage at first, now... let's give you an "interestingmechanic", and healers were basically flat utility then raid only heals and now feel meh. Yes we top meters and I guess keeping lifeblood up is like the new holy power for paladins and the chairs for priests. I personally wish they would stop adding "awesome mechanics" to classes that are not considered hero classes. And the fact that they tried hero classes and couldn't balance them well enough to not be op at just about any level shows how much they shouldn't do that again.
Glyphstone Dec 27th 2011 8:23AM
Good concept, but the hassle in traveling all the way up to Alterac was really annoying compared to other holiday bosses. If they'd at least let you, say, ride Metzen back to IF for an instant-return, it'd take half the pain away.
Shamrocco Dec 27th 2011 3:40PM
Love that idea. Don't mind flying out if they'll port me back.
hairy_fedd Dec 27th 2011 8:25AM
Hey Daniel, this isn't new or exciting to those players that have been around before Wrath.
For me, the community as a whole has slipped down a rocky slop of not having to know their classes, roles, or put forth any effort into being a decent human being to the other people in their group because,"Lol,I'll never have to see those guys again."
While inconvenient for those with unusual work schedules, or on servers that aren't in the same timezone, it's nice to see Blizzard understands that the server community has been drifting apart, and this may be one way to remedy that.
In Burning Crusade, I had to form my own groups and fly to instances, and if I under performed, word got out- so I had to learn how to DPS without dripping drool onto my keyboard, mark and sheep targets, and assist the tank with their target and not that mob hanging out in the back that wasn't pulled.
zomby_wc3 Dec 27th 2011 8:32AM
imo if that mob hanging out the back wasnt pulled then its the tanks fault - and MY job to kill it before it targets the healer.
Your welcome tank.
Snuzzle Dec 27th 2011 10:14AM
Yes, and there's a reason they implemented the Dungeon Finder and changed the way world bosses (and most Holiday bosses) worked with it. The old way became the old way for better an for worse. While the cross-realm feature of the LFD does encourage douchiness and a feeling of anonymity, it also made doing dungeons while leveling (or, TO level) a reality and a viable strategy. It made max level dungeons on low-pop servers or off-peak hours a reality. It has its pros and its cons, but overall I'd say it's a plus, and going back to the "old way" with the Greench was interesting, and somewhat annoying. I didn't even know there was a new holiday boss because it wasn't available through LFD. I assumed the Greench was still a one-shot quest mob.