Dragon Soul Power of the Aspects buff to increase next week
by Adam Holisky 
Feb 22nd 2012 at 1:00PM
The Power of the Aspects buff currently stands at 5%, which went into effect on Jan. 31, 2011. So it took about a month for the buff to increase to the next level. Blizzard has said the spell will continue to increase but not at a set interval, as was done in Icecrown Citadel.
The full blue post is as follows:
Blizzard Entertainment
During the scheduled server maintenance on the week of February 28, the "Power of the Aspects" spell will grow more powerful, reducing the health and damage dealt of all enemies in the Dragon Soul raid by 10%. This spell will grow progressively stronger over time to reduce the difficulty and make the encounters more accessible. The spell will affect both normal and Heroic difficulties, but it will not affect the Raid Finder difficulty.
Don't need the help of the Dragon Aspects? The spell can be disabled by talking to Lord Afrasastrasz at the beginning of Dragon Soul.
We hope you continue to enjoy Dragon Soul, and that these changes encourage you to attempt a higher difficulty, or just keep pushing to down that next boss.
Don't need the help of the Dragon Aspects? The spell can be disabled by talking to Lord Afrasastrasz at the beginning of Dragon Soul.
We hope you continue to enjoy Dragon Soul, and that these changes encourage you to attempt a higher difficulty, or just keep pushing to down that next boss.
Filed under: News items, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
jfofla Feb 22nd 2012 1:03PM
MOP is coming in June, just like the leaked schedule had it.
AltairAntares Feb 22nd 2012 1:17PM
Yeah, no.
eel5pe Feb 22nd 2012 1:29PM
Unlikely. Cata beta started June 30th 2010 and the game was released December 7th. That's a little over five months. WotLK beta started July 17th and the game was released November 13th, a period of four months. The beta test for Pandaland hasn't even started, so at best we're looking at an early July release date.
Nnote that we haven't even had beta opt-ins, nor has the FandF alpha started yet.
Ailuvan Feb 22nd 2012 1:46PM
People who know better think the FnF is imminent, since the talent tree preview discussions appear to have actual tooltips, which means there's a functional Pandemonium server running...
clundgren Feb 22nd 2012 1:59PM
There's a lot of buzz that the F and F is starting any day now.
I think July is more likely than June, but this will almost certainly be a much shorter beta than was Cataclysm's. There isn't anything like the scope of changes that Cataclysm involved.
AltairAntares Feb 22nd 2012 3:11PM
I'm sure there's been a function MOP server running for awhile, considering people were playing MOP back at blizzcon.
chaosdefined Feb 23rd 2012 10:25AM
My money is still on an August release.
Press Event in March showing all the new info that we've been waiting for since October, so that leads me to believe they have an almost working version of the expansion to show off, or near enough, to make up for 5 months of no news.
Beta, I think will then most likely start in April, possibly beginning of May. The final release being around August.
That's my predictions anyway.
Wulfkin Feb 22nd 2012 1:09PM
This angers up my blood. In Icecrown Citadel we got a raid-wide buff/nerf because Blizzard wanted to make sure everyone got a chance to see the content. But now we have the easymode that is LFR, everyone gets to take Deathwing down. Therefore why can't normal mode be left alone for those of us who like to run it and feel some sense of challenge and pride in finishing it?
Bart Feb 22nd 2012 1:13PM
Their excuse is because people were 'hitting a wall' on the Fall of Deathwing half.
wrinklestein Feb 22nd 2012 1:13PM
It can. Don't use the spell.
aidyTM Feb 22nd 2012 1:19PM
Christ, calm down. You can turn it off. Anybody's that's done LFR knows that it's hardly the most engaging of experiences, as cool as it is to be able to see the content you wouldn't have had a chance to before.
These progressive nerfs just seem like Blizz's way of making the Normal modes accessible to other players without crippling people's egos by making it a non-optional nerf. I like it.
BK Feb 22nd 2012 1:22PM
@wrinklestein, the "don't use the spell" option is not realistically available. It can not be chosen by an individual for themselves. It requires an entire raid team to agree on it. For that to happen, you need overwhelming support of the other 9 or 24 members (or the GM will rightly fear defections to other guilds.) To have that support, you need an entire team full of people who do not care about relative standings. Even this late in the game, many "average" guilds care about getting that next boss before the other similar average guilds on their server that they've been competing with all along.
So in essence, the option is not really available to anyone. I wish Blizz would have the guts to release that statistics on how often it was used, which would show its purely a "marketing" option with no effect in game.
AltairAntares Feb 22nd 2012 1:28PM
Because some people simply don't have the group that can do it as it is right now. Not everyone runs with groups where every dps/heals/tank pulls the maximum their gear allows.
matt Feb 22nd 2012 1:36PM
BK is right, turning off the buff is not really realistic, most GMs feel like it is there responsibility to deliver kills to the members, the nerf helps them do that. even if they personally don't want to take the nerf (as my GM does not want to) they still do it because nerfs may suck but recruiting sucks even more.
The question I have for the anti-nerf crusaders is simple. Where is your team in DS progression and how long have you been working on the boss you are working right now? from my point of view you are either 8/8H or stuck on some boss. Getting a push to get your group past that boss is a good thing. I mean you aren't going to get any more gear than you already have at this point, and the skill you have on your team is rotting every week that you don't get kills (people leave guilds that are stalled).
So, tell me your story. make me see how the nerf is hurting your group or making WoW less fun for your team (NOT you individually, raiding is a team sport).
Wulfkin Feb 22nd 2012 1:42PM
@AltairAntares That's called failing, and it's okay. My guild has killed Deathwing, but last week our raid group just wasn't working well enough and we got stuck at Blackhorn. So we'll go back next week and try harder. That to me is the point of raiding: improving as a team. The point of content is it's something that you work at and then complete, not that you try it, can't do it and then Blizzard changes the content so you can do it without making any more effort.
BK Feb 22nd 2012 1:46PM
Not being 8/8H is not the same as being "stalled." My 10 man team is currently on Ultraxion. We only got an hour on it last week. I estimate we need 1-2 more hours of practice and we'll have it. We are a small team -- total roster of 11 -- who attempts to raid nine hours each week, but usually gets only 3 or 6 hours of productive progression raiding because a couple members are unavailable one night. Although we all have most of our 397 gear, there are still upgrades going out every week from the hard mode bosses we started farming only recently, and those rarely-dropping items from normal mode.
I would have much rather Blizz introduced a powerful, effective Raid Team finder function -- ie. something that could make it easier to have a roster of 12 or 13 without a ton of recruiting that feels like work, not fun. That would be a big help. The nerf is just a welfare handout we didn't need and don't appreciate.
Lord Alexion Feb 22nd 2012 1:49PM
matt, It's rather simple actually. Saying this buff is not an imposition, like BK wisely put, is outright bull**it. If you are not the leader of your group, you'll have to suck it up cuz he'll most likely want the buff. And if you're the leader, you'll be forced to suck it up and use the buff because if not then most of your group will defect.
Now, onto your question: I currently can' t say I have a group, unfortunately. I spent most of this expansion too busy to raid, and now that I found a way to fit raiding into my schedule, it's been pretty hard to find commited people to make a solid composition. That said, I was able to be whisked away a few times into a friend's group who's 1/8H (altough they say my gear is still too low to do heroics - iLvl 392).
Anyways, I believe you shouldn't NEED the PERFECT RAID COMPOSITION to be able to get down bosses and clear a raid. No. But you should need SKILLED PLAYERS. Every fight should be a CHALLENGE. To overcome a boss should mean something. What blizzard is doing is trivializing the challenge, to the point where most people don't CARE. "Necessity is the mother of evolution". You don't need to play 8 hours a day to be a skilled player. Being a "casual" is not an excuse to be a bad player or to not care about gemming/enchanting your gear. At least it SHOULDN'T be. If you just say to everybody "you don't need to care about being a good player; we'll just trivialize the content until the point where even you'll be able to plow through it", where's the incentive? where's the drive? where's the motivation?
If you lift weights in a gym and you can't pull the 30 lbs. weight, do you put a cartoony "30 lbs." sign on the 10 lbs. weight and lift it? or you train so you are able to actually lift the real 30 lb. weight?
clundgren Feb 22nd 2012 1:56PM
What you seem to be saying is that the buff is an imposition because most people you raid with will want it. I hate when people use democracy to impose their will like that.
It would be much better if the minority could impose their will.
BK Feb 22nd 2012 2:30PM
Yes, given that everyone else in the server / game is using the nerf, raid teams are "choosing" not to be gimped relative to all the other teams.
But that is very different than choosing to have the nerf available in the first place.
matt Feb 22nd 2012 2:36PM
"If you lift weights in a gym and you can't pull the 30 lbs. weight, do you put a cartoony "30 lbs." sign on the 10 lbs. weight and lift it? or you train so you are able to actually lift the real 30 lb. weight?"
I totally get this. but in the world of running guilds, folks quit if your group can't lift the weights, regardless of how they are labeled. I had a guild implode in ICC25 because it took us 2 weeks to get festergut and rotface down.
I completely see your point about your place in progression though. that's actually where we were when the first nerf came down. we took a generous break around the holidays and when we cam back we only had one week for a "pre-nerf" kill we weren't stalled, but we had not had the time on bosses yet. That said, getting our madness kill the night of the nerf was no less satisfying (I thought it would be). Getting our first DS heroic kill last night was not a bummer, it was fun.
Sure we may have been able to make 8/8H without the nerf but I doubt it. I don't really care about our server ranking. I just want to have content that is appropriate for my groups skill level available until the next tier comes out. without the nerf our run in DS (and potentially our guild) would probably end at 2/8H, with the progressive nerf I would not be surprised to see us get an H madness kill in the next 2 months.