Posts with tag World-Boss

The deadly dinosaur that caused the mass destruction you see documented in this picture, which was tweeted recently by Dave Kosak, has had a massive nerf to his health. It's gone from 872 million to 436 million, which is a 50% nerf.

The reason for this is likely twofold. Firstly, the boss was very hard to kill, and players were not unfairly deciding that the cost in repairs and time of killing Oondasta was too much compared to the gear drop chance and the quality of the gear. With patch 5.2 there are easier ways to get gear than killing this boss.

Secondly, the huge numbers "required" to kill this boss meant that servers were struggling under the load of hundreds of people taking on this boss. One viable "tactic" was to get so many people attacking Oondasta that the server lagged out so badly that he was only using a few of his abilities with long intervals in between.

Rygarius said a while back that while Oondasta was great, in that he brought back the epic outdoor raid feel, but that the big groups were causing server stability problems, so this is likely another step in trying to fix that issue. It seems like the nerf, meaning that the graveyard zerg tactic would likely not need 200 people to succeed, will make players happy to pull with smaller groups. This will help with the server stability, but is it a worthwhile exchange?

Hit the break for Lead Encounter Designer Ion Hazzikostas' input on the change.

Oondasta may have the best loot table in the entire universe, but the encounter understandably requires quite an army of players to defeat. And when I say army, I'm not exaggerating -- groups are currently rallying at least four 40-man raids to successfully put this guy down. Due to server stability issues, mainly brought about by using CRZ to bring over enough players, Blizzard is hotfixing how loot is earned for an Oondasta or Nalak kill.

In order to receive loot from either, players must be on their home realm.

Rygarius - Oondasta and Nalak Hotfixes

We're in the process of implementing a hotfix that will remove players' eligibility to receive loot from Oondasta and Nalak, The Storm Lord if they're not on their home realm.

We think it's great that encounters like Oondasta have been able to bring back some of the excitement of massive spontaneous outdoor raids. However, with cross-realm groups giving the ability to play with friends on each other's realms, the amount of people concentrating on a single realm to try to zerg these bosses down can unfortunately cause a number of stability issues, impacting the availability of the game for everyone.

While Nalak isn't available yet, we want to preemptively address this so that the first realm to unlock it doesn't then become the single focus for the rest of the region.

Here's the hotfix note that'll be added to the blog shortly:

• Players visiting a different realm are no longer eligible to receive loot from Oondasta or Nalak, The Storm Lord.

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Patch 5.2 brings two new world bosses, the easiest to locate of which is Oondasta. I was exploring the new zones on the PTR today, and, after a failed attempt to fly to Thunder Isle, headed over to the Isle of Giants, to the north of Kun Lai Summit, as you can see in the map I bring up on the video. The Isle of Giants is home to Oondasta.

Oondasta is likely the first of many great-looking models to come out of the patch, and might be reminiscent of the appearance of the fantastically named Dinomancers mentioned in the second boss fight of the Throne of Thunder raid. The troll influence is pretty obvious from the boss's appearance, and man, I love the look of the armor!

Moving on to Oondasta's abilities, as per the dungeon journal, the Crush ability implies the need for a tank-swap, as it stacks. Frill Blast is a cone effect probably best dodged rather than soaked, given that it inflicts 800,000 damage to all players within it. There's a 200,000 damage roar effect that, similar to Halfus Wyrmbreaker in Bastion of Twilight, or Warmaster Blackhorn in Dragon Soul, interrupts spellcasting, but with a hefty ten-second lockout. Healers will need to avoid this!

Other than that, there's a stacking damage increase called Growing Fury, and an interesting ability called Spiritfire Beam, which deals heavy damage and also jumps to up to 20 players in range, dealing 50% more damage with each jump. The logical solution to this might be to isolate the targeted player, preventing the beam from jumping, as the damage will quickly become unhealable as the jumps occur.

This boss sounds like it might prove a challenge for PuGs!

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Mists of Pandaria is here! The level cap has been raised to 90, many players have returned to Azeroth, and pet battles are taking the world by storm. Keep an eye out for all of the latest news, and check out our comprehensive guide to Mists of Pandaria for everything you'll ever need to know.

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You may recall from an earlier post that raids will have a staggered release in Mists, with the first raid, Mogu'Shan Vaults, not appearing for a whole week after the expansion's launch and then a week later in the raid finder. Then you'll have to wait a whole four weeks for the next batch of raids, Heart of Fear and Terrace of Endless Springs.

But if you level at break-neck speed and are thirsty for a challenge to get your teeth into in a group, fear not! Blizzard has accommodated your needs with world bosses, available from day one, and the preview page is now up for Salyis's Warband, as we were informed yesterday.

Check out the Mists of Pandaria preview website and get a first glimpse at one of the two new roaming world bosses: Salyis's Warband! These extremely powerful monsters will do everything in their power to make your life more... "interesting" as you explore the mysterious continent of Pandaria.

World bosses spawn in the open world and can be attacked by any player (un)fortunate enough to cross their paths. Salyis's Warband will be quite rare, while the expansion's other boss will appear with fairly regular frequency. But before you charge headfirst into battle, keep in mind that it will take the combined efforts of a full raid to bring one of these guys to their knees.

Taking down a world boss is no small feat, but the rewards make it all worthwhile: achievements, fabulous items, and massive bragging rights will all be yours if you and your comrades in arms succeed in felling one of these roving terrors. Check back soon for more info on the game's other world boss, the Sha of Anger!

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In vanilla and BC, there were world bosses like Azuregos and Doomwalker that spawned out in the open world and could be taken down by a raid. While these bosses were often farmed by the highest progression guilds on the servers, they were often so quickly killed and so long in respawning that not many players got to see them. Now, in Cataclysm, a new take on this idea is being implemented.