Isnt it bad enough that our forums, trade chat, and random groups are filled with trolls? But now we have to spend even more time with them? Patch 4.2 has been out for some time now which means we have all new tier that needs to be bought. Not to mention all the other goodies we have to get as well.
In patch 4.2 blizzard nerfed the amount of valor points we can get a week to 980. This means we only need to run 7 trolls / 14 regular heroics / or a mixture of both, right? Wrong! We have a cut off at 490 valor points for regular heroics meanwhile we can run trolls all week-long and cap out on them. I really wish Blizzard would get a clue. If you have to make players run your content by forcing them to run 2 heroics just to cap out on valor points, something is wrong. People should want to run those heroics because they’re challenging and fun to run. Not because we have it.
Let’s do some math:
980 is the weekly valor cap. To achieve this per week with the minimum amount of Troll runs, you need:
4 Zandalar heroics = 560 points
6 Regular heroics = 420
980 valor points
Or suffer through 7 troll heroics and reach the same result.
To put this in perspective, to remove all troll heroics from the equation entirely you would need a full clear of The Firelands.
1 Firelands boss = 70 valor points
70 x 7 = 490 points
7 regular heroics = 490 points
980 valor points
Truth be told I really don’t mind running Zul’Gurub. After the nerf the first 3 bosses are pretty easy truth be told. The Archaeology boss isn’t included in this because I guess some people just don’t understand to run away when they’re being pursued. Zanzil is easy in theory. I fail to see how it is hard in any scope but people still end up dying regardless. As for Jin’do things get a little bit hairy. But all in all I really don’t mind when I get the bridge as my loading screen.
Zul’Aman on the other hand….. This is the way I see Zul’Aman. That timer you get is directly proportionate to the amount of patience the group has. You start out at 15 minutes, you’re group has 100 patience buff. You head off running for the gauntlet, but watch out for the patrol that goes back and forth between the eagle boss and bear boss. If you pull this the group’s patience level drops 25%. You run up the gauntlet and the tank immediately pulls all the way up the ramp, if you live your patience gets buffed by 15% . The eagle boss is pretty easy, just make sure the dps kill the bird and get under the thunderstorm.
When you down this boss your patience gets buffed 33%. And you race of towards the bear boss. The adds before the bear boss diminishes the groups patience by a steady 15-20% . The bear boss is easy, only if you understand the run out order.
Once the boss is down the patience is buffed again by 33%. The group’s patience is usually around 40% or 8 minutes around the time of the adds. The interesting thing about the trash before Mr. Dragonhawk is the fact that there are scouts in these trash pulls. These scouts go and pound on a drum. Every pound equals 2 more reinforcement mobs this also equates to a 4% patience drop per drum pound. Finally if you manage to reach the Dragonhawk boss with your patience intact it runs out during this boss or the trash pull directly before it.
Once patience is at 0 a number of things start happening. Usually the players with some semblance of raiding gear or if they’re in a raiding guild begin to start uttering profanities as if it’s no one’s business. The tank blames the dps for not killing things faster. The dps blame the tank for not holding aggro thus limiting their ability to dps. The Healer being the pacifist that they are leaves because they hate seeing people fight. Meanwhile one or two people for the original group stay behind, reque, and finish the heroic thus getting their valor points.
When ever I zone into ZA now I automatically ask if we’re going for the mount of if we can take the pressure off and just run it for valor points. I think I’ve only had one group agree to do this and it went swimmingly. It’s for this reason of reward vs time/length that half my guild even refuses to do Troll randoms. I think I might have been in the same boat if it wasn’t for my tier looking so damn good.
But this post isn’t just about complaining it’s also meant to be constructive. I speak only for myself when I say this: I wouldn’t mind if blizzard removed the cap on regular heroics but cut the number of valor points down to 35. Sure it would take more time to do it but I would be able to keep out of the troll heroics. The reason I like regular heroics better than Trolls is because they’re more forgiving. If your group falls apart on the last boss that’s no big deal because you can reque and it will only talk half an hour-45 minutes to get to where you were. If your group falls apart on the last boss of a Troll random you’ve just wasted 30 minutes in a que plus another 1.5-2 hours with nothing to show for it. Another option is to cut the rewards on Troll randoms from 140 to 70 and now have the bosses drop some valor points, that way if the group does fall apart, at least you aren’t left with nothing.
Well as much fun as it has been complaining about Troll randoms. I’ve gotta jet. I have to go kill me some trolls so i can get some snazzy new Tier 12 for my shaman. As always, thanks for reading.
