You say ‘Gone is the phase 5 drums and pray strat’ when that’s literally the strat now. Get raest as low as possible in the first 2 burns, and use everything you’ve got left to handle the final phase before Karam can run you down. That’s literally what you do.
Unless you mean ‘gone is the kill him in phase 2 and never see any mechanics’ strat? Something only shadow priests could do and only because they had one of the most situationally broken abilities this game has ever seen.
Meanwhile in the current Mt, every single spec that has twins can do 60k damage in 40 seconds with all CDs. It’d literally die in phase 2.
After watching several kill Vids for the various versions of the encounter in SL. The hp of both Karam and Raest varies wildly from spec to spec. Some are able to get into the final phase with him sub 30, some very much aren’t.
I think shadows version of the encounter needs at most an 8% hp nerf on raest, but the rest need a fair bit more.
I can’t honestly say any of them need a 70% hp nerf though.
What was unwarranted was changing the entire dynamic of the encounter with Raest’s massive health buff and then when players reacted and found a new way to cheese it with the out-of-range thing, they made it even worse by having him move around which he never did in Legion.
Instead of addressing the core issue : his inflated health pool. Someone ran the math on it and it’s pretty telling how different this encounter now is :
Once again, if Raest had the same relative health pool to Karam that he did in legion with the damage we’re doing in the scaled version of the mage tower, he’d be dead in phase 2 for every spec that can do it.
Raests health needs a nerf, a large one for affliction, a medium one for mm and balance, and a small one for shadow and frost.
It doesn’t need anywhere close to a 70% one though.
Yes, and again : which he was for a spec on launch in March/April 2017. That’s what the encounter was.
I get bringing down Karam’s kill time a bit. But they doubled Raest’s if you look at that thread.
Aff locks don’t exactly have Sacrolash anymore and the Infernal cheese is also not a thing. I tried Balance a bit, but I’m not a good Druid player at all, and much less a good Balance druid (did it in Legion with gear to power through). Kiting Karam seems a pain now on anything but MM and Frost Mage.
Karam’s health is obviously lower than it used to be, maybe the old 1.2 times figure isn’t good for Raest. But 3 times is way too much. And the fixes they did make the encounter completely unrecognizable with Raest moving around.
One spec, a spec that at the time during burst was capable of FOUR TIMES the burst DPS of any other spec in the game. I did it that way on shadow, day 1 in legion, shadowlands was the first time I ever saw a hand or a soak. The first time I actually had do to the encounter as designed.
Popping all CDs you should be able to get him to roughly 50-60% in your first burn. That leaves 30-35% to do in the second burn, and then a 20-25% burn at the end with Karam chasing you.
If a spec can’t do that, tune the hp to make that the fight, don’t make it so people can near 100-0 raest in the first burn.
Nothing is as strong as a credit card. They probably stopped because you can just buy your prestigious awards better these days. At the end of the day, nothing matters in pixel land.
Take Balance. Currently they work because of Ravenous Frenzy or Covoke the Spirits. Without either of those, Balance can’t really burst through Incarn only. Raest still has 130k. Ok, I’m not good at playing Balance, but still, for a spec so highly reliant on its Covenant stuff, this is kinda painful. On top of Mage Tower using PvP DR on CC (yes, I know it was the same in Legion).
On balance, my experience was 1:30 push or you’re perma travel form.
Anyway, I just stopped trying and did Bear MT instead, because I was only doing Balance to practice for P1 Moonkin form in the Bear challenge.
I think in the end my point is bliz got the tuning off, but they didn’t get it 70% off. Balance’s raest also has 120k hp.
The way shadow can do the fight by burning raest in both burns then racing to the end when Karam gets back up is how everyone should be able to play the fight.
Unless I’m mistaken (last played Priest for MT back in Legion so excuse me if things have really changed), but Shadow also has mostly insta cast spells aside from Vampiric Touch and almost perma speed from Body and Soul correct ?
Pretty different from Balance that has more of a stop and cast dynamic.
You’re reasonably mistaken, yes. Body and soul is very far from perma, and at most 40% speed. Shadows damage while moving is low because resource generation is low, id put it on par with balance. However balance also has the ability to cast while moving during starfall. Shadows Karam just gains stacks slower than Balance’s does.
Shadow is an unrecognisable spec to what it was in legion. And your dots do significantly less of your damage than they did back then. It’s akin to moonkin dots almost.
I love the idea of a two-stage difficulty. I suggest it in my post as well. I really think more people will be happy because for me, I only care the werebear atm. Not getting it in Legion really put a sour taste in my mouth for playing my druid and every time I see myself NOT in werebear, I die a little more inside. I want to switch to a druid main, but I won’t as long as I don’t have it. So this was my answer, finally! But no, I’m struggling hard and even if I had a boring coloration, it would definitely make it more enjoyable and still give me something to strive for as my abilities improve as a guardian druid. I think this is a great idea.
I kept failing trying this strat so adjusted and did what I did in Legion. I blew everything on the first burn phase which would usually get Raest to around 50% (give or take 5% depending on how efficient I was and how many lucky crits I got), second burn I could take off another 20%-25%, and then kite Karam while finishing off the last 25% or so. Only nerf I think this encounter needs (for a boomkin mind you) is a health reduction on the Hands, say 15-20%. Making those a bit more manageable but not being able to ignore them would maintain the challenge of the encounter.
Sensation unfortunately hit the nail on the head. Giving the masses who are currently unhappy part of the reward won’t appease them. There is this weird idea that because we pay a subscription fee, we should all be equal, regardless of the quality of effort put forth.
I’ve seen dozens of posts from players who have put in “hundreds of attempts” and still don’t have the reward. I have seen many posts from people who put in 80 attempts and completed the challenge. Why the disparity?…there is a difference between quantity and quality of work. The MT favors quality and this isn’t some new or radical idea….you don’t get an A in education for submitting 10 versions of a paper if they are all garbage. Folks will quickly complain about the number of attempts they have made, but have no idea what DoT uptime is or how to check it. That is one of many parts to mastering your class…knowing what you’re doing when pressing buttons. WoW is not attempting to be a utopia and has never billed itself as such.
There will be a lot of angry players come January when the tower closes. They will continue to play and subscribe because they are paper tigers who won’t actually stand behind what they want us to believe.