Just wanted to throw out some thoughts on The Rookery. I know not everyone will agree, which is fine, this is just my take to hopefully spark some constructive discussion.
TLDR – Rookery isn’t fun, here’s why:
- Trash pulls feel overtuned – lots of danger, not a lot of reward. Punishing more than engaging.
- Bosses aren’t interesting – mechanics feel clunky or tedious, not satisfying to play through, and multi-phase encounters make them take too long.
- Timer is too tight – even solid groups feel rushed. Not much room for error.
- Parasol skip meta is silly – relying on a toy to time higher key feels like a design miss. Creates toxicity when people don’t know or have it.
- Overall vibe – There’s a difference between “hard but fun” and “hard and not fun.” Rookery feels like the latter.
Again, just my opinion—I know others may enjoy it, and that’s valid. I’d just love to see dungeons lean more into challenge with fun, not challenge instead of fun.
2 Likes
Is the parasol skip a high key thing? I do 13s and I’ve never seen that.
I like boss #2 because of the novelty of the hot potato mechanic but boss #3 is stinky poo poo, it’s clunky and awkward to heal.
3 Likes
Even normal mode rookery leans more towards stressful. It’s really more of a healer challenge than tank challenge. On a scale of fun to stressful I put it around 6, slightly more stressful than fun. That said I run rookery A LOT on my various alts and dont hate it like i do Cinder or some other instances. The first boss is a little interesting but the rest of them are kind of boring, which seems to be the norm now. I do like the trash pulls in the bottom room because it can be a little chaotic.
This is exactly how I feel about Cinder.
Cinder I think is at least fun, albeit hard. The dungeon itself has a cool vibe and the bosses are more interesting. I will agree that it does feel like EVERY pack is dangerous and scary, though. But at least it’s got some heavy cleave for big numbers (i.e. more fun).
Parasol skip can be thrown out the window.
Last boss too (but only on pres evoker.)
Trash is fine.
Please stop with these nerf requests just to make your key level go +1.
Timer was so lenient that Blizz for once made stuff harder by outright reducing it.
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I hate the mobs that suck you in
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You can pretty much press W up until 14/15, but I think for the higher stuff it becomes more necessary. So of course we’re talking about a small population, but similar to the KUJO box cheese, I think it just breeds animosity when someone feels like you HAVE to do it (even though you probably don’t).
And here I am thinking rookery is pretty neat. Sure, route is pretty much set it stone which is boring (the exception is parasol skip which inevitably will be fixed), but the mechanics are clear and simple to understand and execute.
If anything, third boss in mechagon and third boss in motherlode is my nemesis right now. Mechagon because the neverending dance usually gets DPS killed and bricks they key, cogwheels and sometimes fire swirlies blend in a bit too well with the floor. Motherlode because every autoattack is a tankbuster that nukes you, feels way overtuned as any tank except DH.
Not a fan of the last boss due to being awful for having players out range me as a healer.
13s must be too low for the toy skip, haven’t seen that yet.
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Workshop is far far worse. Like not even comparable. Thats how I feel about a Rookery after a Workshop: i.imgur. com/9W88ExP.png
I disliked it in SL S4 and I hate it with passion now.
It was mediocre at best in BFA as well and that is with the Awakened affix that allowed us to skip both the inane maze before the 3rd boss and generally the trash practically wherever we wanted.
First boss is ok, second is a big wtf, 3rd is the ranged hell and general pandemonium, 4th is the raid boss we really did not need.
Without awakened the entire dungeon is gimmick run.
Its loot table is one of the worsts I have ever seen from any m+ dungeon.
It makes Assault of Violet Hold look like a fun & engaging dungeon with a lot of nice loot (I would actually much prefer it and cant see why it would not be good on m+ if workshop passed).
And if we forget that workshop unfortunately exists, then we still have to cope with the existence of another masterpiece this season, this time from the wonderous shadowlands, the Theatre of Pain!
Such an exhilarating dungeon with so many fun encounters like Xav or his entire trash wing. Single target all around. After the first boss (which is the only fun one in this entire hell), we might as well call it a raid.
The duel mechanic, where you have to artificially lose/win to distribute the buff optimally was hilariously bad even in SL, so why repeat it now?
To think that the dev team seriously thought the lich boss was the issue with this dungeon in SL and not this travesty of a boss. No matter, at least now that is also as annoying as possible for ranges. Such excellence!
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the lightning bird is quite a fun boss imo
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From a melee perspective, this is why I like it less:
- first boss swirlies + “beams” are a bit too frequent, not a big problem as ret but still annoying
- the mobs that do the pull zone are really, really annoying
- second boss has a pull + leap + lots of zoning that makes melee uptime hard, quite annoying
- the shard mobs in the end that spawn the circles are really annoying because it’s so much zoning you can’t run in
- the last boss aggroing on consecration being placed randomly, I have literally no control over is so annoying, not to mention that if 1 person gets knocked off the edge and you don’t have anything to get back up, you can wait 2 minutes before they make it back
It’s not even hard, just annoying. Nothing that can’t be solved, but I doubt this will happen in the current season.
You can literally buy a parasol off the trading post. It’s also not hard. Why people are so resistant to efficiency is beyond me. The mob that you’re skipping is the voidstone, which sucks to fight on higher keys and is inefficient. That said, you don’t need to do that skip to time 15 or below (maybe higher).
The dual Diffusers are bad. the Sngle ones not so much.
The first boss is a gimmie. Melee hating the beam and circles probably hate it because they literally won’t stop running, so crap is strung out. You can literally bait the circle and scoot.
The second boss is easy. People just mess up the potato too much.
The second boss is easy.
The last boss does suck from a design standpoint. No argument there.
Personally, I like the dungeon. It’s fast and chill…for tank or dps. It’s annoying for healers though.
but you can’t buy a parasol off trading post.
when did they take it off, cause it was there before May trading post. Regardless, get it in SL then if you’re pushing high enough to need it.
The key level that the skip is actually needed is beyond what the people on the forum are complaining about anyway. Like I said, you literally don’t need to do the skip for a 15 or below, maybe even higher.
Also, you can ghetto do things anyway. Locke can use a gate. priests can grip people. druid has tricks. shaman has tricks. DH and dragons lol it. Zandalari have their racial. so on and so on.
3rd boss in ML is the easiest boss of all time
Sure, you’re playing a DPS in keys where mechanics doesn’t matter. To you it’s just a target dummy. To tanks in remotely challenging keys it’s the hardest hittings boss of all, and you’ll have to rotate defensives well to not die within 3 hits.
eh, it’s spread out enough that you should be able to cover them. I’d say TOP and FG TBs are spicier to deal with.
It’s trivial as VDH, I don’t need any external healing there in 15s. Frailty and self healing takes care of everything.
You get 5-3-2-2 attacks if I remember correctly, and when one attack does about 10M without a defensive or ignore pain up, it takes its toll.
With that said, I can manage rolling defensives and active mitigation there, but it is without a doubt the hardest hitting boss. That’s just a fact, considering every attack is a magically enhanced semi-tankbuster.
Probably depends on specs. My guardian druid hates last boss in ToP, VDH just yawns at all of them. The only dangerous bit in floodgate as a tank is big momma with the 2 extra contractors and 2 extra soldiers, but you’re playing that with BL in higher keys anyway so it’s a pretty quick fight.
Eh, it’s getting to the point in top that i need coverage for every buster from all the bosses except ghost. frailty and spikes alone isn’t gonna cover a scythe.
Momma is the only one you can’t cover all the TBs with standard CDs. it gets to the point you either need an external or you’re prepping some souls for a dump, running spikes, keeping frailty high, and having demon muzzle up for it.