You know I didn’t think it was possible to make an encounter that took all of the worst aspects of the Zek’vir encounter, and increase them in irritability, but here we are. Sorry Blizzard. Normally I always try to do your toughest content, but after slogging through Underpin ?, and feeling nothing but irritation from it; I refuse completely to even attempt ‘??’ Underpin difficulty without serious fixes or changes. Thanks but no thanks.
While ‘??’ Zek’vir had some sloppy design decisions, such as the raised Platform that concealed telegraphed attacks, webs on the ceiling blocking vision, and an arbitrary rail on the sides of the Platform that seemed designed to make you get stuck and die from his Claw Smash… The Underpin takes it to a whole new extreme.
It’s add placement is not easily countered by the tools players are given, and fact that players have to make a macro or rebind the interact key if you want to even try and get the adds down, because the Boss model blocks you from interacting with the bombs; make for a completely unfun encounter.
Kazzak had this issue also blocking vision, but at least with that Mage Tower encounter it was workable.
In at least a half of the attempts the adds were separated and not grouped in 3s as one would expect. Usually they were on different sides of the battlefield forcing the use of 9+ bombs rather than 3 as one would expect if the encounter was coherently made. You want us to Bowl? Fine. But address the ‘pin’ placement. 9/10 times we’re given a 7/10 split formation.
With Zek’vir I felt like it while it would of benefited from being tested better, it was once understood; fair. The same applied to the Mage Tower. It was brutal, but it was fair. Never once did I feel that sensation with Underpin. Not even once. All I felt like was artificial difficulty tacked on by offering players counters that did not function as they were supposed to. My mindset became rapidly a case of. “Good grief, are you still alive? Just croak already. This is not fun. Your not a threat but for your broken and badly designed mechanics. I’m here only for the Quest. Go. Away.”
The Underpin encounter feels less like the standard of Blizzard excellence in encounter design that we usually see, and more an attempt to get players killed, waste player time for an admittedly subpar reward; and perhaps to passively incentivize players to buy WoW Tokens to recoup their losses they incur because of the intentionally lousy design. I beat it as Melee, but suspect a Caster such as a Warlock who has a Tank will have a far easier time. Might test it if I feel like I want to, but honestly?
The Golden Gobtrotter simply is NOT worth the time, effort, or stress it would take to get. It’s not a decent reward, and is far and away very bleh. Maybe I’d try it if Mage Tower Weapons were offered, but since they are not. I will simply complete the quest and leave it at that. Better served to keep my gold and not waste it on further materials.
I gave it a shot because I like to complete things. But if the current trend in seasonal nemesis’ continue with a deteriorating level of quality, I’ll probably pass on defeating Season 3’s Nexus Prince or whatever you decide we’re to fight. Unless rewards are decent there is literally no reason to bother. I’ll farm the Gobtrotter. The achievement I’ll pass on. Did it once with Zek’vir, that was enough. When the encounter is properly designed and tuned to put success on players, and not random nonsense I might try again.
Zek’vir: 6/10
Underpin: 0/10
