Wowhead shone some light on this issue with an article today and I really think it’s worth talking about because it’s making delving incredibly frustrating.
It’s no surprise to anyone who has ever done a delve that Brann’s AI is woefully lacking but lately it’s been completely bonkers. Since S3 his pathing has becoming increasingly erratic and he frequently pulls entire rooms especially in delves that have more narrow spaces. His AoE now breaks CC when it didn’t before. He also frequently refuses to use his potions at the start of combat or for some reason they simply don’t appear but the ability still goes on cooldown. The potions also persist on the ground long after they can no longer be picked up fooling you into thinking you can still use them. He also no longer benefits from any stealth mechanic even though he used to in S1 meaning that classes with access to these tools, or anyone who has the foresight to bring along an invisibility potion, can’t take advantage of them.
Brann’s issues aside, the outgoing damage in delves is also completely out of control. Even trash mobs can easily bring you down in just a few hits on higher tiers even if you have well over 10mil HP, especially on cloth classes. The enemy HP inflation is also quite high (laughably high in the case of the nemesis boss) though not unmanageable by itself, however, when combined with the higher damage mobs deal it also brings to pose a problem.
Then there is this season’s delve nemesis boss, everyone’s least favorite TWW boss: Ky’veza the epileptic seizure inducer, breaker of PuGs and the mother of lag! All but one of her attacks are one shots and arguably the deadliest of them, the clones you have to be facing as they dash through you, is very poorly telegraphed. Bosses with one shot abilities are horrifically bad design and, at least imo, far inferior to other similar solo challenges we’ve had in the past which have been battles of attrition rather than one shot gotchas.
And before all the tryhards and trolls come in with the “skill issue” and “git gud” you have to realize players who gravitate to delves and for whom they are ostensibly designed tend to not be seeking challenging content but instead are looking for an easier and more time efficient way of gearing. If you want to challenge yourself there are plenty of other ways to do it and if anything the game is sorely in need of more easier and solo friendly content that’s actually engaging and keeps more casual players interested in the game and playing longer.
I don’t understand how they can keep monkeying around with his code and making him worse every season. Do they ever try and play Delves after these changes? Because it should be glaringly obvious that whatever they’re trying to fix is just making him worse.
I know a lot of people hated on him since the beginning but ive honestly never been bothered by him, granted i usually have sound off.
I will say this season though, hes been acting more odd lately. Almost got me killed with one group by randomly and purposefully pulling other mobs. There were 2 other delves where he pulled the Nemesis allies ontop of another group i was trying to clear out before pulling them in a Tier11 Excavation. Also on 11 Archival Assault, I noticed that he stopped throwing out footbombs which I picked up the buff for. Hes also delayed with some of his abilities and I do have him set to healer.
Honestly, ive never had this much problems with him before. Probably just tired of all our crap we put him through haha jk.
I also forgot to mention that ive seen him disappear only to find that hes across the map gathering resources only to run back, luckily this hasnt gotten me killed yet.
I haven’t heard too many complaints about him yet, personally haven’t run into too many issues either, but he does seem a bit more whacked out than usual. It might be random bugs, which means longer to fix, which does suck.
Well… yeah? We’re early into the season and high tiers aren’t meant to be easy.
Mechanic heavy fights are easier to balance around all classes and specs.
Hhhhhhold up…
There’s no reason to get prematurely nasty towards people.
This is the end game pillar for open world content that rewards Hero track gear that you can upgrade to Mythic ilevel. That should not, nor will it ever be, easy to do.
If people don’t want a challenge, they can stay in lower tiers until they’re better geared and move up. They way they’re supposed to.
So suggest something. Because that isn’t going to be the end game pillar rewarding high end gear.
I hardly pay attention to him except when I need the potions but I’ve noticed he throws them out a lot when I’m not even in combat and wouldn’t need them at all and then when I am he won’t throw them until I really need them because I’m almost dead, thankfully I haven’t died except on the princess spawns, lol.
Tank Brann is definitely worse than ever. Haven’t seen the damage bug with DPS Brann, but Tank Brann jumps everywhere to avoid damage, but gets himself in bad situations. Pulls everything, LoS the healer and die. It’s hilarious and unfortunate. Healer Brann has been ok, haven’t seen the low heal bug yet, but others have.
I think losing his hat and then his clothes has him all messed up, lol. Hopefully they fix him.
It’s not just his AI that is broken , follower dungeon npc’s seem no different with eratic pathing and not knowing what they should be doing. Pet AI as well has been broken since the patch launched.
Brann’s AoE has always broken CC in my experience not sure why it’d be different for anyone else as aoe doesn’t typically ignore a singular mob.
Mob dmg doesn’t seem too bad with a few exceptions.
The one problem I’ve had with delves this season is the nemesis mobs and the boss spawn being overtuned. As well as the nemesis boss abilities being hard to track in certain delves.
Interesting that it’s on wowhead. Comes across like an opinion piece, which is fine. I don’t think Brann is any better or worse. Just trying to level him as I go and get used to the curios. Jury is out for me that he is really any worse.
Have you done Fungal Folly? Every time I touch a jumping mushroom he pulls everything in sight, somehow even manages to pull the next ledge up or down.
I don’t pay any attention to Brann in any delve, and in Fungal Folly I’m usually rushing out of spore rings so paying even less attention to him than usual.
Maybe when I have better gear and have done a lot more S3 delves can establish a baseline for 'Is Brann any better or worse?" than last season. But to me he’s the same big dope he’s been for a year now.
( I mean in personality. The man talks about cheese a lot. He’s definitely embarrassing at parties.)
I am a disc priest main and I am solo’ing tier 11’s on my own. I am not sure why you are having trouble with Brann. I go as healer, Brann is my tank and he does most of the damage.