The Gaming Lizard

So far, I've been enjoying myself in Cataclysm raids. No doubt the difficulty level is higher (there are still no pugs on Dath'remar), but many fights now require every player to be at least have 3/4 of their brains.

See fire run, blowing defensive CDs if you can't escape ect. I can't recall how many times a timely Deterrence has saved my hunter's ass from the purple flames of Valiona in BOT or simply making the lives of my healers easier via frequent usage of Anti-Magic Shell. That said, sometimes there's only so much you can do before the raid wipes.

Having seen all 3 of the Cataclysm end game bosses, I can say that they range from requiring skills to pure RNG madness.

Cho'gall is BoT's final boss. The use of Corrupting Blood mechanic is refreshing and punishes those flame lovers. There is a general dose of AOE required as well as interrupts (aoe interupts is king in this place). Add control is vital to prevent the raid from getting overwhelmed.

Yet, when I did my first Cho'gall, it wasn't what I expected. As the sole melee dps, I was given the license to sla---stay on Cho'gall 100% of the time. It's a dream come true since I can go south on that guy but it does feel boring after a while. Running is only required when a flame patch spawns. It wasn't till phase 2 that I was actively engaged due to switching to and fro bosses.

Was it because my guild has Cho'gall on farm? I was lucky to have been slotted in during farm status so I missed out many of their wipes. Perhaps they have already honed their skills from all the wiping that it's now easy to them, and me.

Maybe when I run on my hunter will I see something different...or when we're running 5 melees :S

Ah Nefarian. Current status being On Farm.....for us that is. Nefarian takes the cake for being the most AOE damage done by a single boss (or bosses? Onyxia seems more like a minion). Onyxia does Tail Swipe and Lightning Blasts from her sides and for tanks, Shadowflame Breath. For Nefarian, every 10% off his life will cause him to do a massive raid wide lightning blasts. To survive, everyone have to be close to full health or risk dying. Throw in a group of skeletons to kite and you've got the most complex boss fight as of Cataclysm.

Phase 2 is essentially the make-or-break part of the fight. The platform lowers, filling the room with lava which you need to swim up to get to the pillar AND interrupt the add before it casts its deadly AOE. If your interrupt happens to be caught by an invisible pixel, he/she/it will drown in the lava and the add will freely cast the AOE, wiping the group.

The pure difficulty comes from so many AOE abilities and everyone needs to be fully healed to even survive. Cataclysm is about smart healing, but Nef just completely destroys that idea. In this fight, your healers and kiter are more important than ever. Mess up one aspect and you'll wipe.



I only spent 1 night in Thronw of 4 Winds to really hate Al'akir. Phase 1 consist of a knockback plus a moving wall of tornadoes. A lot of random factors come into play here, be it the timing of the wall coming towards you when Al's casting knockback. Plus, there's also puddles of painful liquid to deal with. If your gap in the wall happens to be on the path of the liquid, GG. If the wall spawns on you as he cast Knockback, GG.

The sheer amount of Murphy's Law that come into play here is what make Al'akir fustrating. You can move but risk causing chain lightning to hit your raid members and wiping everyone.

That said, Al'akir is a fun fight but the amount of RNG could be reduced more.