molten core

All posts tagged molten core

Memories of Azeroth

Posted by Peter (Devee) on January 27, 2020
Posted in: Battle for Azeroth, Cataclysm, Devee, Holidays, Journal, Mounts, Raiding, The Burning Crusade, World of Warcraft, Wrath of the Lich King. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Memories of Azeroth, the special raid celebrating the 15th anniversary of WoW, was quite different than the LFR version of Molten Core that was part of the 10th anniversary celebration. Having three wings instead of one long instance is huge in opening it up to more players, and I think that’s a good thing. Molten Core LFR was tuned too difficult in my opinion: casual players should be able to experience an anniversary celebration. The tuning on Memories of Azeroth felt very much in line with LFR. There were wipes, but groups could consistently finish it.

The idea behind the raid was pretty fantastic. Three wings, each featuring one of the first three expansions in World of Warcraft. As far as I know, this is the first time WoW has had a sort of boss rush too. In each wing, all three bosses had to be downed without wiping. However, you only see certain phases of the bosses and not all. Between bosses, all CDs are reset, and anyone who died is rezzed.

What seemed off to me was that some fights were so boring and easy that I never saw a wipe on them.

Memories of Fel / The Burning Crusade: Lady Vashj, Kael’thas, Archimonde. This was the easiest wing. I’m not sure I saw a wipe on Lady Vashj or Kael’thas. If so, I didn’t see many.

Memories of Frost / Wrath of the Lich King: Heigan, Anub’arak, The Lich King. This was the weirdest difficulty. Heigan should be incredibly simple. The “dance” of the fight is to simply stand in the one safe quadrant, moving with the group. The safe quadrant shifts in order. But there were wipes. Then there’s Anub’arak. Not only were there definitely no wipes, but there was no challenge at all. That fight is incredibly boring. And then we get to The Lich King, with many, many wipes to defile. Aw, the memories. Wiping is frustrating, but adding some challenge made it fun, and calling out defiles and teaching people was satisfying. Anub’arak was the worst part of this wing. It felt like a waste of time.

Memories of Fire / Cataclysm: Cho’gall, Nefarian, Ragnaros. This wing mirrored the last one pretty closely, except Cho’gall is much easier than Heigan. I’m not sure if we had wipes on him or not. But Nefarian… I don’t even think I saw any mechanics because it was so simple. However, the room filling with lava and later draining made a fun sort of timer so we could be in a DPS race with out past selves in an effort to do better than last time. Ragnaros was challenging for some people, and I don’t mind some wipes as people learn an encounter.

It was a nice stroll through past memories and it makes me long to see full versions of some of those fights. Complex, multi-phase fights felt gutted. I miss the rest of Arthas! Memories of Azeroth makes me with we had more timewalking raids – but broken into wings so I don’t have to do them in one go like Black Temple or Ulduar.

And for my trouble – an Obsidian Worldbreaker! Who wouldn’t love a Deathwing mount of their own? It’s pretty cool!

Warlords of Draenor cinematic and the 10th anniversary event

Posted by Peter (Devee) on August 15, 2014
Posted in: Dungeons and Scenarios, Holidays, Pets, PVP, Raiding, Trailers and Cutscenes, Videos, Warlords of Draenor, World Events, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

It’s been a while since I posted, but what kind of WoW blogger would I be if I didn’t talk about this cinematic? Like most of Blizzard’s lore-rich trailers, this really got me excited. I enjoyed the fact that in both the original timeline and the Warlords of Draenor timeline, Grom gets to kill Mannoroth. I also particularly like Garrosh saving him. And Grom’s last lines? “We will never be slaves. But we will be conquerors.” That’s a terrific line, especially the pause between sentences.

Not all of the dungeons jumped out at me, but two really did – the Iron Docks and Grimrail Depot. I guess I like industrialism, but how could you not like Grimrail Depot? Part of it is actually on a train. Now I realize that when it comes to gameplay, it’ll all likely feel the same. Similarly, the idea of fighting on Deathwing’s back was really cool, but when it comes time to do it, I’m so focused on mechanics and numbers that it feels the same. Still, I really like this.

10th anniversary previewImage courtesy of the @Warcraft Twitter account.

The 10th anniversary event sounds cool too. Tarren Mill vs Southshore is a great PVP throwback, and I’m super interested to see a deathmatch-style battleground. All I really want to do when I PVP is fight, so why has it taken so long to get a deathmatch battleground? Temple of Kotmogu is close. I’ll be curious to see what this is like.

Molten Core is also a pretty iconic raid to reinvigorate also. It’s a 40-man LFR, so everyone at endgame should be able to see it easily. And a Molten Corgi? Adorable.

My only issue is that it’s for max level characters. Warlords of Draenor drops 11/13/14, and the anniversary event starts within a week and a half or so. Does that mean we’ll need to rush to level 100?

They claim we won’t. I hope they’re right!

My search for tier

Posted by Peter (Devee) on January 27, 2014
Posted in: Achievements, Devee, Gear, Journal, Pets, Raiding, Reputation, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Core of Hardened Ash

I’ve been running a lot of old raids recently in an effort to collect old tier gear. While i Was in Molten Core, I got this Core of Hardened Ash, which teaches the Ashstone Core. Pretty cool. Not done with this tier yet though.

Jewel of Maddening Whispers

I also obtained the Jewel of Maddening Whispers from AQ. It teaches a Mini Mindslayer. I particularly dislike gathering gear from the AQ raids. I don’t like having to deal with idols and scarabs. Ugh.

Brood of Nozdormu

While I was in there, I did manage to hit exalted with the Brood of Nozdormu though. Yay! I’m almost done collecting gear from the AQ raids.

Pterrordax Hatchling

By this point, my bags were super full. I had to figure out a way to free up some bag space. One thing I did was spend my Spirits of Harmony on archaeology. I earned the What was Briefly Yours is Now Mine achievement for finding enough rares, but more importantly, I got this cute little Pterrordax Hatchling!

 

 

 

 

Goodbye, World of Warcraft: Trading Card Game

Posted by Peter (Devee) on August 30, 2013
Posted in: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Other MMOs or Related Games. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

WoWTCG

As you’ve probably heard, Blizzard is cancelling the World of Warcraft: Trading Card Game. Most likely this stems from their focus on Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. While I hadn’t played it in years, saying goodbye to a good game makes me a bit sad.

I’m not sure that I ever played a 1v1 match against another player; it was the raid decks that fascinated me. WoW: TCG features raid decks modelled after their World of Warcraft counterparts. In the photo above (taken years ago), one player is controlling the Onyxia raid deck. We had five players banded together to defeat Onyxia. It was a new concept (at least to me) in TCGs, and I enjoyed it immensely. Besides defeating Onyxia, I also defeated Molten Core in normal (it had different difficulties) with five other players.

There were seven raid decks released – Onyxia’s Lair, Molten Core, Magtheridon’s Lair, Black Temple, Naxxramas, Assault on Icecrown Citadel, and Battle of the Aspects. Maybe it’s a waste of money, but I suddenly have the strong urge to purchase every raid deck. They’re fun, and I can’t stand the idea of them going away! I’ll pick up Assault on Icecrown Citadel at the very least.

 

Suggested Reading: Of F2P crafting, Hearthstone, Molten Core, proposals, patches, and more

Posted by Peter (Devee) on March 28, 2013
Posted in: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, Suggested Reading, The Old Republic, World of Warcraft. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

F2P and Crafting, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 3/21/13.

Rohan explains why crafting conflicts with monetization in F2P games.

Hearthstone Gameplay, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 3/24/13.

Another look at Hearthstone.

The beauty of classic WoW’s Molten Core, Sarah Pine, WoW Insider, 3/19/13.

If you joined late and have ever wondered what the big deal with Molten Core was, Sarah will tell you.

Oondasta in China is full of… tombstones, Adam Holisky, WoW Insider, 3/20/13.

This is my wallpaper at work now.

The quest of a lifetime, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 3/21/13.

A very cute marriage proposal.

Star Wars: The Old Republic’s first expansion is BioWare’s hope to win back lapsed players, Griffin McElroy, Polygon, 3/25/13.

I’d give it a look, but we have too much content in WoW now!

Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: Azeroth, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 3/24/13.

What’s so special about Azeroth?

The OverAchiever: The game’s 13 vanished titles, Allison Robert, WoW Insider, 3/21/13.

Scarab Lord, Champiuon of the Naaru, Hand of A’dal, Argent Defender, Celestial Defender, Champion of Ulduar, Conqueror of Ulduar, Conqueror of Naxxramas, Death’s Demise, Grand Crusader, The Immortal, The Undying, The Magic Seeker, and Obsidian Slayer. And none of me.

Mantid Archaeology, Cymre, Bubbles of Mischief, 3/22/13.

Check out the sweet gun!

World of Warcraft Patch 5.3 PTR Patch Notes, Adam Holisky, WoW Insider, 3/22/13.

Heroic scenarios, loot specialization, bonus rolls with progressively better bonuses, removal of most resilience, gear scaling in PVP, and new BGs and scenarios.