How Rusted of You to Join Us!

"Ohai dere!"

Last week we took a jolly romp through the halls of Ulduar, committing ourselves to complete all the "hard" mode achievements and also have a dance with Algalon. I know a lot of people are probably thinking "psh, we had to do this when it was the flavour of the month and now all you people are just going in there for your free achievements and mounts!"

Well, yes, yes we are. It all boils down to the fun-ness of things. Relatively brainless killing. Also, Ulduar is so detailed and well designed it makes you wonder what the hell happened with TOC, ICC and everything else afterwards?

TOC was a room, that then broke and you fell into a cave, which for all I care could be a recycled cave from AQ40. ICC, though the fights were varied and intense was very very empty and almost too small for what we had expected. If you stand outside in Icecrown you can see the Icecrown Citadel was a huge structure, with the potential to be a huge labryinth with swarms and swarms of the scourge inside. Instead, after the first four bosses there's practically no trash and the bosses just stand there in their own rooms not really doing anything except wait for their inevitable deaths.

Going farther back in time, we have Karazhan. Wow, the music in this raid just hits the spot. Whimsical yet treacherous, also the detail in this place is crazy. The various adornments, accessories, books, the trash mobs themselves gave this raid intense character. I know ICC is Arthas' HQ and he doesn't need adornments for his undead brethren but what about his researchers? Putricide has ONE table that he works on? Valithiria's captured but for what reason? What are they planning on doing with a Green Dragon?

I feel with the current Cata raids, what we are provided with are "good challenging encounters". Have your "encounters", and shut up. I don't remember hearing any music in these raids, nor do I remember going "whoaaa look at this detail" as it was more just "ok where's the boss and what's the quickest path through the trash to them?"

I don't know, maybe I'm just crazy in thinking there isn't enough "detail" with the past few raids.

But ultimately, who actually looks at the details? Heck, for the Firelands raid we might as well make it one single room that's completely on fire, so the player's monitors is filled with flame. This saves in having to design ground and walls and other stuff. Bosses will just "appear" from the flames! Sounds good! And anyways...you're supposed to be looking at your damage meters, healing meters, your cooldowns, your resources, and things that can get you killed, not the actual game itself DUHH.

Turby the Rusted