Illidan down by Nihilum!

[Sword_of_Doom]

If you've been tracking BT progression, every guild that kills Kael basically flies about 10 bosses deep into Hyjal/BT, some with undermanned raids. People are killing raid bosses in 2 to 3 pulls with ridiculous numbers like eight people left standing for half the fight. The encounters should be beatable, but they should be challenging, too. I don't raid to crack pinatas for loot. The process of learning an encounter and then finally beating it is what's fun about raiding.

I'm not saying that people should be blocked for months, but look at it this way. Killing Nefarian, C'thun, Twin Emps, a number of other fights, all felt great. When they finally went down, there was a sense of accomplishment, an exhilarating rush. It would have be much less so if they'd died on the second try. Everyone talks about their first-kills of certain bosses, but no one ever lists their first Grobbulus kill as their best experience ever, because you could basically 1-shot him without knowing anything about what he did. That's less fun than having to take a couple raids to learn abilities, devise strategies, and having it all come together for a win.

There are two factors to Nihilum's succes: 1. They have unlimited playtime (or at least it seems like it) and 2. They tested much of this content on the PTR in unbuffed Tier 5.

So yes BT is horribly untuned thats a great statement.

For me the pinnacle of raiding was Naxxrammas. It took my guild 6 weeks of constantly wiping on the 4H before we finally put it all together to kill them. There is no encounter other than C'Thun that has took so long to learn. Sapphiron and Kelthuzzad went much faster because of the huge learning curve 4H was.

So far in TBC raiding i have seen nothing challenging like the 4H or C'Thun. Granted i am not that far into Serpentshrine or Tempest Keep but all the fights i have been engaged in have been built on previous principles i have learned in Naxxrammas.

Perhaps the raiding challenge will never be there again. I wondered and debated whether 25 people raid content would be easier or harder than 40 and i am going to have say i was right, its easier. Putting together 25 capable people is much easier than 40. Nihilum in a recent interview has said much the same thing. Also i read they carry a roster of 60 and do a lot of raid stacking on every encounter.

The guild i am currently in carries a roster of 30 and we have 5 Rogues, yes i said that 5 Rogues. But were raiding more for fun than competition now as i only raid 3 days a week (about 12 hours or so). So there is no raid stacking with us and it makes encounters like the Lurker Below fun because its a much harder fight when you have more melee than ranged. Its cake if you were all ranged.

Anyways, i like the new patch, its the best one so far, and because i can no longer raid 5 to 6 nights a week i am completely fine with it being much easier. I am just glad i got to try the hardest raid content any MMO has produced:)