04-10-2007, 10:25 PM
Arcatraz is honestly not a big deal, pretty easy so long as you skip the first boss. Skyriss does flay for 8k, but if you have two healers that's not a major issue, and Millhouse is also buffed to heroic level and consequently is a much better help in the fight. The double sentry pull on the bridge is reduced to a single sentry on Heroic (mostly because two would probably be impossible). Just don't fight the first boss, clear to the right and go up the ramp. Zereketh at present is just too random with the way he can Seed someone then Nova and hand them 11k+ shadow damage with no opportunity to stop it.
Botanica is tough, Arcane Protectors hit for a ton of Arcane damage. Thorngrin is just impossible right now, clear to the left and skip him.
Underbog is nothing special. Hungarfen plants a mushroom every second, just keep on your toes, no other boss is really challenging. Black Stalker summons adds, but with enough dps you can just burn the stalker down before they become an issue. The only real threat is the bog lords at the end right after Musel'ek; they can combo about 12-15k damage on a tank with knockaway plus crushing if you don't get demoralizing shout up on them right away (and that's not easy to do). Everything else is easy.
Shadow Labyrinth isn't hard, it's just long and stupid, ridiculously trashy. Cabal Shadow Priests mind flay for 2k/tick, so CC them (or better yet mind control). Blackheart and Hellmaw are the same fights, Vorpil has a brief Banish that can wreak havoc if he hits the MT (but he shouldn't). Anyway the summary is that there's just way too much must-be-cleared trash, and that makes this an unfun place to go. Murmur is kind of fun though, but you're generally not in the mood to have fun after killing 120 mobs to get to him.
I haven't been in Crypts either but I gather that it's pretty easy. I should go one of these days.
I kind of find it difficult to rate easiest to hardest because most of the time heroics are pretty easy with one or two really hard things in the middle, and I'm not sure how to properly rate the difficulty of Underbog Bog Lords vs. Blood Furnace Felguard Annihilators; both are things that can even wipe properly prepared groups, and in both cases the rest of the instance you can basically do in your sleep.
That isn't to say there isn't a division between easy and hard heroics. Easy heroics you can do with basically any reasonably balanced group and you can sleepwalk through except for maybe a hard trash pull or single hard boss encounter. Hard ones you have to pay attention basically through the whole instance, or for more than one boss.
Easy:
Slave Pens
Mechanar
Underbog
Steamvault
Ramparts
Blood Furnace
Crypts (from what I hear)
Sethekk Halls
Hard:
Arcatraz
Old Hillsbrad
Black Morass
Botanica
Mana-Tombs
Shadow Labyrinth
Shattered Halls
The only thing I was iffy about here was Arcatraz. I honestly think that so long as you skip the first boss, it belongs in the Easy category, but people keep telling me Heroic Arcatraz horror stories. The list basically corresponds to what I see in terms of casual heroic runs being formed. People aren't hesitant to say, hey, let's run an "Easy" heroic for badges and gear, whereas people tend to schedule and bring pots to runs of "Hard" heroics.
Botanica is tough, Arcane Protectors hit for a ton of Arcane damage. Thorngrin is just impossible right now, clear to the left and skip him.
Underbog is nothing special. Hungarfen plants a mushroom every second, just keep on your toes, no other boss is really challenging. Black Stalker summons adds, but with enough dps you can just burn the stalker down before they become an issue. The only real threat is the bog lords at the end right after Musel'ek; they can combo about 12-15k damage on a tank with knockaway plus crushing if you don't get demoralizing shout up on them right away (and that's not easy to do). Everything else is easy.
Shadow Labyrinth isn't hard, it's just long and stupid, ridiculously trashy. Cabal Shadow Priests mind flay for 2k/tick, so CC them (or better yet mind control). Blackheart and Hellmaw are the same fights, Vorpil has a brief Banish that can wreak havoc if he hits the MT (but he shouldn't). Anyway the summary is that there's just way too much must-be-cleared trash, and that makes this an unfun place to go. Murmur is kind of fun though, but you're generally not in the mood to have fun after killing 120 mobs to get to him.
I haven't been in Crypts either but I gather that it's pretty easy. I should go one of these days.
I kind of find it difficult to rate easiest to hardest because most of the time heroics are pretty easy with one or two really hard things in the middle, and I'm not sure how to properly rate the difficulty of Underbog Bog Lords vs. Blood Furnace Felguard Annihilators; both are things that can even wipe properly prepared groups, and in both cases the rest of the instance you can basically do in your sleep.
That isn't to say there isn't a division between easy and hard heroics. Easy heroics you can do with basically any reasonably balanced group and you can sleepwalk through except for maybe a hard trash pull or single hard boss encounter. Hard ones you have to pay attention basically through the whole instance, or for more than one boss.
Easy:
Slave Pens
Mechanar
Underbog
Steamvault
Ramparts
Blood Furnace
Crypts (from what I hear)
Sethekk Halls
Hard:
Arcatraz
Old Hillsbrad
Black Morass
Botanica
Mana-Tombs
Shadow Labyrinth
Shattered Halls
The only thing I was iffy about here was Arcatraz. I honestly think that so long as you skip the first boss, it belongs in the Easy category, but people keep telling me Heroic Arcatraz horror stories. The list basically corresponds to what I see in terms of casual heroic runs being formed. People aren't hesitant to say, hey, let's run an "Easy" heroic for badges and gear, whereas people tend to schedule and bring pots to runs of "Hard" heroics.