Cataclysm

[Dren]

I found a reason to keep playing until the expansion.  I'm not sure how I missed it, but apparently the 264 PvP weapons can be bought purely by honor now.  You wouldn't know it by the cursor being greyed out or the big red letters saying you need not apply, or the grayed out picture of the item itself.  A guildmate or two told me this after I asked for the 5th time for help farming instances for better weapons on my alts. 

So, I tested it out.  Jumped from a blue 200 ilvl weap on my purely pvp geared hunter to a 264 purple.  Most excellent!  Yeah, I know they'll be replaced after the expansion.  It will still give me reason to log in and have fun upgrading.  That is, afterall, the core reason for the game, no?

Now to have the patience to get like 2550 honor built up on each of my 10 alts.  BG HO!

[Soulflame]

After watching that DK solo most of Naxx, now I'm wondering how many players it would take to down Gluth.

The most reasonable minimum might be four.  Two tanks to swap on Gluth, one kiter, plus an AE dps to blow up zombies after decimate.  It might be possible to get that down to three.  Maybe even two.  It depends on if the decimate was done while the heal debuff was on the tank.  (It eventually wears off, and in enough time that even an Ulduar geared tank could survive that long, with a bit of luck.)

Of course you'd need at least two on the last guy, because of the mini bosses.

Yeah, a full clear of naxx (all bosses) would probably require at least 2, but probably 4 people.  You need a minimum of 2 for thaddeus (due to the way the miniboss encounter works), and you would probably need at minimum 2 people to do 4 Horsemen, though 4 would make it signifigantly easier.

The 85 DK in the video soloed 4 Horsemen.  I'll be honest, I didn't think he could do it myself before I watched.

Just to clarify:  The DK soloed every boss in Naxx except Gluth and Thaddeus.  I'm fairly sure.

[Paelos]

I'm not sure that facepalm is big enough.

Enlighten me.

[Abelian75]

5 man content is always there though. It will always have a point in filling in gaps. By resetting everything, you kill any motivation for people that like the raiding side to do anything once they hint at expansion. How many people do you think cancelled subs 6 months ago because they beat ICC and didn't really care about farming it into oblivion when they knew it didn't matter?

Bitchers won't quit in the middle.

You do have a point here, and I actually have always stopped playing for a while shortly before expansions were released.  I think there was too long a gap between ICC and cataclysm, personally, and I think halion was a really weird thing to release.  But personally, my motivation is always to just beat all the encounters.  My primary motivation to lust after particular pieces of gear is that I know it will help beat the next boss.  Now, I do like gear upgrades just for the sake of being upgrades, don't get me wrong, but there's a big difference between being like, "Ooo, upgrade" when you finish a quest and see a nice reward, and combing through boss drop tables and being like, "Ooo, upgrade" and then spending a month working on getting that upgrade.  The first is ALWAYS fun.  The second it's nice to have a break from sometimes.  That's why I like gear resets.  For a while, things just get nice and easy again.  You just pick some damn quest rewards that look decent, don't obsess over gemming and stats, and just have some casual fun for a while, doing dungeons and getting obvious upgrades.  Sure, eventually I'll regem obsessively in cataclysm, but for a while, just lemme be a kid again.

And honestly, I even wonder if Blizzard didn't learn (accidentally, almost assuredly) that having a lull before a new expansion is actually a good thing for the longevity of the game.  Maybe it's okay to just let people stop playing for a while rather than having them continuously "hooked" into raiding week after week.  Personally, I really doubt I'd still be playing seriously if there were never periods that I could stop playing without actually missing anything.  I haven't played in months, but I'll be able to start cataclysm and still have done every encounter in WoTLK, excluding most hard modes in ICC (and Halion, which I could give two shits about).  I like that, personally.  I don't want it to ALWAYS be the case that you can stop playing without missing much, because it's cool to keep fighting for progression and such.  But not FOREVER.  Sometimes, I just want a damn break.  I can poopsock again later.

[Soulflame]

Vexaz may not be soloable, if only for the "must interrupt or wipe" mechanic, but I think it's every 30s.  Maybe a tank has that many interrupts?  The drain life curse may be a breakable mechanic if it will not land on the tank.

I'm not sure Ignus is soloable.  The whole mechanic of "golems that blow up after heating in the burn then solidifying in water then a player landing a hit for 8k or more to shatter" is probably something that can be handled, but I can't quite remember how it works.  Or maybe a tank can endure the hits.

I think Tantrum bot would be difficult to solo, what with the healing from eating bots, and the enrage timer.

Iron Council, may not be soloable.  Mr "I become a bridge" might be soloable.  Cat lady... not sure.  Fear + some cast that must be interrupted could make it difficult, not to mention the cats.  I think it might be doable.  Thorim, not soloable, because of the hallway.  Hodir, possibly soloable.  Freya, possibly not, because of the waves.  Mimiron, I think phase 2 or 3 would kill any tank.

[Ingmar]

Most of Ulduar is going to be tough-to-impossible.

Ignis would be very rough. The way his mechanic worked, as I recall, is his damage ramped up something like 10 or 15% for every golem that is animated and active. In order to kill the golems, you have to heat them up to 10 stacks in his burning aura, then take them into the water, then hit them - and when they die they explode for a decent amount of damage if you're next to them. You'd probably have to deal with the golems since I think it would be pretty difficult to keep up with his damage once he got a few golems going at once, especially since they're all hitting you too.

Auriaya would be rough with the bleeds from her adds, but I can see that one as potentially possible at some point. Iron Council is probably not soloable, I am thinking we're an expansion away from tanks being able to laugh off fusion punch still. Kologarn, it would depend if he will grab you if you're the only one there. If he grabs you, unsoloable. If not, he is doable probably. Freya would be tough simply because the waves are on such a short timer and you have to kill those healing trees on top of dealing with each wave inside a minute. I can't see how a single tank gets through phase 3 of Mimiron, maybe in another expansion or two. You need ranged damage to kill the head.

Razorscale is a maybe, I forget how bad the debuff is during the ground phase. With XT the robot adds mean it is a 2 person job, the healing ones just heal too much I think.

Hodir is probably the easiest one I see on the plate, unless Kolo doesn't grab.

I'm guessing you won't solo Flame Leviathan ever...

[Soulflame]

I'm pretty sure you can solo flame leviathan now with no towers up.

I forgot about the damage stacking on Ignus from the golems, yeah, that takes it from "I don't think so" to "I don't see how that's possible".

I think Kolo will not grab the tank.  I think he will laser the tank, but that might be eatable damage.  The problem is Kolo hits damn hard, plus debuffs... defense?  I guess that might not be a problem anymore.

With Iron Council, the problem is Fusion Punch, plus the DoT that gets applied.  Maybe if the tank can cleanse it?  Plus all three of them hit really damn hard.  Additionally, I'm not sure there's a "last one standing" boss in the fight that one tank could survive.

[Rendakor]

Vexaz may not be soloable, if only for the "must interrupt or wipe" mechanic, but I think it's every 30s.  Maybe a tank has that many interrupts?  The drain life curse may be a breakable mechanic if it will not land on the tank.

I'm not sure Ignus is soloable.  The whole mechanic of "golems that blow up after heating in the burn then solidifying in water then a player landing a hit for 8k or more to shatter" is probably something that can be handled, but I can't quite remember how it works.  Or maybe a tank can endure the hits.

I think Tantrum bot would be difficult to solo, what with the healing from eating bots, and the enrage timer.

Iron Council, may not be soloable.  Mr "I become a bridge" might be soloable.  Cat lady... not sure.  Fear + some cast that must be interrupted could make it difficult, not to mention the cats.  I think it might be doable.  Thorim, not soloable, because of the hallway.  Hodir, possibly soloable.  Freya, possibly not, because of the waves.  Mimiron, I think phase 2 or 3 would kill any tank.

Dk's interrupt is on a 10s CD. You could probably just tank Ignus through the golems; I know that is how we do it when Ignus comes up on the weekly now. If your DPS was high enough you could solo XT; just really blow up his heart without killing it every time it comes out. I'm not sure how Kologarn's grip would work with only one target. Cat lady should be fine; I don't think the interrupt thing would still be a one shot in Cata. Regarding Thorim, what happens if you wipe in the arena? If the adds just sit there, you could just go solo the hallway then burn him+adds down together.

[Soulflame]

If you wipe in the arena, Thorim does something that inflicts about 300,000 damage to people in the hallway.  IIRC.

The thing with XT is he grabs bots to heal himself, and he enrages.  I'd be willing to bet one player cannot generate enough DPS for quite some time yet to burn through XT's health bar 2 or 3x.  Plus there's the orbs and bomb bots, plus the large bot adds that (as I recall) had to be off tanked.

The DK in the video managed about 12k DPS, as he said that was the minimum to take down Patchwork in 5 minutes.  The DPS requirements to take down Ignus before the buff from golems caused Ignus to kill you dead would probably outrace your DPS.

[Rendakor]

I really think you could solo Ignis. The adds only do 20k damage when they're broken, so you tank him in the scorch, heat the golem up, then drag them into the water, tab over (or cleave) and pop it. He'd never have any stacks of golem buff for more than 10 seconds or so.

[K9]

Most of Ulduar is going to be tough-to-impossible.

Ignis would be very rough. The way his mechanic worked, as I recall, is his damage ramped up something like 10 or 15% for every golem that is animated and active. In order to kill the golems, you have to heat them up to 10 stacks in his burning aura, then take them into the water, then hit them - and when they die they explode for a decent amount of damage if you're next to them. You'd probably have to deal with the golems since I think it would be pretty difficult to keep up with his damage once he got a few golems going at once, especially since they're all hitting you too.

Auriaya would be rough with the bleeds from her adds, but I can see that one as potentially possible at some point. Iron Council is probably not soloable, I am thinking we're an expansion away from tanks being able to laugh off fusion punch still. Kologarn, it would depend if he will grab you if you're the only one there. If he grabs you, unsoloable. If not, he is doable probably. Freya would be tough simply because the waves are on such a short timer and you have to kill those healing trees on top of dealing with each wave inside a minute. I can't see how a single tank gets through phase 3 of Mimiron, maybe in another expansion or two. You need ranged damage to kill the head.

Razorscale is a maybe, I forget how bad the debuff is during the ground phase. With XT the robot adds mean it is a 2 person job, the healing ones just heal too much I think.

Hodir is probably the easiest one I see on the plate, unless Kolo doesn't grab.

I'm guessing you won't solo Flame Leviathan ever...

Well, you could solo FL using vehicles a while back    I look forward to the first FL kill without vehicles though, I'm sure it will be done.

Ignis mechanics wouldn't prevent soloing, unless some odd bug occurs with him slag-potting against a single target. The add mechanic is a soft enrage, but if a level 85 DK tank in T11 gear can eat hatefuls off Raz (70K) then I'm guessing they'll be able to mitigate Ignis' damage down to next to nothing.

Kologarn depends on wether he grips you or not yes; Auriaya should be doable, it's just messy. Hodir should be no problem, and I think Freya would be a hassle, but doable. Eonar's gift on 10-man have pretty low HP, so might be killable with attacks like heroic throw or ghouls. Adds should be doable I think for a tank with decent AoE.

Thorim would be impossible because of Lightning Orb, and I'd agree that Mimiron would just be an utter nightmare to try and solo through P2 and P3. I just don't see how you can Solo Vezax or Yogg or Iron Council though.

XT might be doable if you can kill the heart the first time it drops, which might not be entirely unreasonable. If DPS classes are hitting 120K-200K DPS at level 85, then killing the heart should be np, then only adds become the problem. The bigger issue there is Tympanic tantrum since that takes off 80% of your HP every 30s or so, which is a LOT of healing you're going to need.

[K9]

Also, I suspect the only fight that might be unsoloable in ToC would be Champs, depending on the composition. There's just too much CC and debuffs for a single player to handle. Anub could be difficult, but I think every class has an attack that can hit the orbs, and the adds should be no problem to a level 85 toon. DPSing through leeching swarm should be manageable, as there's only a single target to leech off.

[SurfD]

I am not sure if vezax works the same way on 10 man as 25 man, but in 25 man, the Flame Aoe Thing and his cast frequency is actuallly somewhat based on the cooldown of the interupt used to stop it.  IE: if a shaman stopped it with wind shock (which is a 6 second cooldown), he would literally almost chain cast it.  Where as if a mage stopped it with a Counterspell, it could be up to 10+ seconds before he cast it again.  The mechanic worked something along the lines that 2 of any class should have been able to keep him permanently locked out of casting it, but if one of them missed the interupt it would go off.

[tmp]

Hello guys, we'd like to refill our moneyhats

(paid faction transfers to include furries and goblins as soon as expansion launches)

[Rasix]

Ohh, fuck.  I want all my characters to be goblins.  There's no way I can sneak this onto the credit card bill.

I wonder if Blizzard would allow the charges to show up as "Porn".  That would be less embarrassing and easier to explain to my wife.

[Chimpy]

Why do I foresee about half the population on the horde becoming goblins?

[Simond]

Because goblins are awesome. 

[apocrypha]

Fantastic. Bye bye blood elves! 

[Tannhauser]

Blizzard is about to make an embarrassing amount of money.

[Simond]

The howls of outrage from the first race-changed goblin or worgen when they realise that they won't qualify for the first 85 poopsock achievement will be well worth it. 

[Yoshimaru]

I guess I'd rather have an overabundance of goblins than blood elves. However, this does somehow temper my enthusiasm for my goblin shaman, damn you Blizzard! They're lucky that the  warrior-shaman combo of Masa and Mune that my brother and I are planning don't really work on anything other than goblins.

[Ironwood]

I can't be the only one in the world that think Goblins suck.

[DraconianOne]

I can't be the only one in the world that think Goblins suck.

They're not my first choice of race but they're also not the last. I'll play through Kezan at least once and maybe through revamped Azshara but aside from that, not really bothered.

If I had the funds to be frivolous, I'd race change my Pally to be a Tauren but that's about it.

[Outlawedprod]

Saw on mmo champ this morning.

"Feats of Strength
    * Insane in the Membrane no longer requires the Shen'dralar reputation."

Hide your kids, hide your wives, sell your pristine diamonds before everyone realizes.

[Paelos]

I have no desire to change from Human to Worgen.

The Horde transfers will be insane.

[caladein]

The howls of outrage from the first race-changed goblin or worgen when they realise that they won't qualify for the first 85 poopsock achievement will be well worth it. 

From http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/1116854#c-1015351578:

With two new playable races just on the horizon, many players have been asking when they'll be able to convert their existing characters into goblins or worgen. Paid faction and race changes will be available immediately once Cataclysm is released. Realm First achievements for leveling any class to 85 will be available in Cataclysm. However there will be no Realm First achievements associated with leveling characters of a specific race.

[Outlawedprod]

"Feats of Strength
    * Insane in the Membrane no longer requires the Shen'dralar reputation."
Hide your kids, hide your wives, sell your pristine diamonds before everyone realizes.

More news on this
http://us.battle.net/wow/en/blog/1116855#blog

"Bloodsail Buccaneer faction reputation will remain in-game. Also, to ensure that this change does not negatively affect Cataclysm quest progression in Stranglethorn Vale, Booty Bay Bruisers will now provide reputation up through Exalted."
"This will ensure that players will still be able to attain Insane in the Membrane and "The Insane" title in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm."

Gonna be some ubar QQ from all those who went batshit insane trying to grind this out the last couple months =p

[Reg]

Gonna be some ubar QQ from all those who went batshit insane trying to grind this out the last couple months =p

They'll have to take some time out from bitching about their raid gear being obsoleted by the expansion to complain about this properly. 

[Paelos]

Gonna be some ubar QQ from all those who went batshit insane trying to grind this out the last couple months =p

They'll have to take some time out from bitching about their raid gear being obsoleted by the expansion to complain about this properly. 

 

[Sjofn]

I wuvvums the goblins but I doubt I'll actually race change anyone, I like to spread the race love around. I'm actually more likely to worgenize one of my existing characters, but I doubt I'll do that either! The thing I'm most seriously considering is changing my human paladin into a dwarf, but ... man I love diplomacy as a racial.

[caladein]

The only one I'm sure of switching over is my Paladin from BE to Tauren.

I'm tempted by Goblins, really tempted, but I'd want to play one day-to-day before I think about switching any of my 80s over.  That's what a Hunter (or Mage, I don't have either) alt is for though!

[Rendakor]

My pally is also getting race changed from Belf to Tauren. I'm rolling a gobbo Hunter, and possibly race changing my Undead Rogue into Goblin, since Undead racials are pretty terrible these days.

[Sjofn]

My blood elf boys are totally going to continue blood elfing as hard as they can. My plans for a blood elf dude warrior have been suspended, however, as I already have two blood elves and that's my race limit (like I said, I like to spread the love around) and I don't really want to switch either of them to a different race. Besides, I realised the other day if I made a blood elf warrior, I'd be in the dangerous position of ONLY having caster classes to pick from for my new goblins. And I am ... not good at soloing casters.

[WindupAtheist]

I can't be the only one in the world that think Goblins suck.

A lot of the goblin love I see on the forums strikes me as wishful thinking from the types who used to scoff at the Alliance with their fruity elves and paladins, then cut themselves when BC launched and 80% of the Horde became elf paladins overnight. A fair number of paladins who don't mind paying for race changes will become Tauren, but I doubt the average slob who rolled an elf because they want to be pretty will change their mind for goblins.

[Rasix]

I just want to stab ankles. Is that so wrong?