By now most of you people have either played the Theramore Scenario, heard or read of someone complaining about that already. I thought I’d do something different… then I tried it out. More complaining.
I completed it on two toons; my Rogue and Hunter. Queue times were short which was nice.
For reference, my 85s:
- Aijamul – ilvl 396
- Smaken – ilvl 384
- Kremus - ilvl 372
- Lukanos - ilvl
348358 - Melkorandis - ilvl 326
- Olent - ilvl 313
I ran the Rogue (Aijamul) through it first and it took me a bit to get back into things with the Rogue. The group consisted of a Warrior and Mage. We rolled over everything with little risk of death. We did pause a couple times to bandage or eat up the Mage food but otherwise didn’t find the lack of a healer too much of an issue. Loot was craptastic and he picked up the Tabard (white and gold) at the end which sort of clashes with his black and gold theme.
Smaken queued up next and it popped really fast. It took me awhile longer to get used to the rotation for Smaken and because my macro for Hunter’s Mark and pet attack was set to not have the pet Growl or charge I had to create a new macro part way through because it was getting annoying. The group consisted of a Priest (healer) and another Hunter. I struggled in the beginning, not breaking 10k DPS (I was very sad to see that) but I was still running my Rogue rotation/priorities (Sinister Strike 1-key, Eviscerate q-key) which meant I was spamming Serpent Sting (1-key) then Hunter’s Mark (q-key). I suspect it caused the healer to bail but right after things picked up and I was pulling over 10k or melting mobs in a couple of shots.
A bit about Marksman Hunters – I did find that Aimed Shot did not seem to appear as much as it did in the past (this was my first time playing the Hunter since the changes) which is annoying. I did like that they switched the Trap Launcher to a toggle. I found that I had to dump focus through Arcane Shot more, I used to use Aimed Shot, guessing my Haste isn’t high enough up there or they increased Arcane Shot damage? I’m not paying as much attention as I used to. One of the perks of not being a raider anymore. Hehe.
Anyway, by the time we got to the catapult thingy, I was back to form with my Hunter. I took agro and kited the thing around – at least, kept it’s attention while the two pets beat on it. Fox up, running and shooting Steadies, popping instances, swapping to Hawk when the ground target was up (after Disengaging out of it) to maximize damage. It was cake. I think it was actually easier without the healer there because we could both dump agro to the pets or Feign Death if needed. There were a few close calls as the other Hunter was letting stuff beat on him and for that big group before the Wyverns we agroed everything somewhat unexpectedly.
FWIW, the other Hunter was running Survival (ick) and carrying that lovely bow from Deathwing which I kept losing the roll on in LFRs. I still topped his DPS by about 2k, melting mobs down then helping him on his.
Loot reward at the end? Another tabard for Smaken (he’s got a ton) and an epic polearm with Agility on it.
Yes.
Blizzard… if you knew you were going to ditch the stat-stick, why would you put that on the loot table for a Hunter? I’m not about to become a melee Hunter now that almost all the abilities are ranged… so… WTF?
I popped in with my Paladin, figuring that tabard would look sweet on him. The Paladin has a mix of blues and some epics from the original raid tier so he’s above what Blizzard suggested the targeted audience for Scenarios would be (“quest greens and blues”) but his iLvl was too low for it. It apparently requires iLvl 353. Yay.
I didn’t bother queuing up with Kremus yet, maybe later. I’m debating getting a few PVP pieces to push me up to that iLvl so Lukanos (formerly Lannister) could get him that nice tabard but I’m not really all that motivated to do so.
Overall?
It was short.
It involved killing lots of stuff.
I had no idea why the bombed Theramore – there was no backstory filler anywhere telling me why.
I had no idea why the bomb was such a big deal.
I have no idea why this connects to Mists of Pandaria? Is it a matter of the war being on again? I realize it seems less like there was a war going on over the last couple of expansions. Horde and Alliance sorta put that aside a little to deal with Arthas than to deal with Deathwing.
Loot sucked.
Tabards are soulbound (minor complaint – why couldn’t they be Bind to Account?).
When the Healer bailed I didn’t see any option of bringing in another person.
Expansion release on Tuesday does not seem so epic… you’d almost think it is just another patch day. In other words, this is a lame opening event for MoP.
UPDATE: I bought a couple of pieces of plate PVP gear for Lukanos and ran him through the scenario shortly after posting this. The group consisted of a Rogue and a Hunter. Lukanos was in Ret spec and I haven’t looked at playing him since the changes. In fact, I wasn’t even sure what the changes were until I started playing and saw all the holes in the ability bars. Much badness ensued, the Rogue DCed but the Hunter stuck it out (bless his heart) despite all the dead Paladiness going on. I couldn’t find my bubble and I couldn’t get Lay on Hands to work … seems clicking it turned on target mode instead of it zapping me because I had an enemy targeted.
Admittedly, most of it was my bad for being ignorant. I’ll check it out again later when MoP comes out and I feel the urge to level the Paladin again.
Agreed 100%. This is a poor opener for what Blizzard is trying to tout as a great expansion. I didn’t play the Beta (since game mechanics often change after the release) and I’m hoping for the best, but this event was really disappointing, and has dampened my enthusiasm.