Reflecting on Castle Nathria

It is remarkable that after eight expansions, Blizzard still has the ingenuity to produce raids at a quality not seen before. Castle Nathria is perhaps the most finely-honed full-sized launch raid in the history of WoW (with the original 10-man Karazhan as probably its only close competitor.) Neither unwieldy in size, nor overstuffed with trash mobs, Castle Nathria feels more like one of the sprawling mid-tier raids such as MoP’s Throne of Thunder, Legion’s Nighthold, or Wrath’s Ulduar, but with a stronger theme and a tighter focus.

Although the bosses had a surprisingly well-tuned difficulty throughout the raid, the branching choice of bosses early on can help a raid further match the challenge to their strengths. However, a memorable exception to the initial tuning was Huntsman Altimor, which Mythos managed to defeat before his Sinseeker shots were nerfed by 66% after the initial week, just for bragging rights.

Lady Darkvien was one of our early challenges, with repeated kills not following easily after the first, but the fight had the fortunate advantage of becoming easier with higher DPS. Even so, the relentless raid damage made finding the right balance difficult at first, requiring numerous healing and DPS swaps. The other major obstacle to initial normal clears was the Council of Blood, which was originally cleared with a Fried/Niklaus/Stavros kill order, but which proved to be too unreliable for the P3 DPS burn. We swapped to Niklaus/Stavros/Frieda for future raids and had much more consistent success. And after the Council fell, the final three bosses came the next week after, with Sire Denathrius being noteworthy only for wiping the raid constantly in P1, and then dying immediately on the first pull that he transitioned to P2 successfully.

Progress in Heroic Castle Nathria went surprisingly smooth and steady, until reaching Heroic Sludgefist, who was already well-known as a raid breaker. Although simple math suggested that the raid would require an average 4k DPS across the raid to beat his hard enrage, the real key to success seemed to be coordinating well-disciplined raid movement throughout the chamber, with ranged following one leader, and melee following another. With practice, a consistent and predictable rhythm developed, and raid deaths declined, until finally Sludgefist was vanquished. In many ways, it was the best and worst a raid boss can do: frustrate raiders with unavoidable deaths due to other raiders’ mistakes, but also reward the raid with the satisfaction of overcoming a steep and unforgiving challenge.

The second and last major milestone in Heroic Castle Nathria was Heroic Sire Denathrius himself. Compared to normal mode, his Heroic incarnation was far more worthy of his smarmy preening and patronizing words. Every single phase of his encounter was stepped up significantly, and each worthy of being an entire boss encounter alone. From his deadly Night Hunters in the first phase, to his frustrating Crescendo knockbacks in the second phase, to his frantic Smoldering Ire seeds in his final phase, every single mechanic demanded mechanical mastery from the entire raid. The penalty for early deaths was exceptionally high, since the seeds in Phase 3 requiring having enough living raiders just to survive. This meant slow reactions on Night Hunters or poorly-timed Crescendo pops that might pick off one or two raiders would snowball into inevitable wipes by the end of the third phase.

With over 100 wipes, we eventually had enough time together to give him the immortal nickname “Brad” Denathrius before banishing him back into his blade and relieving him of his castle. As a raid leader, it was an achievement I was singularly proud of, knowing the journey the raid had been on as a team. It stood apart as featuring a lot of old and new faces growing and learning together, forging bonds in the crucibles of Sludgefist and Brad Denathrius. And that, more than any other reason, is what I think made it one of the best raids of all.

Ritavu

(Heroic) Sire Denathrius

Early on, we learned that Heroic Denathrius (we called him Brad) was not going to be the same pushover after phase 1 that he was on Normal. A sharp uptick in fight complexity drew out our attempts on him, forcing a lot of offline strategy discussions with the officers and the team. But each week we made it another step further.

Finally, at 97 pulls we managed to bring down Brad, capping one of the more interesting Heroic raid pushes of the guild’s career. We’re proud of the progress Mythos has made and we look forward to continuing on in Season 2 of Shadowlands in the Sanctum of Domination.

Congratulations, Mythos!

Ceta

Reflecting on Sanctum of Domination

Entering into 9.1, it was clear that it would be difficult to top the tour de force that was Castle Nathria, which had a theme as strong as any raid that had come before it, crescendoing to a climax with the irresistible hate sink of Sire Denathrius. And at first, Sanctum of Domination did struggle to surpass those expectations, and with the first three bosses especially.

Terragrue, while a fun fight, was probably one of the biggest loot pinatas since the Gunship Battle in Icecrown Citadel. The Eye of the Jailer was never difficult, and the Nine appeared only superficially complex while actually recycling a catalogue of rote raid mechanics that only varied in their sequence week-to-week. And after spending hours in Torghast, even the look of the raid itself felt simply tiresome, rather than ominous and intimidating. It didn’t help that those three bosses also had the most trash out of everything else in the instance, either.

However, Sanctum began showing signs of life with Remnant of Ner’zhul and Soulrender Dormazain, which were both variations of single-target, single phase boss fights with spawning adds. Now, however, we were reaching familiar lore characters. And Soulrender featured a surprise ending with a Garrosh epilogue cutscene. These fights became much more interesting on Heroic difficulty, with the double-knockback sequence on Remnant forcing some novel raid movement, and the rapid-fire torment bursts on Soulrender made meeting the mid-raid DPS check the first real challenge.

But Painsmith Raznal was where Sanctum truly became inspired. With spikes, flames, and steel balls, Painsmith skilfully built a truly unique boss encounter out of the traps of Torghast. And by defeating him, the raid was able to access the uppermost level of Torghast, which contained the true treasures of the raid: Guardian of the First Ones, Fatescribe Roh-Kalo, Kel’Thuzad, and Sylvanas.

These four final bosses were excellent. They were each unique from each other, while being difficult in their own way. Guardian was a classic Patchwerk fight, with a twist of very precise raid movement and tank choreography, and a novel way of allowing the raid to calibrate healing vs. DPS on the fly by changing how many Purification Protocols occur in each phase. Fatescribe also demanded strong DPS, but also tested the raid’s communication with his unique rune puzzles on the floor. Kel’Thuzad, much like Gul’Dan before him, combined the best of all of his prior incarnations: summoning skeletons, abominations, and banshees like in Naxxaramus, generating glacial spikes and hurling frost blasts like in Heroes of the Storm, and regenerating again and again in classic lich style.

And if the bottom of Sanctum failed to beat expectations, Sylvanas Windrunner surpassed them. The first phase is a straight-up duel with Sylvanas, which lets her cut loose with unique animations and movement like we have never seen before. True to form, Sylvanas doesn’t allow herself to be “tanked” like an ordinary flunky, but is constantly moving wherever she wants and attacking whoever she pleases. Her arrow shots are a poignant reminder of her original training as Ranger-General, but are enhanced by the dread powers of Domination granted by the Jailer. The second phase shows Sylvanas fighting mainly as a banshee, recalling the more ghostly powers she obtained after her death. Her indirect attacks and disruptive presence while battling the Jailer’s forces are the first give-away that her true goal is only to delay, rather than to win. And the final phase in Oribos is a dramatic and desperate struggle where it becomes clear that Sylvanas has had the upper hand all along – the raid can only get her to 50% health before the Jailer completes his assault on the Arbiter.

Sylvanas is WoW raiding at its absolute best. If anything, the encounter is probably a bit too long in the first phase, but every part of the Sylvanas encounter tells a story, as well as offering a memorable challenge like none other.

Ritavu