M'uru nerfed in 2.4.3
An interesting change to Sunwell raiding cropped up in today's patch notes: in short, M'uru, Entropius and adds are all taking a health hit, and a couple of things have been smoothed out in the Kil'jaeden encounter.
Let's talk about M'uru first. Countless guilds have had trouble with this fight, yet those that have beaten it have praised its unforgiving tuning.
With some guilds reporting over 500 wipes on this boss alone, no wonder Blizzard felt some need to change the encounter. Although it's not known quite how much their health will be reduced (speculation ranges from 5% to 20%), the tuning as it stands means that any significant reductions change the entire pacing of the fight.
With adds dying faster, you get more time on M'uru; with M'uru dying faster, you get to Entropius sooner, and cut out a chunk of phase 1, lessening the tension and the chance for a mistake to wipe you. Guilds having trouble reaching phase 2 will still have to overcome threat and co-ordination issues,so expect plenty of wipes still, but the tedium of repeating phase 1 hundreds of times should be lifted to some extent and a kill should come a lot faster.
How are guilds reacting to this? The general feeling is very mixed. Guilds who have killed M'uru already are looking forward to faster farm kills, and are probably feeling a little smug that they beat it pre-nerf. However, those working on the fight at the moment are experiencing a mix of relief and disappointment. Disappointment that they didn't manage to quite beat it before these changes -- but relief and confidence that they soon will.
However, some of the problems that M'uru represents aren't affected by this announcement at all. Guilds who had serious roster issues when they suddenly needed 10 or 11 reliable healers for the Eredar Twins, then only six (but four tanks) for M'uru, still have to overcome those issues. Sure, the relaxed DPS requirement means you can possibly take an extra healer to M'uru now, which makes rotations a little fairer, but it doesn't really solve the problem.
Summer and burnout, plus the difficulty of recruiting Sunwell-ready players when you're yet another 4/6 guild (not to mention the PvE-PvP server transfer issue that's been plaguing PvE guilds), are also culprits in the M'uru problem. These notes simply make me wonder how many guilds that have fallen apart at this boss might have made it after the changes.
The changes to Kil'jaeden have less of an impact on the encounter, merely smoothing out some of the difficulties that are caused by randomness. Interruptable reflections and the removal of Improved Wing Clip (a nightmare in an encounter that requires raid members to move) are the key changes, meaning that guilds should no longer groan in dismay when certain reflections are spawned.
Overall these changes should see more guilds progressing past the brick wall that is M'uru to the equally-complex fight that is Kil'jaeden, and see a smoother difficulty curve throughout the instance overall. Hardcore raiders will lament the beauty of M'uru's tuning being gone forever, but when they bring new members in to learn the fight, they'll be a little grateful too.
The notes:
M'uru, Entropius, Shadowsword Berserkers and Shadowsword Fury Mages have all had their health decreased.
Kil'jaeden Encounter
Nether Protection will now correctly trigger from Kil'jaeden's Shield Orb Shadow Bolts.
Vanish now correctly wipes threat on Kil'jaeden.
Sinister Reflections are now interruptible.
Sinister Reflections on Hunters now use normal Wing Clip instead of Improved Wing Clip.
Kil'jaeden will now wait slightly longer before casting Flame Darts after casting Darkness of a Thousand Souls.
