netherspite
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Blizzard developer blogs about game design
Netherspite was overcomplicated to the point of absurdity and the most enjoyable way to approach the fight was to skip it. It required a level of coordination that players had never experienced at the time. Heavy movement, beam rotations, a need to run away to avoid death, then run back in to get beams back under control. Raiders today could pull it off without issue. Raiders back then, it was far above what most players had ever seen, and it was in the introductory raid. Its difficulty was far beyond the rest of the dungeon, even. This is what Alex told me when I asked him to describe Netherspite for me. I wanted to know because I recently found out that the Blizzard developer who designed Netherspite was reassigned to work on simpler content in the game after designing that encounter. The reason? He'd let his desire for innovation get away from him. At least, that's what he says. His name is Alex Brazie, and he's been blogging about game design the past couple of months. In his blog, Breaking Open the Black Box, he shares his experiences and lessons learned from working as a game designer at Blizzard. The whole blog is a sort of a meandering trip through the intellectual process of game design, which you'll probably find amusing if you've seen a fair share of raid encounters over the years. And if reading about game design doesn't appeal to you, I'll admit that I've also been reading every one of his posts in hopes that at some point he'll explain why so many strange items in the game are named after him. Here are but a few: Brazie's Black Book of Secrets, Brazie's Guide to Getting Good with Gnomish Girls, and Brazie's Notes on Naughty Night Elves. Who is this guy?!
Shifting Perspectives: Revenge of the Karapalooza
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, we invade the menagerie, shut down the demon factory, defang the beaten dog, carefully avoid Netherspite, play some chess, and face not only Malchezaar but the legions he commands. Greetings, druids. This week we'll finish our look at stomping Kara from Curator through Prince. If you're looking for our first installment (covering Attumen through Nightbane), you'll find that here. Curator For most people, the Curator was the source of the first tier piece they ever got in Burning Crusade as he drops the tier 4 glove token. Note that the Defender tokens in tier 4 and 5 went to warriors, druids, and priests, which forced BC's more popular tanking and healing classes (in addition to the new legion of shadow priests that every raid wanted) to gear at each others' expense. It wasn't until tier 6 that Blizzard went for more sensible class combinations, splitting most tanking/healing classes to different tokens.
The Bro Squad 3-mans Karazhan
Back in early September, I told you about a trio of level 80 players in the Wrath beta that cleared Karazhan with just the three of them. At the time, it was quite a feat and really surprised a lot of us, bloggers and readers alike. Well, it's been 3-manned again. At level 70.Metosai, a partially Sunwell geared Protection Warrior, recently ran Karazhan with a mix of experienced characters and some lesser geared ones. About a third of the raid was in greens, he said. They cleared the place in under an hour. Metosai was surprised at just how easy it was, and decided to see if they could do it with just three.He looked for a couple of people from his guild to help him, and they took to Karazhan with a team of a Protection Warrior (Metosai), a Retribution Paladin (Dok), and a Holy Paladin (Dantez). The first half of the instance was easy, they say, but the second half got a little more dicey. Netherspite was cited as the most difficult to figure out how to do with three people (it took 5-6 tries), but they managed it and supplied video.
15 Minutes of Fame: 10-boxing Karazhan, Part 1
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.This week's 15 Minutes of Fame is about a multiboxing team – but it's not that team that just ganked you in your last Battleground. Absolute Power-H of Archimonde and its team leader/main tank, Nixi, have made their mark not in Battlegrounds but in Karazhan.Ever curious about a unique perspective of the World of Warcraft, we visited with Nixi & Co. to find out what it's like to "solo" Karazhan. This week in Part 1 of our interview, we go straight for the throat with Nixi's Kara strats. Next week, Part 2 of 15 Minutes of Fame: 10-boxing Karazhan brings you a look at Nixi's hardware setup and his top five tips for new multiboxers.
Things that annoy me
Or, how to celebrate the birth of a nation via an ugly series of Horde losses in Arathi Basin:1. Every single Alliance character in the game has a Black War Tiger.2. Every single Horde character in the game has a Black War Raptor (yes, myself included).3. I could be wrong, but I don't think "Lich King" is pronounced "Lick King," as I keep hearing it pronounced on my server.4. However, it might be because the word looks somewhat Germanic, and I will be unable to keep a straight face for the duration of the next expansion.5. To the point of losing it completely if I hear "World of Warcraft: WRAAAAAAATH OF THE LICK KING" intoned by the Deep-Voiced Serious Trailer Guy.6. How male human characters run. There's a lot of great animation in the game. This is not one of them.7. Practically every main-tank of every Hordeside raiding guild is a male Tauren.8. An egotistical male Tauren. Look, Spanky, just because Bulwark of Azzinoth is bigger on you than anybody else does not mean that the same is true of appendages elsewhere.
Need a cure for the Karazhan blues? Try 10 Paladins
Don't get me wrong here, Karazhan's generally a pretty fun dungeon, aside from the odd incredibly annoying trash mob, but when you've run it time and time again, it's always nice to find a twist or a new way of doing stuff to spice things up again. The Senatus Redux guild of the Kul Tiras EU run have done just that, clearing most of Karazhan with a group 10 paladins, most of them in no better than T4 gear or lower, on a run done on March 1st. They managed to get down all the bosses but Prince Malchezaar and Nightbane - and they have pretty good reason to believe that they could have had the Prince, having him to 15% on their last attempt of the night.
WoW Moviewatch: 10 Paladins clear Karazhan (almost!)
We've profiled movies of a Paladin soloing Blackrock Depths. We've even seen one solo Blood Furnace. Now, ten of them have banded together to tackle Karazhan. And they manage to clear it all the way until the last two bosses, Nightbane and Netherspite. Not bad for a class that constantly beats up on itself for being gimped.The video is 26 minutes long, but enjoyable. The first part is RP related to the quest and the fights are at double speed. The music choice is very good IMHO and the humorous moments really help move it along. The shot of all 10 Blood Elf paladins dancing naked on the table was definitely a highlight. These are 10 players definitely enjoying themselves. Check it out.Previously, on Moviewatch...
