Patch 5.3 PTR: A first look at Heroic Scenarios
Whilst waiting for my battleground queue to pop on the PTR, it seemed like a good time to check out a heroic scenario or two. These are queued for, solo or in a group, from a drop-down in the scenarios section of the Looking For Group panel. What are they like? Well, in general, rather like anything that's listed as heroic in WoW, things hit harder. Quite a lot harder, frankly: in A Brewing Storm my group actually had to pay attention to the red circles cast by the trash mobs, and try to stand in the green circles which offer healing.
In the Crypt of Forgotten Kings, it was much the same, the bad got far badder, but the mechanics remained the same, and despite the regular untimely death of some team-mates, all fights were completable with 2 well-geared players. The same applied for A Brewing Storm and Greenstone Village.
The eagle-eyed reader will have noticed that, apart from offering more gold, as well as the standard 50 valor, and the cache of treasures, there's a line for completing bonus objectives, which can earn a massive (for scenarios) 90 additional valor. Subsequent scenarios still award 25 valor, but the 90 valor bonus appears to remain intact.
These bonus objectives were displayed upon entering the scenario, and in this instance related to the final boss fight, as you can see below:
The task to slay Borokhula quickly was a little annoying, to be honest, as there was no timer or indication of whether the group was proceeding sufficiently quickly to achieve the objective. Something like this would have been helpful, to see how far the groups were from getting him down in time. Also, you'll note the difference between the tooltip's text and its advertised reward! Naturally, this is PTR, so take everything with a pinch of salt.
Avoiding the swamp smash was considerably easier, so we passed that objective but failed the other one, both times I went through the scenario. This is indicated by the objectives panel, as usual.
The same applied for the Crypt of Forgotten Kings on Heroic, apart from that the timer on that seemed considerably more forgiving, and we managed to achieve the time objective, but neglected to loot the treasure urn! A subsequent run-through fixed that, and we received 90 valor for our efforts! This is a lot for scenarios, meaning the total is 115, or 140 for the first one of the day if the objectives are completed.
In Greenstone Village, however, there were no bonus objectives, and the place was so straightforward on heroic mode that I begin to wonder if it's fully implemented in all the scenarios yet.
While it should be noted that, given the image above, none of my groups were able to complete the speed objective in A Brewing Storm, it doesn't seem like these heroic scenarios really required a tank or a healer as many players who specialize in those disciplines were hoping. Certainly, one of either would be a help, but far from a requirement. Nonetheless, if players don't pay attention to the mechanics, they are very unforgiving, far more so than their normal cousins. A decent way to earn valor, too, if the bonus objectives are completed.
