dragon-soul-nerf
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Dragon Soul's Power of the Aspects rises to 35% with patch 5.0.4
Just in case you haven't had the delight of murdering Deathwing in person, the Power of the Aspects buff has increased another 5% to reach 35% with the release of patch 5.0.4. Note that this is not a buff to players; rather, it reduces the damage done and the health pools of enemies in the Dragon Soul raid. If the datamined information is correct, this is the maximum that the Power of the Aspects buff can reach, and we will not see another increase before Mists of Pandaria is released. As always, if your guild would rather not raid with the buff active, you can simply disable the Power of the Aspects by speaking to Lord Afrasastrasz at the beginning of the raid. Enjoy the buff -- and if you haven't punched Deathwing in the face by now, I'd recommend doing so. I heard he's got a glass jaw at this point! It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Dragon Soul's Power of the Aspects to 30% next week
The Power of the Aspects buff will increase another 5% to reach 30% starting after maintenance next Tuesday, July 17. If the datamined numbers are to be believed, this will be the next-to-last time the buff is increased. Of course Blizzard could always patch in more, but I find that unlikely. For those who don't want the buff active, it's always possible to disable it by talking to Lord Afrasastrasz at the start of the raid. Enjoy storming the castle a bit more easily now! Hopefully, some more guilds will get heroic Spine down (and in particular, I'm rooting for my guild, even though I'm not raiding at the moment). Dragon Soul Difficulty Change - 30% Once scheduled server maintenance is completed during the week of July 17, the "Power of the Aspects" spell will grow more powerful, reducing the health and damage dealt of all enemies in the Dragon Soul raid by 30%. This spell has grown progressively stronger over time to reduce difficulty and make the encounters more accessible. The spell will affect both normal and Heroic difficulties. It will not affect the Raid Finder difficulty. If you don't need the help of the Dragon Aspects, the spell can be disabled by talking to Lord Afrasastrasz at the beginning of Dragon Soul. We hope you continue to enjoy Dragon Soul, and that these changes encourage you to attempt a higher difficulty, or just keep pushing to take down that next boss source It's open warfare between Alliance and Horde in Mists of Pandaria, World of Warcraft's next expansion. Jump into five new levels with new talents and class mechanics, try the new monk class, and create a pandaren character to ally with either Horde or Alliance. Look for expansion basics in our Mists FAQ, or dig into our spring press event coverage for more details!
Dragon Soul's Power of the Aspects debuff to 25%
While there isn't a blue post yet, we can confirm via the in-game screenshot we took above that the Power of the Aspects buff is now at 25%. It had been at 20% for a little over a month. This follows the roughly every four- to five-week pattern of increasing the debuff's strength. As always, if you want to turn the buff off, just talk to Lord Afrasastrasz at the beginning of the instance. He'll make it go away -- otherwise, you'll get 25% weaker enemies. Remember that this debuff only applies to the normal and heroic versions of the raid, not to the Raid Finder version. We'll update this post with a blue post when one comes about. Edit: Blue post! Dragon Soul Difficulty Change - 25% At the completion of scheduled server maintenance during the week of June 5, the "Power of the Aspects" spell will grow more powerful, reducing the health and damage dealt of all enemies in the Dragon Soul raid by 25%. This spell has grown progressively stronger over time to reduce difficulty and make the encounters more accessible. The spell will affect both normal and Heroic difficulties, but it will not affect the Raid Finder difficulty. If you don't need the help of the Dragon Aspects, the spell can be disabled by talking to Lord Afrasastrasz at the beginning of Dragon Soul. We hope you continue to enjoy Dragon Soul, and that these changes encourage you to attempt a higher difficulty, or just keep pushing to take down that next boss. source
Dragon Soul: Power of the Aspects buff rises to 20% next week
During maintenance next week, the Dragon Soul buff/nerf will climb to 20%. This shouldn't be too much of a surprise for anyone, since we've known all along it'll continue to increase. And personally, I'm looking forward to it. My guild has some new DPSers running with us, and this will be just the boost we need to get heroic Ultraxion down. Remember that if you want to run without the buff, you can always turn it off by talking to Lord Afrasastrasz at the beginning of the raid. Blizzard's full announcement is as follows: Blizzard At the completion of scheduled server maintenance during the week of April 30, the "Power of the Aspects" spell will grow more powerful, reducing the health and damage dealt of all enemies in the Dragon Soul raid by 20%. This spell will grow progressively stronger over time to reduce the difficulty and make the encounters more accessible. The spell will affect both normal and Heroic difficulties, but it will not affect the Raid Finder difficulty. Don't need the help of the Dragon Aspects? The spell can be disabled by talking to Lord Afrasastrasz at the beginning of Dragon Soul. We hope you continue to enjoy Dragon Soul, and that these changes encourage you to attempt a higher difficulty, or just keep pushing to down that next boss. source
Why Dragon Soul nerfs are good for everyone, especially hardcore guilds
Blizzard took a lot of flak for the initial nerf of Dragon Soul last month; this month, the words are flying on the internet again. Dragon Soul's being nerfed a culminative 10% is too much for some people, because Blizzard has truly thrown in the towel and given up producing hard content -- or at least that's what people claim. The reality is quite a bit different. The Dragon Soul nerf serves an important purpose on several levels, no matter what your style of play. The casual guild The casual guilds will probably see the most immediate benefits from this nerf in terms of progression but the least in the long term. Bosses will be going down faster, mechanics will naturally have more error allowance, and morale of casual guilds will raise as progression happens. Players will still come and go, and some may decide that they want more of a challenge and start to look at forming hard mode groups or switching guilds altogether. But that is a natural part of any guild; personnel rotation happens. At the end of the day, this buff will probably attract and retain as many people as might move because of its effects.
