Patch 3.1 - Ulduar - I hope you like vehicle combat...

[puppychow]

Full patch notes aren't up, but I saw this on my guild forums. Ugh, vehicle combat

Welcome to Ulduar
Many players have already gotten their Wrath of the Lich King raiding feet wet in Naxxramas and the Sartharion raid, but Ulduar is the first example of the expansion's much larger, truly epic scope of raiding, as will be evident from the second you set foot in the instance. The most obvious difference between Ulduar and its predecessors is that the dungeon actually comprises two separate raid areas. The first section is an epic battle against a vast army standing between you and the entrance of the dungeon proper; in the second area, you will dive into the heart of the dungeon itself and finally discover the secrets of Ulduar.

Ulduar's new master has rallied his own massive Iron Army to guard the entrance to Ulduar and to prevent any unwanted guests - including you, especially you - from reaching the inner sanctum. Thankfully, you'll be able to face the Iron Army on even footing: although the main Horde and Alliance forces are focused on the forces beyond the Wrathgate and on each other, some who are better able to appreciate the true magnitude of Ulduar's threat have managed to scrap together a small fleet of siege vehicles to aid you in the assault.

You and your friends will have to use these vehicles wisely to break through Ulduar's defenses. A mix of motorcycles, demolishers, and siege engines will be at your disposal, each granting unique abilities to the pilot and the passenger. Motorcycle drivers, for example, can create pools of liquid tar that snare opponents and can be set on fire by area effect attacks, while demolisher passengers can load themselves into the vehicle's catapult so that the pilot can launch them into the distance. If used judiciously, these and other abilities will help decimate the Iron Army and any other threats lying in wait between you and Ulduar.

One such threat is the Flame Leviathan. After you've plowed through the innumerable ranks of the Iron Army, you will be confronted by an enormous tank. Mimiron built the Flame Leviathan as part of the V0-L7R-0N weapons platform, which means that it packs quite a punch. Normal spells and abilities won't be enough to take down this juggernaut, so you will have to rely on your siege vehicles to outmaneuver and defeat the boss. After wearing the massive war machine down, you will have to launch players onto the tank's back to destroy its defense turrets and sabotage the Leviathan before you can move on. Of course, if you'd like an additional challenge beyond this naturally frantic (but extremely fun) fight, you can try your hand at one of the Flame Leviathan's different Hard Modes (see sidebar).

Of course, the vehicle gauntlet, the Iron Army, and the battle against the Flame Leviathan are only the start of World of Warcraft's most ambitious raid to date. Patch 3.1 will hit the Public Test Realms very soon, so you will be able to see for yourself what other challenges await beyond the gates of ancient Ulduar.

Hard Boiled
Ulduar brilliantly illustrates the new design challenges and innovations that come with the bigger scope of the expansion's raids. In order to make raid content more accessible, it has to offer a lot of variety, but it also needs to include a very granular means for players to adjust a raid's difficulty. This concept was first realized in the Burning Crusade with the introduction of Heroic mode, and Wrath of the Lich King is developing the idea even further with new Hard Modes.

Boss fights that have a Hard Mode are affected by certain variables which players can control and which change the encounter's difficulty. For example, spread throughout Ulduar's vehicle section are four defense towers you can destroy. The more towers you leave intact, the harder the encounter with the Flame Leviathan will be, but the loot will also be better.

Ulduar isn't the first dungeon to include Hard Mode, but it certainly makes the most use of it. Out of 14 bosses, 11 will have a Hard Mode that offers additional challenges and rewards. Ulduar will appeal to a wide range of play styles, but the dungeon also has great longevity and a high replay value.

[Multibocks]

you can imagine my excitement....

[Owltoid]

;(

Even without multiboxing I wouldn't be happy about this expansion. Vehicles do not interest me and actually make me think about more "pure" fantasy games like LotR...

[Multibocks]

Yeah I pretty much do not like how you interface with vehicles. Using the FTL system means I get screwed. Oh well, maybe this is a good time to go back to single boxing.

[Bigfish]

Personally, I'm getting kind of tired with vehicles. Oh sure, they're novel, but it really feels like all the work I put in to my guys is taking a back seat to a gameplay mechanic which eliminates all my time and effort gearing up.

Edit: Come to think of it, don't get me wrong, driving a vehicle through an Iron Dwarf held battlefield to get to the gates of Ulduar while spouting flamy death everywhere sounds pretty badass. Stuff like that gets really old though after you've done it a few times. Especially in the case of the begining of an instance, where depending on the skill of the group, you have potentially undergeared players beating the first encounter handily, or over-geared players getting stuck on it because their shiny purples don't amount to a hill of beans in a vehicle.

[Owltoid]

Personally, I'm getting kind of tired with vehicles. Oh sure, they're novel, but it really feels like all the work I put in to my guys is taking a back seat to a gameplay mechanic which eliminates all my time and effort gearing up.

QFT

[puppychow]

I think the majority of multiboxers don't multibox PVE raids, for a variety of reasons ("main" is in a big guild so don't really have raid spots, likelihood of a pug accepting 3-4 of same class is small, fears of gimping the raid/wiping too much/taking too long, too much lag/coordination/etc, undegeared, etc).

So for me personally patch 3.1 is going to be disappointing if the major focus is on Ulduar, and there are no 5 mans, new heroics. I'm sure there will be a new faction to grind off, and a new quest hub, but that is content that is used up in a few days usually. At least a new heroic would keep me busy for a bit longer (admittedly not much longer, lol).

And yeah vehicle combat makes me feel too much like I'm playing Unreal Tournament/Battlefield or something, its ok once in a while but Blizzard seems to be in love with it and putting it in more and more

Sucky thing is I'm staying sub'd till Oct so I can complete the holiday achievements and get the mount, but after that I'll be unsub'd on all but my main until next expansion.

[Bigfish]

So for me personally patch 3.1 is going to be disappointing if the major focus is on Ulduar, and there are no 5 mans, new heroics. I'm sure there will be a new faction to grind off, and a new quest hub, but that is content that is used up in a few days usually. At least a new heroic would keep me busy for a bit longer (admittedly not much longer, lol).

Geez, yeah. Nothing worse than a bunch of time spent on content you don't really need to see more than a few times. I mean, if I'm going to spend my time farming, I'd rather do it on my own schedule at my own pace.

[Bollwerk]

Personally, I'm loving the expansion and look forward to raiding Ulduar. I will agree that the vehicle gimmick is getting a bit old though. However, I still have tons left to do in the expansion and a whole other group still at 70 if I get bored with my current group.

[pinotnoir]

If I wanted to use vehicles I would be playing Battlefield or some other FPS game. Keep these crappy vehicle combat systems out of my mmo. They have to know that vehicles in wow is like a 1999 game compared to the latest FPS that use them. LOW TECH!