Zul’cmon!

"Average wait time: 29 Min"

Recently I have been attempting to gear-up my Warlock so he’s ready for raiding in 4.2. On paper, this is a simple task.

Queue for Rise of Zandalari Heroics

Check

Know the trash/boss fights

Check

Wait the typical 30 minutes or so without being AFK when the instance queue pops

Check

Get a group that is even half as ready as I am

Nope

Last night I waited for about 30 minutes to get into one, and I ended up in a Zul’Gurub that was already in progress. The group had gotten to the last boss. After about 3 tanks, 2 healers, and 5 DPS leaving the group I managed to get a few guild members into the dungeon.

“Kick-ass” I thought to myself. “This should be over with soon. Finally.”

We still had a bit of trouble. It was difficult for me to understand why at first, until a guild mate of mine said something along the lines of “that fight really has a complex set of mechanics if you think about it. It’s pretty much on par with a raid boss encounter.”

Damn. He’s totally right.

What pre-troll heroic has an encounter with nearly as many variables as the last boss in Zul’gurub? You have to know to get in the bubble when he’s casting Shadows of Hakkar. You have to know to keep him out of the bubble. You have to know when it’s safe to get back out of the bubble yourself. You have to know in phase 2 that YOU have to get the big adds from below, they don’t just find their own way up there. You have to know they will Body Slam someone, and that person needs to be by the shield over a chain to free the chain so you can kill the chain. You have to know to keep the small adds off of the healer because they’re all over the place and they WILL kill the healer. There really is no pre-troll heroic fight that even comes close to that level of coordination. The sad fact is, most actual raid bosses don’t have that kind of coordination involved. To ask a group of random players that aren’t using a program like Ventrilo to get together and make this happen is unrealistic.

What I’m really trying to say here is that if you queue for these dungeons, you really should read up on the trash and bosses. You should also expect other players to not be prepared in any way, even if they have cleared the dungeon before. They may never have done the role they are currently playing, or they may have had a super rocking group when they did it, or a full guild run with great coordination. You need to be patient and take the time to explain the fight. You need to realize that even though you explained it, some people will still have a very hard time making things work.

This is why you’re not pugging into the current raiding content. It would be a lot like my typical evening of trying to gear-up my Warlock.