Experience and the Reduced Difficulty Raid

Zul’Aman.

Once the source of the prized [Amani War Bear].

Now nothing more than an antiquated and nostalgic raid instance.

Yesterday was the second time I’ve logged in for Patch 3.0.2. At first I just wanted to try out some battlegrounds for the night and maybe get a chance to complete some of the achievements. But I decided to put myself up in LFG for Zul’Aman, thinking people would have nothing to do on a Saturday night. Lo and behold, after 20-odd minutes in Alterac Valley, I got the call for DPSing Zul’Aman. After getting ourselves together for 10 minutes or so, summons went out, and we started the timed event in no time.

Akil’zon. Nalorakk. Jan’alai. Halazzi. This is only my second time killing all four of them. Then Hex Lord Malacrass went down. About 10 minutes after that, Zul’jin: my personal first. No wipes on bosses. All 4 timers complete. Instance completed in an hour and a half. I was not expecting such an efficient run. In one night, I got [The Savage's Choker], [Shadowhunter's Treads], [Trollbane], and [Tiny Voodoo Mask].

The Amani troll leader is defeated.

So this begs the question: Does experience in a raid instance really matter anymore?

For this run, I asked for explanations of Hex Lord and Zul’jin fights because my knowledge was minimal at best. But, really, they were barely needed at all. DPS the marked mobs and don’t die. It has now become as simple as that instead of position juggling and saving up on mana. My guildmate lamented how people are basically running instances for epic gear that will soon become useless come Wrath.

But remember the days when people were complaining that they don’t get to see upper content? You can essentially mostly PuG a raid now and still do fine without the coordination you find in a guild run. Raiding becomes individual experiences in doing their own jobs rather than communicating with others on what went wrong with the encounter and how certain aspects can be improved. For example, there was one time when a split-second mispositioning at Halazzi would almost certainly have cost us the last timed chest pre-3.0.2. But this time, we one-shotted him.

Will Wrath bring this kind of raid experience? We’ll have to wait and see.