So we’ve killed 9 of 14 bosses in Heroic Ulduar. While I think this week we’re going to be defeated by the gruesome duo of patch day and a long weekend in the US, up until now we’ve killed at least one new boss a week. I am quite pleased with the rate we’re going through Ulduar. It’s steady progress, which is my goal. Back in the good old days of SSC and TK we averaged a boss every two weeks — given that content is easier now, I think our current pace is reasonable.
As I’ve mentioned in the past, we raid nine hours a week, so a few stumbles (like patch day lag, grrr) on one night can severely impact how much time we have for new bosses. We’ll get faster, of course, and in fact we already have, but time is of the essence.
The new hot topic is hard modes, or semi-hard modes to be precise. Folks have started asking about them: FL+2, Freya+1, Runemaster last. And I have, thus far, been asking folks to be patient. It’s not that I’m afraid of the challenge or I think we can’t do it. I’m just not sure it’s the best use of our precious raid time right now. If we average a boss every 45 minutes, and a boss drops three upgrades, then every 45 minutes we work on a hard mode is -3 drops for the team that week. This early in Ulduar, upgrades are everything. (I still don’t have a single Ulduar-25 drop, and I suspect I’m not alone in that.)
What I’d like to do, if I can stave off the requests, is focus on doing the regular old bosses until we’ve killed Yoggie once or twice. By that point we should have the first two thirds of the instance pretty well farmed, and most people will be sporting at least the 2-piece T8 bonus. THEN we can go back and spend a night wiping on hard stuff, and I will be very happy to do it.
Folks have suggested we just try a pull or two of the semi-hard modes, and I’ll probably relent on that front. It’s a compromise. However, even just two pulls and the accompanying wipes and buffs can quickly eat up 45 minutes, and the internal counter in my head starts ticking down upgrades for the week. It’s a really fine line, and I’m not entirely sure yet how I want to cross it.
I like hard modes. I think it’s a neat mechanic, and ideally a good challenge. And maybe I’m old school, worrying about bosses over achievements. Flat boss progression doesn’t exist anymore, granted, and even the server tracking sites have mostly switched to counting achievements more than anything. And yet, still, when we spend an hour wiping on FL+2 I have this antsy little voice in my head telling me to push on, move, move, move. There are dark gods ahead, and I want to see them die.
I think a reasonable way of approaching hard modes is to have people run hard-modes in the 10man Ulduar to get a feel for the mechanics. This might make the learning curve a bit smoother, since the 10man is so much easier with regard to hard modes.
You can try moving faster. See if you can cut that 45 minutes to 20 or 30 minutes.
The one hard mode that is really worth trying is Iron Council – Medium (Runemaster last). That's because the quest item for the Algalon chain drops from it, and it's like the Malygos key from Sapphiron. The early you beat that fight, the more people you can start on the quest.
You're in the same boat as my guild, and I am so thankful I don't have to raid lead (or herd cats, as the saying goes). But with only 9 hours per week, guild like us really don't have the time to spare on things like achievements – which for the majority are only for epeen value. Even if we go smoothly, it's usually 5-6 hours to clear up to Yogg, leaving precious little time for repeated wipe learning.
Our goal is to clear the instance first before hitting up the hard modes for Alganon. I think it's fairly reasonable. One should wonder why people are even thinking about hard modes at this stage. Don't they want to see the later bosses?