Well – of course we could expect as much for an instance about the Titans. Of course, there are a few rooms that don’t seem so large – especially the hallway when you’re on the way to Hodir.
To be honest, I feel like Ulduar was definitely worth the wait. The small touches that Blizzard put in are simply amazing – from the challenging boss fights, to the celestial design, to even the volcano that menaces from above Ignis, it is simply fantastic. We were even pleasantly surprised with the tram before Mimiron – I caught part of it on video, but unfortunately was too transfixed by the event to hit my hot key fast enough. I’ll definitely get it next time, though!
The major pitfall I see in this instance is the fact that we’ve been cuddled thus far with the ease of Naxxramas. I know that Blizzard wants to open the content for everyone, and that’s great. However, there needs to be challenges – I’ll admit them, I’m excited by the fact that we wiped multiple times learning the mechanics of each fight. Of course, many of them are buggy, such as Mimiron’s Phase 4. So, of course, is Ignis, which apparently has a bug where he melees the target in his pot. And many people are complaining about the difficulty of the dungeon. Yet, maybe this is from the perspective of a person who’s done quite a bit of raiding in the past, but I feel like it’s just right. The best in slot pieces will drop from the hard mode, making them a real accomplishment, while the other gear that drops are small upgrades that maybe will be slight sidegrades to the 25man Naxxramas. I feel like this is the way it should be.
Maybe this is an elitist attitude, but I don’t feel elitist in it. If you feel gear is so important, then perhaps you are actually the elitist, not me. I feel like the most important aspect is to make raiding fun and rewarding; it’s similar to how Blizzard put certain ratings on the better PVP items.
On the same token, I’d kind of like to see better upgrades in 10man mode. Some of what we saw drop were mostly just sidegrades to what we already had. I picked up a helm and a healing cloak; I’ll probably wait to use the helm, though, as I don’t want to lose the 10% critical damage bonus to Lava Burst from my 7.5 set bonus.
But a note to everyone already jumping in: Don’t forget to look up! ~_^