Quite nice writeup mate! Its nice to get some insights from a top tier raider without qq & offensive blame (:
I don't agree on Ashvane. I think Ashvane had some really bad design elements in it. It was obvious that they intended the bubbles to be soaked by the raid increasing the raid damage throughout the fight, but it just became easier to have a 3rd tank just soak them all because the damage ramps up so quickly. Also, the DPS check is so tight you have to drop to 3 healers. I don't think having to reduce your healers because the damage check is so high is a good thing.Hell, my old server, Cho'gall, just got their 2nd guild killing Ashvane this week, a month after release. I'm not sure what tuning level is acceptable here. Player skill is so stratified in WoW that its not an easy answer.
I don't raid that long, more seriously basically since Legion EN and I don't remember being stuck as early in the raid as on Ashvane, dps check here is so tight, combined with non-trivial mechanics and movement, that makes it quite hard and I don't even mention specific requirements for third tank...
I really disagree on Ashvane. I find it's a very uninteresting fight that forces a lot of odd strategies to down it without a lot of farming. As a blockade, it works, but it's just not fun. Still though, it's one minor downturn in an otherwise exceptional raid.
the blackwater behemoth fight is boring as hell, it feels like an almost literal tank & spank
The RNG gear drop kills the whole experience.I go there for gear, but this system of multiple variations of the same item (Wasn't it better when epics were either normal or heroic, and rares from dungeons normal or heroic) just makes me feel like they don't want me to do that. Isn't that the point of the game, to get better gear? To me it is..
Okay but I cannot imagine having an encore element to Queens Court would have been great. Would be great for a rogue who just applied max combo point bleeds to be forced to use the same spell again, or have someone use a cooldown ability just to be forced to stop.
Thank you for an interesting and informative write-up!