While the best guilds in the world compete for the first kill in the latest raid of World of Warcraft, Blizzard is tuning one of the bosses. The tough nut that everyone is struggling with is being nerfed, and that not only brings joy.
Which boss is it about? Halondrus is one of the 11 bosses from the Mausoleum of the First of Patch 9.2 in World of Warcraft. The automaton reminiscent of a Protoss from StarCraft fights with lasers and earthquakes.
The boss is considered a tough nut in the raid, as he has both high damage requirements and is mechanically challenging. Constantly dodging and proper positioning is required.
The best guilds in the world are currently struggling with Halondrus, some with over 200 attempts on “the wall,” as he has been dubbed (via wowprogress). Now there has been a nerf, in the middle of the World First Race.
What has changed? Several mechanics of Halondrus as well as his health points are said to have been adjusted:
- the health points have been reduced by 10% to 80 million
- Crushing Prism is less likely to hit players at range
- Planet Cracker Beam no longer appears at random positions
The patch was implemented through a hotfix, so it is effective immediately. As the guilds had only reached about 35% so far, the nerf will likely not lead to an immediate kill. Nevertheless, it should help to progress faster. However, not everyone is happy about it.
World First Race is underway – Halondrus is “the wall” for top guilds
The nerf comes in the middle of the World First Race. Such things have happened before, but they always generate controversy. The timing of the nerf is poorly chosen according to some fans. On one hand, it is generally bad to introduce a hotfix in the middle of the race. On the other hand, it is simply unfair.
There has been a race for First Kills for years between Echo/Method (Europe) and Limit or Liquid (North America). However, the nerf came at a time when Europe had just stopped, while America had just started.
This would give Liquid an advantage as they start directly against a weaker boss and might secure a First Kill. This way, they reach the next boss sooner and gain experience there. There has already been criticism because of this.
Either way, the race generates a lot of attention. Tens of thousands of viewers are captivated by the guilds and their gameplay. The World First Race even causes World of Warcraft to be among the most popular games on Twitch and pushes competitors like Lost Ark aside – despite its age:
WoW is currently the biggest trend on Twitch – Why does everyone want to watch the MMORPG?
