The next boss in World of Warcraft has an extremely high number of abilities. Memorizing them all is likely to put raids to the test of patience.
It is clear to all players that World of Warcraft has drastically changed over the years. However, the extent of this difference can be best recognized in the complexity of the boss fights. Not only do bosses now have many different phases, but the number of abilities has also increased dramatically.
The upcoming final boss of The War Within, Dimensius the Devourer, takes the cake with over 60 abilities and effects to learn.
You can see the teaser for the next patch here:
What’s going on with Dimensius? If you take a look at the adventure guide and examine Dimensius in detail at mythic difficulty, you will be scrolling for a while. Expanding all effects and abilities requires reading over 20 pages to get to the end. Over 70 abilities and effects are described, with some overlaps in repetitions.
Dimensius is therefore going to be quite a complexity monster. In the fight, you not only have to contend with him but also against other void lords that he summons.
Especially nice: The ability called “spaghettification,” which disassembles the player character into its atoms when getting too close to a black hole. Sci-Fi fans might have encountered this term before.
So many cool abilities naturally require an epic accompaniment, for which they took a little inspiration from Final Fantasy.
How difficult will the boss be? Although the sheer volume of effects may seem overwhelming, not all of them are relevant for every character. Some effects are only significant for tanks or healers, while others primarily concern damage dealers. However, this fight particularly highlights how complex fights have become.
You can see what this looks like in the game in this short clip:
It is particularly striking when comparing Dimensius with the first “final boss” of World of Warcraft – Ragnaros in the Molten Core. He managed with only 4 abilities, or 5 if you want to count the submerge and Sons of Flame.
How is this supposed to be done without addons?
A concern for many fans is that the fights are no longer manageable without addons. Many addons ensure that one can see precise timers for when abilities are used or where one should best position themselves. With over 60 abilities, it is difficult to process all these effects in your head while simultaneously maintaining the rotation or giving or following instructions on Discord.
Although Blizzard has already announced that many addons will be rendered obsolete over the next few years, that time is likely still a while away – certainly not in the Mana Forge Omega. Before that, the developers want to develop their own features that largely replace addons and create a unified, fair playing field for all players – including a “timeline” for the current boss, where you can see which ability is due next.
