Queen Azshara is not well received by the professional guilds in WoW. Viewers also find her terrible. Why is that?
For several days now, professional guilds like Method, Limit, or Aversion have been busy fighting the current final boss of World of Warcraft. However, Queen Azshara is extremely unpopular, not only among the raiders but also among the viewers. Although the race for the first kill is exciting with currently 7 guilds in the running, the fight is not enjoyable. There are many reasons for this.
The Azshara fight is extremely complex: Although Azshara uses some annoying and outdated mechanics, the overall complexity of the fight is immense. There are not only adds to fight, requiring attention to “line of sight”, but also spell shields to fill and specific decrees to consider while simultaneously dodging mechanics or directing them to specific spots to harm an add. If these mechanics overlap unfavorably, it can quickly mean the end for the entire raid group.
The biggest problem here, however, is Phase 3.
What makes Phase 3 so difficult? In Phase 3, there is a lot to keep track of. Players need to kill 3 adds in a very short time while a fourth add (a Myrmidon) is still being tanked. This Myrmidon regularly throws spears at players in the raid, which must be directed to the correct positions and must not hit columns under any circumstances. The Myrmidon also needs to be killed, as another Myrmidon will appear shortly after. Having two of them active at the same time usually means a quick death for the group.
At the same time, Queen Azshara casts Arcane Missiles on all players in line of sight every 3 seconds. These not only deal damage but also increase the arcane damage taken due to a stackable debuff. All players must therefore take cover behind a column every few seconds to avoid accumulating too many stacks. By the way, the spear of the Myrmidon also dealt arcane damage.
And because all of this is not enough, the entire raid has about 50% – 60% less health, as the charging of the titan protection runes reduces the maximum health of the players for a long time – a mechanic that cannot be ignored. A single spear can mean death here.
Blizzard has already made adjustments: Some of the problems have already been fixed by Blizzard with hotfixes.
- The spear of the Myrmidon now deals nature damage and no longer arcane damage (thus not amplified by Azshara’s Arcane Missiles).
- The maximum duration of the phase has been increased from 2 to 3 minutes.
- Arcane vulnerability (the debuff from Arcane Missiles) now lasts only 5 seconds instead of 7.
Mechanics are boring: Although the fight itself is very complex, many of the mechanics are “boring” to play. Sitting behind a column every few seconds and waiting for a debuff to wear off is simply not particularly exciting. Especially for a final boss, players had hoped for something more thrilling.
Not a good boss for viewers: Additionally, Azshara is not a good boss for viewers. There are several reasons for this. First, the fight is extremely complex, making it difficult to follow the action. One has to keep an eye on adds, the charge state of various protective runes, and the positioning of the players.
Moreover, a large part of the fight does not take place against Azshara but against her minions, who clutter the entire battlefield with numerous abilities.
A mix makes for a terrible fight: All these factors lead to Queen Azshara being regarded by some professionals as one of the “worst final bosses of all time”. The combination of boring, clichéd mechanics, excessive difficulty, and poor viewer experience seems to be too much.
The last boss fight against Jaina handled that better. Although there were also challenging mechanics, they were clearly visible to viewers. One could really cheer when the raid had to break an ice barrier to avoid being met with a freezing death.
How do you like the boss fight against Queen Azshara? Do you find it interesting as a player and viewer? Or do you share the opinion that it is not fun?
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