The View From Down Here

Bring In The Trash

One of the things coming out of the PTR for patch 3.2 is that the Argent Coliseum has no trash.

So? I hear you say. Trash rarely drops anything useful, and it’s there to slow us down.

Quite, I respond. It’s there to slow you down. This isn’t a bad thing, and it’s got nothing to do with how long it takes for you to clear all the bosses in an instance. Instead, the trash adds just enough delay to the instance. The delay is important.  The amount of trash present is also important, in that there has to be not too much and not too little.

I’ll go further than that. I’ll say that ideally each boss should be prefaced by 10-15 minutes of trash. Not so much that it takes you ages to clear, not so little  that it takes no time at all to get through.

The reason for it is this – Bosses are a time for concentration. Trash (which while being possibly lethal) is not in the same way. Sure, everyone needs to pay attention on the trash just as the boss, but by and large the trash is much easier than the boss, especially when it’s been learned, allowing a short space of time in which to recharge ready for full concentration on the boss.

Add to this respawn timers. Naturally there’s a short break between each attempt, but that’s too filled with analysis of what went wrong before, changes in strategy. By the time the ready check is made most players will be lucky if they’ve had thirty seconds of break. By adding a respawn timer (90 minutes may be the ideal, 2 hours is the most common) there’s an enforced break from the boss to allow raiders to recharge and return to the boss with a fresher mind.

Without the trash, I can see attempts on harder bosses within the Coliseum getting worse as the raid goes on, that tiny break provided by trash missing, leading to lack of concentration.