wow Battle of Dazar'alor Raid: Unique Flashback Mechanic

[Stan 4,725]

High King Mekkatorque and King Rastakhan were available for testing yesterday and we learned that the raid is linear and the final boss will be Jaina Proudmoore for both factions. The upcoming raid comes with an interesting flashback mechanic which transform you into players of the opposing faction to relive the story (three bosses) from their point of view.

The following article contains mild story spoilers.

Upon switching races, you'll also forget and learn new racials! This is a complete race change, not just a skin swap. Our Highmountain Tauren Druid got transformed into a Night Elf in the raid and the only race that didn't get swapped were Pandaren.

Horde players will gain the For the Alliance! buff when they transform into Alliance and Alliance players will be affected with the For the Horde! buff for three encounters in the raid.

Battle of Dazar'alor Boss Order

The raid houses a total of 9 bosses and comes with faction-specific encounters. There are separate raid entrances for both factions. Alliance players enter the raid at the Port of Zandalar and fight their way to the top of the pyramid, whereas the Horde enters the raid at Zocalo, because they're lured by Alliance forces from Nazmir.

Alliance Boss Order

I. Faction-Specific Encounters

• 1. Champion of the Light
• 2. Grimfang and Firecaller
• 3. Grong the Revenant

II. Alliance Story Encounters

The following bosses are part of the Alliance story in Dazar'alor.

• 4. Treasure Guardian
• 5. Conclave of the Chosen
• 6. King Rastakhan

III. Horde Story Encounters

Alliance players will race change into the Horde to relive their story. You'll actually fight the bosses as if you were the opposing faction.

• 7. High Tinker Mekkatorque
• 8. Stormwall Blockade
• 9. Lady Jaina Proudmoore

Horde Boss Order

I. Faction-Specific Encounters

• 1. Champion of the Light
• 2. King Grong
• 3. Flamefist and the Illuminated

II. Alliance Story Encounters

Horde players will race change and get to see the Alliance story halfway through the raid only to find out that the Alliance has slaughtered King Rastakhan.

• 4. Treasure Guardian
• 5. Conclave of the Chosen
• 6. King Rastakhan

III. Horde Story Bosses

The Horde continues to fight escaping Alliance forces ending with Jaina on the High Seas.

• 7. High Tinker Mekkatorque
• 8. Stormwall Blockade
• 9. Lady Jaina Proudmoore

What do you think about the unique mechanic? Are you a fan of separate raid experience for both factions or do you find switching racials confusing? Let us know in the comments and don't forget to check out our Patch 8.1 hub for the latest Tides of Vengeance news!

[tkioz 229]

Damnit. I don't want to be a member of the filthy alliance, knowing my luck I'll be transformed into a gnome or dwarf and those short characters always throw me off my game.

[Lawrenz 105]

It's a bit concerning that the alliance has to deal with random race changed racial abilities at the final bosses. I can see the salt wave coming in like a tsunami. To prevent that, the races they change into should be fixed from the race-class combination to another. Like a human hunter ALWAYS Becomes an Orc Hunter in those cases. So you atleast know which racials you have to deal with.

And i wonder as well, how the bindings will react. Since when you change the race there, you unlearn and learn certain spells. I guess the racials that you have slotted will grey out and you have to put the new racial from the spellbook there? What would annoy me the most, is that i have the Human "anti-cc" Racial slotted in a specific place and binding that i always use for anti cc. If i switch there now, into a goblin for example, i have to replace that skill with a rocket jump? It's not comfortable to use that movement skill intuitively on the same skillslot, and i have to find another place for this skill in this occasion, and have to deal with having an all random other skill the next time?...

In the end, me personally, i dont really care to much, since it is "just" annoying and i am not much of a raider. But i can understand any complaint of other players coming up.

[Demenzel 29]

7 hours ago, Lawrenz said:

It's a bit concerning that the alliance has to deal with random race changed racial abilities at the final bosses. I can see the salt wave coming in like a tsunami. To prevent that, the races they change into should be fixed from the race-class combination to another. Like a human hunter ALWAYS Becomes an Orc Hunter in those cases. So you atleast know which racials you have to deal with.

Seems to be the case

7 hours ago, Lawrenz said:

And i wonder as well, how the bindings will react.

They'll use the same tech that the merc. mechanic, so it shouldn't be any majer probelm with spells

But i really think that they shuldn't change the racials,.. i don't know... it's something new and ppl are going to complain regardelss what they do, so...

[Donir 8]

God, I hated knowing that Mekkatorque is going to be defeated but now I have to see it first person? also fighting Jaina? It sucks for me so much ? ?

(But the overall idea is quite intriguing)

 

Edited October 26, 2018 by Donir

[Arcling 764]

4 hours ago, Demenzel said:

But i really think that they shuldn't change the racials,.. i don't know... it's something new and ppl are going to complain regardelss what they do, so...

In my opinion, racials in general should have been made cosmetic long time ago, or at least turned off within environments like raids. Not sure how min-maxing top guilds are going to react to this, if they get switched from their races with best racials to some of the worst.

However, it's interesting if they are testing here, how potential cross-faction raids could work. That might have helped some, with how currently factions are unbalanced.

Edited October 27, 2018 by Arcling

[Xhopeon 50]

Fighting Jaina again? Can we kill her this time? That would be interesting (and fair for loss of King Rastaman) ? 

[Arcling 764]

4 hours ago, Xhopeon said:

Fighting Jaina again? Can we kill her this time? That would be interesting (and fair for loss of King Rastaman) ? 

Rastakhan was dead the moment they introduced Talanji. So Jaina-Talanji are equal counterparts in this regard.

[Badadada 184]

7 hours ago, Xhopeon said:

Fighting Jaina again? Can we kill her this time? That would be interesting (and fair for loss of King Rastaman) ? 

Don't think so - she's like a cockroach - survives even a fricking mana bomb. The revenge for Rastaman is likely King Meccano-bot - the old gnome seems more likely to die - a simple raid death just wouldn't fit into Jaina's storyline now. I'd suspect lorewise Jaina is the last boss since she'll act like some kind of rear-guard for retreating Alliance forces and fights us - but miracoulusly escapes in the end. But that's just my guesstimation.

[Teufel 325]

27 minutes ago, Badadada said:

Don't think so - she's like a cockroach - survives even a fricking mana bomb. The revenge for Rastaman is likely King Meccano-bot - the old gnome seems more likely to die - a simple raid death just wouldn't fit into Jaina's storyline now. I'd suspect lorewise Jaina is the last boss since she'll act like some kind of rear-guard for retreating Alliance forces and fights us - but miracoulusly escapes in the end. But that's just my guesstimation.

...or the Horde can just capture her? That seems like having a nice hostage, and I can bet Sylvanas can conjure something up out of having her.

[Arcling 764]

2 hours ago, Badadada said:

Don't think so - she's like a cockroach - survives even a fricking mana bomb. The revenge for Rastaman is likely King Meccano-bot - the old gnome seems more likely to die - a simple raid death just wouldn't fit into Jaina's storyline now. 

Yeah, Jaina escapes. Mekkatorque doesn't die, he uses an escape pod but is heavily wounded and frozen in statis, so that means he only won't appear for a while.

Edited October 27, 2018 by Arcling

[Slaith 19]

Sounds interesting and it's refreshing to have some change vs. usual raid construction !

[Perak 21]

It looks interesting :) But i dont care about who i have to fight, all i want is to "step" on as many ppl as i can, just bc i can :P in fight with Mekkatorque :D