Eminence

Another night of solid progression, this instance just continues to deliver. It's really engaging to have trash packs that actually matter rather than simply exist to provide flavour but by far and away it feels great to have normal mode encounters that put up a challenge and demand strategy.

TORTOS
A good night's sleep sees yesterday's insurmountable obstacle become merely a bump in the road. Sent into permanent (well as permanent as anything is in this game) hibernation on the second pull the team co-ordination was superb. Having missed most of the progression learning of this encounter I struggle to have an opinion but the little I did experience showed me that actually "being there" is a completely different story to watching from the safety of someone's stream.

MEGAERA
My preparation for this fight indicated that it was nowhere near as complicated as some guides were trying to make it and I was determined to not let it become more than it is. We very quickly arrived at a solid strategy and it simple boiled down to an exercise of optimising our toolkit to see us through the final Rampage. I never really like strategies where one of the core mechanics can be brute force ignored but we take every advantage we can, so I'm secretly hoping that the Frost Head becomes a significant element in the heroic version, the interplay of the mechanics on this encounter is too good to be wasted.

Awesome first week into the new instance (guild politics and hardware issues aside).

Son, I am NOT disappoint.

I can count on one finger the number of times I have missed a raid due to hardware failure. Damn in fact, holidays aside, I'd struggle to need two hands to total how many raids I've missed in the three and a half years that Eminence has been rolling the instances of Azeroth. So with Mothering Sunday upon me and complacency firmly planted in my pocket, it was a cosmic certainty that the technology gremlins would pay me a visit. And so they did, with gusto.

Despite this, and with suggestions of a submissive relationship with my mother-in-law, Eminence once again stepped into the Thunder King's lair to lay waste to the denizens within. Though in retrospect it may be been them who laid waste to us;

COUNCIL OF ELDERS
A shaky start lead to a confident kill in very few pulls. Control and co-ordination being the key.

TORTOS
This mountain sized brickwall literally wiped the smile of our faces. A total clusterfuck of mobs, ground effects and constant movement; we struggled to make any sort of impression on the overgrown bastard in a half-shell. As always, it was the last attempt of the night that looked the best and was shaping up to be a kill, yet our course was steadfastly set for disappointment. Raid over, we went to bed alone with our tails between our legs.

But then, there is always tomorrow ...

It's no exaggeration to say that my anticipation for the new raid was high. Having the entire raid roster to choose from at invite time and the inevitably large bench, proved the excitement wasn't limited to just me. Being on the bench at any time isn't the best and especially on the first day of a new raid it can be particularly distasteful, big thanks to those who kept it warm.

First impressions count for everything and I was not disappointed, the Throne of Thunder looks and feels amazing. From the very start I felt like I was taking part in the infiltration of a giant fortress and as we progressed deeper into the citadel that sensation compounded.

The soon to be infamous "bridge boss" and bucketfuls of trash was a welcome distraction and stopped the night feeling like a mindless procession of skipping from boss to boss. Speaking of which ...

JIN'ROKH
The entry level boss and he certainly felt like it. A couple of tester pulls to shake out the misinformation from our strategy and we downed him without much fuss.

BRIDGE BOSS
"Don't stand on The Dude"
"Keep behind the tanks! Keep ... behind ... the ... FML"
"Are they ... actually ... pathing together now? Oh shi...."
"You slalom-ing motherfucker"
"Stack on Koe. Stack on Koe. Stack on ... err ... go the other side. THE OTHER SIDE!"

'nuff said.

HORRIDON
Damn, did I enjoy this fight. It's refreshing to have a challenge from the second boss of the instance and Horridon definitely gave us that. Tuned nicely and demanding a solid strategy with consistent performance from everyone, the satisfaction from killing him was palpable. Props to Noirelle for suggesting the tactic that made the difference.

COUNCIL OF ELDERS
A single taster pull with little strategy discussion to see how the encounter played out and it didn't seem too bad. Will probably live to regret those words.

I already can't wait until Sunday. Good stuff Blizzard, good stuff.

One final progression push saw us clinch a nice end to the Tier and a cutting edge achievement to place on the trophy shelf. No doubt we will return to finish what we started however for now all eyes are turned to Lei Shen and his shenanigans in his island stronghold.

As a last salute to the Mogu'shan Vaults and a precursor to the adventures ahead here the video of our Heroic Emperors kill.

Enjoy.

When Pandaria separated from Kalimdor many thousands of years ago, a veil of mist kept outsiders from discovering the newly-formed continent. The mists also hid the site of an ancient evil: Lei Shen’s Throne of Thunder. During his rule, this fortress was the seat of the Thunder King’s power. Great swathes of corrupted energy lingered long after his death, and now, the resurrected Thunder King and the Zandalari trolls intend to harness that energy to reestablish Lei Shen’s reign.

Join us as we delve into the Thunder King’s stronghold, one of the largest raid dungeons that Azeroth’s adventurers have ever seen. Here we will learn about its fearsome denizens, and gain insight into each battle from Lead Encounter Designer, Ion “Watcher” Hazzikostas.


Last Stand of the Zandalari

JIN'ROKH THE BREAKER



When the Thunder King awoke, he rewarded the most loyal and ambitious Zandalari trolls with power beyond their wildest dreams. The berserker Jin’rokh was one of the first to receive the King’s blessing, and even though Lei Shen’s gifts nearly tore his body apart, the troll is now capable of calling the fury of the storm in battle.

Ion: Long-time players may remember this guy as one of the Zandalari berserkers living on Yojamba Isle in Stranglethorn Vale, back when the Zandalari were our friends. He was a quest giver in the assault on the original 20-player Zul’Gurub. He was a huge brute to begin with, but he’s been imbued with even greater power by the Thunder King. He crackles with electricity, using both his raw strength and channeled lightning to destroy his enemies.

HORRIDON



The Zandalari brought powerful creatures with them to the Isle of the Thunder King to use as engines of war. Led by the War-God Jalak, the dinomancers of the Zandalari Beast Ward use ancient tribal magics to strengthen the great beasts and command obedience. The horns of Horridon, the fabled mount of Jalak himself, can tear through the stone walls of a keep as a blade cuts silk.

Ion: Trolls love dinosaurs, so it’s only fitting that the most advanced and powerful troll tribe should have the largest and most powerful dinosaurs. The overall structure of this encounter recalls past fights like Lady Deathwhisper or M’uru, where players must keep up with waves of lesser (but still threatening) minions while managing the boss, before turning their attention directly to him in the later stages of the fight.

COUNCIL OF ELDERS



The history of the troll tribes—the Drakkari, the Farraki, the Amani, and the Gurubashi—is awash with millennia of betrayal and conflict, but the Zandalari’s promise of a new, unstoppable empire has finally united these disparate troll leaders.

The Council of Elders consists of four mighty troll leaders: Kazra’jin of the Amani, Sul the Sandcrawler of the Farraki, Frost King Malakk of the Drakkari, and High Priestess Mar’Li of the Gurubashi.

Ion: Gara’jal the Spiritbinder’s defeat in the Mogu’shan Vaults was, yes, merely a setback. It takes more than a few blades and spells to put a voodoo priest down for good, though he no longer possesses a corporeal form. So this time around you aren’t fighting him directly, but rather dealing with him as he possesses and empowers leaders of four other troll tribes, strengthening their attacks until you can force him out of the body he has chosen to occupy.

Forgotten Depths

TORTOS



Over the millennia, small amounts of mogu flesh-shaping magic seeped into the caverns below the Thunder King’s citadel. The dark energies warped one of the chamber’s native dragon turtles, melding it to the surrounding crystalline walls. Known as Tortos, this amalgamation of flesh and stone has since feasted on the cave’s rich mineral deposits and grown to a colossal size.

Ion: Along with asking why we fight, and learning that our true enemy is war itself, a major theme of the Mists of Pandaria has been killing turtles. This raid encounter elevates that motif to all-new heights, presenting players with the chance to fight a huge turtle, and small turtles, and also the ability to kick one of the small turtles into the big turtle. What more could you ask for?

Fun fact: We originally wanted to make a fire turtle boss in the southeastern section of Firelands in Patch 4.2, but opted not to at the time; we’ve been looking for an opportunity to do a turtle fight ever since.

MEGAERA



Even the most callous among the mogu quaver at the thought of the dark experiments performed at the Thunder King’s behest. Long ago, a young cloud serpent was twisted into a multi-headed hydra and left to languish beneath Lei Shen’s throne. Now the twisted creature lurks deep in the Forgotten Depths, awaiting the moment it may finally inflict its terrible agony upon others.

Ion: The inspiration for this boss fight was the classic hydra that Heracles (Hercules, if you prefer the Roman version for some silly reason) battled in Greek myth—a beast with many heads that regrew two heads in place of each that was severed. That foundation, combined with the concept of three distinct types of heads, resulted in the beast that now awaits players beneath the Thunder King’s lair in patch 5.2.

JI-KUN



Mogu flesh-shapers discarded their failed creations in an abyssal shaft beneath Lei Shen’s keep. The reek of decay lured many scavengers to the refuse pit, including the great Ji-Kun. Ruthless and cunning, the monstrous bird devoured her rivals one-by-one until she held sole dominion over the shadowy tunnel.

Ion: This fight takes place in a cylindrical shaft containing a large central platform with multiple nests located both above and below that platform. The encounter was designed to highlight the strong vertical elements of the terrain, without adding actual aerial combat which could have felt awkward. For example, players can gain and use a temporary flight ability to switch levels and deal with Ji-Kun’s fledglings before they mature and pose a greater threat to the raid.

Halls of Flesh-Shaping

DURUMU THE FORGOTTEN



Lei Shen commanded his sorcerers to mold an aberration that could peer into the hearts of his followers and detect betrayal. From this decree, Durumu was given life. The clever entity stubbornly obeyed its masters until the Thunder King’s death, at which time it disappeared into the citadel’s labyrinthine corridors. Only recently has Durumu, all but forgotten by the mogu, emerged from hiding.

Ion: Years ago, players encountered C’Thun, the eye of an old god beneath the Temple of Ahn’Qiraj. As giant eyes are wont to do, it fired eyebeams as its primary method of attack. Durumu has many more eyes, and therefore fires many more eyebeams.

PRIMORDIUS



Deep within the bowels of Lei Shen’s island citadel, mogu flesh-shapers formed the saurok out of a magical substance of unknown origin. When the citadel was abandoned, some experiments languished in the dark pools for far too long. . . .

Ion: The fact that the mogu created the saurok (among other creatures native to Pandaria) is something that may not have been obvious to players who were exploring the continent and learning about its inhabitants. This encounter provided us with a chance to “show, not tell” this piece of Pandaria’s history. The actual mechanics of the fight evolved from discussion and brainstorming around the themes of evolution and mutation; a few of us had also recently watched the movie Prometheus, and the vaults of black goo in that movie helped inspire the overall vibe of Primordius’ lair.

DARK ANIMUS



During his reign, Lei Shen labored to build a mechanical servant that would defend his citadel without fear. When his first attempt failed, rage took hold of the Thunder King. He poured this negative emotion into his next, and most successful, creation: the Dark Animus. To this day, the ornate construct observes its duty, empowered by the mysterious substance at the heart of all mogu flesh-shaping experiments.

Ion: The mechanics of the Dark Animus encounter aren’t quite like any boss fight we’ve done before. It centers around a fixed quantity of the mysterious swirling liquid, known as Anima, that is at the heart of the mogu experiments in this wing. The vital fluid animates golems, escaping and moving on to larger and larger constructs as the initial vessels are destroyed, until it eventually amasses enough volume to empower the Dark Animus itself, largest of all the golems. The encounter has a certain puzzle-solving element to it, and players will need to carefully manage how they shift around this finite quantity of Anima or the fight will quickly get out of hand.

Pinnacle of Storms

IRON QON



Legends speak of the brutality of Qon and his quilen champions. The fearless mogu commander was dubbed "Iron Qon" by the Thunder King for his unrelenting resolve to claim victory after victory for the empire regardless of the cost.

Ion: Qon is one of Lei Shen’s elite personal guard, and a master of mounted combat. An original concept for this fight was inspired by the Three Kingdoms warlord Lu Bu, a fierce warrior renowned for his skill in fighting with a spear from horseback. Though Qon does have some very cool and unique mounted attack animations, in the end we found it more interesting to explore gameplay via the different abilities of his mounts instead. Thus, the encounter involves Qon switching among different magical quilen, each of which is empowered with vicious elemental attacks, creating a four-phase encounter that is almost like four separate intense fights rolled into one.

TWIN CONSORTS



The Twin Consorts of Lei Shen, Lu’Lin and Suen, are said to be greatest of the Thunder King’s treasures. Rumored to be the only known female mogu in existence, Lei Shen keeps his trophies close, and their combined arsenal against interlopers closer.

Ion: Players may have noticed the complete absence of any female mogu in their exploration of the continent of Pandaria. Players who look closely at the models of these celestial twins will note that they seem quite literally carved out of stone. Indeed, these were specifically created by Lei Shen and empowered to serve and guard him, and they are a direct reflection of his will rather than any broader sense of mogu culture as a whole. An earlier version of the concept for the fight had them actually being spirits of the Sun and Moon, but that didn’t feel quite right (and we all know that the only true spirit of the Moon is Elune, and clearly she was not locked away by the Thunder King).

LEI SHEN, THE THUNDER KING



Tyrant, Dictator, Conqueror, Emperor. The Thunder King’s numerous titles were earned by bringing absolute misery to the races of Pandaria. Resurrected into a world where his people no longer rule, Lei Shen is bent on ending the farce and bringing the land under his heel once more.

Ion: The core concept for the Lei Shen fight developed during a brainstorming session as members of the encounter design team were throwing around ideas for potential fight mechanics, trying to see if anything would stick. A popular idea was for him to need to pause and recharge periodically, but someone suggested an interesting twist on that idea—the Thunder King isn’t just a battery that needs to recharge; he’s actually a power source himself. So instead of him drawing power from his citadel, the citadel draws power from him. He is a mighty warrior in his own right, with distinctive weapon and lightning attacks, but his mere presence energizes and activates portions of his citadel’s defenses, and managing those becomes a central element of the encounter. With a wide array of incredible visuals provided by our effects artists, and an awesome dungeon backdrop (those walls aren’t entirely decorative . . .), Lei Shen is an epic final encounter to wrap up an epic raid zone.

RA-DEN



Lei Shen’s life changed forever when he stumbled into a dark chamber below what are now the Mogu’shan Vaults. Legend has it that he found an ancient titan keeper guarding a miraculous device known as the Engine of Nalak’sha. No one knows what transpired between the two beings, but Lei Shen later emerged from the site bristling with the power to forge an empire. The keeper’s fate—and his current whereabouts—remain a mystery.

Ion: This is the “Algalon” of the zone; a bonus boss for the high-end raiders who have finished the main zone progression. Lei Shen is the true final boss of the zone, and we wanted to make sure that he still feels that way—unlike Sinestra in Bastion of Twilight, there’s some backtracking involved to reach Ra-den after he’s unlocked. The mechanics of the fight are deliberately obscured in the Dungeon Journal for now, so I won’t say much more. The primary purpose of the Dungeon Journal is to provide an in-game resource to players who are trying to learn an encounter, instead of making them feel like they have to Alt-Tab out to read an online guide. In Ra-den’s case, we know that those of you who face him at first are also the same people who often write those online guides, so hopefully you’ll enjoy a sense of discovery when you first reach him.

Insects can be bothersome. Eminence provides specialist solutions to tackle specific insect problems. With Eminence, you will find a fast and effective resolution to your insect infestation. Tips for an insect free instance:

- Keep Warrior mouths tightly shut.
- Wipe up spilled fluids and food promptly.
- Keep Warlocks covered when not in use.
- Use small creatures, such as gnomes, to remove dust and sticky residue from cracks, crevices and other bodily areas.
- Change Druid bedding regularly.

The most effective time for extermination is late at night. When the light is dull, insects tend to doze on walls and ceilings, but they become active and more susceptible to insecticide when provoked. Be sure to choose the right set-up for the job to be done and use them according to the directions on the label. Do not use Hunters for special duties, they don't like it. Do not eat chips or smoke when using paper tanks. Shake well to build up pressure before spraying, always ensure to aim away from the face and eyes.

Lastly, after using Eminence raiders, always wash your hands and store them out of reach of pets and small children.

Six weeks after the blight of Wintervale wiped out a third of our raid team, we once again turned our attention towards the ancient rulers of the Mogu empire and we got whisper on the grapevine they were having a small gathering. Fabled for their ability to party, this was one hoe down we were desperate to attend and a distinct lack of invites wasn't going to stop us.

Despite losing Koe to the lure of alpine refreshment, we ingratiated ourselves on the regal quartet and settled in for the night.

Sadly, it wasn't long before there was a misunderstanding between one of our distinguished hosts and our Russell Crowe-a-like warlock over something to do with someone called Pam and her sisters. Naturally, the usual trouble kicked off. Fast forward through a cacophony of over-turned tables, pointless shouting and various discussions around certain peoples' parentage. Of course, being the Musketeery kind of people that we are, we couldn't just stand by and let that happen.

The Kings are dead. Long live the Kings.