I resubbed again. It was inevitable really because I never wanted to unsub this time. I took a couple of months off because I didn’t have the moolah but an unexpected tip from a work client gave me the option.

So two days into patch 8.2 I hit the new zones of Mechagon and Nazjatar. I instantly figured that the latter would be better with flying because the up and down multi-level mess was very annoying but Mechagon, oh Mechagon 🙂 🙂 🙂 I said that night it might be my favourite zone in the entire game and a couple of weeks on I haven’t changed my mind.

It is bright, reasonably open, it has gnomes, the aesthetic with all the cogwheels and machines is awesome. It is a visual treat as well as being enjoyable to play. (I confess I took a break from questing there everyday once I got flying because obtaining that made me feel like I could relax and not feel compelled to do anything in particular, instead just do what I feel but I digress). The opening quest to get there with the vault and everything was super cool too. I want one of those Expedition planes as a mount, that definitely needs to happen, why aren’t they in game already?

But there’s more to Mechagon than a crazy cool aesthetic, fun quests, a zone that I didn’t mind running around in repeatedly etc. – there’s a mythic only dungeon Operation: Mechagon.

When I resubbed this time I was feeling nostalgic. I missed tanking basically but I hate LFG and LFR is something I suffered for the war campaign and never again. I don’t call that tanking, I call that torture. Back in the day (particularly 4.3 Hour of Twilight in Cata) I was in LFG all the time, I absolutely loved it. Now I don’t know if my tolerance has decreased (probably) or if people are more asshats these days but tanking LFG is no fun anymore.

I loathe people pulling for me as usually there’s a reason I’m not pulling more. I do try to pull as fast as the group can cope with, sometimes I’m slower but that’s due to unfamiliarity and everyone was newish once (I do try and run dungeons as dps first to gain lay of the land but still there’s no substitute for actual experience).

But anyway I’m getting off topic because I’m supposed to be talking about Operation: Mechagon. To cut a long story short with what I was saying above is I’ve sort of hooked up with a guild. I was already in it with an alt. I found it back in the day as they advertise as being friendly to people with mental health issues, which is exactly what I need to be honest as I’ve lost a lot of confidence (another reason why I stay out of LFG) so it’s nice to play with people who won’t yell at me if I make a mistake.

It’s on a different server which is a bit awkward but they’ve been really good about letting me bring my main (paladin) and I am levelling a Demon Hunter to play with them properly. But yeah anyway I’ve run some mythics with them, some timewalking dungeons and then this weekend – Operation: Mechagon.

We did the first 3 bosses on Saturday and then finished it yesterday (Sunday). It probably took 3+ hours to do it in total.

The first 3 bosses were the hardest in my opinion. We wiped several times on them but then later bosses or the second night were one or two shots generally. In fact I would say some of the trash in the second half was harder than the bosses. Although maybe that was due to the replacement druid we had on the second night which had sick gear and god-like dps (seriously ilevel was 20 points more than mine) and I struggled to spread threat sometimes.

But yeah I really do think that the complexity of the tactics and the different phases etc. reminded me more of a raid than a dungeon.

It was a challenge. I had to use all my cooldowns. I had to create a macro for the third boss to dispel the goop. There was positioning considerations, there was avoiding so much stuff. There was learning from each attempt and doing better. It really did feel like a raid. I bubble taunted to have an extra cooldown 🙂 honestly it was just great. Although it does make me slightly concerned for my Demon Hunter because it has a lot less “oh shit” buttons than my paladin does. Seriously where are all the Demon Hunter cooldowns??

My paladin still occasionally feels a bit foreign as there’s no holy power, no word of glory, the heal “Light of the Protector” is on the GCD??? but I’m starting to grow accustomed. When I first started muscle memory meant I was pulling weird because I meant to use Avengers Shield and hit Consecrate or vice versa and I was swearing about hitting the wrong button but generally that isn’t happening now.

I just googled to see if there was any advice for the tricky trash (like the bomb bots) and instead got a ton of whining about how the dungeon needs nerfs as it’s overtuned and too hard. I would agree that the third boss (the goop one) is a bit RNG-based because if the melee spray gets gooped, there was less than a second sometimes before the tank + melee are all gooped as well. That is just impossible. I can’t hit my dispel that fast, the goop can’t be dpsed down that fast. However, aside from the RNG annoyance of that boss I don’t think Mechagon is overtuned at all.

Yeah it feels more like a raid. Yeah it drops ilevel 415 loot which is less than the raid but it’s a 5-man. We’re talking tiers of content and accessibility here. There are groups of people who can’t or don’t want to get 10+ people together. Operation: Mechagon provides them with a challenge. If it is too challenging, then there is the Mythic+ system to the other dungeons. Start with just Mythic and work up.

Challenging isn’t bad. Challenging is fun. Impossible is bad but it’s a big game and there should be something for everyone, but not everything can be for everyone. Besides Mechagon will get easier the more gear people gets, especially in subsequent patches, and also in later patches it’ll get broken up like Kara apparently did (I did not know this as I wasn’t playing then) and it’ll gain a heroic mode etc. So nobody is locked out of seeing the place.

Anyway to move onto a slightly related note before I shut up – Mechagon is beautiful! Seriously the zone itself is gorgeous but the city inside is just wow. I love the place I really do. Visually and aesthetically stunning.

So how about the gnomes get a new capital city? Each faction has lost one this expansion, and we’re set to maybe lose more as Thunder Bluff is under threat so presumably Ironforge might be as well? so gaining one would be pretty awesome and it’s about time the gnomes had a home of their own.

As for what the Horde get well we haven’t had patch 8.3 yet and so maybe something fabulous will come along for the goblins or maybe the forsaken will claim something else. I would say the trolls should get a place, as the counterpart to gnomes, but with the Zandalari having been such a huge thing this expansion, it feels a little overkill (although I do like trolls so I wouldn’t mind).

Anyway TLDR I love this place and I’m really loving tanking again 🙂