Something foul is afoot in the Temple of the Jade Serpent. You and your allies are needed to defeat this evil and restore the balance.
You are greeted at the entrance by two quests, one to help the masters of the temple regain the purity of the place and one to destroy the Sha of Doubt. The first quest leads you to help Wise Mari, Lorewalker Stonestep, and Liu Flameheart.
Wise Mari is a Jinyu waterspeaker. The waters of the temple have been corrupted by the Sha of Doubt and have caused Wise Mari to become corrupted, too. This encounter starts with you fighting water elementals that the speaker summons from the pools below. After defeating his guardians, Mari faces the party himself. This is a decent encounter that has you avoiding pools on the floor as you run away from a jet that emanates from Mari and rotates around the room.
Having potentially already helped Stonestep in the library by killing moths and squishing bookworms, you now have to deal with the Sha having brought to life corrupted versions of Pandaren lore. Originally, the battle is supposed to choose from two different versions similar to the Opera event in Karazhan, but only one of them is currently live due to a bug. This battle isn't nearly as interesting as the first. It involves switching between two bosses and essentially just "pew pew" until they are dead. The story is somewhat interesting, but this is my least favorite fight in the dungeon.
Before facing the big bad, players need to assist a priestess of the Jade Serpent, Liu Flameheart. This is again a straight forward battle, but at low health, Liu calls the Jade Serpent to protect her. That is an interesting switch in strategy during a fight, but still mostly a straight forward DPS burn. Just be sure to avoid the green fire!
The Sha of Doubt is probably my favorite fight in the dungeon because of the mechanic that calls forth a Figment of Doubt from each player that you have to fight every so often. That is an interesting part of the fight and a very cool visual. I am also a sucker for the enemies that whisper things to you, trying to turn your character or drive them insane.
My last words on the Temple of the Jade Serpent
Pros: Different mechanics in two of the fights, a little bit more on Pandaren lore, Sha!, short instance in case you have limited time, decent quest rewards
Cons: Two fights are little more than DPS burns, long queues right now (I spent more time in queue than in the dungeon)
Overall: A good introduction to instances in Pandaria with two fights that are interesting and two that are tank and spank. I would probably do this one again just for the Sha fight. I really enjoyed the atmosphere of that fight.
No comments:
Post a Comment