This wing of the Throne of Thunder tore at my heart. A thrown away disobedient pet, a flawed experiment tossed aside for a more perfect creation, and a giant blob of....what exactly was that stuff? Often, after running through a raid again and again, I forget what it is that is in the flavor dialogue and text. Primordius' screams of agony rip through me every time I'm there. So much pain. This wing paints such a vile picture of the Thunder King, in his desperate grasp for absolute power was willing to cross any barrier of morality or possibility to be the penultimate ruler.
Stories beside, I can say with confidence that of the four wings in the ToT, the Halls of Flesh-Shaping was my favorite.
Durumu the Forgotten
Do you see what I did there? -- Durumu
Love it. Love it. Love it. I really thought Durumu was overall a really fun fight. The maze was a bit of a pain the rump, I'll give that to you, but I really enjoyed everything about this boss. I felt there was a nice balance of damage where the healers were challenged but not chewing on nails through the whole fight. There was a good counterplay between being in the right spot at the right time and being able to move. It forced you to move frequently, often without much previous knowledge of where exactly you were going, and continue to put out solid numbers, whether DPS or HPS.
I also have to throw in, there was a great bit of hilarity in my own raid team from Durumu. Well...one of our veteran raiders, who knew the fight inside and out, happened to get tagged with the blue beam. He knew that blue had to stop moving. He reminded the whole raid team, often and loudly. BLUE! STOP MOVING!!!!! He kept shouting in to vent....he was so worked up about it and there was so much laughter going on that it took a wipe for him to realize that he was yelling at himself to stop moving. Since then, every time we're on Durumu, we all (not unkindly!) remind him that BLUE! STOP MOVING!! YOU ARE BLUE!!! A good laugh, a good fight, a great memory.Primordius
We are the perfect one, yes, yes, not a failure, no no, not a failure... -- Primordius
Love it. I felt that Primordius' changing abilities throughout the fight really gave a nice flavor and challenge to it. And really, who doesn't love shifting in to a giant lizard? There was a bit of chaos here, with DPS racing hither and yon after slimes until they transformed, the tanks kiting Primordius away from slime puddles, and the healers praying that Volatile Pathogen didn't stay out too long.
I really think that Blizz nailed this fight on many levels. It has a really pitiable villain, fun mechanics, and nicely balanced challenge. In this fight, you really have very little control over what happens. On a lucky pull, we wouldn't see Pathogen come out once. Others, it was up the entire time and we were incredibly glad that we were three healing it. It also was very interesting to see the raid team develop over our time in this fight, watching them balance the priorities of blowing up the slimes and getting mutated, avoiding purple puddles of pain, and beating down the boss. One of the best moments for our team was when one of our outstanding DPS, who generally gets his job done and laser beam focuses on it only, offered to blow up slimes for one of our healers who was filling in on her offspec. Watching my team develop truly makes me proud to be one of the team.
Dark Animus
Meh....just meh.
It's sad that the biggest challenge of this fight is clearing the trash before it. It seemed that as long as our team could manage to keep the minibots spread out early on that we were guaranteed win on Animus. Matter Swap was an interesting mechanic - especially because the tanks weren't exempt from it. Is it sad that my favorite moments were watching the tanks scramble after being matter swapped? Maybe this is a sign of just how meh the fight was. 
I didn't really find much to get interested in or excited about. Funnel the minibots to the medium bots, then the medium bots to the big bot, then do a little kiting if you were targeted with the Crimson Tide, and don't cast during Interrupting Jolt. Collect loot. I really want to say more about the fight...but I can't. I'm bored even writing about it!
The third act of the Throne of Thunder continued to have that neglectful theme of that which does not serve will be thrown away and forgotten that we saw in the second act. It solidified, in my mind at least, that the Thunder King's only concern was himself, and he'll use any tool to further his goals, and then throw the tools away if they don't work the way he wants them too. Sad that he'd treat living creatures of his own making as a tool. It only strengthens in my mind the need to depose of him.
What were your thoughts on the Halls of Flesh Shaping? Share them in the comments!
As always, thanks for reading! Until next time, long days, pleasant nights and Happy Raiding!
Credit goes to Dayani over at Healiocentric for the term Restospective
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