There is a mechanic in game that we are all aware of and one that exists for a good reason: when we attack a mob, we get the mob's loot. That's the mechanic. If you're solo grinding mobs out in Shadowmoon Valley for some Primal Fire, you want to be sure you're the only one that can get the loot. The same goes for groups – if you're grouping and killing Murmur in Shadow Labs, you want to be sure that everyone is going to get his pretty blues.

  But what if the mechanics of the boss fight dictate that you won't hit the boss? In fact, what if successfully killing the boss means that you have to stand on the opposite end of the playing field the whole time? You don't hit the boss, you don't get the loot – but you've done everything right. In this, the game mechanic does not represent fair play, nor does it encourage success. In fact, the mechanics are a complete contradiction of each other.

  Every once in a while, Azgalor will cast a doom on a random player. That player will die in short order and a demon will spawn in his place. When a player gets doom, they have to run over to me by the camp and die there. Pretty simple really (well, it's easier said than done, of course).

  The problem with the game mechanic happened while we were fighting Azgalor. We have three tanks – I (a warrior), a druid, and a pally. Normally I'm tanking the boss, but for the two Horde encampment ones we find they does a tad more spike damage than we like to see on me, so we have a druid tank them. Quick and painless with their super armor and dodge. The pally switches into healing mode for the fight, and I take position up by the Horde Warriors in their camp.

  When Azgalor is at about 15% to 10%, we have the DPS run over to him and they help finish him off. That leaves only two healers and me over by the Warrior Camp to babysit the two or three demons that are up at that point. Azgalor goes down, and the raid comes over to kill the demons, we're done in one-shot. A nice clean win.

  Now, one possible solution is that everyone waits and at least hits Azgalor once before moving on to a position that dictates we'll never hit him again. This is all well and good, except if a player gets doomed and a demon spawns. There will be no one up in the camp to pickup the demon, and the demon will run amok in the raid until it can be picked up; quite possibly wiping the raid in the process. That's a no-win situation, and in a boss where you have to clear 25 minutes of trash to get to every time, that solution represents unacceptable risk.