This is a problem inherent to small testing groups, most (if not all) of those testers are very experienced players that know the game intimately. Their difficulty tolerance is much higher than the average. Overtuned initial releases are pretty hard to avoid in such a situation, and this is proven in pretty much every content release for the game. Just the way things are.
^ yeah some of them even went that far saying the dismantle thing (And recipe drops) its ok as it is right now. thanks god Crate doesnt listen to them 100%
And before you ask “what can be done about this?”, the solution is to massively expand the group of testers. This comes with it’s own set of problem though, it creates a mountain of work for developers trying to parse all the feedback for one. What we ended up with is probably the happy medium.
What’s the issue? I didn’t have any problems with any quest bosses. Ulgrim himself kicked my ass good tho. Had to run all the way back to him to continue on. If I recall our Bug-reporting section for testers was 10+ pages deep pre-expac and there were also countless feedback threads during that time as well.
Some people should tread a little more lightly when speaking on topics that revolve around pure assumption.
Ulgrim is intended to be difficult. He is also optional. No changes planned.
As has been mentioned before this isn’t the case with Crate, yes some testers are extremely experienced with both GD and TQ, other testers have never seen elite as they roll new chars and not everyone knows the game intimately…I sure as hell don’t, I know the very basic mechanics, but beyond that most people on the forums have a vastly greater understanding of the game mechanics than I do. Crate specifically select a wide range of players for the testing.
Also regards the “How did xyz get passed” a lot of the time the final result that you see has been toned down a lot during testing and as such, having previously had much harder mobs the end result, in comparison, seems okay.
I think he’s talking about Ekket’Zul.
Crate and the playtesters have done great jobs in getting the game ready for release. I have played many games and Crate’s launched (both patches and game releases) have been the smoothest experiences I have had. There are bugs and oversight that always need to be addressed in the release of ANY game. I think the number of testers and quality of testers has been working for Crate and do not advocate for change on that front. TLDR: don’t fix what ain’t broken
Ekket was actually very weak for several consecutive testing patches and the testers (myself included) urged him to get stronger/have more skills. Prior to Nemeses being added, he was the focus of a lot of discussion. Eventually we settled on his current standing, though some areas of improvement remain in my opinion (his on-death Burn is very high but most of his other damage is a little low).
So I don’t think it’s fair to say he ‘slipped through’.
His notorious volcano remains a ‘heated’ topic, to say the least.
Thank you, Doodytime <3
Excuse me but I don’t really buy this argument. The mere fact that you have been in this test group for a long time gives you vastly more experience with the game than some random player. I have been in similar test situations before and just reading the hidden from the general public discussions gave me a massive advantage after release. Recognising my own, let’s call it privilege, was not something that came easy until someone pointed it out to me.
Anyway, my two cents.
I mean, you’re outright wrong, but whatever. Playtime or forum-time does not translate to game knowledge.
I realise I forgot to write “in my experience” specifically, my mistake. Should have been more clear. Not trying to tell others how they feel, let’s make that clear.
But how does play time not increase one’s understanding of the game? Do we not learn from our experiences? I’m honestly confused by this statement.
Very simple in my case (but then I’m simple anyway :p) The deeper mechanics of the game don’t interest me in this case, even after all these years I couldn’t tell you the basic order of defence if you held a flame to my balls.
I enjoy playing a hack n’ slash and building my char through self found drops and when it comes to running the same areas again for no extra benefit (elite) I’d rather start a new char.
I don’t want to play knowing the deeper mechanics in this style of game as it then takes it (for me) from a fun game into spending more time working out exactly what gives the best of each drop and a calculator to work out the formulas for each drop rather than running round trying to slaughter everything.
Only if you can understand it…when a couple of the testers start discussing in depth mechanics with the devs it gets most confusing.
Edit… Summary I play to enjoy and switch my head off…Not to get involved in the mass of calculations available…even though I know that my char is never going to be a powerful as it could be playing like this.
Crate, release the 1.0.3.0 patch today. And two weeks later 1.0.4.0. And then another one. We know that this process is endless 
Maybe add some warning, like “(Misguidedly Attack)”, instead of “(Attack)”, like certain super bosses?
Along with an option to fetch a sandwich for him (mini-quest).
Not arguing or anything but I couldn’t stop thinking about Grava streams while reading this. 
(sorry, Grava. :D)
Lol - I think you will find that is just called releasing the game or updated.
Yep this ‘when it is ready’ is a bullshit comment when someone also has to decide what ‘it’ is.
Same old same old. Game gets released with insufficient testing and bugs get fixed after everyone has played all the content, been annoyed by the bugs, and got bored with it.
One day I will learn the lesson and not buy anything less than 6 months old - probably save some money as well.