Your Kaliri dodging days are coming to an end
by Heath Milo 
Feb 12th 2008 at 6:50PM
Well, the 2.4 PTR patch notes are up and and making waves across the WoW community. There's some great stuff in there, too. The Sunwell Isle is open and we're going to see more tier drops than ever before! All in all it seems like a great patch designed to help us get a look at more endgame raiding before the expansion drops.
But it isn't all lolipops and rainbows. Buried deep down in the depths of those notes is an innocent note, buried way at the bottom under the World Environment category and I'll repeat it to you now verbatim:
"Monstrous Kaliri have learned how to chase players going straight up."
For those of you that aren't familiar, the Monstrous Kaliri are the big vicious birds patrolling the Skettis in Terokkar Forest. Their only mission in life is to ruin your daily bombing quest and make you miserable. One or two hits from these jerks will knock you off your flying mount and send you hurtling towards the ground.
But there's always been a trick. One that most of us have taken for granted up until now. If you fly straight up, they can't seem to hit you. They'll follow you and fly right underneath you, but they can't hit you. An exploit? I think not. In nature, birds only attack downward, as far as I know. It's just Blizzard adding realism to the game.
So get your gold while the getting's good.
But it isn't all lolipops and rainbows. Buried deep down in the depths of those notes is an innocent note, buried way at the bottom under the World Environment category and I'll repeat it to you now verbatim:
"Monstrous Kaliri have learned how to chase players going straight up."
For those of you that aren't familiar, the Monstrous Kaliri are the big vicious birds patrolling the Skettis in Terokkar Forest. Their only mission in life is to ruin your daily bombing quest and make you miserable. One or two hits from these jerks will knock you off your flying mount and send you hurtling towards the ground.
But there's always been a trick. One that most of us have taken for granted up until now. If you fly straight up, they can't seem to hit you. They'll follow you and fly right underneath you, but they can't hit you. An exploit? I think not. In nature, birds only attack downward, as far as I know. It's just Blizzard adding realism to the game.
So get your gold while the getting's good.
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Tricks, Cheats, Bugs, Quests, Humor
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Spacehyena Feb 12th 2008 6:56PM
Actually, there are quite a few acrobatic birds of prey that can snatch prey from the air from a variety of angles...
Even our local, bulky red-tailed hawks can turn the tables on birds, such as crows, that are harrassing *them*--flipping upside down and lashing out with their talons in mid-flight.
*cough*
Ahem. Sorry. Back to the task at hand...
"zomg, blizz nurf kaliri plz!!1!"
( I hate those damn things, too.)
Dachande Feb 12th 2008 6:59PM
Of all the nerfs and buffs to classes... of all the changes to loot and BGs and server downtimes and anything else you want to name in the history of WoW that has ever changed... this is quite possibly, without fail, the worst news I have ever heard. Ever.
I HATE KALIRI.
JPN Feb 12th 2008 7:02PM
Heh....hit exalted today....screw you bombing runs!
Balasan Feb 12th 2008 7:06PM
It's like blizz is giving us a big middle finger.
They were barely survivable with the flying up method.
Now no one except those rushing for skyguard rep is ever going to do that quest, EVER.
Zamboni Feb 12th 2008 7:10PM
They wouldn't be so bad if their Hamstring ability didn't slow your diving speed, too. Even if you wanted to get to the ground to fight them, being hamstrung keeps you in the air longer...
Freelier Feb 12th 2008 7:12PM
I wouldn't call them impossible to avoid. If I pay a bit of attention, I don't get aggro from them. Of course, that was a lot harder before I got an epic mount...
The really bad news is that Blizzard is tweaking them at all. If similar things weren't in the expansion, I doubt it'd be worth fixing. I'm worried that more areas will be annoying to fly through in the expansion.
Ves Feb 12th 2008 7:15PM
I love being a Druid.
Walter Mazur Feb 12th 2008 7:41PM
awww come on...what the hell did we ever do to blizzard except give them 15 dollars a month to isolate us from society?
Suzaku Feb 13th 2008 5:52AM
Officially replacing Skettis daily quests with Shattered Sun daily quests when 2.4 hits live.
I'll probably run Shattered Sun, Netherwing, and maybe Ogri'la, at least until I get the new Shattered Sun title (requires a 1k gold donation), and then I'll probably bench my main until Northrend is out.
John Feb 12th 2008 7:57PM
"Monstrous Kaliri have learned how to chase players going straight up."
Now does this mean they'll catch me if I go _straight_ up, that is, just hold the space bar down, or if I go up at 45 degrees, that is hold down space bar and forward, or if I go straight up in a forward direction, that is hold down the scrollwheel and manouever the mouse such that I am going up 90 degrees in relation to the ground yet travelling forward, in an upwards manner? Has anyone tested out the various methods of flying "up" or "straight up" to determine if there's still away to flee the birds?
The wording would seem to imply either they can now catch you if you hodl just the spacebar down, or if you manouver the mouse, both are up in a straight direction, however, holding forward and space is up at a 45 degree angle, and thus not "straight" up.
Pål Feb 12th 2008 7:59PM
Aren't the Kaliri currently unable to attack you when you descend too? I wonder if they'll fix that. Either way, I guess the best option once the patch is rolled out is to fly as low as possible, and if a Kaliri aggroes you to fly to the ground and kill it. Or if you have an epic flying mount, to fly straight away and escape. Still close to the ground, since they're fast enough to keep up and will often knock you off the mount.
It's far from a perfect solution, and it probably won't work equally well for everyone, but the point here isn't that this is a good solution, it's just that there aren't any better solutions... damn Kaliri.
Tyrrax Feb 12th 2008 8:08PM
This is a nerf to casuals. It sucks that you have to farm 5k gold to be able to make any decent money.
Bootsanator Feb 13th 2008 3:37AM
The day I got my epic flyer, I aggroed a kaliri, and, knowing the trick, flew straight up. I got to the ceiling. The bird came all the way to the ceiling and one-shot knocked me off. I was like, WTF, i paid 5k for this? they're faster now?
So, even us epic-mount people still HATE those birds at times.
When i was looking through the patch notes, this was instantly my most hated change as well, and i'm not usually one to qq about things like patch notes.....stupid birds.
Pål Feb 13th 2008 3:50AM
You're not supposed to fly straight up, you're supposed to fly diagonally.
Menchicutlets Feb 12th 2008 8:18PM
I loved the little birdies, theyre kinda cute up close. Though maybe they never bugged me so much cause they never dismounted me (armour plated tanking machine ftw!). :)
Zeplar Feb 12th 2008 8:23PM
This is a stealth druid buff :p
Just do Forge Camp bombing for a few weeks, it only took me like 25 days of bombing in BEM to get exalted.
theRaptor Feb 12th 2008 8:34PM
As much as I hate this change it was an exploit. The trick worked if you flew up OR down, the AI pathing code doesn't handle the Z-axis very well, which was what allowed this exploit to work.
Snailking Mar 8th 2008 4:14PM
Do people actually do this quest? I thought the object of a game was to have fun, not be annoyed into psychosis.
fealubryne Feb 12th 2008 8:53PM
No... nonono... Blizzard, how COULD you?!
*rocks in a corner* The birdies are coming to get me...
mapatti1 Feb 12th 2008 8:59PM
Thats a bunch of crap, I hate those stupid birds.