One day in 2.4 country

I admit it: I didn't do much exploring of patch 2.4 yesterday outside of running Magisters' Terrace. My guild did its usual raiding and I didn't want to take too much time to prep for it, so I didn't run any battlegrounds yet (how's the new AV so far, Alliance and Horde?) and barely got to run around killing some Wretched. So, let's talk about Magisters' Terrace, the new five man, which is what I got to see.

So far, there's been some complaining that Magister's Terrace is too hard. Medros of From the Abbey to Outlands reponds to some of these concerns in this post, and I have to say I think he's right on the money. Wow. That was easy. "This guy's right." Guess I can go... what, I have to talk more about it? Sheesh, you're a hard taskmaster. Well, okay then.

If you read our Magisters' Terrace round-up you probably have a good idea of the place. From the perspective of a tanking warrior, this has become one of my favorite instances. The trash is responsive to warrior tanking options (there's usually a couple of melee in a pull and the casters can be spell reflected to stick to you), the first two bosses are very quick to get to, and the Princess Delrissa fight, once you understand it, is a lot of fun.

The group I went in with (Hunter, Ret Pally, Enhancement Shaman, Resto Druid, Prot Warrior) has minimal CC options but the two melee DPS could take out some of the adds and stay up while the rest got tanked and burned down by the hunter, with the melee often joining in once the imps and succubi were down.

The tuning seems to be intended for groups who have run enough five mans and heroics to be ready for Karazhan, but who either can't get a ten man group for some reason or are just starting in there. Some of the drops fill itemization holes like the Sun-Forged Cleaver while others (Shoulderplates of Everlasting Pain, Boots of Resuscitation) are nearly as good as 10 man drops. Heroic Kael'Thas gear actually compares well to Prince Malchezaar. I personally felt like it was on target, easier for my group than it would be for a group that was just in Kara gear. Heroic Magister's felt like past-Curator difficulty Kara, more or less.

Medros calls it the 'baby Naxx of the TBC era' and while I think that's overstating it, the instance was still fun and challenging without being over the top. I'd say Blizzard did a good job tuning a dungeon that's meant to be a hard dungeon that drops Karazhan level gear. If you're about ready for Kara, give the Terrace some attention, it' s become one of my favorite new instances.