instances
Latest
Breakfast topic: Worst new instance
Ok, I think it's been long enough-- we've all sat here talking about how great all the new content is and how thrilled we all are to have new 5mans to run and new items to collect for a few months now, so it's time to move away from the good and start getting into the bad.Awakener on Demon Soul says Shattered Halls is definitely the worst instance of the expansion. I have to completely disagree-- I think Shattered Halls is fun and simple once you've got it down, and the Gauntlet of Flame is one of the best 5man experiences in the game. Then again, not all long experiences are fun-- my pick for worst instance is The Black Morass in the Caverns of Time. Escape from Durnholde was brilliant fun, but BM is just (literally) a swamp-- there's no variety in the spawns, and no story to the event. Either you kill the nondescript bad guys or you don't, and I think it's a waste to be "fighting alongside" Medivh when really he's just standing there yelling at you.But that's just me. What's the worst instance you've seen in the expansion?
Breakfast topic: And yet, it worked
There is nothing more lame than getting stuck in a group that just isn't going to work. If you're a warrior, and you get put in a group that has a feral druid, two rogues, and a warlock, odds are that you're in for a rough night. I'm not saying it won't work-- maybe the druid has crazy healing gear, and the rogues are a few levels high for the instance, and the warlock is really good at doing all the things they can do. But if the group's not there, it's not going to happen.But sometimes, you can get a really amazing group from what doesn't seem like the right makeup. I once ran a group with three shaman (me as a resto, and two elemental), a mage and a druid, and lo and behold, we actually finished Stratholme easily (we were all 60, before the expansion). And I've always wanted to run a group of all shaman-- two resto, two elemental, and an enhancement, through one of the 5 mans. I'm sure that if we had the gear and the know-how, we could make it work.So what's the wackiest group you've ever been in, where you thought you were just plain doomed-- and yet, it worked? I'm no good at the math, but with eight nine classes (told you I was bad at math) in five spots, that's a whole lot of different groups out there. What is the craziest one you've had that works?
Your favorite WoW Insider posts this month
By a show of hands (and by hands we mean clicks), you've voted on your favorite posts on WoW Insider for the month of March. Here's the list of the top trafficked posts this month: In Death and Taxes, pallies heal and priests DPS (vampiric embrace FTW!) Who can resist delicious Hordecake? Leaked 2.1.0 patch notes? (zomg FAKE!) Food on the flying mount wing (warning: cute cat video enclosed) Tier 6 names and bonuses -- 'cuz we all want the Professor Plums. Use the Armory to find WoW's worst player because they're sure to make your sorry ass look halfway decent. Blue Notes: Seduction, Pet Health, and Old Hillsbrad -- because "seduction" is always a popular search term. Instance griefing not against the ToS? -- a) we don't need Blizzard to tell us that PuGs suck; b) couldn't there be a more elegant solution to this? Leveling build for a Retribution Paladin -- because Retnoobs need love too. Armory + Signature Generator = AWESOME! (note that the original server was crushed by the teeming hordes (see what we did there?) clogging the intertubes, but the original URL will redirect you to the new signature generator). And to level our fishing skills -- any other posts from this month you particularly enjoyed that you wouldn't want your WoW-loving comrades to miss?
Phat Loot Phriday: Death's Bargain
Great stats. An awesome name. And glowy skulls! What more do you want from one of the best caster shields in the endgame?Name: Death's BargainType: Epic ShieldArmor: 3570 (78 Block)Abilities: Green glowy skulls! +12 Stamina, +12 Intellect On equip, you get a +14 to spell crit strike rating, as well as +29 healing (not damage, unfortunately), and +4 mana per 5 seconds The crit is what really makes this sucker great. There are shields with more healing on them, so strictly resto shaman or paladins might look elsewhere (in the Heroic instances, for example). But the crit on this one is excellent especially for elemental shaman. At level 70, you get a whole extra .63% crit from just this one item. And if you've got Clearcasting now, since it's based on critical strikes, that's a nice little patch of mana that you'll get for free just from the shield. How to Get It: Unfortunately, while getting this isn't as hard as it used to be, it's still tough, but for different reasons. The thing is, you've got to find a group that will take you into Naxx (are there any guilds still left running Naxx?). This shield drops from Gluth, the third boss in the Abomination wing there, at a 14.8% rate. So if you can find a guild that's still going to Naxx, get to the boss, and win the roll for this baby, you're golden.Getting Rid of It: BoP of course. Sells to vendors for 5g 74s 2c, but even if you find a shield with more healing or damage on it, you might want to keep this one around just for the crit. And look at those skulls!Update: No one likes the green skulls. Brandon points out this one, a BoE shield found in Sethekk Halls, easier to get and with better crit. But no skulls. Thanks Brandon.
Breakfast Topic: Easiest Heroic
So far, I've been into exactly two Heroic-mode dungeons: Slave Pens and Steamvaults. My guild group cleared through Slave Pens fine, although we had a few wipes, all on trash mobs. Badges of Justice were of course had by all, and I got a nice main-hand for my DPS set. Steamvaults was another story: we did OK on the trash, but couldn't down a single boss. I'm also keyed for Caverns of Time heroics, but judging by how annoying Black Morass is on non-heroic, I don't think I'll be opting to turn up the intensity on that one any time soon. When a forum poster asked which Heroic was the easiest, Tseric Eyonix replied:So far I've only completed two heroic dungeons -- Slave Pens and Mechanar. Slave Pens was definitely much easier for my group than Mechanar was, however, both were fairly challenging. I'm hoping to do some others soon, but right now I'm trying to gain exhaulted with the Sha'tar faction, so running the Tempest Keep dungeons is in my best interest. Perhaps I'll do a heroics mode Botanica or Arcatraz soon.How about you guys? Out of the heroics y'all have tried, which was the least bone-crushingly difficult?
Scholomance? More like Solomance
I've been speculating a lot on what Blizzard is going to do with the old instances, just because I'm always ready for a challenge, and currently, at level 70, the old raids don't offer a full group much of a challenge at all. But as some of our wise commenters have said, you don't have to wait for Blizzard to change the old instances to have fun with them-- just go in solo.NSDragon on LJ asks what instances (Mara and up) can be soloed at 70. You don't have to wait until 70 to solo Mara-- I know folks who were soloing that one back at 60. Sunken Temple might have been tough at 60, but a well-geared 70 should be able to take that place down.I know for a fact that a guildie of mine has repeatedly soloed BRD all the way to Emperor for farming, and a hunter in the guild was farming Stratholme for Righteous Orbs a while back. So I'd guess that most of the 5mans can be soloed pretty easily. Has anyone tried to beat UBRS solo? That seems much harder, but a duo seems pretty easy, and I'm sure a trio of the right classes would probably take down Drakk before he even knew what hit him. Someone on the LJ thread says MC has been 5manned, and I've heard that Ony has been three manned. Anyone know about BWL? Or Naxx? It's really hard to believe that Naxx doesn't still require at least 15-20 well-geared 70s, but I guess anything's possible. ZG and AQ20 are probably easy with ten 70s, but I could definitely see those getting 5manned as well as more people head into the new endgame.When a five man group downs Kel'Thuzad, you know it'll be time for Blizzard to worry about the old instances. But until then, I guess unguilded 70s can just enjoy all the new solo content!
Warriors kill 99% of PUGs
Hey it's been at least a few days without a patented "Mike Schramm Troll Post," so let's go at it. Xylox over on the forums says that if a PUG wipes, 99% of the time it's because of the warrior. He says it's the hardest class to play within "a group environment," and that if you're a warrior who thinks you don't have to be prot and you don't need a shield to tank, you're the reason your PUGs keep wiping.Now, I don't know if I'd go all that far-- my warrior has tanked plenty without being specced protection, so that's definitely possible. But he does have a point-- a shield is just plain necessary for tanking. If a tank doesn't know how to keep aggro, isn't ready to take damage or pull mobs off the healers, or thinks taunt is a damage spell, the group is in trouble.Of course, most players aren't so nice to Xylox-- they say that though warriors do need to know what they're doing, so does everyone else. If a warrior can't keep aggro because the DPS is clueless, or doesn't get heals because the priest is in shadow when heals are necessary, it's not his fault. And still other players say that the reason lots of warriors don't know what to do right away is because tanking is one of the only skills in the game that you can't learn solo-- you've got to have a helpful group to teach you how to do it the first few times.No one actually calls Xylox out for posting like he's the warrior master on his level 10 Shaman (that's what I'd do), but the thread really does provide some interesting thoughts from both sides. Bottom line: the best way to keep from wiping is to make sure everyone in the group knows what they're doing. All should be responsible for aggro control, all should know where to target DPS and when, and everyone should play their part well. It's true that an unskilled tank can be the first to mess up a group (because if she can't hold aggro, it's over right then and there), but everyone's got to do it right to get it done.
"AFK neighbor just bit my dog"
There's a running joke in my guild that whenever anyone has to leave an instance for a little while, everyone says "AFK to wash face." Apparently someone actually used that AFK excuse at one point, and it's been funny ever since. Most of the AFK's I've seen have been pretty tame, although I have had a few people leave instance runs fast because their kids have demolished their house in some way ("chocolate syrup all over kitchen floor, afk a sec"), and once because "afk 2 mins, cops at door." We didn't hear from that guy for the rest of the night.But there's lots of better AFK excuses than even that. "g2g guys, there's smoke coming out of my computer..""afk my brother has a knife""Guys I have to go there's a car that crashed into my house""guys i got to go, dog just died"" I have to go AFK for a bit guys, my son just told me he's gay.""brb internet just went out""afk wife giving birth"Ok, so those last two are excuses given, not received. But I've never heard anything this crazy-- I must be grouping with the wrong people. Or maybe the right ones...What's the craziest AFK excuse you've actually heard in game? And (because most of these are probably fake anyway) what's the craziest one you've ever given to get out of a bad PUG?
Ask WoW Insider: Best way to get instance invites?
It's time for our weekly edition of Ask WoW Insider, wherein we publish one of your burning questions for the WoW Insider readers to answer. This week's question comes from David, who seeks advice on scoring an invite to an instance you haven't had any experience running yet: Ok, here's my question that I'm hoping gets a good response. For starters, I played WoW when it first came out and was a hunter then after getting to level 40ish I decided to reroll as a paladin and got to 50ish. Then I quit playing WoW until just recently with the newest Expansion. Any pointers on how to learn the new instances because it seems no one wants to invite someone that doesn't know the instance. Everytime, I try to get invited with my new character (neither paladin or hunter) I get kicked because I explain I just hit where I'm told and people don't seem to like that idea. Any pointers? Can you folks help an instance noob out? What are your tips and tricks for convincing a group you've got the goods despite not having seen the inside of the dungeon? Got questions? Send them to Ask WoW Insider at ask AT wowinsider DOT com; every week we'll choose one to publish for your peers to answer.
Charity for beggars, or lack thereof
I like to think that maybe it's because I'm special (but it probably happens to everyone who has a 70)-- periodically ingame, I'll get tells from lowbies, asking either for mount money, or to run them through an instance. I've made it a habit to laugh and politely decline (this is not a hard game, and they can play it themselves). But this post on Livejournal made me reconsider the question of why I should or shouldn't help beggars.Fordarkness tells the story of his mother selling some furniture that she was asking $500 for $25 to help out a couple who'd been going through some rough times, and he says that it seems like a good idea to help beggars out when you believe they genuinely need it. I've never begged for money or powerleveling (although I have begged same-level guildies to tank or heal an instance for me, I'll readily admit), but, like Fordarkness, I have been gifted money by friends who saw how close I was to my first mount.Of course, guildies are a different situation-- I'll give them anything they need, because I figure you might as well show loyalty to someone besides yourself. As for beggars, though, I've never helped them, and unless they take an effort to show my why they actually need what they're asking for, I'll keep it that way. Have you ever felt the need to make a lowbie's day and gift them that mount money or run them through that instance? Or does a tell from someone you don't know asking for something automatically add them to your ignore list?Update: Right after I finished writing this article, reader Preacherman23 sent us this elegant solution: one player puts 50g in the trade window of a beggar... and then just goes afk for an hour or so.
Suggestion: an instance summary screen
Got this idea while doing a Shadow Labs run with my guildies this weekend: there should be a screen, in instances, that you can pull up to give stats about what players have done in there, just like battlegrounds. During the instance, every player should be able to pull up a screen that lists killing blows, damage done, healing done, and maybe even experience gained or even the loot dropped-- kind of an instance summary at a glance.I know, as with all of my personal ideas, that opposition to this from you readers will likely be strong. I can just hear you saying now: "We can already do this!" Yes, mods like DamageMeters can track damage and healing done, in an instance or out, and across the group or otherwise. But they can't track killing blows and other stats, and not every player has access to the info-- it would benefit from being done by Blizzard (we already know they can do it in the battlegrounds, instances would be no different), and it would give us a standard system to track these kinds of stats for those of us who are interested.The other objection, I'm sure, will be that some players don't want to know this info. Guilds will sometimes ban DamageMeters output in the chat channels, because they want their raiders to be working for a win, not for individual DPS. But to those objections, I say that if that was a problem, we'd already be dealing with it. If anyone is going to work for individual DPS, what's to stop them from installing DamageMeters and doing it right now? And if someone is working for themselves instead of for the raid, the simple solution is to just not bring them along to the raid. If a meter makes them ignore helping others, who needs them?Of course, the other objection you might have to this one is that Blizzard should be working on more important things, and on that I can't really argue. But Blizzard, if you're listening and have the time to do it, I'd like to see the numbers on what my party is doing in instances.
On Needing and Greeding
Some of you may remember, as I do, a time when there was no Greed button, only a dice and pass options on looting. Either you wanted the item, or you didn't. Or, it was BoP loot, in which case, as I remember, everyone was supposed to pass, and then you all decided what to do-- though it was so long ago, I can't quite remember why that was...At any rate, that time is over, and now we have the option to Need or Greed roll on loot that shows up, so it's pretty clear what to do when loot drops-- if you need it, roll Need, and compete with other Needers. If you just want, roll Greed or pass, and everybody's happy.Except, as with everything, there are exceptions. Nesp from Lightning Blade brings up one of the most common-- he's a jewelcrafter, and he's wondering if he should roll Need or Greed on gems-- sometimes, he's the only one in the party that can cut them, but then again, anyone can use them after they're cut. Likewise, I think there's a little confusion about things like Fel Armaments and Arcane Tomes as well-- yes, people of the opposite faction from Aldor or Scryer shouldn't roll on rewards they don't need, but should the right factioned people all roll Need or Greed? Likewise, everyone needed things like Corrupter's Scourgestones-- should everyone in that case roll Need, or just roll Greed?As Blizzard says (sensibly) in the thread, the best policy is to actually decide on a policy within the party before you have to-- nothing worse than losing an item to someone who can't use it, or taking an item accidentally that you don't really need. My plan is probably the default most players use: if you need it (as in, you can wear it or turn it in ASAP), roll need. If you don't (or you're going to sell it at the AH or DE or vendor it away), roll greed, and live with the consequences (there's always more loot to gain). But whatever works for you is what works best.
Instance Spreadsheet offers overview of swirly portals in Outland
Ryianne of Stormrage has assembled this freakin' terrific spreadsheet of all the Outlands instances, a must-have close at hand for anyone like me who considers running instances the most fun part of the game. Want to know where the Shadow Labyrinth is, or what level Blood Furnace is, or what rep is given in the Underbog (both regular and Heroic runs)? It's all here.Ryianne hasn't added one thing a lot of players might want-- exactly how to get attuned to the instances that need attuning. That info has been floating around, though, and it's definitely out there if you need it (my guild is holding a Karazhan attunement drive lately, trying to push our latent 70s to get the key so we can start downing stuff in there). Ryianne also says she's still working on it, so if you have more to add (like the fact that it's Thrallmar rep for Horde in the first three instances), let her know.But it is cool to see, in a "big picture" sense, all the different options available when someone says "Let's run something." With the expansion, Blizzard has really paid a lot of great service to the 5man instances (not just in size and quantity, but in variety and skill), and nowhere is that more apparent than in a large overview like this.
Fighting teenagers in Scarlet Monastery
Scarlet Monastery is one of the most-loved instances in the game, partly because the bosses in there are so memorable-- who's ever going to forget Harod yelling "Blades of Light!" or High Inquisitor Whitemane shouting "Arise, my Champion" (along with the ensuing realization that you're now fighting two bosses at the same time)?That why it's so cool to see, in the first Caverns of Time instance in Old Hillsbrad, all our favorite Scarlet Monastery minions running around as children. I ran CoT for the first time last week, and I spent a long time wandering about Old Southshore, listening to the conversation in the inn, and checking out all the old lore. I saw both Herod as a boy, and little "Sally Whitemane" as a pigtailed girl running around oblivious of her distant future.Except, wait a minute. Apparently the future isn't as distant as it seems. Zerolimite points out on the forums that Old Hillsbrad is really only the Hillsbrad of seven years ago. Which means that even if Sally Whitemane, blonde and pigtailed, is even thirteen, that only makes her at most 20 in Scarlet Monastery. So what's with the white, err... mane? Likewise, Herod is just a kid seven years ago, so that makes him like 15 when he's hulking and yelling in the Armory. All this time, we've been killing teenagers.And as an interesting sidenote, seven years ago means it's very likely our characters were alive as well. Our guild's main tank, Paws of Thunderhorn, has said that he was actually interred in Durnholde Keep with Thrall, but even though we poked around the camps there, we never saw him (or at least recognized him-- this was a whole seven years ago). As for my Orc Shaman, he definitely was held in an internment camp, but it was further north, near Lordaeron. I tried to head up there and see if I couldn't pull off a little Back to the Future action, but for some reason, I couldn't seem to leave Old Hillsbrad...
Thoughts on guild halls in Azeroth
There's not much new to say about this (Blizzard is still stonewalling on any plans for development), but players are still very interested in getting some form of player housing in the game, and one interesting form of that would be the idea of guild halls, an instance or a place ingame for a guild to make their own.Drysc gives a standard response on this one: it's a good idea, but there are no plans to implement it or anything like it in the game. But he does encourage discussion on it, and players have some interesting ideas. First and foremost would be a way to recognize the guild's accomplishments ingame-- trophies or heads of defeated bosses on the walls or in the building.Another purpose of such a place might be a few items of convenience, including a physical guild bank, and maybe even special vendors or profession workspaces. Drysc does say that if Blizzard did create something like this, and if it was guild halls, they wouldn't want to include anything that would take players away from the main game-- if they did put NPCs in the guild halls, it wouldn't likely be anything like trainers or auctioneers that kept players away from the main cities.Other interesting ideas include guild buyable portals to cities or even instances, an area for PvP-- either within the guild or between guilds, and even a raid signup system or scrimmage area of some kind. All interesting ideas-- what have you got? This is complete and total speculation, but it could be that Drysc is fishing for feedback because Blizzard is poking around at this idea to see if it's viable. If they included a guild hall area in the game, what, within reason of course, would you want to see there?
The new PvE endgame, featuring "Noob Extinction"
Kamikazeelf over at Curse Gaming has a really insightful article up about how endgame PVE is going to change as more and more players hit 70 in the Burning Crusade. After writing up this guide for endgame instances, the gist of his opinions is this: more gaming for less people.There are, as he says, tons of things to do for attunement to most of the endgame dungeons-- including attunements just to get attuned for the attunements. And that's just for mains-- your alts will also have to get attuned if you want to take them to the endgame raids. Considering raid group numbers are lowering (from 40 to 25), that means guilds are going to be slimming down by necessity-- not only will fewer people be able to go, but fewer people will get to go because the attunements will rule a lot of people out.And this, says Kamikazeelf, will lead to something called "Noob Extinction" (I happen to enjoy the phrase). Basically, if it's so hard to get into these dungeons, and so few people can go, players who don't know what they're doing will quickly get outed. On a 40-man raid, you could afford 10 people standing there and doing half a job. But in a 25 man raid, where a whole guild has to run instances over and over just to get people attuned, the proverbial "fools" just can't be suffered. At the highest instances (and there are a few of them), the rule will be that you're good, or you're gone.Now, there are, of course, exceptions. Some guilds are friends, and everyone will help everyone else out so everyone has a good time. Some players won't bother with PvE at all, and instead focus characters only on PvP (for my alts, this is probably what I'll do). But the truth is that this will leave some players out in the cold-- both kids who don't know what they're doing, and casual players who can't afford two weeks just to get attuned to one instance. Whether or not that's a good thing for the game at large remains to be seen.
More on making the old instances new again
Yesterday, I suggested a few ways that Blizzard could make the "old" instances (Scholo, Strat, UBRS, MC, and on up) relevant to players again, and from that conversation came a few good points that I figured were worth mentioning. The problem isn't that the old instances aren't fun (they are still fun, and I've heard that some guilds are still planning to run them, even if they don't need the equipment from them). But the problem is that if you want your character to have the best gear in the least time, the "old" instances are a waste of time. At 58 you should be in Outland, doing 15 minute quests for better-than-tier 1 items.Tobold agrees with me-- it's very likely that players who reach 60 after expansion release will never run Molten Core or the other instances the way they've been run in the past. Either Blizzard will change the levels on them, or players will go back to them for fun with a mix of 60s and 70s. Both of those are very different experiences than the one of learning as a guild, week after week, how to run MC. I don't mean to be depressing (the idea is a little bit softened by the fact that the same thing will be happening at 70 now, only in smaller, easier to manage groups), but it's true. Goodbye, MC.There is one more idea, however, that came out of yesterday's thread that I thought was pretty good. Reader Skew came up with an idea that seems so ingenious, I wish I'd thought of it. What if Blizzard turned all the pre-Outland instance gear into BOE? That would create a demand for someone to constantly run them, not just for the gear, but for the enchanting mats and so on. Yes, it means that with enough money, you could come by a set of tier 2 without ever going to BWL, but also remember that tier 2 isn't that valuable anymore-- the stuff in Outland is what we really want. I doubt Blizzard will go for such a "giving" solution, but you gotta admit: it solves a lot of problems with a pretty simple change to the code.
How to fix the old instances
Before the expansion came out, we wondered and wondered what would happen to the old level 60 instances when the Dark Portal opened. And now that it's here, we know: no one's running them. Oh, there's a few quest groups here and there of people working their way up to 58 (the bare minimum to come through to Outland), but there's almost zero reason to run AQ or ZG 20-mans, considering the loot is just so much better, even just in Hellfire Peninsula. And MC, on my server at least, is a barren wasteland-- why take four hours with 40 people just for a few good pieces when you can get much better loot in 15 minutes of questing in Outland?So what to do? We're sure Blizzard will come up with a way to make these instances relevant again-- in fact, I'd be surprised if, despite what they said earlier, they weren't already working on it now. But just to help them, here's a few suggestions of how to fix the old instances.-First, and most obvious, is enabling Heroic mode. We already have dungeons in Outland that will be able to be tuned to Heroic mode, which means bosses and mobs are harder, but give much better drops. In the same way, Blizzard is likely going to let us optionally turn up the difficulty in UBRS or Stratholme, offering better loot for a bigger challenge.
Finding your way through Outland's first instances
Definitely my favorite part of BC so far has got to be the instances. We haven't seen new 5-man content in such a long time, and it's so much fun to be facing new pulls, new lore, and new bosses, most of them with brand new models, and even audio! Although, while I do like Magtheridon's voice, it seems like yes, those "puny magics" are actually holding him for a long, long time-- we get it.Most of the new strats aren't too hard to get down with trial and error, but there are a few quirks to figure out. And for that reason, my guild's raidleader, Belacroix of Gothic Bunnies on Thundehorn-H, has punched together a few quickguides of the first few instances-- two wings of Hellfire Citadel, and The Slave Pens and the Underbog in Coifang Reservoir. They're not complete walkthroughs by any means, but if you want a little insight on how to take down certain bosses or what you'll find in there, Bela's guides are a good read.WoW blogger Relmstein has also been running instances in Outland, and he's got even more complete walkthroughs for Hellfire Ramparts and the Blood Furnace (so far, the Furnace is my favorite). And I have to make a mention of WoW Wiki as well (and everyone that works on it)-- they've got strategy up for almost every boss seen in the instances so far, so if you've got a group stuck on something, they're the place to go.
Countdown to Burning Crusade day 10 winner: best Caverns of Time screenshot
Your votes are in and we have a winner for the best screenshot of Caverns of Time contest: Asteroids by Michal Lisowyj is your vote for best CoT screen with 27% of the vote. Grats to Michal, who snags a 60-day game card for his efforts, and thanks to everyone for the great shots. Click on for a rundown of the votes and the runners up!
