instances
Latest
Breakfast Topic: Ready for pull?
What's the hardest non-boss pull in the game?For the level, the stats say that Defias Pillagers are among the hardest pull in the game. That's probably because they're the first casters players face, not to mention lots of players head towards Deadmines too early, because they're anxious to see the game's instances. According to the "casters are hard" rule, I'll also throw in Murloc casters-- they come in packs, they run away (pulling more), and they hit hard (that gurgle is one of the most hated sounds in the game).At the higher levels, the Lava packs in MC have gained a reputation for being hard pulls (mostly because of those Flamewalker fireballs). As for the other endgame instances, I can't think of a harder pull of non-boss mobs-- my guild handled the other stuff pretty well (err-- when we didn't make mistakes, that is). The ZG bats are annoying but definitely handle-able, and the AQ bugs are tough to pull one group at a time, but once you've got the right group of them, they're easy to whittle down.But for my money, the hardest non-boss pull in the game (if you're not ready for it) is the pull in UBRS we usually do right before the Beast. It's the group of three dragons and two orcs on the far side of the room across from the Beast's lair. If you're not well-geared and/or ready for it, I think that single pull is a real test as to how your group can handle focusing fire, crowd control, and aggro and healing management. So what do you say?
Phat Loot Phriday: Quel'Serrar, the High Blade
Big swords are cool, and this one is no exception. Plus, it gives you a reason to run an often overlooked endgame instance. A lot. Like, over and over again.Name: Quel'Serrar a.k.a. "The High Blade"Type: Epic Main Hand SwordDamage / Speed: 84-126, 2.00 (52.5 DPS)Abilities: Only obtainable by Warriors and Paladins, sorry Rogues Chance on Hit: Grants the user 20 defense and 300 armor for 10 seconds (an ability like that just screams Main Tank Weapon) Looks pretty, like an Epic Elven Blade should. How to Get It: This one actually has a quest behind it-- before you start, you'll need to be in or with a guild that is running Onyxia. Nowadays, that's actually hard to find, so make sure you've got that before you start the quest off.What you'll need is actually another item, called "Foror's Compendium of Dragon Slaying." It's a book (about dragon slaying, natch) that drops in Dire Maul-- reports say it's about 1% random drop from all the bosses, but in reality, it's probably less than that. As in, this is a really, really rare drop. However, it is not BOP, so you can sometimes find it in the AH-- usually it'll run you about 300 gold, but it's been known to sell for thousands before.Once you've got the book, you want to go to Lorekeeper Lydros in the Dire Maul Library-- it's inside DM North, and he's the same guy you get the Dire Maul enchants and the Mage water quest from. He'll give you something called an Unfired Ancient Blade, and that's where Ony comes in-- you've got to get her to breathe on the blade to forge it for you. In combat, you drop the blade in front of her, and then when she's dead, you use the blade on the corpse, and then boom, you've got... the Treated Ancient Blade. One more FedEx quest back to the librarian, and you've got the shiny sword. Now hit stuff with it!Oh, and I forgot-- all the quests involved give some pretty good XP. So you might make a note now, and then look this one up on your way to 70.Bonus Useless Trivia: If the name of that book looks familiar to you more veteran players, it's because yes, the name comes from Blizzard's Furor: he's a former Everquest player who now works as a WoW Quest Designer. He must know a lot about slaying dragons.Getting Rid of It: The quest item itself is BOP, of course. Sells to vendors for 7g 59s 70c.
WoW Insider Best of 2006: Friend, Enemy, and Instance
All this week, we're announcing our picks (from your nominations) for the best of the year in Azeroth. Lots of great stuff happened in the World of Warcraft this year, and we've sifted through all of it to come up with the stuff we'll remember for a long time.Yesterday, we announced the awards for Server, Class, and Guild of the Year, and today we're proud to tell you our picks for Friend of the Year, Enemy of the Year, and Instance of the Year. Next year, we'll have all new foes (are you prepared?) and friends, not to mention tons of new instances. But before all the changes come, we're looking back at two NPCs that helped and hurt us this year, and the swirly portal we most enjoyed walking through. The winners are right after the break below.And don't forget to come back all this week-- we've still got Player of the Year and Best and Worst Blizzard Move of the Year to announce, so stay tuned.
Best of 2006 nominations: Friend, Enemy, Instance
I have to thank everybody for their nominations yesterday in our progressing Best of 2006 feature. All this week, we're asking for your nominations for our WoW Insider Best of 2006 awards-- this week we're getting your opinions, over the weekend, the trusty WoW Insider staff will crunch numbers and argue with each other, and next week, we'll announce the Best of 2006 in ten different categories throughout the World of Warcraft.Today, we're asking for your nominations in the categories of Friend of the Year, Enemy of the Year, and Instance of the Year. For Friend, we're talking about a Friendly *NPC* (we don't mean your real-life friends that play the game with you) of either faction that stood out to you in your travels around the world. Choose one NPC in the game this year that helped you out the most, or made you enjoy the game during their interaction. For Enemy, we're asking the opposite-- choose one mob in the game (raid boss or otherwise) that gave you the most grief, you had the most fun killing, or that just made you appreciate the game more.And for Instance-- well, you can guess that one. Choose one Instance from the game that really shined for players this year, someplace you really enjoyed running or couldn't wait to go get loot from. It doesn't have to have been introduced this year, but if one of the new instances is a place you spent a lot of time this year, feel free to nominate that.Again, just place your nominations for these three in the comments below, and we'll take care of the rest. Keep checking back every day this week for more nominations posts (we've got a few more categories to go through, including one where we recognize the Worst of something), and then come by all next week to see what we eventually choose as the Best of 2006 in the World of Warcraft.Previously: Nominations for Server, Class, and Guild.
Are you raiding?
Over the past few months, it seems as though all of the big raiding guilds -- both Alliance and Horde -- have disbanded on my server. For my part, I've watched each drama-filled guildsplosion while nodding to myself, thinking this to be an obvious result of the coming Burning Crusade expansion. By next month we'll all be jumping into playing Draenei or Blood Elves, or leveling our mains to 70. And would you rather spend four hours a night, as Zubon of Kill Ten Rats puts it, for a tiny chance at rolling on a desired item -- or would you rather just wait a few more weeks and pick up similar-quality gear as quest rewards and new instance drops?I know I stand firmly in the latter camp. The closer we've gotten to the expansion's release, the less I've bothered with my main. Why push forward into raid dungeons when I'll be replacing most of my gear in the leveling spree to come? So when I play, I play alts -- getting a new class to 60 just seems more useful than the slight chance of a minuscule improvement for my priest main seems right now. But what about you? Are you out there pushing through raid content? And if so, I must say I'm curious -- why?
Breakfast Topic: Unfinished business
We've talked about your goals for the expansion before, but what are you goals for before the expansion? I'd imagine that with the changes, lots of people have their sights set on getting some (or lots) of the PVP gear before Burning Crusade gets installed (and it all becomes outdated-- HA!). Personally, I'm still aiming to get my Rogue to 60-- currently, he's stuck at 49 because I really love that 40-49 PVP bracket, but I think he'll make it the last ten levels before January. And my guild is about to start BWL, so I wouldn't mind seeing us down Nef with all that new PVP gear before the Dark Portal opens up.So what are you racing to finish? Theantipoet has some pretty good goals over on LJ, including soloing the Princess in Mara, and 8/8 Tier 2 (I'd like to get 8/8 of a set on my Shammy, but considering my luck, I'm not holding my breath). Let's hear what you're aiming to complete before you put the BC disk in.
Forum Post of the Day: Instance travel ads
I can promise that this thread delivers. In post after post, players describe the best travel ads for each dungeon in the game. And while most of them don't encourage me to actually visit any of these places, but many of them did make me giggle, which makes it all worth the read. My favorites would have to be... Uldaman: Because migraines build character. Caverns of Time: Thrall is back and he's all out of bubblegum. Gnomeregan: Even Guildies Have To Draw The Line Somewhere Sunken Temple: Here There Be Dragons. OH DEAR GOD WHO PULLED ALL NINE OF THEM?!? Blackwing Lair: What's An Onyxia Scale Cloak?
Instances in Burning Crusade and beyond
Relmstein's got a great roundup of the new instances coming in the Burning Crusade, including the lowdown on two instances that won't show up in January, but will likely appear in two releases after the expansion.The Black Temple, it seems, won't be available when the expansion hits-- Blizz says they want to "polish" it before release. Relmstein says that's fine, because it will take players a few weeks to get to level 70 anyway. I'm not sure that's true-- you should never underestimate how fast players can eat up new content, but I do think that the other new instances will be more than enough to at least keep the majority of players interested for a while. The other instance we'll have to wait a bit on is Zul'Aman, a 10-man instance that's Troll-based like Zul'Gurub and Zul'Farrak. Of course I knew that there would be lots of new 10-man content in BC (the highest dungeons will have a limit of 25 players), but the thought still gets me excited-- UBRS is one of my favorite instances in the current game (and relatively easy to get a group together at any time), so more 10-man content will be very welcome to see.Finally, Relmstein takes a look at instances and areas that still haven't opened in the world. Hyjal and the Island in the middle of the map we already suspect will open in later expansions, but there's a few instances that might be closer-- specifically Uldum in the south of Tanaris (a Dwarf lore instance like Uldaman) and Gilneas near Silverpine Forest. There's no plans yet for either to open (Blizzard has acknowledged that they want to, but probably aren't currently working on either), but considering that instances are many players' favorite part of the game at large, it's extremely exciting to think what swirly portals we'll be walking through soon.
Forum Post of the Day: Single player instances?
If you've been playing (and trolling the forums) for any amount of time, you'll know that the argument made here -- for challenging, instanced, single-player content -- is not a new one. This thread has all the usual responses, ranging from definitions of "massively multiplayer" to suggestions that solo instances would be impossible to create to suggestions that class-specific solo instances would be perfect. However, there's a lot of good discussion in the thread -- highlighted by a post by Tseric attempting to explain why this type of content is not feasible. If it requires too much healing to complete, pure melee or casters are impeded. If it requires significant amounts of dps, you either have to spec and gear properly for one, single dungeon or pure dps classes simply have a leg up. If you can't tank or mitigate damage effectively...well, you're dead at the first pull. Therefore, if you reduce group size and composition to a single participant, the more generic and easy you have to make the dungeon. And of balancing nine class specific dungeons? Tseric quips, "Do you realize how much time that would take?" And you have to admit -- he's got a point. Would you rather see Blizzard spending their development time working on nine different variations of the same dungeon, or working on nine new dungeons everyone can see?Of course, as painful as my last PuG was, I might prefer the solo content anyway.
Showdown: Van Cleef vs. Arthas
I can't believe this thread went on as long as it did in a relatively unironic tone. Seriously, they made it to page three before anybody even mentioned laughing at the idea-- at least three pages of people seriously considered what would happen in a fight between Van Cleef and Arthas.For the record, Van Cleef would do the exact same thing he does to everyone he fights-- call his opponent a lapdog, summon adds around 50%, and then die horribly. I'm calling Arthas on this one for sure. Better question: Ony vs. Hakkar (with aspects or without?). Or Vael vs. Nef (as a legendary forum thread, now lost to history in the old forums, once postulated). Or C'thun vs. Kel Thuzad! I'm going to have to go with C'thun for sure-- KT is a lich, but C'thun is an Old God, man!So, so nerdy. And yet, if you're into the lore at all, so very intriguing. Especially with the Caverns of Time upcoming, expect to see lots more of this stuff. When you're able to get up close and personal with some of the biggest figures in the Warcraft universe, you can't help but imagine what these showdowns would be like.
"The Lament of the Raidleader"
Gharuvy over on the forums posits this theorem: that most instances/raids/encounters are based upon the ability of 25% of the players to "do their job effectively"-- for 5 mans, that's just one person, for 20 mans, it's about five people, and for a full raid it's 10 people. He also adds that it only takes one person to "ruin" an encounter. He then adds, somewhat poetically, that that is the "lament of the raidleader"-- it's too much to expect everyone to be in that "effective" slice of the group, but not too much to expect no one to be in that "ruin" section.To a certain extent, he's right. People have run Onyxia, perhaps the seminal 40 man raid encounter, with only 10 players (in fact, they've run it with six before). In my personal experience, as long as you have a core group of people who know what they're doing, everyone could pretty much stand there and do the bare minimum, and you'd still finish an encounter without much fuss. And I personally have dragged four people with me through Deadmines on my priest. They were terrible-- one mage pulled aggro constantly, the other didn't sheep, the warrior didn't use a shield, and didn't bother to even switch targets when the mage pulled aggro. And yet I pulled them through it all just because I played my role perfectly and kept everyone alive while doing damage (just in case you think I'm bragging, I've been on the other side of it, too-- I'm in MC when a family member calls, and I'm too distracted to do anything on my Shaman except spam lightning bolt).And it's true that most raidleaders don't (or at least shouldn't) expect perfection. On any raid, you're going to have a core group of people who know what they're doing, and another set of players who either aren't well geared enough or (more likely) experienced enough in the encounter to play their roles well. Is it true that one person can "ruin" the raid? In some cases it is (ever had a bomb explode an entire group during Baron Geddon?), but in most cases, I think one player's stupid actions will likely get them killed, but not necessarily down the raid.Then again, I'm a casual raider, so to date, I've never played Naxx. Do you need more than 25% to be on top of their game there? Are the later raiding encounters more difficult in that you really need to coordinate 40 people, or, considering everyone is geared well, can you pull them off when 1/4 of you are great, and the rest of you are just pretty good?
WoW Moviewatch: Soloing Scholomance
My priest has, in the past, done the first few pulls of Scholomance alone or with a friend in order to farm bone fragments, but I never made it past that four monster pull at the bottom of the first flight of stairs. This video, however, inspires me to try harder -- It's apparently doable.
How to quit a group
We've talked quite a few times here about how to play the game well and how to get into good groups and guilds. But (and this is inspired by personal experience, trust me), sometimes things don't go so well. Sometimes, your warrior leaves halfway through the instance, or it's clear that your priest isn't interested in doing her job when she lets the tank die and says "srry watchn grays anatmy." Sometimes, you just want out. So here's five ways to do just that, ranked in order from "nicest and most helpful" to "harshest and least likely to get you invited back again".5. Be honest. Sometimes people just have bad days. One way to gracefully exit a group after a wipe is to just make it clear: "one more wipe, and we're going to call the group off." That might be just what the players need to get their acts together. Be honest, share your concerns, answer questions or clarify things if necessary, and then when the hunter pulls aggro off the tank again, thank them for the group and move on.4. Find a replacement. This one actually runs neck and neck with #5, but it's still a little harsher because you're leaving instead of sticking around and helping. Still, finding a replacement is an easy and fairly pain-free way to get out of a group that just isn't working out. Throw a few tells in LFG until you've nabbed someone, tell the group you're tagging out, and exit stage left.3. Just disconnect. It happens. People lose their connections. If you're ever stuck in a bad group, pull the plug on your network cord for a few minutes, then log back on and play an alt for a while. For extra believability, combine with #2: jump back on the character after you notice your group is out of the instance and apologize for the freak thunderstorm that just rolled through.2. Lie. Am I the only one that's done this? Just throw a quick "sry gtg mom's makin dinner" in the party channel (never mind that I'm a long way from living with my mother and that she doesn't make me dinner anymore), and boom you're out of the group without any questions. Do it too many times (or to someone you've spoken normally with before), and people on the server might start getting suspicious, but every once in a while it works like a charm. "Whoops guild is calling me, later" does wonders, as well.1. Tell them off. Strangely enough, the harshest way to ditch a group looks very much like the nicest way, but with a lot more yelling, maybe a little cursing, and even some angry tells afterwards. If you've had enough and finally decided that yes, this might be the worst PUG you've ever been in, feel free to scream at the warrior to L2P NOOB, and tell the healer that you can't make water because you're a warlock, then "leave group" with gleeful abandon. Ok, it might get you put on some ignore lists, and do it enough and you'll get a reputation on the server, but trust me, after an hour and half wiping in a terrible PUG, a little yelling will make you feel much better.
'Hardcore' raiding, one month in
"Because you're not hardcore unless you live hardcore" I've always considered myself a casual player; although at times I may live and breathe WoW, it's not all there is to life, and if something better comes up in RL I'm happy to pause PvP or say no to raiding. While epics are nice, I tend not to measure my worth in purples, nor do I min/max my spec to flatter damage meters. However, all this talk of Naxx recently led me to feel I was missing out. I'd been in the endgame a while, and although I knew some instances all too well, there were other parts of the level 60 experience that I had never seen. I'd never set foot into Blackwing Lair, never seen Onyxia up close, and certainly never had a point of DKP to my name. So, when I was invited by a friend to apply for a spot in her raiding group, I did.
A Guide to Frustration-Free Instances
Sehojan from Khaz Modan over on the forums says he likens most of his ST runs to hell itself. A few others mention Gnomer, and I've had my share of bad runs in there, but lately BRD has been giving me headaches left and right. Here's a few tips to make your runs through instanced dungeons (some of my favorite stuff in the game) a little easier.-Forget PUGs. I know, you've heard this before, but if you really want your instance runs to go well, pick up groups just aren't going to do it, period. Get yourself a guild (make sure it's not a "pickup guild"-- a quick test is to see if they have a website and forums), and it'll make instance runs much, much easier and more fun. If you have to have a PUG, try to stick to friends and people you've grouped with before. Random LFG is more like "looking for trouble."-Study up. There are guides, maps, and strategy all over the place for every instance in the game (yes, even RFC). Look at them. Know the routes, know the mobs, know the quests-- where to go and what to do. Not only will it help the group go smoother, but it'll help you with looting, too. Things are much more fun when you know what loot to hope for-- and you get it.-Have a leader. If you've done the studying, it's probably you, but the best way to make sure an instance goes well is to choose one person to lead and have everyone follow them. One person chooses a route, one person assigns targets, and one person calls pulls. Organization is the key (which is usually why PUGs don't work).-Prepare! The boy scouts were right: Repair before you go into an instance. Get together to share quests and buff. Make water and food, make healthstones when needed, keep an eye on soulstones, shaman bring ankhs, locks bring shards, and hunters bring arrows.-Be patient. There's a lot of reasons to get frustrated in instance runs: wiping, not getting the loot you want, people making mistakes, people leaving early. Don't let it get to you. If you do a few instance runs and things go south, go solo for a few levels, come back, and it might make all the difference in the world. Instances, especially high lore stuff like Maraudon, Scarlet Monastery, and the Sunken Temple can be some of the most fun parts of the game. Have fun in there, and don't fret the small stuff.Instances can be tough, but when you're in there with a great group and you know what you're doing, they're definitely worth it. Following these tips will help you do just that.
PVP Revamped, 25 Man Max, New Hybrid Buffs in BC
1up is reporting, courtesy of Lead Designer Tom Chilton, that Illidan's Black Citadel will be the most challenging instance in Burning Crusade at release-- and it will have a 25-player limit. Eyonix has confirmed, so if you were planning to take 39 of your friends to a brand new raid in Burning Crusade, better disappoint a few of them.Other bombshells: The PVP system will be completely revamped-- no more ladder system. Instead, you'll earn Honor Points, which can be spent for different rewards, including new gear. "Arena PVP," in which players can get a charter to form teams for 2v2, 3v3, or 5v5. Also, a "season-based concept" for arenas. Your guess is as good as ours on that one. Chilton says that putting Shamans and Pallys in both factions will let them "differentiate them more." Shaman will get Bloodlust, a level 70 party haste buff. Pallys will get a castable AOE taunt buff-- cast it on a player that's getting attacked to bring mobs to the Pally. Instances will have different difficulty modes at different times-- an instance played at 62 will be easier and give different rewards than the same instance at 70. Wow. A new PVP system alone will be great news to a lot of players (and terrible news to others who have spent hours gaining ranks in the current system). Arena PVP sounds really interesting, and should help more and more premade groups get together. And speaking of being a Shaman looking for an endgame role, the new buffs sound wild.
Have to Level a Weapon? Go Solo!
Here's a cool tip a guildie shared with me a little while ago. Say you're a human warrior (don't laugh, Horde, it happens), and you have a thing for swords, so throughout your journey through Azeroth, you hack and slash away with your trusty longsword. But suddenly, right around level 40, you're rolling through SM, and all of a sudden the Ravager drops and you win the roll. Suddenly, you've got one of the coolest axes in the game, and not a single axe skill point to your name.What do you do? Well, you could head back to Goldshire and chop up a few low level mobs for an hour or two. But as long as you're chopping without earning experience, here's a better idea: run an instance solo. Almost any class above 40 won't have too hard a time rolling through Deadmines or Wailing Caverns, and once you hit 50, you can even rock Blackfathom Deeps or Shadowfang Keep all by yourself. Not only will you level up your brand new weapon, but you'll get all kinds of loot in the process, including low level blues and greens that you can sell for big gold to twinkers, or lots of cloth you can hand on down to your alts, auction off, or even use yourself to up a profession you've been neglecting.Personally, I've done this twice now-- when my shaman found a great mace, I ran Shadowfang (and found a blue sword that I sold for 40g to a twinker). And last night, Kang dropped for me, so I took a trip through Blackfathom, and had a great time shutting down the Twilight's Hammer (and Aku'mai) all by myself. When you get a great new weapon, and you've got to grind it up, there's no better place to go than a solo instance run.
Attempting Strat 45
I've had the quest for the 45-minute Stratholme run for a while now, but never managed to get a group together until yesterday. Having read about the run I was reluctant to try a pick-up group, so I jumped at the chance to join members of my raid group to rescue poor Ysida from the evil clutches of Baron Rivendare.Most of my usual Strat runs have been slow-paced, with careful pulling and crowd control, but this Strat 45 was very different. Our group composition was interesting; we had a mage tanking, a druid healing, with a paladin, feral druid and hunter as everything in between. It strikes me that an experienced and versatile group is really a must for the challenge, especially a group used to working together.
LFM ZG PST
Sometimes, bored players suggest crazy things. Yesterday's madness was a random pick-up-group expedition to Zul'Gurub; twenty bored players venturing into (mostly) uncharted territory for kicks and giggles. I joined simply to see what on earth this group would be capable of, in one of those "well, why not?" moments. The problem with such a group is its very nature -- advertised on the LFG channel, it contained many players who had never been in Zul'Gurub (or even a 20-man raid) before, and who were generally unprepared. No soul shards, reagents, potions or bandages; these brave adventurers had but the (low-durability) clothes on their backs.
Breakfast Topic: Am I a ninja?
Many of us have come across "ninja looting" -- the practice of taking loot that isn't yours, usually through dirty tactics such as rolling need on "bind on pickup" items. While this can be excusable at lower levels, by the time you hit 60 it should be a long-forgotten experience. Sadly, it isn't.Everyone hates ninja looters, and yet many players are swift to accuse others of ninjaing, to see ninjas where none exist. Recently I was accused of the dreaded N-word; as a feral druid I was acting as off-tank, and rolled on a +defense trinket. The rest of the group agreed I could roll, but the warrior only spoke up after I had rolled, calling me a ninja. He rolled need too, but I won the item. Shortly after that he left the group; I tanked the rest of the instance, and nobody complained.Of course, stories like this are all too common, with hybrid classes complicating the issues -- even at level 60. Most people I've grouped with acknowledge that if a hybrid class is taking on a particular role then he or she can claim items for that role. However, imagine a druid who switches between forms a lot in an instance. Can she roll on strength, defense, agility, intellect and +healing gear? Technically, yes; but wails of "ninja" would result. The solution? I've learnt to carefully spell out before entering an instance that I will be taking on role X, and rolling on gear accordingly. A better solution is to group with players you know, and good ones at that, who give you a chance at whatever you can use.Have you encountered a ninja that wasn't? Do you hate being out-rolled by greedy hybrids?
