The gates of the new Ahn'Qiraj area have been opened on nearly half of the realms, with war effort turn-ins complete on many more.  One design feature of these dungeons has brought a old tactic to light - the graveyard zerg.  For those of you unfamiliar with the term "zerg," it comes from another Blizzard universe - Starcraft - and refers to a race which would frequently overwhelm their opponents by sending large numbers of fairly weak troops at them.  In World of Warcraft, you may see the term used to describe any tactic which involves overwhelming an opponent with numbers, rather than by strength or tactics.  A graveyard zerg in WoW refers to players dying and then running back to resurrect and rejoin the fight as quickly as possible - conceivably granting players a near-endless supply of fresh troops.

Blizzard designs with this in mind, however, and for various reasons it's an impractical tactic for many fights.  Blackwing Lair, Molten Core, and Zul'Gurub are all a good distance from the nearest graveyard.  Closed gates in areas of Blackwing Lair will physically prevent a player from entering once a fight as started.  Respawns in Molten Core will prevent a player from easily rejoining their group (some of these seeing through stealth as well).  The green dragons leave a 15-minute debuff on a player which leads to an extremely quick death should they re-enter the fight.  Outdoor boss Kazzak becomes more powerful for each player who dies while fighting him.  (Admittedly, I've seen people graveyard zerg Azuregos, another outdoor boss, before.  But it's certainly not the easiest way to kill him.)

However, the graveyard nearest Ahn'Qiraj is very near to Ahn'Qiraj - right outside the gate, in fact - making one wonder if graveyard zerg is going to become more of a stock tactic.  The 40 player instance has a fairly quick respawn rate (about 30 minutes - which is still much slower than the 15 minute core hound or 7 minute lava imp respawns in Molten Core), and I haven't noticed specific respawn timing for the 20 player instance.  I suppose this gives players additional flexibility while attempting to learn the instance, it seems sufficiently easy to do that you have to wonder whether it will persist after the initial "learning" phases.  My thoughts - if anyone does give this a try, they'd best be prepared for skyrocketing repair costs.

Filed under: Instances