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by Mike Schramm 
Mar 21st 2007 at 1:32PM
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!
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Instances, Expansions, The Burning Crusade, Leveling
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
RaydenUni Mar 21st 2007 8:51PM
There is a 3 man Onyxia run video on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8262ap5TdI
ErsatzPotato Mar 22nd 2007 7:45AM
"I mainly play a 70 Mage and soloing the old instances can be pretty difficult. I am still squishy, afterall. Would love to hear if any other Mages have had decent luck in attempting to solo, or two man, the old instances."
Soloing instances as a mage is difficult, even at 70. Ice barrier is pretty much required. Blast coupled with a pally though :) Mages are great in a pair, particularly with a hybrid or shadowpriest.
Duoed Scholo to the magic immune mobs at 60 in dungeon set or worse gear, frost mage & affliction lock. Lots of wiping. Lock got boss punted entirely out of the instance. Most fun I've had in the game.
Richard@Home Mar 22nd 2007 6:05AM
I've had a half hearted crack at soloing a few pre-BC instances with my lvl70 feral dr00d. Haven't done full runs through, it was more a test to see how dooable it is.
First one I tried was Strat UD side, cleared a *lot* of trash, downed the postmen a few times and a few rare spawns.
Battle of Darrowshire (not an instance, but fun non-the-less), died a couple of times but finished it. If I'd been fully concentrating it could have been done without the wipe.
LBRS, lot of trash cleared and two bosses (troll and ogre) down.
I don't have any special kit, blues and greens from quest rewards and a few crated items (12k hits, 12k armour). Oh, and a couple of rep-reward enchants. No socketed items and enhanced dr00d buffs.
I plan on tackling BRD and scholo next. I two-manned Rattlegore in scholo with a 65 shammy the other day without too much trouble.
mity Mar 22nd 2007 7:34AM
ive helped out a m8 powerleveling a melee shammy in the last 2 weeks. in that, ive done Mara, ST, strat and scholo, DM west, North and east, as well as the bossevent in the centre. and BRD and LBRS ofc. he has thrown some heals on the pet (im MM hunter) but those wherent nessassary at all. mite try UBRS as well, when he hits 60+ (for healing /aggro)would be abit fun, to beat it, semisolo.
its kinda fun to clear scholo in less time than it used to take as 5 ppl, but i wouldnt mind there being heroic versions of vanillruns. currently, alot of cool content is layed to waste, imo.
Deafdumbandblind Mar 22nd 2007 9:10AM
We took a 60th mage, a 61st warrior, a 67th Druid, a 70th Pallie and a 70th hunter into UBRS.
We breezed through to Drakk where we managed to kite Drakk and kill his bodyguards but Drakk was too strong for us in the end. Having my feral druid in healing gear doing all the healing might have had something to do with it. Anyway I reckon UBRS would be possible with 4 x 70th at a push. Drakk's conflagration - which no-one resists - is just too much.
eMarkM Mar 22nd 2007 10:41AM
I don't know what it is, but I have zero interest in running old content as a 70. Even just for laughs. Some in our guild seem to be obsessed with going back and doing the stuff that "used to kick our ass", but I don't see the point. There's certainly no gear there that leads to your toon's advancement.
I've been too busy trying to run the 5 mans just to gear up while getting attuned to Karazhan. There's so much to do in Outland at 70. And even if I do get bored sitting around Shat LFG, I can always go log on as my BE alt and level him.
Granddad Mar 23rd 2007 1:23AM
If you want to see some interesting solo work, perform a search on Youtube, Google video, or Warcraft movies for Dysphoria's "Hunter vs. World" series. Dysphoria is a hunter who, at level 60 (pre BC) soloed BRD, LBRS, Scholo, DM East and DM North. It's quite spectacular to watch her (his?) techniques and the videos are very well done.
I just did a search and notice Dysphoria is at it again with new solo videos including Heroic Slave Pens and Heroic Durnholde.
Not so into hunters? How about a lvl 60 pre-expansion shadow priest taking on scholo?
http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=28020
-GD
eMarkM Mar 23rd 2007 10:13AM
@26, this is a huge problem in our guild ATM. I'd love to see a change like this as the lowbie dungeons are getting killed as much as Scholo. "Can someone run me through SM?" is something we see constantly in guild chat. Then a 70 obliges, instead of, I don't know, running Shadow Labs so he can finally get his friggin first Kara key fragment. This happens over and over.
I personally refuse to run with lowbies through anything lower than Ramparts. I myself have a lowbie mage I'm levelling and I will never ask anyone to "run me through" anything. #1, having a 70 kills the XP so you're really only going for the loot. The loot gets replaced in a few levels anyway. #2, I learn nothing about how to play this class in a group setting. It's simple things like learning to AOE (which I seldom use solo questing) and how not to take aggro from the tank. #3, it's just plain no fun. Wow, stand 30 yards behind the 70 as he one shots every mob and your biggest challenge is bag management. Zzzzzzz.
Ordeath Nov 23rd 2007 6:36AM
I dunno, personally, I love the old content. As a mage, yeah, it's a royal pain to solo some of it, especially since I never did like playing frost. My buddies and I have been farming zg for kicks the last couple weeks (I want my poly turtle, my buddy wants the formula for the wizard oil) and we've 5 manned everything up to the tiger boss. As long as we dont act like complete nubs and goof around we never wipe, but it's still a bit of a challenge, and it's half decent money from the boss kills. I still want to try hakkar, but since we usually do zg after our regular raids, by the time we down tiger (and groan about neither him nor the bloodlord dropping their mounts) we are usually too tired to do much else. A LOT of the pre BC content was really well designed, but since all everyone cares about now is the loot and getting better gear, they ignore the fact that if you go about it properly, exploring old content (especially with small groups) can still be a challenge, and indeed, just as much fun. (I do die a little inside every time my poly turtle doesnt drop though, qq)