Will you be revisiting the old instances?
by Elizabeth Harper 
Mar 22nd 2007 at 7:16PM
In today's Around Azeroth, which featured a shot of the final room of the live wing of Stratholme, I mentioned the fact that there's no reason for new players to visit the place anymore -- they may only see it from screenshots! With quests in Outland waiting at level 58, there's no longer a compelling reason to visit the level 60 dungeons again and again for gear. You'll improve upon anything you find with your first quest rewards, so what's the point of running these dungeons? Won't they be left behind like Zul'Ferrak, Sunken Temple, Blackrock Depths, and other below-60 dungeons where it's often simply too difficult to find a group before you outlevel the content. It's not that these dungeons aren't fun, it's just that the trouble to find a group of players interested in running them -- when so many people are busy leveling towards whatever "end game" there is at the moment -- is often a pain.
However reader (and blogger), Gitr proposes an alternate reason to revisit some dungeons: solo content! And we're not just talking about what you can solo at level 70. If we get ten levels an expansion, the next one will give us level 80, after that 90, and eventually 100. So perhaps we can't do these things now, but will we eventually be soloing Molten Core and Naxxramas just for the fun of it?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Instances, The Burning Crusade
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
blkmasta Mar 22nd 2007 7:49PM
Actually, our guild has been running ZG and AQ20 as practice for the 70 raiding content, as many of us never went there. So that's a potential reason.
Pritchard Mar 22nd 2007 7:51PM
Yeah...haven't you treaded this topic about 10 times this past week?
Old instances and what Blizz should do with them, what you do with them, what you do in them, can you solo them, how many does it take to finish them, do you miss them, do you dream about them.
Christ, enough already.
Mats Mar 22nd 2007 7:56PM
There is no reason to "practice" in old instances at 70, since your DPS is way to high to make the encounter balanced at all, and you have to much HP to die from mistakes.
All you will have is 5 people doing the work, and all the people who are there to "practice" just hang out and cheer when things die.
Lostmimic Mar 22nd 2007 7:58PM
Im actually pugging naxx, its fun, fights still made so stupid people can wipe you (Thadius anyone?) Its fun, 4horsemen and frost wing left, 2nd week doing it
shawrk Mar 22nd 2007 8:59PM
@2 Agreed.
There are two primary reasons to run the old level 60 dungeons that haven't been mentioned.
First, why run Maraudon when you can get better loot in 5-10 levels? Why run Scarlet Monastary when you can get better loot in 20 levels? Loot was never the primary motivation for running mid-level instances. Quests. Take 2 70s and 3 upper-50 characters and destroy the Baron twice in an hour. Several quests completed EZmode.
Even once you're 70, go back and finish the Dungeon2 quest for "fun" and pocket a couple gold for each step. Or, any of the other quests you skipped. Sure, they're grey, but they still pay. Maybe not as well as BC quests, but why not get them out of the way?
The second reason is for midlevel mat farming. Runecloth, Argent Dawn turnin mats (bone fragments, dark iron scraps, etc), Large Brilliant Shards, and Righteous Orbs sell much better now than they ever did pre-BC. Why? Because nobody is farming them!
Guernia Mar 22nd 2007 9:26PM
I did no instances leveling to 60 on my currently level 63 pally. Too hard to find a group, and even when one might have been available, it takes too long to get a PUG together. Often I find it faster to just quest or grind, with the added bonus that all that loot are belong to me.
Right now I'm having my arm twisted by the GL multiple times a week to attend the old 60 instances. I keep making the argument that with so many 65+ players it's unbalanced and thus doesn't constitute "training for the 70 instances". Plus we keep trying to do them with too few people (until EVERYONE is decently geared at 70, they still aren't a cakewalk).
Though I am having a good time blitzing LBRS in order to get people UBRS keyed.
panahi Mar 22nd 2007 9:52PM
@2
If you'll notice, most of these redundant 60 instance topics are in fact written by different people. For example, the last 3 are by Elizabeth Harper, Mike Schramm, and Elizabeth Wachowski. So you should lighten up slightly. However, it does seem that blog as conglomeration has focused on the topic a little too much. But I guess it's a relevant subject...
bane2571 Mar 22nd 2007 11:18PM
For the last time, YES! now stop asking
Crimsonhavoc Mar 23rd 2007 12:48AM
my 5 man team has been running all the 5 man content in Azeroth, although like you said the loot is better in outland. We do it for teh experience and to say we have been there. BUT we also find that some of the loot that drops in these Azeroth instances, even at level 61 is still revelant to wear from time to time. not all mind you, I am still wearing 98% of my outland gear :) but you can make a killing at the AH because since no one is running them anymore, no one is selling either. there is a AH gap from level 58-65 on our server... and i am more than happy to help fellow horde who are running solo and want to upgrade the parts they dont get from the questy rewards, and my wallet doesnt mind either :)
monty Mar 23rd 2007 1:34AM
@7
3 different people who write for the same site...are you suggesting they all write for a site that they don't read?
And they won't know to pick different topics if they are not given feedback that enough is enough.
Get a clue, douche.
Mir Mar 23rd 2007 10:26AM
From my point of view, the main reason for revisiting the old endgame content is the lore; Most of the quests in an area leads up to an instance, so not running the old 60 instances leaves many storylines unfinished. Is anybody else running instances for the lore content?
Zuuler Mar 23rd 2007 7:28AM
@monty
Its not impossible that they don't read each others post. I am sure they ahve enough to do, researching and writing their own post, getting it edited and approved, and monitoring feedback to the post.
Simply put, you don't work there, you don't know what goes on, you are in no position to comment on how they do their job.
As for me, I have 2, possibly 3 old instances I need to run. Scholo and DM West for my dreadsteed, and possibly DM East for the DM West key if I can't find a rogue to pick the lock.
Ryan Mar 23rd 2007 8:46AM
Our guild ran a 5 man into Sunken Temple. 1 66 warrior (who dropped out after 1 hour, wife aggro) 1 63 Hunter, 1 62 Druid(healer), 1 60 warrior and the reason we went, a lvl 54 hunter. The druid still had 4 quests from here and they were grey and was glad to get rid of em. Even with the lvl 66 gone we had no problem with this instance. It was fun not really worring about dieing. The only person the healer really had to worry about was the lower lvl hunter but his pet took most of the healing. The funnest part was when everyone left except the lvl 60 warrior and the lvl 62 druid and we found that the appriation dragon woke up. We decided to take him on. I can't remember what lvl he was, I think he was a lvl 60 elite. The hardest part of the 20 min battle was that he would put one of us to sleep and concentrate his attacks on the other one. The druid (me) just turned into a bear until the warrior woke up. It was probly one of the best fights I have had. We couldn't use any of the loot but it sold for 5g each if i remember corrcectly. Over-all it was fantastic and we are probly going to do the instances in burning steps soon.
Dan Bradley Mar 23rd 2007 9:34AM
Given how the leveling curve increases exponentially, I doubt every expansion is going to raise the level cap by 10. Going from level 90-100 would be hundreds of hours of play time. Level jumps will likely get smaller, and I would not be surprised, if they stick to having one expansion per year, to see an expansion with no level cap increase, but something else significant, like new classes.
Skew Mar 23rd 2007 12:44PM
I went back to Strat, Dire Maul, and Scholo to get my epic mount quest done. I'll admit that asking my guild for a full group was overkill on the Scholo part, as we just continuously aoe'd the entire room. The mind control that the final boss uses had us a little worried, until it was used on our shaman, who blew heroism and then proceeded to chain-heal himself over and over. We wondered what could have happened if the warrior had been MC'd, but oh well. 120% mount speed, here I am!
Zuuler Mar 23rd 2007 1:11PM
I'm also planning on running ST again for my warlock trinket. Gives me a free VW summon every half hour, it can realy save on soulshards. And unlike some of the other pre-TBC trinkets, it doesn't become less effective as you lvl over 60.
Michael Mar 23rd 2007 2:14PM
i'm in a young guild with alot of members who are new to the game. I've been asked to help these "noobs" through some old lvl 60 instances just because they've never seen them and I'm not one to deny them the opportunity.
Honestly, how many non-40man raids have you NEVER entered at least once just to "check it out".
As an alliance main I can honestly say only 3. (RFC, RFK, and RFD) although i did get a horde alt high enough to do RFC.