Will the new 2.1 content be instance-based?
by Elizabeth Harper 
Apr 11th 2007 at 3:20PM
Blizzard's recent announcement of additional content for the upcoming 2.1 patch left a lot to be desired where details were concerned. While it's quite clear that there will be three new areas in the game -- the Ethereum Prison, Skettis, and Ogri'la -- Blizzard's phrasing never specifically states that these will be 5-player instances, or instances at all. Instead of "instance," Blizzard talks about "solo and small-group" content, "tons of new quests," and (for Skettis and Ogri'la) "5-person bosses." So what should we expect to see in patch 2.1? Only Blizzard knows, but that doesn't stop us from speculating! Over on The Many Realms of Relmstein, Relmstein presents us with three possibilities on what these zones might be like:
- Quest Hubs with new chain quests which eventually result in having to fight a 5-man boss.
- Quest Hubs which require you to go to a non instanced area filled with elite mobs.
- Each area has a single small instance which has group content inside but single person quest objectives outside.
Filed under: Patches
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Hank Apr 11th 2007 3:28PM
Well, Skettis already exists, and is a nice place to farm if you can take on three mobs at once. The Ethereum Prison may be related to something that looks like an instance portal near Manaforge Ultris in Netherstorm, there are already some consortium quests in the area. And there are obvious prisoners.
Therizo Apr 11th 2007 3:30PM
Psst! Skettis is already in the game, its an enormous flight-only zone with no quests but a couple of bosses and TONS of high level (and quite dangerous) mobs. I would guess that all that's gonna happen there is the addition of a small camp of freindly lower city guys with quests. Sounds to me that the other two are going to be floating island type areas somewhere above current content that are set up similarly. I personally doubt that there are going to be new instances associated with them, but its a posibility.
There's also several 5-man bosses and solo/elite zones in flight only areas of Blade's Edge, and one in Nagrand also. I imagine these will be quest targets either from the aformentioned new zones or for the netherdrake or druid epic quests.
Or maybe not. I just like speculating!
wookievomit Apr 11th 2007 3:37PM
I would love to have a new area with Elite mobs with a boss battle in the middle much like Jintha'alor in the hinterlands. The only problem I found with this zone is "cheaters" who took the fun out of it by dying over and over again til they got closer to the boss they needed to defeat.
Melf Apr 11th 2007 3:42PM
Blizzard has said several times that their best/favorite example of solo/group quests and instance is the Westfall-->Deadmines questline. The whole storyline with the Defias and everything starts as solo stuff, moves to duo and eventually culminates in the perfect instance in the area. Unlike many other instances, there is a huge tie-in from the outside zone to the instance. You can see how they've attempted to recreate this with all of the instances in TBC.
I wouldn't be surprised if there were new instances in the latest patch, but it seems unlikely. There is already enough content to get to 70 without grinding, so there would have to be pretty tasty rep/drop/rewards in these new areas to get people interested.
But yay for content!
Todd Apr 11th 2007 3:45PM
I really wish Blizzard would hold up and finish some of the quest chains started, never finished, in regular ol' Azeroth. Two come to mind.
1. The "Essence of Eranikus" quest chain which just simply stops.
2. The disappearance of "Varian Wrynn" and the quest chains surrounding him.
Rich Apr 11th 2007 3:48PM
It would be nice to have single and duo person instances.
Flit Apr 11th 2007 4:00PM
First matter of business: Netherdrake quest.
RSH Apr 11th 2007 4:10PM
Ogri'la might be an instance, since no place with that name exists yet in Outland, but the Ethereum Prison is probably going to be an extension of the quest chain that starts at the Protectorate Outpost, and as many people have already noted Skettis is accessible by anyone with a flying mount- there just isn't any particular reason to go there yet.
rickrick Apr 11th 2007 4:25PM
@6 the single person instance is the one that loads up when you log into the game. 99.9% of that stuff is solo'able.
Ryan Apr 11th 2007 4:38PM
@8 Blowing a semi-secret here, but there is a ton of mana thistle up there.
Freehugz Apr 11th 2007 4:31PM
I don't even want to think about horribly unbalanced single/duo instances would be. 3 man would make a little more sense.
Matt Apr 11th 2007 6:15PM
Why o why do they not offer hirelings a la Guild Wars? My favorite part of the game: 5-Man instances. Me least favorite part of the game: wasting over an hour trying to put together a group for an instance run. Not to mention the head ache of idiots, disconnects, people leaving for various reasons.
I'm 30 and have a full time job. I'm lucky if I can run one instance a week due to the crap listed above. Why FORCE me to group? And before you say, go play Oblivion, I love this game despite these flaws. It just makes no sense they force me to group. There is still PVP (world, arena, Bg's, servers, etc.) I like the community aspect of the game and the AH, etc. I like grouping from time to time but why force it? Would it really be that hard to allow me to "hire" a group to go through the instances with?