Speedrunning Shadowfang
by Mike Schramm 
May 11th 2007 at 12:05PM
This is something cool that I haven't seen in WoW before. The video above is a paladin named Daz on EU Bronzebeard speedrunning Shadowfang Keep in 11 minutes and 17 seconds.
Now, I don't know if that's fast or not, only because I haven't seen anything at all about doing speedruns in WoW. Speedrunning (beating the game as fast as possible) has gotten popular for games in the 8bit era, probably because of emulators and save states, but WoW instances seem like a great place to race through. I wonder why it hasn't happened much yet. Well, except for that one big exception.
One reason may be that, unlike battleground twinking (another "below the radar" kind of competition), the classes just aren't balanced for it-- while the paladin here does pretty well, I'd imagine that at level 70 in a lower level instance, a mage would always be faster, just because they can push out the most AoE damage. But that doesn't mean we can't pit the same classes against each other. Anyone want to give the pally's time a go and see how fast you can tear through SFK?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Odds and ends, Blizzard, Instances, Features
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Sylvina May 11th 2007 12:20PM
If my computer was capable of frapsing I'd totally do it. But, there'd have to be all kinds of rules, like what bosses to kill, etc.
Rogues will always reign supreme, because all they need to do is stealth to a boss, kill it, end of story.
Mike Schramm May 11th 2007 12:24PM
Well the video shows a full clear, so that's what we'd be going for. Rogues wouldn't be as fast, but with dodge and combat swords who knows what they could pull off.
Freehugz May 11th 2007 12:26PM
Pallys do this sort of thing way faster than mages.
I was running my buddys through SFK the other day on my druid and did it in 17 mins. I wasn't really going for speed, but I'll try it again and see what time I come up with
Freehugz May 11th 2007 12:27PM
#1 any lvl 70 can pretty much walk by all the mobs and 2 shot the bosses. It's the full clear that's the issue here
Tego Zanduba May 11th 2007 12:30PM
My 60 Pally could do it in 22m (that's with looting), so I'm sure if i got her to 70 and tried again it'd be much faster with the boosted consecration and +spell damage.
It is so much fun to go into the deadmines with her and collect 30 or 40 of those miner dudes and then blast them with the minor AoE, they all crumble around you in a circle at the same time, this harmonious death rattle from them all.
Karl May 11th 2007 12:35PM
Speedruns occur, it is just that they aren't reported. My friend and I time ourselves on how long it takes us to solo instances (clearing ALL mobs). Our favorite run is Mara. The rule is that you must clear all mobs in all wings. I run with my Paladin for speed clearing, and he runs with his Hunter. The Paladin seems to be able to clear things faster because of the ability to heal yourself and regen mana by switching blessing of Wisdom and Blessing of Might when needed and the using Seal of Light and Wisdom for health/mana regen as well. Currently, we are starting in on running BRD solo, but getting to the Emp. fight is a real pain. The Hunter does a little better at this one with the pet, but the number of mobs can bring down a 70 pet and then over run the Hunter if you are not careful. The bar fight is a lot of fun though. It take a little while to clear it out entirely.
My guild was doing a fun run for a while with clearing Deadmines. Not only did it include clearing all mobs, but you had to wipe out all little critters along your path as well. I can't recall the best time anymore, and don't want to guess and give out bad info, but people were getting it down very quickly.
I think this is one of those things that brings back fun when you get tired of grinding or Raiding. It mostly deals with having to trust your competition for telling you how long it took them, but keeping it as a competition, it doesn't seem to be an issue with friends or guildies.
Lisa Poisso May 11th 2007 12:39PM
Some of guildmates have been known to blow off steam with a naked speed run contest through Deadmines. Everyone gets on TeamSpeak and simultaneously enters their own instances of Deadmines -- buck nekkid. You're allowed to equip any gear or weapons you get along the way, but nothing else. Whoever finishes first is the winner!
Namelis May 11th 2007 1:21PM
I ran SFK for a friend several times.
Basically you spam holy nova rank 1 to pull and then finish off the clump of enemy's if theres too many with the top rank. Fun. Revenge for not dropping the damn robes of Arugal 5 times i ran it at lvl 21 hehe.
Seper May 11th 2007 1:09PM
I did VC at lvl 64 and killed everything in the instance. In 15mins. (i'm a druid)
Satarus May 11th 2007 1:12PM
Naked run would be interesting. I would imagine demo locks, feral druids, BM hunters, and mages would be up top, with rogues being in last. If the goal is simply to kill all the bosses then druids would probably be first. If the goal is a complete clear, then mages would probably be up top.
sgashby May 11th 2007 1:27PM
Not long ago a video was posted here showing a level-something Paladin aggroing every Gnomeregan denizan while speed-running thru. Very cool and & the pally lived through it all (with buffs on of course)!
Bratta May 11th 2007 1:32PM
I think this number can easily be beat. I'm a 70 Warlock (on Dark Iron) and I recently picked up Enchanting so I ran through SFK to get green drops and to look for Shadowfang for my twink rogue (which I got on my third run, woot!)
I did 3 full clears (including the horses, heh) in under an hour by rounding up everything with a Voidwalker and tossing on a Seed of Corruption. So if a Warlock can do a run in 20 minutes, I imagine a pally could do it in a LOT less time.
avatarofvishnu May 11th 2007 1:38PM
I've taken to running lower level guildies through Stockades with my level 70 mage. My best time so far, killing everything in the instance, is about 7 minutes - not bad, considering you have to enter all those side rooms and walk on top of all the mobs to aggro them.
I've also soloed a Devilsaur naked - took a few graveyard runs and some lucky crits :)
Marcelo Abans May 11th 2007 1:56PM
We my guild and I are trying to setup a league for records for speed runs on raids and ZG is gonna be the 1st area then move from there with different divisions like 5, 10, 20 mans for different instances like ZG and 10, 20, 25 for MC. Have to work out details.. but yeah doing speed runs are really cool.
Ayatsumi May 11th 2007 3:08PM
My guild did some races to spice up the farming of instances (pre BC) for set pieces. We'd group up our 5 mans and meet at the door to scholo, and then each group would enter and beign the run. We'd announce the progress in guild chat, and while there were no 'prizes' to give out, the sense of comeraderie and competition were certainly there. For a little while, running the 'Scholorace' was a great way to blow off steam and spice it up a little.
Brian Byrdsong May 11th 2007 5:13PM
Did SFK in 7 mins as a 70 rog...
hjungle May 11th 2007 5:24PM
Last time I tried (60 Paladin) I got the Deadmines cleared in about 15 minutes. I'm sure I could do better if I stop looting (it's habit! Someone can use the Blackwater Cutless!).
Pulling aggro from all of the creatures on the ship in the Deadmines is a sight to be seen. My friend plays a mage and while he can drop the creatures faster he can't pull as many because they will eventually beat the crap out of him (mind you, we haven't tried this since 60).
Mage AND a Paladin, though? Our low level guild members love us ;)
Byron May 11th 2007 8:36PM
A 70 Afflic Warlock could do it without even stopping. Run through, put 3 instadots on everything, keep running and dotting till the end. Stuff chases you till it drops dead. Life Tap when you need mana. Use your vw to keep aggro away from you, and if necessary drop a SoC and Shadowburn or Shadowbolt that mob to detonate it and take out a whole group. I've done that in Stockades where it only took one Corruption to kill each mob. I suspect only an AoE mage could do it faster, if their mana regen was good enough.
Argent May 11th 2007 9:18PM
in general a paladin should do better on mass AE pulls like that. a while back (pre-BC) i wound up twinking a guildie through deadmines with another mage and we basically would have him pull an entire section and have me pull the next section concurrently. cleared in 9 mins. :)
Smaug May 12th 2007 1:31PM
Hehe nice, I've doe the same with my holy pally, I was quite fast too... about 30mins maybe? Dunno, I did about 6 runs, sadly no shadowfang :( Anyways, paladins advantage is that he can receive more beating than a mage, and with some +spelldmg Consecration ticks quite good... It is easy to pull half of instance and just flash yourself under conc aura...