Which heroic is the friendliest for beginners?
by Matthew Rossi 
Nov 12th 2007 at 1:01PM
In Patch 2.3, the reputation needed to enter heroic dungeons has been lowered to Honored. As a result, players who have up to now been limited in the heroic dungeons they can run (if they can run any of them) will now be likely to be able to go into just about any heroic dungeon. This has its up sides (easier to get a heroic group) and its down sides (players who are not as geared or experienced with the dungeons will now be running them), which leads me to wonder: what dungeon would be the best 'starter' heroic?
I personally like the Coilfang dungeons on heroic. In addition to running Steam Vaults fairly often, I recently had a great deal of fun running heroic Slave Pens, in a two warrior run the other day. I'm not as enamored of heroic Old Hillsbrad, and I've yet to run heroic Shattered Halls which I think would be grueling. I generally like the Auchindoun heroics with the exception of Auchenai Crypts, which I dislike.
What would you tell a player new to heroics? Where should they go first?
Filed under: Patches, Odds and ends, Instances
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
flaakmonkey Nov 16th 2007 7:18PM
H Mech is easiest.
jbslinky77 Nov 12th 2007 1:20PM
Definitely Ramparts
Sohanstag Nov 12th 2007 1:20PM
I've always been a fan of Underbog as an easy heroic. Mech is a nice set of badges, but I hear they're nerfing that next patch as they add badges to the 10-man stuff.
Xonate Nov 12th 2007 1:24PM
I've run all the heroics except Black Morass now, and in order of easiest to most difficult, I'd put them something like this...
1. Slave Pens
2. Underbog
3. Ramparts
4. Botanica
5. Auchenai Crypts
6. Mechanar
7. Blood Furnace
8. Steamvault
9. Sethekk Halls
10. Shadow Labyrinth
11. Mana-Tombs
12. Shattered Halls
13. Durnholde (Old Hillsbrad)
14. Arcatraz
Believe that's all of them. Of course this is just based on my own person experience, so I imagine that people are going to disagree. Anyway, there you have it, Xonate's List of Pansy Through Impossible Heroic Dungeons.
Pudie Nov 12th 2007 2:30PM
Mech is the easiest. It's also done the most which means you're more than likely to run with at least someone who knows the place pretty well.
rick Nov 12th 2007 1:28PM
I think the answer is the same set of heroics that people start with now... Mech, SP, UB if we mean which are the easiest step up from normals. If you can run Arc, SH etc in normal, you can run those in heroic.
For fun? Hmm.. I'm partial to UB, but mostly because it's new to me (I didn't run it as I levelled). SP is fun, but you need CC as there are 4 packs with 2 that fear and one that MCs.
The biggest challenge people will have is tanks holding aggro on mobs and/or keeping mobs CCed while the tank moves from mob to mob. Unless they nerfed the heroics again, the mobs hit pretty hard and will 1 or 2 shot most cloth/leather wearers esp those who are less geared up.
Sylythn Nov 12th 2007 1:29PM
I haven't run that large a variety - but whenever I want a real "easy" run and a good way to get badges, I hit up heroic Mech. For the difficulty, the payoff is tremendous...and it's really not all that difficult.
Iain Nov 12th 2007 1:35PM
Definitely Heroic Mech. The 2 minibosses are pushovers, the instance is short and trash isn't hard. Apart from the lady boss you can PuG it everyday.
Zumwalah Nov 12th 2007 1:38PM
the 2 easiest are UB and SP by far. but likr any other dungeon heroic or not, the level of difficulty is deirectly related to 2 factors, Group Make Up and Player Skill/gear. if u have no CC any heroic will be very difficult, if u have a under geared tank, who has trouble holding agro, any heroic will be very difficult. if u do not know all the pulls, and what to do for each pull, any heroic will be difficult.
if you have the right class make up, and people geared and experienced enough for that level of play, any heroic will be simple.
most heroics are realtively simple, and usually only have 1 Gear/Experience check point. for example
heroic Ramps is really easy, but some groups just cant kill the last boss. or Blood furnace, the whole thing is super easy, except the second boss event, unless you use some tricks, this can be very difficult.
heroic SH is pretty straight forward however the gauntlet run is quite difficult on heroic. the same goes for all heroics, knowing the dungeon, class make up, and player experience Gear are what determines if a heroic is hard or not, not the heroic it self.
ive been in groups that walked through heroics, like they were on normal mode, ive been in others that couldn't manage the first pull.
Fireflash38 Nov 12th 2007 1:41PM
I just ran heroic Shattered Halls yesterday with an almost ideal group:
2 Frost Mages
Prot Pally
Holy Priest
BM hunter
Despite this, we had some bad luck with CC breaking and Assassins (one 2 shot me with no warning), and were unable to complete the speed run.
Also, Sethekk Halls is quite similar to Slave Pens in terms of difficulty (some slave pens pulls are actually harder imo)
Daileon Nov 12th 2007 1:50PM
Heroic Shattered Halls is definitely easy with a Paladin tank, you don't even crowd control as long as both him and his healer have Karazhan-quality gear, which isn't difficult to have these days.
It's also drops 5 heroic badges per run, because it does have 2 minibosses on it, much like the gatekeepers in heroic mechanar.
Puggly Nov 12th 2007 1:45PM
Heroic Mech used to be the easiest badges to get, but like #3 said it is getting nerfed with the new patch. The two minibosses no longer drop badges, you just get one from the chest you open with their crystal fragments key. I would say heroic Slave Pens would be the easiest for those just starting out.
Xonate Nov 12th 2007 1:53PM
One of the problems in considering which is the easiest is that sometimes the boss fights are not of the same difficulty as the rest of the instance. For example, in heroic Crypts, the boss fights are relatively easy, whereas the rest of the place can be a pull due to the wandering ghosties as well as all the adds that get auto-summoned. Whereas in Ramparts, the rest of the place is a pushover, except the last two bosses can be rough on an inexperienced group.
Arturio Nov 12th 2007 2:08PM
Shattered Halls is cake. 45 minutes later we have 5 badges. Group: pally tank and healer, warlock, rogue and hunter.
Epiny Nov 12th 2007 2:15PM
Heroic Mech... it's so easy I forget it's a heroic. 2nd would be Steam Vaults simply because everyone is so familiar with that zone.
Dracoastrum Nov 12th 2007 2:39PM
Heroic Shattered Halls isn't so bad with a good pally tank, just because of the mobs. I definately wouldn't want to run it with someone undergeared though.
By far, the two that seem easiest to me are Ramparts, and Mech.
rinks Nov 12th 2007 2:46PM
Mech with a lock is fairly idiot proof. As long as you have a good tank and good healer, which is pretty much the case with all of them.
Slave Pens is fairly easy with decent CC.
Sethekk Halls is waste of time and energy.
Milktub Nov 12th 2007 3:03PM
Last week I started a thread on the WoW forums about this change. The response has been overwhelming in the "This is a bad change" way. And not just people complaining that they worked hard to get their keys, so why should everyone get theirs for free.
Up to this point, getting your heroic key means you've run those instances quite a bit. You know your way around. You've got intance gear. You can get honored with any faction without ever running an instance -- this means you'll have folks with quest greens and no clue what the instance is, running the heroics.
my2cents Nov 12th 2007 3:09PM
I'd have to agree that Mech is the easiest heroic. Plus the first boss is more fun on heroic anyway imo =P
As for the hardest, I'd have to say SH based on my experience.
wildbar Nov 12th 2007 3:44PM
Hate the COT heroics. Mech, ramps, SP, seketh all easy. The true 70 ones are all a nice challenge. But i have never gotten 5 badges from SH....is the 5th from the timed event?