Where would you guess this beautifully lush landscape was located? Would you believe in the very heart of grey, dismal Desolace? If you find that hard to believe, you've probably never ventured very far into Maraudon (and I can understand why you wouldn't bother -- completing the dungeon requires a marathon play session), as the heart of the instance is all tranquil pastel colors and luminous waterfalls. Pyrana of Scarlet Crusade sent this shot in, noting, "I've never seen such serene visuals anywhere else in the game."
Do you have any images of equally serene parts of the game world? We want to hear your stories (and see them!) on
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Tags: around-azeroth, azeroth, desolace, maraudon, princess, world-of-warcraft, wow
Filed under: Screenshots, Around Azeroth
Dec 18th 2007 at 10:00AM 
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
hyos Dec 18th 2007 10:44AM
Maraudon is a very nice instance IMHO, I liked it a lot. But you should not try to complete it in one run, rather make three: The orange path, the violet path, finish the quest for the portal staff during those runs, then run the second half of the instance which is designed for higher level chars anyway.
Similar to BRD which requires at least two runs imho.
makabak Dec 18th 2007 10:46AM
Agreed. Mara is a lot to run at once, which is a shame. I do think it's one of the most beautiful instances in the game.
Except for the last boss. Bring your nature resist.
jaxson_bateman Dec 18th 2007 10:49AM
I don't know if you can really call Maraudon 'Desolace'... sure, the instance portal is located within Desolace, but it portals you to Maraudon, a different zone. It's like crossing the border between 'Desolace' and 'Stonetalon Mountains' takes you to a different zone. =)
A bit pendatic, I know, but I personally loathe desolace and love Maraudon, so I don't feel they should get clumped together. ^^
Electrocuted Dec 18th 2007 11:15AM
Or say, thousand needles and feralas?
Smurk Dec 18th 2007 10:51AM
I hate the purple and orange areas, but I love those waterfall caverns.
hpavc Dec 18th 2007 11:01AM
The inability to reset the instance after killing princess or corpse walk back sucks. Best you can do is set your hearth to the zone and walk back.
The 'jump down and die' after using the scepter bug was horrible and it still happens from time to time.
Some wipe recovery is definitely needed and summoning is majorly useful at level.
Urthona Dec 18th 2007 1:25PM
My guild and I were thinking it would be cool if they retooled Mara into a 45-50 ten man raid that would drop Dungeon Set One.
Everyone wants to raid, but not everyone knows how. Grouping dynamics change drastically from 5 man instances to 10 man raids, healers and tanks need to learn coordination, CC requires practice, etc etc.
But yeah, love Mara.
hpavc Dec 18th 2007 1:28PM
Lol, remember when people used to grind it for NR gear for AQ? What the hell was that all about.
Tiforix Dec 18th 2007 12:02PM
It's really too bad that Maraudon is in such an inaccessible location (at least for Alliance characters). I'd run it more often if it were easier to get to. It really does have some of the best visuals in the game.
Angelus Dec 18th 2007 12:06PM
If you didnt recognize that picture then you've missed one of the more beautiful instances in the game. Take a field trip back there and check it out. The picture is great but its impossible to do it justice.
Xeren Dec 18th 2007 12:10PM
"completing the dungeon requires a marathon play session"
haha, i found that out 2 days ago, i didn't even realize the instance was in deolace until recently, and i certainly had no idea what was in store for me.
over the course of 3 and a half hours, i made it through the entire instance, gaining and losing most of the group halfway through and then again dwindling down to 3 people. we somehow made it through-- take that, main healer who DC'ed right before princess!
clozer Dec 18th 2007 12:17PM
"I've never seen such serene visuals anywhere else in the game."
Apparently he/she has never been to Nagrand.
jaxson_bateman Dec 18th 2007 12:27PM
Nagrand's pretty beautiful, but I think Mara takes the cake.
Coherent Dec 18th 2007 1:46PM
Earthsong Falls is the best area in Maradon, although there are some very cool and pretty areas deeper in too. The funny thing is that they're called "Earthsong" Falls, but there's no "Earth" in the warcraft universe.
Yeng Dec 18th 2007 4:01PM
Earth can refer to ground/dirt.
Coherent Dec 26th 2007 12:48PM
Only if the E in "Earth" isn't capitalized :)