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by Alex Ziebart 
Jan 27th 2008 at 3:00PM
Friday afternoon, Blizzard employee Bornakk posted a poll on the General boards to find our favorite 5-man dungeon of the Burning Crusade. As you can see in the above image, the Caverns of Time is rocking the charts.
I can't say I disagree with the numbers there, they're pretty close to my opinions as well. Old Hillsbrad and the Black Morass offer something that most of the other instances don't: Fast pacing, minimal trash pulls, and a story element. The instances aren't very long, either. Black Morass is what, thirty minutes? These dungeons on Heroic remain difficult and dangerous, adding some new elements to the instance, such as a necessity for speed and stealth when it comes to the patrols in Old Hillsbrad. Some of the other Heroics do this as well, but most of them coast along on 'ow this mob hurts a lot'.
The current runners up are the Mechanar and the Shattered Halls, though they're pretty far off from matching the Caverns of Time in terms of popularity. I can't help but notice that both of these instances have a small element of setting the pace, similar to the CoT. The Mechanar's final gauntlet has an element of urgency about it, you don't have much time to catch your breath before the next wave. Shattered Halls also has a similar gauntlet between the first and second bosses. You keep moving, or you're in trouble. As an added bonus, taking a Protection Paladin and a few Warlocks to Shattered Halls is the most fun you'll have. Period. Yes, I may be a little biased.
It's fairly easy for me to see why the Caverns of Time is dominating that poll, they're so different from the pull-drink-pull mob parade of the other dungeons. I hope the devs take these poll results to heart and step up the sense of urgency and danger in Wrath of the Lich King instances. The level of excitement in Black Morass just isn't topped by anything in the Burning Crusade before the raiding scene. Heck, not much in the raid scene matches the rush of your first BM run, either.
If you haven't voted in this poll yet, go do it! The poll closes on February 1st so you have quite some time left, but if you're like me and wait until then, you'll probably just forget. So, don't wait, eh?
Filed under: Paladin, Warlock, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, News items, Instances, The Burning Crusade, Lore, Wrath of the Lich King, Forums
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 2)
Schadenfreude Jan 27th 2008 9:26PM
Agreed. Our group runs without much CC, so to set the bombs on heroic, we all stood on the roofs of the longhouses and had one person do a suicide run to lead the mobs away while another person jumped in and set the bombs. While naked, of course. Our rezzer stayed on top of the houses and then rezzed these noble souls who died for the good of the group. Then we did it again. When the boss showed up, there was a point where we could pull him behind one of the houses without pulling any other mobs.
All in all, pretty fun actually.
Milktub Jan 27th 2008 10:40PM
I can see BM on top, but Old Hillsbrad? I'll do that one time with each toon, just to unlock BM.
I love BM. Love it a lot. Clear some non-elites, then you start. But it is pretty awful when you're with someone who's never done it before and doesn't get that there are no breaks. Yeah, the guy who after about round 13 types "brb, bio" or "afk for smoke break" and the group wipes, setting you back to round 1.
I wish the forums were up right now (most of the servers being down isn't helping) so I could see how my favs stack up, but i'll list 'em anyway:
1. Black Morass / Dark Portal. Fast, fun, enjoyable. I'd probably hate it if I was on add patrol though.
2. Mech. Pretty short, with a couple fun pulls. Though I could do with them removing the little arcane bomb demons.
3. Shadow Labs. Sure, it's long, but each boss is different (even though Murmur is boring as hell), but the Inciter's room alone is fun. I love six-mob pulls.
4. Ramps. Short, with lots of variety and fun pulls.
Least Favorite:
1. Mana Tombs. What's worse, the mind controlling mobs or random adds that appear out of thin air? (or am I thinking of Crypts? I don't do either any more.)
2. Shattered Halls. I love the boss fights, I kind of like the gauntlet of fire, but I hate the hallway with the fighers on the sides.
3. Blood Furnace. This one is on there just because of the second boss encounter.
Dave Jan 27th 2008 10:49PM
I'd be curious to see the results if you added raid instances in there as well.
Obviously, the design of the smaller 5-mans makes them preferable for most people to run. I'd rather do 5 black morass runs than a single Botanica because botanica is huge and full of varying forms of trash and bosses that drop crappy loot.... and Black Morass is a 30 minute non-stop fun instance. Hillsbrad I'm not entirely sure I agree with, but it is pretty cool to let Thrall tank the mobs (as a shaman!) and just have everyone DPS them down as fast as they can.
I think this is a clear sign that should be obvious to everyone that smaller is better and the same logic should apply to raid situations. We like simple. We like easy to nail in a small amount of time. Most people that play this game do not sit at the game for 5+hrs at a time. Blizzard should know this and design specifically for it, including the raid game.
Angus Jan 28th 2008 11:48AM
Thrall's a warrior at this point in time.
"He also saw in Thrall aptitude for the role of the Shaman and advised him to reroll, as the Frostwolves were full up on DPS warriors."
Shamelessly stolen from...
http://www.wowinsider.com/2007/11/28/know-your-lore-thrall-part-one/
Irv Jan 27th 2008 11:30PM
Mobs and bosses can easily be nerfed/buffed. Loot tables can easily be changed. But the defining nature of the instance for me is the atmosphere, lore/story, pacing and the general structure of the instance.
And my vote goes to Old Hillsbrad and BM.
sloegin Jan 28th 2008 1:17AM
Interesting how Crypts comes up dead last. Or maybe not that interesting at all. Sucky loot, horrible bosses, nasty pulls. Manages to combine boring and annoying. Gnomeregan without the gnomes.
Maybe next time Blizz should poll their internal teams about favorite and least favorite instances... then scrap or seriously rework the losers.
Kevarus Jan 28th 2008 5:18AM
Old Hillsbrad and BM... yeah, i kinda see why...
Old Southshore alone makes me all cuddly and happy... And BM... my god! So much fun there is!
God i hope the new 5-man (Magister's terrace) wont be like Mana Tombs... I hope it will be a great, lore-ish, BC-ending Dungeon... I mean, Kael'Thas as a 5-man boss will be hard to create, but please make him as fun as he is in the Eye. (Only less damage and... well... more 5-manish...)
Jess Jan 28th 2008 9:24AM
On normal I'd say Durnholde Keep is my favorite. So engrossing and it really feels epic. And of course bumming around Hillsbrad is lots of fun.
On heroic my favorite is Mechanar as it's a fairly easy 4 badges and there's still some interesting boss fights. Nethermancer Septhera is a tough one.
Lucas Jan 28th 2008 9:51AM
going to re-comment after my previous comment got faded...
What I was saying was, guildwars already has plot based missions (one of the few good things about that game), if WoW could take a note from their book and try that maybe some instances would be more enjoyable.
Xeren Jan 28th 2008 3:08PM
haha, wow, the wowinsider readers are merciless! :)
Epiny Jan 28th 2008 12:42PM
I'm pretty sure these are Non Heroic views. Old HIllsbrad on Heroic is about the worse instance created. The poll should habe been more specific by asking for heroic or non heroic. CoT and Slabs are very hard on Heroic.
James Jan 28th 2008 2:35PM
I love Heroic Hillsbrad. As much as the normal instance is distinct from other 5-mans, heroic is even more so. It's the only 5-man I've played where the precision of execution required matches a raid.
Oblivion Jan 28th 2008 1:26PM
Like many of the other posters, I too really enjoy Old Hillsbrad. It's a unique run with great lore. And, it's fast which is great. You don't need to spend hours at a time to complete it.
Having said that, I still think there is room for some epic five man instances. As much as people complain about it, I don’t think there is a finer dungeon that Blackrock Depths. Now, I wouldn't want to have to run that every day of the week. However, in a sea of short, linear instances I think there is room for an epic, non-linear dungeon. Give us at least one in expansion!
Theserene Jan 28th 2008 1:37PM
Shadow Labs is my all time favorite, although Murmur has not dropped my warlock robes ever....
We all love the 'Time for FUN!' boss and the topic of conversation in guild chat after is always how close I came to killing the tank....
Rudi Jan 28th 2008 1:48PM
To be honest I'm rather surprised at these results. But I've done both of these dungeons way more often that I would have liked to get folks keyed for Kara and I would imagine I'm not the only one.
Kamileon Jan 28th 2008 5:31PM
Sethekk wasn't that bad of an instance until I had to heal it as not-a-Draenei-Priest. Then they nerfed fear ward. Grr.
I think trash with annoying mechanics is what tanks Sethekk's approval rating so much -- Normally a nearby, short instance would be pretty popular except it's so annoying to run.