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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsMagisters' Terrace: Great instance or the greatest instance?
by Mike Schramm 
Mar 26th 2008 at 4:00PM
I, like many other players, spent the better part of the morning running the new 5man Magisters' Terrace instance (and yes -- it is "Magisters'," so there is actually more than one Magister in it), and while not everyone is thrilled with it (I know some are saying that it's too hard), I love it. I pretty much agree with AA -- it's not that hard when you actually figure out what to do with CC, and get a handle on the fact that even on normal difficulty, this is a dungeon that doesn't let up.But my favorite part of the dungeon is just the fact that Blizzard put their money where their mouth is on this one -- for a while, they've been saying that they wanted a five man to be like Deadmines, in that it felt like the end of a long storyline. And MT (which is what I think it will eventually be called by most players, since who really runs Mana Tombs anymore?) is definitely that -- I won't ruin the lore too much, but it works perfectly as both a cap on what happened in Outland, and as a sweet preview to Sunwell Plateau. I never thought we'd meet some of those names in a five man instance, but I loved it, and we'll see more of that in Wrath for sure.
Plus, the encounters are fun. Unfortunately, there's nothing super new -- Blizzard cribbed directly from Warlord Kalithresh for the first boss and Curator for the second (boy, AoEing the little guys before that is exciting, isn't it?), but the miniboss battle near the end really does play like a little PvP-ish PvE (similar to the .5 upgrade event in BRD). All in all, I think it's a great instance, and a fun way to cap off five mans at level 70.
Filed under: Patches, Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Instances, NPCs
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Brian Mar 27th 2008 10:53AM
Hmm this instance was not high on my priorities because I'm not a fan of Blood Elves. I just don't like them I didn't enjoy any of the instances around TK. So this left me feeling a bit cold. The bosses for the most part can be zerged, but Kael is a pain if you have too much melee. Unfortunately I was there with a fury warrior a tankadin and a rogue with my hunter and a healadin, so it sucked. 3 ranged DPS would make mincemeat of this place.
However I will say that i think it's great that Blizzard are letting casuals go up against some of the WCIII leaders. Kaelc was nice to see too. I expect I will try for a more balanced group but after more than 2 hours of wiping I wasn't impressed.
Boon Mar 26th 2008 10:09PM
great instance. cant wait to try it on heroic. went through it last night with a slightly under geared healer but the rest of the group was kara or better. the key to about 80% of the pulls is LOS as there are two to three casters in each group of six past the 2nd boss. third boss is a little like moroes where cc is a necessity imo. at least 2 of the four bosses were immune to taunt so having threat meters up or at least dpsers/healers who are aware of their threat output is a requirement also.
the kael fight-getting to 50% as fast as possible i would say is a no no. you want to have the phoenix spawned and dead before phase two of the fight begins otherwise you have to deal with its aoe and the dot kael puts on the group let alone the orbs.
on our first attempt the whole group was down except me (feral drood tank) after the 1st stun. i solo'd him for 3 more stuns getting him down from 15% to almost 3% before i ran out of mana and couldnt heal myself through the dot.
two more attempts and we got it.
side note: kael also does a big fire aoe randomly targeted on a party member. this is avoidable as you will see 3 huge red/gold eggs/orbs circling you before it procs. when you see it get out or you die in about 2-3 ticks.
theRaptor Mar 26th 2008 10:10PM
The Kael fight was less epic then I was expecting. Sure it is only a five man, but it doesn't feel half as awesome as Murmur or even Black Morass. It is also back to the boring design of some random bosses that you have no apparent reason for fighting. If they had of given all the bosses some dialogue that tied them into the instances (rather then generic "muhahaha I shall keeel you") and maybe had Kael taunting you more, it would have been a much better experience.
Pavid Mar 26th 2008 10:50PM
It's rough on warriors. Tanking all those caster mobs can be almost impossible depending on your group composition. I'm talking about the heroic version. After having a bad run with 2 hunters as cc I got 3 mages in my group today. It was the difference between night and day. Having 3 mobs reliably sheeped made the instance very easy. But I still think the 3rd boss needs a nerf. None of the mobs are tauntable and they all drop aggro. That needs to change. And they need to swap out some of the caster trash mobs with some melee trash mobs to make them easier to tank.
Tenchan Mar 27th 2008 4:22AM
I loved the instance for its mood (if you haven't so far, turn on the music when it's time for Kael'thas, it's very epic) and the relatively quick bosses. I don't like it for the many, many bugs that all seem to stem from the terrain. Mobs get stuck in trees, tab targetting doesn't work at the start because of the mobs below, and there was a lot of clipping through walls when I ran it.
I'm a stickler though for boss voices, so I enjoyed it very much nonetheless. (The first boss has a great voice over.)
Awryin Mar 27th 2008 6:03AM
I don't know if i'm the first, probably not, but already found a "bug" in the new instance.
We can pull the first boss out of his room, and fight in the corridor.
Yes he gets stronger cause he reach the crystals and we cant get in (door closed), but we have enough time to full heal party AND, if anyone dies, we can rez and run back inside at middle of fight.
Mirina Mar 27th 2008 9:43AM
We found that if you die on the Kael fight, and run back in, he'll teleport you back into his room to continue fighting. Our lock and tank were able to do it (the spriest and I just chilled dead on the floor).
We also discovered that if we zoned out for 45 mins (we had a raid to try to set) and returned after killing the first 2 bosses on Heroic, we were unable to get past Boss #1s room due to a barrier that is up while you're trying to kill him. So we never finished...
Cynra Mar 27th 2008 9:12AM
Ddi this yesterday afternoon with threer others who had never done the instance before on the PTR. As a rule, we didn't discuss anything that people had read up on the fights ahead of time; we wanted to figure out the instance ourselves instead of relying on everyone else. Our group was comprised of a Protection paladin in T4/T5, an Elemental druid in T4, an Enhancement shaman in T4, a Marksmanship hunter in T4 and below, and me, a hyrbid healing priestess in T4/T5/ZA gear.
We found the instance fun and a little bit challenging due to the lack of CC. Our hunter wasn't too skilled at trapping, took frequent AFKs to deal with her daughter, and DCed partway through the instance. We persevered, however, and kept going until the third boss, at which point we replaced her with another Marksmanship hunter. Pulls were a little quirky and I was thankful for the higher mana regen since I spent a lot of time spamming my rank 7 Greater Heal on the tank during those large 5+ mob pulls we kept encountering. Mmmm, mana regen...
First boss? Like many other groups, we all didn't step in together and so the shaman and the paladin soloed him. While I couldn't use most of my skills through the gate, I did find out that Prayer of Healing worked as did a Prayer of Mending on myself, so we got through that fight with minimal trouble. It was fun, though, and we all laughed a lot.
Second fight, we disregarded the orbs and just burned the bastard down. Quick and easy, though it made healing a little overwhelming. Now that we've done the fight, we'll try to destroy those - especially on heroic. And those mana wyrms that swooped down to attack us? Very cool!
Third boss fight was our bane. As noted, we lacked CC and had recently changed out our first hunter for a second. First attempt our tank was feared into nearby mobs, which resulted in an ouchy wipe. Second attempt all mobs turned towards me without having cast a single heal or spell, which resulted in another wipe (since they don't seem tauntable). Third time, we got her down, but the mobs still all came after me and pummeled me to death. I'll have to look up that fight again and see if there is any aggro table in that at all. Our paladin usually puts out more than enough threat to hold off a single Renew I cast!
Kael'Thas was awesome fun and you could tell in our group who had fought him in Tempest Keep (me) and who hadn't (the rest of the group). All of our DPS died on the first Gravity Well because they didn't know that you had to move away from the orbs - or that you could move in three-dimensions! So the paladin tank and I (miss Csilla, Feathermoon's premiere melee priest! Though, really, I just Smited the entire fight) burned the bastard down from 45% onwards. Now THAT was an epic fight and I enjoyed fighting the abridged version of the Tempest Keep fight.
Mirina Mar 27th 2008 9:47AM
I will say that the Heroic was a butt-kicker...at least boss #2. The entire party was SSC/TK geared and we were dropping like flies on the 2nd boss fight on Heroic. The orbs were a PITA, even when we spread out in a circle around the boss, and you could barely get a hit off on them before they became untargetable.
Also, is the first boss (on both modes), supposed to "explode" even if you kill the crystal before he can drain it? Every time, even with the crystal destroyed before he finished a drain, he did his explosions.
Can't wait for the 5v5 boss...whenever we decide to go back in on Heroic...we didn't see any difference in the trash (and we didn't do much CC in our group--the 5v5 boss we just mowed through the adds)--only in the bosses (especially boss #2).
I just want the mount and the pet =P
Jon Mar 27th 2008 10:15AM
Ran this Tuesday night after spending an hour plus getting my mods working again.
I probably ran it with an almost ideal setup. I'm a prot pally in 1/2 kara gear. Then a Rogue, Lock, Mage and Priest.
Since I didn't know the instance we CC'd the hell out of the place and I LOS pulled everything. With all the walls and little crevices it becomes very easy to stack the mobs on you. We'd Sap one, poly another and then I'd tank the 3-4 others. If there was a demon we'd banish it.
The first 2 bosses were pretty easy. The 3rd offered some problems. But somehow the 3rd try we didn't have any problems at all. I guess we were just missing that 1 CC to hold.
Kael was looking practically impossible. Twice I was the last one alive and managed to survive for about 3 anti-gravity. I'd "swim" away, heal, bubble heal/bandage, etc. Oddly enough with a paladin/druid tank it's possible to have the rest of your group run back and take him on. I mean once your party is dead there isn't a reason not to bubble or Lay of Hands yourself, heal whatever you need to do to survive.
In hindsight as long as you setup a kill order it's probably just a LOS pull and kill order.
My praise to any shaman or paladin healer that does Kael. I can only imagine how tough that fight is for you.