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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsSpeeding up Trial of the Champion
by Amanda Miller 
Aug 20th 2009 at 3:00PM
Trial of the Champion, the latest dungeon, has quickly become a popular daily destination. It's no wonder why; in under half an hour, with little difficulty, you can begin outfitting your character(s) with epics of Ulduar quality!
At first, I wasn't sure if I agreed with Blizzard's decision to start handing out welfare epics again. Surely we can't be that close to the next expansion, Cataclysm!
Then I realized how easily I could now gear one of my alts, which was something previously impossible to me. Being a main healer, I knew I would never have the opportunity to bring an alt to a raid, so my favorites have not even hit 80 yet. Now that I know I could get them Ulduar-ready in such a short time, I have renewed interest in leveling them.
I can also see why Blizzard would want to help players gear up at this point in time. In Burning Crusade, so few people got to see Sunwell and experience what the expansion was all about, that this time around, they seem to be gunning for the general raiding population to reach Arthas (Icecrown Citadel).
Having accepted this acceleration in "progress," I was left with one major qualm.
The introduction to Trial of the Champion, which must be endured each run, is way too long. Unbearably long. Go and make a triple-decker sandwich long.
Then a few guildmates and I discovered that there is indeed a way to hasten the process.
While the other members of your party are finishing up their battleground, taking a bio break, and insisting on making that sandwich, all it takes is for one member to get there early.
Walk in, start up the introduction, and saunter back out. Go raid the fridge or make some coffee. Start piling random objects on your cat.
When your whole group finally arrives, the enemy will be lined up neatly waiting for you. They will sit quietly while you mount your steeds, buff up, and talk strategy. Feel free to proceed as normal; you'll be able to pull each group at a time, and nothing about the dungeon will be amiss.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Tricks, Alts
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 5)
ZakuraX Aug 21st 2009 9:46AM
The way I understand it, they just take the intro of the person inside. So it should go faster if only one of you go inn and start it.
Could be wrong tho. I am always playing peggle while waiting
Cyanea Aug 20th 2009 3:10PM
My guild does the startup trick, and the run out trick everytime.
Also, another thing to note is the short corpserun. If you're an unlucky DPSer that gets squished, you can easily release and make it back inside in time to join the fight. Battling bosses closer to the door also helps for those times when the tank or the healer bites the dust and everyone else can just run out to avoid repair bills and a wipe.
Manbare Aug 20th 2009 3:10PM
This is a great idea! I had never thought of it, that's for sure! Thanks for getting this in the open.
Time to find random things for my cat now.
Dustin Aug 20th 2009 3:10PM
Sorry to heckle but this has to be the most pointless article I've ever seen on WoW.com (and I've seen plenty). This website would be better served to have a slow news day than clog the intertubes with garbage like this. Someone's trying hard to meet a quota...
UvulaBob Aug 20th 2009 3:17PM
Sorry to heckle but this has to be the most pointless reply I've ever seen on WoW.com (and I've seen plenty). This replier would be better served to have a slow reply day than clog the intertubes with garbage like this. Someone's trying hard to meet a quota...
Tirris Aug 20th 2009 3:19PM
That was a fail mockery.
lilcasper925 Aug 20th 2009 3:20PM
what u mean pointless i liked it it was preety good if u ask me
SuckItTrebek Aug 20th 2009 3:29PM
No, pointless articles are "ZOMG THERE'S A WOW PIC WITH PART OF A MAP AT SOUND BLASTER, IT MUST BE A HINT ABOUT THE NEXT EXPANSION!!1!!" or "WTFBBQ 31 BOSSES IN ICECROWN ITS TRUE BECAUSE ITS WRITTEN IN BLUE"
I'm quite glad to have a little trick to skip the jibbajabba in that shithole instance.
Dustin Aug 20th 2009 3:40PM
That doesn't skip the jibba jabba at all... the other people simply aren't standing in the instance for it. Did we not all already know this?
Mod me down, fanboys, but it's true... wouldn't you rather see a few quality posts than filler BS?
catharsis80 Aug 20th 2009 3:57PM
I'm glad the writers of WoW.com don't pull the plug and that they have the patience to put up with all the belligerence from people like you spouting insults and flames from your mouth like an animal.
Matthew Rossi Aug 20th 2009 4:00PM
If I felt like bothering to vote for you one way or another, it would be more due to your pointless belligerence and baseless assumptions. A whole LOT of people read this site, and many of them haven't hit 80 yet, and as such, haven't been inside TotC at all. This post that you decry as wasted is for them. And having tested this today, yes, if one person starts the event while the rest of the party waits outside, the portion of the introduction where each party member is announced and cheered for can be skipped, shaving about half the time until the event is playable.
The fact that you took the time to make a post decrying the pointlessness of this post rather than, say, not doing so implies that you feel somehow entitled to being the main audience for each and every post on the site. Such is not the case. Millions of people play the game, and sometimes, there will be a post on WoW.com that is of use to some of them who are not you. You can suck it up or cry and kick your feet at your lack of beautiful unique snowflake status. Either way, the posts will continue.
Typing the phrase 'sorry to heckle' and then proceeding to do so is like saying "I don't mean to be offensive" just before you insult someone's mother. Skip it. Just go ahead and do the thing you know is rude rather than make some half-hearted handwave before doing it.
catharsis80 Aug 20th 2009 4:05PM
Yes, exactly. What Matthew said.
Dustin Aug 20th 2009 4:18PM
Anyone who's gone through 80 levels and hasn't figured out that starting an event starts... the event... might need more help than this site will offer.
I realize there's a wider audience -- but look at this post for a moment. The title promises a way to speed up the process, goes on for four or five paragraphs about how excited the author is to run this dungeon, and when I finally get to the "speed things up" portion I come to find out I'm still supposed to go make a sandwich while the boring introduction is going on.
What've I missed here?
"Typing the phrase 'sorry to heckle' and then proceeding to do so is like saying "I don't mean to be offensive" just before you insult someone's mother." -- whoa whoa, what? Heckling is something people do to disturb the performance or display of a piece of work which certainly wasn't my attempt. I just wanted to make it clear I wasn't trying to be an ass or troll the comments. Just giving my two cents.
unigolyn Aug 20th 2009 5:47PM
Actually, any other event in a dungeon previous to ToC has not worked like that.
If you talked to Akama in BT, it started Shade of Akama or Illidan. Talk to Jaina in Hyjal and off it goes. There was no option for one person to get it going to skip past the lollore.
If you talk to Arthas in CoT:Strath and start the Mal'ganis speech, there's no turning back.
It's very reasonable to assume that starting the introductions in ToC would slowly but surely lead to the event starting, and it's very reasonable to assume that if no one was in the dungeon, the whole thing would reset.
This article was useful to me, since I nearly always PUG H ToC and I'm not exactly going to start experimenting with the encounter mechanics.
Draelan Aug 20th 2009 5:52PM
@Dustin
You still seem to be missing some major points. First of all, this post DOES help speed up the event. As Matthew Rossi pointed out:
"And having tested this today, yes, if one person starts the event while the rest of the party waits outside, the portion of the introduction where each party member is announced and cheered for can be skipped, shaving about half the time until the event is playable."
Basically, one person walks in, starts the event. The announcer introduces that ONE person, then goes on to introduce the opposing champions. This cuts out having to deal with the announcing/cheering for every member of your party. You can then either have everyone come in to the instance while he announces the opposing champions and mount up, or have the person who started the event leave the instance, in which case, once they're all announced, the opposing champions will just line up pretty and wait for your group to enter and start pulling. Either way, it means you don't have to listen to the announcer point out everyone in your party every single time. It does, indeed, save time.
Secondly, if I may ask, if a post like this is a waste of your time, than why are you bothering to reply to it? Sure, we all see posts that look interesting, only to discover it doesn't really apply to us. When it happens to me, I just shrug and go off and do something else. It is, in fact, a bigger waste of my time to reply and say "This article was a waste of time for me" than simply finding something else to do. That's the way I see it, anyway.
And before anyone tries the "if you don't reply to things you don't like because it's a waste of time, then why are you replying to this?" card, I have not deemed this a waste of time. It's something I've seen regularly enough but do not understand why people bother with it. I am honestly curious. I may not get a straight answer when I ask "why?" but I will get no answer at all if I don't ask. So, I ask, why bother with such posts?
I apologize if this posts multiple times. Comcast is being particularly bad today, and I'm having issues with massive web-page-stopping lag spikes periodically.
Dustin Aug 20th 2009 7:34PM
@Draelan
"As Matthew Rossi pointed out..." - My point exactly.
"Secondly, if I may ask, if a post like this is a waste of your time, than why are you bothering to reply to it?" - I like WoW.com. A lot of their articles are very informative and timely. Other parts seem like filler to me. I probably could've found a more eloquent way to make that point but my feelings remain that posts like this seem like filler to me. I felt like this was a point worth making, so I don't think making it was a waste of time.
I'm not upset that the article wasted my time (or really upset at all :P), but more that it's just pointless. No time saving tips were given except in the comments, and even those apparently don't work for Horde due to where the NPCs spawn (unless you have everyone wait outside, run in after introductions but before the NPCs have situated themselves, etc...). Is this really worth a whole article?
I don't mean to pick on this post specifically, and also don't feel like I've overlooked the target audience issue mentioned in a previous response. I just have the opinion that WoW.com would be better without the filler -- there's enough good content here where the filler isn't needed.
Apparently I'm alone in that opinion, though.
thaonnor Aug 20th 2009 3:12PM
I totally agree with the rate at which they are moving raiding. What they are doing, and have been doing during all of wrath, is essentially having "limited time" hardcore raiding. The hardcore guilds still race to the firsts and have a month or two where they can enjoy their gear that is so much better than everyone elses. Then, as soon as the regular guilds start getting through the raid, they tend to move things "down" a bit so that more and more people can access it.
Some hardcore players will complain about things being to easy for some, however, the challenge is part of the reason that most hardcore raiders do it. The challenge is still there, it is just only there for a limited time. I think that this way, eventually, and definitely before the next expansion, people will be able to see more raid content than ever before, including fighting Arthas. This expansion just plain seems more "story" driven, and I think that not allowing mass access to Arthas fights at some point would basically ruin the experience for so many. There did not seem to be that "need" to down Kil'Jaden in TBC to make the story complete like there is in Wrath. It makes for a great story and great raiding.
jazzy Aug 20th 2009 3:13PM
Cool, I always wondered if this would work. I was worried that I would get the dreaded "Additionial instances cannot be created..." message if I left and tried to come back in.
Yeng Aug 20th 2009 3:35PM
You don't have to leave the instance, you can just start it and stand back by the door out and it'll be fine.
Tirris Aug 20th 2009 3:14PM
Why the hell would you go to that cat site when you could visit I Can Has Cheezburger? ...