No skipping the story in the Culling of Stratholme for now
by Adam Holisky 
Dec 20th 2009 at 4:00PM
Be honest, I know you do, too.
What has to be the most requested feature of this dungeon -- the ability to skip the long and repetitive story -- isn't coming anytime soon. When there was some discussion about this in the general forms earlier this week, Eyonix appeared and enlightened us as to Blizzard's thoughts on the matter:
So for the time being we'll have to live with this, but at least Blizzard is on the same page with us all. And if the Trial of the Champion and Halls of Reflection instances tells us anything, it's that Blizzard won't be building dungeons without the ability to skip the story in the future -- at least we hope so.We agree, but unfortunately with the current tech/flagging that exists in regards to this -- it's just not possible for the game to recognize this sort of thing and allow for a bypass. It's always a possibility for the future though.
Filed under: News items, Instances
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
michaelmarmo Dec 20th 2009 4:16PM
i'm curious has anyone timed this yet to see exactly how long the intro is and time
it takes until you actually start fighting trash with like a stop watch or something?
feels like an eternity but i'd guess that from the time it takes to zone in to the first
pull it takes 10 minutes. PAIN IN THE ASS. not quite as annoying as finding you got
occ in the random df but it's a close second imo.
Muse Dec 20th 2009 6:51PM
Well, the 15 minute debuff is at 8 minutes once you start fighting for real, so....
Candina@WH Dec 20th 2009 10:34PM
re: Occ in RanDun.
I finally sucked it up and finished in on my shaman today. Finally got my northrend dungeon master. I h8 Occ so much that I refused to run it.
Fletcher Dec 21st 2009 5:20AM
I can no longer complain about Arthas' ludicrously slow pace in the Culling of Stratholme. Why? Because that same ludicrously slow pace saves our bacon in the Halls of Reflection!
trefpoid Dec 20th 2009 4:11PM
That's the only instance I haven't done yet.. the dungeon finder seems to hate it in my case.. hopefully I will get there before they enable skipping the lore or I will miss it D:
Reuben Dec 20th 2009 4:18PM
It's actually quite fun, it's just that the lore port of it makes it take a while. If you get a nice, quick group, there is a boss at the end with a 100% drop rate for a bronze drake.
trefpoid Dec 20th 2009 4:55PM
no kidding? no wonder everyone has that drake D:!! I hope I can do it soon.. I keep getting HoL and HoS over and over again :(
Cephas Dec 20th 2009 6:03PM
Yes, the drop is 100%, but you have to get to and defeat an extra boss within 25 minutes from the first pull. You need to be in a group that has it's act together, moves quickly from pull to pull, and doesn't wipe. When you're getting random group members, it's definitely not a guarantee.
Mr. Tastix Dec 20th 2009 6:40PM
The drake isn't hard to get though, what makes it harder is the fact that Arthas is so goddamn slow.
devilsei Dec 20th 2009 10:16PM
Tastix, thats why they refuse to let you skip the lore section of his talk... =P
There IS no more challenge to that instance, the only thing we cant usurp is Arthas's lung capacity and unnecessarily slow and small stride.
Just imagine if the Warcraft 3 level of the same story had him walking instead of a horse. If us uber-geared heroes weren't there for him, Mal'ganis would of had an army of all 100 citizens, and would have time to run his own dungeon over and over enough to gear out each and every of his one hundred ghouls in full T9 and Triumph emblem gear.
PeeWee Dec 21st 2009 3:22PM
If you're so anxious to see the lore, just select the dungeon manually in the list. It's two friggin' emblems and a ouple of gold you'll miss -- so effing what?
Arrowsmith Dec 20th 2009 4:15PM
Considering that I run WoW on a computer that's six years old, loading the Instances takes a bit for me. I like that this instance takes so long to get up and running, as that gives me ample time to join up with everyone else before things are set in motion.
Also, it helps add to the urgency of getting a timed run done, as you have to compensate for Prince Moron's slowness and his incessant need to monologue. And anyone's who done Pit of Saron knows what happens to those that monologue...
deluded spider Dec 20th 2009 5:50PM
My boyfriend still can't get over how awesome it is that he gets killed for monologuing. :D Next they should make a "no capes" reference.
Tyr Dec 20th 2009 4:17PM
"I practically have Arthas' speech memorized now; he and I yell in sync at the end of each run "To the ends of the earth!""
Did I write this article?
Shionia Dec 20th 2009 7:09PM
When he asks in the first Town Hall group, " What sorcery is this?" we all /y VILE SORCERY!
Too bad we can't toss toast.
Amaxe Dec 20th 2009 9:07PM
I tend to MST responses... or at least used to do so until my guild complained
Aedilhild Dec 20th 2009 9:08PM
My friends and I play MST3K.
"We're going to end this right now, Mal'Ganis. Just you, and me."
". . . and these five guys."
BioHazard Dec 21st 2009 12:52PM
"We're going to end this right now, Mal'Ganis. Just you, and me."
". . . and these five guys."
Heh, the first time my friends and I ran CoS shortly after release, when he said that, we all figured we were just supposed to sit back and watch.
When Arthas got smashed, the tank said "That's not what happened in Warcraft 3..." xD
jfofla Dec 20th 2009 4:25PM
The mania for speed speed speed is out of control.
Now all other aspects of the game are tossed aside for speed.
The other day I was healing in FoS, and when I saw the tank was chain pulling so fast we had no time to loot. I said to the group "Guys, we do have to loot for a chance at The Hilt"
Less than five seconds after I said that I was kicked from the group.
Darksky Dec 20th 2009 6:05PM
Oh my gosh... I know! I'm all for hurrying things along when it's prudent, but c'mon: Frozen Halls, chance a the Hilt? Stay awhile, enjoy it! Not like there are 40 bosses you have to get through or anything: take a couple extra trash pulls -- at worse, you'll get a few extra greys to vendor. At best, somebody in the group (well, not the tank) gets a new (and pretty decent if you don't raid hardcore) weapon that'll probably last them 'til the second coming of Deathwing.
I was in a random PuG for PoS the other day and literally, the healer said "I'm just here for emblems... let's hurry it up." One trash pull later by the tank, and the healer dropped group, followed quickly by everybody else bailing... I was completely floored.
This whole emblem-farming/speed running thing has gotten out of hand.