Breakfast Topic: What dungeon have you had to relearn?
by Adam Holisky 
Dec 21st 2009 at 8:00AM
The random dungeon finder is not only great for gearing up alts and getting mains the necessary badges to fill out their gear -- it's an amazing tool which forces an increase in the WoW community's collective knowledge about instances and game mechanics. And while some of these game mechanics will be a discussion for a future time (hint: tomorrow's Breakfast Topic), today let's focus on what instances you've had to "relearn," more or less.
Take Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom. Prior to the random heroic dungeons, I probably ran this place a grand total of five times. My warrior tank got the bracers on his fist run through it, and I did it on a few more alts just to get the Northrend Dungeon Hero achievement. Other than that, when it was the heroic daily I'd just skip it and find something else to do. Nothing annoyed me more than the Insanity that Hearld Volazj casts, and the trash pulls got on my nerves when the DPS couldn't wait for the mobs to come to the tank, inevitably leading to a wipe.
In short, it was my least favorite instance and I was able to just ignore it. From the best I can tell, before these past two weeks, the last time I set foot in it was in May 2009.
But now, the random dungeon finder has forced me to relearn the place and deal with all its mechanics. I've found ways to deal with the Hearld Volazj's abilities on my paladin tank, and I've gotten rather vocal about the group staying put as I pull trash packs back to them. And just as important as knowing the mechanics is leading the run as a tank. For instance, if I see a DPS move up with me, I'll stop and ask him to go back. If he doesn't listen, I'll ask again politely. Third time around with a random DPS not listening I'll just threaten to kick, and by that point the group is pretty annoyed with him anyways. The next thing you know, he's out the door with a successful vote to kick. The next DPS that comes in always seems to behave.
So what dungeons have you had to relearn dear readers? And better yet, what ones have you had to change your tactics on with the introduction of the random dungeon finder?
Take Ahn'kahet: The Old Kingdom. Prior to the random heroic dungeons, I probably ran this place a grand total of five times. My warrior tank got the bracers on his fist run through it, and I did it on a few more alts just to get the Northrend Dungeon Hero achievement. Other than that, when it was the heroic daily I'd just skip it and find something else to do. Nothing annoyed me more than the Insanity that Hearld Volazj casts, and the trash pulls got on my nerves when the DPS couldn't wait for the mobs to come to the tank, inevitably leading to a wipe.
In short, it was my least favorite instance and I was able to just ignore it. From the best I can tell, before these past two weeks, the last time I set foot in it was in May 2009.
But now, the random dungeon finder has forced me to relearn the place and deal with all its mechanics. I've found ways to deal with the Hearld Volazj's abilities on my paladin tank, and I've gotten rather vocal about the group staying put as I pull trash packs back to them. And just as important as knowing the mechanics is leading the run as a tank. For instance, if I see a DPS move up with me, I'll stop and ask him to go back. If he doesn't listen, I'll ask again politely. Third time around with a random DPS not listening I'll just threaten to kick, and by that point the group is pretty annoyed with him anyways. The next thing you know, he's out the door with a successful vote to kick. The next DPS that comes in always seems to behave.
So what dungeons have you had to relearn dear readers? And better yet, what ones have you had to change your tactics on with the introduction of the random dungeon finder?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Instances
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
darthkoonstyle Dec 21st 2009 8:07AM
Definitely Oculus. The rest I've done repeatedly, though some I did more than others (Utgards, etc). The only problem I seem to have now is not getting VH as a random dungeon 5 out of 7 runs... -_-
LeggMyMuoio Dec 21st 2009 11:11AM
I didn't understand all the Oculus hate until I was forced to do it as a daily yesterday. Our first problem was a mage who claimed to be stuck on his drake with no "Exit Vehicle" button. He got kicked. Our next issue was a totally clueless ret pally who took a red drake and didn't even know it was a tank drake. We wiped on the last boss because of this. Second attempt, the same pally goes and picks up a green drake even though everyone is telling him to get a bronze. He simply doesn't say anything and flies up to the top. We wipe again and I say screw it, it's not worth the repair bill.
In the end, it comes down to Oculus isn't something that other people can carry terrible players through. I H Forge of Souls last night I was doing twice the dps of any of the other dps and everything went very smoothly. It's just not possible in Oculus.
marco Dec 21st 2009 11:14AM
How do you even get a group for Occulus? Every time I land there everyone drops immediately.
Barinthos Dec 21st 2009 11:24AM
It's a shame everyone thinks Oculus is the worst dungeon in existance still. After the patch it was nerfed to all kinds of hell and it's quite fun now.
I hate OK more than Oculus, but they're both relatively easy if you take it at a moderate speed and don't try to roflstomp the instance in 10 minutes.
catharsis80 Dec 21st 2009 11:29AM
Ha! Just about to say Oculus. Tanked it for the first time last night. Actually, the group we had was high geared, so it went smoothly and burned the mage fast. As for the drake fight, it didn't feel like too much was nerfed. People seemed to be doing their jobs right, and it still took awhile.
LeggMyMuoio Dec 21st 2009 11:32AM
Barinthos, even with 3 people knowing the fight really well, you can't complete the instance if everyone doesn't know what they're doing.
Barinthos Dec 21st 2009 11:41AM
@LeggMyMuoio - That's why you explain it to them. There are always new people to dungeons, and especially heroics. Not everyone has been putting heroics on farm, so a bit of explaining goes a long way. I always make it a point to ask "everyone know this boss?" before I pull and if someone doesn't I tell them the main points, and away we go.
LeggMyMuoio Dec 21st 2009 11:48AM
Well like I said, we tried to talk to the one person and I'm almost certain he didn't speak English. I'm sure it's possible with 5 competent people even if they're undergeared for the instance, but other times you just have to realize that you can't fix stupid.
Barinthos Dec 21st 2009 11:50AM
LeggMyMuoio - Lol I suppose that's true. Some people just can't seem to grasp even the simplest concepts for some reason. Whether that be due to age, lack of reading comprehension(not their native language) or they just don't give a crap and want to be carried through.
Slog Dec 21st 2009 1:03PM
@LeggMyMuoio:
You know the UI glitches at times, where you have to /console reloadui to get the dragon bar or even your action bars to show. It's happened to me often enought, in Occ and ToC. Kicking someone without trying to help them in a situation like that is kind of a dick move imo.
Kroof Dec 21st 2009 4:20PM
Back when Occulus was just the heroic daily it wasn't so bad. You would end up with a group who on purpose, knowing full well what they were getting into chose to run this dungeon. It might not have been very easy sometimes, but at least it wasn't terrible.
Now, I find myself HATING when occulus comes up. I must've run this a ton of times before the nerf, and now I hate it.
It seems rather common for me to get a group with at least two or three people who have no idea what to do on the drakes. Even once the fight and especially the last boss is explained. Tis a wipe fest.
I may beg a favor from wowinsider. You have guides to holidays, beginner's guides to arenas, bg's and many other things. Please, PLEASE post a beginner's guide to Occulus. I think it would go a LONG way towards making occulus what it should be. A breath of fresh air in endless random dungeons.
Bronwyn Dec 21st 2009 6:21PM
@Slog
I was about to say this. If the mage "Claimed" there was no exit vehicle button, there's every possibility there wasn't. That vehicle ui has been known to glitch now and then - it does it for me, too.
Arkhell Dec 22nd 2009 7:15AM
Basicly they made it a lot simpler (not kidding)
just put your healer on the platform without a drake (he won't get attacked 2 much and the explosive balls won't chace him cause he has no drake). keep your drakes near him he can easely heal them 2 full health, fly away when the balls chace after you (there won't be one for the healer but hey splash dmg is a bitch). and just kill the gaurdian.
did this last time i dismounted to put MotW on all drakes and someone engaged and we killed him cause i didn't get high amounts of dmg that i couldn't HoT trough and drakes were easaly healable.
hope this helps
Dreamstorm Dec 21st 2009 1:27PM
I never knew OC could be ... quite a breeze...
It was my first Random Heroic and my entire party was complaining about it, but once we got started, we cut through the mobs like a hot knife through butter. Healer knew the paths we should take whne flying and before we knew it, we had downed the last boss.
I''ve now officialy run out of instances that I don't like :-)
John Dec 21st 2009 8:10AM
Oh man I had to relearn OK. I even fogot one of the bosses existed.
Halls of stone I didn't remember but we skipped right to tribunal anyways.
Also if I get it I will have to relearn occulus. Only did it once on my first 80.
WB Dec 21st 2009 9:09AM
Every random OK group I've had so far goes straight for the two boss run. So it hasn't been too bad. Personally I prefer chasing down the extra badges but you gotta roll with the punches.
L Dec 21st 2009 10:13AM
And as a healer I now feel obliged to stay for the "bonus bosses" in OK. I don't need badges, I'm just running for the frost, but the others in group do and they will never find a healer to come in when the "main" boss is down. On the up side I get queues in 20 seconds.
wyzim Dec 21st 2009 10:25AM
If you have cleared the trash, skipping boss is a loss of a badge. If you can skip trash AND boss, then it is a gain as long as it is not the last boss.
Wolftech Dec 21st 2009 12:12PM
Why would anyone skip 3 bosses? I do not understand that, especially when OK is one of the easier heroics in my opinion.
vocenoctum Dec 21st 2009 12:42PM
You skip the other bosses 9we still usually do the beetle on the way) because the time spent doing them would be better spent in the next dungeon. If it's 5-10 minutes (and the one fungus guy is sort of out of the way) then you could almost have another dungeon completed (with 2 bonus emblems!)
If you don't need the dropped emblems, it's just a total waste of time.
We usually do them if someone wants to, but otherwise it's easier to just skip them. Trash is irritating enough, and dps doesn't seem to understand what I mean (as tank) when I say "I'm going to use the stairs to LOS these casters", no matter how much I explain it.
But they're easily replaced if they bitch about dying.