Breakfast Topic: Missed Dungeon Opportunities

Reader Elstor, who sent us this question the other day, had some ideas himself, such as Oshu'Gun, the giant diamond mountain in the middle of Nagrand. It's honestly a good idea. Unfortunately, the Horde is the only faction who gets quests to head into the middle of the mountain and find out its true secret, as well as gain a valuable insight into the nature of the Naaru. Fleshing out Oshu'Gun as an instance would have provided some great lore insight into the Naaru (and maybe even the Horde) that the Alliance is sadly missing, and would even be an opportunity to further develop the split between the Kurenai and the Mag'har.
For my own part, I would still love to see a third Razorfen dungeon that would hint at all the possible connections and convolutions between the Grimtotem, the Quillboar, the Forsaken, and the Scourge as per this Thousand Needles quest. Alliance could even get in on it through, say, a letter dropped at a Grimtotem camp in Dustwallow. I was reminded the other day that Grimtotems do have that new skin, and I've always wanted them to take center stage more than they do. I continue to be convinced that Magatha is essentially the Horde's version of Lady Prestor. Plus, I'd love to see more background on the Quillboar and the desperation that drove them to ally with the Scourge as the Horde slaughtered them and took their land.
I'm sure there's tons of areas and quest lines that would feel a bit more epic with a nice 5-man instance attached to them. What are a few you might have wanted to see?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, Instances, Lore
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Reader Comments (Page 3 of 7)
decongle Jan 5th 2010 8:31AM
There are so many areas that have a "setup" with no payoff. Arathi Highlands, Loch Modan, and The Hinterlands in the Eastern Kingdoms all have a visuial setup that really could have been set up for a instance or a raid at some point, "Lets raid the dam tonight guys.". Felwood, and Stonetalon Mountains would have been great places for a instance or raid in Kalimdor.
In fact, there really isn't a zone in the old world, Outland, or Northland, that does not have some potential that was not realized. Who didn't expect more out of Howling Fjord's Utgarde Keep or Dragonblight's Ahn'kahet? To make it worse, we have found out that they did plan to do more with these areas and never got to it. Which is almost worse than just unrealised potential, because it is unfulfiled potental.
One can only hope that the trend starting so brilliantly with Karazhan, and cont. with good intentions, but ultimately unfulfilingly with Naxxramas and Onyxia's Lair, of bringing life to old raids and zones with be a major focas in the upcoming Cataclysm expantion.
kabshiel Jan 5th 2010 12:28PM
At least a few of the places you mentioned had non-instanced dungeon type areas that sort of took the place of a real dungeon or raid: Jintha'alor in the Hinterlands, Stromgarde in Arathi, and Jaedenar in Felwood. The first two even used to be full of elites.
earthexile Jan 5th 2010 8:33AM
I think BC would have done well with a "Slaughter of the Draenei" mission in the Caverns of Time. Similarly to CoS, players would be spelled with an Orc disguise, and be part of the Orcs' destruction of a Draenei city before the opening of the Dark Portal.
A lot of players had issues with the Draenei, and still do, because there was little in the way of in-game lore explanation. A nice cinematic dungeon experience, with NPCs from the Rise of the Horde novel, would have made a big difference. Of course then you'd have disguised Draenei murdering Draenei from the past... so it'd have to be some dire situation calling for the slaughter to happen. Like maybe if the Orcs never killed all the Draenei, then neither race would have ended up on Azeroth, and the Legion would have wiped the rest of us out. I don't know. But I think it'd help.
Druidski Jan 5th 2010 9:14AM
This.
Hal Jan 5th 2010 9:46AM
It's one thing in CoS where you're helping Arthas kill zombies. But to help the Horde kill civilians? Never gonna happen.
Raze Jan 5th 2010 10:08AM
Totally this. My character's a genocidal maniac who is never questioned by anyone by what he does. It would be awesome for some of the starry eyed people who think we're justified to get all teary eyed over an instance like they did over torture and the Death Knight start zone.
"UWAAAGH! They're innocents and I don't wanna kill them! Give me a bazillion more baby dragons to slaughter! They fight back!"
It's what I thought CoS was going to be, honestly, and I was really disappointed to find you couldn't kill any civilians. Your character comes off looking rosy and free of blame as always. Lame, lame, lame, Blizzard.
Samantha Smith Jan 5th 2010 10:25AM
this, and they didnt even get it right in CoS. They werent zombies yet when Arthas killed them. I mean, they show im killing a few people, but, most of that town were just sick not the walking dead.
Vaeku Jan 5th 2010 1:53PM
Oh please. The Draenei were the result of one small retcon. For some reason people went crazy over what is essentially a single sentence.
Yet when Forsaken Hunters were introduced, everyone cheers.
Travieso Jan 5th 2010 8:33AM
I would've liked to see more out of Zul'Drak. It's a zone almost completely focused on Northrend trolls, so where was our Wrath troll raid zone?
earthexile Jan 5th 2010 8:43AM
we've been over this. Troll raids need a break, and I need a break from them.
Offsprnge Jan 5th 2010 9:15AM
I disagree, I am not particulairly fond of trolls, but I really really liked Zul'aman. It was very nicely balanced, progression for some, bear runs for the better guilds. Nice amount of bosses and the architecture and random path you could take were awesome and the Hinterlands is a very great zone (I always level here on any of my alts). You could explain why it's right next to the plaguelands and yet doesn't have a big scourge invasion.
Kia Jan 5th 2010 10:37AM
Fucking AGREED. I -hate- trolls, so much. I find them one of the least appealing races in the game, and I am ridiculously sick of how many dungeons we have to go through. An entire zone, two instances, -come on-. Fuck trolls.
Raze Jan 5th 2010 10:42AM
If you hate trolls than wouldn't you /want/ to kill them more?
They're more favorite race, personally, and that's the same reason I'm tired of all these troll instances: I'd love to see a troll city that I can freely explore by myself, and not with the intent of killing everything on the premises.
Cataclysm might bring that if old boy Garrosh really does kick the trolls out of Orgrimmar.
Tori Jan 5th 2010 11:46AM
I completely understand where you're coming from on the subject of Troll Raids. There are, admittedly, a lot of them and I can see getting sick of them.
As for myself though, I just love Trolls, Troll lore, and Troll architecture. It honestly never gets old to me. Troll instances are some of my favourites in the game.
I wouldn't object to seeing another one, but at the same time we have plenty of them as it is so I wouldn't be upset if we saw new and different instances implemented in the future.
Hu Jan 5th 2010 4:54PM
Guessing for Zul'NotAgain and Zul'Whatever soon.
Flyhard Jan 5th 2010 8:40AM
I think they really missed the opportunity to have some more dungeons between 50 and 60. BRD really sucks after the 3rd (too long) and before the 10th time (not knowing your way around there).
Jeff Jan 5th 2010 12:34PM
I agree with this somewhat, although BRD WAS HUGE! One of the best memories of WoW is going in there with a party of low 50s who had no idea where to go or what to do, just that there were 19 bosses. 19 BOSSES! So we counted each and everyone. We finally quit when we were in the torch room because we didn't know what to do, only to realize later how close we were. I really think that should count as at least 3 or 4 dungeons. I wish it had been broken up though really.
CB Jan 5th 2010 1:15PM
Near BRD, there's a blocked off entrance to something -- a new zone, instance, not sure. But I'm guessing those rocks are gonna fall down and show us something come cataclysm.
tik Jan 5th 2010 8:39AM
I always loved Duskwood, so much creepy lore there... and that big mysterious portal to nowhere...
Luci Jan 5th 2010 9:11AM
It is a portal to the Emerald Dream, granted it is odd for it to be in Duskwood of all places lol.