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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Missed Dungeon Opportunities
by Daniel Whitcomb 
Jan 5th 2010 at 8:00AM
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
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 7)
jbodar Jan 5th 2010 10:23PM
This is why we can't have nice things.
Seamus Jan 5th 2010 9:23AM
I've always thought that Jaedenar in Felwood and Jin'thalor in the Hinterlands were dungeons that never got implemented.
Luci Jan 5th 2010 9:25AM
Slightly unrelated, but I am interested to see if some of the mysteries of Azeroth like the IF airport, the hidden farm in the Wetlands, and that village of dancing trolls in Darkshore will remain after they allow us to fly in Old World or if they will be destroyed in the revamp.
I think everyone pretty much agrees in the unfulfilled potential of Old Kingdom and Utgarde. They are beautiful and so rich with detail that it truly is a shame they will not be further realized.
I for one had really hoped that Cataclysm would have been more of a Maelstrom+Emerald Dream combo and I really hope the Emerald Dream portals survive Cataclysm. They were always the most mysterious thing to me leveling up. The first one I saw as a young druid was the one in the Hinterlands. I remember stealthing all around Seradane wondering what all the fuss was about and then seeing this great green mysterious portal. I soooo want there to be an Emerald Dream instance one day. Can't you just imagine maybe a CoT thing where you go into the Emerald Dream to assist Malfurion or something? That would be awesome.
IMO I think it is a great thing that Blizz is going back and revamping Old World. Maybe some of these Vanilla WoW mysteries can be solved and new ones created! It is always fun to imagine and speculate ^.^
slythwolf Jan 5th 2010 12:50PM
I thought it had been announced that the troll village in Darkshore was going to be an accessible part of the game in Cataclysm?
Luci Jan 5th 2010 4:17PM
Hmmm, I'm not sure on that one. I hope a lot of little places like that are though.
sweet_lipd_37 Jan 6th 2010 8:59AM
I have seen the dancing troll vilage on the mmo champion board the other day a whole entire town of trolls
Hoggersbud Jan 5th 2010 9:37AM
Oshu'gun and Timbermaw have always been the big ones for me, but I also think every capital city should have an instance like Stormwind and Orgrimmar do. Though I suppose I could count Gnomer as part of Ironforge. Darnassus could have some corrupted root to expunge or some leaf tip fighting or something, the Exodar could feature something corrupted in the Engines, the Wretched could be fought in Silvermoon City, the Sewers of Undercity must have something lurking within and Thunderbluff could have the caves of the Ancestors haunted.
Then there's the zones without instances. Besides Azshara and Nagrand, there's Duskwood, STV, Thousand Needles, Wetlands, Loch Modan and others. Some I know are getting instances in Cataclysm, but well, it won't hurt to consider ideas now. Not like we could be playing the game instead.
Kaliazhul Jan 5th 2010 12:13PM
In Darnassus I would be pleased with a ToC-style dungeon where every boss is Archdruid Fandral Staghelm, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
Kia Jan 5th 2010 9:46AM
Immediately the first thing that comes to mind is the Deathforge in Shadowmoon Valley. The place is large enough for some smaller 5-mans as is, and the atmosphere is just awesome. Why it isn't a 5-man is beyond me, but they really dropped the ball on that one.
I think Naxxanar in Borean Tundra would have made a great 5-man as well, getting players used to the sort of stuff Naxx provides, maybe. Another multi-winged necropolis, just tinier.
I'm always kind of annoyed at how few instances there are per expansion, they just keep getting less and less. The fact that Cat has even -less- than the already tiny Wrath is just depressing. -_-
traptinacivicsi Jan 5th 2010 10:25AM
Well, we only know the inital raids at this point, which Is more than Naxx/OS/Eoe as far as I can tell (not to mention they are actually full raids unlike EoE and OS) and they said the reason we are only going to 85 is that they are spending a huge amount of time on the endgame raids to give us way more to do than we had in wrath.
So you, just, wait.
deweymaverick Jan 5th 2010 9:48AM
Crystal song forest.
There's a ton of fluff for the area that's never really fulfilled (the battle between the blue and black dragon fight) - and there's nothing there, there's hardly any quests even.
We're how far into Wrath, and its the Azshara/Winterspring of Wrath.
I mean, who does anything there other than fly to Dal?
deweymaverick Jan 5th 2010 9:57AM
And I know this has nothing to do with instances... but for the love of the light, please bring back class based quests.
Honestly, that's something that I sorely missed and there really should be something crazy and fun to do just for your class every 10 levels or so. (And while I'm on a roll, there really should be a fun/goofy title, only for your class, for completing them all.)
Fnord Jan 5th 2010 10:01AM
CARROTS, man! Beautiful, sparkly carrots...
Lumorei Jan 5th 2010 12:05PM
"And I know this has nothing to do with instances... but for the love of the light, please bring back class based quests.
Honestly, that's something that I sorely missed and there really should be something crazy and fun to do just for your class every 10 levels or so. (And while I'm on a roll, there really should be a fun/goofy title, only for your class, for completing them all.)"
Win. And btw, we have some Class related Titles:
___, Guardian of Cenarius (druid)
___ The Argent Champion (paladin)
___ The Undying (death knight)
artifex Jan 7th 2010 12:18AM
Yes, my warlock really needs a winged horse with flaming hooves to call his own, especially since I can't seem to beat the RNG boss to get the Horseman's mount :)
And YES I did the chain to get my epic riding; have my Feat of Strength. No leveling warlock I have ever talked to about it later has wanted to go off and do it now that there's a faster, cheaper way :(
rawrawrawr Jan 5th 2010 9:54AM
I think a barrow den instance in moonglade dealing with the emerald nightmare would be great.
Tori Jan 5th 2010 12:06PM
Definitely. The first time I noticed you could go down into the Barrow Dens there and see those tunnels with the aggressive plant life it was pretty awesome. I could easily see an instance put there, plus it would make Moonglade seem less useless.
Diewalkure Jan 5th 2010 9:58AM
I think one of the coolest and most beautiful zones in the game is Azshara. The last time I was in Azshara was during the Scourge Invasion where the Necropolisis were popping up everywhere in the old world. When the one phased out in Azshara I stayed there and explored. There seems to be a lot of potential there. The ruins of Eldareth could be made into a great dungeon like DM. (I know i'm weird I like actually like DM). I think there was going to be a battleground there but it was never implemented. The Temple of Arkkoran is another interesting area. There seems to be some very interesting lore behind it but when you actually see it in game there nothing there. Maybe we'll get some very interesting changes for this zone in Cataclysm.
Gimmlette Jan 5th 2010 10:04AM
Deatholme.
Horde will recognize that name but Alliance? I wandered through this place while getting the Explorer title. For a level 80, everything is a one-sneeze, but its proximity to Stratholme makes me wonder if there couldn't be some connecting instance. Why not turn it into the first joint horde and alliance 6-man? You could run it with 6 people but you get better events and loot if you PUG it from the opposite faction. The communication issue would have to be solved, maybe Chromie could give you a translator that is used only for this instance.
And I agree with an earlier comment that all zones could benefit from another raid instance that is tied to lore being dropped in their midst. In some places with a current 5 man, there might not be a "logical" place to put a new instance. In that case, make the new instance an off shoot of a current one. Lady Prestor was killed by Wrynn or was she? What if, deep under Stormwind, the scourge has taken her body and is attempting to reconstruct her as the ultimate undead dragon? Following a quest line of rumors, you wind up at Stocks where you talk to someone else in that initial room. When you run into Stocks, you'll see the original mobs have been replaced with undead and there is another level to the place. While anyone could talk to the guy, only if you're level 80+ could you actually get the option to enter that instance.
How would the horde get to run it? A quest chain would lead to a goblin who teleports them to right outside Stockades. They have to talk to the person who lets them in. Yes, we alliance would have to put up with myriad "Stormwind is under attack" messages or teleport the horde straight into the instance from a person in a capital city. The same thing could happen for a revamped Ragefire Chasm.
Actually, Blizzard, you should ask for ideas, not that you lack any yourself, for new instances. I'll bet just the readership of WOW.com could supply enough ideas to keep the game going for another 2-3 years.
Lorr Jan 5th 2010 10:05AM
No one has mentioned the tomb outside of Kara. You use to be able to be feared through the door, and explore the uninstanced area. Complete with room names. No mobs. Very creepy.