WRUP: Zul'Gonenub
by Alex Ziebart 
Sep 4th 2010 at 4:00PM
In addition to the usual fare of talking about what we're all doing this weekend, we asked the team how they felt about Zul'Gurub being removed as a raid instance in Cataclysm. Are they angry? Pleased? Completely apathetic? What about your, dear readers?
Alex Ziebart (@alexziebart): Not much of a break for me this weekend. My pen and paper crew is getting together this weekend because Labor Day killed our usual weekend plans. Beyond that, I'm going to be populating a couple of new blogs that I'm working on with content. Weekends? Holidays? Pish posh. As for Zul'Gurub ... well, I'm not happy that it's going away. I'm also not unhappy. I didn't exactly go in there very much, but I will miss it. It was one of my favorite raids at 60. Jin'do and Hakkar were awesome fights.
Anne Stickney (@Shadesogrey): Nada going on playwise -- I'll be in Vegas all weekend! As for ZG being removed, I am not worried. I am not worried. I amnotworriedohgodmustspendeverylockoutperiodfarmingfortigerpleasedon'ttakeitawaaaaaay
Amy Schley (@wowlawbringer): I'll be hitting the local farmer's market with the family and then working on Ulduar achievements with my server's guild alliance. I'll miss ZG, but not enough to go hogwild on farming it for the next few months.
Basil Berntsen (@outdps): I'll be out of town again this weekend, but will attempt to get my arena matches and a podcast or two in. As for the bonus question, I really don't mind. I'm taking a very stoic approach toward beta development: Blizzard has always delivered me content that I enjoyed playing, and I trust they can still do that.
C. Christian Moore (@thearenaguy): Studying -- lots and lots of studying. Unless ZG is being made into a 5 man complete with mounts (and even if it is), I don't get what Blizzard's deal is with removing or revamping content. 60 Naxx should still be in the game so I can get an Atiesh. It's unfair that sword classes can still get Thunderfuries (which were already more numerous/plentiful) but DPS spellcasters can't get Atiesh (which currently is their only legendary to ever be in the game, and now it's been taken out for an entire expansion). I'd also like Onyxia to have a 60 man version so level 60 twinks can get stuff from there, but whatever. Looks like I had a lot to say on this. Yeah, not happy with the change.
Chase Christian (@madsushi): I'll be leveling on the beta if I get any free time. Zul'Gurub was one of my favorite raids, but its time has passed. I raided it the very first night it was released, and we had a GM appear in-game who watched us fight against Hakkar because he'd never seen the encounter before.
Daniel Whitcomb (@danielwhitcomb): Now that the move is (mostly) done with, I'm hoping to get some quality time with the beta patch, mainly trying out two-hand frost. Not sure if I'll tackle Uldum or Twilight Highlands yet. As far as Zul'Gurub? I have fond memories of raiding there, so I'm a little sad, but time goes on. Mostly I'm thinking I oughta start running it on my DK to get the mounts and the exalted faction for posterity.
Fox Van Allen (@foxvanallen): This weekend, I'm going to try and get my new druid to 70. I'm then going to try and organize a "Sunwell funrun" for my guild. I'm then going to take all the sweet druid purples, shapeshift into a bear and dance. I might also try to create a puppet or something. Or buy a couch. I dunno. Busy weekend. Fun fact: I have never run Zul'Gurub. Ever. I should maybe get on that.
Gregg Reece (@undeadfish): I'm playing SWmud this weekend! Well, not so much playing as helping to configure a server upgrade. During downtime from that, I'll be trying to level my paladins on the beta. I'm going to try to get my alliance paladin as close as I can get to 85 so that I can take a look at end-game stats, rotations, gear, and the new pally pet ... err ... guardian. As for the bonus question, I started playing in the last days of classic WoW right before the BC launch, so I didn't really do much raiding at 60. However, I don't see any reason to remove an existing raid instance unless it would just be too much trouble to convert.
Joe Perez (@Lodurzj): I have a ton of writing to do for just about everything, spending some time catching up with SC2 and playing around with my shiny new toy on the live server! Muradin's Favor makes me a happy wanna be dwarf shaman! As far as ZG being removed, well... every three days on the dot I will be heading back in trying to get a tiger and a raptor mount! Honestly though I'm really sad to see it go. It was always one of my favorite instances.
Kelly Aarons (@Cadistra): I will be playing everything yet nothing. I'm going to PAX this weekend!! I will be partaking in demos until my eyes bleed. As for Zul'Gurub? Eh, I'm indifferent.
Lisa Poisso (@emused): Heading to Zul'Gurub -- because its disappearance in Cataclysm is simply cataclysmically tragic.
Matt Low (@matticus):Powering to 85 as quick as I can on the beta. Zul'Gurub was good as an entry level raid. It taught a lot of basic raiding mechanics to players new to the raiding scene. It's going to be somewhat missed.
Mathew McCurley (@gomatgo): I am working on tailoring on the O.G. priest and starting up Northrend with him. Go go discipline leveling. Zul'Gurub going away is like telling me that a man has come to cure me of my nightmares. All I see is Mandokir and Tigerboss. All I see is fear and pain. All I see is the sad face of a little boy who will never get a tiger for Christmas/Chanukkah. When it goes away, that little boy will be regretful, yes, but unable to inflict the terrible pain upon himself again.
Michael Gray (@writegray): I'll be playing ... let's get this closet done, mate! Also, maybe, trying to get Ulduar achievements on my death knight.
Rich Maloy (@stoneybaby): My usual boring weekend: quality time with the girlfriend followed by intensive production work for season two of the show. With the extra day in the weekend I might actually get some time to play the beta! As for ZG, it was my first experience with troll content and started my love affair with the troll race. I'll miss having the opportunity to pop in there every now and then for mounts that never drop, but the content is so irrelevant now I have no problem with it falling in the sea, or wherever it's going.
Robin Torres (@cosmiclaurel): Civ 4: Colonization and Robinemia the Forsaken mage. Gone as a raid instance isn't truly gone. You know what needs to be truly gone? Maraudon. Maraudon.
Matthew Rossi (@matthewwrossi): Having played sir packsalot all last week, I am now in the midst of the exciting anti-packing game! Given that Therazane knows that Theradas died, what I would like to see is a hugely expanded, multi winged Maraudon on the same model as Dire Maul, with actually seperate wings.
The weekend is the perfect time to kick back, relax and enjoy some game time. Are you an achievement junkie? Can't get enough raiding? Rolling a new alt? Considering taking the leap into roleplaying? Whatever your favorite way to play World of Warcraft, let us know in the comments what you're playing this weekend!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
cartmensfoe Sep 4th 2010 4:13PM
First real week of classes this week, but i'll probably be working on my warrior as i play and working on a fictional narrative i wrote as a freshman in my off time. As for ZG, i tried farming it the other day as a demo lock. bad idea, trash was fine and i might go in there again with a guild friend to take him out, but other than that i died thanks to my good friend Mandokir... Oh horde looking mounts, how you have eluded me. can only hope they make that chain in STV give a mount at level cap if you revisit the place, would be fun to see phasing like that, once you hit max level and have done the quest you can go back and your raptor is full grown!
rkaliski Sep 4th 2010 6:44PM
Funny part about this instance was that it was a much more challenging instance than Blizzard intended. I ran ZG a LOT in Vanilla WoW and even going back as an 80 to help farm mounts it was fun.
It had a wonderful design where you could do "heroic" or play it safe al way before heroic instances were dreamed of. It was also a great training ground for guilds intending on taking on Ony or Molten Core. It helped mould togther a bunch of people into a tight raiding group.
Zayd Sep 4th 2010 4:42PM
Basil Berntsen, what a great name!
Draol Sep 4th 2010 4:45PM
Anne's reaction is identical to mine.
Deathknighty Sep 4th 2010 4:45PM
"Matthew Rossi (@matthewwrossi): Having played sir packsalot all last week, I am now in the midst of the exciting anti-packing game! Given that Therazane knows that Theradas died, what I would like to see is a hugely expanded, multi winged Maraudon on the same model as Dire Maul, with actually seperate wings."
What???
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Akama Sep 4th 2010 5:27PM
isnt ZG gonna be a quest hub in cata?
Jayfitty Sep 4th 2010 6:05PM
I've had my raptor for a while, I got it on my first try. But the tiger has eluded me still, so I have that to look forward to every 3 days for the coming months. I've gotten a couple of turtle tomes and I'm exalted, so no need to kill any of the other bosses. I even have the raptor pet already, too bad it doesn't really match the mount :(
Oni Stardust Sep 4th 2010 8:00PM
I just got my new PSP yesterday so I've been spending a fair amount of time messing around with it and reading on the internet about it to try and figure out how everything works.
The PSP will do pretty much whatever you want, but you may have to jump through hoops to figure out how. I messed around for at least thirty minutes yesterday trying to figure out how to get it to play Anime I download online.
Turns out the video needs to be both the right file type and configured to play on such a small screen. I found a convenient (and free) converter program that will let me set up pretty much any video to be watched on my PSP. My lunch breaks at work are going to be a lot more interesting now.
Also, I downloaded Castelvania: Symphony of the Night from Playstation's online store and I've been playing the hell out of that. Amazing how a game that's getting close to a decade in age is still one of the best games I've ever played and even puts a lot of modern games to shame.
I'm going to try and squeeze some WoW time in between figuring out what my PSP is capable of and enjoying the classics. Time that will be used to level my Mage.
Speaking of my Mage, I guess I'd better try and get a Tome of Polymorph: Turtle off the Auction House before ZG gos bye bye. Since I came in during BC I never got a chance to run ZG, so I really don't have anything to be attached to. Although it'll be a shame to not be able to get those mounts.
themightysven Sep 4th 2010 8:18PM
so the secret to getting a beta key is to have to move at some point during the beta?
If they stick to the new yearly expansion, this looks good for me next year
Vespene -GameTrailers- Sep 4th 2010 10:27PM
It may be gone as an instance, but it lives on as an awesome quest zone.
Fletcher Sep 4th 2010 11:13PM
Actually, separating Maraudon into different wings, like Dire Maul or the ICC dungeons, is an excellent idea. The current method of dividing it up has always seemed like a stopgap method to me.
Brett Porter Sep 5th 2010 1:38AM
This weekend I'll be playing Happy Birthday, cuz I'm 29 on Saturday! Trying to get a little leveling in for my dwarf hunter on WHU, a little late to that party. Last but not least, will try to level my priest with my duo partner, just hit 68 but want to finish Nagrand before heading to Northrend.
Honestly I don't care about ZG, since I'm not much of a raider (at all), and I started playing at the end of BC. That said, not sure why it's being pulled, unless it has another purpose to it down the road. I know of one quest that took me in there in beta, but other than that, there's nothing. So who knows!
Sebastien of IcftB, Ardamac of WHU.