Breakfast Topic: What instance do you enjoy the most?
by Rizwan Mohammed 
Dec 21st 2010 at 8:00AM
I started playing World of Warcraft during the summer of 2008, and about an hour after logging onto my first character, I met some players who were talking about the gear they got ages ago from Karazhan and how much fun they had in the Sunwell. As someone who just joined, I was lost and confused to what they were talking about, but it sounded, well, insanely awesome. They said when I got to level 20, they would help me with a Deadmines run on their alts.
Fast-forward about 10 days, and I'm running my first instance with them. I remember entering the Ironclad Cove and being just in awe over the ship, the massive size, the insane mobs running after us after our hunter pulled on accident. It fun talking to people while playing, giving each other feedback and support.
Move to 2010, and I finally was able to accomplish my first raid, The Black Temple. It felt so nice downing a boss after all the hard work and socializing with my fellow guildies. Even now, the place offers some nostalgia and is one of my favorite instances, along with the Deadmines.
What are some of your favorite instances? Is it the challenge, the loot, the atmosphere, the memories or something else that makes you love that place?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 5)
rmt1 Dec 21st 2010 8:12AM
All the ones that make me think of indiana jones, like Blackfathom Deeps, Uldaman, Ulduar etc, such a cool atmosphere. Although, being a warlock, sunwell, seeing all the demons makes me very happy :D
aljones Dec 21st 2010 8:27AM
My favourite instance would have to be scholomance, back in vanilla when I first hit 60 it was the place to be. The blue loot (lightforge set!) and the fun to be had in there was insane, everything was new and different. Apart from that, burning crusade favourite would be: hillsbrad and wotlk favourite is the halls of reflection. Cata: haven't played it.
Narayana Dec 21st 2010 9:15AM
I'll second the vote for Scholomance. It was relatively short, but it also had variable length and difficulty. Have a blood of heroes? You can fight the gargoyle boss. Have a deathwish? Ms. Barov it is.
On my mage, I wore my Freezing Lich Robes (back when they were just Frost Spell Power and Spirit) almost until I got my Netherwind Robes- and there was nothing quite like getting an Ace of Portals or the Headmaster's Charge to drop off Gandling.
It was a bit of a letdown when they nerfed the loot dropped by most of the bosses, but with that came some neat new loot, too.
HomeBrewer Dec 21st 2010 8:14AM
Vanilla - Shadowfang. Loved the way it looked and felt. Can't wait to hit it on heroics.
BC - Ramps. I just remember how excited i was to get in there a play it. Plus, I rolled with Hellweaver for weeks.
Wrath - Halls of Reflection, FTW. From the dialouge with Slyvanus to the escape run. As a tank, it was a fun and challenging instance.
Josin Dec 21st 2010 8:17AM
You must have a paladin tank. They're the only tanking class I ever heard say they LIKED Halls of Reflection.
HomeBrewer Dec 21st 2010 8:19AM
I am indeed. Josin, for the win.
themightysven Dec 21st 2010 8:29AM
that must be why I never got to finish it, all the bears and warriors I got bailed after Falric
Verine Dec 21st 2010 8:52AM
Wrong about warriors. My favorite thing to hear in HoR? "I'm tanking right here" (tankis at the end of the entry way). That only happened with warrior tanks.
Emophia Dec 21st 2010 8:52AM
As a DK tank I loved that instance, not so much for teh challenge tho, it was just really fun and really short at teh same time.
Nirva Dec 21st 2010 9:15AM
As a Paladin tank I'd run oom fairly quickly as the time between the waves let Divine Plea fall off. Yay for making Judgement our new DP.
ahsanali Dec 21st 2010 10:13AM
I played a warrior tank and a bear tank in WotLK. HHOR was faceroll on the bear (stay in the middle of the alcove and swipe would hit everyone anywhere on the alcove), plus a nice focus macro for throwing faerie fire would like you range tank the one ranged mob. Faerie fire is enough threat to stay ahead of a healer so it was fine unless someone specifically went after the ranged mob.
It was seriously very easy on my bear, and bears were quietly OP for most of WotLK so it was just a lot of fun for me. With the warrior, spell reflect and heroic throw (with gag order) were very useful, plus shockwave for being able to stop all incoming damage to let the healer catch up. Intervene and charge with shield bash also let you round up packs very quickly.
Both classes were a lot of fun in HHOR, its just that it needed you to know how to play to the class strengths and work around the weaknesses. I really enjoyed HHOR, and tanked/healed it more than I dpsed it. It was my favorite instance for when I wanted the fun of tough content but didn't have enough time to raid.
I have yet to hit 85, but have high hopes for the later 5 mans and heroics in Cata. :-)
Talaamu@Spirestone Dec 21st 2010 11:05AM
Why do you guys keep saying that was hard. Even in my earlier gear levels, that dungeon was easy. Later, when I got geared in raids, I was able to heal thru every run just telling the tank to go dps spec AND gear.
Stilhelm Dec 21st 2010 12:07PM
I liked H HoR on my warrior tank. It was a refreshing challenge and great fun to exercise all the mobility and tools in the prot warrior arsenal. I always tanked it in the entryway as well.
Eirik Dec 21st 2010 1:37PM
When I had my druthers, I (warrior) would tank HoR in the entryway too. Warriors are made of mobility, not AoE, though they got some of that, too. Tanking in the Alcove meant that I'd Thunder Clap the first mobs to get there, and generally miss the ones that came from further away.
Tanking in the entry meant charge, intercept, and intervene at need, with melee mobs chasing you . (Although that did occasionally backfire... :) )
Tanking in the entryway also meant that the DPS classes could exercise their CC abilities. When they remembered to. When they knew how. Foreshadowed Cataclysm that way.
randomcard Dec 21st 2010 8:17AM
Culling of stratholme. Loved the storyline
Noyou Dec 21st 2010 9:01AM
CoS. Yes. Old Hillsbrad too. Even Black Morass to some extent. All of the CoT instances. Just like the way they worked the lore actively into the game play.
Janaan Dec 21st 2010 4:59PM
This. I haven't been one who knows all the lore already, so for all that stuff, the CoT instances were the first time I had really experienced it. Then, later when I played WC3 it meant alot more when I got to the Culling of Stratholme level. Afterwards, between WC3 and WoW, I was like "Dang, Arthas really IS a bad dude, even if he thinks he's doing it all for good reasons". It just brought the game to life more than before.
Chris Dec 21st 2010 8:18AM
UBRS. Definately UBRS. I met my husband there. :)
Waxahachie Dec 21st 2010 8:19AM
One of the first instances I remember enjoying as a player was Zul'Farrak, with its desert-ruin atmosphere and the internal event it contained in which scores and scores of trolls rushed up the steps at the party till they were dealt with.
While the first raid I ran was Molten Core, I also think that Karazhan was an extremely special place from encounter design to just the place itself. An amazing raid, no matter how many times I ran through it. Alright, so I did get a little sick of the place after running it a half million times but nonetheless it still holds a special place for me.
Swifteye Dec 21st 2010 10:22AM
We're totally on the same wavelength... my first thought upon reading the topic was "Zul'Farrak! I love how sunny and open it is, and being able to mount up just makes it feel that much more spacious!"
That was with strictly 5-mans in mind (I always think 5-man when I hear "instance"; anything bigger than that is always and only called "raid" to me)... but once I saw other people mentioning raids, I thought "Well darn, Kara could totally give ZF a run for its money; even though I always have and always will love ZF with a passion, Kara is the first place I ever saw that TRULY took my breath away from the very first moment to the very last!"
Other than that... I tend to be the type of person who likes things *more* the more familiar I get with them (rather than getting sick of them), so I'm rather fond of Underbog from my hunter's long-ago Sporeggar rep grind, and Steamvault from my pally's very recent Cenarion Expedition rep grind.
And as far as the newest of the new goes, I think my favorite of the Cata 5-mans is Vortex Pinnacle. Out of all of them, I think the boss mechanics on that one are challenging enough to be interesting, yet not SO challenging as to be maddeningly frustrating, at least to me. And traveling by cyclone is neat!