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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsBreakfast Topic: Which Cataclysm heroic do you dread seeing on your loading screen?
by Josh Rose 
Mar 22nd 2011 at 8:00AM
Since every instance in Cataclysm has its own load screen, players know where they are going before they ever set foot in the instance. Some instances are harder than others. Some have awful trash. Some have boss fights that require lots of moving, and some have tons of ambient group damage. Depending on your role, which instance you want to see come up as your random probably changes. Some have that one piece of gear you need or that achievement you really would love to get; others make you feel disheartened as soon as the loading screen pops up.
I currently have two 85s; my main is a tank, and my alt is a hunter. While tanking anything but Stonecore, I am fairly happy. I hate the initial few pulls in Stonecore with Milhouse Manastorm and those damn guys that turn into rock elementals and have that disgusting AoE so much, and the trash pulls with the sentries later on also suck. My tank just runs the one heroic a day for the points so I can get my last piece of tier for feral and start picking up some of the moonkin off-spec pieces, so if I get Vortex Pinnacle every day and just blow through it, all the better.
On the other hand, with my hunter, every time I see The Deadmines I am actually happy. I still need the axe and bracers. Also, my hunter hasn't been 85 very long, so justice points are still useful to me.
What heroics do you hate to see pop up? What makes you hate this particular instance? Which are you actually happy to see?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 5 of 10)
Jason Mar 22nd 2011 8:30AM
Grim Batol unless I'm in a 80-100% guild group, it's not a fun instance for me and so many pugs find ways to fail on each boss - Not moving out of the charge on the first one, standing in the fire on the second one, not kiting the add on the 3rd one and not dpsing the adds on the last one. Each is it's own prescription for pain.
Stonecore is fine IMO if you can get past the first boss. The rest is downhill. Tho it is the instance that broke me from actually tanking for anything other than soloing (MS is Holy).
Deadmines is fine if you've got the time for it and I'm always happy to see Vortex Pinnacle and Lost City.
shatto.a Mar 22nd 2011 8:35AM
Deadmines, if I'm tanking. If I'm DPS, I'm the goddamn batman with the robot on Foe Reaper, but if I'm tanking I need to hope against hope one of the DPS (preferably melee) knows what they're doing. If I'm DPS (normally melee,) I live in fear of ranged who won't kill the elementals when they target me in Grim Batol.
Ghel Mar 22nd 2011 3:03PM
Unfortunately, in my experience, the one DPS in the group who can competently drive the robot is also the only one doing acceptable DPS. You lose that while he's down there handling business with the molten adds, leaving you with two idiots doing 2.5k dps on Foe Reaper. They will also fail to get out of the way of Harvest, even if they aren't the one targeted by it. Makes me want to Shield Slam my monitor.
rwienand1 Mar 22nd 2011 8:31AM
Blackrock Caverns
Even if you are good at Corla's beams that is no guarantee that anyone else is.
Usually you're doing well until.....
A Twilight Zealot Has Evolved! (and its all over)
Side Note: Tanks, if melee is in the beams, BRING THE BOSS OVER!!!
ladymcse Mar 22nd 2011 8:34AM
DEADMINES
I dread seeing it. Now that I don't need the Valor Points even remotely as much as before, I tend to back out graciously.
Panteleone Mar 22nd 2011 10:52AM
There's no graceful way to bow out of a group where three people have been waiting in queue for 30-45 minutes, trust me.
ladymcse Mar 22nd 2011 11:14AM
Maybe I should explain. I don't particularly run pugged heroics anymore. I run almost exclusively with my guild. Bow out gracefully means get another healer to replace me, and they q with 5 guildies in total, again. The whole process takes about... 4 minutes.
If it were a pug, then there is no graceful way to bow out, so I don't. Trust me, I've spent many many a long night in Deadmines pugs, giving me about 2 hours left to sleep before work.
Panteleone Mar 22nd 2011 11:21AM
Thanks for clarifying. Speaking for myself only, I really appreciate that you go through the trouble, which sounds minimal when you explain it. Thank you for that. I wish more PUGers were like you.
mazca13 Mar 22nd 2011 8:34AM
Definitely Deadmines. It's a very imaginative and cool dungeon, but it's also both long and probably the hardest from a boss difficulty perspective - the Foe Reaper has probably eaten more random groups I've been in than any other.
Rufin Mar 22nd 2011 8:38AM
I actually don't do dungeons anymore now that I've started doing PvP more. Used to be a sper PvE guy but now im getting into Arenas and such. I'll still occasionally do a dungeon but that 30-40 minute wait normal kills it for me (Warrior Dps ftw) and most dungeons fail anyway. But the most awful dungeon I do is Stonecore. It has good drops but I just cant stand it.
On the other hand i really like the Vashj'ir instance.
Psycholips Mar 22nd 2011 8:39AM
I've yet to run through these since my return to the game, and now I'm not sure I even want to after reading these comments. :)
Chan Mar 22nd 2011 10:22AM
For the most part, they're fun. Everyone has the one that they hate, and I think the fact that everyone's picking something different shows that Blizz did a good job making different dungeons appeal to different play styles or roles or whatever. It *is* a disincentive for me to PuG, however, since I'm never sure about rolling the dice on getting a dungeon I don't like.
miles.teg.f Mar 22nd 2011 8:41AM
i Agree with Grim Batol as the worst possible (also it appears as that instance actually likes me, cos it keeps appearing ALL the time x/ ), the worst part is that as a healer most fights there dont depend that much on me they are actually easy to heal, so how the run will go depend a lot in the dps u get from the DF (if they know what to do and are well equiped, the bosses go down without problems tho)
DM on the other hand is one of my favorites, i've only had one bad experience there where we couldn't pass the third boss, but most of the time its a pretty smooth run with fun dinamics :P
Popezaren Mar 22nd 2011 9:09AM
My main is a tank, and I hate to see the Heroic Deadmines load screen pop up!
For my role, I'm not hesitant about it at all. However, I pug a lot of heroics and that particular one is the main one I have trouble with in pugs. I blogged about it also.
It seems there is just a whole range of problems I experienced with pugs on Deadmines...
Group members with CC abilities that they don't want to use...
Group members that don't EVEN KNOW what Markers are and what CC abilities to use...
The "go go go" guy that doesn't even know the dungeon mechanics.....
The absent minded healer.....
Group members that drop group at the slightest mistake...
Group members that drop after getting loot..
The list goes on and on!
www.therustyshield.wordpress.com
ladymcse Mar 22nd 2011 10:11AM
I hear ya there. As a healer, it's the worst place i could imagine. Not because the healing is hard, it's not at all.
But because my cc, which is completely unreliable as a healer, is counted on, others don't seem to like to cc and the amount of people that actually know the fight, is rediculously low.
It's also the last thing I want to see pop up when all I want to do is my daily heroic and i have an hour to do it in.
exogenesis. Mar 22nd 2011 8:47AM
From personal experience, I dread seeing Grim Batol and Lost City. The main reason being that I usually did them on my other laptop, which simply cannot run Cataclysm graphics. That made them hell. I never completed Grim Batol on that machine, and I only did Lost City a couple of times, but it was enough to make me want to cry if I saw the loading screens.
A couple of nights ago, I managed to complete Grim Batol for the first time on normal on my newly 85 resto shammy. She hit 329 ilvl two hours after dinging, but I'm still getting experience healing normals ... and Grim Batol was horrible. The DPS died a few times, and we had one full wipe, with me finally experiencing the stress healers go through. I'd already groaned upon seeing it, and I think if I get it on heroic, I really WILL cry.
And Lost City is just horrible anyway.
Heroic-wise, I've only done Deadmines, Shadowfang, Lost City and Vortext Pinnacle all the way through, and each one only once. (I can't get past the gauntlet on Deadmines so I just drop group before the ship to prevent PuGs from waiting for me to stop dying). I've tried Stonecore and Blackrock Caverns on heroic, and on both we didn't even hit the first boss.
...So I guess they're groanworthy too?
miles.teg.f Mar 22nd 2011 12:35PM
similar thing, when i play on my laptop, i have troubles in vortex pinnacle (wich normally is pretty easy) cos of the twisters during the second boss that completly lag my pc :P
Avan Mar 22nd 2011 8:47AM
The worst is easily Grim Batol. It's long and it's boring. It's unforgiving to healers, requires very specific CC (warlock, shaman, or hunter), and has insane positioning requirements for every boss. It wasn't fun with appropriate (330+) gear, it's not fun with 359 gear, and it's not going to be fun at the end of the expansion.
Halls of Origination, at least that has fairly straight forward bosses. No having to dance around the boss to avoid a directional ability, no kiting, no having to get out of fire... well, we still have to get out of fire, but at least the fire goes away after a few seconds instead of persisting for the entire fight.
On the other hand, I love SFK, DM, VP, and SC. Those are fun, they're quick, and the worst thing you have to look out for is a rock being thrown at your head.
ahsanali Mar 22nd 2011 11:31AM
Actually Grim Batol has lots of dragonkin, which druids can hibernate. Even when tanking on my bear, I often cc as I pull. Any druid can cast hibernate. There are also many mobs that can be sheeped. If you have a shadow priest, its a nice place to use mind control too.
It really isn't that tough if you use all the tools available to you.
Alli Mar 22nd 2011 8:50AM
First off I have not yet run Cata Heros yet. I have run the 80s dungeons though. I do have a 85 healidin she just isn't geared for heros yet. I don't really dread any of them. Though I don't really like Stonecore that much. I like healing but I don't really care for any dungeon all that much. I have known a few in the past that I have been like "aww man". OC stands out the most. That is because it always fails.
What I really hate is people leaving as soon as they get in. Don't do randoms if you are not gonna stick to what you get.