BlizzCon 2011: Dungeons and Raids information
by Matthew Rossi 
Oct 21st 2011 at 5:00PM
For starters, there will be 9 new dunegons, six across Pandaria itself and three heroic versions of classic instances, namely Scholomance and two updated wings of the Scarlet Monastery. The new dungeons will include the Stormstout Brewery, where you work alongside Chen Stormstout himself.
There will also be three raids at launch featuring the Mogu and the Mantid races, and Raid Finder will be integrated into every raid at Mists of Pandaria's launch. World raid bosses will also be included, as Cory Stockton says "There were problems ... we've got solutions to those problems."
Stay tuned to the Raid and Dungeons panel which will be liveblogged by us.
The news is out -- we'll be playing Mists of Pandaria! Find out what's in store with an all-new talent system, peek over our shoulder at our Pandaren hands-on, and get ready to battle your companion pets against others. It's all here right at WoW Insider!Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items, Raiding, Lore, BlizzCon
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Artificial Oct 21st 2011 5:01PM
Yay! Chen! We've missed you! :D
Kylenne Oct 21st 2011 5:10PM
I'm watching the livestream, and I squeed so loud I woke up my cat when they mentioned Chen. Apparently I was way more excited about Pandarens than I thought I'd be.
jynxycat Oct 21st 2011 5:04PM
Original Scholomance was probably one of the hardest 5 man dungeons I've ever done :P
Good to see it come back.
Revnah Oct 21st 2011 5:04PM
I'm so excited, it really is undignified for a woman of 41 years. I'm surprised I'm even coherent, mostly I've been uttering endless streams of "OHMYGODS OHMYGODS OHMYGODS" over the past two hours.
The more I hear (I'm watching on the e-ticket thing - yeah, I did break down and bought an e-ticket, and no I'm not going to sleep tonight, lol), the more excited I get. This expansion sounds like the answer to all my WoW-related prayers, EVER. No more need to put every player through the same heroics-5man grind to earn Valor Points (except for my raider main), lots more things to do at top level even for alts, different levelling options, spellbooks cleaned up instead of just more and more added, AND a new continent, race, and class - oh my gods, and have I said OH MY GODS yet??
One Troll monk coming up :-D
Kylenne Oct 21st 2011 5:13PM
I'm watching it too, and I'm a grown ass woman that jumped up and down like a little girl when they announced wands are gonna be main hand weapons now.
The only thing I'm mad about is finding the damn space for a Pandaren, and my inevitable blood elf monk.
Revnah Oct 21st 2011 5:28PM
*high-fives Kylenne*
I just ordered pizza at half past ten in the night. Now I've come full circle and regressed to about 15 years old ;-)
I love that Scholomance is getting an overhaul, and Scarlet Monastery - oh yes, and the wand thing too, and I may have to dig out my hunter now that minimum range is FINALLY going to go... I could go on and on but I have to watch the talent changes.
Have fun!!
LynMars Oct 21st 2011 5:52PM
This 30-something will stand right with ya on being girlish over some really great changes.
I didn't think I'd be so keen on Pandaren, but the concept art and screenshots look really good, and the other changes are looking intriguing.
Marius W. Oct 21st 2011 6:21PM
Im just gonna hang out here with the overly excited women :)
Ves Oct 21st 2011 5:05PM
Nice to see they've addressed the issue of every expansion launching with less heroics than the last... by launching an expansion with just as many heroics as the last.
Sarah Bee Oct 21st 2011 5:06PM
Sounds good! The Stormstout Brewery with Chen looks like it will be a good one! I do hope they brush up SM and Scholomance a bit though with some new mechanics and bosses, I don't think they're quite up to the standard of other revamps like Deadmines and Zul'Gurub.
Boobah Oct 21st 2011 6:52PM
Er... how do we know what that standard it's at? I don't think they've actually shown them off yet. As long as it's more of a DM/SFK/ZG revamp than a ZA revamp, I'm cool with it.
The biggest issue with Scholo, though, is that it's a huge dungeon as it stands. Or at least incredibly crowded with bosses; something like fourteen in there, at the moment. It's either getting broken into smaller chunks, lots fewer bosses in the redux, or people are going to be dropping it just because of the time commitment.
Swifteye Oct 21st 2011 5:11PM
Eh... to be honest, I don't know how great of an idea it is to update two wings of SM but not the whole thing. All or nothing, says I.
Ah well. Still vastly excited for the expansion as a whole... and I do hope the Library and Cathedral are the heroics. Armory's kinda short for that sort of treatment, and Blizz certainly isn't stupid enough to make the honkin' *Graveyard* one of the revamps.
Revnah Oct 21st 2011 5:47PM
As I understood is, they're going to combine the current 4 wings into 2. So it's the complete SM you'll get to run in 2 wings.
Leethax Oct 21st 2011 5:12PM
I wonder if the outdoor bosses are going to work like a semi-group format (think Problim in TB). If so, I foresee loot problems in the future.
Cyno01 Oct 21st 2011 6:49PM
Yeah, the few outdoor bosses in cata have been pretty bad for that. I remember one time, the former MC boss who pats around behind the firelands entrance whos name escapes me at the moment...
Joined a zone pug, maybe 10 or 15 people... all set to go, and this hunter drops group the second before making the pull. Despite my and several others screaming in raid chat to stop and let the hunter die, the rest of the idiots proceeded to attack, and kill, this greyed out boss and the hunter got all the loot.
Pissed is putting it mildly... you'd think by the time folks got to level 85 they'd know that a greyed out mob means theyre not getting any loot from it...
Kevin Oct 21st 2011 5:23PM
the new SM dungeons is merging all 4 dungeons into 2.
Shrikesnest Oct 21st 2011 5:28PM
Heroic Scarlet Monastery? Dear. God. Yes.
goldeneye Oct 21st 2011 5:42PM
Unless the first phase is "run from Southshore to Tirisfal Glades without a mount" :p
Jamey Oct 21st 2011 5:36PM
this may be a dumb question, but who the h*ll is supposed to be the final boss of this xpac???
goldeneye Oct 21st 2011 5:44PM
They're skipping a "big villain expansion" and doing a "fun" expansion it seems. I know, it confuses me too. But then I read everything else and go "screw the final boss! You only get to fight him/her/it at the very end of the xpack anyway!".