Breakfast Topic: What's your favorite 5-man instance of all time?
by Amelia Ramstead 
Dec 11th 2011 at 8:00AM
The first instance I ever ran was Shadowfang Keep with my brother and his friends. I was led by the nose through it and it's a good thing, because I couldn't fight to save my life -- I just wanted to look at everything! To this day, it remains the benchmark for me by which all other instances are judged. When it received its update in Cata, part of me was really disappointed. I had always looked forward to running it on fresh alts, and I never wanted it to change. For the most part, I'm OK with the changes, and it still remains my favorite instance. And now I don't have to make alts to run it.
So what has been your very favorite instance to run? Not raid, mind you -- that's a whole other Breakfast Topic. Just a regular 5-man instance. Do you prefer the old classics, or has something from Cataclysm stolen your heart? None of the Wrath or Cata instances really did it for me, but I really got a kick out of the Caverns of Time instances from The Burning Crusade.
What grabs you when you get to an instance? Is it the setting? The music? The end of a quest line? Or are you primarily concerned with what kind of loot you're going to get out of the deal?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 7)
anuillae Dec 11th 2011 8:04AM
The first instance I ever ran that was level-appropriate and un-boosted was Scarlet Monastery, and it remains one of my favourites today. Graveyard, not so much, but the other three are/were wonderfully made. They're also very Lore rich, and as a bit of a lore junkie, that appeals to me.
I also really like Throne of the Tides, actually. I hate healing it, but DPSing it and tanking it I find really fun.
Sharlatan Dec 11th 2011 11:07AM
SM was ok, but I dont like "wings" in instances.
For me, BRD was, and is, the best 5man ever made. Its like a 5man raid, its interesting, varied, and really really epic, no other instance in wow really captures that feeling with the exceptions of Kara and Ulduar, certainally no other 5man comes close.
BRD for me is the epitome of what an instance should be. But we'll never see its like again, too many people want 5min burns for free epix....its a sad state the gaming world is in nowadays.
Jack Spicer Dec 11th 2011 11:52AM
My fondest memories are of Scarlet Monastery as well. Not the SM of today, but back in Vanilla when there was still a likely possibility that you could wipe.
My favorite part was the Library, when the music changed before the last boss. I always thought that was really cool.
Michael Dec 11th 2011 1:16PM
Definitely SM for me as well...or as Jack said, the SM that was around in Vanilla, when not only was wiping a good possibility...wiping on the elite trash OUTSIDE the instance was a good possibility. Having to work and strategize our way through the Cath was so much fun.
I'll say that one of the biggest mistakes I sometimes feel that Blizzard made was nerfing content so much. Or at least allowing players to overpower it so much. SM is just so watered down to me now :(
Matheus314 Dec 12th 2011 8:06AM
Gotta go with Sharlatan on this. BRD is the best. I always try to do it all on my alts.
Others i like too are Oculus and Dire Maul.
Zaragoza Dec 11th 2011 8:06AM
I always enjoyed Magisters' Terrace. It has some fun and challenging battles at the time. Also the trash actually required your attention.
MrJak Dec 11th 2011 8:34AM
Seconded. The amount of time spent in there just hanging when I used to RP... Egads.
On another note, it was a very well done dungeon, it seems like they threw so much of themselves into it. I personally feel that the whole of TBC was something that can't be repeated for sheer awesomeness of the zones and dungeons. The creative reign was a lot looser, seeing as it was an alien planet, so they could go crazy and have heaps of different ideas come to light.
runski.lee Dec 11th 2011 8:55AM
Thirded,
MGT was amazing, I feel that blizzard put so much effort in that patch. Till this day I have yet to see another dungeon as this one. The only thing on par with it, and I know that you said no raids, but Ulduar must be the only other instance that has the effort put in full force by the devs.
Tabasa Dec 11th 2011 9:03AM
Same here. I really miss running the place when it was relevant.
At the time I wasn't able to raid, even though I really wanted to. The difficulty of the place as a 5-man on heroic kind of made it a place that was my end game content at the time. Kael'thas was a high-profile enough character to go up against that it was satisfying to take him down, even though there was no chance I would ever get to see Illidan or Kil'jaeden at the time.
Also the fights were really fun, and the instance itself was just gorgeous. I've yet to find an instance I've enjoyed on the same level since then, although Well of Eternity comes extremely close.
Kylenne Dec 11th 2011 6:38PM
As much as I absolutely loathed the story behind it, MgT gets my vote as well.
Nopunin10did Dec 11th 2011 8:14AM
I love Underbog. I think I just have a thing about mushrooms, and Sporeggar was the first faction I ever managed to get to exalted.
korebea Dec 11th 2011 8:17AM
Arcatraz! One of the funniest instances in the game, imho. Dalliah and Soccothrates' banter still makes me laugh.
Winooski Dec 11th 2011 10:37AM
Heroic Arcatraz. In fact, all BC heroics. Back when you could actually have a challenge in a 5-man.
Volcker Dec 11th 2011 2:43PM
The last boss fight in Arcatraz wins for the best dialogue: the Warden, Milhouse Manastorm, and Harbinger Skyriss: all perfect!
Bapo Dec 11th 2011 12:43PM
@ winoo.
Beginning cata heroics and za / zg with people who didn't know the instances at all would like to have a word with you.
Lupos Dec 11th 2011 8:13PM
Trust me, even at the very onset of cataclysm, none of those dungeons had anything on BC 5-mans in terms of difficulty. I'm not saying whether that is good or bad but in my experience BC instances were a lot harder even during the later stages of the expansion they still required coordination, CC and commitment.
Rezai Dec 11th 2011 8:17AM
If it didn't have the stupid jousting, I would say Trail of the Champion no contest. You go, kill bosses, loot bosses, and get out. Sadly I think the jousting removes it from contention.
MrJak Dec 11th 2011 8:32AM
Immersion. He doesn't seem to want it.
anuillae Dec 11th 2011 8:43AM
ToC was immersive in its own way. I could totally believe that I was in a gladiator-style arena, fighting off all types of googly moogly monsters to prove myself. It just didn't have quite the same lore impact that we expect from instances.
Xeevus Dec 11th 2011 9:37AM
gotta agree, the jousting takes it out of contention :p