Friday, March 11, 2011

Favorites and Least Favorites (Part 2)

So, I already went over my least favorite and most favorite Dungeons for Vanilla. Now to do the same for BC. I had some great memories from BC. Some of those Dungeons were REALLY hard.

One of my favorite instances was Hellfire Ramparts. It was the first instance I did in a shiny new expansion, and it was somewhat tought. I remember getting to the Nazan and getting absolutely PWNED by his fire breath. I still had Vanilla tank gear, which would just not cut it. The thing that I liked about the instance was that it was relatively short and sweet. I was so used to giant dungeon sprawls that it was enjoyable to not spend 3-4 hours in a single instance. AOE tanking was still not in existence at this point. Keep in mind that Thunderclap in Defensive stance and Shockwave were not added until the patch right before wrath. You had to CC, be mindful of mortal strike debuffs, and use LOS to pull mobs and avoid patrols. The bosses were pretty good to. The first one required that you either kill or CC two adds while dealing with the boss. The second (or last depending on how you look at it) would debuff you to do damage to those around you as well as spawning felhounds that could cause a wipe by silencing your healer.

And iof course there was the Nazan fight. A two part fight that did not give you time to mana up after the previous trash pull. Tank and Spank the orc on the ground while avoding fire, then killing Nazan when he landed and having to use defensive cooldowns to survive his breath weapon.

Another instance that I really enjoyed was the Mechanaar. That instance was great fun when they first released Heroics. Mainly because it was not impossible and would give you 4 badges even with skipping the nearly impossible second to last boss. I used to run it on a daily basis until I got enough badges to purchase my very first epic shield (which lasted me pretty much the entirety of the expansion).

The boss fights were even somewhat interesting. After the first two mini bosses, you got to do the plus-minus shuffle, much like Thaddius in Naxx. The boss was not hard unless people screwed up the plus/minus thing. Then it was wipe city. Then you went up the elevator and skipped that boss. I don't think we ever downed her. She summoned a bunch of fire adds that tracked fire across the floor. The fire was bad. Much dying ensued.

The last boss wasnt exactly a pushover, but was very doable.

I also got the Suneater from this instance....my first epic weapon, which is still sitting in my bank to this day.

Most Hated:

This list was potentially pretty long, but I narrowed it down to 2 so that I am not here all damn day writing.

Shadow Labryinth. That instance was the bitch of all bitches. I hated that instance with every fiber of my being. Talk about long and hard (thats what she said). There were really no gimme bosses in this instance including the first boss. The first time I cleared this instance it was about 17 wipes in. Hideous....and not fun.

Well, lets get down to why it sucked so damn bad. First off, the trash mobs. There were a lot of them and they were packed like Sardines. Second, they were hard. The Felguard mobs were particularly annoying. They hit like trucks and feared everyone. Including the healers. A lot of times, there was a fear and more mobs were pulled causing a wipe. Other times, there was a fear and the Felguard beats the tank to death causing a wipe. That was all before the first boss.

First boss. Not incredibly hard except that he fears you....THRU THE WALL AND TO YOUR DEATH!!!!! That was as fun bug. It happened a lot. If you could avoid that, then it wasnt that bad.

Then the next room where there is a sermon going on. A lot more tightly packed and difficult trash mobs. This room took forever to clear before you could even take on the boss.

Then there was the boss. Time for Fun my ass. Getting mind controlled is funny once or twice. Doing it over and over and over is not. Oh look, the Mage Pyroed the Healer to Death again. One of the most epic experiences was when the healer and I two manned the boss after the first mind control had all of the DPS dead. It helped that the healer and I were unable to even hurt each other.

Then after that....more crappy trash followed by another annoying boss. This boss summoned voidwalked mobs. If they got to him, they healed him. Not fun. You had to kite him one way, then the other in order to hopefully avoid being killed by your healer running oom while the boss healed himself to full.

After that, you got tons and tons of additional and craptastic trash mobs before getting to Murmur, who was a challenge on his own. You had to run out when he was going to do his AOE ability or die. If you were "the bomb" you were best server staying away from anyone and going inside one of the tents so that you didnt get thrown too high up into the air and die from falling. This is probably my least favorite instance in any expansion, let alone BC.

Next on the list of Craptastic instances was Black Morass. Never ending mob spawns and no AOE tanking ability? Yes please! You have to keep a bunch of mobs from beating Medivh's sheld down. These mobs are constantly spawning. If you dont kill them quick enough? Here are some more mobs! The bosses werent all that bad, just getting through all of those waves is what made it tough. Not to mention that you had to clear a bunch of non elite trash so that you didnt have jaguars jumping you in middle of a fight.

BC was one tough mother for 5 mans. To be continued soon with a list of Wrath Instances. What were your favorite and least favorites in BC?

1 comment:

Vordan said...

Favorites:
- Mana Tombs. Although this instances was not particularly caster friendly, I thought the new mobs were awesome and dealing with CC and mob kill orders because of the healers was great, it was overall fun. Plus it was the first instance I ever tanked on Vordan after BC came out.

- Caverns of Time: Escape from Durnholde Keep. I think the whole storyline in this instance is amazing. Also getting around Hillsbrad after the instance, you could see Kel'thazad before he became a lich, Alexandros Mograine and a funny dialogue of Renault Mograine and Sally Whitemane as little kids running around trying to kill a frog. Also there is Herod the Bully.

- The Mechanar. I actually liked the Sepethrea fight just because you had to be aware of the fire elemental and fire while trying to kill her. Definitely a group killer if you are not aware but I liked it.

Worst:
- Sethekk Halls. The mind controlling mobs are annoying especially when people don't kill the totems and wipe. If you even got to the last boss, most died anyway to the arcane explosion the boss does first cast.

- Botanica. Freywinn was a pain in the ass with his healing and the lasher spawns. The demon boss is just as annoying with his teleports and it seemed like it took longer than it should.

- Steamvault. Mobs that feared and silenced your group around high mob density areas, not remembering to unlock the gates after each boss and for some reason I always got lost and ended up in the water.