The Kerning of Instances

Today's blog entry is on the kerning of instances and a brief update:

Brief update of this past weekend. Me and my gf went off and completed a few more instances of Dire Maul East to finally reached 58. My gf was sitting pretty at 59 but I wasn’t the bit worried.

We traveled to the dark portal the long way so she can pick up some flight paths along the way plus see some of the zones she'll probably never return to. we ran through swamp of sorrows and killed a few things. I honestly would never want to quest there again. I did it on my paladin not too long ago and hated most of the quests. Anyway, we entered the dark portal and was ushered into a whole new world full of demons fighting. it was a pretty awesome sight to see. that battle has been going on for ages, but to every new person passing through that portal, it is fresh and feels like things are happening as we speak (not 4 years ago). we then went through the intro quests and finally on to thrallmar where we collected blood, destroyed some tanks, killed a bunch of demons and broke nearly every demon teleports there are in Hellfire Peninsula. I wonder if HFP was actually a peninsula before the world got broken apart. hmmmmm...

After we took care of the bombing runs I decided to skip the quests in southern HFP (Spinebreaker post) simply because it’s a very crowded area full of mobs. it’s a busy zone. there were quite a few people leveling through that area, much more so than in azeroth. the reason for this is probably because in azeroth, there are various different zones of the same level and many of us are able to pick and choose which zones we'd like to quest in. not so with outland. everyone starts in hellfire peninsula. we're encouraged to play against each other. I like that idea. but I also like the idea of northrend, where there are two level 68-72 zones. and all the zones somehow kind of overlap. dragonblight isnt level 73, you can go there at 71 and still be okay. etc.

Now that we're both 62, I think we can go back to southern HFP and finish off some of the quests there. however, we really do not need to. we can just move on to the next two zones to play (Zangarmarsh and Terrokar forest, with terrokar just a smudge higher level than zangar).

Outland Instances and their Set up
Now in terms of instances, we went through quite a few over the weekend. I still do not have the kilt of rolling thunders, and my gf is still looking for the gloves from the maker in bf. I did end up with a nice belt. I got leather gloves from the first boss in underbog then saw it drop about five more times. I would love that totem for some more mana regen though. gf got the belt from the hydra and shoulderpads from the hunter. just gotta get the pants from the hunter next time around and the hammer from the hydra. I will run ramps again for the shaman pants. this works out because my gf can get the boots off the dragon boss too. she already has everything else she needs from that instance, hellreaver included.

So here we are sitting pretty at level 62. we've been here for four levels and have done four out of the six lower level instances in HFP. The other two are in mana tombs and auchenai crypts. but I think by the time we get to level 67, we'll be doing sethekk halls durnhold. Its somewhat sad to see this because there's quite a few more instances out there left to do. In Tempest keep, there's the Arcatraz, the Mechanar and the Botanica (think: the Exodar, but as three separate dungeons). Hellfire citadel has one last instance at level 70 called Shattered halls. Coilfang reservoir has one called Steamvault and Auchidon has one called Shadow Laberynth. Oh and lets not forget Caverns of time's The Black Morass. These are all level 68-70 instances that may be skipped. /sad

Here is the breakdown of dungeon clusters in Outland:

1. Hellfire Citadel: Ramparts & Blood Furnace (58-62), then Shattered Halls (70).

2. Coilfang Reservoir: Slave Pens & Underbog (60-64), then Steamvault (70).

3. Auchindon: Auchinai Crypt & Mana Tombs (64-66), then Sethekk Halls (67-69), then Shadow Laberynth (70).

4. Caverns of Time: Escape from Durnholde (66-67) and The Black Morass (68-69)

5. Tempest Keep: Arcatraz, Mechanar & Botanica (68-70).

There are also raids that are obsolete, but people do still run those from time to time.

So with this list up, I see things pretty spread out, having things for everyone to do at whatever level they might be. The problem for me is this: We're pretty much going to skip 7 or 8 of those instances. Forget all the ones I've marked as 70, since those will be skipped in favor of Utgarde keep, a level 68-72 instance in northrend. Also skip escape from durnholde and black morass since much of the population do not know how to unlock it, or wont be assed to do it even if they knew how. I will tho, I love those two for the same reason I like culling of stratholme. Theyre not a regular instance like everything else.

what I would love to see is that the level requirements for most of these instances reduced a bit. im sure these instances have been nerfed in the past, and so lowering the level requirement will only help for a bunch of people to actually see some of this stuff. I do want to do Shattered Halls, Steamvault, Shadow Lab and all of the Tempest Keep instances before I hit 70. My last level 80 did them all as well, but Devynity didn’t get to finish all of those instances until level 74. Yes, level 74. I remember fishing in Dragonblight waiting for the queue for Mechanar and Arcatraz to pop. Really? 74? come on bliz.

I want to see some of this stuff before im too high leveled for it. that's basically my point. I know, no one is stopping me from doing them now, or later. But the rewards they give don’t match up with what new content can give. This is the same for the transition between Azeroth and Outland. Stratholme, Scholo and BRS do not offer enough incentive to stay.

I know, there are people who do not have the expansions necessary and are limited. But in a day and age where I can simply check the AH for some Outland gear at level 58, even on a toon who's stuck maxed at 60, he can still wear some of this good stuff found in outland. Same with Northrend. I can check the AH if I don’t have the Wrath expansion and get some gear that can suppliment my tanking, dps, or healing. Heck, at level 70, I can get the Cobalt tanking set and tank all of outlands with it. it’s a lot better and can be easily made (since every BS has to make some of those items to level up).


Cata hopes:
What I am hoping to see in Cataclysm is that the instances don’t start at level 78. I would hope they start out at level 83. yes, 83… all so that people will be arsed to do the level 80 northrend instnaces as well as the harder icecrown citadel instances.

It would have made a lot of sense if the new instances (back when they were new) were bumped up about two levels or that the old instances be pushed down about two levels. actually, the older instances have been nerfed to oblivion, so I don’t see why they wouldn’t lower the mob's levels as well (and also lower the level requirements for some of the boss drops).

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the layout and pacing of all the instances in this game. not saying they did a bad job with it, as it was a pretty awesome job back in the days. but as time progressed, expansions entered the picture and things should change. What I see is that things arent changing as newer content is being added. I think it would make a lot of sense to actually go back and tune some of these instances for lower levels.