Ok, so I did a post about which ones I loved so now it’s the ones I dislike. I don’t usually like doing ‘negative’ posts but most have reasons beyond ‘just didn’t like’ or are odd choices, at first glance, given what I do like.

I’m not going to give an order to these as I dislike them all for differing reasons and some I only even dislike on certain characters. Here, then are the instances which I usually avoid!

Maraudon

Ahhh Mara. Mara, for me, is a bit love-hate. I absolutely love the idea, the lore, the stories which are carried out throughout this instance, I love the scenery, too – all of the fountains, the water, the deliciously luscious and exotic plant life. The place is a living cave and appeals to me in the same way that Wailing Caverns does. Why, then, am I putting it on my ‘do-not-want’ list? I’m not sure. A combination of the fact that it takes you almost as long to get to the instance as to run through it, it’s ‘too long’, some of the mobs are really irritating perhaps. If this place was a little more accessible I think I’d like it more but, for now, it just doesn’t seem worth the effort of going to Desolace.

Blackfathom Deeps

Too long, too long, too long. Really, it required repetition. It’s so loooooooong one ‘too long’ isn’t long enough! I mean, even getting to the instance entrance can take you about ten minutes if you go at the correct level. I’m not sure what it is about this place which turns me off – it’s reasonably pretty and I usually like any of the naga related things but, I guess, the dense packs and long, winding instance just don’t do it for me. I’ve been with some pretty nice groups, too, and had fun there with friends but I still avoid it like the plague.

Slave Pens

The first time I visited Slave Pens the conversation started with the usual “We need a tank… O hai Mharai! 8D” sorta conversation. I’d not long started tanking, was loving it, but was pretty lacking in confidence, especially for heroics. Yes, my first time in Slave Pens was on heroic. That should give you and idea, right there, why I hate the place. This was in the early days of Burning Crusade and Mharai was on a new, TBC server – all of us were not too well geared but they told me “It’s an easy heroic! You’ll be fine…. btw you’re marking.” Cue two hours of frustration which left me utterly despairing of this place.

Not too keen on healing in this place either – the damage can be spiky and there’s a lot of random nature damage. A quick guild run on my rogue somewhat assuaged my utter dislike of this place down to a bitter grumbling but I’ll still happily avoid it given the choice.

Shadow Labyrinth

Shadow Labyrinth. This is an ‘I hate this instance on certain characters’ place. For my rogue, and even more so for my druid this place is just somewhere that I don’t like to go. Tanking it is a nightmare – the bosses are all difficult for aggro, positioning or movement and the pulls are a pain in the big, furry bum. I’ve actually killed my whole party during ‘time for fun’ and don’t even get me started on having to learn when to run out of that stupid AoE when you have nothing beyond a big furry rear and some gusts of ’sound’ filling your screen. Of course on my shaman, resto or elemental, the place is pretty trivial – except when I have some nublet tank who can’t get out of the blast in time! *cough* Bah.

Gnomeregan

Does anyone like this instance? I’ve never seen anyone, yet, who said they did. It’s possibly the only one of this whole lot that I could say I actually detest, that it makes me feel uncomfortable and that I will actively refuse to boost any guildies there. It’s just sad and depressing – the instance designers possibly went a little too far on that front – and it’s not even like the place has really nice, interesting encounters to make up for it. There’s a lot of trash, packed tight, and the whole instance just seems to go on forever. Blech.

First impressions really matter! If you’ve never been to a place before don’t PuG it if you can help it – it goes a huge way towards stopping you from having a terrible time and forever branding an instance as icky if you can at least have a laugh about any wipes which occur whilst you learn.

Which class you go as and with can also make a huge difference – tanking, dpsing and healing will all bring very different aspects to an instance.

Maraudon, Gnomeregan and Blackfathom Deeps images were yoinked from Wowwiki as I couldn’t bring myself to travel all the way to places I dislike just for a screenshot – the rest are my own screenies.