Each an’ every place I’ve been to has it’s own unique flavor. Some seem harder for me tae do, some harder for mah friends. It’s all aboot what skills ye can utilise at the time, ‘ken? Some o’ us are blessed wi’ sneakery and skills which are useful - others bring a solid, big lump o’ ‘presence’ tae any adventurin’ party and yet others, well, they bring ways tae benefit the group. Now, in mah mind, ah’d rather go wi’ someone ah knew and trust than just someone wi’ a trick up their sleeve but maybe that’s jist me.

This is not a whine, nor a ’screw you instance designers’ post - it is simply a look at how Blizzard have been moving forward with their instance design, how that can affect which instances are ‘unfair’ given certain class combinations and what ways there are to get around this. Initially this was, as you might suspect, a post I had started thinking about when Magister’s Terrace first came out but I believe it is, has been and will continue to be relevant for The Burning Crusade and Wrath expansions.

First of all, we have to look at what instances are for. They are there to give us a challenge, to go beyond the level of the world quests and grind and, with a group, have some fun or at least experience something different.

So, what’s the ‘problem’? Well, first of all a group comprises of five people. Out of 9 (soon 10) classes you can only have a small selection - which means lacking the key abilities of any classes you do not bring with you. This, to get rid of the big loomy thing, includes, but is not limited to, crowd control (including off-tanking) as well as AoE (tanking and damage), anti-crowd control (fear ward, tremor totem), HoTs, specific damage reduction (heavy melee dmg versus heavy magic encounters) and debuffs (wounding poison, mortal strike abilities).

Some examples where class-specific abilites are extremely beneficial:

• Shattered Halls - Paladin AoE tanking.
• Mana Tombs - Tremor totems / grounding totem.
• Steam Vaults - Multiple crowd control.
• Magister’s Terrace - Multiple crowd control.
• Slave Pens / Underbog - Nature resist + anti-poison abilities.
• Botanica - Fire resistance auras / totems + cleansing totems.

These are mostly what I can remember off the top of my head and kind of focussed around the classes I personally play (druid, shaman, rogue) as they’re, obviously, easier to remember for me but there are plenty more instances of certain utility spells, abilities or class mechanics making certain instance runs easier.

Now, you might be thinking: I totally don’t need that stuff, it’s easy to do it without! Think back to when you weren’t overgeared, or when you run a harder heroic etc. i.e. Where you’ll be when you first hit those Wrath instances on your way to 80. Heroic Underbog, way back then when it used to be a pain - I remember just standing back and abolishing / throwing hots as my feral druid as it made the fight far easier than me clawing at the arse end of Hungarfen. Utility over raw dps!

In fact, the five man setting is really quite different to that of the raid setting. Ten or twenty-five man bosses are supposed to take a long time, test your healers mana pool, your tanks avoidance / stamina and your dps’s pewpew. But, in a five man, the fights have to be a lot shorter and a little simpler. Why? Because you can’t be guaranteed some things which you might get in a raid - synergy in raids is what makes them able to last much longer than five groups of five would if all were split into the same structures as a five man.

As an example… in a raid my shaman might be in a group with other healers and a shadow priest. He’d get the benefit of paladins blessing, druid buffs, and mana regen from the priest, whilst giving his own totem buffs to them. In an instance he may get these but often he won’t. His mana totem has no use for the tank and the LotP aura does little for him as he’s not doing damage (ok, so it might make his work easier but you should get my point). Synergy is not guaranteed in five mans.

So here comes the rub. Blizzard wants to make encounters more challenging but are faced with the decision or trying to make it so that everyone can be useful. This is, obviously, entirely possible but the problem comes where there is a mechanic which makes one class far more preferable to another. People are fickle and will try to maximise their groups so as to take the least time and to run the most smoothly.

Magister’s Terrace was a big example of this. I’m glad I’ve waited some time to come around to this article as things have settled down enough to see how it’s panned out. From what I’m seeing in LFG and in guild normal MgT has become a little looser - people are willing to take fewer crowd control classes if the class in question has some other utility (i.e. shamans). I still see dps warriors and crittycats/boomkins being snubbed as they’re not seen as being useful enough to warrant one less cc. I have actually seen groups break up because there was no cc available even when there were plenty of non-cc available. Multiple melee are also still seen as a disadvantage as they make the healer’s job much more difficult. The third boss is easy if you can control all of the adds and burst them down in turn, for instance. If you don’t you can expect a dead healer most of the time. Crowd control is simply what makes this instance harder for it’s level than most other instances in TBC.

Heroic is even worse - one of our enhancement shamans ended up respeccing to resto just so he could have a shot at gear from MgT.

The thing is… this is probably one of the few instances I’d say is really nice and challenging now. Even on normal if you’re not paying attention a slip can cause a wipe. Good gear really doesn’t help much if you miss-pull or don’t kill the orbs or get charged by the warrior-mob etc. It is, in my mind, a sort of five person raid instance.

In vanilla wow, half of the ‘challenge’ was in the length, interesting pulls, big pulls, special debuffs etc. They’ve already said they’re intending non-heroic’s in Wrath to take around an hour or less - no more long slogs! However, this increases the need for more gimmicks to make the places challenging. If you can ‘breeze through’ it in 45 mins to one hour then are you really going to feel like it was a challenge? Now, MgT feels like a challenge even if you do complete it in one hour so I can see the designers plotting things with more intrinsic difficulty but how are they going to do it without over-reliance on one set of class abilities?

• Some mention has been made of using flying mounts within the instances - a gimmick (and not I do not use the word entirely negatively) which will, at least, make the place more interesting. How they implement it will very much depend on how much people end up feeling about it - too complex and people will dislike it, too simple and it will just be plain gimmicky (in the bad sense). Changing controls is not a thing a lot of people like to or are able to do quickly (i.e. Construct handling on Teron). If they ‘teach’ people how to handle it outside the instance, with quests, as seems likely given the interviews then we might see it working better. Of course, this is all speculative until we see what they do with it.
• Time trials are another thing which makes an instance more challenging. We’ve seen it in Zul’Aman and with some quests within five mans but it would be another way to make things more interesting or challenging. Of course, it’s a way to make it more frustrating, too, but it gives the place more replayability and that’s a big plus in my eyes. If the ‘time trial’ is limited to extra loot or extra benefits then I’d say it’d be a good mechanic to add to more instances.
• Wave instances - that is, where you are swamped by wave after wave of mobs and then get to a boss monster. Hate them or love them they certainly make an instance challenging. Think of the first few times you ran BM? It’s another way to keep the instance short too.

I’d certainly like to see them expand upon what they have as well as innovating something that I probably wouldn’t have even dreamed of. Utilising methods such as the time trials and wave instances make things more challenging without making it imperative to have one class type. More instance design like this will help work towards ‘fairer’ five mans and is something I certainly hope to see in Wrath.

Now I’m going back to shiny spam posts for a while… /ded

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Ye want a wee rampage through them Scarlet buggers in their fancy-pants big hoose again? They never seem tae give up, do they? Ach aw right, as suppose we can go an smite evil an’ all that stuff - ust make sure ye stay at mah back, ok?

“Hey guys, someone fancy giving me a boost in SM?” It’s become pretty commonplace to see this sort of request in guild chat (well, in my guilds chat anyway) and I’ve seen some debate concerning the issue in guild chat and in general. I had a think about it and decided I’d write those thoughts down here on the blog (it’s what it’s for afterall, right?)

So, what is a boost? I’m sure most people are familiar with the term but for those who are not: It is when a high level character groups with a low level character(s) and they complete an instance or quests for the purpose of the lower one gaining xp and / or items generally more quickly than if they had done so on their own / with a group their own level.

Why Boosting is Bad

• People don’t get the chance to learn their class in a group setting
• People don’t ‘work’ themselves for themselves
• Cultivates lazyness
• Annoys people when others always ask
• Less xp

Why Boosting is Good

• Faster runs
• More xp
• A chance to get good loot without having to worry about rolls
• You’ll actually see the instance instead of just levelling past it..
• You can do a bunch of instance quests quickly

Now some of these might seem contradictory - do you get more xp or less? Well you will gain less XP by having a level 70 in your party - annoyingly I cannot find an ‘official’ link with the exact numbers - Ghosthoof has provided me with a link! But your xp per mob at, for example, level 25 will go down considerably when partied with a level 36 (more than ten levels) or higher player i.e. when the mobs become grey to that person. However! You’ll be able to complete Scarlet Monastery Cathedral in about 30 minutes or so as compared to over an hour in a level-equivalent group - so your xp / hour is a lot higher. If, in the time you would have taken to do the instance with a full group at your level, you could get three boost runs then you’ll have gotten much more xp. This is due to the fact, also, that your xp gain is reduced in a party of same levels dependant on the number of them.

The biggest outcry, though, that I’ve heard against boosting and levelling changes is that people don’t learn their class. This seems a valid point - less experience = less class knowledge. However, how many holy priests do you meet when levelling? Or prot warriors? Sure, there are some, but the majority of people would actually be learning how to tank, heal or dps in a way they will no be doing at 70. Yes, even dps-ing is different at 70 than when levelling! So, those people could be hitting 70 without having gotten used to the quirks of their ‘main spec’ anyway.

In addition to this, many of the powerful class spells or abilities are not available until level 60+ - Heroism/Bloodlust, Lifebloom, Spellsteal, Seed of Corruption and mass dispel being some of the ones I could think of which would not be in that persons arsenal even if they were specced as far as they could be into their preferred raiding / high level partying spec.

The lazyness issue is one which flip-flops in my mind - some people are lazy and do spam chat all day asking for a boost when they could be out levelling - but others ask only when they want a boost past a particularly hated area or want a specific item. Not all players who want boosts are being lazy. This also ties in with people getting annoyed about being asked for boosts - those who are lazy are usually those who won’t even bother being thankful and / or will ask over and over again until someone is sick of boosting them or hearing about them asking for a boost. This means that someone else asking for a more ‘legitimate’ reason may be shot down too, sadly. Of course, there is also the fact that people want to kick back and relax and their idea of that is not running someone through RFD three times.

Now, personally, I like giving boosts but only to specific instances. In fact I sometimes actively ask people if they want a run through SFK or SM for instance as I love those instances and can do them pretty quickly. I don’t mind doing DM once in a while but I don’t like running it repeatedly as it gets a bit boring. I love one-shotting things and seeing how much I can pull without killing myself (or my charge). I will often say no, however, to anyone asking for gnomer as I hate it. If someone bugs me for a run or whines at me then they go nowhere! hehe.

I know what it’s like to level alts, I have sympathy for people who just want a little xp boost now and then or wish to complete quests and get specific items but I will not tolerate lazy arses who just want their work done for them. Luckily I have not encountered many of these people. In fact, when I boost people it’s usually those I enjoy to hang out with anyway and is as much fun as running with them to any instance on their mains.

Old Skool

A quick look at the other side of things shows why boosting is so valuable to those lowbies and also why, on the other hand, it might be fun to go back and kick butt old style! Old skool style, in this context, I am using to refer to doing an instance at its preferred level with a group of people who’re also at that level.

Why Doin’ it Old Skool Style is Bad

• Hard to find people
• Even harder to find competent people
• Takes a long time to do some pre-tbc instances
• Loot doesn’t seem ‘worth it’
• No tanks / healers

Why Doin’ it Old Skool Style is Good

• Learning your new class’ early ‘oh shit’ buttons
• Can be more fun
• A challenge for you and your guildies
• A break from grinding / questing

Getting a group can be hard these days - sure everyone and their aunt has an alt but they’reall spread across the board levels wise and, unless you want to go to one of the ‘favoured’ instances then you’re not likely to get a group. However! Going back to an old instance and doing it with a bunch of people can be awesome fun.

I recently have been doing this with a friend in the guild whose priest is about the same level as my druid. We’ve been to Scarlet Monastery - Armory a couple of times and are planning on a possible trip to Razorfen Downs. At level 30-31 I was tanking it with him healing. He’s shadow but has some very nice healing gear and experience as a healer pre-tbc. We’ve five-manned the place with three pug members and four-manned it with a level 37 prot pala (a little easymode ahem) and a mage guildie. It’s possible to two man it, even, at this level, but it does end up going a little slower. There really is much more of a sense of achievement doing this but it does suck up a lot more time - I could level faster with quests but they’re not always as much fun.

Balance

Really, what it takes is balance - especially when it comes to having fun when levelling. If it’s your second, third, fourth or even fifth plus character you don’t want to put up with pugs and waiting and idiocy etc and may want to level as fast as possible boosts allow you to get a whole bunch of xp and equipment fast. However, that can become pretty soulless and, if you want to learn your new class a little better, or at least train your reflexes to it’s earlier panic buttons (OMG BEARFORM *Poof*) then it might be worth hitting up an old instance with some guildies of your level.

There’s also the fact that it feels very different to go back to an instance you can easily smash our way through and have a hard time, have to think about the pulls and generally take in the atmosphere more.

Happy low-level instancing however you, personally, decide to experience it!

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Ah wis sittin’ the other day, in the Stonefire Tavern, havin’ a pint and reminiscin’ aboot all mah adventurin’. So, ahm sittin’ there an’ talkin’ away when Firebrew’s lassie, Gwenna, asks me whit wis mah favourite place that ah’d been adventurin’ tae? Well, that goat me thinkin…

Post idea stolen from Larísa, go check out her take on it here.

I had intended do do a few more ‘lite’ posts but unfortunately real life has sort of hit me with a bag of brick in the last week so I’ve not been able to sit down and think about anything for very long. Things are slowly returning to normal, though, and I figured I’d sit down and do this post - a reminiscing one which I’ve been meaning to do for a while.

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Good fortune and may the elements embrace you. I hope you will not mind a small amount of reminiscing on my part… But as the wind likes to carry with it tales from other places so do I and I hope, somewhere, someone is listening as I do to that sweet susurrus. My journey is new but, I hope, not short.

These posts will happen from time to time - I love my alts and each and every one has presented new aspects of the game to me which I want to record and share for all.My usual answer to most “wtb healer for heroic x” in guild is “Would love too but Ava’s healing is still too weak”. That is, not just his gear but my experience too. Most of the guild had reccomended getting 1.4-1.5k +healing before hitting a heroic and I only had 1.3k-ish and 167 mana regen with water shield up and some rather dubious ‘healing‘ gear. I’ve only healed five or six instances and all but one of those was a guild run.

My little resto-shammie Avarix is, in my mind, still a ‘baby’ character who needs geared up before doing such scary things. I have this problem with all of my characters - the ‘fear’ of underperforming really eats at me to the point where I don’t like to join groups for things I’d really like to do due to feeling under-geared or skilled.

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