New 5-man Dungeon Incoming...What To Do Till Then?
Posted by 
iTZKooPA on Thursday, April 30, 2009 - 69 Comments Tags: Instances, PvE, caverns of time, heroics, naxxramas, new 5-man, new battleground, new dungeon, new heroics, old world dungeons, upcoming patch, v3.2
iTZKooPA on Thursday, April 30, 2009 - 69 Comments Tags: Instances, PvE, caverns of time, heroics, naxxramas, new 5-man, new battleground, new dungeon, new heroics, old world dungeons, upcoming patch, v3.2 
In late March it was revealed that Blizzard is hard at work on a new Battleground for an upcoming patch. Just shy of a month later and not one, not two, but three separate blues announced plans for a new 5-man dungeon. Being Blizzard employees, there wasn't much to the announcements. All that we know for sure is that the dungeon will be part of an upcoming patch - you'd be insane to think the BG and instance will come in the same patch - and that it "can be compared to what we saw with Magister's Terrace." Naturally, we have no idea if the comparison that can be made refers to the scope, size, difficulty or a combination of the three.New content is fantastic, and I can't wait to see what direction they take the instance. Will it be released alongside a raid? Will it have anything to do with the growing Arthas storyline? Is it going to contain machinima like MgT? An endless amount of questions, with a catch. Sadly, the announcement of the new 5-man content has shined a light on the current crop of 5-man instances and their heroic alter egos. Frankly, they are beginning to feel incredibly stale.
It is this very reason that I bring up a topic as old as heroics themselves, heroic Old World instances. Blizzard, if you can't get new content out fast enough, I am sure that many of your subscribers wouldn't mind revisiting some retuned old content. Just think of the advantages of doing so.
- A large percentage of the players joined World of Warcraft after the launch of The Burning Crusade. Therefore, a good amount of the old world instances - especially the mid-range instances - were ignored by the playerbase.
- Retuning is far less time consuming/costly than creating a new instance.
- Trickling out retuned old world instances would keep players busy between major content updates.
- Many old world 5-mans are far longer - and larger - than the current crop of dungeons. The varied length would likely cater to the hardcore audience who tend to be fond of more diverse and deeper offerings. There's no reason to expect that the casual players wouldn't enjoy it either.
- You've already recycled content in the past (Naxxramas , Caverns of Time) and that was accepted. No need to worry about that stigma.
- The old world would see a (small) population increase, rather than its current state of being largely abandoned. Essentially, more than just Northrend would be relevant.
- Come the next expansion, you could sprinkle retuned TBC instances amoung the content patches.
- Being "old school" is still hip...or so I tell myself.
- You'd shut me up.
Just think of the possibilities. LFM Heroic UBRS - Rend Run. The return of Dire Maul ledge walking. More Barman Shanker grinding. Discovering the secret boss in Blackfathom Deeps. Getting lost outside of Maraudon, only to be farted on when you finally get inside. Van Cleef. I'm giddy over the prospects already.
Many of us have run Wrath's heroics dozens, perhaps even a hundreds times. The question is, would you have the any interest in the four year old content or are you content waiting long periods of time for all-new encounters?
Reader Comments (69)
Cocopuff, you can't seriously be that bad at english, it was hard reading your posts.
my money is on ULDUM...
About 3 week ago i proposted this exact idea as a response to a post. and it would be easy to implement since they currently use phasing in game and have used it in a limited aspect since they implemnted the battleground Alterac Valley. they can use the same type of phasing as they use in the battleground Alterac Valley in Old World instances and they can make it player set (like the option players now have to set an instance to heroic or normal or 10 man or 25 man raid) as to whether they wish to run it in the original form or the new phased harder form w/ the addition of new loot which would make it worth while to everyone. And I agree it would bring back the use of currently abandoned areas of the world. so many people have rushed to level 80 that most new people skipped 80% of the content and in conjuction with that have never learnt how to play ther class. which kinda takes me back to the previous blog post of blizzes upcoming nurf of ulduar, IMO the only reason most fel ulduar is imposible as it is currently is because most haven't done a proper progression into it. I just rack it upto people wanting everything handed to them on a GOLD plated Titanium plater
I'd rather see something new.
i have been dreaming of a heroic VanCleef since my first time in the instance back in april.....
thats the problem with all of this no one wants to run in to a place they done mllions of times get completly raped by the mobs sames once they use to be able to melee one shot as a much if you make it new its gointo be hard to balance the original version and the new one not to mention the loot and phasing it in with the arthas lore or any of the lore for that matter
@elion you don't need to phase it in with the lore. the lore is already there. we're just saying make it as a way for the level cap players have something to do in the old world besides COT. I don't know about you or anyone else for that matter I myself liked the low level instances like stocks ( ally ) and RFC ( horde ) fastest instances in game. then there's VC the first taste of the whole nordic / pirate scene also a fairly quick instance. Like i said previously bringing it upto speed with the majority of the player base and adding a phased mode to appease those who like a challenge and new loot tables would be a way to bring those who are looking for an exciting way of spending their time when they get bored of questing in the old world while working on their loremaster title and achievments. and blizz could add a few more achievments an such to the new phased modes of old world instances so there's an actual feeling of accomplishment in running those instances while your on the achievment road of being a dungeonmaster as well. Just food for thought not saying it'll ever happen but IMO i'd love to see it. IMO the current content is fast becoming boring for most people that's why everyone is complaining so much, besides all the lag issues an constant restarts and area crashes, these crashes are mainly due to everyone and their brother being in 1 area at the same time. you never see OL's or the "OLD" world crashing because for the most part it's became a ghost town because 90% of the player base are somewhere in Northrend
Ulduar isnt chalanging enough for you i am sorry if your one of these people who rushed though it compltly and killed teh whole place on herioc and the sacond boss in VOA if you had done practicly everything their is in the game whould you really be happier doing something you done a hundred times alittle harder why do you want 80s in a beginner area scroll up and read my previous coment see what that might lead to
had been cool if they opened Uldum and made it heroic mode :D
Cocopuff that is the worst english I have ever seen. Don't call other peoples idea's stupid when you can't spell, type or express opinions with facts
This would be rather awesome :-) I would love to see an Heroic Deadmines xD!
yeah a big problem would be that there would be soo many heroics every1 in lfg would be sooo spread out, it might be harder to get a group together.
also there would be soo much loot that alot of items would have to have the same model. also people wouldnt know whats from where and there would be soo much pre-raid loot that if you did enough heroics there wouldnt be as much raid proggression.
it would be nice if they did do some of the better classic ones that would be quick badge runs but not necisarily the best direct loot.
id be all for going back to the old world dungeons....running like deadmines and scarlet monastery would be awesome on heroic
this would be amzing and would make me very happy. i never got to do all the old world stuff.
I think this is a bad idea.
You're looking back at those instances through rose-tinted glasses.
They're dated, badly designed mazes filled with an ungodly amount of trash. There are exceptions such as SM, which are shorter and better designed, but even for those the boss mechanics are as simplistic as you can get.
No one would ever run these places, because although BRD may *look* epic, it takes hours upon hours to complete. For that kind of time investment, I'd rather be in Ulduar.
@sam well that's the problem with the game you people think there should only be BOSS fight after BOSS fight in the instances and no trash fight that way you get your EPIC gear with very little effort. Why not ask blizz or should i say demand blizz to make all dungeon loot buyable from a vendor in dalaran so you don't have to work for it.
I mean come on the game is already becoming boring because you can't do anything that takes time because of all the lag and area crashes.
Oh an by the way if you do a /who search before you plan to run an OLD world instance, if an when they rework them so it would give people something to occupy their time while you're waiting on the next expansion or major content patch, there wouldn't be any lag issues.
well enough ranting we all know that the majority wants all the gear that the game has to offer for little to no effort and if it was possible to get the new tiered gear off the auction house people would opt to get it there no matter the cost. just cuz it didn't cost time and effort of gathering a group to run instance after instance.
I dunno about you guys, but im kinda partial on this. Ya, i'd love for there to be heroic old world content. Before ghetto hearth was taken away from us, i would walk into RFC in Org countless times and be rejected becasue my dungeon difficulty was still set to heroic. And i'd have a small laugh to myself thinking 'i guess there's no heroic Ragefire Chasm'.
But if Blizz were to do this, i wouldn't want them working on it until after they put out the raiding content and all the upcoming stuff they have planned for Northrend.
Northrend is where i spent 99% of my time so i'd rather have Blizz working on putting out new content that i wanna see and try out. Not waiting months for them to push out heroic 'old world' runs.
Also, if they were to do this, i would really like for them to make the runs a little bit more simple and less complicated. Prolly throw in another boss or so. Just so there's not hours of trash clearing and more bosses that present fun and enteresting fights.
Wailing Caverns is fun for awhile. But then you're like 'we've been down this tunnel before' and by time you've finished, 3-4 hours of your life has vanished and you're walking out with not much more than maybe a level or 2 (my priest levele 3 times in one run in there when i healed it on him) and hopefully some new gear.
There's also the issue of should the gear in there be better than the drops in Northrend. And how difficult should it be. It sounds like a good idea, but there's alot of things blizz would have to do if they decided to do this.
Personally, i think they should stay focused on new content atm. Almost all 80 players are focused on one thing right now. Getting inside Icecrown Citadel and pwning Arthas. So, everything Blizz does that brings that content closer to being in-game, is worth the wait.
Myself, i fly around Icecrown Citadel all the time just to kill the time. The place is so amazing and massive. I just know that it's going to be a seriously epic raid. im not even thinking of the gear that drops off those guys. Im more interested to see what the inside is going to look like and what the bosses will look like and what the fights will be like.
I really wish they would put out some long attunement quest line i could do. Maybe make it optional so there's not the whole BS of getting a full raid together then find out 'oh crap, the MT isn't attuned'.
Okay, i got off topid on that last comment, but my point is yea, id like for Blizz to do this. It'd give us players that weren't around pre-BC a chance to experiance what the runs were like instead or running through them as super fast speed for the achievements.
But i would rather them finish their projects their working on now first. Sorta make it content between WotLK and their next expansion pack.
As for the new 5-man dungeon, woot! Just please god don't let it be a phail like the torture that was Oculus....
Is that art for the BG?
cause they may just throw the WHOLE emerald dream 40v40 or 50v50(lol) with NE vs tauren both druids.
Alliance led by malfurion ofcourse
ofc i dont want tht, just something to bring up...