Hello, it's your cruise director. With the upcoming expansion, our social calendar will have to change quite a bit. There will be a ton of new instances for our level 60s to explore as they level to 70. And we'll still have to schedule runs for our under-60s, so that they can join is in the Outlands.

Obviously, there are only so many days in a week. So there will be nights where we have 2 (or maybe more) instances running at the same time.

There are some changes in how instances work in BC, and these changes will impact how we schedule runs.

First and foremost, the 5-man instances are all pretty short. Beta players are reporting that most can be run in 60 to 90 minutes. Not only does this mean that you'll no longer get stuck in a 4-hours Scholo run (yay!), but it gives us a lot more flexability in scheduling runs. It will be much easier to schedule 2 (or more) runs in an evening, allowing everyone to participate regardless of time zone.

The second change is that many of these dungeons are tied to Faction rep, and many of them use token-based loot systems similar to those in ZG and AQ20. I don't know all the details yet, but it should be much easier to score the loot you want. Instead of killing the Baron 40 times to get a single pair of pants, most pieces of loot can be gotten in a handful of runs.

And once we hit 70, we can run all of these instances in "Hard Mode", which will give us tokens for even better loot.

And, just to wet your whistle, here are the events you can look forward too once BC is released (which can't happen soon enough, in my opinion).

Instances in Azeroth

Karazhan
Level: 70
Players: 10
Time: Long (1 week reset timer)
Requires a key, which can only be gotten via flying mount.

Caverns of Time
The wings have to be done in order.
All players have to complete the previous wings, it's not a matter of one player having a key.

Thrall
Level: 66-68
Players: 5
Time: Quick

Medivh
Level: 70
Players: 5
Time: Unknown, probably quick

Hyjal
Level: 70
Players: 25
Time: Unknown

Zul'Aman
Will be patched in after launch
Level: 70
Players: 10
Time: Unknown

Instances in Outlands

Hellfire Citadel
Hellfire Ramparts
Level: 60-62
Players: 5
Time: Quick

The Blood Furnaces
Level: 61-63
Players: 5
Time: Quick

The Shattered Halls
Level: 70
Players: 5
Time: Unknown, probably quick

Magtheridon's Lair
Level: 70
Players: 25
Time: Quick, like Onyixia

Coilfang Reservoir
The Slave Pens
Level: 62-64
Players: 5
Time: Quick

The Underbog
Level: 63-65
Players: 5
Time: Quick

The Steamvault
Level: 70
Players: 5
Time: Quick

Serpentshire Cavern
Level: 70
Players: 25
Time: Unknown

Auchindoun
Mana Tombs
Level: 64-66
Players: 5
Time: Quick

Auchenai Crypts
Level: 65-67
Players: 5
Time: Quick

Sethekk Halls
Level: 67-69
Players: 5
Time: Quick

Shadow Labyrinth
Level: 70
Players: 5
Time: Quick

Tempest Keep
Only available to those with a flying mount. Apparently you can't summon other players to the instance.

The Mechanar
Level: 69-70
Players: 5
Time: Quick

The Botanica
Level: 70
Players: 5
Time: Quick

The Arcatrax
Level: 70
Players: 5
Time: Quick

Eye of the Storm
Level: 70
Players: 25
Time: Quick

Gruul's Lair
Level: 70
Players: 25
Time: Quick
*Apparently this is actually 2 different raids*

Black Temple
Will be patched in after launch
Level: 70
Players: 25
Time: Unknown. Probably long.

Freaking awesome! I can't wait - I'll be hitting those 5 man dungeons like a madman.

And all I can say about the rest is, I sure as hell hope attendance is better for the brand new 25 man dungeons! Woot!

/twitch

Only 10 players for Karazhan!? Means easier to build groups for.... Excellent!
I am really looking forward to that one: just the walkthrough they had of it with nothing in it looked absolutely amazing.

Oh, and, 25 player raids for the highest level stuff? Awesome.

squee squee squee squee squee squee

You....

Broke your promise.

One hour instance runs...Hell even I can negotiate that much uninterrupted game-time from familial duties. My playing with others skill does most wholeheartedly suck. I shall endeavour to kill many PUG's as I learn to group again.

One thing I forgot. With the apparent exception of Tempest Keep, players can be summoned to any instance. As long as 2 group members are at the Meeting Stone, they can summon the rest of their group. Should make grouping a lot more bearable. No more waiting for members to fly all the way from Darnassus.

Val, I didn't squee AT YOU, I just SQUEED. If anything, I squeed at Kael'Thas and his instance.

You just squeed three more times.

... what.

NO it isn't a proper squee unless there is an exclamation point directly appended to it! You are absolutely wrong and you are messing up Gleja's nice neat instance-thing thread and anyway I didn't even squee at you, I SAID I wouldn't.

Good post Gleja, looks like this will be really interesting "whenever" it comes out.


And to VAL.......... squee squee squee

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=45027577&postId=446841792&sid=1#2

25-man raids taking 90 minutes to 3 hours to complete.

Compare that to spending 3 hours in ZG and only getting less than half of the bosses down.

happy happy happy happy

joy joy joy joy

sex sex sex sex

booze booze booze booze

There's been a change to "Hard" mode dungeons. They're now called "Heroic" level and:

"Keys are now required to unlock Heroic difficulty for dungeons. HFC key requires revered with Thrallmar and Tempest Keep key requires revered with Sha'tar to buy."

Irritating, but I imagine that it won't be too hard. Since these dungeons are probably tied to those factions' rep, you should hit revered just by running the dungeons in normal difficulty mode.

I read that in hard mode ZG, you have to fight Jesus.

And he has adds. Endless waves of fish and bread.

If you pick up a special item in MC, the traitors talisman, the NPC Judas will help you, though.

The talisman doesn't help with the Magdalene's Oil debuff, though.

I just saw a snippet of Karazhan. Wow, that's gonna be interesting. Don't read on if you want to be surprised.




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The fight was against four bosses: Dorothee, Strawman, a Lion and Tinhead. Oh, and a little dog, Tito. The strategy, which the toons in the video never managed to pull off, seemed to be:

Keep the lion feared
Tinhead wet
Strawman on fire
Then kick the crap out of Dorothee

At least Blizzard's sense of humor is still fully intact!

linky

HEE. Oh, Blizzard. You make me smile.