Spurred on by thought after Cassandri’s BRD – Prison guide I previously mentioned, I am giving significant thought to explaining to people how classic dungeons actually work.
Probably starting with BRD, actually, then moving up to LBRS, Scholomance, Strat Live, Strat UD, UBRS… and then there’s the Dire Mauls; East, West and North.
It dawned on me, when I was in an LBRS group not that long ago on my priest that a LOT of these LFG people have never, ever, ever, EVER run these old dungeons. This group I was in actually CLEARED down the ramp instead of jumping off to the right side. This other group I was in had NO IDEA there was more to the instance than the troll boss!
As a classic WoW player, this almost offends me. But it’s not their fault, so it’s not quite offensive. It’s more like my jaw dropped out of shock. A lot. Repeatedly.
I’m thinking of doing these sort of guides (not really “guides”, but more like run throughs) in video format, with a running commentary, showing the most efficient way through the dungeons. Or at least, how we all used to run stuff. I’d still have detailed text stuff (like how to get keys!) for most of the instances, but I envision sped-up videos of me running through the later Classic dungeons. (Do not ask me for Sunken Temple. I STILL get lost there.)
Something to ponder…
Y’know, I know I’d ADORE that. I’m pretty well-versed in the earlier instances (except the damn Sunken Temple), and then I’m very good at the Northrend instances, but everything in between… I’m clueless, I haven’t DONE most of them.
Which makes me sad. :<
For some reason, I’ve been able to find my way through ST better lately. But I can’t find my way through LBRS/UBRS for anything. It’s a little ridiculous. But I agree, I think it’s a really good idea!
Vaguely related, I was actually just thinking about FRAPSing my instance solo-leveling on my new protadin last night.
Guess who just got Storming The Citadel? This guy! Along with Boned and I’ve Gone And Made A Mess, both on 10.
Now, on to the real point of this comment (and I swear, I have one for once). We lost a tank after Saurfang, and we tried to decide if we wanted to fill the spot and continue, or call it. Someone chimed in with “I don’t think we have the DPS for it.” We had made it to that point with one wipe on Deathwhisper (dyslexia on the adds, I guess?) and that was it. No enrages, no trouble whatsoever. Does the DPS requirement for Festergut/Rotface really jump up that much?
Apple – awwww, you missed out on some epic dungeons. Back in the day, it used to take my (pitifully geared, not terribly skilled) crew three hours for a Scholomance clear. That said, I’m glad you might find something like that helpful. :)
X – HUGE DPS requirement (and some coordination) for Fester and Rot. If you can get Saurfang with 2-3 marks, you should be able to get it.
Also, grats, X. :D
One of the things that I really notice is that watching how a tank (who knows all the pulls) clears a dungeon is quite markedly different than how a new, or just-passing-through, tank approaches each pull.
As a community, you’re quite right, we’ve lost the knowledge of all the short-cuts. I think of all the short-cuts that people take in Wrath dungeons now, it’s so much more streamlined than how my friends and I ran them a year ago.
Pixii and I queued for a classic dungeon the other day and ended up just inside Blackrock Spire portal. I assumed that we were there for Lower Blackrock Spire (which I remembered quite well fortunately!) since we hadn’t reach level 60 yet. But the tank dragged us right into Upper Blackrock Spire – taking the left turn off. I was quite confused: since when does the Dungeon Finder send 5 man groups off to do raid content?
We wiped horribly.
Cassandri – I kind of love the mechanic of pulling. I think it has to do with my starting out as a hunter. My pally spent a good amount of time in Strat, Scholo, etc, but it’s my hunter that lived and breathed those instances. I love that I know all the pulls, even today, and I love that my brother, though he wasn’t a hunter (he was a druid and a rogue in vanilla) has taken his memories of vanilla and applied them to how he pulls in classic instances. But I digress.
It astounds me how the community as a whole seems to not have the collective knowledge to “properly” pull their way through LBRS. Or Scholo. Or that people don’t even know how to get the keys to these places. It’s a huge difference to the people who try to skip 2-3 of the last Pit of Saron pulls. I think it’s a bit of a difference to skip trash that you clearly have a choice in skipping versus mounting up and riding past trash before it fully spawns. But to see people NOT jumping off the LBRS ledge and to see them clearing down the ramps in the same day as seeing people trying to skip the PoS trash… it confuses me and makes me sad. ;)
As to UBRS, honestly, it never dawned on me that the dungeon finder would drop me into that! It was just like “well, we’re only five people, so UBRS is not a possibility”. MAN, I miss the days when you needed a key for it. And, might I add, the fact that the gems are all guaranteed drops off the LBRS bosses infuriates me because I spent MONTHS getting my stupid gems!
I think I might complain a little much…
I would love to see guides to these older instances. As a player who started in WotLK, I never went through them in my leveling until I started working on my druid alt. I know I missed big sections of them in my runs through LFD. I want to go back at some point and do the full instances.