The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

Aurik recently posted about his favourite instances and the ones he detests and I thought I’d do my own list.  Funnily enough the majority of the ones I both love and hate are Azeroth instances.  I think many of the new Outland instances are ok but they often don’t seem to have the character of the “old world” instances.  If you’ve done one, you’ve done them all.

The Good

1.  My all-time favourite is Scholomance.  I ran this a lot on my hunter for the Ancient Bone Bow.  Scholomance was one of the level instances that could be raided (10-man) and it was the first level 60 instance I ever did having only ever done BFD and SM.  I felt utterly lost, followed the crowd and just shot at whatever they seemed to be killing at the time.  There was bugger-all co-ordination and no marking of mobs (which wasn’t possible until much later).  I enjoyed this instance much more once they made it  5-man only.  I even got to know my way around it!

2.  Scarlet Monastery is next on the list.  This was the second instance I ever ran and the first were I had a vague idea what I was supposed to be doing.  Unlike BFD which was dark and gloomy, SM was light and airy in comparison.  The other thing I like about it is that it’s very linear.  For someone who constantly gets lost in instances this is a big bonus! 

3. Temple of Atal’Hakkar (Sunken Temple) This is another instance that left me totally bewildered after my first run there.  The group leader was a rogue who obviously knew his way around and took the group through at a furious pace.  It seemed to be a whirl of upstairs, downstairs and round and round;  I came out not knowing what I’d killed and why but all my quests were done.  I later went back with friends on several different characters and we took our time getting to know the place.  It’s huge and sprawling but there is a method to the place.  As a skinner I loved the dragonkin at the top, lots of scales for me

4.  Old Hillsbrad  I never get tired of wandering around Southshore and thinking “Ooh look! It’s ….”  This is a nice instance to go into alone and just have a good explore.  I also like rescuing Thrall.  Once you release him the fighting is fast and furious which is how I like it.

The Bad

1. Stormwind Stockade  For a ranged character this is a horrible instance.  As a hunter I hated this one, if I could get to range then I had line-of-sight issues.  It also seemed very stingy with loot compared to other instances.  About the only thing in it’s favour  is that if you were canny and gathered up all the quests first you could get the whole thing done in one painful run and never go back.

2. Uldaman  This is another maze-like instance that I have never managed to get my head around.  Why can’t Blizzard create instance maps that work like zone maps and show your position on them?  I have always used Atlas or Cartographer but they’re no good when you have no idea of your actual location in the instance!  In it’s favour there’s some nice loot in here and if you can kill the end-boss and do all the quest involving the discs it’s lovely xp.

3. Shadowfang Keep  In some ways this is a great instance, good fights and nice loot.  The reason it’s on my hit list if that I have run this (at the correct level) on several characters and never managed to kill the last boss, Archmage Arugal  That bugger is just a pain in the arse!!!

4. Dire Maul  The few times I’ve managed to get a group here this seemed to be a great instance.  It’s problem is it’s location.  Why the hell did Blizzard set this instance down in the middle of nowhere?  Even pre-tBC it was hard to get a run here.  The only runs going now are when a warlock or paladin guilt-trips their friends into boosting them through for their epic mount.

The Ugly

Gnomergan I…HATE…GNOMERGAN!  For someone as directionally challenged as me this place is my worst nightmare come true.  I did one run on my 1st character which wasn’t too bad in that a few of us were being boosted through by a level 60.  I tried it a couple of times on my 2nd character (a mage) and ended up leaving the group after I died because I couldn’t find my way back to the group!  After that I refused to run it at all.  The only time I have run it since was when I re-rolled Hulan.  A lvl 70 warrior offered to boost me through it.  He knew the place well and all I had to do was follow him and loot stuff.  I made a point on Hulan of not getting boosted through instances, I PUG’d them all but I was happy to make an exception for Gnomergan.