This is my 6th entry in the 30 days of WarCraft series of articles.
This is a really tough one to answer – especially if you consider 5 mans and raid dungeons. I suppose what I’ll do is bust this one into a two-parter – this one being my favorite WoW 5 man. I’ll add another entry for my favorite raid dungeon. 🙂
Alright… my favorite 5 man… hmmm… Well, this is still tough. I like a lot of the WoW dungeons for a variety of reasons – some of them for: scenery, the bosses, the various loot, the quests, or maybe they just remind me of a particularly fun period in my WoW gaming history.
The best I can do is narrow my choice down to three. 😉
In no particular order…
Deadmines (low-level classic version)
I love the concept of the Deadmines — a secret underground operation manned by bandits and greedy thugs, with a whole lot of piratey goodness thrown in. The enormous underground cave where the Van Cleef fight takes place is just too cool.
I didn’t run this dungeon until I was in my 40s or 50s, but I have run it a lot since. I used to be heavily into twinking, so the Deadmines were one of the dungeons I would run repeatedly to get my necessary drops. Unlike some of the other dungeon grinds, Deadmines never really got old for me.
Apart from running it with my twink toons, I have done many legit runs with low level groups. It’s a fun instance. 😀
Shadowfang Keep (low-level classic version)
SFK is another dungeon I’ve run countless times in order to farm item drops. Back in the day, the place was a veritable gold mine filled with BoE twink items — the two most notable being the Assassin’s Blade and of course, Shadowfang. Assassin’s Blade has since been nerfed, making it no longer viable for 19 rogues, but Shadowfang is still among the best-in-slot for rogues and some sword and board builds – if it even still drops, which at this time is questionable.
At any rate, I used to run SFK a ton and never really got bored with it. The place reminds me of an old horror movie – filled with ghosts, werewolves, giant bats, a huge wolf boss and a mad wizard. It’s like a bunch of old Universal horror flicks mashed into one.
Maraudon (classic version)
I enjoyed running the classic version of Maraudon, however, it also had the potential of being one of the worst dungeons to be in if you were in the wrong group. The Mara corpse runs were absolutely hideous.
I liked Maraudon for the amazing and diverse scenery, as well as the unique and plentiful boss encounters. The pool below Celebras, with the huge open skylight above, is one of the most amazing bits of environment in all of WoW — at least I think so. I used to run this dungeon with my 47-49 hunter before it was nerfed in The Shattering patch. The place used to be filled with awesome loot for the 45-49 range, and the encounters were both challenging and fun.
Although I can appreciate how they’ve chopped up some of the larger dungeons for the sake of convenience… I do really miss the way Mara used to be.
Alrighty… so those are my favorite dungeons. Which ones do you guys like?
Up next… my favorite raid dungeons…
I really just started to do randoms in WotLK, so I’d say the Frozen Halls. I was always on-edge as I figured out the fights (and how to gear) at FoS and PoS. This was also the time I learned about gear score and how it determines access to HoR.
A few days after I did HoR, I started my first ever raid: ICC.
(1) Zul’aman…..was one of my top picks for raids and now is one of my favorite 5-man heroics. I love the “feel” of the place with all the troll lore and such, plus its an outdoors instance.
(2) Shattered Halls…..One of THE toughest Burning Crusade instances to run in its day. It is pretty much where I really started perfecting my Hunter skills. You had to be on your game to make it through this place.
(3) Scholomance……..Love the design and “feel” of this place. I could have run it blind folded I was through there so much in the day.
Glad I’m on this site cause this could get me flamed other places. Zul’Frrak, no question. The battle on the steps is epic. I still run people through it so they can get the xp. Saddest dungeon now is Sunken Temple. I ran a couple of guildies for their lvl 50 quest, and I was like “what have they done to you old friend.”
Umm… umm… None really come to mind… Most of my dungeoning has been solo runs with my 80/85 hunter just for the achievs or Wrath/Cata heroics. Wrath heroics were just a whirlwind and I can’t even remember which ones are which… And I’ve only done a couple Cata heroics…
Oh, I guess the only ones that stick out are Deadmines, Stockades, Scarlet Monastery, and Uldaman (mostly DM and SM though) because I did them back in Vanilla on my rogue while lvling up… before I quit playing at lvl 45… to then come back after Wrath with a hunter.
So let’s say SM, since it’s one of the few that I actually did it properly…
I second the motion of Scholo’s awesomeness! The thing I like best about the dungeon finder is that it made all of the old dungeons “relevant” again by making it super-easy to get a group together and not have to travel to them. In fact, running old dungeons over and over is probably one of the things I like best about rolling alts. =)
P.S. Changing my password worked, Gar. Thanks.
The thing I like best about the dungeon finder is that it made all of the old dungeons “relevant” again by making it super-easy to get a group together and not have to travel to them. In fact, running old dungeons over and over is probably one of the things I like best about rolling alts. =)
Agreed!
Scholomance. There are so many I’m just gonig to pick that one and go with it! I like the involved storyline and the wide variety of bosses and the bounty of cloth that drops from trash 😉 This was a really hard question!
I shall not cop out and give a mulit-dungeon answer like Gar did. =P
My favorite is BRD. As a quick aside, when Gar listed Mara, I was like “OMG that place was hideous!!! It was so vast! People would get lost! Groups would break u before the end!” Etc. Then I realized that I liked BRD for many of the same reasons and I felt like a fool. =P
I remember clear as day the first time I killed Thaurissan with a group, the SAME group, that went start to finish and killed every boss in there. It felt EPIC! I felt exhausted at the end. I love the story of the Dark Iron dwarves and BRD feels very much like Lonely Mountain to me, so it sort of combines my love of two similar yet distinctly unique fantasy adventures. BRD felt different than other dungeons. Other more linear dungeons feel like you are making a beeline to an end boss and leaving with your loot. BRD felt like it was FIGHTING BACK against your group. I FELT like the Emperor was sending out various minions to confront and attempt to stop our group from advancing to our ultimate goal. And that dang Emperor won SO…..MANY…..TIMES…..!!!! So when he finally bought it, our group went bananas. We danced. We took screen shots of us sitting on the throne with Thaurissan’s corpse right in front of it (as the tank, I took great care as to where the corpse would fall…i wanted that screenshot!!).
So there it is, BRD. I’m as crazy as Gar, I guess. =P
P.S. Is anyone else having trouble logging into the forums. It won’t let me long in at the forum main page, but if I click on a specific forum, I am suddenly logged in as Tak or Abby. Strange, I know.
So there it is, BRD. I’m as crazy as Gar, I guess. =P
Indeed you are, if not more so. I have to admit though, I kinda like BRD myself. Although, it’s extremely important that you run it with the right group.
P.S. Is anyone else having trouble logging into the forums. It won’t let me long in at the forum main page, but if I click on a specific forum, I am suddenly logged in as Tak or Abby. Strange, I know.
Maybe try resetting your password, lawman.
10 4.