04-10-2007, 02:18 PM
The heroic dungeons just aren't balanced. Patch 2.1 might change this, and it might not. If you're looking to farm badges fast, there are certain heroics you attack first. This might be why Blizzard implemented short lockout timers on the heroic dungeons to prevent repeated farming.
If you had to rate the heroic-difficulty dungeons from easiest to hardest, what would be your order? First, I'll list them in alphabetical order, bolding the ones I've run by now:
Auchenai Crypts
Blood Furnace
Caverns of Time: Black Morass
Caverns of Time: Escape from Durnholde
Hellfire Ramparts
Mana Tombs
Sethekk Halls
Shadow Labrynth
Shattered Halls
Slave Pens
Steamvault
Tempest Keep: Alcatraz
Tempest Keep: Botanica
Tempest Keep: Mechanar
Underbog
If I had to rate the difficulty of the ones I've been on, I'd list them as so (easiest to hardest):
Slave Pens
Tempest Keep: Mechanar
Steamvault
Sethekk Halls
Hellfire Ramparts
Caverns of Time: Escape from Durnholde
Caverns of Time: Black Morass
Blood Furnace
Mana Tombs
Shattered Halls
My view of Mana Tombs may be a bit skewed since it was the first heroic I ever played all the way through, so there was a serious "wow" factor at how hard the mobs hit. On the other hand, I ran it with some of the very best-geared players on my server and there wasn't enough DPS to keep the end-boss' adds from overwhelming us at the end. Pandemonius will tear a tank to shreds if they don't pack a ton of shadow resistance.
Hellfire Ramparts is up there a bit simply because the end-boss has too many insta-gib moves.
The bog lords in Steamvault are more scary than the bosses. It's as if Blizzard just decided to put in a damage multiplier straight-up for all heroic trash, not taking into account how that creates imbalance for some of the really hard-hitters. A trash mob hitting your tank for 10k followed by an aoe damage doing 2-3k a tick to all melee? Uh, yeah.
I think most are in agreement that Shattered Halls is the nastiest of the nasty; especially the ogre boss. I solo healed that with a CC-heavy ranged-heavy group (me the priest, hunter, mage, warlock, warrior), which definitely makes it a ton easier. It's still evil, especially if you're shooting for completing the Trial of the Naaru (think 45-minute Baron run on steroids). Like most heroic instances, getting sneezed on kills me (thanks for the priest armor nerfs, Blizzard), so the aggro is touch-and-go. I challenge anyone to complete that Trial on their very first attempt. If just one of the five characters isn't a fantastic, well-geared player, you have no chance. Finding out there was a boss at the end of the archer hallway was a nasty little surprise. "Uh, that's a boss? I'm oom..."
Black Morass is a heck of a DPS check, as predicted just from observing it on normal mode. Your DPS'ers will need to use heavy consumables unless they're really decked out in raiding gear.
Blood Furnace is another "trash is harder than the bosses" instance, with those fel guards that hit plate for 8-9k. Sure it's healable, but not without the healer pulling aggro and getting insta-gibbed for 21,000+ damage. Kite, kite, kite.
Input? Anyone run the heroics I haven't listed? I hear Skyriss at the end of Arcatraz will shoot beams doing 8k damage instead of 4k, but it seems to me having 2 healers makes it fairly doable without much stress. You're screwed with just one healer, though. Underbog's final boss is a nasty one, from what I've read, and the bog lord trash pulls before it can 2-shot any tank in less than a second (knockback + crushing). Finally, I've heard that in Shadow Labrynth, the felguards can hit plate for 12k, and Vorpil has to die before the second teleport or else he starts summoning voidwalkers in ultra-speed mode. Sounds like fun. :)
I haven't heard jack about the Crypts. Does anyone even bother in that place?
So for those new to heroic instances or thinking of getting their feet wet, I'd recommend the Slave Pens or Mechanar. In the case of the Slave Pens, the bosses there work almost exactly the same as they do in normal mode, and you just need to take it slow and careful on the trash. For Mechanar, the free tokens you get from the 2 mini-bosses will get you started on your heroic token collection, and you'll learn some new tricks along the way when fighting the bosses.
-Bolty
If you had to rate the heroic-difficulty dungeons from easiest to hardest, what would be your order? First, I'll list them in alphabetical order, bolding the ones I've run by now:
Auchenai Crypts
Blood Furnace
Caverns of Time: Black Morass
Caverns of Time: Escape from Durnholde
Hellfire Ramparts
Mana Tombs
Sethekk Halls
Shadow Labrynth
Shattered Halls
Slave Pens
Steamvault
Tempest Keep: Alcatraz
Tempest Keep: Botanica
Tempest Keep: Mechanar
Underbog
If I had to rate the difficulty of the ones I've been on, I'd list them as so (easiest to hardest):
Slave Pens
Tempest Keep: Mechanar
Steamvault
Sethekk Halls
Hellfire Ramparts
Caverns of Time: Escape from Durnholde
Caverns of Time: Black Morass
Blood Furnace
Mana Tombs
Shattered Halls
My view of Mana Tombs may be a bit skewed since it was the first heroic I ever played all the way through, so there was a serious "wow" factor at how hard the mobs hit. On the other hand, I ran it with some of the very best-geared players on my server and there wasn't enough DPS to keep the end-boss' adds from overwhelming us at the end. Pandemonius will tear a tank to shreds if they don't pack a ton of shadow resistance.
Hellfire Ramparts is up there a bit simply because the end-boss has too many insta-gib moves.
The bog lords in Steamvault are more scary than the bosses. It's as if Blizzard just decided to put in a damage multiplier straight-up for all heroic trash, not taking into account how that creates imbalance for some of the really hard-hitters. A trash mob hitting your tank for 10k followed by an aoe damage doing 2-3k a tick to all melee? Uh, yeah.
I think most are in agreement that Shattered Halls is the nastiest of the nasty; especially the ogre boss. I solo healed that with a CC-heavy ranged-heavy group (me the priest, hunter, mage, warlock, warrior), which definitely makes it a ton easier. It's still evil, especially if you're shooting for completing the Trial of the Naaru (think 45-minute Baron run on steroids). Like most heroic instances, getting sneezed on kills me (thanks for the priest armor nerfs, Blizzard), so the aggro is touch-and-go. I challenge anyone to complete that Trial on their very first attempt. If just one of the five characters isn't a fantastic, well-geared player, you have no chance. Finding out there was a boss at the end of the archer hallway was a nasty little surprise. "Uh, that's a boss? I'm oom..."
Black Morass is a heck of a DPS check, as predicted just from observing it on normal mode. Your DPS'ers will need to use heavy consumables unless they're really decked out in raiding gear.
Blood Furnace is another "trash is harder than the bosses" instance, with those fel guards that hit plate for 8-9k. Sure it's healable, but not without the healer pulling aggro and getting insta-gibbed for 21,000+ damage. Kite, kite, kite.
Input? Anyone run the heroics I haven't listed? I hear Skyriss at the end of Arcatraz will shoot beams doing 8k damage instead of 4k, but it seems to me having 2 healers makes it fairly doable without much stress. You're screwed with just one healer, though. Underbog's final boss is a nasty one, from what I've read, and the bog lord trash pulls before it can 2-shot any tank in less than a second (knockback + crushing). Finally, I've heard that in Shadow Labrynth, the felguards can hit plate for 12k, and Vorpil has to die before the second teleport or else he starts summoning voidwalkers in ultra-speed mode. Sounds like fun. :)
I haven't heard jack about the Crypts. Does anyone even bother in that place?
So for those new to heroic instances or thinking of getting their feet wet, I'd recommend the Slave Pens or Mechanar. In the case of the Slave Pens, the bosses there work almost exactly the same as they do in normal mode, and you just need to take it slow and careful on the trash. For Mechanar, the free tokens you get from the 2 mini-bosses will get you started on your heroic token collection, and you'll learn some new tricks along the way when fighting the bosses.
-Bolty
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