Old instances are loonngg

I knew this - I even blogged about how places like the Blackrock instances are "proper" dungeons. But I didn't remember it starting quite this early, or think about how I might square these with my current life.

Since running Maraudon, which I touched on in my last post, I've done two mostly full runs of Sunken Temple - one as a cat which ended after a wipe before Jammal'an the Prophet, and a complete run as a bear. When I started them I didn't think it would be the start of a late night gaming session, but both ended up that way.

Once I get to level 56 I'm planning to spend much of the rest of the game in dungeons, so I'm going to need more scheduled periods of longer play, and more time when I'm not playing!

Glad to be in the fifties

Levelling progress seemed to slow down significantly around level 47 or so and my enthusiasm started to wane. A long clear of Maraudon and the associated quests (after two partial runs) got me over the hump to level 50 and things seemed to improve from there. I think the difference is mainly emotional: levels are still passing slowly, but level 60 is now in sight and some quest rewards and especially dungeon drops are items I'll take into end game dungeons and even into raids (hello Blackstone Ring).

Now at level 53 I've just caught up on some of the Balance spells that I avoided training while saving for my mount, which may have been foolish as I also need to scrape together money for Devilsaur Leather.

Finally mounted

At about 80% of the way through level 44 I finally scraped together enough gold for a Striped Nightsaber. If I'd been more diligent about auctioning my items crafted through leatherworking I could have managed this sooner, but certainly not immediately after hitting level 40.

I now have a serious amount of catching up to do on my skill training!

No-meregan and subsequent adventures

World of Warcraft is odd, because it has so many different parts.

As a solo game I'm currently enjoying it a lot because it has a decent level of difficulty, as I mentioned in my last post. For example, questing for Skullsplitter tusks in the Ruins of Zul'Mamwe (which I've just finished doing) is decently challenging due to the patrols and groups which can punish mistakes or carelessness. It doesn't have the story focus of the modern game (which is much helped by phasing but which also has weird effects when you step back a bit) but the difficulty is its own strength.

The open world multiplayer game is also nice - as a buffing, healing, DPS-ish class you can help out other players in distress either by healing or peeling mobs off them, which gives a shallow social element.

Instances have a deeper social element - you want the right players not just the right roles - but also there's an interaction between the instance design and the player's classes and personalities. I've done a fair few instance runs over the last week or so and they varied a lot:

• Gnomeregan wasn't much fun. Partly this was the instance theme and design - that much Warcraft steampunk is too much for me, and from a tanking point of view there are lots of large, non-elite packs which are a pain as a druid tank. In part it was down to the group personalities - it was far the least social of the groups I've been in recently, seeming almost like a modern, shallow LFG party.
• Having tanked Scarlet Monastery Library plus Armoury for one group I then tried healing for an odd group of four warriors, all with two-handers. As a healing experience it was thirsty and challenging (but not in a good way) and didn't have much going for it socially. At some point I need to do some druid healing in case I end up doing that in the end game, but as an introduction it wasn't what I needed.
• Shortly after hitting 40 I then tanked Cathedral for a competent and pleasant group, by far my best recent instance experience. It's at this point that the grouping aspect of the game really shines, at least for me.
• Finally last night I tanked Razorfen Downs for a slightly odd group - there was loot drama from the quillboars that you meet before starting the instance, and during the instance there were odd moments of the players pulling sometimes in different directions and sometimes in unison. RFD is another instance with groups of non-elites which are fiddly at times, but I was more on my game than with the Gnomeregan run and with the group being more pleasant it overall scored an "OK".

Classic is an interesting experience - some of the "hard mode" design choices, like instance keys and quest design, are enjoyable, but other aspects such as loot drama remind you why Blizzard have changed some of those choices in the modern game.

Finally to note that new Duillnar is now level 41, higher than I got a druid in the original game and nearly as high as old Duillnar after the XP squishes and some experimentation. But even having ignored a chunk of skill training (especially in balance spells) he barely has more than 20g to his name and certainly isn't in a position to buy a mount.