Once More into the Instance!

To Instance or not to instance that is the question? In the last couple of years I have noted the decline of the popularity in people doing instances. This is especially true of the original (and the Burning Crusade) content. Even finding people who want to run level appropriate content in Northrend is a task only for the patient. Based on what people actually run Blizzard would be forgiven for just creating new instances for the first couple of levels and end game. This is certainly a shame as well as being a cause of many a frustrating wipe-fest as people are simply unprepared for the mechanics that the instances in-between teach.

Now I have to confess that I haven’t run many instances in the last year. A couple of years ago I could join LFG for Wailing Caverns (WC) and have a group in 15-30 mins, often in 5-10 mins. Compare that with more recently where when eventually I got a group. Six times I tried to run WC and six times the group fell apart after the first encounter, not the first boss but the trash mobs! There was no drama just people insta-leaving leaving me into the all too familiar situation of being left with one other person discussing the difficulty in getting a group of people willing to take the time to learn this aspect of the game.

When I started playing WoW I learned the hard way how to defeat each of the instances and each time I learned a new aspect to successful instancing. Unfortunately the culture now is rush to end level and then think you are prepared for end level instances. This hasn’t been helped by Blizzard to be honest as they have made the need to instance increasing irrelevant. Whereas maybe 3% of players were able to raid before WotLK, I would guess that only a small percentage of players now run instances (other than RFC/DM, Hellfire Citadel, Utgarde Keep and L80 instances).

Some of the things that have made instanced content irrelevant;
• Quicker levelling 1-70 – why try to get better items in instances that you will discard quickly?
• Boosting – Welfare blues plz, just count the number of requests for boosts, enough for people to make a group and actually ‘earn’ those BoP items
• Heirloom Items - Alts no longer need to run instances provided you have a L80 and no need to teach people how to run instances successfully
• Instances are perceived as a chore to get through rather than a fun way to spend an hour or so

That said I have decided to venture back into instancing, even to the point of doing Pick-up Groups (PuGs). Even within a guild it is very difficult to make planned runs for ‘level appropriate’ content. To be honest I have done 90% of my instance runs with PuGs and have few bad experiences. Maybe this is because I enjoy running the content and see the item rewards as a bonus.

An improved LFG scheme is planned for patch 3.3 and this will probably be make or break for instances. Here is a breakdown of the new features;

I have taken this information from
http://projectlore.com/blog/patch-33-lfg-overhaul-detailed/
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/underdev/3p3/newdungeonsystem.xml

• Join as a group - if you have a few friends you can join together
• Cross-Realm Instances/Grouping – A big feature which should make getting a group for the less popular instances a lot easier, there are some concerns that people will take advantage to ‘ninja’ items
• Daily Random Dungeons – replaces the Daily Dungeon quest, instead there will be a Weekly Raid Quest. Also applies topre-The system even applies to pre- WotLK dungeons, handing out level appropriate rewards for levelling runs
• Repeat Random Dungeons – though the rewards for doing so will be less after the first successful run
• Choose Multiple Dungeons – more than the current 3?
• Vote Kick system – The loot option is fixed to the updated Need Before Greed option (and unalterable by any member) and players can vote to remove another party member from the group. It will take four votes in order to remove someone, however, so consider this newfound power carefully.
• Lovin’ the PUG Bonuses - Players who take part in groups with one or more members who have been matched with them randomly from within the dungeon system will receive extra rewards
• Need Before Greed Updated - class must be able to equip the item, pure melee will be unable to roll on spellpower items, and classes are limited to their dominant armor type, although if no one needs the normal roll procedure applies.
• Group Disenchanting – provided you have an enchanter in the group it just automates the process

The changes seem to have addressed most of my concerns about instances, but only time will tell if instancing will survive into Cataclysm