This is my baby priest, Mephitik.




I love her name; I chose it carefully. I think it’s fitting, for her race. I made her a while ago, because we didn’t have any priests, and because I wanted to try another healer.

I was bored and felt like picking her back up again, and thought maybe I could try some instances using the LFD tool. I LOVE healing instances. I dont mind levelling, but I’d rather be doing groups. I’ve wanted to try another healing class for a while, but worried that levelling up and then having to “learn to heal” all of a sudden at 80 would be hard, because generally it’s difficult to get groups for low level dungeons (so my group experience would be very limited).

So I’m loving this new tool. I can quest for a few minutes, then get a group. Sometimes the queue is instant. Port straight there, get almost a full level in the dungeon, and go straight back to what I was doing. I went from 14 to 22 after doing a handful of dungeons and a smattering of quests (and I get to skip all of the quests that I particularly hate – because I’m levelling so quickly that I don’t have to do them – yay!)

I’m having fun, healing groups, and I’m learning about another healing class, which can only be a good thing.


Waltzing into Stormwind

One of my first memories of the game was being run through Deadmines and the Stockade when I was a brand new Night Elf druid. My friends, being veterans of the game, took for granted that everyone knows their way around Stormwind and EVERYONE knows where the Stockade is. They zoned in while I trailed quite far behind, trying to negotiate my way around Stormwind. They disappeared off my map, and then impatiently asked why I was taking so long to get there. Indignantly (defensively), I told them I had no idea where they were. They had to zone out to show me where to go.

I think, perhaps, Blizzard has overlooked this kind of problem when implementing the new LFD (Looking for Dungeon) system for low level instances. Some people simply have no idea how to get to these dungeons – or it’s been so long, they might as well have never been there. Some dungeons are easy enough to find, but the entrance portals are hidden inside a maze of winding tunnels and passageways.

Obviously this isn’t a problem when you first join the group, you get ported right there. Hordies can do Deadmines and The Stockade without ever having to set foot in Westfall or Stormwind. We can do Gnomeregan without having to do the (still bugged) teleporter quest. Alliance players can do Ragefire Chasm, and those on PvP realms don’t have to run the Scarlet Monastery gauntlet anymore. How hot is that? I thought it was absolutely fantastic – I get to do all these old school instances, without the hassle of travelling all the way there.

But what happens when the group wipes, and we have to run back?

Big problems.


“I don’t know how to get back to the instance.”

Yesterday I joined a Wailing Caverns group. I immediately realised they were part way through the instance; their character arrows were off somewhere to the south east. Low level dungeons don’t have maps; so I had no way of working out exactly where they were. I started running to where I thought they were, and immediately encountered a patrolling mob that hadn’t been killed earlier, plus a bunch of mobs. How did they go that way if they didn’t clear any of this?

The pally was dead (somewhere) and asking if I could rez. The mage had to come and collect me, to show me where they were. Turns out they had only partly cleared some trash up the top, then dropped down into the trench. Ok, no problem.

We ran to meet up with the rest of the group, and were met with a huge stream of mobs pouring out into the open. Somehow we managed to survive, although the mage died. I was completely OOM (go go lowbie priest mana), so I sat to drink. “Rez” came the whisper from the mage. Grr.

The pally too kept asking for a rez. Problem: he had released, so we had to search for a body on the ground. I guess WC all looks the same, because nobody could remember where he died (it was before I arrived). He could have been anywhere, lying under some nondescript fern.

Pally: Rez me?
Me: Where did you die?
Pally: (shaman) should know.
Shaman: I can’t find your body.
Pally: It’s where you were arguing earlier.

(alarm bells are sounnnndiinnnng)

Pally: How do I get back to the instance?

After 10 minutes of running in circles, and the pally constantly asking how to get back in, I left. I hated doing it.. but I couldn’t afford to spend half an hour searching for one person OR trying to give directions to the portal through party chat. They hadn’t even killed a single boss yet. It didn’t bode well for the rest of the run.


Pats, corpse runs, hidden portals

Patrolling mobs, stupidly long corpse runs, portals that are difficult to find.. they are all a massive stumbling block for low level groups.

I don’t want to make the game super simple – corpse runs are a small and necessary time-sink, I understand that. But when people are brand new to a lot of these places, they will often simply drop group rather than try to find their way back to the instance portal.

My first three instances yesterday all fell short of the final boss because it was too hard to recover from a wipe or someone having to run back. In Deadmines, people running back have to find their way from Sentinel Hill, into the building in Moonbrook, then through the maze of tunnels before the instance portal. Once you’re back in, if you take a wrong turn, you’ll likely get killed by uncleared miners; but even if you go the right way, patrols spawn behind the group, so you’ll be the one to stumble on them. Plus, the instance is very, very long – some people just don’t have the patience.

In one group, we wiped literally on the pack before the final boss, and everyone dropped group because it was too hard to run all the way back. In another group, we had to boot someone for being a ninja/facepuller/bad, but then realised it was best not to invite a replacement because it would take them 10 minutes to get to us, and they would likely die to pats anyway. In a few groups, it has been easier to 4man the instance rather than bring in a replacement 5th.

Wailing Caverns probably speaks for itself – it’s hard to find your way back, and I had two groups fail and break up because it was too hard to go back and try again. The portal is pretty hard to find if you don’t know the place. Once, I ran WC, we wiped, and the group told me to run back and rez them, because they didn’t know the way!

Now, the Stockade is great – a very short instance, nice and linear, portal is easy to find – but (as a Horde character) if you die, you spawn at the Eastvale Logging Camp, on the opposite side of Elwynn. FAIL.




Consider these dungeons, and either how much of a trek it is from a graveyard, how difficult it is to find the portal if you’re not familiar with the area, or how painful it is to run back through the dungeon to where you were fighting:



• Deadmines

• Wailing Caverns
• Maraudon
• BRD
• Blackfathom Deeps
• Sunken Temple
• Gnomeregan
• Uldaman


Imagine having to run back through BRD to the group, if nobody can rez you. All you have is a vague directional marker telling you where your group is. Goodie! As much as I love that instance (I really do), it’s massive. Nobody likes running back through that.

I’m a seasoned player, I’ve been to these places many, many times – but even I cringe at the thought of having to find that stupid Maraudon portal. As for Gnomeregan – well, even I’d be tempted to drop group if we wiped on that. Trying to find my own way in would be hard enough; trying to give directions to others through party chat.. uugghhhh.

They’re all awesome dungeons and I love doing them – but recovering from a death, or bringing in a new player – it can be too much hassle for a lot of groups, and they collapse rather than pushing on. Seems it’s easier to just drop and requeue than to run back and press on.


Make it (dare I say it..) easier

Ok, so it’s already pretty darn easy on groups. You get ported right to the instance, no travelling, no PvP, no time wasted. Fantastic.

But seriously, doing all of these instances, getting almost all the way through and then having your group dissolve because people don’t know how to run back, or the instance is incredibly long, or there’s a pat that keeps killing your replacement 5th, forcing the group to run back to escort them through.. it’s so frustrating.

I don’t want Blizzard to hold our hands and lead us through instances. But I do wish it was slightly easier to get back to the instance after a death. And, if you are replacing someone who left the group, I wish there was a way for you to perhaps port to the group to join them, rather than having to negotiate pats, or have someone come back to collect you because you have no idea how to find the group.

Yesterday I started doing specific dungeons instead of randoms, because it would constantly serve me up with Wailing Caverns, and most of those runs ended in frustration.

I really want to run all of the instances – I miss them. Some of them are pretty epic places, and I think it’s great that the LFD tool gives them a new lease on life – but I’m dreading wipe recovery in places like BRD, Gnomer, and Mara, among others. Blizzard – please consider closer graveyards, or something to make it slightly easier to at least find the instance portal again.


Oh well – onward and upward, little priest!

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