Cataclysm: Dungeons

Dungeons in Cataclysm have taken a huge change from what was the norm in Wrath of the Lich King. Gone are the days of the 15 Minute Roflstomp. Now, dungeons require patience, skill, and a level of awareness that hasn't been seen since Burning Crusade.

One of the bigger changes is that to queue for one of the new dungeons, you first must find the entrance in the world. No more logging in for the first time and jumping right in. With the increase in difficulty, Blizzard has also added a minimum average item level to be able to queue for dungeons. This helps keep people who have no hope of performing to the needed level from getting in.

On the downside, these two features have pretty much killed the ability to dungeon-level from 80 to 85. I can understand the changes, certainly, but since that was my preferred method for leveling my alts, it can be a little frustrating. My Death Knight alt is halfway through Deepholm, and I already feel a little sick of the place. With my Paladin and Mage already to 80, and my Shaman and Druid almost there, it is going to quickly grow old.

It has been rather amusing to me to see all the QQ on the forums about the major leap in DPS queue times with the Random Dungeon Finder. People think that this is somehow all Blizzard's fault, and that they can somehow fix it. They fail to consider that (1) people are still leveling, (2) people (especially tanks and healers) are still gearing, and (3) with the rewards from running with your guild, many are doing that, not only for the rewards, but also for a more dependable run.

Queue times do seem to be slowly decreasing though. Saw my first queue today that was only 32 mins, which is a step down from the 45 minute queue. I don't particularly mind, but between the queue and the length/difficulty of the dungeons, my daily heroic is taking 2 or 3 hours, which is a huge jump to the 30-40 minutes from Wrath.

But, dungeons are so much more fun now. They are difficult, they require crowd control, and they require people to be on their toes. This is what made me fall in love with the WoW dungeon system in the first place. Pugging may be incredibly frustrating at times, but it is certainly doable. PuGs are, however, a much different beast than they were before. Now, you can't carry people. The elitist assholes that ragequit after the first wipe make waiting around for a new member a real pain.

The change in dungeons was certainly a welcome one, but a lot of people are slow on the uptake. You either have elitists that think the group sucks and is a waste of time if anything at all goes wrong because of the ease with which they blew through Wrath, or you have people who still think dungeons are just AoE fests and they can just plow through without any consideration for how their class works, or the mechanics of a fight.

There's still three instances I haven't tried (Grim Batol and Blackrock Caverns due to not finding the entrance yet, and Throne of the Tides because I leveled out of its range on normal before I had the chance to run it). However, those that I have tried are incredibly well designed to require skill, ingenuity, and the sincere effort of everyone involved.

Bravo, Blizzard. Bravo.