Dreadsteed of Xoroth, Revisited

Dreadsteed of Xoroth, Revisited

January 22, 2008, 10:46 am
Filed under: World of Warcraft

Over the weekend, my level 60 undead lock on Sen’jin finally completed his epic mount quest–after doing all the required steps leading up to the Dire Maul run well over a year ago. The quest itself was not terribly difficult (our group consisted of two locks, a pally, a rogue, and a level 70 priest) but it did take a decent amount of time.

I had the fortune of finding a very good pick-up group. My horde toon pretty much solos. Lacking the extensive network of guildies I have on Eldre’Thalas, I’d pretty much dismissed the possibility of finding a competent group willing to run an instance that no one runs anymore.

I like how WoW post-BC still requires locks to go to Dire Maul and shammies and pallies to hit up Scholo for their epic mount quests. It gives new players the opportunity to experience some of that oft-neglected pre-BC content that is glossed over in their frantic grind to get to Outlands. With Blizzard’s ability to keep players hooked on repeatable content, I’m shocked that they haven’t done something with the pre-BC instances to keep them more lively.

There are simply beautiful instances (Zul’Gurub immediately comes to mind) that have turned into ghost towns simply because Blizzard has given new players zero motivation to make the trek into them.

I’d love to see Blizzard give players more motivation to revisit many of these wonderfully rendered yet ignored “classic” instances, whether by nerfing them to 5- or 10-man groups or creating heroic versions of the instances a la Outlands. The only problem I see with this is Blizzard’s love of adding grind where it’s not necessary.

I don’t want to haul ass to any instance, old OR new, to faction grind again and again–but maybe the occasional seasonal event–like the Headless Horseman in Scarlet Monastary–would be a good way to make sure some of these great instances can be more than yesterday’s news. I mean, think of the minute percentage of players who actually got to experience BWL or Naxx or AQ40 the first time around?

Take these places and put them in the hands of the casual players who may never have had an opportunity to see them the first go around. The hardcore will always have their flavor-of-the-day conquests and fresh raid content to gnaw on that Blizzard throws their way. It’s clear that a lot of work went into each of these dungeons. Yesterday’s hard work and artistry should not be ignored just because there’s a new kid on the block.

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