Level 19: Thursday, February 24, 2011

Located between the Forsaken capital, Undercity and the city of Gilneas, Shadowfang Keep is one of the best dungeons for any level, and blows every other early instance away in terms of mood and variety.

The instance has undergone some changes since the game's initial launch. It was previously the home of the corrupted Archmage Arugal, who was the Gilnean leader originally responsible for bringing the Worgen curse into the city.

Arugal's error in summoning the Worgen drove him mad, and he fled with his summoned 'children' to the Keep, murdering its original resident, a Baron, whose ghost you must defeat in order to reach Arugal, and claiming it for his own. The original version of the instance had you fighting against Arugal's worgen minions, along with ghosts of the murdered Keep residents.

After Cataclysm, and the introduction of the Worgen as a playable race, the dungeon's story was changed. After Lord Godfrey commits suicide and is raised as a Forsaken, he also betrays his new mistress, Sylvannas Windrunner, and kills her. She is raised from the dead once again, and Godfrey, having now betrayed both the Worgen and Forsaken, retreats to the Keep, where he takes control. This gives both factions a reason to go through the dungeon.

Shadowfang Keep is so popular that it has a regular difficulty for players Level 16-22, and a Heroic difficulty for Level 85s only.

Level 18: Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Just couldn't get on the bike.

Loch Modan is an alternative to Westfall, and is the first zone available outside of the introductory one for Dwarves. You reach it by travelling through a mountain tunnel and emerge from snowy Dun Murogh into an area that's downright tropical in comparison.

Every character's first stop in the area is Thelsamar, where the dwarf residents have dug homes beneath the earth.

There's a lot to do here. There are a number of threats to the small town, including stone troggs and a camp of ogres in the eastern part of the zone.

The Farstrider Lodge is in the southeastern corner of the area, and houses a housing party of dwarves and one night elf, who give you increasingly difficult hunting tasks to prove your worth.

The centerpiece of the zone is the Stonewrought Dam, which spans almost the entire northern border. The dam was built to contain all of the snowmelt from the mountains from cascading down into the Wetlands, located in the valley below. A series of quests involves stopping a group of evil Dark Iron dwarves from blowing the dam up.

However, like so many things in the game, the dam is no match for Deathwing when he arrives, and it is soon history.

Level 18: Tuesday, February 22, 2011

The Redridge Mountains lie to the east of Elwynn Forest and Stormwind, and is mainly a zone for Alliance players only, despite being labelled as "Contested Territory." What this means on a PvP server is that all players are immediately flagged upon entering, and are vulnerable to attack from the opposite faction. So in this case, high-level Horde are able to come in and kill any questing Alliance they might see running around. The only town in the zone is Lakeshire.

There are a variety of quests to do here, including some errands to get supplies to fix the town bridge, and murdering a wandering pig because she ate some woman's flowers. However, most of the tasks involve clearing the area of some unwelcome invaders, including gnolls and orcs, who have invaded from the mountains to the north.

The climactic series of quests takes you from the town into the surrounding mountains to attack the leader of the orcs in the overlooking Stonewatch Keep. It's not quite a dungeon, but you still needed a team to complete this, and it was a fun diversion from the usual solo questing.

Level 17: Monday, February 21, 2011

Wailing Caverns is another starter dungeon instance located in the heart of the Barrens.

This dungeon might be the most hated in the entire game. Keep in mind, it's meant to be a starter instance, so you wouldn't think it would be too long or convoluted.

Take a mix of people who might be just learning how their characters work, mix it with the most boring aesthetics possible; a never-ending series of caves, make it about two hours long, and you have yourself this place. It is pretty wretched. As near as I can tell, the story involves rescuing a druid who wandered in here and was trapped in the Emerald Dream, which is explained in-game about as well as Poochie's home planet. For all intents and purposes, it is a parallel version of the real world, which non-playable characters sometimes find themselves in. Anyway, your mission is to save the druid, but the wild raptors and corrupted druids inside the caverns stand in your way.

When it comes time to wake him up, you have to protect another one of the druids while he completes the ceremony. However, a creature from the trapped druid's nightmare emerges...a giant murloc.

You kill the murloc, free the druid, and get out of the caverns, most people vowing never to enter again.

This place is not very good!

Level 16: Sunday, February 20, 2011

Ragefire Chasm is a dungeon instance located directly beneath the Horde capital city of Orgrimmar. The series of caverns that wind their way through some volcanic territory are the hideout of a cult called the Searing Blade, who are suspected of plotting to take down the Horde from the inside. They are underlings for the demons of the Burning Legion, who we'll see more in-depth in the Burning Crusade expansion.

The portal into Ragefire Chasm being where it is; the center of the Horde's busiest city, meant that prior to the Random Dungeon Finder, the Alliance had a hard road to travel to get inside. They had to either ride through and hope that they weren't cut off of their mount, or die inside the city gates and walk their ghost to the instance portal.

The instance is very short, and is another introductory one, for all intents and purposes. There are 3-4 bosses, the main one being the orc warlock Jergosh the Invoker.

Level 15, Saturday, February 19, 2011

Once a player hits Level 15, they are eligible to use the Random Dungeon Finder tool. This tool, which was introduced during the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, is perhaps the greatest addition ever made to the game. Dungeon instances are a major part of the game, wherein a group of five players makes its way through a series of enemies and boss fights to get experience and/or upgrades to their gear. Instances are available at all levels from 10-85, and it is in these instances that players learn to use their skills as a group, as opposed to questing, which is usually solo. The way the Random Dungeon Finder tool works is as follows. The player opens the tool, and selects whether they want to do a random dungeon, or a specific one. A random dungeon will place the player into a group for an instance that is not revealed until they zone in. This option also gives the player some extra rewards, like an extra piece of gear or currency. If a player wants a piece of gear that they know is only in one dungeon, they can also choose to queue for just that specific instance.

They also need to choose a role, or roles that they wish to fill once they are in the group. There is a choice of three roles: tank, healer, and damage. The tank is usually a warrior, death knight, bear druid, or paladin, whose stronger armor allows them to take a hit. It's the tank's job to keep enemies stuck on them, so that they don't kill the weaker damage dealers. Healers keep the tanks alive, and occasionally need to take care of overzealous damage dealers who steal threat from the tank.

Prior to the release of the Random Dungeon Finder, players who wanted to do a dungeon had to manually search for the group, which usually involved being in a major city asking the various chat channels. The tool does all the work of finding and assembling the group, and you don't even need to be in a city to use it.

The first dungeon that I ever saw was The Deadmines, which is located underneath the city of Moonbrook in Westfall, and is the hideout for the Defias leader, Edwin Van Cleef.

Van Cleef was previously a renowned architect in Stormwind, and prior to the events of the game, was called on to repair the city after a Horde attack. The Nobles refused to pay him, however, and in his anger he formed the Brotherhood and vowed revenge. They took over Westfall, and set into motion the plan to kidnap the king that I've discussed before. Yep, they allied themselves with a dragon.

Anyway, after making your way through some mines, you eventually find yourself in a large cavern with an underground pirate ship. That's right, it's Goonies time.

The dungeon isn't particularly hard, it's basically a way for players to get their feet wet and learn the difference between playing the game solo and playing with others, but it's a fun introduction to the concept of instances. Also, dungeons are the best source of gear upgrades, so players will generally run them multiple times if they want to get a specific piece. Anyway, pre-Cata, you found Van Cleef on the ship and killed him...no big deal, really. However the Westfall chain post-Cataclysm that begins with the player investigating the earlier-referenced murders reveals that the person responsible has a connection.

Yeah, we learn from exposition that Van Cleef's daughter saw her father murdered before her eyes and vowed revenge, so she reforms the Brotherhood, kills the foster parents who knew her secret, burns Sentinel Hill to the ground, and takes up residence in the Deadmines to carry on her father's cause.

In a fun twist, she is only available in the Heroic version of the dungeon, which only Level 85 players can enter. Level-appropriate players for the regular version (13-19 or so) kill her second-in-command and find only a taunting note from Vanessa.

Level 14: Friday, February 18, 2011

Legs refused to work after the long walking days in Florida, and my jumping right back into the workout routine at home. No bike today.

Progressing further into Westfall, adventurers find themselves at Sentinel Hill, located right in the middle of the zone. This keep is where the Stormwind Guard are stationed pre-Cataclysm, as they attempt to get a handle on the Defias thieves who have taken over. You work your way through the zone, finding progressively stronger Defias, and eventually discover that their hideout is located inside a mine in the abandoned city of Moonbrook. More on that in the next entry.

The menace doesn't just come from the Defias in Westfall. The western coastline is swarming with murlocs, who are quick to ambush an unwary adventure, and their attacks on the keeper of the lighthouse have led to the flame going dark, and ships wrecking themselves along the coastline.

If you swim out to the lighthouse, you meet the ghost of an old sea captain who died in a shipwreck, who asks you to kill the murlocs responsible for the attack, and relight the flame.