The early parts of href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/blizzcon08/"
target="_blank">BlizzCon '08 left me with
little to be excited about.  I loved the graphics and the
excitement surrounding href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/46418" target="_blank">Starcraft
II and target="_blank">Diablo III, but I may or may not
even buy those games. I play MMOs. The opening ceremony offered up no
new information, and I was greatly disappointed to find that I'd come
all the way to BlizzCon (as a regular, paid for my ticket fan) only to
walk away with no new information. All was not lost though. My energy
level went up significantly after sitting in on the Raids and Dungeons
panel. To say that Blizzard has learned from all of their previous
dungeon designs would be an understatement. They have learned and
listened to the fans (or at least watched the dungeon metrics). The new
dungeons show off some amazing artwork, and they offer a "greatest
hits" type experience from all the previous instances.


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The Blizzard
team learned much from their previous instances.

At previous BlizzCon events, the dungeon teams have shown some 2D
design documents and discussed how the instances were
created.  This year they used GM flight/observer mode to run
the audience through the actual dungeons.  The instances
discussed were the Halls of Lighting and Ahn'Kahet while the raid
dungeons included Chamber of the Aspects and  Eye of Eternity.



If you want to read more about the nuts and bolts of the instances,
then you target="_blank">need to read Xerin's excellent
report that has real information.  I'm here to give
you the gut feel of the conversation.  Like I said earlier, we
really didn't learn anything new, but that doesn't mean it should have
lacked excitement.  In this case it does though. I heard more
moans and even a smattering of boos from the audience. Enough about the
raiders sitting near me though, here are my thoughts.  In
keeping with the Aspects, I've set up my own Chamber of the Aspects:



The John McCain Aspects

My friends, the new dungeons are all about you.  Being
original mavericks, Blizzard is veering away from long drawn out
instances.  They listened when we said "No Mas" to seven hour
instances.  Now they provide mechanics for keeping the
instances shorter, but still retain that epic feel.  I don't
get too hung up on feeling epic, I just want the loot and I don't want
to beat my head against a wall for 5 plus hours to get it. 
Luckily Blizzard is catering to me.



The Barack Obama Aspects

In a true movement of change, there are no attunements.  Can I
get a hallelujah?  The crowd actually had a smattering of boos
when the panel announced that there are no keys required.  Who
are these gluttons for attunements?  Not anyone I play with I
can assure you.  That's not entirely true though, raids will
need at least one person with the key/orb doodad from Naxx to start the
event with Malygos in the Eye of Eternity.  That met with only
mild discontent from the hardcores.



The Sarah Palin Aspects

I'm reaching here, but I needed someone that represents the outdoors
and the Governor of Alaska seemed appropriate.  I love the
idea of dungeons incorporating the indoor/outdoor feel.  All
of the instances discussed during the panel will have some view to the
vast outdoors or take place in a combination of indoor/outdoor
spaces.  Variety is the spice of life, and I like this kind of
spice.  It really takes instances away from their tired old
confines of being caves/dungeons with small cramped play spaces.


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The Halls of
Lightning were on display at BlizzCon '08.

The Joe Lieberman Aspects

Like old politicians that have toed the company line forever, Blizzard
never strays into unknown territory when it comes to the panels. The
audience was provided information that was already known in a slightly
different forum, and for the most part it was well received. The
Q&A session really was an extension of the empty suits sitting
up front.  Maybe I'm overly harsh, but similar to any
political debate, I just feel a little empty inside by the lack of any
new substantive information.



Like the rest of BlizzCon, this panel was nice. I typically don't get
all amped up over art, but the art in the new instances really is
stunning. The first raid dungeon, Chamber of the Aspects, looks
amazing. The fact that you can choose the difficulty is also unique -
it harkens back to Zul'Garub where the sub-bosses can be killed
independently of the end-boss or for the truly uber, raids can attempt
to kill the end-boss in conjunction with the sub-bosses for even more
insanely cool loot.  This function is scalable as well since
you can leave one-three of the sub-bosses alive for better
loot.  All of this is great. My raiding team will be all over
these instances.



Maybe Blizzard is feeling political in a democratic way. Their new
dungeon designs really allow the players to choose the level of
difficulty and thereby the rewards available.  The dev team is
using different badges systems and a heroic levels to really create
different strata within each of the instances.  While it
sounds great, it could also mean that we will be running the same
dungeons 100 times through all the varying difficulty levels (eek!).



While I didn't walk away with that warm fuzzy feeling that accompanies
new information, I am excited to see the new instances and really
looking forward to some new phat lewt!


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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

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