Magisters’ Terrace is a 5-man instance that is brimming with amazing rewards, awesome graphics, and a story like no other. A unique instance with its own new design, enemies, and bosses with everything players want (loot and reputation). Hyped since Blizzcon ’07, Magisters’ Terrace and the Sunwell Plateau are (unless things change) the last major content updates to World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. The question we ask… was it worth the wait?

Let’s first examine the visuals of the instance. Within the instance it looks pretty much like an expanded Silvermoon City. This is how it should be even if it adds nothing “new” to the game palette wise. Silvermoon City is remarked as one of the prettiest cities in the game and emulating its style not only adds that feel (that you’re within an area that used to be a part of Silvermoon) but makes it visually relaxing on the eyes.

The design of the rooms is forgiving and spaced very nicely. Many packs of trash enemies can be skipped and there is a lot of room to move around in. This is especially helpful in heroic where you have to get off those ice traps and if you have a Paladin tanking it can be difficult if you’re stuck always within cramped halls. The pathing of the patrols isn’t insane and each pack of enemies can be pulled with ease and even line-of-sighted into halls. Overall the design and layout is wonderful.

Of course we have to discuss enemies. There are a few types of enemies. Kael’thas’s Blood Elf soldiers are the main types of enemies you’ll find within. They act much like any other minion of Kael’thas. You have healers, damage dealers, casters, and even naga. So it’s a nice mix with the annoying ones (naga and smugglers) coming in small quantities.

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Magisters' Terrace from the inside.

Other enemies include mana wyrms which are only as challenging as you make them. They come in massive packs that are ready to be AoE’d down. The trick is to pull just enough that you can handle. That’s a nice way to organize an epic encounter. Letting players decide how many they want to take on is an excellent way to add a bit of variety. Though I will say that pulling the entire room may only be for those who are really overgeared for the instance!

Wretched make a few appearances and they’re quite weak and barely worth a mention. It’s a nice way to add in a little bit of the lore though with the newly introduced Wretched in TBC. The mechanical sentries are the same as they always are, annoying but rare.

The boss fights are just splendid. Four bosses and each one of them an epic encounter. The first boss, Selin Fireheart, has an interesting encounter where players who are overgeared can simply ignore his crystals and burn him right on down. Vexallus is the next boss who is like the Curator and is a boss that requires coordination from the group otherwise you’re going to wipe.

Of course the next boss is an encounter that is once again similar to a Karazhan boss (Moroes) and is an absolute blast to play in a 5-man instance. Fighting another party of five is absolutely insane and is a great way to get experience for dealing with encounters that require tactics. Even on heroic the encounter is more fun than annoying.

The last boss, Prince Kael’thas, is an epic encounter. On heroic his difficulty is pretty insane (but the rewards are great) and on normal he’s still an exceedingly fun boss to fight. Floating through the air and attacking while dodging magical balls is exhilarating. Blizzard did a really good job with it.

So we’ve got great visuals, wonderful layout, perfectly executed enemies, and very fun (and epic) bosses. So that leaves loot.

Normal mode drops epic items off of Kael’thas (who might as well be a heroic encounter in itself) and the heroic mode drops some of the best non-raid loot in the game. What more could you ask for a dungeon that is both difficult but extremely rewarding?

Blizzard did an amazing job with this instance. If Wrath of the Lich King emulates anything out of this instance (and the majority of improvements we seen with other burning crusade instances) then we’re in for one heck of a treat. My word may not be good enough though so continue reading for a play by play review of this instance by Gabriel “DarkFact” Zamudio.

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