alt="Dire Maul Instance Entrance" />

Content, content, and more content is
the refrain we have gotten used to in World of Warcraft: Mists of
Pandaria. Blizzard has pushed out patches at speeds never seen
before. New factions, new items, a new PvP season, and new instances
all mean that players have been busy rushing to complete the new
content and the boredom often felt between patches seems to be
nothing more than a fairytale.

However, amidst all this excitement,
some are starting to notice that something is missing and not quite
right with this particular expansion. That missing something is 5-man
dungeons, those instances that most of us cut our teeth on. These
rather casual dungeons have been strangely missing from the Mists of
Pandaria expansion and it leaves us to wonder if this expansion
spells the end of this type of instance.

Where Art Thou Five-Man?

Mists of Pandaria, like all other World
of Warcraft expansion came stocked with several five-mans ready and
available for play. However, with more than a few patches under this
expansion's belt, we have yet to see any new 5-man instances. While
this could easily be wrote off as normal, looking back on other
previous expansions we can clearly see that the lack of 5-mans in
Mists is something clearly unique to this particular expansion.

In fact, the Mists of Pandaria
expansion is the first expansion ever where new 5-man instances have
not been added post-launch. Back in classic WoW, Maraudon was added,
along with Dire Maul. The Burning Crusade provided us with Magister's
Terrace and Wrath gained a whopping three extra five mans. Cataclysm
was no different, with Zul'Aman and Zul'Gurub getting revamped, not
to mention the opening of the Well of Eternity. Needless to say, it
is easy to see that Mists of Pandaria is sorely lacking when it
comes to 5-man dungeons.

Casual Player's Paradise

The lack of 5-man dungeons in Mists is
really felt by the causal player who finds a kind of paradise inside
these types of instances. Short and sweet, these instances allow the
casual player to gear up without making to much of a time commitment,
while still offering challenges and providing fun. That is not to say
that content geared toward the casual player wasn't seen in this
expansion.

alt="Dire Maul" />

On the contrary, Mists of Pandaria is
literally jammed packed with content appealing to the more casual
player. This expansion has focused on scenarios that are perfect for
casual group content. However,while scenarios are surely tons of fun,
they just don't have quite the same dynamic as the 5-man instances
and we find ourselves wishing for a happy balance between both rather
than one or the other. Looking for Raid was also added to allow
casual players to fall into the raiding scene, however, many find LFR
unsatisfying for one reason or another. New 5-mans would offer to
fill the void for those players who neither find scenarios or LFR
particularly pleasurable, but Mists has left us wanting.

Ghostcrawler to the Rescue!

As we lament the possible loss of
5-mans and their replacement with scenarios, we find a ray of shining
hope from a Twitter post made by the infamous Greg Street, also known
as Ghostcrawler. In August an unhappy fan asked about the potential
for new 5-mans, sighting his displeasure with scenarios and LFR.
Check out Ghostcrawler's answer to the fan via the image directly
from Twitter below:

alt="Ghostcrawler Twitter" />

As always, Ghostcrawler's post is
pretty vaugue, however it offers a ray of hope for 5-man instances.
It means that Blizzard has not written them them off and we will
hopefully be seeing more of them in the future. However, with all
that good news, reading into the comment there is some bad. It is
highly likely we won't be seeing any 5-mans for the rest of the Mists
of Pandaria expansion. Re-read Ghostcrawler's response. Note where he
says they would like to do more 5-mans than they were able to do in
MoP. From his response it seems pretty clear that while 5-mans aren't
off the board, Blizzard has no plans to add more till after Mists.

This revelation is not surprising,
considering that it seems like Mists of Pandaria is wrapping up.
Patch 5.4 introduced the Siege of Orgrimmar raid, which allows
players to take out Garrosh, a big moment in this expansion. While
there are still some lose ends to wrap up, I believe this expansion
is moving towards its end.

Conclusion

While there is hope for 5-mans in the
future, Ghostcrawler was pretty evasive about saying anything solid.
However, I believe that there is a niche that 5-mans can fill in the
game that none of the current options quite take the place of. I for
one have always been a fan of the 5-man instance and would hate to
see it become extinct. I hope with the announcement and release of
the next expansion will bring us a slew of 5-mans for our personal
enjoyment What about you? Are you hoping for more 5-mans, or do you
think the game is complete without them?


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Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

About The Author

Amunet, also fondly known as Memtron, is an organic life form best known for its ongoing obsession with Blizzard Entertainment's numerous properties. To that end, Amu has authored hundreds (thousands?) of the most popular World of Warcraft guides, editorials, and Top 10 lists on the planet. When not gaming and writing, Amu is busy chasing after her three children in a perpetual loop of ongoing disaster.

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