No, I don’t mean Black Temple or Gruul’s Lair or Serpentshrine Cavern. Those raid dungeons will not be seen by that many people to be honest.
I am talking about the end-game after level 70. Before the Burning Crusade was launched we read about upcoming 10 man raids which especially made my guild happy. We were a small guild who sometimes had problems filling a ZG raid. We hoped that smaller raid instances would actually make it easier for us to raid – without having to be as strict as so called “hardcore” raiding guilds. Our goal was to play and have fun with people we like, but we also wanted to combine that with progress in raiding.
After levelling up to 70 we realised that it hasn’t become all that much easier. My guild, which is now bigger than before, have had lots of fun together in the numerous 5-man instances, and we have slowly gotten ourselves attuned to Karazhan. But how about people who aren’t blessed with a nice guild such as mine?
There are lots of fun 5 man instances that are pretty easy to manage for a group of people used to playing with each other in a guild, but a few of them are very difficult to complete in a pug. I’ve had like 2 successful pugs in Shadow Labyrinth, but they were both with very experienced players. A “normal” pug just can’t handle it.
Some of the 5-man instances (and Karazhan) require an “optimal” group setup. If you don’t have the exact setup you just can’t do it.
What I would really like to see is a new 10-man instance a bit like the old UBRS. It was a nice instance (I never got bored with it actually) and manageable even with a pug. It would also be nice to be able to go to a raid without doing a long attunement quest chain.
In the Stratics developer chat a few days ago Tigole mentions Zul’Aman that will be implemented in an upcoming patch:
Brannoc: *anon67* Do you have plans to add more 10 or 15 man instance dungeons like Zul’Aman for casual players?
Tigole: Karazhan has been a big success and I think a lot of players really dig the 10 man raiding size. We’re going to try to make Zul’Aman for 10 people as well. It’s still a little ways off so there’s always the chance something can change but we think ZA would make a great 10 person zone.
Yes, people dig the 10 man raiding size, but a new Karazhan is NOT what the players want and I hope Tigole realises that. People don’t want long attunement quest chains, and many say Karazhan is too difficult (respawn rate especially mentioned). That is what has been said over and over again. The EU CM Ommra tried to summarise the feedback in this thread – now we can only hope the developers actually listen to what the players say.
