Blackrock Caverns, because this is what are we going to talk about in this episode, was the first dungeon I went into since starting Cataclysm Beta. I think I was too busy flying around aimlessly and enjoying the flying mounts in Azeroth.

The first thing I noticed was the AoE. There is no more: Pull ze mobs, AoE them all, Repeat... Maybe, with a bit of gear from the Cataclysm Raids you'll be able to do this again, but not now. In my opinion that's great.
There is not too much trash around, but it will take you some time to clear it. I couldn't notice anything amazing with that trash...
With the bosses, there is a different story. No more tank and spank (mostly).
There are 5 bosses in there.

• Rom'ogg Bonecrusher
  This is the first boss of the instance. Not much of a struggle. The only thing you should worry about is when he pulls the whole party to him, chains everyone and starts casting some nasty spell. Then you have to release yourself and run away from him. Something like the Heroic Blood Furnace last boss, but now some chains are involved.
  
  
• Corla, Herald of Twilight
  This boss is interesting. It reminded me a bit of Netherspite from Karazhan. There are three adds, next to the boss and when the fight starts they will each be hit with some beams from the imprisoned dragon from the middle of the room. If they reach 100 stacks they will transform into some dragonkin beasts. You don't want to see them all three transformed at the same time, because your tank will most likely die. That's why you'll have to "grab" those beams and let only one ad transform. Watch it, if you get to 00 stacks you'll transform yourself and attack your party members. When you reach 70-80 stacks another party member should take your place until your stacks reset. You should kill the first transformed ad asap. Then take the next one and in the end the third one. The boss after that will be easy as pie. I'm sure that this whole beam-catching-mess wont be required when you'll have better gear.
  
  
• Karsh Steelbender
  Before starting with this boss you should kill the fire elementals that patrol around it. After that the tank should pull him into that fire, so its armor buff gets lowered. You should keep it in fire only 2-3 ticks then drag him out or the group damage will become unhealable. Also, beware of that middle ring, it will create a wall of fire every time you pull the boss out of the middle fire pillar.
  
  
• Beauty
  Now this one is tank and spank mostly. You only have to face it away from the party and all of you should spread out. Oh, about its pups, even if they are lovely and they play around, you should kill them before you pull the boss.
  
  
• Ascendant Lord Obsidius
  This is the last boss. I don't think this is the way blizzard wanted to do this fight, but it's pretty simple as it is now. The tank tanks everything, including those two shadows. Their aggro are like the Nucleuses aggro in ICC. When the tank is about 40-50% on health a rand dps should pull the shadows off him. After the tank is healed back he should grab the shadows again.

To put it simple, I was impressed. There is "something" different with this dungeon. The look and the textures took me back also. It seems that I'm back to UBRS and LBRS. I can't wait to hear the music of this place.
Here are some screenshots I took while running around in there. I think I'll update them because I feel the need to have more pics of this place.





Now tell us, are you going to miss the WotLK instances and their gameplay?

Were you able to check if Rags was still in MC?

saw already a few videos about the new instances and they look all great, no aoe and you need to be careful what you do. reminds me a lot of tbc heroics, hope that it wont change with cata raidgear. i will surely not miss wotlk heroics^^.

ragnaros is now in hyjal and will be there as endboss in his "new raidinstance". dont know if he is at 2 places at the same time but dont think so(well ok kael'thas is also in 2 instances as bosses at the same time^^ maybe im wrong ).

btw: lucifer very nice avatar^^

Goht, on 24 July 2010 - 11:49 AM, said:

Rag is in MC They said they wouldn't change the raids there after all it fits the lore...Ragnaros awakens from his rest before he attack's then he gets pushed back like KJ and after that he comes back to get his revenge and suck the energy's from the Tree!

ah ok thanks for the info =)

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Sometime, it's fun to rush with AoE! But I think it's really a good thing to beat mob after mob, especially for classes of damage over time or classes without burst spells.

Zaknafein, on 24 July 2010 - 02:25 PM, said:

Blizzard has a tendency to change their minds without telling us =D

Neirin, on 24 July 2010 - 10:54 PM, said:

Its 3 years without Geddon binding and i saw Geddon beeing a quest Mob in MH i hope they will keep that in mind! Anyway they said that those old Raids wont be changed due to the lore part of them as i explained above...I am quite a lore freak! So i am here for ur answers!

well lore is always a fishy subject. there is so much to watch on to not make something bad with the lore^^ especially when you look at the timeline of the world of warcraft^^

Some people say that the lore is bad, "Yeah, there is no more new Warcraft 3's heroes in WoW!" (I especially think to my brother). But the story of warcraft is so complex that it's impossible to not add new buddies in the story... Or using the ancient already in WoW! I thing it's original to use old boss with their "vengeance" ^^
(Excuse my bad english)

m4ster0wl, on 25 July 2010 - 01:30 PM, said:

The story of wow comes from WC1-2-3 Even the lowest WC1 had lore inside...Only the children who have played WC3 or dota inside it saw the TBC and WOTLK Npc's around there and thought this is wow.


Wrong...

Deathwing was a protector and he was putted to protect the earth before he got corrupted a gift that was entrusted by the Titans the creators...Lore can be written and added as long as it has a connection from the past simple as that.

Name me 1 character that doesn't fit the Lore atm or even a cataclysm NPC from those u have heard :0.

Zaknafein, on 25 July 2010 - 12:21 PM, said:

That's what I say about Blizzard changing their mind... They've said they're going to keep the old raids intact... BUT, they could change their mind at any point and close down MC

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Yeah, Ok, but sometimes it's a little bit exaggerated, like Zalazane, the mad troll who take the echo's isles. The players have beheaded this mob, and finaly, for cataclysm, he come back cause "It was a illusion" ^^.
It's funny, but... Exaggerated, right?

True enough but I think with Zalazane, making it into the epic Lost Isles storyline would work out better then keeping the current quests the way they were.

I agree ^.^