|
ADVERTISEMENT
|
Instances
From wow.incgamers.com
Contents |
Introduction
Although World of Warcraft is a persistent gameworld, there are areas of the game called instances. These are separate private areas of the game which you enter as an individual or as a party. These areas are usually part of several difficult quests and can be extremely large. Instances in WoW are indicated by swirling portals which can either be blue, green or red. Once you enter the portal, you will see a loading screen and once loaded you or your party will have entered your own special instanced zone.
How do Instances Work?
When you enter these areas, a fresh copy of the dungeon is created and populated with monsters. No other players are in this dungeon and only players in your own party may join your instance. Of course, there are other incarnations of the same dunegon where other groups of players are playing but you cannot interact or meet up with these other players when you are in your instance; your instance is your own or party's own private game area. This solves the problems of boss camping and kill stealing which are prevalent in many other MMOs because a copy of the dungeon (instance) is always created on demand for you or your party.
Instances have their own zone chat. Most of the instances themselves are also considered Contested Territory (on the PvP server) but again, some are friendly to the Horde while some are friendly to the Alliance. Even so, which faction the instance belongs to bears no relevance completely. Both factions may enter and play the instances no matter which faction the instance belongs to, and since the 2 factions cannot group with each other, they will never enter the same instance. Still, this could lead to some possible group PvP encounters at the entrance area before the portal.
Every instance is "tied" to the party leader of the group on its creation. Should any player not in this person's group somehow end up being in the instance, he or she will be automatically teleported by the game servers to his Hearthstone bind point after 60 seconds. This can occur if a player leaves the party or the leader kicks someone out of the party. Many players use this mechanism as a "free teleport" at the end of an instance after killing the final boss by disbanding the group. This free teleport does not use the Hearthstone itself and hence does not activate its 1 hour cooldown either.
Why have Instances?
So why have instances at all when this is supposed to be an MMORPG where players are all playing together? There is a reason behind instanced zones and that is to make these unique areas manageable for players. With instanced areas harnessing special quests or tougher monsters, it means they don't become overcrowded with different parties all fighting for the same goal. This prevents players in a party having to hang around for monster respawns for example. Instances also prevent the dreaded kill stealing scenario, there is nothing worse than another player taking the kill credit after all your hard work.
What happens when I die in an Instance?
So what happens if you die? Well ideally you would want a party member to resurrect you, this saves you having to make your way back from the nearest graveyard to the entrance of the instanced zone. Instances are usually tied to an extremely hard quest so it is more than likely you'll be in a party. If you're with a Priest, Paladin, Shaman or Warlock then make sure they are prepared to work together and resurrect other players should they die. If you can't be resurrected, then you need to make your way back to the instanced zone from the graveyard. When you enter the instance as a ghost, you are ressurected with half hp/mana inside the entrance of the instance.
Preparation
Typically, most instances contain Elite quests, so it is advisable to form a group that has at least a healer and a tanker. Players should also try to gather all the quests related to a specific instanced dungeon before trying it otherwise they might have to return to it again at a later stage and repeat the whole dungeon. An average group instance (blue portal) takes between 1 to 3 hours to complete so make sure you have sufficient time. Additionally, players should make sure they have enough inventory space to store any loot that might drop before taking part.
Another rule on instances: A Warlock cannot summon a player while inside an instance unless the target is already in the same instance (and partied). This means that the warlock will have to go outside the instance to summon a member of the group that is far away.
There are different types of instanced zones in World of Warcraft as mentioned above, each different coloured portals represent a different kind of instance
- blue for a group instance
- green for a raid (multi-group) instance
- red for a PvP Battlefield.
Group Instances
Group instances are not permanent, when everybody leaves the instance, the instance will be deleted after some time (Blizzard states 30 min). This means that if your entire party dies, there will be ample time for everyone to reenter the same instance you died in. Should you wish to replay that instance again then you have to reform a new party outside the instance so that the game treats your group as a new party and spawns a new instance. Also, if you log off in an instance for more than 15 minutes and the instance resets, you will log back on at the beginning of the instance.
The following is a list of group instances currently available in the game listed with the recommended level range they are suitable for:
Bosses in these group instances drop loot from a very small loot table, typically no larger than 3 or 4 items. Hence if you are looking for a specific piece of equipment that only drops from one of the bosses in an instance, you will usually be able to obtain it within a few tries of the instance. All such loot from the bosses are Bind on Pickup.
Heroic Instances
A Heroic instance is a instances set to a higher level of difficulty. This 2-tier difficulty setting for instances was brought in with The Burning Crusade, and all 5-man instances that were deployed with and since that expansion have featured the Heroic mode availability.
Heroic instances are considerably harder than their regular counterparts, and players should not attempt them unless they are at least level 70, and have relatively good gear. If a group know what they are doing, a Heroic instance can be completed in a little longer than the regular version takes to complete, but if the group is not well geared or prepared, this level of difficulty can often prove too hard.
A lot of these instances have extra bosses or sections, and quite often, existing bosses have different moves and are much harder to kill on Heroic setting.
Bosses in Heroic instances drop [Unknown Item: Badge of Justice]. These tokens can be saved up and exchanged for armor, weapons, trinkets and other high value items. From Patch 2.3, daily quests were introduced that rewarded players with two [Unknown Item: Badge of Justice] tokens for completing a random Heroic instance. Bosses in the 10 man raids, Karazhan and Zul'Aman also started dropping them around this time. The best gear currently available in exchange for the badges is the Sunwell BoJ Loot.
Raid Groups
Raid groups are groups of more than 5 people and are typically used to defeat unique challenges at higher levels. In WoW, up to 8 seperate groups can be linked up to form a super-group of 40 players and such a group is called a raid group.
Raid group members cannot earn credit towards most non-raid difficulty quests, or more specifically, the ones involving killing creatures and collecting items. Raid groups also grant substantially less experience for defeating monsters than normal groups. However, raids allow players to overcome challenges that might otherwise be nearly impossible.
What this means is that most of the quests in the game including the ones involving group instances cannot be completed simply by zerging them with a huge number of players. To be more specific, quests involving group instances must be completed by no more than 5 players since raid groups do not earn quest credit and neither can players bring other players into their own instance if they are not grouped. (Players in the instance which are not in the instance creator's group are automatically teleported to their bind point after 60 seconds.) This is done so that the group instance quests would not be trivialised by numbers.
Raid Instances
Raid Instances are indicated by their red swirling portals at the entrance. These instances are designed for raid groups of anywhere between 20 players to 40 players.
The enemies in a raid instance are designed to be extremely difficult and require a raid group of experienced players to take down. Raid difficult quests with rare loot goes along with these instances and this prompts for a good amount of communication and cooperation among all the participating players.
In fact, some of these raid instances are so difficult that they require previous raid instances to be defeated allowing players to properly equip themselves for the next raid instance. Some of these instances also require "keys" to be obtained from various players and group instanced dungeons before players can even enter them.
When the final boss of an instance is defeated, the state of the raid instance along with the names all participating raid members are saved. For the next few days (length varies from raid instance to raid instance), these players would not be able to participate in the same raid instance again. Any attempt to enter the raid instance for these players will result in that player entering the copy of the raid instance in which the final boss was slain. Raid instances do not follow the rules of group instances which resets once 30 minutes have passed with nobody in it.
The following is a list of raid instances currently available in the game listed with the recommended level range and raid sizes they are suitable for:
| Name | Level | Raid Size | Zone | Status | Abbreviation | Inctance Map |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Onyxia's Lair | 60 | 40 | Dustwallow Marsh | Contested | Ony | Onyxia's Lair Map |
| Molten Core | 60 | 40 | Blackrock Depths | Contested | MC | Molten Core Map |
| Zul'Gurub | 60 | 20 | Stranglethorn Vale | Contested | ZG | Zul'Gurub Map |
| Blackwing Lair | 60 | 40 | Blackrock Spire | Contested | BWL | Blackwing Lair Map |
| Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj | 60 | 20/40 | Silithus | Contested | AQ25 | Ruins of Ahn'Quiraj Map |
| Temple of Ahn'Qiraj | 60 | 40 | Silithus | Contested | AQ40 | Temple of Ahn'Qiraj Map |
| Tempest Keep | 70 | 25 | Netherstorm | Contested | Tempest Keep Map | |
| The Black Temple | 70 | 25 | Shadowmoon Valley | Contested | Black Temple Map |
More raid instances will be added in the future.
Raid Calendar System
The raid-lockout system causes all instances to reset at a certain server time, regardless of when you were actually saved to the instance. The reset schedule is as follows:
- Molten Core: Every 7 Days, resetting during weekly maintenance
- Blackwing Lair: Every 7 Days, resetting during weekly maintenance
- Onyxia: Every 5 Days
- Zul'Gurub: Every 3 Days
- Temple of AhnQiraj (40-man): Every 7 Days, resetting during weekly maintenance
- Ruins of AhnQiraj (20-man): Every 3 Days
All resets will occur during off-hours, when the least amount of raids are active.
Battleground Instances
Battlegrounds are easily identified by their red swirling portals, and provide an opportunity for everyone to particpate in evenly matched PvP battles. Battlegrounds are available on both PvP, PvE and RP servers.
Common Instances
There is exactly one "instance" in the game where everybody in the world enters the same single instance (so it is not really an instance anymore since there's only one copy of it all the time) and that is the Deeprun Tram that runs between Stormwind and Ironforge. Players of both factions entering this white instance portal will all end up in the same single zone, grouped or ungrouped. Quite obviously, the Deeprun Tram zone belongs to the Alliance faction.
To recap on Instances
- Only those in a party can enter the same instance.
- If no one in the party is in the instance for approx 30 minutes it will reset.
- If you die you will resurrect as you re-enter the instance regardless of where you died (unless another player ressurects you).
- You can still talk to people not in your group while you are in an instance.
- There are minimum level requirements on all instances.
- You can do an instance as many times as you wish.
- If you leave a group in an instance you can't complete quest objectives until you rejoin that group.
