Wow, what a series of tests that instance is!

Dungeon Tool Is No Way To Learn Wailing Caverns

Dancing Dranaei Tank

The logic behind the statement is that Wailing Caverns is a twisty, turny, confusing instance at the best of times, but if you're trying to learn the route, the Dungeon Tool is likely NOT going to be your friend.

This isn't to say that it will ALWAYS not be your friend, but by and large, when I get into a Wailing Caverns group, it's a partially complete run, and your first job will be to find your dungeon mates.

Without dying to wandering slimes.

Wailing Caverns Test #1 and 2: Find Your Teammates (Without Dying)

I got into a fresh Wailing Caverns the other day and while it's a long journey to the end, I personally think that's the best way to get into this particular dungeon, unless you know the route through the instance by heart (which I do, which is why I'm comfortable tanking it).

The party itself was well-built, with a solid heal/tank team and DPS who did their job without causing extra mayhem.

Team Wailing Caverns

The instance door, of course, was too far away for those panicky people to get to, so everyone died and everyone had to run back. (Note to dungeoneers: Fight to the death. Defend someone who can resurrect, to the point of dying yourself. Don't run, it's unlikely you'll make it anyway)

One damage dealer decided to take a Spirit Rez, and then eventually left the group, and the trials of finding a successful new party mate began, while our team continued through the instance, four-manning the content.

We then went through three DPS - and watched each of them die (to slimes, they confirmed) as they tried to get to us. Each of the three waited for a full minute for a resurrection that was never to come, and had to be told to release and run back.

"We're too far in to run back to get you, so run back and be careful not to aggro the slimes again" was what I told each of them. (yay for alt + arrow up, repeating your history of chats)

So they'd release, and try to run back, but being Alliance folk who didn't make a huge home of The Barrens in order to learn the route to Wailing Caverns, all three ended up leaving the party before they found the instance door.

Meanwhile, our team is continuing to progress further and further into the instance, making it more and more difficult for someone unfamiliar with the instance to find us.

Finally one of the DPS make their way to us successfully. We're nearly at the end by the time they do.

Wailing Caverns Test #3: How's My Jumping Skills?

Deep in Wailing Caverns, there are two different places where players need to jump over a gap in the floor in order to progress.

The first Jump Test is the biggest - jumping onto, and then off of, a boulder that connects two hallways.

We've all failed this Jump Test as newbies in Wailing Caverns. This gives us patience to wait for the others who are currently working to pass the Jump Test for the first time, but it also gives us special pleasure as we watch you jump.

And fail.

And Jump again.

And fail again.

It's a little sadistic, but once you can reliably pass the Jump Test, you'll probably get some kind of sick pleasure out of watching others learning the skill as well.

This recent run we had two members who were new to Wailing Caverns and hadn't practiced nor passed the Jump Test yet. They both fell down five times each and had to run back around the loop to try again before they made it across.

Thankfully, the second Jump Test is a lot friendlier in that while the fall down is completely brutal for getting back up, the distance one has to cover in order to "pass" the test is a lot shorter than the first one. Nobody failed the second Jump Test, thankfully.

Wailing Caverns: Good Practice Keeping Focussed

Final Boss In Wailing Caverns

Letting go of the thought that we should run back to escort a new player.

Letting go of the expectation of having a clear run through to the dungeon group if you join part way through.

Letting go of the thought that it takes 5 to progress through an instance well.

Letting go of the thought that all lowbie instances are fast and easy, and above all, letting go of the thought that dungeons have a linear path from start to finish.

What a great place!

Related posts:

1. Wailing Caverns: Don’t Worry, I Know The Way!!
2. Farming Wailing Caverns, Flailing Around in Blackrock Depths
3. To The LFG Tool: An Ode

There are instances that Alliance folk are afraid of that Horde folk run a kabillion times when they level a toon family, and this Horde-based knowledge pays off big time in these few times.

Wailing Caverns and Razorfen Kraul

Druid Tanking Wailing Caverns

But in general, Wailing Caverns and Razorfen Kraul are two lowbie instances where a Horde cross-over can look all uber knowledgable and educated by taking the directional lead of a group of Alliance payers.

Wailing Caverns is one that I find the tanks often leave the party as soon as they zone in when I'm in there on my Shaman who cannot tank. They leave partially because the instance is so darned long, but also because as a Tank it's generally your responsibility to lead direction and get the group from the start of the instance to the end.

If you don't know your way through the twisty turny intestine-like mess of loops that describes Wailing Caverns, it's really easy to get lost and run around in circles while you try to find whatever it was you missed to bring you on to the next boss. And in order to get the Wailing Caverns completion achievement, you have to finish all of the regular bosses, and then talk to the Tauren at the start of the instance, in order to escort him to the final boss.

It's not a small trip! So if you find yourself in WC as an Alliance, and the Tank is leading direction well and actually gets you to the escort at the end, be sure to say "thanks for leading us through that twisty maze!".

Razorfen Kraul Pally Healing

Razorfen Kraul Is Easier Than It Looks

I was surprised at the concern that Alliance players tend to have when entering into RFK, though.

I mean, Wailing Caverns is long and twisty and confusing, but Razorfen Kraul is actually pretty straight-forward with few places to get lost and run around in circles like in WC.

Yet, when my Horde-turned-Alliance friend who was in the PUG with me died (fell into the pit of pigs and couldn't get back up), we both had to convince the rest of the party that there was no need to back-track to escort him back to where we were from the start of the instance, and at first I think the rest of them thought I was being cruel!

My friend and I laughed over vent at their responses, and my Mage friend was sure to pipe in on the party line to let folks know he knew the place very well and had no troubles getting back to us, too. He was back with us in no time at all.

Does The Dungeon Tool Encourage? Or Hinder?

Truthfully tho, the new exposure to instances that Alliance and Horde had minimal easy access to before cross-realm dungeons and instant teleport to the instance in question, is a challenge that I wonder about.

I've been in groups that have used the death of an unruly party member as a way to get rid of them from the party entirely when the person in question cannot find their way back through the instance to the rest of the group (without dying again that is), but I've also been in groups where we're nearly at the end of the instance and a new party member finds his or her way to us quietly and without problem.

I'm interested in hearing from readers, however. Does the new Dungeon Tool setup (of teleporting you in to the instance and potentially adding you to a party that is halfway done the instance) ENCOURAGE you to find your way through instances you're not hugely familiar with? Or does it HINDER your learning of these instances when you jump in to a partly-done run?

Let me know!

Related posts:

1. Wailing Caverns via Dungeon Tool = Tests Galore!
2. Farming Wailing Caverns, Flailing Around in Blackrock Depths
3. LFG Tanks: Don’t Screw Your Healers!

I hopped on my 44 Warrior toon and thought about picking up quests for Razorfen Kraul, but when I was wandering around in Thunder Bluff I found the Lord of the Fangs (?) quest for Wailing Caverns and decided to go into there instead.

What a haul! I got two of the four quest Gems but didn't even finish half of the dungeon before my bags were overflowing with non-grey items. I ended up listing 15 green items for Auction, generally with a buy out of over 75s each item. Perhaps it was too early in the week to be listing for maximum sales, but I'm sure they'll sell just fine.

Warrior Equipment: Tanking vs Soloing

In anticipation of hitting dungeons more challenging for my level, I'm starting to build a "tanking" equipment set which is seperate from my "soloing" gear with this toon as well.

My talent spec is mostly towards Protection (11/7/17), but has a jumble of other things too. I seem to be doing well in my PvE soloing of quests with this build, however I don't do instances or party up very often to need to "tank", and still want to be decent at it. So far so good, but carrying the +str and +attack items into the dungeon isn't as good as the high-AC, +sta and +def items I'm beginning to pick up now.

So far my DPS/soloing set looks like this:

[Warbringer's Crown] of the Bear
[Tyrant's Epaulets]
[Truesilver Breastplate]
[Jouster's Girdle]
[Saltstone Legplates] of the Tiger
[Obsidian Greaves]
[Bloodforged Bindings] of Power
[Truesilver Gauntlets]
[Phantom Blade]
[Ebon Scimitar] of the Bear

And here's my Tanking set:

[Overlord's Crown] of Defense
(no tanking shoulder piece)
[Truesilver Breastplate]
(no tanking belt)
[Heavy Mithril Pants]
(no tanking boots)
(no tanking wrist pieces)
(no tanking gloves)
[Champion's Wall Shield] of Stamina
[Phantom Blade]

I've found some folks I advanced my first toon to 60 with who have alts near the 40s levels, so perhaps we'll hit Zul'Farrak or something soon and I'll see how my tanking equipment holds up.

BRD With Guildies

A bunch of us who have known each other for about a year got together last night and headed into Blackrock Depths for some killing and questing. While we'd all been in there a number of times with one toon or another, nobody really knew how to venture towards the "Summoner" that the miner in our group needed for learning how to smelt Dark Iron Ore. Since I had started the party and we're all pretty relaxed folk, I took the lead and we blundered our way through things.

It's been a few months since I was in BRD, so I forgot almost all I knew... like, oh yah! Medics! Get them first. And oh yah, those Emissaries are healers too, and those Summoners or whatever - they fire off a lot of arcane missiles and need to be downed quickly as well!

We had a couple complete wipes, but a couple of times where the priest and one hunter would survive as well. Each of us also took our turns at aggroing more mobs or the wrong mobs or something, so when by the time we came out a few hours later, everyone was happy with the run and looking forward to the next time we'd get together to try it or one of the 58+ dungeons like LBRS, Strat and Scholo.

In the mean time I need to look up that Dark Iron Ore training route, since my 44 Warrior is also a miner/blacksmith and will be dealing with Dark Iron stuff as soon as she's within level to survive in the areas it's found in.

Related posts:

1. Blackrock Depths on the Mage
2. Preparing for Yet Another Blackrock Depths Run
3. Rockin’ It Out In Blackrock Depths