Instance (World of Warcraft)

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Instances, also known as instance dungeons or simply "dungeons", are special areas in World of Warcraft of which many copies can exist at once. "Instance" can also refer to a particular copy of such an area. These areas allow many groups of players to traverse the same geography and battle the same enemies at the same time, without interfering with each other. All instances are accessible by a swirling portal, sometimes blocked by a locked door (and thus requiring a key). Necropolis Naxxramas, the latest released instance in the game, provides a small exception to the swirling portal rule by not having one, instead you simply step on a platform located in the Eastern Plaguelands to automatically teleport into the instance.

Instances were first proposed by Richard Garriott in the late 1990s as a way to solve a set of related problems which had become obvious in Ultima Online. The problem is simple to state: everyone wants to be "The Hero" and slay "The Monster", rescue "The Princess" and obtain "The Magic Sword". When there are 2,000 and more players all playing the same game, clearly not everyone can be the hero. The problem of everyone wanting to kill the same monster and gain the best treasure was terribly obvious in the game EverQuest. The creation of instances largely solves this set of problems. There are few examples of boss camping and kill stealing in World of Warcraft - because a copy of the dungeon (instance) is always created on demand for you or your party.

Contents

[edit] List of instances

Instance Name Maximum People Suggested Level Range Location Faction (Quests)
Ragefire Chasm 5 13-18 Ogrimmar Horde (Instance located in Horde city)
The Deadmines 5 (10 raid) 17-24 Westfall Alliance
Wailing Caverns 5(10 raid) 17-24 The Barrens Both (Horde specific quests; Alliance shared quests)
Shadowfang Keep 5 22-30 Silverpine Forest Both (Horde general quests; Alliance Class-specific quests)
The Stockade 5 24-32 Stormwind Alliance (Instance located in Alliance city)
Blackfathom Deeps 5 24-32 Ashenvale Both
Gnomeregan 5 29-38 Dun Morogh Both
Razorfen Kraul 5 29-38 The Barrens Both
The Scarlet Monastery 5 34-45 Tirisfal Glades Both
Razorfen Downs 5 37-46 The Barrens Both
Uldaman 5 41-51 Badlands Both
Zul'Farrak 5 44-54 Tanaris Both
Maraudon 5 46-55 Desolace Both
The Sunken Temple 5 50-60 Swamp of Sorrows Both
Blackrock Depths 5 54-60 Blackrock Mountain Both
Stratholme 5 58-60 Eastern Plaguelands Both
Dire Maul 5 55-60 Feralas Both
Scholomance 5 58-60 Western Plaguelands Both
Lower Blackrock Spire 5(10 Max) 54-60 Blackrock Mountain Both
Raids
Upper Blackrock Spire 10 55-60 Blackrock Mountain Both
Zul'Gurub 20 60 Stranglethorn Vale Both
Ruins of Ahn'Qiraj 20 60 Silithus Both
Onyxia's Lair 40 60 Dustwallow Marsh Both
Molten Core 40 60 Blackrock Mountain Both
Blackwing Lair 40 60 Blackrock Mountain Both
Temple of Ahn'Qiraj 40 60 Silithus Both
Necropolis Naxxramas 40 60 Eastern Plaguelands Both
Battlegrounds
Warsong Gulch 10 In Groups up to 60 e.g. 10-19, 20-29 and so on Ashenvale & The Barrens Both
Arathi Basin 15 20-60 Arathi Highlands Both
Alterac Valley 40 51-60 Alterac Mountains Both

[edit] Battlegrounds

[edit] General Description

Battlegrounds are a type of instance dungeon introduced in version 1.5. The purpose of Battlegrounds is to provide players with an area to engage in PvP combat. Like a standard instance, the dungeon is spawned on demand for the players inside, however there are some differences:

  • A minimum number of people on each side are required to play.
  • Upon reaching the victory condition, players are ejected to the entrance (or if they joined from a Battlemaster they will be ported to that Battlemaster) and the dungeon is cleared and the statistics are stored. The victors are rewarded with faction reputation and three tokens (Marks of Honor) that may be exchanged for more reputation as well as experience points. The losers receive only one Mark of Honor, and less faction reputation.
  • If the number of players dips below a certain threshold, a warning will sound and in several minutes the battle will be over if no new players join.
  • Depending on the time of day, server population, and general willingness to play, the wait to join a Battleground can be from few seconds to a few hours.
  • As of Patch 1.12, battlegrounds have become "cross-server", meaning that players from several different game realms are able to fight in the same battlegrounds. With this addition, the wait time to enter a battleground has been significantly reduced.
  • In Warsong and Arathi, players are grouped by levels: 10-19 (Warsong Gulch only), 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, and 60. Alterac Valley is restricted to players level 51-60.
  • Battlegrounds are considered to raise player levels less effectively than regular quests and grinding.
  • Upon leaving a battleground prior to its completion, a character is given a deserter debuff. The deserter debuff prevents a player from entering a new battleground or entering the queue for a new battleground. The debuff expires in 15 minutes and cannot be dispelled. As of Patch 1.12, this debuff continues to expire even if the player is logged out. The one exception is if the player was in multiple queues when he/she entered one battleground; the player may switch battlegrounds when summoned without penalty.
  • A party leader or raid leader can place his or her group in the queue for Warsong Gulch or Arathi Basin as long as no member of the raid has the deserter debuff. This allows players far away from capital cities to be teleported directly into a battleground and immediately leave it and reappear in the city, enabling even a player whose Hearthstone is on cooldown to rapidly return home.

[edit] Warsong Gulch

Warsong Gulch

  • Basic Capture the flag, with the rules being first to three wins, players try Zerging, occasionally effective but even this simple game resists that method as a strategy when used against equal opponents. another popular way of 'capturing the flag' is "distract and run" all but one of the team try to gather the whole of the opposing team at one location where the remaining walks un-opposed to the flag.

[edit] Arathi Basin

Arathi Basin

  • Capture nodes: Blacksmith, Stables, Lumber Mill, Gold Mine, and Farm.
  • Players get resources 'points' for each node they hold for more than 1 minute. The resources are added at 10 per minute per base (except if you hold all 5 bases in which you receive 20 resources a second).
  • Although Zerging has some effectiveness, the game layout discourages it as it leaves the other four nodes vulnerable. The scoring method used by Blizzard discourages players remaining as Defense at the nodes, this modifies game play by encouraging offensive (sic) behavior.

[edit] Alterac Valley

Alterac Valley A newer battleground in WoW is a conquest to the final boss sort of battleground in which a max of 40 players must fight their way through mini-boss like enemies and other players to reach the Stormpike Hold or Frostwolf Keep and kill the named mob in the largest building of the area, usually taking about 20 players to complete this at minimum, not too reccommended since there are other players that will usually either all come back and defend, or try to kill your factions base boss before you kill theirs. This battleground is basically a raid, the basic strategy is zerging as fast as possible to the final base and kill the boss mob before the other team and just beat up the players you encounter on the way, but of course, other ways can be used.

The type of game play within this is normally described as "kill everything that moves" play

[edit] Battlemasters

Battlemasters are NPCs that allow easy entrance to Battleground instances. They act as a fast way to enter a Battlegrounds instance from the major cities of Azeroth:

  • They are located in all capital cities in Azeroth. Ask a guard to find out where these NPCs are located.
  • Upon leaving a battleground a character will be automatically teleported to the Battlemaster from where they joined the queue. If they joined directly at the instance they will still be ported back to the battleground instance portal. This was a change in version 1.7.
  • Characters will be automatically ported into the instance when the Battleground is ready. If a character is a ghost they can still enter the Battleground. Ghost characters that enter a Battleground will be automatically brought back to life.
  • Tuesday through Thursday, Battlemasters are restricted to a stationary location in each of the capital cities. From Friday through Monday you can also find Emissaries representing each of the battleground hosting factions scattered throughout the city, some at specific locations and others walking around.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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