Hardest, Most Notorious 5man instances in WOW

[nekobaka]

I found heroic VC in Cata to be the hardest Cata launch dungeon. Saw people bailing that like WotLK HoR. Only issue with GB was lack of dps on the last fight which was still rare. Ive cleared GB a number of times while solo queue with no hard CC classes. Heroic VC had heavy nerfs to both trash and bosses with groups still having issues post nerf compared to other heroics.

For BC was Alcatraz which again people seemed to avoid the most. Guess something cant be considered hard if no one does it.

[Aoyi]

Shadow labs.

[RareBeast]

Heroic Black Morass for sure. A timed event which if you failed you had to start the whole thing again - and the DPS requirement was steep at the time. It always felt like you were falling behind (and often you were!). It is the only 5 man I have vivid memories of completing for the first time - just like some of the harder raid bosses over the years.

[Nitromonger]

I played a warrior tank main during BC and both Magister's Terrace and Shattered Halls were challenges for me. Of the two, Shattered Halls was the more difficult because of the gauntlet. Warriors had only Thunderclap for aoe threat/damage back then and picking up all of the mobs in the gauntlet was a huge pain in the rear, even using LOS. At least MgT has corners everywhere to use for pulls.

[Ulfric Trumpcloak]

ZA and ZG, no other dungeons even come close.

[Hotmail]

Escape From Durnholde was one of the least linear and most challenging dungeon to be released since Vanilla. The party got lost, the mobs hit so damn HARD, the patrols were EVERYWHERE and the last boss required quite a bit of on-the-fly control to take down, as well as a tank that was aware enough to keep tabs on the three possible add spawning points.

Plus, escorting a Thrall that had very little idea of what was going on was kind of cool.

The first Caverns of Time instance was a masterpiece of dungeon design and too much to handle for the average player, so (sadly) it went into the garbage bin along with Auchenai Crypts.

[Opaug]

Would have thought oculus gets it for wrath.

I went here to see if anyone would say this. So few people understood the drake mechanics. You couldn't cheese it either.

[yetgdhfgh]

I went here to see if anyone would say this. So few people understood the drake mechanics. You couldn't cheese it either.

I do remember going in naked for that last boss and i honestly was having 2 minds about my choice but i still say Lightening was worst especially at low gear.

[Tharkkun]

I remember dying horribly many times to the 3rd boss in stonecore before they nerfed cata heroics. I think shattered halls will forever be the biggest pain in the ass 5 man though.

You had a lot of classes that couldn't put a dot on that 3rd boss to break themselves out. It was such a pita because of this.

I think Grim Batol was the worst though. That trash just humiliated people combined with the healer mana change. If you didn't have a Holy Paladin it was crazy.

[BrioWoW]

Saving the guys at the end of shattered halls (for tempest keep attunement) before any nerfs or anything definitely competes for the hardest dungeon ever in wow.

[Not A Cat]

People that say this I always automatically assume either didn't play TBC or were just flat out bad in TBC.

TBC HEROICS WEREN'T HARD

You can say this all you want to sound like a "pro" or whatever. But I just flat out don't believe you if you said you healed any of those heroics as Ret in Kara gear.

Ret was garbage in general and virtually no one played it outside of pvp. So either you had upwards of t5 or t6 gear and you're just lying, or you're just lying.

[ingsve]

People that say this I always automatically assume either didn't play TBC or were just flat out bad in TBC.

TBC HEROICS WEREN'T HARD. Hell in KARA Gear we were already at the point where my MT used a 2h weapon and I was a Ret Paladin off healer with no actual healer.

I think the perspective most people have of the TBC Heroics is not from running them with people in Kara gear. The main thrust of running heroics was to gear up from greens to get to the entry level for getting into a raiding guild or just to farm the rep and that makes people remember them as harder. Gearing up after dinging 70 was not as fast as it is now so just pugging heroics in the you often had people in greens or dungeons blues to group with.

[elaina]

Heroic Shattered Halls as a tank @ release #neverforget

[ButterBeast]

having anything from wrath on ur list lmao.

[Fus Ro Yay]

Stratholme
Arcatraz
Halls of Reflection
Zul'aman or Grim Batol
nothing springs to mind for mop, i want to say Assault on Niuzao temple but not really.
Shadowmoon burial grounds


Those are the ones that spring to mind for me. alltough i ran most of them with at least 1 or 2 friends when they were "new" so i guess its different for someone who just pugged everything.

[Zandalarian Paladin]

Heroic Deadmines and Grim Batol from Cata pre-nerf.

Never experienced harder 5 mans in my life with a competent group, although stonecore is a close third.

Never played during vanilla and TBC, so can't comment.

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

1. Halls of Reflection ("None were spared the Master's wrath...")
2. Stonecore ("Break yourselves upon my body!")
3. Zul Gurub ("Now, have a taste of Jin'do's true powah!")
4. Zul Aman ("Let me introduce to you my new bruddahs: fang and claw!")
5. Grim Batol ("INCINERATE THEM, MINIONS!")

The only one I remember people dropping group on the initial loading screen - regularly - was Halls of Reflection. Many players dreaded that place before we outgeared it.

[nekobaka]

For stone core I think it was only hunters who had the dot issue while mele could get the dot from the boss. Holy Pally and Shamans had a cooldown on their dot ability along with lack of hit stat that could lead to some bad RNG. Vast majority of my problems with that fight came down to the tank and I ran that almost every day I played trying to get the healer trinket. Unless a player had high latency or was a group with a tank having issues then the place was of the easier and highly over rated in difficulty.

[Cytoid]

Vanilla Sunken Temple was pretty hard for its intended level. I remember many ghost runs back inside, and the dungeon itself was a maze. Bosses would mind control and sleep and other types of CC on players. Even getting to the entrance you had to swim underwater and go through the inside of the temple, fighting enemy factions of other groups at the meeting stone and portal. I honestly miss that place, and the rework is sad because it's one level instead of an upper and drain/basement level, with the balconies and other massive stairwells, and they got rid of half of the bosses, all of the troll ones.

[Felfaadaern Darkterror]

For stone core I think it was only hunters who had the dot issue while mele could get the dot from the boss. Holy Pally and Shamans had a cooldown on their dot ability along with lack of hit stat that could lead to some bad RNG. Vast majority of my problems with that fight came down to the tank and I ran that almost every day I played trying to get the healer trinket. Unless a player had high latency or was a group with a tank having issues then the place was of the easier and highly over rated in difficulty.

They're all easy once you learn them. When I think of "hardest", I mostly think of how challenging it was to pug them, which includes what % of groups could do the fights. All of them got easier with gear and practice. As for tanking Ozruk (I mostly tank), it was all about learning the dance. He telegraphs his moves with what he says; you just have to remember which quote means run through his legs and which one means run out.