Top 5 Five mans..

[Theprophecy2186]

Just because I'm bored at work and in the WoW mindset, I got to thinking about my favorite dungeons I've been through. So I was curious how my favorites aligns with all of your guys. Take into consideration everything... layout, architecture, bosses, lore, trash... whatever it is that makes a dungeon good for you..


My top 5:

5. Blackrock Depths - Insanely long, I 100% agree... but that's why it was so great. It had more wings and bosses than any other dungeon in game. The downside to this dungeon was that because it was so long, no one ever wanted to run it... or you would get 3-4 bosses deep and everyone would start bailing... but when you had 2-3 hours to kill and 4 dedicated friends, there was nothing more epic and fun than finishing this dungeon all the way through at level. It was truly a 5 main raid dungeon.

4. Halls of Lightning - Now I may be completely alone on this one.. but for some reason this dungeon just stuck with me. I really enjoyed the Storm Peaks / Halls of Lightning / Ulduar storyline, and after completing the SP zone, HoL and Loken's quotes at the end really got me interested in Ulduar as a raid.. and then of course we all know how Ulduar turned out. The rest of HoL prior to Loken wasn't the funnest.. but it also wasn't bad at all. The bosses on heroic had a slight challenge, and most of them looked pretty cool. For sure a memorable one for me.

3. Shadowfang Keep - Call me Nostalgic.... actually don't. This has nothing to do with that. This place is freaking awesome.. period. What's more iconic in fantasy than storming an evil castle?? Bizzard did a great job with this place in terms of layout (although towards the end I would have done things a bit differently), and I loved that it felt like a single contained structure.. not a bunch of rooms and halls in the middle of no where that never connect to each other (Like so many dungeons and raids are). From the gatehouse to the courtyard, to the dining hall and turrets, it was fun to roam around this place even after the place was cleared. I liked both versions of it as well, the original and the Cata version. The lore of both had me intrigued. If I had to choose.. I think I enjoyed the remake a little more. Godfrey was a pretty sick character and heroic Springvale was a pretty decent challenge.

2. Black Morass - I like Caverns of Time. Hyjal was iffy as a raid since it made no sense whatsoever lore wise in BC and only served as nostalgia for WC3 fans (which is something I suppose... but at least the 5 mans have the infinite dragonflight messing things up, Hyjal had no mention of it....), but the 5 mans have all been pretty fun. Of these, BM is king. It was the first speed dungeon with constant waves of mobs and bosses instead of groups that just stand in one place until you come kill them. They had a purpose to being there and proposed a good challenge to players... specifically pick up your pace, kill faster and more efficiently or you're going to get quickly overwhelmed. The bosses were all pretty cool looking, especially the final. I've always been a big fan of the infinite DF skin. Heroic was also a great challenge.. and the fact it was required to enter Kara made it that much better (I love raid-keys). All in all, BM was a heroic dungeon you did not bring just anyone to. You entered only with the people you KNEW were solid players who could keep up. That is what I feel a heroic dungeon is supposed to be.. which brings me to #1.....

1. Shattered Halls - As stated above, when I think heroic dungeon, I think SH. Hell.. I think Burning Crusade. BC was the pinnacle of heroic dungeon difficulty and if you disagree.. sorry, but you probably just weren't very good at them. Blizzard did not give players CC spells for pvp only.. they were meant to be used in dungeons and raids... an art which is just not as common anymore. SH had pack after pack of difficult pulls.. groups that if done wrong, were instant wipes, or required some heroic actions in order to keep controlled. As a tank, I loved it. All of the bosses presented some sort of challenge, especially the Bladefist. He was one tough SoB in the beginnings of heroics and bringing him down was truly a relief moment. I remember wipe after wipe and altering strategies slightly each time based on who I was with in order to finally get him down. A true final heroic dungeon boss. Though the layout was not the most imaginative (understatement), but I give it a pass based on the trash and bosses. I would love to see heroics go back to this kind of difficulty.

Honorable Mentions:

-Scholomance: The original was a blast. So many bosses and the final room with the 6 mini bosses was always fun. I haven't done the remake yet, so I can't comment, but from what I've heard and read, it was well done and I'm looking forward to getting the time to run it.

- Stonecore: Not sure why.. I just really enjoyed this place. Bosses were all pretty cool. And the return of Millhouse always made me laugh. Plus a rare mount is always a nice addition in a heroic.

- Blacrock Spire: Upper and Lower. Both were fantastic and alot of fun. But as far as I'm concerned.. at correct level they were considered raids. They've been turned into 5mans and by the time they were, lost all their appeal as epic dungeons. Still thought.. alot of good memories here.

So.. give me your opinions!!

[Tokru]

1. Blackrock Depths (Classic)
2. Uldaman (Classic)
3. Blackrock Spire Classic)
4. Stratholme (Classic)
5. Sunken Temple (Classic)

[Cows For Life]

1. Blackrock Depths (Classic)
2. Uldaman (Classic)
3. Blackrock Spire Classic)
4. Stratholme (Classic)
5. Sunken Temple (Classic)

In retrospect I detested most of the original dungeons because they were nothing more than trashfests. There's only so many times you can kill the same trash groups over and over again before your eyes glaze over.

Deadmines and SFK seemed to be exceptions even if the former was a linear tunnel.

[grimsanta]

1. Uldaman - Awesome bosses, expansive maze like feel, had some good story associated with it.
2. Sunken Temple - Huge, difficult, and tons of fun. Took forever to get through, but was one of the best ways to level because of the sheer amount of mobs.
3. Heroic Magister's terrace - Difficult, great bosses.
4. Utgarde Pinnacle - Would love to see a challenge mode version of this. Loved the bosses on this one, had great potential if it was more difficult.
5. Dire Maul - especially the final wing. I remember trying to get up those stairs without a hunger to freeze the big adds. Very difficult and fun.

Also, I haaated Black Morass. Felt dull, wasn't a lot going on, and was fairly easy, even on heroic.

[Naxere]

5. Shadow Labyrinth
4. Old Hillsbrad
3. Stratholme
2. Maraudon
1. Dire Maul

[Cernunnos]

Blackrock Depths
Blackrock Spire
Sunken Temple (pre cata version)
Stratholme
Scholomance (pre mop version)

Shattered Halls was awesome too.

[Tranix]

5. BRD- A long sprawling maze of a dungeon with endless nooks and cranies to explore.
4. Utgarde Pinnacle- This is mostly do to aethetic and lore, but I just adore the feel of this place despite the overall difficultly being low.
3. H Shadow Labs, absolutely nightmarish trash that definitely helped build up the satisfaction of clearing that place. The weapons looked absolutely phenomenal and had some great stats to boot. I'm looking at you Sonic Spear.
2. H Grim Batol, the release 5 mans were probably the only redeeming thing about Cataclysm. Grim Batol had a great atmosphere, was difficult, and extremely punishing to groups who were ill-prepared. Bosses actually had mechanics and it was an accomplishment to down them in questing/normal 5 man gear.
1. My top spot is actually a tie between Maraudon and RFD. These two instances hold a very soft spot in my heart as I got to experience them as I was leveling in late 2007. Maraudon took my group of level 40ish level players about a grand total of 6 hours to complete, I remember being there all. day. long. wiping to things as simple as the slime packs and lashers. We kept the same 5 people the entire way through, because everyone was so excited to just be there and to struggle to reach the end. When we did it was pretty much a celebration, it felt so damn good to have gone on that adventure.

RFD is similar, minus the 6 hour part, I just remember getting together with some people from trade and setting out to do RFD, we were probably in there for 1-1:30 hours. But the feeling of ascending the winding spire fighting our way through scourge and corrupted quillboars just felt so right to me.

Instances like these remind me of all the adventure that used to be in the game and how good it felt just to get out and be in such an immersive world.

Honorable mentions go to dire maul for being the most aesthetically pleasing instance in the game.

[Peacemoon]

I like the dungeons that aren't just a load of corridors with right angles placed in I like them to feel creative. Its a bit like Half Life vs Doom, except WoW seems to be going backwards on that front. (Nothing wrong with a bit of "Tomb Raider" to navigate your way through).

[fowillia]

I'm going to do top 7 just because I couldn't knock any of these off the list.

1. Wailing Caverns - First real dungeon I came across level for first Tauren toon.
2. Maraudon - Place was just huge and you could be in there for 5 hours trying to find another person to group with. No one was ever in the zone so you had to wait for them to come. Plus the last boss farted and killed you.
3. Zul-Farrak - One great open environment dungeon that you could easily grind on end to get past the 45-50 level range. Plus you could ride mounts in it.
4. All of Caverns of Time - It was great to go back to see the stories and how they all played out. First time I went through everything I felt really epic being back in that time zone.
5. Halls of Reflection - It was tough and crazy with stupid group, but fun. I also liked running from Litch King.
6. Shadow Labs - I was a true tank back then and I felt Shadow Labs trash gave a good tank a lot to work with at the time. A lot of fun on the pulls.
7. Mechanar - Just because I grinding this forever as a tank and got very very good at it. The gauntlet was tough at first for a tank but became fun with a good one.

[link4117]

5. Vanilla Scholomance
4. Violet Hold
3. Black Morass
2. Vanilla Deadmines
1. Halls of Reflection

[vep]

Blackrock Depths
Blackrock Spire
Shattered Halls
Magister's Terrace
Deadmines


In no particular order.

EDIT: Just in case Blackrock Spire isn't considered a "five man" dungeon (Which it's not, but w/e), I'd like to put in Stratholme. The classical Stratholme. Freaking awesome instance. Either that or Mechanar.

[Xalzel]

None, I've always hated five man. The most memorable I have are my first runs through WC and VC (deadmines for those who didn't play vanilla) way back in the day. Otherwise I've never enjoyed them as much as raids.

[haloa]

1. Utgarde Pinnacle
2. Pit of Saron
3. Maraudon
4. Durnholde Keep
5. Halls of Reflection

[Peacemoon]

I wonder if people would choose the same classic and TBC dungeons if they had used LFD to access them.

Food for thought :P

[Deleted]

Throne of the Tides, Culling of Stratholme, The Nexus, Halls of Reflection and Old Hillsbrad Foothhills.

[Duncanîdaho]

1)Vanilla Zul Farrak - Pyramid event and the place had a really nice look and flow.

2)Vanilla Uldaman - Tons of mystery behind it, was a lore goldmine and took some exploration.

3)Stonecore pre-cata nerfs - Loved how all the bosses had one-shot making sure your paying attention mechanic, were challenging and also loved the look and music.

4)Vanilla BRD with friends - Pretty much every vanilla players first introduction to a raid like environment.... in a 5 man. For that reason most people who did BRD with friends look back on it with fond memories of there journey through that death maze.

5)Shadow Labs - Lots of mystery behind it with why Auchindoun was blown up. Was also challenging, and probably had the best looking unexpected last boss out of any 5 man.

[Feali]

1. Magister's Terrace
2. Azjol-Nerub
3. The Shattered Halls
4. Deadmines (Classic)
5. Shadow Labyrinth

[Natureseer]

5. Maraudon
4. Halls of Origination
3. The Arcatraz
2. Blackrock Depths
1. Dire Maul

You can't beat Dire Maul... it's the best.

[cyqu]

I wonder if people would choose the same classic and TBC dungeons if they had used LFD to access them.

Food for thought :P

would never complete pre nerf BC heroics if it was lfd

[melodramocracy]

My choices are largely based on environment:

Uldaman

BRD / Lower BRS (considering this all one giant area)

Azjol Nerub

Gnomeragan

SFK

homorable mentions: Utgarde Keep and Razerfen Kraul.