World of Warcraft Preview
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Category: News ArchiveHits: 994
Blizzard did a smart thing with their instanced dungeons, eliminating the (wait) for boss mobs that plagued EQ so, and also making for a very intense group experience. When you have only the five members of your group to depend on, down in the depths of a winding cave filled with the undead, it can be quite the bonding experience. No one else is going to run in and save your butts. You are it. Unless, of course, you've gone in as a raid. Cheesers.
But Blizzard did more than that with their dungeon design. Lower level dungeons are easier, not simply in terms of the mob strength and level, but also in the way that they are designed, the way that the mob AI works, and the amount of ingenuity required to kill the boss mobs. The Deadmines, an instance for characters in their late teens and early twenties, is fairly straightforward, a simple hack n slash with a couple of neat features that are mostly visual in nature. (Sorry for the vague, but I'm trying not to be too spoilerific here.) Move on to the Stockade, an instance located in Stormwind City, and the mobs are not only tougher, but some of them act and react in ways that lower level mobs have not done up to that point. They are smarter. They work together more. You need to be a better player to beat them, and you need to really work as a team to make it through. As you move through the instances, you will notice that the mobs show you new tricks, that the environments become a real factor in combat, that you are forced to change your playstyle to compensate.
