Lore:

At some point in the timeline of Cataclysm the Dragon Aspects realized that they probably weren’t going to beat Deathwing without the help of 10-25 random Azerothean citizens and the help of the Dragon Soul, the all powerful weapon that grants Deathwing his power.

But how do we get that Dragon Soul? I mean, it’s not like we can just waltz in and steal it while he’s asleep and smoking a hookah. That game got cancelled. The only reasonable alternative? TIME TRAVEL! So head back into the caverns of time and into a horrible future where Deathwing had already unleashed the Dragon Soul and killed everybody and figure out where (or when) we can pick it up.

Degree of Difficulty: Easy

There is very little trash in the instance. It is designed to be very short with minimal interaction outside of the bosses. just pull them pack by pack and dispatch of what little resistance you will face.

You will ultimately face three bosses out of a possible five depending on which portals appear during your run. Four of the bosses may or may not appear, the fifth always will In the Red Dragonshrine, you’ll find the Echo of Baine Bloodhoof. The former Tauren Chieftain does a powerful mace attack, will cast a totem that can knock players off platforms and into the lava (the totem can be thrown back at him, however) and will start to sink platforms as the fight goes on. In the Azure Dragonshrine you’ll find the Echo of Jaina Proudmoore, who will cast a lot of magic attacks at the tank and several ground attacks which can be pretty easily avoided.

The Ruby Dragonshrine houses the Echo of Sylvanas Windrunner, who does reasonably boring attacks other than Call of the Highborne, which traps the group in a circle around her. DPS down one of the adds and run through the hole that makes in the circle to avoid the damage spike. She will do this one final time as she dies for around 300,000 damage. In the Emerald Dragonshrine is the Echo of Tyrande Whisperwind. Chase her moonbeam around the room and then avoid her area attack. Near the end of the fight, she will cast Tears of Elune which will rapidly kill the group unless you finish her off quickly.

The final (and only assured) fight is in the Bronze Dragonshrine against Murozond, an aspect of Nozdormu (think about it, you’ll get it). He is mostly a gear check for players, and not terribly difficult. One player will get an “Hourglass” item. Murozond will cast a lot of AoE which will eventually kill everybody in the room. If your tank, healer, or enough DPS die however, clicking the hourglass will fully restore the group, reset any cooldowns, and clear up the AoE, but will not heal Murozond. You can use this up to five times, ensuring any decently geared group will eventually kill him.

Special Features:

Again, there is only one version of this instance, classified as Heroic. It is unique in that the order and versions of boss fights in the instance is entirely random, a gimmick that had been used before for only one fight in an instance. This is the first Cataclysm instance that does not offer a buff for party members with Archaeology skill.

Recommended for Levels: (Heroic)

No doubt that End Times is a really cool instance, from the moment you step into an entirely ruined Dragonblight to the fight against Murozond, everything about the dungeon is really well done, and as an introduction to Cataclysm’s final story and series of instances, it’s refreshingly easy.

So for both those looking at getting into Cataclysm end-game raiding (most of the gear you can get here is at least comparative to Cataclysm’s mid-tier raid gear) and those who are just looking at hanging out in the vicinity of end-game content, this is an excellent instance and well worth the relatively short amount of time it takes to experience it.

Lore:

Oh, those crazy trolls. They’re like the…uh…trolls of World of Warcraft. Anyway, for as much trouble as the Zalandar tribe have been causing at Zul’Aman, it would’ve been pretty easy to forget about where the rest of the jungle troll loas were buried

Anyway, last time we were here we banished the avatar of Hakkar the Soulflayer (that doesn’t sound like a guy we want running around Azeroth), but as these things tend to happen, the trolls figured out a new way to raise Hakkar, and sure enough they moved back into Zul’Gurub pretty much uncontested to do it. Damn it, you guys, whose job was it to keep them out?

Degree of Difficulty: Hard

Some of the trash packs early in the instance provide a moderate amount of difficulty, but shouldn’t prove much challenge for even the most modestly coherent groups. There are a lot of ritual cauldrons around the zone which provide you with a temporary damage bonus or immunity to special attacks which make clearing much quicker.

The first set of bosses aren’t terribly difficult. Venoxis has a few poison abilities, one an AoE that scatters around and is easy to avoid, an interruptable DoT, in phase one, a chain DoT between two players, a mass AoE and cone (in Phase 2), and a final AoE in Phase 3 before he stuns himself. Mandokir is back along with his trusty mount Oghan, and he still gets more powerful the more kills he gets (and killed players still are automatically rezed). He has one massive attack (Decapitate), can resurrect his mount, an avoidable AoE, and a health drain.

High Priestess Kilnara replaces Arlokk, casting mostly shadow damage in phase one with a hard DoT a few cone attacks and one massive AoE. Phase two is primarily a dance involving taking out the tiger adds and then killing her panther form while avoiding the cave in AoEs. Zanzil leaves a trail of fire and casts a massive AoE that will cause damage unless you use the poison cauldron, as well as summoning troll adds (freeze them with the blue cauldron and DPS them down), and summoning a pack of zombies which can be AoE’d using the red cauldron. Another raidy-style boss fight.

The final boss battle is split into two major phases. In the first, you fight the priest Jin’do by himself. He will occasionally produce anti-magic bubbles on the ground, stack in them to avoid his chain shadow attack. Eventually, he’ll give up on this tactic and attack Hakkar. In this phase you must avoid the ground attacks and DPS down the adds and kite the troll spirits into slamming into the chain ends so that you can destroy them and end the fight. Two DPS should be assigned specifically to keeping the adds away from the rest of the group.

Special Features:

The big ones of course, are the raptor and panther mounts (available from Mandokir and Kilnara respectively). At around 1% drop rate they are more likely to drop than their counterparts from the old Zul’Gurub raid, but not by much.

If a member of the group has 225 or higher Archeology, an optional boss fight can be started inside the instance. The Cache of Madness spawns of four different bosses, Gri’lek (an undead Dire Troll), Renetak (a ghost rogue with Vanish), Hazza’rah (another ghost who summons “nightmares” that will kill players on touch, but move veeeery slowly), and Wushoolay (AoE based lightning attacks). None are very hard.

It, like Zul’Aman, is only available at heroic difficulty to players who have low-raid tier gear scores. Using a Troll Tablet on the voodoo pile at the start of the instance gives the group a small group of raptor hatchlings which occasionally attack your target.

Recommended for Levels: 85 (Heroic)

Again, it’s very large for a standard instance because the design was copied pretty much wholesale from the old raid, making it something of a chore to run through. But there’s definitely a high nostalgia factor for players who ran the Vanilla version of the instance a million times to get their Zalandari shoulder enchants.

As a whole, I think Zul’Aman gets a slight edge over ZG in terms of being a more exciting and engaging instance experience, but Zul’Gurub is slightly easier. They’re both worth doing if even once (probably more due to the presence of the two mounts), but otherwise it won’t do much to prepare you for Mists of Pandaria content, which is what the focus is right now.

Lore:

So, we killed Zul’jin a while back, and then we left Zul’Aman alone. I mean, no way those crazy stupid trolls would bother to go back to that ancient, super powerful place, right? You know, the one with all the dead troll gods who hate the other races and want to take over the world? And…aw come on, Azeroth!

It’s time to go back in there and kill off the bunch of idiot trolls that have moved in there this time. And might I suggest we do more than just leave Harrison Jones around to make sure that nobody else comes back in here and tries to take over the world with insane animal gods again? Please?

Degree of Difficulty: Hard

Trash is not particularly hard in most of the instance, there’s just a lot of it. Tight packs with a lot of spell casters and healers on the east side of the instance will prove difficult unless your group does a good job of CCing, however. Additionally, also on the east side, there are several groups that include runners. If not killed fairly quickly they will spawn another pack.

The bosses provide their own unique challenges, which are, fitting with Cataclysm’s theme, good training for the early raid bosses of the expansion. You must kill at least two of the bosses to continue to the end of the instance. Akil’zon is the Eagle loa, with a bit of directed lighting and an AoE storm that you must avoid, as well as Eagle adds that will attempt to kidnap and kill party members that must be quickly dispatched. Nalorakk, the bear loa, is a fairly simple tank and spank with the caveat that he will charge the furthest member of the group. Two charges will likely kill any party member, so you must constantly rotate the furthest amongst three out of the four DPS/Healers.

Jan’alai is the dragonhawk loa. He has a lot of fire attacks, mostly directed either at one spot on the ground or in a cone, so they’re easily avoidable. The bigger challenge is that he summons adds during the fight on either side of the platform, the group must kill one, but the other will die at the other end summoning a large amount of extra mobs which must be killed. Halazzi is the lynx loa, and an annoying fight. He has a heal and adds that must be whittled down as well as standard Shaman attacks. At 66% and 33% he also puts out a mass AoE attack. The final mini-boss is Hex Lord Malacrass, he will have two adds with him (a healer, a wraith, an imp, and/or a snake) that should be CCed or killed quickly. He will absorb the abilities of party members, which can make the fight interesting or annoying depending on what class he becomes (He used to be able to steal Lay on Hands).

The final boss of the instance is Daakara. At 66% and 33%, he will take on the abilities of one of the other bosses you have faced during the instance. These fights are fairly straightforward, and the same strategies apply as above, except there are no extra adds and the attacks are quite a bit stronger.

Special Features:

There is no non-Heroic version of this instance, it is designed for geared 85 players. Mobs in the instance have a chance to drop “Hex Sticks” which can be used on the frogs in the center of the instance. Unhexed, the frogs/people will drop single use items, money, or (rarely) the Mojo frog pet. Completing the instance and related quests in 15 minutes or less will drop a version of the Amani Warbear for qualifying players at the end of the instance, slightly different than the one originally available from a similar achievement from the old version of the Zul’Aman raid. Using a Troll Tablet on the pile of voodoo items at the start of the instance will cause a bear cub to spawn and fight mobs with your group. Probably the best dungeon buff.

Recommended for Levels: (Heroic)

The instance is still very sprawling, as it maintains the size and scope of the old instance, but it provides a nice break and challenge from the constant stream of Cataclysm’s other instances. Plus, the War Bear prize will push players to try to be as efficient as possible in clearing the instance. Still, a lot of players quickly got sick of this (and Zul’Gurub) due to them being the only high level 5-mans for a long stretch of time.

It’s still worth doing, especially if you can find a group in your guild that’s really gung ho about getting the mount, as it’s fun to develop these types of strategies to shave time off the clock. But even as a random, it’s a fun experience for a few times. The bosses are all challenging and have solid strategies behind them. Take the time to check it out.

Lore:

A few years ago, we helped destroy Archmage Arugal (until Arthas brought him back and we killed him again), stemming the tide of Worgen that he was bringing into Azeroth. Unfortunately, the Worgen Curse has stuck around Azeroth, and while Arugal might be dead, Worgen from all over are still drawn to the site of his (initial) demise.

Now however, the ressurected Lord Godfrey, and the noblemen who betrayed Gilneas have taken up residence here and are planning a further invasion into Undead territory. Obviously, the Undead Horde and Worgen Alliance characters have plenty of reason to want these guys dead. Everybody else? is just sort of there.

Degree of Difficulty: Medium

There is quite a bit of trash in Shadowfang Keep, and while none of it is particularly hard, it can bunch up on you in a hurry, especially as most of the hallways you take are fairly narrow and have two or more packs in them. Some of it can be skipped by clever jumping across gaps or hugging corners in the larger rooms, but most of them will have to be engaged.

Many of the bosses can be avoided in the instance, though this significantly decreases the experience, gold, gear, and points you get from here making the run nearly worthless unless you’re just doing a random dungeon rush. The first boss is Baron Ashbury, who will sap out all but one health from you until you have one left. He will then begin a heal which must be interrupted in heroic because it will heal him as well as you, it’s mostly a race for your healer to keep you up after the near death. Second is Baron Silverlain, a skippable and fairly weak ghost boss with a DoT and some adds (who were bosses in the previous version of the instance).

Similarly, Commander Springvale is a ghost boss who is skippable and fairly easy. Tank him along the wall, facing away from the group and take otu his adds as you tick him down. Lord Walden is an undead alchemist, who shoots frost AoEs and a poison attack. When he casts Ustable Mixture, run around him to avoid the damage, and it’s a fairly easy fight. Lord Gofrey, the final boss of the instance will summon adds and a DoT (which can and should be interrupted). He will also fire a cone of bullets in front of him which should be avoided by everyone but the tank, as it will instantly kill undergeared players and cause headaches for the healer. As long as you avoid that attack and interrupt the DoT, he is not difficult.

Special Features:

This is the second of Blizzard’s attempts to completely rennovate an instance for heroic 85 content. During the holiday “Love is in the Air” three max-level holiday bosses can be found in the third room of the instance (only accessable by the dungeon finder).

Recommended for Levels: 21 (Normal)/85 (Heroic)

Probably the more fun of the two instances between this and Deadmines, as the boss fights are more straightforward and have less unweildy mechanics. Additionally, those looking to just race through dungeon content for valor points love Shadowfang because the middle boss fights are skippable and, while there is more trash, it is one of the quickest dungeons from start to completion in Cataclysm.

There is no new content for Heroic level characters, unlike Deadmines, and the story falls very flat, unlike Deadmines, but as just an instance, it’s one of the better ones in the Cataclysm roster for groups who are capable of paying attention. Many groups will still fall victim to some of the boss mechanics (letting Ashbury heal himself up or Godfrey kill them with the bullet(s)), but it’s highly recommended for players with a pulse.

Lore:

We cleared out the Deadmines, beat Edwin VanCleef and saved the municipality of Westfall from…a giant ship. That would…kill all the Murlocs? I’m not really sure. We did get rid of the leaders of the Defias bandits, which was cool.

Except that it wasn’t really. We were kind of big jerks who killed a guy who was representing a union of people who got stiffed on a bill for rebuilding Stormwind. Glorified slave labor, in other words. And it turns out that VanCleef had a family. And they weren’t real happy about us killing him. And if there’s one thing we do in WoW, it’s clean up our messes.

Degree of Difficulty: Hard

The trash is not particularly numerous or difficult. As Blizzard’s first attempt to put a heroic version of an old school instance and update its storyline, it’s pretty clear trash wasn’t high on their priority list. Don’t go nuts, take your time, but none of the trash should give you trouble.

Glubtok, an Ogre mage starts off the instance, and is fairly uncomplicated. He does a lot of melee to start, and blinks around the room. During phase two, however, he teleports everyone to the center, and starts shooting spells at random locations and creates a big wall of fire that spins around him, avoid it and you’ll be fine. Helix Gearbreaker is a goblin riding an Oaf who throws bombs and leaps from player to player doing melee damage and causing AoE timed bomb damage to that player. You will have to kill the Oaf before killing Helix, and the Oaf himself can do up to 100% damage to the target of his Smash. The Foe Reaper 5000 is a giant mechanical construct that does heavy physical damage. One player in the group will have to control another robot at the bottom of the room to keep adds from attacking the other players during the encounter. Admiral Ripsnarl is a Worgen who phases in and out of the fight. DPS should focus on killing the adds lest they overwhelm the party and wait for Phase two to start and the adds start spawning faster than you can kill them, at which time you dump all DPS on Ripsnarl.

“Captain” Cookie, the Murloc in a Pot is an interesting fight. He will drop bad food on the ground that starts a continuous poison AoE that can only be cleared by walking over “good” food that doesn’t have green gas around it. Stacking on Cookie does fire damage. So the fight must be started and ended quickly.

If you’re playing the heroic version of this instance, you are then thrown into a “dream state.” Click the valves to escape the fire and kill Glubtok again. Stay there to kill Helix again, don’t bother with the adds as they will quickly overwhelm you. Avoid the instant kill electric beams and kill Foe Reaper 5000. Then you must kill the worgen attacking the spirits of Ripsnarl’s family before they die or you will die. Then you start the fight with Ediwn’s daughter Vanessa VanCleef. She will occasionally cast Deflection, at which point DPS peels off to fight the adds that drop in. At 50% and 25% health left, VanCleef sets off bombs on the deck which you must avoid by clicking on a rope on the side of the ship. She does this again at 0 health, but you just have to run away from her at that point.

Special Features:

This is the first instance introduced that has both a low level (Normal) version and a level 85 (Heroic) version. It was also the first rewritten entirely to take advantage of WoW’s changed storylines.

Recommended for Levels: 18 (Normal)/85 (Heroic)

This is a weird one. It’s still a great low-level instance and drops some nice gear for people leveling up through Cataclysm’s new content or via the dungeon finder. However, a lot of people really don’t like the heroic version despite the interesting new storyline.

There’s little trash and the first round of bosses aren’t particularly difficult. The heroic only content, however, takes too long for a Random dungeon and some parts are needlessly difficult. The instant kill electrical beams in particular seem silly, especially when Glubtok earlier in the instance had basically the same gimmick. The Foe Reaper too seems needlessly complex for a regular instance.

Lore:

Some say the Titans started their creation of Azeroth in the sands of Uldum. After all, why would they go through all the trouble of trying to hide it from sight if they weren’t trying to cover their tracks and bury the very foundations of Azeroth behind a shield?

Well, we may never know if the foundations of Azeroth were built in Uldum, but for his part, Brann Bronzebeard is dying to find out. And as we have so many times in the past, we’re here to help Brann survive the turmoil of wandering aimlessly through a buried tomb.

Degree of Difficulty: Hard

The trash is not difficult, but there is a LOT of it. For as many boses as this place has, expect to spend most of your time mindlessly clearing out trash before moving to the next boss. It’s worth noting that in the Vault of Lights there is constantly respawning Trogg trash that will only stop once you kill the four mini-bosses (one for each element) in the corners of the room.

The bosses themselves range from mildly annoying to fairly difficult without much room in between. The first boss you fight, a Tol’vir named Anhuur, has flashes of difficulty for unprepared groups. He shields himself and then casts a stacking AoE through the whole room until you hit levers on either side of the room which are protected by snake adds. Normal groups can split their DPS to run down each side, heroic groups are better off going together one at a time. Ptah is a skippable boss fight against a floating collection of skulls. He has some heavy melee damage, a ground attack, and an AoE. At 50% he will disappear leaving the group to fight adds. There’s an achievement for finishing this fight while riding one of the camels in the area. Anraphet is a Watcher who comes out after you finish the mini-bosses in the Vault. He has a very damaging ground attack (Alpha Beam), a health reducing debuff, and one AoE that covers the whole room but doesn’t tick off that much damage if a decent healer is present.

The end of the instance is a ride up an elevator to four boss rooms. Only Rajh must be killed to get credit for finishing the instance. Rajh is a fire boss who summons an add and does a lot of AoE and DoT damage, however, phase two of the fight gives players a 100% DPS boost. In heroic he will summon a flame tornado as well. Setesh is a Shadow Construct, and summons adds through Chaos Portals that need to be closed, as the sentinels that spawn from them are difficult to kill. He also has very damaging ranged attacks and a short range AoE. Ammunae is a Life Construct and summons pods that can grow up to be adds. She has a HP leeching ability and two different AoEs (Spores and Rampant Growth), and a slow, but is otherwise the easiest of the four bosses. Isiset, the Construct of Magic, has an AoE that can be deflected by turning your back, a Mana shield, and an add.

Special Features:

Using a Tol’vir Heiroglyic Item on the map at the beginning of the instance will provide slight run speed boost inside the instance. Completing this dungeon grants reputation based on the tabard equipped.

Recommended for Levels: 85 (Normal)/85 (Heroic)

Maybe the most “raid-esque” dungeon in all of Cataclysm, Halls of Origination features a lot of group coordination, a lot of bosses with simple to understand but difficult to master boss mechanics, and a lot of optional but still challenging boss fights. The final four bosses, in particular, feel especially like training for identifying different phases of raid encounters.

As such, it’s a nice challenging dungeon to do once you’ve leveled through Cataclysm’s content. It’s definately not my favorite instance of the expansion, and you’d be extremely hard pressed to find anybody who’s excited by this draw in a Random Dungeon Finder grouping, but it’s still great training for people who are still transitioning from instance to raid content.

Lore:

In the old days, there used to be three big Dwarven cities, Thaurissan City, Ironforge, and Grim Batol, owned by each of the warring dwarf clans. The Wildhammer had residence in Grim Batol and holed up there and in the surrounding areas pretty much until the ancient demon Modgud died there and made the place uninhabitable, unless you’re the Horde, in which case you’ll habit any damn place you please.

And habit they did, housing their red dragons there until the dragons rebelled with the help of the Alliance, emptying out Grim Batol just in time for Deathwing to make his home there. He’s out for the moment, though, so you’ll just have to leave a message with the Twilight Hammer. And by “leave a message,” I mean “kill them.”

Degree of Difficulty: Hard

Trash is not terribly difficult in the instance, though some of the casters have unusually powerful spells for trash at this level. This is eased somewhat by a bombing run done towards the start of the instance that can do serious damage to the mobs in the first set of corridors. The same dragons used in the bombing runs can be used to skip the first boss if you wipe, however, until you clear the corridor ahead, you have a good chance of being dropped on top of a pack of troggs by yourself.

The bosses can be difficult for inexperienced and undergeared players as well as groups that are just uncoordinated. General Umbriss is a dragonkin with a lot of high damage abilities including a random charge, a bleed, and adds. One of the adds summoned, (a Malignant Trogg) will enrage any mobs near it, so should be kited away or CCed. Forgemaster Throngus is an Ettin that patrols the next corridor through several mobs that you need to  clear unless you want to fight them all at once. He has an easy to avoid but high adamage AoE, a slow, another AoE (when using his mace in heroic), and three random weapons (a faster dual sword attack, a shield, and a slower, more damaging club). Dragha Shadowburner is a skippable Orc who will summon a black drake to fight for him about halfway through the fight. The fire adds he summons explode on contact with the player, killing them and anyone around them, so they must be slowed and killed by ranged DPS. These summons persist into the drake (Valiona) stage adding in an AoE and hard cone attack that must be avoided as well.

The final boss is Erudax, a faceless one, who provides a slightly different challenge. While he himself, is fairly easy (he drops a minor stun attack as well as a massive AoE that can easily be avoided by stacking into the open spot on the floor) he also summons two adds during the fight. The adds are fairly tough, and DPS should immediately peal off the boss after Shadow Gale. The corrupters will immediately run towards the eggs on the ground, and begin healing Erudax and summoning more adds. It is easy to slow and kill them with enough DPS focus, but if you don’t then you will be overwhelmed quickly.

Special Features:

Using a Dwarf Runestone Item on the skeleton at the beginning of the instance will provide a 5% boost to critical strike chance in the instance. Completing this dungeon grants reputation based on the tabard equipped. The instance features a short, optional vehicle section after the first set of trash which gives the group a chance to damage and kill the trash in the next two rooms.

Recommended for Levels: 84 (Normal)/85 (Heroic)

Another ramp up in “raidlite-style” bosses during Cataclysm’s preliminary instances. This is maybe the most significant step up in those, as almost every fight in the instance has the DPS, healer, and tank operating apart from each other during the boss fights, with the exception being Throngus.

Learning to deal with multiple targets independently is definitely a good skill to pick up on your way to raiding, and this instance handles that process well (if a bit unforgivingly at times). Still it is as nicely laid out instance, runs are usually fairly quick, and the skills new players pick up here make it worth running.

Lore:</>

Al’Akir is pretty freaking excited to have a portal to Azeroth again, and so he’s sending all his lieutenants ahead of him to clear things out for his manifestation in the mortal plane. We’ve already seen his goons already at the Vortex Pinnacle.

But the heart of his forces were already through there and setting up a fortress for their master in an ancient and heretofore abandoned city in Uldum. It’s from here that his lieutenant Siamat prepares to…sit around and wait for his master to hurry the hell out of the Skywall already.

Degree of Difficulty: Medium

The trash in the Lost city is not particularly difficult at all. If you are able to CC the healers and mages from packs of Tol’vir scattered around, by all means do it, but you shouldn’t have any serious issues if your group is at least competent in their pulls.

The bosses, if you aren’t ready for them, can be tricky. General Husam has a charge and a lot of AoE including easily avoidable bombs that explode periodically and a shockwave that goes out from him in the four compass directions. Lockmaw and Augh are optional bosses. After a simple fight with the Pygmy Augh, you fight off the crocolisk Lockmaw who has a tail flail, a bleed that summons a bunch of adds, an enrage and a poison. Augh returns after that fight, a simple tank and spank with a short range AoE (that briefly reduces threat), an easily avoidable spin attack, and a light poison attack. High Prophet Barim is a Tol’vir and what can be a difficult fight, he has a chain attack, and sends the party into a “spirit world” where you have to DPS down a mob before the DoT damage kills you. In heroic, an additional fire mob is added to the fight.

Finally, Siamat appears just a short jump up to the rooftop above the city (where you started your Uldum quests). In the first phase, you can’t damage Siamat, so you just clear out the adds he summons while the tank holds his aggro. Killing Servants of Siamat will eventually take down this protection, but also creates damaging zones around their bodies. Once you’ve killed three of the Servants, you will get tossed around the platform briefly, and then the fight becomes fairly simple.

Special Features:

Using a Tol’vir Hieroglyphic Item on the gravestone at the beginning of the instance will provide a 10% boost to damage against Neferset in the instance. Completing this dungeon grants reputation based on the tabard equipped.

Recommended for Levels: 84 (Normal)/85 (Heroic)

While the bosses themselves can prove to be difficult for many groups, this is not a typical Cataclysm “raid training” dungeon. The fights feature mechanics which are similar to raid mechanics (Barim’s phases, Siamat’s shield) but aren’t really analogous to anything you’ll face in this cycles’ raids.

That said, it’s a fast moving instance that decent groups should be able to tackle in good time, which is good for people running LFDs and quick runs during the transition from 84-85. Also, the gear is decent for that gap from regulars into heroics. So as a filler dungeon or for speed runs, it’s worth running.

Lore:</>

The Temple of Earth is nestled safely in the Realm of Earth underneath the…well, let’s just say “underneath Azeroth” ok? It houses the Stone Core, the center of the center of Azeroth.

Until recently, the Stonecore was the home of Deathwing. Pretty good spot to look around if you’re trying to kill him, eh? Unfortunately, his servants have taken up residence there and are trying to take over the Earthen Plane. So it’s not a bad idea to get in there and clean them out.

Degree of Difficulty: Medium

Handled one group at a time, the Stonecore’s mobs aren’t that difficult. Take control of the Flayers and Rock Borers and keep control of the crowds you’re fighting and you’ll be fine.

The bosses, however, ramp the difficulty up significantly. Corborus is a giant gyreworm. He launches crystals at the ground which you can dodge, he burrows between two phases, and in heroic and he fires off a bunch of adds which explode doing around 20k damage. Slabhide is a stone drake who drops lava pools and stalactites which you need to hide behind during his massive AoE attack in heroic. Ozruk is a Stone Giant with a knockback, a paralyze attack, and a shatter attack that does massive damage if you don’t move out of the area in time. High Priestess Azil, by comparison, is fairly easy. She drops gravity wells which the party should avoid except to kite adds through, throws boulders, and has a slam attack.

Special Features:

Using a Dwarven Runestone Item on the pillar at the beginning of the instance will provide a 5% reduction in physical damage. Completing this dungeon grants reputation based on the tabard equipped. Slabhide drops a stone drake mount, the Reins of the Virteous Stone Drake

Recommended for Levels: 82 (Normal)/85 (Heroic)

Another training dungeon with a lot of things going on that you have to be paying attention to deal with. The drake fight features a lot of the hiding and AoE that Blizzard loves to do with Raid bosses. Ozruk, similarly, involves a lot of coordination between healers, DPS and tanks, good training for those getting ready for raiding.

It’s worth doing a few times just to familiarize yourself with the tricks (though Corborus is just a jerk and that has nothing to do with learning anything). And of course, there’s the drake mount that you might want to get, which is reason enough to keep you coming back to the Stonecore several times.

Lore:</>

You probably got so distracted by the Indiana Jones parodying and goblin and cat people escapades that you forgot what the hell you were doing there in the first place. Wasn’t this expansion about jerk elemental lords or something?

The answer, shockingly, is “yes.” Al’Akir, the Windlord has opened a rift between Azeroth and his realm in the Skywall, and that rift just so happens to be located in Uldum at the Vortex Pinnacle. So be a dear and go take care of that, will you?

Degree of Difficulty: Medium

It isn’t the amount of Trash in Vortex Pinnacle (for a Cataclysm dungeon, it’s really not that much), but the way you have to watch your CCs in order to keep healers and casters out of the fight. A valuable lesson to learn for people who didn’t do it during Burning Crusade. Otherwise you can get overwhelmed quickly.

The bosses themselves are not terribly difficult. Grand Vizier Ertan is an air elemental who will fire out whirlwinds every 40 seconds that you need to avoid (and summon adds in heroic modes). Altairus is a storm dragon who occasionally changes the direction of the wind, standing downwind increases your casting speed, while standing upwind increases it. Asaad, the Elemental Lieutenant, is surprisingly easy for a final boss. He has a freeze and a ground attack that does massive damage unless you stand in the little triangle he helpfully slowly draws on the ground for you, but otherwise it’s just a matter of DPSing him down.

Special Features:

Using a Tol’Vir Heiroglyph Item in the brazier at the beginning of the instance will provide a one time health and mana regeneration. Completing this dungeon grants reputation based on the tabard equipped. Transportation between platforms is gained by clicking tornadoes at the end of each. If you fall off the platform (or are knocked off) you’ll be teleported to the start of the instance, otherwise unharmed. Altairus drops a storm dragon mount, the Drake of the North Wind.

Recommended for Levels: 80 (Normal)/85 (Heroic)

As long as you have a group that’s paying half attention, Vortex Pinnacle is one of the easiest instances in Cataclysm. Most of the difficulty comes from the mob groups, which have multiple casters and healers and condensing them down using crowd control so you can engage them in smaller units.

This is a nice breather dungeon to do in between some of the more difficult ones, and the loot, rep and xp gains aren’t bad. Plus there’s always that 1% chance that you might get lucky and add a drake to your collection.