The Shattering So Far

So i haven't had a ton of time to play around on my characters lately but i have managed to play some stuff on my shaman in the 49-54 bracket.

I started off with a run of ZF and then moved on to do Stratholm. I gotta say that i really like how all your quests are at the beginning of the instance now, it really cleans up the process for getting the quests. It basically allows you to knock out all of your quests in one go and not have to worry about losing a potential upgrade because you were not doing quests in the same area. I know some people probably feel some nostalgia for the old "run around and get my instance quests" mentality but i am glad to see it go. It makes sense to me to have all your quests at the beginning of the instance since it allows all players to grab the quests and lets all the players see them. I would not be surprised if a lot of the effort that went into making the instance quests got wasted because people were too lazy to run around and get them (I know i was).

There is also the newer, more stream-lined instance layouts that are there now. I know some of the old world instances like strath and mara used to basically be giant mazes, if you have ever tried finding the entrance to mara...not fun. I was farming the Piccolo of the Flaming Fire in strath on my druid and i got lost a couple times, even though the route there was pretty direct. If you have ever run strath and have a general idea of how you used to unlock baron, then the run is a lot easier to figure out and I never found myself wondering what to do.

Lowbie instances actually have bosses now. I know its hard to believe but yes, you can actually tell when you are fighting a boss. It could be because the instances are higher level ( i will let you know my thoughts on the lower levels when cata drops) but the instances felt a lot more epic than before. Trash generally seemed harder and bosses didnt seem like trash with a little extra health and cool ability that sometimes didnt get used. The bosses no longer die in about the same time as a trash pack and it really allows those classes the dont have the best aoe but have good single target to shine. I found myself actually having to react a little bit to some of the bosses abilities in order to stay alive, as well as occasionally healing myself or others to help the healer out. I would say that i thoroughly enjoyed doing low level instances again.

The second thing i did was work my way through ungoro crater. I have always like ungoro, it felt like it flowed well and was kind of interesting. It didnt really seem to have a concrete conclusion but I didnt care because the zone felt like it worked. I think the new layout for the zone is better than the old one. All the quests seem to flow a lot better between the different areas. There was actually a resolution to the plot with the crystal pylons that never used to make sense and I was actually laughing out loud while doing the Maximillian of Northshire quest line. Overall i would say that i am very impressed with the leveling and instances in cata.

But what about you guys? What do you think of the new instance design? Or the new quest design? And have you come across any funny quests that you think i should check out first when i get some more time?