It is broke, if you can't jump into the dungeon finder queue to do one heroic tonight because you have only 1-2 hour to play. You have a problem with the difficulty.

"By the time Dungeon Finder came out"

What? Dungeon finder was in the game long before Wrath.

 

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I've found 10-man raids far more forgiving than heroics in Cataclysm, frankly. Downed 6 raid bosses (Argaloth, Magmaw, Omnomnom Defence System, Halfus, Valiona + friend, Conclave of Wind) and only the Twilight Council has still been standing after a session of attempts. On the other hand, my heroic record is 3 instances successfully completed out of 9 attempts. And I'm not comparing guild to PUG here: most of those failed heroics were guild groups too.

 

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i enjoy the difficulty. but i think the system is flawed. after having to wait for nearly an hour in the queue, i'd like to at least be able to do some dungeoning (even if its failing) for a decent amount of time. the way it is now, groups often dissolve completely very early on due to failing and i spend more time waiting in the queue than actually playing. combine that with the fact that i cannot do battlegrounds or group with anyone while in the queue...makes for a very boring experience.


maybe if they made it such that even if the 4 other people left the group, you could queue to finish the dungeon (and get moved to the front of the line) even if you are alone. and let me do battlegrounds or join groups without getting removed from the queue. if dungeon queue is 50 mins i can do 2-3 battlegrounds and still have time to spare while waiting.

They're out of touch. I haven't done Cataclysm heroics yet, but from prior experience I can say that "trial and error" is not something people really want to put up with in a random PUG. After the second wipe people tend to bail - it's not the same as running with your guild.

Were WOTLK dungeons unpopular? I know the "elite" crowd thought heroics were too easy, but a large part of the player base enjoyed them - why change that now? Blizzard is running the risk of alienating a lot its players just to appease a small minority.

The ironic part is that they seemingly made the change to appease a group of people that don't really spend a lot of time on heroic dungeons anyway. If a player is truly "elite" they're already done with doing anything more than 1 heroic a day for their valor points, if that.

As much as people complained about Wrath they got one thing right, there was a place for everyone. You could play very casually and still progress your character in short play sessions. Or, if you were truly hardcore, you could work your way to the top rankings in arena or defeat the most challenging hard mode raid encounters. Whatever your playstyle or schedule you could find challenging content that would allow your character to progress.

With Cataclysm it seems as though they are discouraging a lot of people from participating. It's as though you get to heroic dungeons and there's a velvet rope and Ghostcrawler is there telling people to gtfo because they're not "elite" enough or some such arrogant bs.

I agree with the complaints about waiting 45+ minutes for a heroic and then seeing it fall apart in 10 minutes. It's not fun to waste time like that. I'm on the verge of saying to hell with heroics for the forseeable future and just leveling alts.


"This is true even if some groups -- particularly pick-up groups -- lack the patience, will, or teamwork necessary to succeed."


This comment strikes me as very "up yours" to PUGs using the LFD. One bad person in the group destroys the entire run. I hope they address this issue soon.

Why don't they just keep the 10/25 man normal/heroic raids for the hardcore crowd and make the 5 man heroics doable by the casual PUG players? I consider myself a casual player because I have no interest or desire in spending hours of my time wiping repeatedly while trying to figure out the strategy to beat whichever boss we are facing. But that is EXACTLY what I feel like I'm doing with 5 man heroics currently.

It most definitely is.

 

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Well so much for the predictions made on these boards about PUGs rolling through Cata heroics.....

I've cleared em all and enjoy the challenges (prot pali leading guild only groups). Having to actually try on some fights is refreshing vs the AE faceroll. Using CC is refreshing. Some of the heroics feel like mini-raids til you get your gear and knowledge rolling. Good stuff. Bliz did a great job making 5-mans marginally challenging.


Personally, I enjoy boss fights in the heroics and raids. Excessive trash is just a waste of time, and in some cases, the new instances are a little trash heavy. In the regular 85's the trash is usually tougher than the bosses, which is kinda silly.


I've got thru more than I've failed pugging in my mage or hunter - but most of the time I have to coach the tanks and/or the whole group thru fights.

 

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