I can’t count how many times I have run Deadmines with my various Alliance toons, and I am getting the sense that Hellfire Ramparts will soon be that kind of instance. To make such a statement is in no way a slam, as I still find Deadmines to be an incredibly fun instance. The boss fights are varied, creative in their abilites, and for the level, the loot is pretty darn good. You’re not going to find a better ring or wand from questing at that level.
Yet Ramparts is not quite as varied as Deadmines. So it is curious that I am enjoying it so much. I like the constant multiple pulls, mana conservation as a healer, and the boss fights are the best I’ve personally seen outside of ZG and MC. Granted, I was not a hardcore raider with Gitr, but I would expect that many many players taking a liking to Ramparts are not, either.
Let’s do a quick rundown of the bosses for Ramparts:
Watchkeeper Gargolmar: He comes with 2 doggie adds, and calls for help. It is a bit of a fight, but I have run three times so far (2 PuGs) and have yet to wipe or lose anyone in this fight. This is just a classic “know your class roll” fight to the death. It is a very nice warmup, because even the next group of mobs are harder than him.
At the top of the spiral stairs are some warlocks that put up a tremendous endurance fight for non-bosses. If you dps them while maintaining proper aggro, any group should be fine.
Omor the Unscarred: This is a much more challenging fight. I have had one wipe and one extra death on this fight. He summons felhounds that spell lock casters, but I have yet to be silenced by them. It is a balancing act for me between doing my massive Shadow damage or conserving mana to heal. I can deal a sustained 300-400 dps during a fight, but I burn through 6.5k mana in about a minute (often less) doing it. I think the tank will definitely need a heal by then.
Vazruden and Nazan: I have wiped in all but one run. Everyone needs to be on their toes when the little fire clouds pop up from Nazan spitting fire on the ground. This is similar to the poison clouds in ZG. Nazan also is very Ony-like in that there is a fire breath that will bring back Deep Breath memories to all the Ony-farmers. Keep away from the business end if you want to stay alive. This fight takes all of my mana every time so far. Maybe after a couple more loot pieces from the instance I will be better off, though.
I guarantee you I will keep coming back for the rest of the loot table, and it is still about 1200xp rested per kill, so that is some measure of incentive, too. I believe Deadr is about 1 run away from Honored with Thrallmar, so then it will be time to visit the Quartermaster.
(sob, cry, whimper) I have still not gotten to run any of the new instances. My emo preggers wife has got me on a short leash. I might be able to scam som more time this week since I spent alot of time with her this weekend…..though then agan prolly not. I have seen about 10 feet inside 4 instances so far, all solo and with no hope of getting any deeper. By the time I getinto any of the lower instances no loot will be worth the run. Seems like history is repeating itself.
Does she sleep? I get my instances in from 8-10pm. 🙂 My wife told me that as long as I tell her in advance that I want to make a run some night, and it’s not too often (I think once a week would be good), then I can set aside evenings to play instances. She knows they can take more time than I usually have when I’m just doing my aerosols.
Sounds like a good idea…however most runs I get in on are impromtu. Scheduling runs seems to always fall flat. I will try the warning deal though.