I was looking through some old posts on my guild’s site, and I came across the influx of threads we made to help each other navigate the first days and weeks of Cataclysm. Posted below are some (amusingly extensive) dungeon guides I wrote to help out members.

It’s weird and surreal to run those same dungeons now with the luck of the draw buffs and incredibly higher quality gear. Not only is the difference in difficulty a vast expanse, the player attitudes about dungeons seem to have slid, bit by bit, with each new tier of content. Remember those first weeks, where getting through a dungeon with a random group in under an hour (or two) with only a “few” wipes was something worth breathing a sigh of relief about and deserved highfives all around? Nowadays, players will quit the group at a single wipe NEAR wipe. Players will quit the group if the tank or healer or even a dps is “undergeared” (even though they may be in all 358s or higher). The dungeons themselves have not changed, except to get easier, but our expectations and demands on the players in them have increased as our patience has waned.

I’ll probably return to this topic at another date. I am very VERY curious about how these attitudes will fare at the start of Mists, especially with the upcoming dungeon challenge system (which I am SO SO SO excited about!).

In any case, here are the old “strategy guides” I wrote. I got a giggle out of reading them at the twilight of the expansion…nearly all of these mechanics are ignored for the most part these days, with damage overwhelming the adds and bosses before it matters or geared healers just healing through it. But once…ONCE! Once, these simple little dungeons were a BITCH. Ah, memories…

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