When I first heard about cross-realm dungeons, my immediate thoughts were negative. I didn’t PvE at that time because sub-par players can easily run up a large repair bill for you, even on a rogue. So why would I want to partake in, rather subject myself to, the idiocy of PvE failboating with morons from the entire battlegroup? For barely enough gold to pay my repair bill if I get stuck in a bad group and two Emblem of Frost… Really? C’mon Blizzard, you’re going to need to try harder than that. For once, I’m glad that I was wrong.

Experiences So Far

My first instance was a Heroic Azjol’Nerub. It took me all of 2 minutes to form a group, and needless to say I was impressed. There is no way I couldn’t get into a battleground in that time, even during a holiday. The problem with playing on Tuesday wasn’t that the patch release was buggy, it was that so many people were attempting to use instances that the instance servers were full. It took an additional 5-6 minutes to get an instance. After that, everything ran as smoothly as a geriatrics ward after a trip to a prune juice factory.

I’ve run a good number of instances since then and I have yet to have a truly distasteful experience. For the most part each and every group that I’ve gotten into has been competent. Even more surprising is that I have yet to be in a group that has wiped. Even when the tank was sporting 26k HP unbuffed, we still tore through the instance like a group of old friends. Of course it could just be that the level of gear has progressed to the point were it no longer matters how terrible a player is, they can still make it through a heroic.

Downsides, Warnings, Tips, etc., etc.

Downsides:

Obviously as I mentioned before, there are times when demand for instances are high and there simply isn’t enough room for all players requesting them. It can be frustrating to get a full group but be unable to actually enter the instance.

Another is that players seem to be joining the system, waiting through the queue, and bailing when they become eligible for a group. Luckily, the system is designed to insure a complete a group before it moves on. That being said, sitting around for close to ten minutes while ~25-30 people bail is not fun. Don’t queue if you don’t want to tango.

Another downside that might not be very apparent at first is that people aren’t joining the queue while indicating desire to lead. I sat in queue for 5 minutes, far beyond the normal 50 seconds, and decided to leave and rejoin indicating a desire to lead a group. I had a group within seconds.

Warnings:

Another incentive to queue indicating a desire to lead is that if you aren’t the leader, who is? Blatzkowitz, Superfellow, and I ran a group today and had a party leader that wouldn’t do anything. He would follow and stay close enough to gain reputation for kills, but not actually help. Why not kick them? Well as it turns out, whether by bug or intention, a vote kick cannot be initiated against the party leader.

Finally, a word to the wise, be nice! It takes less time for a party member to vote kick you for something that came across wrong than it takes for you to explain what you meant. Much less time.

Tips:

If you’re looking to get some emblems quick, try picking up the weekly raid and jumping in the new looking for raid tool. Not only are the quest kill targets extremely easy, everyone is doing the quest. So if you’re looking to grab 5 frost and triumph emblems along with 33g 20s, here’s a full list of what you can expect to fight:

Anub’Rekhan Must Die!
Flame Leviathan Must Die!
Ignis the Furnace Master Must Die!
Instructor Razuvious Must Die!
Lord Jaraxxus Must Die!
Lord Marrowgar Must Die!
Malygos Must Die!
Noth the Plaguebringer Must Die!
Patchwerk Must Die!
Razorscale Must Die!
Sartharion Must Die!
XT-002 Deconstructor Must Die!

That’s all, you don’t have to be alive for the kill, just don’t release if you die. Nothing to loot, best of all, nothing to lose.