On Heroics

This is a total revamp of the series of posts I made on heroics. I had started the posts with the intention of giving each heroic a rating, but by considering all the heroics one-by-one led to copious amounts of repitition, which I hated.

The basic premise is still the same. You want Badges of Justice and Primal Nethers, but you have no idea what heroic you should run. After all, there's 15 of them, and they all offer varying numbers of badges (always one nether) and take varying amounts of time to complete.

This time around, I'm going straight to the point. I will tell you which heroics offer the best returns (read: badges, nethers come at a rate of one-per heroic, from the final boss) per time spent, and the necessity to have certain classes, and you can make the decision based on the composition of the group you have at hand.

5: Auchenai Crypts

Have a priest around, and this instance becomes cake. Two, and its cake with delicious chocolate frosting. It is relatively short, and the trash mobs do not hit for obscene amounts of anything of the sort. The first boss is the only real challenge. Expect to spend about an hour for 2 badges, and some rather phat loot (warrior and paladin tanks love the shoulders).

4: Blood Furnace

This instance really deserves a higher rating, because it is a lot of fun, but the second boss event is a bit of a wet blanket, requiring precise coordination and no one with Down's Syndrome. Renewable crowd control (fear, freeze trap, polymorph) is key here. And even if you can't overcome the event, you can bug it out and fight the second boss anyway, but nothing further. For a good group (must have a warlock) you can clear this in just above an hour, getting 3 badges in the process, having a great deal of fun.

3: The Underbog

Another instance relying heavily on crowd control, this time from hunters and warlocks (on elemental-type mobs). With a good tank, and minimal melee dps (sigh, seems to be the trend these days), this becomes a very easy instance to beat. Ranged dps is never hard to find for this because the epic wand from the final boss is made of pure win. Slightly long, can take over an hour and a half to finish, but you'll be no less than 4 badges richer.

2: Slave Pens

A perennial favourite of mine because it is very short, and allows you to skip a lot of pulls. As melee friendly as it gets. The only requirement, per se, is that you have a warrior tanking to spell reflect the final boss's Acid Geyser back at him (you can even have all your dps afk, and the boss will kill himself if the spell reflect is properly executed). Very easy, can be completed in as little as 45 minutes. With 3 badges up for grabs, that amounts to 15 minutes per badge!

1: The Mechanar

This instance was Blizzard's gift to us. Why else would a heroic instance be so easy that you can complete it within an hour, with a potential of 5 badges, and some really phat warrior/priest epics. Not only that, some of the bosses are actually easier on heroic than on normal. Just make sure you bring along a warlock for the plethora of demon pulls, and have 2 AoE fears for the final boss, and you are all set to win. Big time.