Was it that you couldn't do the Punchcard quest w/o getting that very first White Punch Card? (And why didn't Blizzard have Castpipe just give the player a White Punch Card when they accepted the Quest?) Was it that you often missed a Punchograph machine, and would get to Punchograph D and find yourself short a Red Punch Card?
Was it the confusing layout of the Instance? That you could get turned around (or just plain lost) without even realizing it?
Was it the large number of Mobs per Pull, which required a party to really work well together? Was it the Alarm Bots which wandered into your Party mid-fight, raised the alarm, and pulled two more Packs?
When you think about it, Gnomeregan actually has a lot more in common with the 50-60+ Instances, than it does with Blackfathom Deeps and Razorfen Kraul (also high 20s/low 30s Instances).
And is that actually the real problem? Was Gnomeregan originally meant to be on par with Scholo, Strath, and the Blackrock Instances?
Blizzard would never admit it, but given the complexity of the Instance, the large Pulls, and that completing all of the Gnomer Quest often required multiple attempts, it's actually possible Gnomeregan was originally designed with level 60 Players in mind (at least until some Blizzard Big Wig said, "Horde have RFK, and SM right outside the Undercity. We need something for Alliance.")
I actually enjoy going to Gnomeregan, and not just for the Achievement at the end. It's a very colorful, very well designed (if somewhat confusing) Instance into which someone put a lot of thought and attention. I would even argue that Gnomer has more character than Scarlet Monastry, which isn't saying much because there's not a whole lot to SM. Well there probably is, if you were paying attention, but all you see are walls and doors as you rush through. RFK has it's little piggy huts and the Crone's House on Stilts. RFD has a rocking out Skeleton Boss. Dead Mines comes with the awesomeness of Pirates, complete with Pirate Ship, while BFD has Naga, Cultists, and a battle with a 3-headed Hydra. And Gnomer? Gnomer has Planes being worked on by teams of Gnomes. It has Robots and Mechs. It has Radiated Gnomes. It has Radiated Gnomes in Mechs! The final Boss is a Gnome in a giant Mech!
Come on! Tell me this is NOT an awesomely cool Boss that someone clearly put a lot of time into creating.
Some of the best 29 Twink gear can be found in Gnomer, but can you get any Guildies willing to run you through? Many players harbor so much animosity for Gnomer that they'll refuse to set foot inside, not even on a capped Toon who could tear the place apart. Why is that? Why is there so much hatred for what is one of vanilla WoW's coolest Instances?
Why do you hate Gnomeregan?
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3 comments:
To be honest...
I don't! I love Gnomer, I loved it in Vanilla when I first ran it. I loved in TBC when I ran "Guided Tours" for leveling guildees and alts. I still love it today.
Now Sunken Temple? There is not enough vitriol in the world for me to sue on that place. I go into fits just typing about it ;)
Skarlarth and Company
Medivh
For me it's the length combined with the fact that the mobs were on a very short re-spawn timer, this meant that any time you wiped you'd have to start the instance again, and because it was so long, and in parts quite tricky, a wipe was inevitable towards the end of the run.
Plus, y'know, gnomes...
I liked it but I hated the alarm bots and the long runs back through if you wiped. Basically, its a good instance cuz it gets people to "wake up" and get their act together better but in doing that its a bit rough.
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