The 20 Days of World of Warcraft: Day Six

Favorite dungeon and why?

This is no contest for me. Karazhan is my favorite dungeon. It is the first dungeon larger than 5-man that I ever did. It was the place where I truly learned what it meant to raid, what it meant to be a part of a large group working towards the same goal. My first raiding guild trudged slowly through Karazhan, struggling to get through Moroes, where I learned how to Shackle. Heck, we wiped on trash... a lot. I remember wiping to Maiden because we couldn't master the dance of getting in and out of her Holy Ground or be immobilized by Repentance. The anticipation of which Opera would be playing this week. Oh, the humanity of Flamewreath! Although I've heard it is possible, we never wiped on the Chess event. I can remember screaming INFERNAL as we heard Prince boom, "You face not Malchezaar alone, but the legions I command!" Lady RNG saw fit for those Infernals to always land in the worst possible place.

At that time in my WoW life, I did not know much of the lore. Fighting through the crazy atmosphere of Karazhan is part of what led me to study and learn more of this world called Azeroth. If WoW were life, Karazhan would have been my coming of age, blossoming into adulthood. This is the dungeon that made my Priest the great healer that she once was, this is what made me the decent player that I am.

I've since gone back at level 80 and made my way through Kara again, but it is just not the same. There is something absolutely horrifying about being able to essentially 2 or 3 man what was once a huge challenge for me. I have no idea how many times I ran Kara with my guild back then, but I think it was a lot, a lot more times than I ran ICC. The difference is that I never got tired of Kara. I don't know if it really is better designed than ICC or if it is just a growing up thing. I've done the dungeon farming thing enough now that no matter how well designed, I just don't want to farm anymore, maybe?