The Oculus (80)

Time for the first level 80 instance of the batch. This time, I'll take a look at The Oculus, that giant floating series of rings and platforms you see in the picture below. Using the Arcanomicon, a map of Azeroth's ley energies and lines, Malygos has been diverting them to The Nexus, where the magic is then redirected upward through the ascending rings of the Oculus and forcefully channelled back into the Twisting Nether. Malygos' end goal is to strip Azeroth of all magical energy and thus deprive the mortal races of what he considers to be a horribly misused tool. Because the game would be pretty boring if all the mana-using classes suddenly had to fistfight instead, you're out to stop him.




Like the previously reviewed dungeon, The Nexus, The Oculus is on the island of Coldarra, off the west coast of the Borean Tundra. As you'll have a flying mount by the time you're ready to do this place, it's a quick flight from either Warsong Hold or Valiance Keep. Don't forget to stop by the Transitus Shield first, however, to pick up the quest for this place.

There's only one quest line for the instance, beginning at the Shield, but it's interactive and takes you throughout the entire instance, involving all of the bosses. From the looks of it (doesn't appear to be finalized yet at the time of this writing) you'll receive two blue rewards from the line, making it definitely worthwhile since you'll basically trip over completion on the way through.



The Oculus Ekerameter:

Difficulty - 3
Loot - 4
PUG Factor - 3
FUCK YEAH Quotient - 5
Overall - 4

Comments - The Oculus is a landmark achievement for a Warcraft instance in several respects. First, it completely redefines the idea of a "dungeon", being that the entire thing is outdoors; the terrain you fight upon is literaly no different than if you were to fly up to the Oculus outside of the instance and look around. Second, much more importantly, a great deal of the place is completed while flying. After the first boss, you'll receive your choice of a red, green, or bronze dragon mount, each with their own abilities, that you'll use for the rest of the instance for both transport and combat. In fact, the final boss is fought exclusively using the dragons. In this respect, much of the instance is truly three-dimensional; it makes it almost disappointing to run other, more linear and "flat" dungeons.



Difficulty-wise, at least on Normal, the place isn't hard. There's a decent amount of trash, and some of it can be tricky, and each of the bosses has some abilities that can be fairly dangerous, but nothing to the point of group wiping unless you're on autopilot. Consequently, a shitty PUG won't be a huge hindrance, although the final boss fight isn't exactly easy; all three types of dragons' abilities are key in defeating him, and if someone slacks it could be trouble. Mostly, thoguh, the place is fairly intuitive.

In terms of loot, the four bosses here have a nice spread of gear available for the different classes, specs, and armor types. You'll get 5 total drops from bosses, plus the quest will net you two more blues the first time through, meaning this place is absolutely worth the bare minimum of one run. That being said, for FYQ, there is no instance I've seen yet in Wrath of the Lich King that compares to this place. The views are breathtaking, the design is innovative, and the use of "vehicular" combat as a central point in completing the dungeon and the general variety all combine to make this an absolute must-do. There's enough fun to be had here that I could see running it plenty of times in the future, especially on Heroic.

In short: do not miss The Oculus.