Yet another video of someone's private server, but damn, Karazhan looks epic.

[Fabricated]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6087825958707148090&q=burning+crusade

Too bad the first song won't be the actual instance music.

Good god, that'd be huge for even a 40-man, and it's a 10-man. I hope they don't pack it to the brim with trash. Amazing design though, especially the library and the top room of the tower that's actually bigger on the inside.

[NiX]

Yeah, that library sure was epic looking in size. Blizz sure can make some nice dungeons. Just that it takes them forever to release them at rate which they stay fresh, but I guess it's all for the catasses in the end.

[SurfD]

I have done a run through Karazhan on a sandbox server (no mobs / items / emotes/ anything, except the world environment).  For a 10 man or even 20 man instance, that place i fucking HUGE.  Easily three as big as Blackwing lair, quite possibly twice as large as AQ 40. 

Took me about 7 minutes to reach the end of the instance, from the entrance, and that was with a speedboost mod tweak working that gave me perma sprint like speed.

Rumor has it that there will be a flightpoint (thats right, a fuckign FLIGHTPATH) leading to the middle of the zone, and that the legendary staff you assemble from Naxx will teleport players partway through the instance as well, bypassing some of the earlier content.

Also, for an interesting note, at the 6: minute mark, the video shows her running through an area called the "museum".  On my runthrough, the area was called "The Menagerie" and the alcoves along the side, past the big Earthen statue, had these creepy sinister looking owl statues in them, with faintly glowing eyes.

All in all, Karzahan has just TOTALLY blown every single previous instance out of the water.  It makes Naxx look like Scholomance from a design standpoint.

[Miasma]

That looks very nice, I find WoW's artwork very refreshing.  I haven't played in a long time, what is the lore behind that place?

[Venkman]

Jeezus. Haven't walked it nor searched for maps but that looks to be about half the size of Eastern Kingdoms! My favorites were the Library and Opera House (stage... the stool seating I didn't quite understand). Nice work!

I wish that was the song too.

[hal]

Wow. Just Wow. Imagine that populated. Epic just Epic. Fucking blizzard, every pixel polished. Gawd if they could produce on a timely basis what they do produce. That music was nice as well. I'll have to sort that out.

[Jayce]

That looks very nice, I find WoW's artwork very refreshing.  I haven't played in a long time, what is the lore behind that place?

High level - it's Medivh's old stronghold (he is gone now).  He was the prophet in WC3.  He was previously partially responsible for the burning legion entering Azeroth.

http://www.wowwiki.com/Karazhan

[lamaros]

the song is saltwater - chicane

a long mix.

and i love that place.

[Triforcer]

Huge 

Burning Crusade should come with a commemmorative sock.  Preferably lead-lined.

[Fabricated]

Oh man, I just noticed that it looks like you'll need that legendary class staff Altiesh or whatever that you need to assemble with parts from AQ40, Naxx, etc. I really hope that isn't true.

I mean, WTF at making a 10-man if only people who do 40-mans can get in...and only 10 of them out of that 40.

[Zane0]

To directly teleport there, but I'm pretty sure you can walk straight in too!

[Simond]

From what I've heard (from months ago, admittedly), that video actually only shows about half the instance - there are dungeons going as deep underground as the tower itself is high.

[Rithrin]

Not to mention there's that place outside the instance that takes like 30 minutes just to run through. You used to be able to get in there by dying and running your spirit past the temporary door they had there and rezzing inside. And that looks to be a little over half as big as what was shown in the video.

[Phred]

Oh man, I just noticed that it looks like you'll need that legendary class staff Altiesh or whatever that you need to assemble with parts from AQ40, Naxx, etc. I really hope that isn't true.

I mean, WTF at making a 10-man if only people who do 40-mans can get in...and only 10 of them out of that 40.

CM's on the blizzard board have already said the staff isn't necessary to access the instance. It's just convenience.
Considering it'll take 40 boss kills minimum to make the staff it's not going to be common even in BC.

[SurfD]

Yeah, the staff is just a convenience item, NOT a requirement.

As to how many you will see, hard to say.  Word is that Death and Taxes has one staff finished (with the exceptiuon of the Head component from Khelthuzad)

My guild has, i think, 23 or so splinters, and thats only having about half Nax on farm status (spider wing, abom wing except thaddeus, Noth, Instructor).

The place is still mindblowingly huge, i mean, a 10 man raid group could practically live in that place for a week and likely not finish it all.....

[Raging Turtle]

the library... damn.  wow.  incredible. 

[Threash]

As fucking cool as that looks i cant begin to imagine how long a run is supposed to take.  Unless its very sparcely populated, which would be kind of a waste, that zone is going to be a nightmare to finish.

[Fabricated]

Yeah, all I could think about between all the "wow." moments was the massive amount of room for trash mobs. There'll be regular zones with less enemies.

[bhodi]

Unfortunately, wowwiki is offline. If you check the karazhan page, it has a pretty good quote from tigole. He says they looking for longer dungeons that take a period of time to complete, more than a night. They are experimenting with ways of saving your progress and teleporting back to where you left off. When the site comes back up I'll paste it below.

[SurfD]

i imagine that thing will be on a timer, something like a week at least, and trash will behave similar to AQ 40, where killing a particular boss causes the trash leading up to it to stop respawning.

[Paelos]

i imagine that thing will be on a timer, something like a week at least, and trash will behave similar to AQ 40, where killing a particular boss causes the trash leading up to it to stop respawning.

Well, just to be clear, that happened all the way back to when MC was the only game in town. Killing Magmadar stopping the dogs, killing Garr stopping the surgers, etc.

[SurfD]

not really the same.

In MC, Giants, Lava Anihilators, and Firelords all respawned.  Killing Garr and Magmadar simply removed the patrolls on the short respawn timers.

In AQ 40, you kill a boss, ALL the trash leading up to it ceases to respawn.  Kill a bunch on the first day, come back 2 days later, nothing respawns.

[Simond]

Yeah, I can see Karazhan getting a five-day lockout or something...then the whining will commence - "I was in a group for Karazhan and now I've tried to go back with a different group and can't get in! WTFUX Blizz!!!11"

[SurfD]

eh, i dont really see that as being as much of a problem as the "I was with a group in Karazhan and cleared the first 4 bosses, and then we came back yesterday and some bastard had jacked out instance and killed the last 5" kind of thing.

I mean, with a 10 man population limit, I would imagine that most Kara runs will be either completely done in guild, or have a few pug groups that do them regularly.

[bhodi]

As promised:  http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-dungeons&t=485094&p=1&tmp=1#post485094

Karazhan is slated to be a max level, 10 person raid instance in the expansion. Its absolutely massive. Its also non-linear although it does become linear at certain points. There are at least a dozen bosses in there so far. Using the raid saving tech, well be able to make a small raid dungeon (only 10 people) where players can save their progress if they cannot do the whole thing in one night. We're trying to implement ways for them to quickly get back to where they were if theyve already made progress in the dungeon. For example, after you kill certain bosses, you can open a door thats a shortcut from the entrance.

We're going to try to make that [flightpath half ways up the tower] work. There are some tech issues with it but we'll do our best.