As it is now, BRD in leveling queues is split up in two. There’s the second part which is fine, as it’s linear. The first part, the “Detention Block” however, is insanely flawed with how it’s currently implemented. All you really have to do to clear it is use the mole machine to right past the Grim Guzzler, jump down without aggroing the mob on the other side of the balcony, kill the couple of fire elementals in the corridor you jump down to, kill Incendius, kill maybe just a couple of the mobs in Darkvire room (sometimes you get lucky and Darkvire is right at the bottom), kill Darkvire and that’s it. This leaves a large swathe of the dungeon, one which I believe is arguably the best designed dungeon Blizzard has ever made, untouched.
The only other bosses that usually get killed are Gerstahn and Bael’Gar, who must be killed for quests inside the dungeon. It also doesn’t really help that only Gerstahn, the Ring of Law and Bael’gar are mentioned as bonus objectives. It’s rare that I ever see Roccor and the Houndmaster killed, ditto Warden Stilgiss, Loregrain and all of the West Garrison/Grim Guzzler bosses. I find it sad that such an ingeniously designed dungeon has been neutered in such a way, but I believe it can be slightly remedied in a way that both appeases the time-pressed and those that want to see more of the masterwork of dungeon design that BRD is.
I’m not sure if this is possible with how the dungeon is currently coded, but if it is, the requirement for completion could just be that five bosses have to be killed. It can be any five bosses besides the ones from Flamelash to Thaurissan. If people just want to do Gerstahn, Bael’Gar, Roccor, Houndmaster and the Ring, that’d be fine. Doing Ring, Loregrain, Stilgiss, Darkvire and Incendius would be fine too, as well as the others not mentioned. This way people could approach BRD runs from any way they see fit, and there’d still be enough substance there to make it feel like a proper leveling dungeon run.
If that isn’t possible, something that could also be done could be splitting the Detention Block in to three seperate queues:
- An “Outer Ring” run that’d have you kill Gerstahn, Roccor, Houndmaster and Bael’Gar
- A “Domicile” run that’d have you do the Ring of Law, Loregrain, Stilgiss, Darkvire and Incendius
- A “West Garrison” run that’d have you kill Angerforge, Argelmach, Blackbreath, Screwspigot and Spazzring (with Phalanx preferably being a bonus objective since I’ve had more than a couple groups mess up his spawning)
Quests could also be adjusted accordingly. I doubt many people have the patience to really do the Heart of the Mountain quest anymore, as I’ve never had a group even get enough keys on the few times we’ve gone to the bank to open all the vault doors. These could just be switched to whichever boss would be the final ones in these respective runs. There are some issues with this system, mainly that it’d create more clutter around the 48-60 queuing area as dungeons like LBRS are barely selected for it as it is, which is why I think the first idea would be better, with the altered quests kept in as well.
I do think that something has to be done to the Detention Block queue as it is though, as the way it’s currently set up is atrocious. What do you guys think, though? How can BRD be properly fixed? Does it even need fixing?