whats the new mech/bot equivelent?

[daemonym]

so hit 80 finally and gto all my gear crafted and enchanted and after a few reg runs (if i'm blessed by a single RNG drop) i'll be setting foot into heroics. so back in TBC, mech and bot were farmed oodles for fast and easy 8(?) badges. i was wondering what pair of heroics will be about the same run. 90 minute combined completion, no trouble with 1/2 way decent gear all for more than 3 emblems from each zone.

i know the new BM heroic (the nexus?) is fairly fast, i keep hearing 30 mins +/- with 5 people that have a pulse, but that's the only one i know of that's prime for badge farming.

[Pallyana]

H-VH definately (3 badges)
H-Strat (25 minutes+10 minutes of Role Play, 4 badges)
and it really depends on your group makeup for the others.

H-AzN is fast as hell but it's not exactly easy.
H-HoL is pretty quick if you have an experienced group.
H-Gundrak is short if you start on the snake side, kill the 2nd boss, then jump though the river to the 3rd. (skip all the trolls)
H-Pinnacle is pretty quick with a chain pulling everything. (One pull gauntlet runs ftw)

None of the heroics we've gotten on farm status take more than an hour now. Most take about 35 minutes.

[Melarisa]

H-Nex is pretty speedy and (more importantly) easier than most heroics

[DragonBlade]

H Nexus can be done under 30 mins for 5 badges.
H AN is really short for 3 badges (~15 mins).
H Strat gives 5 if you beat the timer + bonus mount (~25 mins).

I feel H VH is a bit slow for 3 badges but it is a really easy instance.

[Belloc]

None of the instances are particularly long. As long as you and your group know the fights and don't wipe, the runs are always quick.

Azjol-Nerub, if done a certain way, is 6 packs of trash total (3 of which are a part of the first boss. Second boss trash can be skipped/despawned). But the fights are hard.

Stratholme is easy and quick, but with some annoying lore at the beginning.

Violet Hold is easy, very fast, and conveniently located.


Your best bet is to do the daily heroic, Violet Hold, Stratholme... and whatever else you find to be fun.

[knaughty]

Violet Hold is easy, very fast, and conveniently located.

This.

CoT is a good one to do if someone critical has to go AFK for 10 minutes. You can portal there from Dalaran, Chromie will port the late to the start of the actual instance, and the non-AFK people can clear the RP component (only takes one person).

[Invisusira]

Dammit, I click this topic hoping to discover what the new Mech(warrior)/(ro)bot equivalent was.




(I really did)

[masterpoobaa]

what about heroic drak? 4 badges?

[Kelaan]

Draktharon Keep took us about 40 minutes last night ... and was the second time we'd run it. It didn't really seem rushed, either.

Thanks for the tip on skipping trolls in Gundrak, though -- I will try that next time.

[Fedaykin98]

Is there a trick to doing Nexus fast? Seems like it took a while when we were at-level; lots of trash.

[Epimer]

Is there a trick to doing Nexus fast? Seems like it took a while when we were at-level; lots of trash.

The most trash is on the way to Omorok (or whatever his name is...tank and spank but avoid ice spikes dude). After that, it's maybe 3 packs to Anomalous, and then another 3 before the irritating mage. Another 3ish pulls for the extra heroic boss, and then one trash mob before Kelistraza.

I think it feels like a lot of trash at the beginning if you start with the icy bit, because there's a bit more trash there than elsewhere. More than Azjol'Nerub, for sure, but not too bad imo

[Belarkan]

As for VH, it'll depend on the bosses you'll get and your party.
Failed several time at the void boss because the party failed to kill the adds.

Utgarde keep isn't too hard, nor seem nexus.
Straholme can be tricky if you're pretty new to 80, the abo boss does hit somewhat hard if not well geared.

Most of the runs shouldn't be more than an hour if the party knows the general idea on the bosses.

[Ashmadai]

My favorite is CoT because it's easy as hell, gets me 5 badges, and gets somebody with me a mount. Also, Nexus for an easy 5.

[Elsie]

My favorite so far for speed is nexus due to the sheer ease and top end number of badges. It's by far the laziest instance, even beating VH since the bosses require much less thought. It's also a short hop from AN for 15 more badges.

I avoid the oculus like the plague.

[Senador]

Well, for the 9 badges that old Mech/Bot gave, you have a couple choices of nearby instances. First though, are you going as a group of regulars to farm badges, or just for pug purposes?

If a group of regulars, I recommend Nexus followed by Oculus for a very easy 9 badges. Oculus is a giant pain the first few times, but after running the stupid thing so many times for the various achievements (Damn you Amber/Emerald/Ruby Void and Make it Count!) I find it goes very quickly and easily, and as long as you’re not trying to be cute on the last guy for the achievements and just badge farming he is very easy. After some practice you can easily clear it in 30 minutes with no problems. The benefits of Nexus are already stated here so I won’t go further into that.

If you are doing pugs, Violet Hold and Stratholme are pretty simple for seven (Possibly 8 if you can do the timer) badges and have the huge benefit of being centrally located (One in Dalaran, the other connected to Dalaran via Cavern’s of Time portal located inside Dalaran).

If your group is solid, Gundrak and Drak’tharon are both very close to each other, yield 9 badges between them and aren’t terribly difficult (exception being snake boss in Gundrak and maybe King Dred in Drak). They also are fairly close to Dalaran as well.

If you are looking for easy badge farms for pugs, I would recommend avoiding Halls of Lightning, Halls of Stone, Utgarde Pinnacle, Azjnol-Nerub and The Old Kingdom. Those have a bit higher learning curve on some of their encounters (Loken, Tribunal, Skadi, etc) and tend to generate more headaches with a pug than they are worth.