New BRC 5-man Instance: First Impressions

Fabulous Fun. Within 8 minutes of Cata launch, I was inside BRC with a group and it was a great experience after Wrath. Point blank, I know that BRC existed, however did no pre-study on it so that I literally hit it not knowing what would come around the next corner or how to tackle the bosses. We wiped twice (first one was due to party not knowing what to do on the first pull although those of veterans of Kara knew right away; second was due to healer pulling a pat AND another group! It was grand! We died. We laughed. We rez'd and smote them. Wait - we died three times because I learned about the mechanic on the fire armor boss. = )

After that run, I queued again and this group stayed together for 4 runs. At which point we dinged 81. Then I ran a full guild group through.

Noteworthy:

• Fun. Fun. Fun.
• Brings back some old mechanics and memories.
• Pretty easy-going on the tank and pulls. AoE even was not so bad (I expect that to get rougher as we progress in levels).
• iLvl 251 was not replaced by drops. They are slightly below what I have on so I might not be replacing until I'm leve 83 -- we shall see. (This was on a bear tank btw).
• Blizzard has made the "in-instance" quest system AMAZINGLY convenient -- whoever the developer was that thought that up and implemented it - give him a RAISE and a PROMOTION! Then send him over to the department that thought it was a good idea to remove portals from Shatt and Dal and let him take over!

I would recommend wearing the Gilneas tabard before going in there if you are doing it straight out of the gates. I earned no reputation while in there since I had on an old tabard (I had anticipated - mistakenly - that we would get some rep in there and wanted to see which and how much.)

 Note sure if everyone else has Skull keybound however I do and a quick Shift+F1 marks the target I want dps to pour into and it made life very quick. Healers had no mana issues (other than when dead). I won't ruin it any further... go enjoy!