Instance limitations

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Contents 1 Count Limitations 2 Time Limitations (Heroic) 3 Player Limitations 4 Level Limitations

Count Limitations

As of Patch 1.9 or so, players are limited to entering 5 instances per hour. Meaning that if you start your first run at 1:00pm, and do 4 more runs within an hour, you will not be able to enter any more instances (aside from Battlegrounds) until it is 2:00pm. An addon like Loot & Reset can illustrate this to you and help you time your runs.

Example:

• 1:00 : Instance 1 entered
• 1:10 : Instance 2 entered
• 1:20 : Instance 3 entered
• 1:30 : Instance 4 entered
• 1:40 : Instance 5 entered
• 1:50 : Instance 6 Unable to enter. You will simply walk through the portal without entering the instance.
• 2:00 : Instance 6 entered

Note: The number of instances you can enter is linked to your other characters on the same account as well. This means that if you have reached the entering limit on character A, character B will not be able to enter any instance. This does not apply to raid instances like ZG, MC, BWL, etc. So you can still enter these instances even if you have reached the instance limit.

Time Limitations (Heroic)

You can only enter each heroic instance once per day. Heroic instances reset at a specific time each day (9am server time on Proudmoore) which makes participating in heroic instances for the previous 2 hours or so risky at best. At reset time you are ported to your hearth location. Worst still, if you live in a bad timezone heroic instances may be impossible in an evening for you on some servers.

Player Limitations

Some instances are limited to a party of 5. These are considered dungeon, party, or just plain instances. Some others have a player limit of 10, 20, 25 or 40 players. These are considered Raid instances. Most raid instances will not allow you to enter unless you are in a raid, the exception being Blackrock Spire, which has two areas, one of which is intended to be done as a 5-player party, the other as a 10-player raid.

Level Limitations

Instances are designed for a certain character level - mainly because of the level of the mobs inside. Higher level mobs will crit your tank more often, dodge more attacks and resist your casters spells, lower level mobs on the other hand may not pose enough of a challenge and will give you little to no experience.

The Looking For Group tool shows the instances suggested for that level. The summoning stones outside the portals require you to be near the recommended level range to function.

Each instance also has a minimum required level to actually be able to zone in, however this is considerably lower than the suggested level. Both these level requirements can be checked at the Instances by level article.