New "solo" content in Patch 3.02?

Sure, Patch 3.02 introduced a new profession and new talents, but what about new content? Well, I've spent the weekend working on some challenging content that has pushed my solo abilities to the limit. What content would that be, as all of the normal level 70 solo content gets blown out of the water by the new talents? Level ~55 instances.

I was hacking away at the non-combat pet achievement, when I realized that I was two shy of my skunk. And, sure enough, there were two non-rare pets I didn't have... from quests in LBRS. LBRS wasn't very popular when I hit level 60 (it was all UBRS/Strath/Scholo), partially because the rewards are slightly lower level and partially because the place is such a sprawl. Still, the mobs have about as much HP as a level 70 non-elite mob, their spells are very unlikely to hit due to the level difference. I like a challenge, so I went in and took a crack at it. It turned out to be fun; I finished the quests without difficulty (well, other than getting lost because I hadn't run the instance much) and decided I might as well clear out the whole place for the heck of it (and a UBRS key).

This is probably not something that Blizzard specifically planned, but low level instances become increasingly possible for higher level characters, especially if you spec creatively. I'm running with a water elemental/impact build that includes many options for freezing, damaging, and stunning mobs. (Impact now affects ALL spells, including my frost spells, as well as molten armor.) It's almost unnecessarily good for farming solo daily quests, but the build really gets to shine when I have to pull packs of 6+ mobs. I tried out Stratholme next and had a lot more trouble (the mobs were generally undead, taking Polymorph out of the equation, and the packs were larger), but was able to fight my way from the front door back to the service entrance to kill the Magistrate for a key to the city. (I never looted one at 60, cause I didn't want to have to carry one badly enough to roll for one.) I might have more luck in there if I respecced to have improved Blizzard for better AoE, but that would be a trade-off in terms of single target DPS for bosses.

Of course, I'm only really doing this for amusement and achievement credit, and I'm probably not going to make a point of doing this repeatedly (at least, unless it turns out that I can farm the Baron effectively enough to consider trying to solo his mount at 80). Still, it's a start, and potentially some added life for some of the game's more interesting content, which otherwise stands to fall by the wayside over the years.