In the “leak” for the alleged new WoW addon The Dark Prophet, there was talk of two to three dungeons per new area – and that with a total of eight new zones in the expansion after WoD. So between 16 and 24 new instances in the next expansion – but do we even want that for World of Warcraft? At least that’s exactly what Johann wants.
You can think what you want of The Dark Prophet and all the other WoW “leaks” of the last few days – and yes, maybe we indulged in a few too many speculations out of hope and anticipation for the next addon . We even came up with our own WoW add-on . But we still have to talk about one point: In the feature list for the maybe-but-probably-not add-on The Dark Prophet there was “2 to 3 dungeons per area”. After Mists of Pandaria with nine instances and Warlords of Draenor with just eight instances, it’s time for decent 5-player content again. As before.
Dungeons used to be the big thing: we spent hours and hours in the 20 instances of WoW: Classic. We even wasted a lot of time beforehand looking for the keys for the instances, because otherwise the Scholomance didn’t work at all and you took gigantic detours full of trash in Stratholme and the Blackrock Depths without the right key or a villain. Ah, the Blackrock Depths; Imperator Run? We went well and gladly 4 to 6 hours for it. Because you usually only found a level 55 druid as a healer, it became 8: Druids had no real revival, only rebirth, i.e. the Battlerezz – and it had a half hour cooldown. So every dead person had to walk in. Of course: Nobody wants that anymore, nobody has time for that anymore. But back then, when the LFR was still a long way off and raids were the pastime for the top 10,000 – that was our endgame content. And he was good the way he was – back then.
Everything used to be longer
In TBC, dungeons became almost more important: heroic mode was introduced, there were emblems that could be exchanged for raid-level epics. However, a weapon cost up to 150 of these things and there was exactly one per hero boss. So if you had the time, do every single heroic dungeon every day. In order to get in at all, each individual player needed a key, which he had to unlock via reputation – it was available in the normal instance and via tabards, with which you got extra reputation if you were wearing it and knocked out enemies in the dungeons. Yes, there were daily quests (not too many and not too few) – but also tabards for quest refusers, instance fans and everyone who wanted to do a bit more. At the end of TBC came the Terrace of Magisters,
In Cataclysm, the unloved child among the WoW expansions, there were still 14 instances – even if three of them were rehashed old raids and dungeons. But there were dungeon replenishments in patches. Even when the raid browser was introduced with patch 4.3, which allowed each individual player to see current raid content, Blizzard still brought three new dungeons with it. But those were apparently the parting gift; because with the LFR as end content for casual gamers, the dungeon had done its duty. From then on, it seems, the 5-player instance was only regarded as a long arm of leveling that nobody needed after the first raid. Convert quest equipment to blue parts, go raiding – raid, raid, raid.
Dungeons are dead
In MoP, as good as it was, there were only nine dungeons – two of which were hero versions of old camels. To compensate, there were scenarios – they were cool, no question – but not the same. In WoD there were 8 dungeons, of which only one was recycled – and exactly zero scenarios that disappeared as suddenly as they came. Neither in Mists of Pandaria nor in Warlords of Draenor were these dungeons of any use after the first post-level gear phase. Until Blizzard introduced the Mythic dungeons with patch 6.2: Simply turn up all eight WoD dungeons and pack in better loot. Yes, now it would be worth playing those things. Very few are really in the mood.
WoW developer Ion Hazzikostas has already admitted in an interview that the dungeons have been a bit lacking lately and that there needs to be more of them. And he’s right. I don’t know if 24 different dungeons in the next addon is the answer, but…. Oh, hey, yeah, 24 dungeons in the next add-on is the solution. In each of these dungeons, the final boss needs a chance at an epic item that none of us will ever see because it’s so damn rare. Each boss is supposed to drop an emblem, and if you have a lot of them you can buy raid gear that is better than the stuff from the LFR. One or two of the instances are supposed to offer great rewards, but only if you spend hours fighting through the 17 bosses and hundreds of trash enemies. And one of them is supposed to be so hard that witchers can’t find a group for it,
I beg you to see it differently!
But this is just my opinion. The opinion of a nostalgic old grouch, in whose hazy and slowly fading memory even the key quest of Karazhan with the fourth alt was once fun. Which – from a purely fun-scientific point of view – can only have been due to delusions. What’s your opinion? Do you guys want scenarios again? Do you want to do away with LFR or Mythic Raids? Or are 2 to 3 dungeons per area simply enough for you?
What is WoW Classic?
World of Warcraft Classic is a true recreation of the original WoW as you know it from 2006. All parts of the game – from combat mechanics and talent trees to character models and zones – have been recreated, contributing to the authentic experience.
Getting Started
All players with an active World of Warcraft subscription or game time on their accounts have access toWoW Classic at no additional cost.
- Open the Blizzard Battle.net Desktop App and select World of Warcraft from the menu.
- Select World of Warcraft Classic from the Version menu. If you have more than one World of Warcraft account, you’ll see a second Account drop-down list. In this column, select the active account you want to play with.
- Click the Install button. The progress bar will tell you when your game is ready to play.
- Click the Play button when the installation is complete.
You will need to select the realm you want to play on from several different realm types. Make sure you choose the same realm as your friends – in World of Warcraft Classic, you can only group with characters that are on the same realm as you!
Heroes&WIKI, WoW Classic, World of Warcraft Classic, WoW ClassicSpecial, WoW ClassicSpecials