Dungeons and Raids make up the majority of the primary end game of WoW, with raiding being the pinnacle in many players eyes.
In this post I don’t want to get into specific tuning & difficulty of dungeons and raids, as that has already been discussed, but rather focus on the design of each content type and how it impacts the endgame.
Here’s the TL:DR and my ultimate question for Blizzard:
What has changed from a developer standpoint of making so many instances partially or completely linear in today’s game as compared to previous expansions, and do you feel that having fewer endgame instances in today’s game compared to previous expansions has streamlined character progression or diluted it?
Looking back at the history of the sheer number of dungeons and raids that have been available over WoW’s storied history, the sheer number of available instances has changed over the history of the game.
Raids:
Classic - 6 (Including original Naxx & Onyxia, these two also included in WotLK number) (49 Bosses)
TBC - 8 (44 bosses)
WotLK - 9 (54 bosses)
Cata - 7 (30 bosses)
MoP - 5 (44 bosses)
WoD - 3 (30 bosses)
Legion - 5 (40 bosses)
BFA - 5 (39 bosses)
Shadowlands - (soon to be) 3 (31 Bosses)
Dungeons:
Classic - 20
TBC - 16
WotLK - 16
Cata - 10 + 4 revamped heroics (DM, SFK, ZA, ZG)
MoP - 7 + 2 revamped heroics (Scholo & SM)
WoD - 8
Legion - 13
BFA - 11
Shadowlands - 9
Some of the earlier expansions threw so many dungeons at you that it was almost hard to get used to them. (Classic is a bit of an exemption due to the number of dungeons that became obsolete with leveling, an issue fixed with heroic difficulty added in TBC)
If you were to ask me what my all time favorite raid and dungeon are, the choice is easy.
Ulduar & Blackrock Depths.
The reason I love these two instances so much is that when you enter them you get to feel fully immersed into the zone. There is choice in terms of what boss to kill next, ultimately working to the same end goal but there is no “linear” or “correct” way to do it. We have seen a small return to this is SL raids with a small amount of choice, but not as much as I would want to see.
Raid encounters today are infinitely more complicated mechanically than raid bosses from old expansions. The design of raids today leads players through a story, we follow the villain through their area killing their allies and guardians in epic encounters. However, there are simply fewer raids in the game. We’re currently in another massively long patch and players are burnt out from SoD, and current game design makes Castle Nathria irrelevant. Small, 1-3 boss raids may not be the time commitment that the 8-12 boss raids are, but they provide a change of pace, scenery, and story that the raiding scene really needs to stay fresh. I love raiding, but on my two main raiding characters there is no longer a reason to run heroic weekly outside of a Sylvanas kill.
Please don’t hear what I’m not saying, full “raid bis” should be obtainable, and I personally have no interest in seeing “_____-forging” return in any way shape or form. But if there were another raid to get similar ilvl gear from and be able to jump back and forth it would be a welcomed change of scenery at this point.
Dungeons are a similar story, although their linear path is a bit more understandable due to there being 3-5 bosses per dungeon. (As a side note, in SL, both DoS and ToP are excellent examples of dungeons that allow choice and route modification)
But, unlike raids, with the M+ system and seasons, the same dungeons are replayed throughout the entire expansion. Its a good way to keep them relevant, but there are also few of them compared to other expansions. Only MoP and WoD have had less dungeons, and SL has the fewest since the M+ system was introduced.
I understand that more goes into every dungeon and every raid than ever before in today’s game. But, the design of the raids and to a lesser extent, the dungeons, does not lend itself to allowing players to choose where its best to spend their time. There is a time for linear progression, and there is a time for choosing your next boss to kill, old raids absolutely nailed it, and those raids (Ulduar, Nighthold, Blackrock Foundry, Naxxramas, and Karazhan to name a few) are often looked on as the best in the game.
So I wonder, does having a linear progression system through fewer dungeons and raids actually streamline PvE endgame content, or does it make it less enjoyable with less to do?