Yep, I’m sold. As an alt-leveling avenue, as the only way to ever do normal dungeons again, this is the gamechanger it needs to be, in this “target audience member’s” opinion.
At the suggestion of some posters in another thread, I copied over my 60 Augvoker with one bar of rest XP (as in one of the segmented 10% portions of the full XP bar, to be clear), and I took to the PTR myself to get the most important answers I needed.
My “credentials” (LOL if you want to call them that) :
-I have been playing this style of MMO since EverQuest, so, yes, I have a different view on what a dungeon run might ideally look like. I never fully adapted to the “disrespect the content and just burn through” pace of modern WoW, and so I am the target audience for chill, slow runs that get to smell the roses… even as a repeated experience.
-I have over 678 days worth of hours logged into WoW (my vanilla main got deleted in Wrath to “become a DK” so he doesn’t get added to that altoholic total) and this includes two 2-year hiatuses. The only expansion I did not participate in at all was MoP because I was shopping around MMOs for a couple years. I regret this choice, but… full disclosure and all that.
-I was lured to FFXIV for two years by their trust/“duty support” system, which essentially does what follower dungeons do. My stopover in LOTRO during my first hiatus told me that AI-powered group instanced PVE is MY JAM in this tab target MMO space! I leveled every job in FFXIV via their various NPC dungeon systems. I will tolerate a HUGE hit to “time efficiency” to “own” my time in dungeons with NPCs.
So, those three opinion-contextualizing points out of the way, and bearing in mind that I WANT to like Follower Dungeons so I’m biased, here are the facts of my first runthrough. I chose the halls of infusion because it’s the only dragonflight dungeon I’ve done (as it was a required campaign step for the challenges of Tyr line) and I want to save the ones I have not seen yet for 10.2.5.
-It was my first ever dungeon as an Augvoker. I feel I did ok. There were three deaths: The tank to trash overpulling, and one of the DPS each to the first and second bosses.
-The pace was reasonable. Remember, I’m a person that feels a half hour dungeon run is around the upper end of an acceptable pace. I didn’t time it because of the next point.
-I had dinner between trash pulls. I was not kicked for being AFK either while I prepared dinner or while I ate it. I made it back to the computer from preparation within 5 minutes to have a little safety jump, then ate. I made/had a BBQ pulled chicken sandwich and greek rice. It was delicious because I’m amazing.
-The most important point, and I’m not including hard numbers here because these dungeons are scaled to always be “par,” so while the numbers may vary I feel speaking in relativities is a clearer message: I had one bar (again, a 10% segment) of rest XP going in, and no heirlooms. I consumed that bar with the trash leading to the first boss. By the end of the dungeon I had gained 2 and 1/4 bars all told, again with that first bar having been rested. Bear in mind that heirlooms have set bonuses that slow the consumption of rest XP while keeping the xp income level. Follower dungeons are pure kill XP, which is what heirlooms deal in through rest XP. As a comparison, in FFXIV one of the understood optimal ways to level up once one’s daily big bursts are done (think the daily dungeon, only a bit of variety of content) is to run the highest available or “most par” dungeon without any special bonuses applied like the big first random dungeon hit of the day. This method, in the expansions where there is a dungeon every 2 levels, usually means 3-4 runs of said most relevant dungeon per level. Yes, NPC groups go slower there too, but the kill XP is the same. Fully rested, rotating alts, and in full heirlooms, follower dungeons essentially keep pace with this rate.
-I received zero loot, but again… as an alt-leveling device: Heirlooms.
I am extremely pleased with these results. For all my non-overworld-friendly characters/classes, I will use full follower dungeons where applicable, when possible. Tanks and pet-based DPS I have will still do overworld leveling, but I’ll be so happy to finally play my dryad-concept druid as the resto she was rolled in vanilla as once more, instead of an awkwardly forced “momma bear” simply because tanks win the open world.
My verdict is extremely positive. I hope this helps people plan their future like it has with me!
If you’re still here, thanks for reading!